Urban place-making centred on equity and social justice
PATHWAYS TO NEW WORKER COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT: EXPLORING MISSING LINKS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN TORONTO'S ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
May, 2020
Worker cooperatives have long demonstrated capacity to improve economic democracy and address social inequality. Many cities are building worker cooperative ecosystems, but what does this look like in Toronto? Through a tri-pathway framework, I assess the accessibility of worker cooperative-related information in Toronto's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Findings suggest that 1) Toronto's worker cooperative ecosystem struggles to assemble necessary components of an independent ecosystem to support cooperative growth; and 2) worker cooperative-related information is systematically excluded by the mainstream entrepreneurial ecosystem. I also propose policy recommendations to improve cooperative development opportunities.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The ‘worker co-operative’ (co-op) is a business structure that is collectively owned, democratically governed, and managerially controlled by their employee-members. Despite empirical evidence of their social, economic, and political benefits, worker co-ops remain scarce in practice. In response, worker co-op advocates have urged municipalities to mobilize policy and funding to foster more favourable worker co-op entrepreneurship ecosystems (EE).
Through document and policy discourse analysis, quantitative data evaluation, and interviews, this project assesses the conditions of Toronto’s worker co-op EE by searching for the presence of 1) worker co-ops in policies related to economic, workforce, and social development; and 2) pathways through which prospective entrepreneurs can access knowledge and resources about worker co-ops in via mainstream business supporters. To achieve the second objective, this study devises a Worker Co-op Entrepreneurship Pathway framework and tests the presence of three types of pathways: 1) direct, 2) embedded/inclusive; and 3) indirect/referral.
Findings suggest that not only is Toronto’s worker co-op EE relatively small and unknown among entrepreneurs, it is also systematically disintegrated from the mainstream EE. This condition is the result of policy framings of socioeconomic issues that are inconducive to worker co-op development, a perceived lack of demand from entrepreneurs for worker co-op-related knowledge, and a spatial mismatch between worker co-op political advocacy and service provision. Ultimately, I argue that there must be a collaborative effort between the City, mainstream EE actors, and worker co-op EE actors to improve local worker co-op knowledge, modify policy, and build capacity to assist worker co-op entrepreneurs.
The following 9 strategies have been devised for municipal, institutional, and worker co-op EE actors to improve each worker co-op EE pathway:
For municipal Actors
Direct Pathway: Produce a Worker Co-op Strategy Report.
Embedded Pathway: Establish a Worker Co-op Specialization Team within the City.
Direct Pathway: Establish a worker co-op incubator.
For Institutional and market actors
Indirect pathway: Engage more local worker co-op actors in the Anchor TO initiative.
Indirect Pathway: Develop worker co-op preferences into private sector partnerships Embedded Pathway: Support knowledge and services for worker co-ops either within or as an adjunct to the City’s small business services.
For worker co-op EE actors
Direct Pathway: Establish an inventory of existing and emerging worker co-ops ventures.
Indirect Pathway: Activate dormant links with Toronto’s social enterprise actors.
Embedded Pathway: Spearhead worker co-op-related research in Toronto and disseminate knowledge.
Finally, As Robert Dahl famously states, “if democracy is justified in governing the state, then it must also be justified in governing economic enterprises”. Policy support for the worker co-op movement must be rooted in a political commitment to foster community ownership and autonomy, as well as to extend democratic rights to economic aspects of social life.