Fighting Precarity with Co-Operation? Worker Co-Operatives in the Cultural Sector

Bibliographic Data

ID20187464
AuthorsMerton Sandoval (0000-0002-0007-2309, corresponding author), Marisol Sandoval
Year2016
Volume88
Issue88
Pages51-68
Publication date2016-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Formations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0950-2378 • E-ISSN: 1741-0789
PublisherLawrence and Wishart (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3898/newf.88.04.2016
OpenAlexW2475860539
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited11

This paper explores avenues for resistance to precarious and exploited labour in the cultural sector. It investigates the potential of worker co-operatives to help improve working conditions and radically reimagine cultural work. The concept of worker co-ops focuses on democratising ownership and decision-making power. It challenges class divisions and promises to empower workers by giving them more control over their working lives. However, co-ops are constrained by competitive market pressures, creating tensions between economic necessity and political goals. Examining current debates on co-operatives the article explores co-ops as a radical pre-figurative political project, mobilised in a reformist attempt to create a more ethical capitalism or be integrated into neoliberal discourses of entrepreneurship and individual responsibility. It goes on to discuss the potentials and limitations of worker co-ops by looking at precariousness, inequality and individualisation of cultural sector work arguing that radical co-ops can play an important role within a larger movement that mobilises collectivity to confront neoliberal individualisation and capitalist realism

Business · Economics · Labour economics · Political science · Precarity · Sociology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Political Economy and Marxism

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