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Co-operative Struggles: Work Conflicts in Argentinaâs New Worker Co-operatives
Series: - Studies in Critical Social Sciences, Volume: 203/13
- New Scholarship in Political Economy, Volume: 203/13
Author:
Translator:
In Co-operative Struggles, Denise Kasparian expands the theoretical horizons regarding labour unrest by proposing new categories to make visible and conceptualize conflicts in the new worker co-operativism of the twenty-first century.
After the depletion of neoliberal reforms at the dawn of the twenty-first century in Argentina, co-operativism gained momentum, mainly due to the recuperation of enterprises by their workers and state promotion of co-operatives through social policies. These new co-operatives became actors not just in production but in social struggle. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that they shape a socio-productive form not structured on wage relations: workers are at the same time members of the organisations. Why, how and by what cleavages and groupings do these co-operative workers without bosses come into conflict?
Co-operative Struggles received honourable mention in 2024 for the biennial Joyce Rothschild Book Prize, which recognizes significant contributions to the advancement of economic democracy.
After the depletion of neoliberal reforms at the dawn of the twenty-first century in Argentina, co-operativism gained momentum, mainly due to the recuperation of enterprises by their workers and state promotion of co-operatives through social policies. These new co-operatives became actors not just in production but in social struggle. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that they shape a socio-productive form not structured on wage relations: workers are at the same time members of the organisations. Why, how and by what cleavages and groupings do these co-operative workers without bosses come into conflict?
Co-operative Struggles received honourable mention in 2024 for the biennial Joyce Rothschild Book Prize, which recognizes significant contributions to the advancement of economic democracy.
Denise Kasparian, Ph.D. in Social Sciences (2017), University of Buenos Aires, is Assistant Professor at that university and Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council. She has published books and articles on conflict and social change in co-operatives.
"Denise Kasparianâs Co-operative Struggles provides an in-depth study of two worker co-operatives in the Buenos Aires area today to reveal how co-operatives emerge, are governed, and disappear. She successfully confronts peopleâs implicit assumptions about co-operatives with observations from everyday realities of working in Argentinian worker co-operatives in the 2000s and 2010s. Her research thereby puts several dominant myths about the co-operative economy into perspective [...] Sociological research provides a litmus test that checks which myths have become invalid or are not applicable to a particular economic sector. Kasparian has admirably shown how such a test would work in the specific political and economic conjuncture of contemporary Argentina". Tim Christiaens, in Critical Sociology, 8 April 2022. Critical Sociology
âEl libro amplÃa los horizontes teóricos sobre el conflict laboral, proponiendo nuevas categorÃas para visibilizar y conceptualizar las contiendas en el nuevo cooperativismo de trabajo del siglo XXIâ.
In Centro de Estudios de SociologÃa del TrabajoUniversidad de Buenos Aires, 21/04/2022.
"This book, made up of two unlikely types of cooperatives, one formed voluntarily and the other formed through state-sponsorship, contributes to the literature of self-management and co-operatives and provides a deeper understanding that aspects of the democratization of conflict in co-operatives are context-specific. Future research should deepen and expand the study of self-management and conflict in the broader ecosystem of worker-recuperated, state-sponsored and traditional worker co-operatives, and thus contribute further to generalizable ideas about self-management."
Stefan Ivanovski, in ILR Review, ILR Review
âEl libro amplÃa los horizontes teóricos sobre el conflict laboral, proponiendo nuevas categorÃas para visibilizar y conceptualizar las contiendas en el nuevo cooperativismo de trabajo del siglo XXIâ.
In Centro de Estudios de SociologÃa del TrabajoUniversidad de Buenos Aires, 21/04/2022.
"This book, made up of two unlikely types of cooperatives, one formed voluntarily and the other formed through state-sponsorship, contributes to the literature of self-management and co-operatives and provides a deeper understanding that aspects of the democratization of conflict in co-operatives are context-specific. Future research should deepen and expand the study of self-management and conflict in the broader ecosystem of worker-recuperated, state-sponsored and traditional worker co-operatives, and thus contribute further to generalizable ideas about self-management."
