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The upheaval of the last few years has sparked new conversations about

the meaning of work. Even as COVID-19 devastated communities,

endangered frontline workers, and disrupted supply chains, corporate

profi ts and stock prices surged. As lockdowns upended workplaces,

remote work became the norm in certain industries. Confronting this

changed economic landscape, emboldened workers have organized

new unions and staged widespread strikes, with public approval of

labor unions soaring to highs not seen in six decades. Others have

fi ercely resisted management demands to return to the status quo.

And since early 2021, millions of American workers have been voting

with their feet and joining the so-called Great Resignation, a dramatic

and prolonged spike in quit rates.

after COVID, a new “new economy” by katherine k. chen and victor tan chen

38 contexts.org

39FALL 2022 contexts

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Now is a pivotal moment, a blip of opportunity when people

seem to be open to different ways of doing things. How might

we reorganize economies so that they actually support the vast

majority of people? How might we create stronger institutions

to protect us against the array of existential threats we now

face—which would include not just another pandemic, but also

ongoing political instability, growing economic inequality, and

the impending climate catastrophe? Clearly, broad economic

policies that share an economy’s rewards more fairly and inclu-

sively are critical. We also need to consider promising grassroots

efforts to build better economic organizations—such as coop-

eratives and other participatory organizations where members

exercise a greater say in how to run their groups.

The work of the late Erik Olin Wright, one of the foremost

sociological thinkers on alternative futures, can help us make

sense of these possibilities. To illustrate class relations under capi-

talism, Wright presented the parable of the Shmoo—a fictional

lifeform from Al Capp’s mid-twentieth-century comic strip Li’l

Abner. Shmoos were cheerful, bowling pin-shaped creatures

that reproduced prolifically and provided humanity—willingly

and enthusiastically—with seemingly endless sustenance and

entertainment. Once Shmoos were discovered and cultivated en

masse, workers no longer had to toil desperately for employers.

Workers could decline a particular task, or a particular job. They

no longer could be exploited, because they had full freedom

to decide what they wanted to do. Using the thought experi-

ment of the Shmoo, Wright highlighted how exploitation is an

endemic feature of capitalism. Any reasonable person would

want Shmoos to exist—everywhere, for everyone—but capi-

talists had a vested interest in keeping them

out of the hands of workers, who otherwise

wouldn’t work hard for such low wages.

The massive policy responses to the

pandemic in 2020 provided a glimpse of

what Shmoo-based policies might look like

in practice. Governments around the world

expanded their social policies when pandemic-related lockdowns

suddenly thrust some workers out of labor markets. European

countries took the lead in almost entirely subsidizing the pay-

rolls of employers so that benched workers could continue to

draw wages. Even in the US, a country resistant to generous

welfare state provisions, the economic crisis unleashed by the

pandemic prompted Congress to pass temporary relief measures

that included a universal child allowance, a policy common in

social democratic countries. Sociologist Christopher Wimer and

other Columbia University researchers have noted the powerful

impact this policy had in temporarily slashing the country’s child

poverty rates and stabilizing household finances. Along with the

general tightening of the labor market, the financial flexibility

provided by state relief may have also helped convince workers

to quit their jobs in search of higher wages and better work

conditions—or other careers altogether—at the outset of the

Great Resignation.

Particularly in Europe, the pandemic has stirred interest in

implementing universal basic incomes (UBIs), and a number of

municipalities in the United States and elsewhere have already

piloted these programs or arrangements that approximate them.

Under this general approach, governments distribute cash with

few or no conditions to citizens. UBIs could help address eco-

nomic inequalities that became particularly egregious during

the pandemic. Furthermore, such policies inherently recognize

the social value of the often invisible and unpaid labor people

do in their homes and communities. If people widely received

these sorts of income transfers, they would have more freedom

to do work that they truly cared about, under humane condi-

tions. That, in turn, would help ease the labor supply issues (also

glaring since the pandemic began) in essential but underpaid

occupations, such as caring for the young and elderly.

In the US, though, the federal government’s Covid relief

measures were temporary, and in spite of Democrats’ control of

Congress, party moderates worried about its high price tag chose

to block the extension of the universal child allowance. Since

then, high rates of inflation—which conservatives have blamed

on generous relief measures—have further eroded the political

will for broad-based spending to support struggling workers and

families. The fierce pushback against efforts to strengthen the

safety net is unsurprising, given the fundamentally imbalanced

character of the current economic system: how the hunger and

COVID-related disruptions have helped redefine the meaning of work.

Pandemic-linked shortages have raised workers’ expectations and lowered their tolerance for exploitation-as-usual.

