Reimagining Rural Cooperatives for Today: Lessons from Dawber and Ligutti
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, two authors laid out a vision for strengthening rural America through cooperative action. Mark A. Dawber’s Rebuilding Rural America (1937)¹ and Luigi G. Ligutti’s Rural Roads to Security (1940)² emerged during a time of economic instability, when rural communities faced the double pressures of the Great Depression and rapid social change.
Both writers argued that individual families, working alone, could not compete against the forces of industrial agriculture, corporate monopolies, and economic uncertainty. Instead, they championed cooperatives — member-owned and democratically governed enterprises — as the most effective way for rural communities to pool resources, reduce risks, and build resilience.
Nearly a century later, many of their insights remain relevant. While some cooperative models (such as utility ownership or healthcare co-ops) face heavy regulatory barriers today, there are several practical opportunities where rural communities could still adopt cooperative solutions to great effect.
1. Renewable Energy at the Community Level
Dawber placed great importance on the cooperative model for electrification.¹ Today, the rural challenge is not access to electricity, but affordability and sustainability. A solar cooperative could allow families to jointly purchase panels, negotiate installation, and share maintenance costs. Even within existing utility rules, this approach lowers barriers to renewable energy adoption while keeping more savings local.³
2. Food Systems and Processing
Ligutti emphasized the importance of cooperatives for securing food and economic stability.² A modern application could be a poultry processing cooperative. Families who raise chickens could jointly invest in butchering equipment and organize community processing days, reducing costs and ensuring food independence. This builds on long-standing traditions within Amish and Mennonite communities.⁴
3. Cooperative Logistics and Bulk Purchasing
Both authors highlighted how cooperatives improve bargaining power.¹² Today, a logistics and purchasing co-op could allow rural residents to buy expensive inputs — feed, fencing, tools, or lumber — at wholesale rates. Shared ownership of larger equipment, such as trailers or sawmills, would spread costs across members while making vital resources more accessible.
4. Training and Skills Development
Dawber often wrote about the educational value of cooperatives, which teach self-governance and practical problem-solving.¹ Rural communities could revive this spirit by organizing informal training programs and workshops. Skills such as butchering, carpentry, solar installation, or small-engine repair could be shared among members, strengthening local knowledge and reducing dependence on outside services.
5. Cooperative Schools
Education was central to Ligutti’s vision of rural security.² In Ohio, school choice programs like EdChoice now open the door for cooperative schools. Parents could organize schools governed by co-op principles, ensuring that children’s education reflects both local values and practical needs, while still accessing state voucher funding.⁵
6. Mutual Aid and Financial Safety Nets
The Amish have long modeled what Dawber and Ligutti both admired: communities pooling resources to protect one another against hardship.⁴ A mutual aid fund, structured as voluntary contributions rather than regulated insurance, could help rural families respond to emergencies such as house fires, medical bills, or funeral costs. This echoes the older cooperative principle of shared security, adapted for today’s needs.
7. Digital Access on Cooperative Terms
Though broadband access is a major rural issue, Ohio law limits community-owned networks. A lighter cooperative model could still help. Members might jointly subscribe to satellite internet services like Starlink, negotiate reduced costs, or establish shared community Wi-Fi hubs.⁶ Combined with local training in digital literacy, this would give rural residents more access to the online economy without directly challenging regulatory barriers.
Conclusion: Carrying Forward the Cooperative Spirit
When Dawber and Ligutti wrote their books, they were not offering utopian visions. They were responding to the practical realities of rural life, where survival depended on pooling resources and taking collective responsibility. Today, the regulatory and economic landscape has changed, but their underlying insight remains: cooperatives thrive when they address needs that individuals cannot meet alone.
For rural communities in Ohio and beyond, opportunities in renewable energy, food systems, logistics, education, mutual aid, and digital access offer realistic paths to revive the cooperative tradition. By adapting the principles that Dawber and Ligutti outlined nearly a century ago, we can build more resilient, self-reliant communities today.
Footnotes
Mark A. Dawber, Rebuilding Rural America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937).
Luigi G. Ligutti, Rural Roads to Security (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1940).
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), “Solar and Co-ops,” accessed 2025.
Donald B. Kraybill, The Amish (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).
Ohio Department of Education, “EdChoice Scholarship Program,” 2025.
Pew Research Center, “Internet Access in Rural America,” 2021.
Bibliography
Dawber, Mark A. Rebuilding Rural America. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937.
Kraybill, Donald B. The Amish. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
Ligutti, Luigi G. Rural Roads to Security. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1940.
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). “Solar and Co-ops.” 2025.
Ohio Department of Education. “EdChoice Scholarship Program.” 2025.
Pew Research Center. “Internet Access in Rural America.” 2021.
Comments