Stefan Ivanovski, in ILR Review, ILR Review
Foreword The Democratisation of Conflict
Acknowledgements
List of Figures, Tables and Images
Introduction
â1âThe Question of Work Conflicts in New Co-operatives
â2âDimensions of New Social Conflicts in Co-operative Socio-productive Contexts
â3âThe Challenge of Comparing Paradigmatic but Non-equivalent Experiences: Studying a Whole That Acts as a Whole
â4âThe Structure of the Book
1âCo-operatives âMade in Argentinaâ The Process of Enterprise Recuperation by Their Workers
â1âThe Socio-genesis of the Processes of Enterprise Recuperation
â1.1âWhen Worker Resistance Becomes an Offensive Movement
â1.2âThe Widespread Crisis of 2001â2002, or Adding Fuel to the Fire
â1.3âThe Movement of the Flames
â2âThe Evolution of Enterprise Recuperation Processes
â2.1âThe Fuel of the Growing Economy Keeps the Flames of Production Moving
â2.2âThe Moral Economy of Work in the Continued Presence of Enterprise Recuperations
â2.3ââArgentina Is One Big, Recuperated Factoryâ: Public Policies for Recuperated Enterprises
â2.4âThe Movementâs Fragmentation, Co-operative Convergence and Union Rapprochement
2âIncubated Co-operatives Co-operative Formation under the Argentina Works Programme
â1âSocial Schemes with Work Requirement: From Workfare to the Argentina Works Programme
â2âThe Mediation of Unemployed Workersâ Organisations: Civil Associations, Productive Units and Co-operatives
â3âThe Dual Logic of the Argentina Works Programmeâs Socio-genesis: Creating Jobs and Co-ordinating Local Politics
â4âInduced Co-operatives? The Struggle of Unemployed Workersâ Organisations
â4.1âThe Evolution of the Argentina Works Programme
â4.2âThe Intensity and Dynamics of Contentious Action
â4.3âThe Demands and Forms of Contentious Action
3âKeeping and Having a Job A Milestone in Constitutive Conflicts
â1ââOccupy, Resist, Produceâ ⦠and Have!
â2âFrom âInductionâ to the âCo-operative without Brokersâ
â3âA Comparative Lens on Constitutive Conflicts
4âThe Recuperated Enterprise and Social Power in Production
â1âRecuperators, Activists and the âBorn and Bredâ
â2âProperty Relations: Social Possession and Differential Appropriation of the Fruits of Labour
â3âThe Logic of Production and the Issue of Sustainability in Recuperated Enterprises
â4âThe Political Dimension: Between Self-management and Delegation
â5âSocial Groupings and Potential Antagonisms: Opportunity Hoarding, Enterprise Projects and Work Generations
5âThe Argentina Works Co-operative and State Power in Production
â1âThe Labour and Socio-spatial Precarity of Argentina Works Programme Workers
â2âProperty Relations: Social Possession and Autonomy
â3âThe Logic of Production: Between Subsistence and Political Accumulation
â4âThe Political Dimension: State Power and Co-management
â5âSocial Groupings and Potential Antagonisms: State Officials, Co-operative Members and Activists
6âThe Production of Co-operative Conflict
â1âBoard Removals: Conflicts over the Running and Expansion of the Productive Process
â2âRegulations, Sanctions and Exclusions: From âFounder Membersâ to âFounderer Membersâ
â3ââWe Fought over the River Moduleâ: The Conflict over Autonomous Work
â4âBetween Subsistence Consumption and Political Accumulation in the Social Organisation
â5âA Comparative Lens
7âConclusions
â1âThe New Twenty-First-Century Co-Operativism and Its Struggles Around Work
â2âWhat Patterns of Conflicts are There without Bosses? Towards a Theory of Unrest in Worker Co-operatives
â3âFrom Prelude to Present: A Toolbox for New Research Questions
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
List of Figures, Tables and Images