Contexts, Vol. 21, Issue 4, p. 38-43. ISSN 1536-5042. © American Sociological Association. http://contexts.sagepub.com. 10.1177/15365042221131082

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insecurity of workers who don’t have choices enable the various

forms of exploitation that the market economy relies upon to

generate profits for a few. Take the endless social-media stream

of complaints nowadays by employers unable to find low-wage

workers willing to staff their stores and restaurants; what’s good

for workers—and therefore the majority of the populace—is

bad for capitalism. For the time being, though, pandemic-linked

shortages have raised workers’ expectations and lowered their

tolerance for exploitation-as-usual. Even capitalists are beginning

to recognize this, with big-box retailers now offering unprec-

edented wages—as much as $24 per hour in New York City—to

attract job applicants.

Wright recognized how the deeply rooted interests of capi-

talists made it difficult to “tame” markets with social democratic

policies. For this reason, he also counseled an approach of “erod-

ing” capitalism—and thus the exploitation baked into it—by

cultivating alternative forms of economic activity. Cooperatives

and other participatory organizations would allow societies to

transition to less extractive ways of organizing economies. “The

strategic vision of eroding capitalism imagines introducing the

most vigorous varieties of emancipatory species of noncapitalist

economic activity into the ecosystem of capitalism, nurturing

their development by protecting their niches, and figuring out

ways of expanding their habitats,” Wright wrote. “The ultimate

hope is that eventually these alien species can spill out of their

narrow niches and transform the character of the ecosystem

as a whole.”

Being in crisis mode for so long has opened people to

exploring a wider range of possibilities for how to organize their

work lives. For example, the L.A. Co-op Lab, which offers help

with launching worker cooperatives in the Los Angeles area,

noticed an uptick in interest after the start of the pandemic; as

co-founder Gilda Haas puts it, after experiencing so much death,

people are seeking “life, life, life!” through more meaningful

work. The workers dropping by—chefs, comedians, strippers—

want to reconsider how they go about making a living, she says.

In spite of the pandemic, the ranks of worker cooperatives in

this country have swelled over the past two years, according

to a biannual census conducted by the Democracy at Work

Institute and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives: from

465 in 2019 to 612 in 2021.

Perhaps surprisingly, the United States boasts a long tra-

dition of participatory organizations. The Grange, a national

agricultural movement launched after the Civil War, opposed

corporate power in part by launching cooperatives and mutual

societies. Disadvantaged communities have also historically

turned to alternative forms of organizing after being shut out

of markets or government-run programs. Notably, participatory

organizing and union organizing have often complemented,

rather than competed with, one another. The Knights of Labor,

a storied US labor organization, aggressively promoted worker

and producer cooperatives. Today, the union-supported Cincin-

nati Union Co-op Initiative (now called Co-op Cincy) has fostered

the development of numerous worker co-ops.

As we mentioned earlier, the pandemic has also helped

usher in a union moment, headlined by a round of high-profile

strikes during last year’s “Striketober” and a slew of recent

efforts—some, at long last, successful—to unionize corporate

behemoths like Amazon and Starbucks. At the moment, though,

the most democratic and participatory kinds of economic orga-

nizations remain a miniscule part of economies: the roughly

600 worker-owned co-ops now in existence only employ 6,000

people while taking in $283 million in annual revenue. If the goal

is to erode capitalism, this approach needs to be dramatically

ramped up. Otherwise, cooperatives will just serve as escape

pods for a few—creative ways that a small number of people

can buck the system without overturning it.

That said, participatory organizations can take myriad

forms. For example, while worker cooperatives split ownership

equally among workers and give each person an equal say in

decision-making, other models allow for varying degrees and

kinds of worker control. Employee ownership trusts, where more

than half of a company’s shares are owned by workers, have

become the dominant form of employee ownership in the UK;

employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), which give workers a

stake in the company through their retirement plans, have prolif-

erated in the United States. (According to the US-based National

Center for Employee Ownership, the country’s ESOPs now cover

6,257 companies and own a total of $1.6 trillion in assets.) And

The research of Erik Olin Wright can help us make sense of current discourses about work.

41FALL 2022 contexts

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very different models of democratic participation exist beyond

employee ownership—from consumer cooperatives, to com-

munes, to participatory social movement organizations.

Furthermore, research suggests that participatory organiza-

tions—including those that aren’t as democratic and equitable

as cooperatives—can have a powerful impact on the workings

of economies. One study finds that US counties with a diver-

sity of organizational forms—in other words, local economies

where cooperatives, credit unions, community banks, nonprofit

organizations, and research universities pre-

vail—are better able to weather economic

downturns. Specifically, these counties lost

fewer jobs during the Great Recession and

regained employment more quickly in the

recovery than localities overwhelmingly reli-

ant on traditional companies.

