In and against the neoliberal state? The precarious siting of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) as counter-movement in Montreal,Quebec

Introduction

Heralded as a mechanism for social and economic inclusion for marginalized populations, the ‘work integration social enterprise’ (WISE) has become a prominent labour market intermediary in Europe and Québec since the mid-1990s. The WISE provides the opportunity for transitional employment, where participants acquire training through work experience, as well as receiving other forms of instruction (e.g. language courses, life skills, and labour rights workshops). In Québec, WISEs are called ‘entreprises d’insertion’. They have their origins in community or religious associations, and their emergence coincides with the decline of the welfare state and social protections aimed at countering the negative effects of the market (e.g. under- or unemployment and wage depression), to which commodified labour could be subject. As well, an institutional structure was developed to ensure that WISEs in Québec maintain links to neighbourhood community associations and to one another through a federated structure called Le Collectif des entreprises d’insertion du Québec. Over time, however, they have become reliant on government funding to realize their hybrid mandates, and with provincial governments adopting more neoliberal orientations to service provision, such as cuts in social supports and the use of market-based funding criteria, their social mandates grow increasingly threatened. Therefore, a key question that motivates this study is how these changes are affecting the potential of WISEs to serve as a counter-movement to the marketization of labour? What strategies are they employing in a shifting policy regime, and to what effect?

To engage with these questions, our paper examines a case study of one WISE in Montreal – Petites-Mains. Petites-Mains works with immigrant women, training them in industrial sewing, catering and office work. We look at the objectives of this organization, exploring the constraints they face and the strategies they employ in attempting to counter the trend toward precarious work. We explore whether this organization holds the potential to move beyond simply matching workers with jobs, to restructure labour markets and improve the quality of jobs overall. A key aim is to examine the contradictions that inform this WISE’s efforts to balance the social objectives of providing supportive spaces for training with the economic objectives of running a viable business. ¹

The analysis in this paper is based on twenty-four semi-structured interviews conducted with individuals employed by Petites-Mains, including founding members, directors, trainers and other staff, as well as participants. Interviews were also conducted with representatives from Le Collectif des entreprises d’insertion du Québec, as well as local government officials and businesses and organizations procuring services from Petites-Mains. Interviews were completed between 2016 and 2019, conducted in English and French, and ranged between one and two hours in length. All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and coded according to theme. These discussions provided information on the history of Petites-Mains, lending insight into participants’ objectives in designing and delivering programs, as well as their interpretations of the broader context in which WISEs operate. Interviews enabled a wide-ranging dialogue between the researcher and the participant, allowing the participant to introduce issues not considered by the researcher and to revisit an issue multiple times to fully examine all of its complexities (Valentine, 2005: 111).

Quotations used in this paper reflect the prevalence of particular themes in the interviews. These quotations allow interviewees to describe their work in their own words (Baxter and Eyles, 1997: 4). Given that respondents make decisions on the basis of these knowledges and understandings, it is important to analyze their ways of describing their experiences (Schoenberger, 1991; Smith, 2001). Interviews shed light on the range of strategies that WISEs employ to grapple with structural problems beyond their control, including broader economic restructuring, the rise of precarious work and a shift to neoliberal modes of governance (Martin, 2012: 410). Staff working at Petites-Mains are aware of the imperfect and partial nature of their efforts and interviews are an important means of capturing their stories and of evading “a simplistic telling of success and failure” (Martin, 2012: 410).

The research also incorporates data derived from a number of site visits, where the researchers were able to observe the range of projects that participants were working on and the skill sets that they were developing, as well as patterns of interaction between participants and trainers. In addition, the research encompasses a textual analysis of a number of documents associated with the organization, including training manuals, website materials and annual reports. Annual reports and website information for the Collectif were also analyzed, along with news articles related to WISEs, the social economy, the Collectif, and Petites-Mains. Online postings related to Petites-Mains and its programs were also reviewed. Participant observation and document analysis enabled a cross-checking of facts, facilitating a triangulation of data (Baxter and Eyles, 1997).

In the sections that follow, we review the literature on recent changes in the labour market, and how institutions such as WISEs are emerging to fill an intermediary role. We examine how the positioning of the WISE at the intersection of the state, market and civil society presents both challenges and possibilities in serving as an agent of change. Then, we provide a preliminary examination of Petites-Mains and its programs, exploring its shift from community organization to shadow state to shadow market organization, and some of the challenges associated with this transition. Finally, we analyze different geographic strategies used to negotiate neoliberalization.

Situating labour market intermediaries in the contemporary neoliberal era

The last several decades have been associated with tremendous instability in labour markets, due in part to the demise of Fordist models based on standardized mass production and vertically integrated firms. In the mid-twentieth century, white and blue-collar workers typically worked full time within corporations, and a majority of employees stayed with one employer for most of their working lives (Zizys, 2011). Employers attempted to win the loyalty of employees by investing in training and skill development. Not all workers enjoyed job security and benefits. On the periphery of the labour market, women and racialized populations, including new immigrants, were trapped in a secondary segment characterized by unskilled and intermittent work. However, they constituted a minority of paid workers.

