Worker-owned Cooperatives In Marginalized Communities: Incompatibility And Innovation

This paper examines the sufficiency of the worker cooperative model in addressing precarious employment within marginalized communities with a specific focus on immigrant and low-income South Asian immigrant women in Ontario. Using qualitative research methods (i.e. literature review and loosely structured interviews), this paper weaves together perspectives from six individuals from different areas of the cooperative sector: 2 representatives from second and third tier cooperative organizations, 2 representatives from worker cooperatives in Ontario, and 2 individuals with experience working with grassroots organizations in marginalized communities and worker coops. The paper also explores how second and third tier cooperative organizations can reimagine their roles and services to better facilitate the inclusion of marginalized communities within the cooperative sector. The research concludes that the lack of cooperative history and cooperative education combined hinders the culture of cooperation cooperation, which results in the lack of government support and cooperative capital available. All of these factors combined contribute to the fear of failure, which is intensified by several past failures of cooperative initiatives. This inhospitable external context greatly hinders the potential of the worker cooperative model in marginalized communities and the capabilities of second and third tier cooperative organizations. Noting the aforementioned, I recommend the need to differentiate between classic worker cooperatives in order to conceptualize it in a more nuanced way: mainstream cooperatives, grassroots cooperatives, informal cooperatives, and cooperative-social enterprise hybrids. There is value in viewing cooperative enterprises on a spectrum of economic and social solidarity in order to better accommodate diverse needs. Through recognizing alternative identities and pathways, the sector can work towards being more inclusive. Furthermore, I also recommend the need for strategic planning within the sector to develop an integrative system composed of existing organizations in order to build an alternative system based on mutually beneficial relationships, procurement, and solidarity. The goal of this network would be to eventually exist independently outside of the capitalistic system.