A freelancers’ cooperative as a case of democratic institutional experimentation for better work: a case study of SMart-Belgium

Lévesque

Morgan

et al. 2020

This article proposes experimentation as a framework for understanding actor agency in the changing regulation of work and employment. This involves contrasting institutional change with organisational and institutional experimentation approaches in order to understand how, in the context of uncertainty, actors in the world of work experiment with new ways of organising and seek to institutionalise them into new understandings, norms and rules. The article describes the fault lines of disruption that are generating a vast range of experiments in the world of work. These fault lines invite resilient responses and the development of collective capabilities at two levels: first, organisational experimentation, where social actors seek to modify or renew their organisations, networks and alliances and reflect on, assess and learn from their experiments; second, institutional experimentation, where these responses are scaled up and institutionalised over time through more general understandings, norms and rules. A key challenge for comparative research and strategising is to find the appropriate institutional conditions that will facilitate and enable organisational experiments, whilst overcoming constraining institutional conditions. This challenge is illustrated through the examples of co-working and the development of new forms of collective representation.

Section: Imagining Institutional Experimentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disruption and re-regulation in work and employment: from organisational to institutional experimentation

Lévesque

Morgan

et al. 2020

“…Charles et al (2020) examine ongoing experimentation in the case of SMart, a worker cooperative in Belgium where freelancers (originally with no access to union or employment coverage), have tried to promote and institutionalise access to a larger set of social rights for such workers. This initiative has attracted much attention because it represents a possible democratic institutional response to a major issue in contemporary labour markets, namely the proliferation of precarious work.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, deliberation, participation and democracy are critical for experimentation. For Charles et al (2020), SMart highlights the importance of the direct involvement of workers because experimentalism draws on that first-hand knowledge to nourish collective problem-solving. SMart is an example of democratic experimentation because it is continuously redefined and redesigned by its members, individually weak yet collectively capable.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: institutional experimentation for better (or worse) work

Ferreras

MacDonald

et al. 2020

Self Cite

In different national, institutional and organisational contexts, and in conditions of uncertainty, worker organisations, old and new, are experimenting in response to the major fault lines of change they face. This introduction to the special issue focuses on these processes of experimentation: the disruption of traditional forms of regulation of work and employment; how a variety of actors are engaged in experimentation about the governance of work and employment; how these actors are making claims on the state; how these processes can lead to better and to worse work; and how strong sets of capabilities and particular configurations of resources on the part of those engaged in experimentation can contribute to new forms of work regulation and indeed better work. Key themes include the agency and resilience of actors and their development of new collective capabilities, the importance of deliberation and democracy, the strategic and reflexive nature of their experimentation, the potential scalability of experimentation into new forms of institutionalisation integrating core values such as equality, solidarity and democracy, and new models of research aggregation requiring ongoing dialogue between actors and researchers.

“…Charles et al (2020) examinent l’expérimentation en cours dans le cas de SMart, une coopérative de travailleurs créée en Belgique où des travailleurs indépendants (au départ sans couverture syndicale), ont essayé de promouvoir et d’institutionnaliser l’accès à un plus vaste ensemble de droits sociaux pour ces travailleurs. Cette initiative a suscité beaucoup d’attention car elle représente une réponse institutionnelle démocratique possible à un problème majeur des marchés du travail contemporains, à savoir la prolifération du travail précaire.…”

unclassified

L’expérimentation institutionnelle au travail, pour le meilleur (ou pour le pire)

Ferreras

MacDonald

et al. 2020

Self Cite

Dans différents contextes nationaux, institutionnels et organisationnels, et dans un contexte d’incertitude, diverses formes d’organisation de travailleurs, anciennes et nouvelles, mènent des expérimentations en réponse aux lignes de fracture majeures des changements auxquelles elles sont confrontées. L’introduction de ce numéro spécial se concentre sur ces processus: la disruption des formes traditionnelles de régulation du travail et de l’emploi; comment différents acteurs sont engagés dans l’expérimentation sur la gouvernance du travail et de l’emploi; comment ces acteurs formulent des revendications à l’égard de l’État; comment ces processus peuvent conduire à un meilleur ou à un “pire” travail; et enfin, comment de solides capacités et des configurations particulières de ressources de la part de ceux qui sont engagés dans l’expérimentation peuvent contribuer à de nouvelles formes de régulation du travail et même à un meilleur travail. Les thèmes clés comprennent le rôle moteur et la résilience des acteurs et leur développement de nouvelles capacités collectives, l’importance de la délibération et de la démocratie, la nature stratégique et réflexive de leur expérimentation, l’extension de l’expérimentation dans de nouvelles formes d’institutionnalisation intégrant des valeurs fondamentales telles que l’égalité, la solidarité et la démocratie, ainsi que de nouveaux modèles d’agrégation de la recherche nécessitant un dialogue permanent entre acteurs et chercheurs.