The know-how already exists for how

to run a successful alternative enterprise.

In the United States, programs such as City

University of New York’s Community and Worker Ownership

Project (CWOP) offer training and certificates in forming and

managing cooperatives. Rutgers University’s Curriculum Library

for Employee Ownership (CLEO) curates a repository of case

studies and syllabi and a roster of guest speakers to support

instructors. Organizers from Green Worker Cooperatives and

Cooperation Jackson regularly mentor new entrepreneurs,

particularly those working to start cooperatives in underserved

communities.

For participatory organizations to spread widely, though, a

larger share of the public will need some working knowledge

of how workplace democracies actually operate. Nowadays,

formative experiences can occur in classrooms and through

volunteering, as shown in Katherine’s own research on a small

democratic school in New York City and the organization behind

the Burning Man event. This early exposure can be critical:

research on people’s dispiriting experiences with occasional

deliberative decision-making suggests that people need to

engage frequently in participatory practices in order for dem-

ocratic cultures to thrive. But in most local economies, the

available training and assistance are geared toward promoting

Forward-thinking union leaders have come to see cooperatives as new ways for the labor movement to recruit and retain members and deepen their democratic skills and experiences.

Being in crisis mode for so long has opened people to exploring a wider range of possibilities for how to organize their work lives.

42 contexts.org

conventional business models. For instance, as Victor and his

colleague Jesse Goldstein discuss in their research, university

entrepreneurship programs train students how to pitch start-

ups, on the grounds that creative business ideas invigorate the

overall economy. But such ventures are typically judged on their

market scalability—and, thus, the potential to be acquired by

large corporations—rather than how they address community

needs or create good jobs. What if students in such programs

were also taught how to launch cooperatives, or were rewarded

for ventures with positive local impacts?

Along with organizing unions and supporting pro-worker

movements, starting a cooperative is a practical step that people

can take to exercise their voice in the workplace. That said, a

Research in the Sociology of Organizations volume we recently

published describes how these alternative organizational forms

require hard work and supportive conditions. For example,

Katherine Sobering’s study of an Argentinian worker coopera-

tive details the intensive everyday work that keeps a democratic

venture alive—legally, economically, and spiritually—within

capitalist economies. By providing legal recognition, sensible

regulation, and tax incentives, governments can make collective

ownership a more viable business strategy. Even with such sup-

port, though, a co-op’s members can tire of the constant work

of making decisions by consensus, integrating new recruits, and

keeping up with principles of equitable pay and job rotation.

They may be tempted to introduce conventional practices and

hierarchies to smooth over emotion-laden disagreements or

increase efficiency. To resist these pressures, cooperatives have

to find creative ways to reinvigorate members’ interest in their

everyday activities. In one French sheet metal worker coopera-

tive, for example, members drew upon a craft ethic that infused

their work with creative meaning. By viewing projects as oppor-

tunities to hone their technical prowess, members resisted efforts

to cut corners, automate work, and eke out greater profits like

the firm’s conventional competitors were doing.

Of course, the larger policy environment is essential in help-

ing cooperatives and other alternative enterprises take root and

sustain their values. In the UK, generous government tax incentives

have spurred recent growth in employee-owned firms. In the bur-

geoning field of ethical finance, the influence of social movements

can be decisive in ensuring that mission-driven banks don’t stray

from their founding values. And when entire countries like Brazil

pour resources into supporting participatory organizations, a

diverse and mutually reinforcing constellation of alternative enter-

prises—a so-called cooperative commonwealth—can flourish.

Even in the staunchly capitalist United States, these approaches

are gaining traction at the local level. Larger “solidarity econo-

mies”—networks of cooperatives—have emerged in parts of the

country that might seem politically inhospitable to such collectiv-

ism, such as Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi. Such economies

counter corporate and governmental disinvestment and ensure

that needed resources circulate within local communities.

That said, co-ops can be coopted by these larger networks

of influence. Ideally, associations of cooperatives (such as the UK’s

Employee Ownership Association) can provide needed resources

and a helpful sense of community and common purpose to their

member organizations. If such “meta-organizations” kowtow

too much to capitalist conventions, however, they can also be

vectors through which business-as-usual mindsets spread. Fac-

ing these top-down pressures, member cooperatives can lose

their independence, creativity, and abilities to serve local markets

and stakeholders—as Carla Young’s research on the organic

grocery industry suggests. And when union and cooperative

forms mix—as in the case of New York’s Cooperative Home Care

Associates (CHCA), a cooperative of homecare workers which

later voted to unionize by becoming a SEIU local—the workers

within such hybridized arrangements may struggle to understand

which aspects of their organizations benefit

them or who exactly is representing them.

