The Myth of Mondragon

The Myth of Mondragon PDF Author: Sharryn Kasmir
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791430033
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This is the first critical account of the internationally renowned Mondragon cooperatives of the Basque region of Spain. The Mondragon cooperatives are seen as the leading alternative model to standard industrial organization; they are considered to be the most successful example of democratic decision making and worker ownership. However, the author argues that the vast scholarly and popular literature on Mondragon idealizes the cooperatives by falsely portraying them as apolitical institutions and by ignoring the experiences of shop floor workers. She shows how this creation of an idealized image of the cooperatives is part of a new global ideology that promotes cooperative labor-management relations in order to discredit labor unions and working-class organizations; this constitutes what she calls the "myth" of Mondragon.

The Myth of Mondragon

The Myth of Mondragon PDF Author: Sharryn Kasmir
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791430033
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first critical account of the internationally renowned Mondragon cooperatives of the Basque region of Spain. The Mondragon cooperatives are seen as the leading alternative model to standard industrial organization; they are considered to be the most successful example of democratic decision making and worker ownership. However, the author argues that the vast scholarly and popular literature on Mondragon idealizes the cooperatives by falsely portraying them as apolitical institutions and by ignoring the experiences of shop floor workers. She shows how this creation of an idealized image of the cooperatives is part of a new global ideology that promotes cooperative labor-management relations in order to discredit labor unions and working-class organizations; this constitutes what she calls the "myth" of Mondragon.

Making Mondragón

Making Mondragón PDF Author: William Foote Whyte
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801471729
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Since its founding in 1956 in Spain's Basque region, the Mondragón Corporation has been a touchstone for the international cooperative movement. Its nearly three hundred companies and organizations span areas from finance to education. In its industrial sector Mondragón has had a rich experience over many years in manufacturing products as varied as furniture, kitchen equipment, machine tools, and electronic components and in printing, shipbuilding, and metal smelting. Making Mondragón is a groundbreaking look at the history of worker ownership in the Spanish cooperative. First published in 1988, it remains the best source for those looking to glean a rich body of ideas for potential adaptation and implementation elsewhere from Mondragón's long and varied experience. This second edition, published in 1991, takes into account the major structural and strategic changes that were being implemented in 1990 to allow the enterprise to compete successfully in the European common market. Mondragón has created social inventions and developed social structures and social processes that have enabled it to overcome some of the major obstacles faced by other worker cooperatives in the past. William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte describe the creation and evolution of the Mondragón cooperatives, how they have changed through decades of experience, and how they have struggled to maintain a balance between their social commitments and economic realities. The lessons of Mondragón apply most clearly to worker cooperatives and other employee-owned firms, but also extend to regional development and stimulating and supporting entrepreneurship, whatever the form of ownership.

The Mondragon Cooperatives

The Mondragon Cooperatives PDF Author: Amanda Latinne
Publisher: Intersentia Uitgevers N V
ISBN: 9781780682518
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
This book is a critical reflection on the origin and further development of one of the most highly-praised cooperative enterprises in the world: the Mondragon cooperatives in the Spanish Basque Country. At a time when many people regard cooperative entrepreneurship as an ethically sound economic alternative to the traditional organization of companies and businesses, the book draws attention to the unavoidable impact of globalization, which not only affects the workers' involvement and participation in cooperative enterprises, but also their employment itself. (Series: Publications on Labour Law - Vol. 3)

From Mondragon to America

From Mondragon to America PDF Author: Greg MacLeod
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press
ISBN: 9780920336533
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
"A must read." -Dr. Jack Quarter, OISE "Combines the practical, hands-on analysis of what makes the Mondragon idea work with the best account in English of the thinking of its founder." -Race Mathews, Monash University, Australia.

Mondragon

Mondragon PDF Author: Henk Thomas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135135888X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
This book, first published in 1982, summarises the history and organisation of the group of co-operatives centred in Mondragon. The study makes an in-depth analysis of its economic aspects, including employment creation and manpower planning, the raising of financial resources and planning of investments, problems of earnings differentials, and the incentives that can be derived from worker-ownership. In particular, the authors examine the operation of the self-management system and Mondragon’s production efficiently.

The Myth of Mondragon

The Myth of Mondragon PDF Author: Sharryn Kasmir
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791430040
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
This is the first critical account of the internationally renowned Mondragon cooperatives of the Basque region of Spain. The Mondragon cooperatives are seen as the leading alternative model to standard industrial organization; they are considered to be the most successful example of democratic decision making and worker ownership. However, the author argues that the vast scholarly and popular literature on Mondragon idealizes the cooperatives by falsely portraying them as apolitical institutions and by ignoring the experiences of shop floor workers. She shows how this creation of an idealized image of the cooperatives is part of a new global ideology that promotes cooperative labor-management relations in order to discredit labor unions and working-class organizations; this constitutes what she calls the "myth" of Mondragon.

New Paths to Socialism

New Paths to Socialism PDF Author: Carl Davidson
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1257820354
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Essays on the Mondragon Cooperatives in Spain, the Solidarity and Green Economies, and their meaning for both Marxism and Socialism today.

