A POPULATION ECOLOGY PERSPECTIVE ON UNDEREMPLOYMENT IN ALTERNATIVE ORGANIZATIONS Available to Purchase

Labor market studies which focus on dichotomous categories such as employed and unemployed miss a variety of marginal employment situations. This article addre‐sses the recent proliferation of jobs created by democratically controlled alternative organizations. We argue, from a population ecology perspective, that the economic potential of small alternative organizations is limited. Although current environmental con‐ditions favor small specialist organizations, the salience of non‐material incentives prevents alternative organizations from fully exploiting emerging opportunities. Alternative employment is best considered an instance of underemployment with strong tendencies toward impoverishment and self‐exploitation.