How Do Participatory Governance and Reciprocity Impact Working Conditions in the SSE Organizations?—An Emotion Work Analysis

Abstract

This article discusses working conditions, captured as emotion work, in the social and solidarity economy (SSE). Interested in learning more about the impact of participatory governance (PG), frequently ascribed to SSE organisations, we work with reciprocity as qualifier for emotion work across PG settings in Roskilde Festival (RF) Charity. The analysis is based on a case study. Aware that not all SSE organisations are formally democratically organised, we identified informal sites of PG within RF. Our findings open avenues for further research on the dimensions of symbolic reciprocity and how they interact with organisational goals and processes. This extends to understanding better the impact of expectations on work life quality in the interplay with reciprocity and participatory governance in SSEs.

Keywords:

• Emotion work
• reciprocity
• participatory governance
• work conditions
• SSE organisations
• creative industry

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Fan and Zietsma also include ‘Emotional energy’ as an analytical category apart from social and moral emotions. It is described as excitement, enthusiasm, passion, eagerness, or the capability to act (2017, 2327). Emotional energy is not directly included in our analysis, as it builds up through social interactions (Colins 2004, 125) and is therefore more to be considered as a positive outcome of how reciprocity is linked to participatory governance. We briefly return to emotional energy in the discussion.