Worker cooperatives for social change: knowledge-making through constructive resistance within the capitalist market economy

ABSTRACT

This article explores worker cooperatives’ possibilities and challenges of knowledge-making through constructive resistance within the capitalist market economy. Based on qualitative material from five Swedish worker co-ops, the analysis reveals that the co-ops’ constructive resistance encompasses knowledge-making by setting an example – that it is possible to organise businesses that challenge dominant capitalist undertakings. The knowledge-making is however limited in scope due to contextual circumstances related to the market economic system wherein the co-ops act. This stresses the importance of exploring the resistance context and also the links between knowledge-making and constructive resistance.

KEYWORDS:

• Worker cooperatives
• constructive resistance
• knowledge-making
• capitalism
• social change

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Ann Bergman, Satu Heikkinen, Andreas Henriksson, everyone in The Resist Research Group, and two anonymous referees, for important comments on the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. It is not possible to report on the exact number of worker co-ops in Sweden. The Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket) only produces statistics about formal legal forms. Worker co-ops can also have other legal forms, but those are excluded from this study since they do not necessitate equal ownership for all members.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristin Wiksell

Kristin Wiksell is affiliated to the Centre for Research on Sustainable Societal Transformation at Karlstad University. Her research primarily concerns organisation, power, and resistance from a sociological perspective, with a specific focus on cooperatives as a form of organizing for social change.