Doctoral Dissertation Research: Secure Work in the Worker-Cooperative Sector

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This project will study the expanding worker cooperative sector in New York City. Three research questions will be investigated: 1) how relevant stakeholders conceive of and view worker ownership; 2) how municipal investment in the worker cooperative sector affects the worker cooperative movement; and 3) the effects of worker ownership on labor security. Through this research, issues facing workers and their communities, including the importance communities have for workers' economic well-being, will be understood better. Understanding of how workers' autonomous efforts may change when external actors become involved in promoting those efforts also will be increased. This, in turn, will inform our knowledge of how policies at local, regional, and national levels may be developed to support the creation of secure employment.Research will proceed in two phases. The first phase will involve semi-structured interviews with different actors throughout the field of cooperative organizations in New York City, observations of cooperative sector events, and archival research. Those interviewed will include worker-owners from a purposive sample of worker cooperatives, community economic development professionals, leaders of cooperative federations and advocacy organizations, and local political representatives. In the second phase, two relevant two surveys will be analyzed, the 2017 Worker Co-op Census and three work-related modules of the General Social Survey. The products of this research, including a report on the New York worker-cooperative sector and presentations at cooperative-sector conferences and community economic development events, will be accessible to a diverse audience including community-based economic development organizations, economic development policymakers at the local, regional and national levels, workers across labor-market sectors and skill levels, and academics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.