Cellular Economics:
A Practical Response to Bhaskar Sunkara’s Challenge
In a speech delivered at Victorian Trades Hall in Melbourne on 1 June 2026, Jacobin founding editor Bhaskar Sunkara posed one of the most important questions facing the democratic Left today. If traditional social democracy can no longer deliver its historic promises, and if central planning failed both economically and politically, what practical path exists towards a more democratic economy? It is a question that deserves serious consideration because it moves beyond criticism of capitalism and asks what comes next.
Sunkara argues that social democracy succeeded in improving the lives of working people during the post-war decades but ultimately left control of investment and ownership in private hands. When economic conditions changed, capital retained the ability to discipline governments, relocate investment and undermine many of the gains workers had achieved. At the same time, he argues that twentieth-century experiments in central planning failed because no central authority could gather and process the vast amount of information needed to coordinate a modern economy. His conclusion is that the Left needs a new path built on democratic ownership, worker participation, socialised investment and democratic institutions capable of governing economic life. I agree with that diagnosis. The challenge is not identifying the destination. The challenge is identifying a practical path from where we are today to the kind of democratic economy he describes.
Cellular Economics proposes one possible answer. It starts from a simple observation. Most successful living systems are organised as cells. Cells are small enough to be governed effectively, large enough to perform useful functions, and capable of cooperating with other cells when larger structures are required. Economies can operate in a similar way. Instead of concentrating ownership in giant corporations or central government agencies, productive assets can be owned and governed by relatively small economic cells. These cells might be neighbourhoods, housing groups, worker enterprises, customer cooperatives, community energy projects or local investment organisations. Like biological cells, they retain autonomy over local decisions while cooperating with other cells when a larger scale is required. The result is an economy that remains adaptive and innovative while keeping decision-making close to the people most affected.
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One of the strengths of Sunkara’s speech is his recognition that socialism cannot simply be declared into existence. It requires institutions. Historically, trade unions, cooperatives, mutual societies and labour organisations taught ordinary people how to organise, negotiate, govern and cooperate. The question for the twenty-first century is what institutions can perform a similar role today. Cellular Economics argues that economic democracy works best when people participate directly in the ownership and governance of the institutions that shape their daily lives. Every successful cell becomes a practical school of economic democracy. People learn how to make decisions together, manage resources, balance competing interests and invest for the future. Democracy becomes something people practise regularly rather than something they experience only at election time.
Unlike many proposals for economic transformation, Cellular Economics does not require waiting for a future government to redesign the entire economy. Many of the foundations already exist. Australia’s mutual banks and industry superannuation funds are among the largest examples of collective ownership in the country. Together they manage hundreds of billions of dollars on behalf of workers, members and customers. These institutions already possess many of the characteristics that democratic socialists have long sought. They are member-based organisations, they are not controlled by external shareholders, and they possess both capital and legitimacy.
Imagine if one or two mutual banks converted selected branches into locally governed economic cells. Customers, workers and investors could all participate in governance. The branch would become more than a provider of loans and deposits. It would become a local investment institution supporting housing, renewable energy, community batteries, aged care facilities and local enterprises. Similarly, industry superannuation funds could allocate a small proportion of their assets to member-governed local investment cells. Members could participate directly in decisions about productive investments in their own communities while still benefiting from the security and diversification of the larger fund. Such experiments would not require revolutionary change. Yet they would steadily expand the sphere of democratic ownership.
A central theme of Sunkara’s speech is that ownership matters. Social democracy eventually reached its limits because ownership remained concentrated. Workers won political rights and social protections, but investment decisions remained largely under the control of private capital. Cellular Economics agrees with this diagnosis. However, ownership need not be concentrated in either private corporations or central government agencies. Ownership can be distributed throughout society. Housing can be owned by housing cells. Energy infrastructure can be owned by energy cells. Local enterprises can be owned by worker and customer cells. Community assets can be owned by community cells. Economic power gradually moves closer to the people who use, maintain and depend upon productive assets.
Sunkara also makes an important distinction between markets and capitalism. Markets are mechanisms for coordinating information. Capitalism is a particular ownership structure. The two are not the same thing. Cellular Economics preserves the information advantages of markets while transforming ownership structures. Cells can trade with one another. Enterprises can innovate and compete. Prices can continue to communicate information about scarcity and demand. The difference is that the benefits increasingly flow to workers, customers, communities and long-term investors rather than absentee owners. Economic success becomes something communities participate in rather than something that happens to them.
Perhaps the most important insight in Sunkara’s speech is that a democratic economy cannot be built without democratic institutions. If democratic ownership is the goal, we need institutions capable of practising democratic ownership. If economic democracy is the goal, we need institutions capable of teaching economic democracy. Cellular Economics offers one possible path. Not through central planning. Not through corporate concentration. But through thousands of self-governing economic cells that gradually expand the sphere of democratic ownership until the economy itself becomes a federation of cooperating communities, workers, customers, and investors.
Readers interested in exploring these ideas further can simply search for the term “Cellular Economics” on Medium. There they will find a growing collection of articles examining how cellular structures might be applied to housing, banking, renewable energy, local investment, community ownership and democratic governance. Whether Cellular Economics ultimately proves to be the answer remains to be seen. What matters is that we begin experimenting with existing institutions capable of building the democratic economy that so many people, including Bhaskar Sunkara, are seeking.