With the demise of Fordism, there has been a restructuring of labour markets. An increasing number of workers are employed in precarious work, defined as work which is insecure, casualized or irregular (Kalleberg, 2009; Martin, 2012; Ross, 2008; Vosko, 2000). In this more flexible labour market, firms are less likely to invest in training (except with a small core of workers) and there are fewer opportunities for advancement within the organization (Zizys, 2011: 12). This reorganization has been accompanied by a decline in the role of unions, reducing the ability of workers to bargain for better wages and working conditions. These shifts have given rise to a ‘bipolar’ labour market, characterized by highly skilled jobs at the top of the market and a growing number of low skill jobs at the bottom (Benner and Pastor, 2016; Martin, 2011: 2939; Zizys, 2011). So-called “middle jobs” – jobs that do not require a diploma or degree but do involve some skill – are disappearing (Martin, 2011; Schrock, 2014; Zizys, 2011). This in turn prompts a skills mismatch, as employees increasingly have difficulty finding jobs corresponding to their qualifications. Many end up working far below their skill level, a process referred to as deskilling or brain abuse (Bauder, 2003). At the same time, employers struggle to find workers with appropriate skills. As one example, garment manufacturers in North America now confront an acute skill shortage, particularly in skilled sewers, cutters and pattern makers, which diminishes the ability of smaller-scale, design-oriented manufacturers to compete (Rantisi, 2013).

Not only are labour markets radically altered, but the mechanisms for adjusting to change have undergone transformation. Postwar institutions associated with the welfare state have been subject to attack, making it harder to cope with labour market disruptions (Martin, 2011). Neoliberal modes of governance have achieved ascendance and the focus is on deficiencies in the individual, rather than weaknesses in the labour market (Zizys, 2011: 39). Individuals are expected to take responsibility for ensuring their own employability (Peck, 1996; Rose, 1999).

Methods of promoting a return to the labour market have also undergone revision. In workfare models, social assistance is tied to participation in programs ensuring a rapid re-entry to the labour force (Peck, 1996, 2001; Theodore and Peck, 1999, 2000). The emphasis is on getting the individual into any job. Training is rarely emphasized in these programs, and when it is, it tends to be limited to language, literacy, and high school equivalency courses (Zizys, 2011). In the majority of programs, there is little in the way of skill development (Peck, 1996), although some offer a more hybrid approach emphasizing training in the public, private or social economies (Theodore and Peck, 1999).

In the current period, the volatile and complex nature of labour markets, combined with attempts to institute ‘freer’ markets, heighten the need for institutions to intervene in labour markets. In order to fill the gaps left by cutbacks to state programs, a range of labour market intermediaries (LMIs) now play a more important role (Benner et al., 2007; Martin, 2011). ² These intermediaries broker the relationship between employees and employers, and include private sector intermediaries (such as temporary help agencies), membership-based intermediaries (including unions, guilds and professional associations), and a range of publicly-funded agencies, non-profits and community organizations, including WISEs (Benner et al., 2007; Visser et al., 2017). Both employers and employees rely on these intermediaries, which affect the speed and character of labour market adjustments (Benner, 2003: 622). In some cases, they can reduce transaction costs between economic actors and can help build social networks, assisting workers in managing risk and fulfilling social reproduction (Benner, 2003: 622; Martin, 2014). In other cases, however, intermediaries can profit off of workers’ vulnerability by filling the needs of firms that are in search of low-paid, ‘flexible’ sources of labour (Choudry and Henaway, 2012; Peck and Theodore, 2001).

In the contemporary period, WISEs have emerged as a growing form of labour market intermediation. As social enterprises, their social mission is to provide training through productive activity to marginalized populations (e.g. immigrant women, youth, Indigenous populations, the disabled, the homeless) (Nyssens, 2006). Beyond the training that is offered through a paid work experience, WISEs provide a range of supports to facilitate the integration of participants into the economy and society at large, such as language instruction, individual counseling, education on labour and civil rights and housing (Alberio and Tremblay, 2014; Cooney, 2011; Dolbel, 2009). As such, the WISE training program is comprehensive, when compared with most of the workfare programs that emerged in the 1990s. This is tied to their embeddedness in local communities (Amin et al., 1999; Nyssens, 2006; Theodore and Peck, 1999), with the origins of WISEs dating back to citizen initiatives in Europe and Québec in the 1980s, many of which were designed to combat rising unemployment (DeFourny and Nyssens, 2008; Dolbel, 2009). Most WISEs are non-profit ventures that are subsidized by the government; however, since the cost of providing social services and operating a training business generally exceeds the income generated from the business (Dolbel, 2009), many are enlarging the business aspect of their operations.

