A hybrid co-op primer and research report, Sharing Like We Mean It: Working Co-operatively in the Cultural and Tech Sectors is based on a survey of more than 100 co-operatives in Canada, the UK, and the US. It offers a snapshot of the co-op landscape in creative industries, explores what co-operative work can look like in practice, and features profiles of several worker co-ops.
You can read the report here.
Our research reveals a small yet vibrant subset of co-ops in the cultural and tech fields, from co-operatively run art galleries to co-op advertising agencies, web development companies, architecture firms, coworking spaces, and ceramics studios.
Our survey results confirm that the co-operative model is a promising strategy for mitigating individualized patterns of work, democratizing work relationships, and providing satisfying work in creative industries contexts. Co-ops are not a magic solution to systemic work problems. But the co-op model – in conjunction with other pro-worker policies and organizations – holds potential to democratically remake work in ways that have yet to be fully realized, or widely tested, in creative industries.
Alongside Sharing Like We Mean It, we have published a technical report, The Co-operative Alternative and the Creative Industries, which provides a fuller account of our survey results. You can find the technical report here.
Greig de Peuter, Bianca C. Dreyer, Marisol Sandoval, and Aleksandra Szaflarska. 2020. Sharing Like We Mean It: Working Co-operatively in the Cultural and Tech Sectors. Cultural Workers Organize.
Bianca C. Dreyer, Greig de Peuter, Marisol Sandoval, and Aleksandra Szaflarska. 2020. The Co-operative Alternative and the Creative Industries: A Technical Report on a Survey of Co-operatives in the cultural and technology sectors in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Cultural Workers Organize.