Introduction
â1âThe Question of Work Conflicts in New Co-operatives
â2âDimensions of New Social Conflicts in Co-operative Socio-productive Contexts
â3âThe Challenge of Comparing Paradigmatic but Non-equivalent Experiences: Studying a Whole That Acts as a Whole
â4âThe Structure of the Book
1âCo-operatives âMade in Argentinaâ The Process of Enterprise Recuperation by Their Workers
â1âThe Socio-genesis of the Processes of Enterprise Recuperation
â1.1âWhen Worker Resistance Becomes an Offensive Movement
â1.2âThe Widespread Crisis of 2001â2002, or Adding Fuel to the Fire
â1.3âThe Movement of the Flames
â2âThe Evolution of Enterprise Recuperation Processes
â2.1âThe Fuel of the Growing Economy Keeps the Flames of Production Moving
â2.2âThe Moral Economy of Work in the Continued Presence of Enterprise Recuperations
â2.3ââArgentina Is One Big, Recuperated Factoryâ: Public Policies for Recuperated Enterprises
â2.4âThe Movementâs Fragmentation, Co-operative Convergence and Union Rapprochement
2âIncubated Co-operatives Co-operative Formation under the Argentina Works Programme
â1âSocial Schemes with Work Requirement: From Workfare to the Argentina Works Programme
â2âThe Mediation of Unemployed Workersâ Organisations: Civil Associations, Productive Units and Co-operatives
â3âThe Dual Logic of the Argentina Works Programmeâs Socio-genesis: Creating Jobs and Co-ordinating Local Politics
â4âInduced Co-operatives? The Struggle of Unemployed Workersâ Organisations
â4.1âThe Evolution of the Argentina Works Programme
â4.2âThe Intensity and Dynamics of Contentious Action
â4.3âThe Demands and Forms of Contentious Action
3âKeeping and Having a Job A Milestone in Constitutive Conflicts
â1ââOccupy, Resist, Produceâ ⦠and Have!
â2âFrom âInductionâ to the âCo-operative without Brokersâ
â3âA Comparative Lens on Constitutive Conflicts
4âThe Recuperated Enterprise and Social Power in Production
â1âRecuperators, Activists and the âBorn and Bredâ
â2âProperty Relations: Social Possession and Differential Appropriation of the Fruits of Labour
â3âThe Logic of Production and the Issue of Sustainability in Recuperated Enterprises
â4âThe Political Dimension: Between Self-management and Delegation
â5âSocial Groupings and Potential Antagonisms: Opportunity Hoarding, Enterprise Projects and Work Generations
5âThe Argentina Works Co-operative and State Power in Production
â1âThe Labour and Socio-spatial Precarity of Argentina Works Programme Workers
â2âProperty Relations: Social Possession and Autonomy
â3âThe Logic of Production: Between Subsistence and Political Accumulation
â4âThe Political Dimension: State Power and Co-management
â5âSocial Groupings and Potential Antagonisms: State Officials, Co-operative Members and Activists
6âThe Production of Co-operative Conflict
â1âBoard Removals: Conflicts over the Running and Expansion of the Productive Process
â2âRegulations, Sanctions and Exclusions: From âFounder Membersâ to âFounderer Membersâ
â3ââWe Fought over the River Moduleâ: The Conflict over Autonomous Work
â4âBetween Subsistence Consumption and Political Accumulation in the Social Organisation
â5âA Comparative Lens
7âConclusions
â1âThe New Twenty-First-Century Co-Operativism and Its Struggles Around Work
â2âWhat Patterns of Conflicts are There without Bosses? Towards a Theory of Unrest in Worker Co-operatives
â3âFrom Prelude to Present: A Toolbox for New Research Questions
Bibliography
Index
All interested in co-operativism, social and solidarity economy and social movements, both scholars and activists, and anyone concerned with social change and emancipatory social sciences.