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...

Six historical ethnographies stemming from fieldwork around the world offer a comparative perspective on the uneven consequences of and reactions to the anthropology of labor. The contributors' vivid accounts show in how dispossession was lived by local working classes illustrates the defeat and unmaking of particular working classes.