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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Sociology

Wilfrid Laurier University

Series

Cultural work

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Cooperativism In Cultural And Tech Sectors: Promises And Challenges, Greig De Peuter, Bianca C. Dreyer, Marisol Sandoval, Aleksandra Szaflarska Jan 2022

Cooperativism In Cultural And Tech Sectors: Promises And Challenges, Greig De Peuter, Bianca C. Dreyer, Marisol Sandoval, Aleksandra Szaflarska

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This article reports on a survey of co-operatives in the cultural and technology sectors in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Creative industries are a growth area for new cooperativism, with more than a quarter of surveyed co-operatives in operation for less than five years. While the findings show that co-operation is a promising strategy for countering individualised experiences of work, for democratising workplaces, and for facilitating satisfying work in creative industries, they also reveal significant challenges which individual co-operatives and the wider co-operative movement must confront for cooperativism to have a sustainable and inclusive future in the …


Organizing Dark Matter: W.A.G.E. As Alternative Worker Organization, Greig De Peuter Jan 2020

Organizing Dark Matter: W.A.G.E. As Alternative Worker Organization, Greig De Peuter

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Since its founding in 2008, W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy) has worked to reform the economic habits of US art institutions and of the artists upon whose cultural work these institutions are dependent. Inside a decade, W.A.G.E. went from a small grassroots collective to an internationally recognized, yet lean, organization, which not only advocates for labour standards in the nonprofit art sector, but also develops practical tools to begin the work of doing better by equality in the art world. This chapter positions W.A.G.E. as an example of what Immanuel Ness terms “new forms of worker organization.” Informed …