In regards to current labour market challenges, Benner and Pastor (2016) highlight three potential roles that intermediaries can play - meeting, molding and making markets. Meeting refers to helping employees find jobs, removing barriers to employment (such as transportation access or discrimination) or developing human capital (Benner and Pastor, 2016: 2). Molding refers to altering employment practices, such as efforts to achieve family leaves for workers or increase the minimum wage (Benner and Pastor, 2016: 2). Making denotes more radical changes to the labour market itself, including improvements to the quantity and quality of jobs or creating links with more disadvantaged workers (Benner and Pastor, 2016: 2). As Benner and Pastor (2016: 4) argue, it is not enough to simply meet the market: “it is no longer a question of trying to connect ill-fitted workers to an economy that is working … rather the performance of the economy itself is the issue”. Intermediaries thus play a complex and often contradictory role, presenting a need to examine these tensions and the potential they have for playing a more transformative role, molding and making markets (Benner and Pastor, 2016).

Non-profit intermediaries: Civil society agents of change?

Non-profit intermediaries, such as WISEs, are particularly important as ‘shadow state’ labour market institutions owing to their ties to marginalized communities and workers (Benner, 2003). These intermediaries hold the potential to offer a form of localized ‘social regulation’ (Visser et al., 2017). Yet, when operating independently or on a local scale, their ability to tackle structural change is limited (Visser et al., 2017). And as Martin (2011) points out, despite their activist origins, many non-profit intermediaries end up simply becoming service providers that compensate for the inadequacies of the market (see also Fontan et al., 2009), enabling neoliberalization to proceed amidst constant crises and thereby assuming the role of ‘shadow market’ (Martin, 2011: 2938, see also Mayer, 2007; Pierre, 2009) in addition to that of ‘shadow state’. ³ This tension raises an important question about the prospects for civil society organizations to act in the interests of marginalized segments of society rather than the market or neoliberalizing state - a source of contention between a Polanyian and a Gramscian perspective.

In reflecting on the harmful effects of capitalism, Polanyi (1944) highlights the potential of civil society actors to serve as agents of change by championing policies that could counter the negative impacts of capitalist marketization. For Polanyi, efforts to construct a market society, where exchange serves as the primary organizing principle, necessarily entail that all productive elements are subject to a price mechanism and the logic of supply and demand. Yet contradictions emerge when elements such as labour and land, which were never created to be sold, are treated as atomized units that can be severed from their social and biological features and apportioned according to fluations of a market. In what he famously coined the ‘double-movement’, Polanyi (1944: 79) posited that the movement to construct a market society spurs the emergence of a counter-movement by prompting the state to institute regulations (e.g. minimum wage or labour rights) that could push back against the commodification. While the state is positioned as arbitrer of market-regulating institutions, for Polanyi, such social protections emerge owing to demands on the part of civil society actors (or what Buroway, 2003: 198 has termed ‘active society’), such as social movements, trade unions, and cooperatives (see also Block and Evans, 2005). ⁴ Here, Polanyi (1944) foregrounds the often contradictory relations that characterize the state-market-civil society interface. As Block and Evans (2005) suggest, the role of civil society actors in shaping market-state configurations can be said to contribute to the dynamic and contingent, rather than fixed, nature of the marketization process.

While a Polanyian perspective foregrounds a potentially transformative role for civil society organizations, Buroway (2003), adopting a Gramscian lens, suggests that a Polanyian perspective under-emphasizes the ability of the state to co-opt such organizations in the interests of buffering, rather than directly confronting, the dominant political-economic orientation. Buroway (2003) highlights the power of hegemony and majority consent (including that of civil society actors) to this orientation. He contends that a genuine counter-movement (one that can ‘make’ markets) requires that civil society agents maintain a certain autonomy from the state, scale their efforts and construct alternative visions. In their analysis of the Canadian context, Jenson and Phillips (1996), affirm this view, arguing that civil society organizations have become ‘interest groups’ over time, relinquishing a socio-political advocacy role and confrontational stance, as they are folded into an extended state governance apparatus via funding and involvement in government roundtables. The authors contend that such organizations are conduits for channeling the state’s (neoliberal) interests to citizens, rather than making claims to the state on citizens’ behalf, with a focus on advancing individualized citizen identity and responsibility. In line with Buroway’s contentions about hegemony, they assert that representatives of these organizations consent to such an orientation, foreclosing possibilities for contestation.

