Organizing Dark Matter: W.A.G.E. as Alternative Worker Organization

Since its founding in 2008, W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy) has worked to reform the economic habits of US art institutions and of the artists upon whose cultural work these institutions are dependent. Inside a decade, W.A.G.E. went from a small grassroots collective to an internationally recognized, yet lean, organization, which not only advocates for labour standards in the nonprofit art sector, but also develops practical tools to begin the work of doing better by equality in the art world. This chapter positions W.A.G.E. as an example of what Immanuel Ness terms “new forms of worker organization.” Informed by W.A.G.E.-authored texts, media coverage of W.A.G.E., and interviews with the group’s core organizer and programmer, the chapter surveys W.A.G.E.’s strategies for organizing “dark matter,” a concept that Gregory Sholette has repurposed from physics as a metaphor for the majority of artists and activities that populate the art world and uphold and subsidize its most visible and commercially successful figures. W.A.G.E. is explored in five registers: its practice of parrhesia, algorithm of fairness, strategy of certification, post-horizontalist form of organization, and platformization of labour politics. While W.A.G.E. has been tackling dilemmas specific to the nonprofit arts, its strategies hold wider relevance to confronting the challenge of organizing workers who are outside of an employment relationship, who lack access to unions, and for whom the opportunity to be self-expressive or the promise of exposure may be regarded as compensation enough

Commons and Cooperatives

In the last decade, the commons has become a prevalent theme in discussions about collective but decentralized control over resources. This paper is a preliminary exploration of the potential linkages between commons and cooperatives through a discussion of the worker cooperative as one example of a labour commons. We view the worker coop as a response at once antagonistic and accommodative to capitalism. This perspective is amplified through a consideration of five aspects of an ideal-type worker cooperativism: associated labour, workplace democracy, surplus distribution, cooperation among cooperatives, and, controversially, links between worker cooperatives and socialist states. We conclude by suggesting that the radical potential of worker cooperatives might be extended, theoretically and practically, by elaborating connections with other commons struggles in a process we term the circulation of the common

Organizing Dark Matter: W.A.G.E. as Alternative Worker Organization

Since its founding in 2008, W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy) has worked to reform the economic habits of US art institutions and of the artists upon whose cultural work these institutions are dependent. Inside a decade, W.A.G.E. went from a small grassroots collective to an internationally recognized, yet lean, organization, which not only advocates for labour standards in the nonprofit art sector, but also develops practical tools to begin the work of doing better by equality in the art world. This chapter positions W.A.G.E. as an example of what Immanuel Ness terms “new forms of worker organization.” Informed by W.A.G.E.-authored texts, media coverage of W.A.G.E., and interviews with the group’s core organizer and programmer, the chapter surveys W.A.G.E.’s strategies for organizing “dark matter,” a concept that Gregory Sholette has repurposed from physics as a metaphor for the majority of artists and activities that populate the art world and uphold and subsidize its most visible and commercially successful figures. W.A.G.E. is explored in five registers: its practice of parrhesia, algorithm of fairness, strategy of certification, post-horizontalist form of organization, and platformization of labour politics. While W.A.G.E. has been tackling dilemmas specific to the nonprofit arts, its strategies hold wider relevance to confronting the challenge of organizing workers who are outside of an employment relationship, who lack access to unions, and for whom the opportunity to be self-expressive or the promise of exposure may be regarded as compensation enough

Co-operatives, Work, and the Digital Economy: A Knowledge Synthesis Report

This report surveys recent literature on co-operative approaches to improving work and livelihoods in the digital economy, specifically in the gig economy, the tech sector, and digital creative industries. It introduces concepts that update co-operative theory and practice for the digital age, including platform cooperativism, open cooperativism, distributed co-operative organizations, and Exit to Community. It outlines how the co-operative model has been adopted by and for self-employed workers, platform workers, technologists and communication professionals, and data subjects. While the report presents evidence of co-ops’ potential to improve working conditions and mitigate power asymmetries in the digital economy, it also addresses challenges co-ops face. It explores perspectives on the infrastructure necessary to overcome these challenges and expand worker co-ops’ presence in the digital economy, including the formation of co-operative federations for sharing technology across co-ops. Despite the promise of co-ops in the digital economy, the literature cautions against viewing them as a panacea. Stressing that individual co-ops are not, on their own, a sufficient response to problems of work and inequality, several authors position co-ops as one among a diversity of worker-centered organizations and strategies necessary to improve work and livelihoods in the digital economy. The report concludes with suggestions for future research and policy recommendations

Plasma atomic layer deposition

Plasma atomic layer deposition (ALD) is optimized through modulation of the gas residence time during an excited species phase, wherein activated reactant is supplied such as from a plasma. Reduced residence time increases the quality of the deposited layer, such as reducing wet etch rates, increasing index of refraction and/or reducing impurities in the layer. For example, dielectric layers, particularly silicon nitride films, formed from such optimized plasma ALD processes have low levels of impurities remaining from the silicon precursor

Small-bowel Diverticulosis:Imaging Findings and Review of Three Cases

Complicated small-bowel diverticulosis is a rather uncommon cause of upper abdominal pain. It may lead to symptoms presenting with an acute onset or to chronic and nonspecific complaints. As the presentation is often similar to other pathologies (acute appendicitis, pancreatitis, or acute cholecystis) and in many cases diagnosis is made on basis of surgical findings, careful analysis of the imaging landmarks may be warranted to aid in the early stages of detection. In this report, we present clinical and morphological findings in three patients where small-bowel diverticulitis was surgically proven. The relevant literature is reviewed, and typical imaging properties are discussed

Whistleblowing in Science: in the Lion's Den

With the growing emphasis on scientific integrity as a way to curb research misconduct, the “moral obligation to act” when a researcher observes a breach of integrity is becoming stronger. However, it takes a lot of courage to blow the whistle as it can have an enormous impact on the whistleblower’s career and personal well-being – and that of colleagues and researchers associated with the perpetrator. Therefore, it is important to be cognizant of the stressful process that accompanies the act of whistleblowing, to provide clear and accessible procedures to report misconduct, and to support whistleblowers throughout the process. Furthermore, it is essential that appropriate whistleblower protection measures are in place and enforced. Based on our review, we argue that an obligation to report scientific misconduct would currently do more harm than good