Toward an Alternative Culture of Work Political Idealism and Economic Practices in West Berlin Collective Enterprises

In recent years, especially in the wake of the upheavals of 1989, there has been a growing perception that the "socialist experiment" has failed and that the free market has finally been vindicated as the only successful, realistic model for economic activity. What has become of the idealists, the utopians, the dreamers of a more humane mode of production within this freshly-affirmed, dominant system of pragmatic capitalism?;Using case studies of relatively successful co-operative enterprises in West Berlin, this book explores the confrontation of a collectivist, ideologically motivated philosophy with the constraints of survival in the heart of the competitive, capitalist market. Through detailed ethnographic analysis of these non-traditional manufacturing, design and service operations, the book not only discusses the rationale and viability of the collectivist model of production, but also charts the social and psychological factors affecting the participants.