Within Quebec, WISEs provide a particularly instructive case in which to evaluate the potential for state-supported civil society intermediaries to move beyond a ‘mitigating’ role. On the one hand, the institutionalization of WISEs risks straining their ability to balance social and economic objectives and to combat the marketization of labour. WISEs are becoming more accountable to government, and state funding is increasingly tied to meeting short-term program deliverables (Dolbel, 2009; Fontan et al., 2009; Nyssens, 2006). Moreover, the business aspect of their operations places them in competition with other businesses in the same field – businesses that may not face the same turnover or limited skill base (Alberio and Tremblay, 2014; Cooney, 2011). As the ‘enterprise’ component of the WISE expands, there is greater risk that the social component – essential for effective integration – is compromised and that WISEs may prioritize ‘work ready’ participants (who are also favoured by government) over those who are most disadvantaged (Cooney, 2011). On the other hand, WISEs benefit from a set of supports that are not readily accessible to most non-profits. The same social movements in Quebec that fought for concrete initiatives against poverty also fought for the creation of an institutional scaffold to support the social economy, which includes a range of consulting, networking and financial services (Mendell, 2009). The creation of Le Collectif des entreprises d’insertion du Québec (or ‘Le Collectif’) – an umbrella organization that brings together different WISEs across the province – was a consequence of this mobilization (Dolbel, 2009; Mottet, 2003). At the collective scale, Le Collectif supports advocacy, networking and policy development in ways that an individual WISE cannot and this can aid in pushing back against neoliberalization (Nyssens, 2006). As well, WISEs are mandated to retain links to local community organizations to ensure ongoing exchange of information, resources and community accountability. Thus, operating at the interstices of state-market-society relations, WISEs embody contradictory tensions, or what can be referred to as a ‘double movement from within’, tensions that hold the potential for widening the space for action and troubling a linear or hegemonic conception of state-civil society relations.

In the next sections, we explore these challenges through an examination of one WISE dedicated to training and skill development among immigrant women. We provide an overview of the main supports that Petites-Mains provides and the key organizations with which it partners. We then trace the evolution of this WISE from a ‘community’ to ‘shadow state’/’shadow market’ organization, considering the ways in which the contradictory mandates of its hybrid positionality - and the actions to which it gives rise - produce tensions. We acknowledge the limits of this WISE in contesting the broader neoliberal regime, but also draw attention to ways it seeks to maneuvre within these constraints. We foreground how it strives to transcend a workfare-ascendant regime to provide social supports above and beyond ‘training’, and how the scaling up and out of its partnerships aids in establishing an institutional architecture, through which it can secure its hybrid mandate and indirectly support socio-political challenges to the regime.

Integrating immigrant women into the labour market: The case of Petites-Mains

Immigrant women in Canada, especially racialized immigrant women, have long been over-represented in low paid and low-skilled employment (Premji et al., 2014). Situated within the periphery of the labour market, the jobs that immigrant women find are often highly precarious, lacking benefits and employment protections, and characterized by high levels of employment insecurity and instability (Hira-Friesen, 2018; Man, 2004). Immigrant women experience multiple barriers in the labour market, including language barriers, a lack of recognition of foreign credentials and gendered and racial discrimination (Hira-Friesen, 2018; Man, 2004; Premji et al., 2014). Limited social networks and a lack of information about employment services are key challenges (Premji et al., 2014: 130).

In addition to labour market barriers, there are often a variety of social barriers, such as social isolation or the lack of a supportive partner (Martin, 2014; Premji et al., 2014: 130). Immigrant women often have greater household and caring responsibilities and the lack of childcare presents a problem (Man, 2004: 141; Premji et al., 2014: 131). These barriers prevent immigrant women from accessing employment that is commensurate with their skills and aspirations (Premji et al., 2014: 136). The shift to neoliberal forms of governance, associated with cutbacks to the welfare state and the increasing commodification of public services, structures and exacerbates the challenges faced by immigrant women (Man, 2004).

Despite these challenges, immigrant women are not simply passive victims (Man, 2004: 145). Working through a variety of organizations, they fight to improve their position in the labour market. One such organization is Petites-Mains. Petites-Mains is a WISE that focuses on immigrant women, including single mothers, women on social assistance or those without an income. The organization has three main objectives. The first goal is to provide professional training in three areas: industrial sewing, office reception and kitchen work (including kitchen assistant and server). The second goal is to empower women to escape social isolation, domestic abuse and discrimination through the development of social networks (Interview, Petites-Mains). ⁵ The third aim is to assist women to end their dependence on government support, including welfare (https://www.petitesmains.com/about-us).

The focus of the organization is on labour force training in industrial sewing. This emphasis was initially designed in the mid-1990s to meet the needs of the local labour market, along the lines described by Benner and Pastor (2016). The organization worked in consultation with manufacturers in the city:

it was with big sewing companies in Montreal …  We consulted with them, sent letters, made calls … Everyone said without exception that they need trained operators who can use industrial machines. That is how we started to prepare our training program, in partnership with the manufacturers … We were training to meet their needs …  If they wanted to work in partnership, we could train employees for you. We can be your school, but we need your support. We don’t want money, but we want you to hire our participants (Interview, Petites-Mains representative).

One distinct aspect of their sewing program that contrasts with ‘workfare’ approaches is that women receive six months of paid training (Interviews). The program length and content has evolved over time:

We didn't think about it flippantly. We wanted it to be adapted to a person's capacities and respond to the needs of manufacturers. That's why there were many changes along the way. It was full-time, or 5 hour days. It was three months, four months, (then) six months. If you look at our annual reports, there were changes. But since 2002, it became 26 weeks paid. We structured it that way, because with our experience, we came to that conclusion. And we worked with manufacturers the whole time. If we needed to change anything in the training manual, we would do it. Our training manual is open … because with new technology, market shifts, machines are changing (Interview, Petites-Mains official).

