PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing today announced the inaugural winners of the Joyce Rothschild Book Prize and the William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte Book Prize, a pair of new awards recognizing significant contributions to the advancement of economic democracy.
“The labor shortage and runaway wealth inequality are two of the biggest economic problems facing post-pandemic America,” said Distinguished Professor Douglas Kruse, Acting Director of the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing. “These award-winning books point to a solution by highlighting the unique structures, values, and vast potential of worker-owned enterprises.”
Organizational Imaginaries: Tempering Capitalism and Tending to Communities through Cooperatives and Collectivist Democracy, a volume of Research in the Sociology of Organizations, received the inaugural Joyce Rothschild Book Prize. Edited by Katherine K. Chen (City College of New York) and Victor Tan Chen (Virginia Commonwealth University) with contributions from 15 authors, this volume explores how worker cooperatives and other collectivist-democratic organizations function, including their management structure and unique emphasis on social values over profits.
Shared Entrepreneurship: A Path to Engaged Employee Ownership received the inaugural William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte Book Prize. Edited by Frank Shipper (Salisbury University) with contributions from 12 authors, the book presents case studies of successful companies that advance the principles of shared ownership, shared leadership, and collaboration, in contrast to hierarchical models of business organization.
A panel of distinguished judges reviewed all nominated works, and each judge submitted an independent recommendation. The winning titles appear in the Institute’s online Curriculum Library for Employee Ownership (CLEO) and they were recognized today at the Institute’s annual Beyster Symposium in La Jolla, California.
The prizes are named for Joyce Rothschild, Professor Emerita at Virginia Tech, a leading sociologist in the field of organizational democracy, and the late William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte, who co-authored a seminal book about MONDRAGON, a Spanish conglomerate composed of worker cooperatives.
The complete list of winners and honorable mentions follows.
Joyce Rothschild Book Prize
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Winner |
Organizational Imaginaries: Tempering Capitalism and Tending to Communities through Cooperatives and Collectivist Democracy |
Edited by Katherine K. Chen & Victor Tan Chen |
Honorable Mention |
The Labor-Managed Firm: Theoretical Foundations
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Gregory K. Dow
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Honorable Mention |
Neo-Abolitionism: Abolishing Human Rentals in Favor of Workplace Democracy
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David Ellerman |
Honorable Mention |
Workers’ Self-Management in Argentina: Contesting Neo-Liberalism by Occupying Companies, Creating Cooperatives, and Recuperating Autogestión |
Marcelo Vieta |
William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte Book Prize
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Winner |
Shared Entrepreneurship: A Path to Engaged Employee Ownership |
Edited by Frank Shipper |
Honorable Mention |
Firms as Political Entities: Saving Democracy through Economic Bicameralism
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Isabelle Ferreras |
Honorable Mention |
The Making of a Democratic Economy: How to Build Prosperity for the Many, Not the Few
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Marjorie Kelly & Ted Howard |
Note: Future prizes will be awarded in alternating years.
About the School
The Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) is the world’s leading source of expertise on managing and representing workers, designing effective organizations, and building strong employment relationships.
SMLR’s Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing conducts empirical research on share plans, sponsors the leading global fellowship program and academic conferences in the field, and does policy analysis.
The Institute manages a technical assistance center (The NJ/NY Center for Employee Ownership) and a program to help college professors teach about these subjects (Curriculum Library for Employee Ownership).
