
Worker Cooperatives in America
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 8. January 2021
Book
Hardback
330 pages
978-0-520-36647-3 (ISBN)
Description
Worker Cooperatives in America maps the past, present, and possible futures of democratic enterprise in the United States, arguing-against the grain of corporate inevitability-that firms owned and governed by workers can address stubborn problems of unemployment, productivity, and workplace alienation. Edited by Robert Jackall and Henry M. Levin, the volume moves from vivid historical arcs-co-ops formed by striking nineteenth-century artisans, New Deal-era self-help ventures-to contemporary case studies of plywood mills, reforestation crews, and urban collectives. Across these sites, contributors probe the hard mechanics of democratic firms: capitalizing without ceding control, balancing egalitarian norms with market exigencies, rotating jobs to build skill and solidarity, and designing governance that is both participatory and effective. Empirical chapters engage Mondragon as a global benchmark, report comparative productivity advantages, and show how cooperatives preserve jobs when conventional owners shutter plants. The result is a rigorous, data-grounded challenge to managerial common sense.
Equally attentive to limits, the book confronts the structural headwinds co-ops face in a legal and financial ecosystem optimized for hierarchical corporations. Essays on Employee Stock Ownership Plans, membership rights, and cooperative law demystify vehicles that can either enable or erode self-management. Analyses of culture, training, and decision rules illuminate why some democracies falter while others endure. Throughout, the editors press a central question: how can enterprises reconcile internal commitments to voice and equity with external demands of competitive markets? With clear-eyed assessments and practical design lessons-revolving credit funds, representative/assembly hybrids, counter-cyclical work-sharing-this collection offers scholars, organizers, and policy makers a usable blueprint. Worker cooperatives, the contributors show, are not a panacea; they are a durable, American repertoire for linking productivity to dignity, enterprise to citizenship, and work to democracy.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
Equally attentive to limits, the book confronts the structural headwinds co-ops face in a legal and financial ecosystem optimized for hierarchical corporations. Essays on Employee Stock Ownership Plans, membership rights, and cooperative law demystify vehicles that can either enable or erode self-management. Analyses of culture, training, and decision rules illuminate why some democracies falter while others endure. Throughout, the editors press a central question: how can enterprises reconcile internal commitments to voice and equity with external demands of competitive markets? With clear-eyed assessments and practical design lessons-revolving credit funds, representative/assembly hybrids, counter-cyclical work-sharing-this collection offers scholars, organizers, and policy makers a usable blueprint. Worker cooperatives, the contributors show, are not a panacea; they are a durable, American repertoire for linking productivity to dignity, enterprise to citizenship, and work to democracy.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
616 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-36647-3 (9780520366473)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Robert Jackall | Henry M. Levin
Worker Cooperatives in America
E-Book
04/2023
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€29.49
Available for download