DWG 11 : How to make common ? Solving tensions in social and solidarity organizations

The common thread is to question how social and solidarity enterprises (SSE) create the common good by solving tensions between economic and social concerns. Since the 1970s, a large, multidisciplinary literature has examined the purpose and scope of SSE: 1 / from the philanthropic foundation model (theory of non-profit organizations); 2 / from the model of firms with democratic governance (theories of the social and solidarity economy). More recently, another concept of the social enterprise was formalized simultaneously in Europe (Borzaga, Defourny, 2001; Nyssens, 2006) and in the USA (Dees, 2001; Kerlin, 2006). Within this overall context, it focuses on the emergence of hybrid companies, characterized by the diversity of stakeholders involved in governance; and by the diversity of their financial resources as well as the great variety of their social and economic objectives (Battilana, 2012). Currently, these types of businesses get a lot of attention, in view of their economic and social performance. New practices are developing that tackle both resistance to management tools and trivialization by management tools, by combining practical concern for professionalization and control by overall performance. This approach is controversial in SSE because activist stakeholders in the field still view, at worst, management as taboo; and at best as "dangerous". Yet, necessarily, management cannot be done away with; indeed, it permeates the whole field. We have chosen to analyze the management of social and solidarity enterprises, with a double objective: - Discuss management practices intent on rationalization and streamlining, thereby jeopardizing the social utility of social and solidarity enterprises, on one hand; and on the other, discuss the idealized visions actors and researchers might have in the field of SSE, who hence concentrate exclusively on its virtuous aspects, - And relay best practices, so as to propose an approach to management that is compatible with social and political objectives, i.e. management understood as a means, not an end in itself. We aim to conduct comparative discussions on the cases at hand and bring out issues that might turn into an international research endeavor supplementing the "Alternative Performingl of Collective Interest Cooperative Companies" project.PICRI PAP SCIC - http://www.popess.fr/