In total, the organization has 22 different types of sewing machines, including overlock, double-stitch, cover stitch and blind stitch machines. While in the program, women are trained on a minimum of four different types of machines (Interviews; on-site observation). Some manufacturers lend machines to the organization in order to better prepare women to work in their factories, while others donate a variety of fabrics for the women to train on (Interviews).

In order to facilitate their educational mandate, Petites-Mains has to ensure that the organization has a wide variety of projects to work on at any given time, requiring a range of skill levels (Interviews). It can be challenging to plan work flow to accommodate the educational levels of participants. Women enter the program with a variety of backgrounds. Some were seamstresses in their home country, while others have no experience with sewing (Interviews). This means they advance at different speeds and can make it difficult to plan what types of contracts to take on.

As noted, the main focus is on training skilled machine operators and the organization has a long list of women waiting to participate in its programs, as well as a high placement rate of over 80% (Interviews; 2018–2019 Rapport Annuel). However, if a participant is interested, they can also gain hands-on experience with cutting and pattern making (Interviews). While this training is not substantial in nature, the organization will frequently refer participants to further training if they are interested: “there is a school that offers pattern making training. It is a fourteen- month program at Ecole des Metiers du Faubourg. That is really intensive” (Interview, Petites-Mains employee).

While sewing represents the main area of training, women can also train as food servers or in kitchen or office help. Women who do not pass the dexterity test for sewing, for example, can be referred to the other programs. When Petites-Mains moved into their current facility, there was already a restaurant on site and so the organization decided to make use of the equipment and offer a six month paid training course in food service and kitchen work (Interview). The organization also expanded into office receptionist training, noting, “it was a program there was some demand for” (Interview).

In addition to its training programs (i.e. ‘hard skills’), the organization also offers pre-employability programs, which include ‘soft skills’, such as time-management, teamwork, and communication. As one of the trainers notes, it is particularly important to develop work-related routines, such as being punctual: “we have to teach them  …  that it is very important that you are on time  …  If I am an employer and if one of my employees comes late, I am sorry. Punch your card and go home. I don’t need you” (Interview). Another skill this trainer seeks to develop is independence, emphasizing the importance of not being reliant on a male partner (Interview). The organization also provides job search support and placement services, and French language training (Interviews; https://www.petitesmains.com/about-us).

A core mission of the organization is accompaniment – a form of long-term social support that addresses the diverse, often structural, challenges that an individual confronts. This mission means that, beyond the conventional hard or soft skills, the organization also seeks to provide broader forms of social support, such as workshops on labour rights, tenants rights, family services and child welfare. The organization aims to develop a ‘safe space’, where women can explore the social forces affecting them. As an employee at Petites-Mains notes, “since the start we knew that these immigrants did not know their rights … If you see us now like this, it's because we paid great attention to the person, not just funding or training  …  “(Interview). This view is corroborated by a participant in the program who emphasizes the helpfulness of social workers and the importance of the wrap-around supports that she received, arguing that the program gave her confidence and made her feel like “they were all in this together” (Interview, participant). For this participant, it also helps that the organization is run by employees who are immigrants themselves (mostly women), who understand the barriers they face (Interview, participant). From our informal observations in such spaces, it is clear that the women who participate in these programs help each other, providing advice on life and work, a form of support that is mirrored in all kinds of informal ways by trainers.

Thus, the organization meets the market, but it does so in such a way as to empower the individual to ensure that they are not made vulnerable to extreme exploitation. Petites-Mains provides the time, space and resources for individuals to address work and family issues, developing their own solutions; this client-centered approach departs from the heavy surveillance typical of workfare regimes (cf. Theodore and Peck, 1999). Many of these supports stretch beyond the workplace, helping immigrant women facilitate the work of social reproduction (Martin, 2012: 390). These myriad forms of support constitute a form of “hidden labour”, that is often not recognized in official statistics or annual reports or visible to employers or government funding bodies (Martin, 2014). And as Martin (2014: 19) so powerfully describes, this gap makes it difficult to advance a straightforward reading of these organizations as either flanking or contesting state/market forces.

As noted, Petites-Mains offers long term assistance; there is a follow-up process when participants leave the program (Interview, participant). For example, after they leave the organization, participants may find that they lack training in a particular skill. Women can come back to learn how to use different machines or develop new skills (Interview). As a trainer at the organization argues,

I have one [woman]. It is four years [that] she has been working for this company. She is making diapers. She called me last week. ‘I have this problem. Can you help me? I don’t know how to do this’. Of course, there are challenges. By phone I told her ‘I am going to explain  …  but I am not there and your supervisor should help you more’ (Interview).

