Bétin, Pascale

From a classical governance model to the democratic modalities of the Scop (Worker cooperative enterprise): The clinical realities of this transition - 2019.


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This contribution is based on the immersive observation of a collective of workers who engaged in the struggle to save their factory with the intention of constituting a Scop (Société coopérative et participative: Worker cooperative enterprise). This struggle – and therefore the observation period – lasted eleven months (from April 2016 to March 2017). This situation, observed and analyzed through the concepts and methodologies of a work clinic, allowed us to reveal that this transition from one model to another is not clear-cut. Under an apparent collective union, the democratic ideal targeted here – in other words, the participative model of the Scop – may not always be strong enough to automatically and naturally eliminate the shortcomings of the previous classical model. We offer an analysis of this phenomenon and enquire about the accompaniment of these collectives in their transition towards more democratic organizational models.