Worker co-operatives as a response to unemployment: the impact upon participants

Hannah, Janet Elaine (1989) Worker co-operatives as a response to unemployment: the impact upon participants. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University.

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Abstract

Abstract Worker Co-operatives as a Response to Unemployment: the Impact upon Participants Janet Hannah This thesis explores the impact of co-operative working upon feelings of personal and political efficacy and political consciousness amongst participants in job creation worker co-operatives. Based upon a longitudinal panel study of four job creation co-operatives in Scotland and the north east of England, the research monitors the factors influencing their commercial and organisational development. How this influences the scope for, and achievement of, personal change is highlighted. The research concludes that the job creation worker co-operative is not, per se, a vehicle for social and personal change in a capitalist society. Severe commercial pressures limit the scope for autonomous control identified as fundamental to the development of feelings of personal and political efficacy. Worker co-operatives are not identified by participants as part of a wider movement for social change and the experience of working within them has a negligible effect on political consciousness.

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