To support its activities, Petites-Mains also forges links with other organizations. A key organization mentioned earlier is the Collectif, an organization created in 1996 that allows Petites-Mains to ‘scale up’ its connections. In representing 50 entreprises d’insertion in Quebec (and 19 in Montreal) that specialize in a range of training fields (e.g. apparel production, furniture production, food services, retail), this umbrella organization occupies a unique position within the workforce development regulatory system. In order to ensure a consistent approach, the Collectif has developed seven criteria that define an insertion enterprise (or WISE). According to these principles, the mission of the enterprise must be focussed on social and professional integration, providing a path to the labour market, training or other options (http://collectif.qc.ca/criteres). All participants must confront some form of exclusion (such as gender, racial, or age-based exclusion). The enterprise has to be an authentic company- a non-profit that produces goods or services. It has to provide meaningful work, and offer fixed term employee status to participants. Accompaniment is also a defining aspect (http://collectif.qc.ca/criteres). In addition, insertion enterprises must offer global training (training programs that are as much personal and social as professional). (http://collectif.qc.ca/criteres). The final criteria is partnership, suggesting that the enterprise be part of a network of partners supporting the individual (http://collectif.qc.ca/criteres). Together these criteria help ensure that common standards are maintained.

The Collectif serves as the key intermediary between its member organizations and the provincial government, especially Emploi Quebec (‘Employment Quebec’). ⁶ As an official at the Collectif maintains, a key advantage of the umbrella group is that “the networking side of it is really the center. The training is a part as well  …  There's also political representation. So we are the interface with the Ministere Emploi, Solidarite Sociale, but also with the Ministere Economie, Science et Innovation, in the framework for the action plan for the social economy” (Interview, Collectif). The Collectif provides its members with official accreditation as a social economy enterprise d’insertion (Interview, http://www.collectif.qc.ca/). This recognition is significant because it validates the educational programs offered by WISEs and ensures a steady stream of public funds from Emploi Quebec. As well, it makes the member eligible for loans from dedicated social economy financial institutions (Interview). In addition to its legitimation and advocacy role, the Collectif sponsors a training program, Mutuelle de Formation, in which they offer workshops for different administrative roles within an enterprise d’insertion (e.g. director, social worker, community liaison/outreach staff), and facilitate knowledge-exchange between different member organizations, including participant referrals between organizations. (Interview, Petites-Mains; http://www.collectif.qc.ca/).

Petites Mains has also formed partnerships with other community-based organizations (a ‘scaling out’) to support its social objectives. The mission of accompaniment necessarily means tailoring the services that are provided to each participant depending on their distinct needs, and as many of the challenges participants face are structural, it also means that the commitment must be multi-faceted. Such a form of support cannot be undertaken independently by the training organization, given its finite resources and the specialized knowledge that is required; thus, partnerships can enhance the provision of critical social services. At the city-wide scale, Petites-Mains partners with Action Travail des Femmes, a francophone women’s workers advocacy center, to provide participants with information about labour rights and health benefits in order to counter a situation in which their citizenship status can place them in a vulnerable position to be exploited by employers (Interview, Petites Mains employee; Interview, Action Travail employee). Petites-Mains also works with a tenant rights association, so that participants are aware of their housing rights, as a means to combat poverty and support employment stability. Another organization that Petites-Mains works with is Gap Vie, which provides workshops on family planning and contraception, in addition to addressing family tensions and domestic violence (Interview). As well, the organization has a large base of social service contacts in the city, to which they can refer participants, ranging from childcare to dental services.

Petites-Mains is also connected to associations within its immediate neighbourhood of Parc-Extension. Staff members of Petites-Mains sit on the ‘Table de Concertation de Femmes de Parc-Extension’ (a roundtable discussion on women), which is a group comprised of representatives from many local community organizations that seeks to improve the services in neighbourhood and to identify challenges that women face in relation to social, cultural and economic integration (http://comitedactionparcex.org/?page_id=82). Another local organization in which Petites-Mains is involved is ‘Table de Concertation et d’action en employabilité de Centre-Nord’ (a roundtable discussion and action group on employability), which is comprised of representatives from sixteen community organizations based in three adjacent neighbourhoods: Parc-Extension, Villeray and Saint-Michel. This group seeks to build networks of exchange on employability diagnosis and tools, and the sharing of relevant information for neighbourhood organizations involved in workforce development (https://www.arrondissement.com/montreal/tabledeconcertationetdactionenemployabiliteducentrenord).

These networks help the organization to buffer against neoliberal tendencies, which we turn to in the next section.

From ‘community’ to ‘shadow state’ to ‘shadow market’ organization

Petites-Mains was founded in 1992 in the Cote-des-Neiges neighbourhood in Montreal, a predominantly low-income, migrant neighborhood. The organization was created when a local food bank closed. Sister Denise Arsenault of a local parish gathered many of the women that had used the food bank together to discuss possible solutions to the difficulties they encountered. The women decided that what they wanted was a training program in sewing (Interviews). Arsenault secured a location and four sewing machines. The first official course started in 1994, and the organization was officially recognized as a charitable organization in 1995. Over time, the organization would grow and the focus shifted from small scale to industrial sewing. In 2000, the organization became an official member of Le Colletif (https://www.petitesmains.com/about-us).