While these challenges are real, they

are not insurmountable. As researcher and

union consultant Sanjay Pinto points out,

forward-thinking union leaders have come

to see cooperatives as new ways for the

labor movement to recruit and retain mem-

bers and deepen their democratic skills and experiences. In

turn, unions can play an important role in helping the public

understand participatory organizations and their potential to

improve people’s everyday lives. After all, throughout history,

labor movements and other social movements have often had

a decisive influence on how the public views what is fair and

right—from the norm of the work-free “weekend,” to the belief

that discrimination in hiring is wrong, to the understanding that

employees should have safe and supportive working conditions.

To truly scale up, cooperatives need a larger movement of sup-

porters behind them.

Indeed, here is where we see these two strands of think-

ing—macro policy and micro practice—intertwine. On the one

Nurturing a healthy ecosystem of cooperatives may open up space for more robust social policies and redouble collective efforts to deal with longstanding challenges.

43FALL 2022 contexts

hand, policies shape what individual actors can do. Making it

easier to organize workplaces as unions and worker cooperatives

makes it easier for people to speak out on economic issues. A

stronger safety net gives more entrepreneurs the ability to start

participatory organizations, and more people the financial secu-

rity to consider working for them. This last point was one that

Wright himself made in favor of a universal basic income (UBI).

Unconditional income transfers would not only “tame” one of

capitalism’s chief ills—“poverty in the midst of plenty”—but

they would also bolster the “potential for a long-term erosion

of the dominance of capitalism by channeling resources towards

noncapitalist forms of economic activity,” Wright noted. Worker

cooperatives were often “fragile,” he added, because they

needed to “generate sufficient income not merely to cover the

material costs of production but also to provide a basic income

for their members.” A UBI would take the latter costs off their

balance sheets, allowing cooperatives to compete in the market

on more promising terms.

In turn, nurturing a healthy ecosystem of cooperatives may

open up space for more robust social policies and redouble col-

lective efforts to deal with longstanding challenges. Wherever

participatory organizations proliferate, they can help erode the

hypermeritocratic cultures of work and success that often turn

people against strong government safety nets. Making deci-

sions democratically underscores the value of cooperation and

the dignity and voice of each member of the collective. Being

part of a community provides a sense of purpose beyond the

corporate rat race of climbing competitive career and income

ladders. In this sense, alternative organizing can help bring about

what Victor has called an “economy of grace,” which challenges

the dominant market ethic of competition and deservingness in

favor of other moral and civic ends.

In any case, the mass resignations and worker resistance

that have roiled the labor market in recent years suggests that

people are looking for something better. Too many of us are

challenging what we’ve long been educated to accept—from

how much we get paid, to how much input we have at work.

And if capitalists cannot supply basic incomes and dignified

work, maybe we need to seek out the sorts of organizations

and governments that do.

recommended resources Chen, Katherine K. 2022. “Learning How to Be a Scyborg: How Prefigurative Organisations Can Promote Capacity to Decolo- nialise Organisations.” Voluntary Sector Review 13(1):117–133.

Chen, Katherine K., and Victor Tan Chen. 2021. “‘What If’ and ‘If Only’ Futures beyond Conventional Capitalism and Bureaucracy: Imagining Collectivist and Democratic Possibilities for Organiz- ing.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations 72:1–28.

Chen, Victor Tan, and Timothy Beryl Bland. 2022. “Power, Popu- lism, and a Policy of Grace: Moral Perspectives in The Tyranny of Merit and Cut Loose.” Theory and Research in Education 20(2):159–172.

Chen, Victor Tan, and Jesse Goldstein. 2022. “The Theatre of Entrepreneurship: Learning to Perform the Speculative Self in Uni- versity Entrepreneurship Programs.” Social Problems. [advance online publication]

Sobering, Katherine. 2022. The People’s Hotel: Working for Jus- tice in Argentina. Durham: Duke University Press.

Katherine K. Chen is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the City College of

New York and Graduate Center, CUNY. Victor Tan Chen is an Associate Professor of

Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. They are coeditors of Organizational

Imaginaries: Tempering Capitalism and Tending to Communities through Cooperatives

and Collectivist Democracy (Vol. 72 of Research in the Sociology of Organizations),

and tweet at @KatherineKChen and @victortanchen, respectively.

Formative experiences with participatory practices can occur in classrooms and through volunteering for organizations such as the Burning Man Project.

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