Smart Ibérica business impulse cooperative: 'not just a means of invoicing for your work'

This chapter presents the case of Smart Ibérica, a Spanish business impulse cooperative -the first of its type in the country- that provides legal and social coverage for professionals in the arts and culture sector. Smart Ib channels the entrepreneurial activity of its members through mutualized services in order to minimize the risks and difficulties they face in a traditionally fragmented sector characterized by intermittent and precarious employment. The chapter first clarifies the specificities of this cooperative model and then addresses the characteristics and motivations of the cooperative members before moving to the analysis of Smart Ib's achievements, challenges and relations with other industrial relations' actors. The conclusions reflect on the cooperative's innovative nature, its important social function -despite the continued lack of recognition by the public administration- and the need to continue developing social and legal frameworks that offer solutions that adapt to the working patterns of contingent workers.