Thus, parallel to other WISEs, Petites-Mains started as a community organization. Over time, however, the organization became a ‘shadow state’ institution (Martin, 2011). As a representative of the organization explains,

In 1995, we registered as a charity non-profit  …  We lived with a few donations from the religious community. There was no government support. But after that,  …  we did a market study, restructured our courses, and the government became interested in participating in our organization (Interview).

With the increase in government involvement, the physical location of the organization shifted to reflect its ‘shadow state’ role. As a representative of Petites-Mains recalls,

it was a strategic plan for me to locate in the same building as an employment center where the women came to collect their [welfare] cheques at the beginning of the month. So, we had an ad in the elevator that stated that we gave sewing classes. If you want to get off unemployment [insurance], come and see us. So, the waiting list exploded because so many people came to see us because they wanted to learn and go to work (Interview).

As noted earlier, Petites Mains also trains women in kitchen work. Women work in a café on site, which also provides catering services. Like the garment production facility, the catering business has a wide array of clients, predominantly public, that fulfilled 521 orders (Petites-Mains 2018–2019 Rapport Annuel).

Today, the organization relies on a mix of donations, government support, and production/catering work to support itself. It is now located in another multi-ethnic and predominantly working-class neighbourhood (Parc-Extension), where it has purchased its own building and rents out space in order to generate revenue (Interviews). It recently constructed a daycare for its participants and members of the surrounding community, which will generate a further source of income (Interviews).

While in the early years government support represented a very small amount of the organization’s revenues, over time this has increased, such that government now accounts for 45–50 percent of the organization’s funding (Interview). There are a number of challenges associated with the growing reliance on government funding, including the cutbacks to funding instituted by a neoliberal state (Martin, 2011). This means that the organization is not able to meet demand for its services:

we can’t [expand] because of the money. The government doesn’t give us more places [for] more ladies. It is politics  …  I have a waiting list  …  The manufacturers ask me, ‘please, send me seven ladies’  …  [but] I don’t have them (Interview, Petites-Mains representative).

As an employee of the organization notes, there is also a constant need to legitimate one’s programs and to frame them within the context of government priorities and accounting metrics:

you can't just think up a project and go ask the government for money. It doesn't work that way. You have to have something concrete  …  [You need] proof that you're serious. You need results … The government,  …  they don't easily finance projects  …  It's difficult to get funding. I remember the CDEC (Le corporation de developpement economique communautaire) from our neighbourhood. I said ‘look at our project. It is beginning. And they said ‘no, sewing is weak. We aren't giving funding for sewing’. After they saw we were so successful – we became a large organization, like a bomb – they regretted their decision, because it gave results. But in the beginning, nobody wanted to help us (Interview).

Reliance on government funding also makes shadow state institutions, like Petites-Mains, vulnerable to shifting mandates. While historically the organization targeted participants who have little to no work experience and are generally not on social assistance or employment insurance (i.e. those furthest from the labour market), new conditions are altering this focus. As a representative of organization explains,

since last year, Emploi Quebec has asked us to prioritize people on social aid or employment insurance. So 60% of our clientele have to be on social assistance or employment insurance. So that leaves us with 40% of people without revenue. So it's harder. We have to adapt our interventions because people who have been on social assistance for 10-12 years have different needs  …  (Interview).

In another shift, the federal government decided to focus on participants closer to the labour market. As a representative of the organization explains, they had to alter one of the internship programs they were running:

Because under Harper [former Canadian Prime Minister], they wanted us to work with women who were much closer to entry into the job market. Because they wanted them to quickly enter the job market to be productive, to pay taxes, to reduce welfare rates. They demanded that we work with women closer to entry into the job market. And instead of doing internships, we do job experiences. So we accepted, because it's still responding to a need … But we still had great results for women with a higher level of education, or unfinished degrees or degrees from their country of origin  …  (Interview).

As another example, the organization is creating a daycare for the women utilizing its programs, as well as for other households in the community. The daycare was approved under a former government in power, the Parti Quebecois government. A representative of the organization explains that the daycare was put on hold, however, when the Liberal party took power (Interview). It was eventually funded, but there was a lengthy period of uncertainty.

There are also challenges associated with the narrow geographic boundaries imposed by government, particularly as many immigrants have been priced out of central city locations. When asked about the ethnic and geographic backgrounds of participants, a representative explains,

it kind of depends on the waves of immigration. So for example two and three years ago, we had a lot of Haitians, so they were coming from St-Michel [an adjacent neighbourhood]. Now  …  it’s more Maghreb, so it’s kind of here and St-Laurent. We have some participants coming from Laval [suburb of Montreal], which is complicated because the agents of Emploi Quebec require that the participants come from the Island of Montreal, so the agents have to make an exception, which they don’t want to do. It's a lot of extra paperwork (Interview).

