Watercooler Democracy: Rumors and Transparency in a Cooperative Workplace

Survival finance and the politics of equal pay

“…The Assembly, then, elected an Administrative Council biannually to oversee day-to-day operations. The ongoing and very open conversations about pay, which I analyse below, were made possible by the organization's commitment to democratic transparency (Sobering, 2019b). Not only was every line item clearly enumerated on monthly pay stubs, but these pay rates were determined collectively by the group as a whole.…”

Radical democratic citizenship at work in an adverse economic environment: the case of workers’ co-operatives in Scotland

“…Only by this I was able to explore, identify and grasp the political characteristics of the complex workplace in these radical workers' co-operatives: for example, how they organise and run general meetings, how they make decisions, communication, what working in a co-operative means to them, and challenges within the co-operative as well as external constraints which are fundamental for a substantive understanding of the politics at work, how they pursue a political agenda within and with their work, with their business. An important part of this is played out over time through informal interactions -as relational processes -and meaning-making, and therefore makes an ethnography a particularly suitable approach (Sobering 2019;Desmond 2014;Morrill and Fine 1997).…”

“…This framework is organic in that it evolves as the workers' co-operative develops. For example as Politics not only takes place during the general meetings but begins in the interstices of the daily business operations, like informal debates (Sobering 2019). It dwells in the structures that the worker members create, negotiate and develop within the co-operative.…”

“…Workers' co-operatives constitute a particular space of politics -not only in their democratic ownership but also in governance. Numerous case studies, theoretical investigations and critical analyses have fruitfully explored workers' co-operatives, workplace democracy and workers' selfmanagement (Sobering 2019;Langmead 2017;Bernstein 2012;Coates and Topham 2005;Crouch and Frank 1983;Jossa 2014;Shukaitis 2010;Mellor, Hannah, and Stirling 1988;Ness and Azzellini 2011;Rothschild and Allen Whitt 1986;Wajcman 1983). Rothschild (2000) shows how workers' cooperatives have pursued a flattening of workplace hierarchy, normally a crucial aspect of organisational inequality, in order to enable and stimulate participation in decision-making.…”

“…However, other studies challenge the degeneration thesis (Cornforth 1995) by showing how that the practice of consensus-based workplace democracy in workers' co-operatives can provide a creative space to practice equality, nurture a 'solidaristic ethic' and stimulate skill-sharing and alignment of the individual with the collective (Langmead 2017, 87). In addition, informal communication amongst worker-members which, on the one hand might fuel concerns over efficiency with regards to decision-making, on the other hand informs the debates taking place at general assemblies or virtual platforms for debates, and thereby increases the influence of the workermembers as well as contributing to accountability within the co-operative (Sobering 2019).…”