Description
Introduction Scientists have already given us all the facts needed to anticipate and respond to the major global crisis that is looming. Their findings clearly demonstrate that our standard economic model is not sustainable because of the many negative externalities it produces and its major impact on global warming and biodiversity. It is also unsustainable for the inequalities it feeds and which weaken 3 the very foundations of our democracies. Its two unsustainabilities unfortunately combine. Global warming reinforces economic inequalities by triggering climate migrations that are difficult to manage. Economic inequalities make large sections of the population more precarious, condemning them to not being able to afford the equipment and clean technologies needed to face the climate challenges. This scissor effect is detrimental to the ecological and social transition because it complicates important decisions based on consensus. If the transition does not involve a violent rupture, it does indeed presuppose a shared desire for change. The question now is how to generate and organize it. In this context, the ambition of this book is actually to open new avenues for management. Chapter 1 – Solidarity: an unthought in organizational theory The history of management is not univocal. There are several competing histories that can account for the birth of the discipline. However, among these histories, one dominates North American history. Consequently, diversion via the North American continent is essential to understand the current logics at work in managerial thought. Beyond the language barrier, there is of course a cultural filter that renders invisible experiences in non-English speaking countries. The major role now played by Anglo-Saxon academic journals through international rankings, such a prism is highly damaging to the diversity of knowledge and pluralism. By reducing the history of thought to a narrow cultural and geographical thread, our collective ability to understand the present and creatively address the future is impaired. It is time to read (or to read again) important and forgotten authors of solidarity history to rethink a more sustainable economic system. To build a counter-history of management, we highlight crucial non-Anglo-Saxon authors such as Leroux, Bourgeois, Tocqueville, Tnnies, Mauss, Durkheim, Walras, Gide, and Guerreiro Ramos. At the beginning of the 21st century, the economic equation could no longer be reduced to opposition or complementarity between the market and the state. At the institutional level, many countries have yet to recognize the importance of another field through framework laws and specific public policies: the social, popular, and solidarity economy. This emergence of a third actor in the field is the result of numerous tensions and a double incompleteness. On the one hand, the States are no longer able to play the regulatory role of the social State of the Thirty Glorious Years. On the other hand, market logics are not able to guarantee the sustainability of their economic model. Consequently, there is a need for new solidarities to refound public action and to reshape management models. Chapter 2 – (Re)organizing solidarity The classical and orthodox vision of a market economy centered on the question of entrepreneurship has strongly influenced the conceptual framework of organization theory. The presuppositions of methodological individualism have actually largely thwarted the possibility of pluralism within this field. In this second chapter, we propose to go beyond this mere observation by analysing the required conditions for bridging together the organizational and solidarity dimensions. Polanyi’s theoretical proposition gives us the first step to rethink economy with the concept of substantive economy. For this author, the substantive meaning comes indeed from man’s manifest dependence on nature for his subsistence, and the necessity to enlarge our vision of economy to reciprocity and redistribution logics. Deepening Polanyi’s perspective, Guerreiro 4 Ramos provides a new theory of organizations by claiming the existence of substantive rationality. Based on the work of the Frankfurt school, he extends the Polanyian approach into the organizational field. This author is essential because he warns us about the risk to have a unique model for managing the organizations. He claims the importance to keep the diversity of organizational forms inside a new field that he calls the para-economy. Chapter 3 – (Re) Solidarizing organizations In this chapter, we are looking for the means to (re)solidarize organizations. To do this, we analyze different forms and examples of democratic governance likely to activate such processes at the heart of organizations. We show that this (re)solidarization of organizations favors the possibility of a reconciliation between economic and social perspectives. Solidarity cannot be introduced into organizations by using usual management techniques or instruments. If we consider the solidarity economy as the project to democratize the economy, solidarity management is defined analogously as the project to democratize the organization. Consequently, the relevant perspective for considering the strengthening of solidarity in organizations is that of inclusive management tools, multi-stakeholder governance and a close attention to the making of social innovation and social transformation. It induces processes of change that can contribute to the construction of a participatory political culture within the organization in order to foster autonomy, freedom of expression, self-management and self-organization. Studies show that social innovation is never conceived independently of the socio-cultural, socio-economic or socio-political characteristics, and of the local context of insertion. One of the objectives of the solidarity management is therefore to embrace social innovation, actors and territory. This can be achieved through networked cooperation strategies, the promotion of solidarity development, and new institutional relationships. Chapter 4 – In search of solidarity-based management This chapter is an opportunity to bridge two academic literatures that are both rich for defining solidarity-based management. The first is South American. It is the Brazilian school of thought on social management. In line with the French solidarist authors, it is a conceptual and practical response from a country characterized for a long time by strong inequalities. The second is North American. It is about the management of the commons. This school of thought is in line with the work of Ostrom, and initially starts from the problems of preserving natural spaces. We show how these two schools of thought differ and complement each other. These two proposals help us define the field of a solidarity-based management as a support of the ecological and social transition. For this to happen, it seems necessary to develop research in conjunction with practitioners of the social and solidarity economy, and to identify the new borders of a management oriented toward public action and general interest. Thus, it is desirable to open up and deepen organizational thinking beyond the firm. Interest can be shown in particular in non-capitalist organizations (associations, cooperatives, mutuals). This interest needs to be translated into dedicated research that is the only way to prevent the inappropriate reuse of corporate management concepts. The objective is therefore to develop a plurality of organizational conceptual approaches in close relation to the plurality of non-market organizational forms. 5 Conclusion Bridging concepts such as solidarity and organization augurs an important change for researchers in organization theory. It allows to consider the role of organizational phenomena in the construction of the world, to rethink the ethics of collective activity, and to propose management and organizational models more respectful of human beings and ecological balance. These perspectives imply critical theory, comprehensive approaches, epistemology of the South, and new interactions between researchers and field actors. The defense of biodiversity and socio-diversity have to be considered as a single and crucial issue to address. Based on a rich collection of grassroot initiatives, citizen’s experimentations, and social innovation examples, this book intends to provide new avenues for a management congruent with a convivial society and a renewed North- South dialogue. FYI Chapter one is attached to this proposal as sample material.