Negotiating the terms of neoliberalization: Challenging state and market

As the discussion above illustrates, the ability of Petites-Mains to move beyond ‘meeting’ the market, and support more transformative change, is severely constrained. Employees at Petites-Mains are cognizant of these limits and actively negotiate them on an everyday basis. Like many intermediaries, the organization channels women into particular segments of the labour market - in this case, industrial sewing, restaurant and office work. These jobs are located in the secondary segment of the labour market, a segment that is often characterized by low pay and instability and generally performed by marginalized groups, such as women, youth and ethnic and racial minorities (Peck, 1996; Theodore, 2017). This sectoral bias risks reinforcing stratified competition between job seekers and the construction of certain occupational categories, such as industrial sewing, as “immigrant jobs” (Theodore, 2017). As a representative of Petites-Mains reflects, “We have taken a lot of flack for it [choosing industrial sewing]. People say, ‘why do such a traditional female thing? You should be empowering and do something else’” (Interview).

In an effort to counter the effects of this sectoral bias, the organization strives to balance the ‘hard skills’ with ‘soft skills’ and utilizes a process of accompaniment to ensure that there is ongoing learning and that supports are offered that can help the participant navigate the complex structural barriers she confronts across her work trajectory. However, such efforts are restricted by the reliance on a neoliberal state and the increasing market pressures associated with growing the ‘enterprise’ side. In this section, we consider some of the ways in which the organization, through leveraging partnerships (i.e., scaling up and out), seeks to push back against commodification, troubling the conception of a hegemonic cooptation and illustrating the dynamic and conflictual process with which actors seek to negotiate the terms of neoliberalization and expand their space for action within a broader neoliberal regulatory structure that centers individualized responsibility.

Conclusion

Non-profit, yet state-supported, labour market intermediaries are positioned in complex relations to both state and market. Like many civil society organizations, they have origins as community organizations and mandates to serve community interests. Following from this, a Polanyian perspective holds out the potential for civil society organizations to serve as a counter-movement to commodification and marketization processes. The perspective advanced by Buroway (2003) and Jenson and Phillips (1996), however, points to the tendency for civil society actors reliant on state support to be co-opted and for neoliberal logics of the contemporary state to prevail in a hegemonic fashion.

The case of Petites-Main, a non-profit labour market intermediary, challenges a static or binary (advocacy vs. cooptation) view of civil society-state relations. Petites-Mains illuminates some of the challenges that civil society organizations confront, and in doing so, it foregrounds some of the limits to a Polanyi’s (1944) notion of a double movement. Following Buroway (2003) and Jenson and Phillips (1996), our case illustrates how civil society organizations are often incorporated into neoliberal agendas. Like other government-funded intermediaries, Petites-Mains is limited in its margin of maneuvre (see Fontan et al., 2009), and as highlighted in the analysis above, the emphasis of the training is in work (industrial sewing, restaurant and clerical) that tends to associated with a secondary, and thus more precarious, segment of the labour market, already disproportionately performed by women of colour. As well, there is an emphasis within the training on individual responsibility for navigating labour market challenges. In these ways, Petites-Mains can be viewed as complicit with the commodification that is prevalent in today’s labour market, even as it offsets some of the worst excesses.

However, the qualitative analysis of Petites-Mains also reveals that representatives are cognizant of these constraints and work with an institutional architecture of external connections (scaling up and out) to push back in ways that may be overlooked when emphasizing co-optation. They advocate for immigrant women in all kinds of informal ways, through accompaniment and the building of social connections among participants, as well as between participants and other social supports in the city (e.g. rights advocacy). Such practices and the spaces they create are “hidden” (Martin, 2014) and exceed a simple reading. Furthermore, identities forged in these spaces may also become important in other spaces, as women go on to pursue activism in other contexts (Martin, 2014).

In this way, the WISE moves beyond meeting the market, as found in conventional workfare, to providing foundations for molding markets. And beyond this, the institutional architecture on which the WISE draws provides a channel for indirectly contributing to socio-political advocacy on employment or welfare policies, through a connection to organizations that directly perform this role and that strive to remake markets.

To be sure, scaling up and scaling out can itself be a contradictory process for civil society organizations such as Petites-Mains, since many - though not all - of the networks the organization forms are with other state-funded bodies (including other social enterprises, non-profit organizations, and socially-progressive buyers). But an institutional architecture that encompasses an array of actors and that allows for multi-scalar interventions shifts the parameter of action from the individual organization to a collective and opens the space and resources for (collectively) envisioning and enacting new models. The case study presented here exposes how such an architecture contributes to the complex and dynamic positioning that Petites-Mains holds vis-a-vis the neoliberal state. The case also signals the possible directions that new institutional adaptations can take, e.g. extending new solidarity partnerships and reducing ties that prop up neoliberal practices, and the potential of institutional experimentation for enlarging the social economy ecology and expanding the terrain of transformative action for non-profit, labor market intermediaries.