The Building Guilds of Interwar Europe: An Experiment in Economic Democracy

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In the aftermath of the First World War, European cities witnessed a massive expansion of producer cooperatives in the building sector. Drawing on ideas for industrial reform that were shared widely across borders, these producer cooperatives, or building guilds, aimed to not only improve urban housing, but also democratize the construction industries and society more broadly. Local cooperatives quickly merged into national associations that promoted distinct models of collective decision-making and shared ownership. By the early 1920s, pan-European federations had started to distribute information and organize exchange between construction cooperatives that stretched the entire continent. Despite their rapid growth and initial success, however, the construction cooperatives of interwar Europe have been virtually forgotten. ECODEM offers the first comprehensive historical analysis of this transnational movement. Focusing on England, Germany, and Spain, the action has the following four objectives. First, it will reveal the democratization measures that were implemented to improve participation on the shop floor, at the work site, and in management. Second, it will show what urban vision this trade union movement formulated, and how this vision compares with the urban vision of architect, planners, and municipal officials, which have received far more attention in scholarship. Third, ECODEM will investigate under what conditions employees accepted measures aiming at rationalization, even if those measures had negative consequences for labor. And fourth, it will analyze the factors that determined success and failure of construction cooperatives in distinct national settings. By studying a forgotten yet highly popular trade union movement, ECODEM not only advances scholarship in Labor and Urban History as well as the interdisciplinary scholarship on economic democracy, but it also contributes to debates in the wider public about the future of work and urban housing.