Dr. Maliha Safri

Professor. Political Economist. Author.

Maliha Safri has worked for over twenty years with community-based organizations, collectives, cooperatives, and nonprofit organizations to put communities at the center of economic development over profit.

Solidarity Cities

Confronting Racial Capitalism, Mapping Transformation

My forthcoming book Solidarity Cities is co-authored with Marianna Pavlovskaya, Stephen Healy, and Craig Borowiak. It brings together eleven years of grounded interdisciplinary research in New York City, Philadelphia, and Worcester Massachusetts. We worked closely with (and surveyed comprehensively at the urban level) worker cooperatives, food cooperatives, housing cooperatives, credit unions and community development credit unions, community supported agricultural farms, community gardens, community land trusts, and support organizations and grassroots efforts in three cities. Bringing together insights from political economy, urban geography, and political science with mapping and spatial analysis methodologies as well as in-depth interviews, Solidarity Cities illuminates the extensive footprints of solidarity economies and the roles they play in urban communities.

The book is available for purchase through University of Minnesota, (get 40% OFF W CODE MN92000 good through DEC. 31, 2025 at) https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517916022/solidarity-cities/

Also available in free, open source format at https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/solidarity-cities