Crafting alternative work organisations: Paradoxes of workplace democracy and emancipation in worker-buyout cooperatives

Ignacio Bretos, Rory Ridley-Duff and David Wren
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Ignacio Bretos: Department of Business Organisation and Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zaragoza, Spain
David Wren: Department of Management, Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2025, vol. 46, issue 4, 1002-1030

Abstract: Drawing on an interpretative study primarily based on two waves of interviews, the authors traced two cooperativisation experiences over 10 years from an actor-centred approach. The shift to worker ownership did not automatically lead to workplace democratisation and workers’ emancipation. Indeed, the early development of the cooperativisation experiences was marked by internal conflict and worker-owners’ dissatisfaction. Over time, a paradoxical alternative workplace was consolidated, in which worker-owners’ emancipation was ultimately sustained through the exploitation of non-member employees. The study makes a twofold contribution to the cooperativisation literature. First, it moves beyond utopian or sceptical perspectives to provide a more nuanced view of worker-buyout co-ops, emphasising the paradoxical nature of their emancipatory potential. Second, the study’s longitudinal analysis of co-ops formed out of financially sound firms, rather than bankrupted ones, advances knowledge of the diversity of cooperativisation experiences and the mechanisms that contribute to the longevity and sustainability of worker-buyout co-ops.

Keywords: Cooperatives; emancipation; Mondragon; worker buyout; workplace democracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:46:y:2025:i:4:p:1002-1030

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X241273044

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