Workforce participation : learning from the co-operative sector

This paper builds on a theoretical framework developed by Ridley-Duff and Ponton (2013) to advance research on workforce participation in the social economy. We extend their framework, then test its efficacy through a discussion of governance at the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation (MCC) and John Lewis Partnership (JLP). Our thinking is influenced by Arnstein (1969), Pateman (1970), Hyman and Mason (1995), Harley, Hyman and Thompson (2005) and Gaventa (2006). Using Gaventa’s work on ‘spaces’, we offer a new composite framework to generate insights into the social practices at MCC (in Spain) and JLP (in the UK). We conclude by theorising that the ‘visible’ power of an enabling constitution combined with the ‘invisible’ power of social economy’s normative values and principles can reshape managerial identities. It does this by reinforcing the rights of worker-members to continually (re)claim the spaces in which workplace democracy occurs, and to use it to reverse the hiring relationship between capital and labour.