Ethical-Modular Organisations

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= "A central characteristic of EMOs is that participants relinquish exclusive property rights over the resource they have created".

Discussion

By Molly de Blanc, Mathieu O’Neil, Mahin Raissi et al.:

"The benefits of ethical-modular organisations (EMOs) are socialized: there are no restrictions on who profits. A central characteristic of EMOs is that participants relinquish exclusive property rights over the resource they have created.

The literature on the relationship between EMOs and capitalist firms can be said to fit into four categories (O’Neil, 2015). A ‘panoptic’ view overlooks the abjuration of exclusive property rights, so that EMOs can be defined as a variant of the evolution of capitalist firms into post-bureaucratic networks (Clegg et al., 2006). ‘Skeptics’ view this abjuration as irrelevant, and EMOs as increasing worker exploitation (Kreiss et al., 2011). In contrast, ‘activists’ celebrate the abjuration of exclusive property rights, and present EMOs as key actors in a historical process leading to the disappearance of capitalism and hierarchy (Kostakis & Bauwens, 2014; Meretz, 2012; Merten & Richardson 2001; Rigi, 2013; Siefkes, 2009). Finally ‘reformists’ suggest that the co-optation of communal labour by firms will benefit business practices and society (Bonacorsi, Giannangeli, & Rossi, 2006; Dahlander & Magnusson, 2005; Demil, Lecoq, & Warnier, 2015).

Mathieu and Zack’s aim with this issue of the Journal of Peer Production on work and peer production was practical: they sought case studies documenting, concretely, how self-directed work coexists with waged labour. Mansell & Berdou (2010) suggest that workers being paid by firms to contribute to the commons does not affect the ‘cooperative spirit’ of projects. Is this always the case? Other questions include: does the autonomy of peer workers cause conflict in firms, and how is it resolved? What strategies do firms adopt to co-opt peer production? Do tensions around property rights emerge?" (http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-10-peer-production-and-work/preliminary-report-debian-survey/)