Motivating Factors Influencing the Decision to Create Worker Cooperative Businesses

Abstract

While there is a growing body of literature on the subject of worker cooperatives in the field of economics that compares them to conventional capitalist firms, there has been little literature to date looking at lives of the workers within these enterprises. This study investigates the self-stated reasons for why worker-owners of worker cooperative firms chose this form of employment. In unstructured interviews, a sample of thirty-seven current and former worker-owners were asked why they chose to become worker cooperatives members. The responses are grouped into three categories based on their self-reported motivations: Idealists, Economists, and Drifters. Implications for future research into the anthropology of cooperatives are discussed.