Spaces of Social Recomposition: Resisting Meaningful Work in Social Cooperatives in Italy.

Workers' experiences in Italian social cooperatives expose the tension between the goal of desirable change that these social economy organisations pursue and the demanding working conditions shouldered by staff. Born from the radical movements of the 1970s, social cooperatives deliver care and community services that seek to counter inequalities and marginalisation. This important work fuses employment with activism. Yet, cooperatives often rely on casualised labour practices that normalise overwork. A noble mission does not guarantee cooperatives will also be sustainable work environments. Based on extensive qualitative research conducted in Milan, this paper explores how, since 2013, a collective of social economy workers has been mobilising to challenge poor working conditions, query the ways workers participate in them, and connect labour demands with broader struggles against austerity and impoverishment. These organising efforts pursue social recomposition: a form of labour struggle that exceeds the workplace and embraces the sphere of social reproduction. Combining a workerist framework of class composition with feminist insights, this paper invites attention to the ways workers inhabit and struggle within, against and beyond their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]