Values at Work

Values at Work PDF Author: George Cheney
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501721119
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Values at Work is an analysis of organizational dynamics with wide-ranging implications in an age of market globalization. It looks at the challenges businesses face to maintain people-oriented work systems while remaining successful in the larger economy. George Cheney revisits the famous Mondragón worker-owned-and-governed cooperatives in the Basque Country of Spain to examine how that collection of innovative and democratic businesses is responding to the broad trend of marketization. The Mondragón cooperatives are changing in important ways as a direct result of both external pressures to be more competitive and the rise of consumerism, as well as through the modification of internal policies toward greater efficiency. One of the most remarkable aspects of the changes is that some of the same business slogans now heard around the globe are being adopted in this set of organizations renowned for its strongly held internal values, such as participatory democracy, solidarity, and equality. Instead of emphasizing the special or unique qualities of the Mondragón experience, this book demonstrates the case's relevance to trends in all sectors and across the industrialized world.

Humanity @ Work & Life

Humanity @ Work & Life PDF Author: Christina A. Clamp
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781195703
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
HUMANITY@WORK&LIFE is intended to provide hope and inspiration by serving as a resource for those interested in developing worker cooperatives, as well as an introduction for those interested in virtuous cycle, "Solidarity Dividend" alternatives to shareholder primacy capitalism practices. It is also intended to peer over incoming vision horizons and around strategy corners, "showing, not telling" how Mondragon-inspired virtuous cycles transform "humanity at work" globally and locally. The book was conceived in the middle of four lethal virus pandemics simultaneously threatening "humanity@work" advancing extreme climate precarity, withering economic class inequalities including embedded racism, novel COVID-19 killing millions, and a global assault on democracy. Its twofold mission: first, to be a resource for those developing hybrid model worker cooperatives and social enterprises as structural and cultural antidotes to a rising, inclusive, and climate-respecting Stakeholders-as-Shareholders global economy; and second, to uplift and amplify critical new voices of those doing the work. The four concurrent global pandemics have shone a harsher light on inequalities in society and offer opportunities to develop hybrid worker ownership models that seed virtuous cycles. This book's core belief is that there is no sustaining worker voice without worker power communicated and demonstrated through solidarity, democracy, equality of opportunity and shared equity and wealth outcomes. Its premise is that an ineluctable foundational policy for a fair and aspirational economy working for all demands inclusive, broadened, and deepened, stakeholder worker ownership undergirded by workplace democracy practices. Like Mondragon, we believe single class equity governance is synonymous with solidarity. Every equity share guarantees the equal right to vote for change and provides the basis for power-paradigm-changing culture combining stakeholder community and individual civic mutualism, stability, and self-reliance to innovate, defend and facilitate more fulfilled lives and dignified retirements. The core academic purpose of HUMANITY@WORK&LIFE is to make the case as to why Mondragon is a dynamic working and evolving model for those who see the need for replicable structural change in our economic institutions and in the proverbial "free market" economy across physical borders and cultural silos. The Mondragon case will be detailed and include both an overview of ecosystem cooperatives and discussion of global diffusion activities that the Mondragon cooperatives embrace locally and globally as well as those from other geographies inspired by close to 70+ years of Mondragon cooperative experiences. The book will include sections that examine how cooperatives inspired by the Mondragon cooperative ecosystem in the Basque region of Spain are emerging in different communities in the USA, Canada, Germany, the Republic of Korea, and the UK. The last section of the book is intended to provide grounded inspiration about how to develop worker cooperatives and ecosystems that scale and breathe freely in a world beset by culturally induced pandemics doing their utmost to subvert democracy, freedom, truth, and hope.

Learning from the Field

Learning from the Field PDF Author: William Foote Whyte
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780803933187
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
"Other field researchers, who usually convey their craft only through one-on-one apprenticeships, should follow Whyte's lead and try to create their own vicarious apprenticeships through candid backstage accounts of their judgment calls in the field. . . . This book gives seasoned investigators an excuse to rethink what they take for granted and to see, step-by-step, how their practice compares with that of another seasoned person. Most people will welcome the chance to do this because of a final characteristic in this book, its even-handed tone." --Journal of Contemporary Ethnography "Useful for a better understanding of the character and promise of ethnographic research." --Journal of Communication "Goes beyond statements of principles to give a realistic picture of problems encountered by the field researcher." --Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique A highly regarded field researcher tells how he has plied his craft for the past 50 years. William Foote Whyte, in collaboration with his wife, Kathleen, describes the successes--and failures--he has had in studying street corner society in Boston, oil companies in Oklahoma and Venezuela, restaurants in Chicago, worker cooperatives in Spain, factories in New York State, and villages in Peru. With the goal of taking readers into the field with him, Whyte discusses and dissects his chief tools--participant observation and the semistructured interview. He also explains how to evaluate and analyze field data, why the use of local history in social research is valuable, and the ethics of fieldwork. Whyte focuses on four general problems that have plagued his career as a researcher: