The New Industrial Commons: Worker‐Owners and Factory Space

• Published in: Architectural design Vol. 91; no. 5; pp. 48 - 55
• Main Author: Rappaport, Nina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.09.2021; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Antonio Gramsci; Antonio Negri; Architecture; Argentina; Article 45; Basque region; Biennio Rosso; Braskem America petrochemical factory; Brendan Martin; Brooklyn Navy Yard; Brooklyn Stone & Tile; Brukman; Buenos Aires; Building 12; Cooperativa Ceramica; Cooperative Congress; Covid‐19 crisis; Economies of scale; Emilia‐Romagna region; Empowerment; Factories; factory commoning; FaSinPat (‘Factories without Bosses’); Fiat Mirafiori factory; Flint, Michigan; Fourier Familistère; France; General Motors; Guise; Humanity at Work; IceStone; Imola; Industrial cooperatives; Industry; Italian constitution; Italy; Jean‐Baptiste Godin; Linda Díaz; Mario Tronti; Mondragon Cooperative Corporation; Mussolini; Neuquen province; New York; operaismo (workerism); Ownership; Pennsylvania; Società Anonima Cooperativa Meccanici Imola (SACMI); Spain; The Working World; Turin; Workers; Zanon Ceramics; ‘18 de Diciembre’ cooperative; ‘sit‐down’ strike
• ISSN: 0003-8504; 1554-2769
• DOI: 10.1002/ad.2731

Strikes are no longer the only way for workers to put their case. Writer, curator, consultant and educator Nina Rappaport charts the continuing rise of worker empowerment, whether through ‘expropriation’, workers’ collectives or similar employee‐owned businesses, giving varied examples of where such approaches have occurred around the world. The catalyst for these moves has often been where the prevailing capitalist model has left spaces vacant and derelict, due to its relentless search for efficiency and economies of scale.