Cooperative arrangements and cultural micro-enterprises. Three case studies[Agencements coopératifs et micro-entreprises culturelles.Trois études de cas]

This report deals with an exploratory research carried out between October 2016 and June 2017 on three cases of cooperative arrangement, mainly involving cultural micro-enterprises with other than profit-making goals, that's to say : Artenréel, a "Coopérative d'activités et d'emploi" in Strasbourg ; AGEC, a "Groupe d'employeurs" in Bordeaux ; La Coursive Boutaric, a "Pôle territorial de coopération économique" in Dijon. The analysis stresses the central importance that is to be given to the socioeconomic specificities of the cultural field if we want to better understand what is at stake in the cooperative arrangements which are nowadays currently developing between micro-enterprises. The project logic specific to the micro-enterprises in the cultural field thus strongly determines the nature and the area of relevance of these groupings which are largely based on their ability to set up and develop concrete and efficient forms of mutualisation. The very interest and difficulty of these innovative organisations lie in the process of constructing and perpetuating a common pool, the object of which nevertheless also remains to accompany the development of singular projects, thus inducing a structural economic fragility, especially since the involvement of the various cooperators, most of the time, cannot be constant and equally intense in the long term. The permanent animation and coordination team of the groupings has a role that is always major and structuring as far as the communication dynamics are concerned and are themselves an essential support for the cooperative process as a whole. The diversity of their members also implies a plurality of information and communication modalities and devices. Those are not so easy to coordinate, including when they use the new digital tools that are today available. Numerous balances are thus to be found between different levels of reality and imply constant adaptations, because of the very nature of the activity of the cooperating members and of the functions that are pooled. Transmitting the grouping history and the accumulated know-how to new members is not the least of the questions that arise. The very nature of cooperative arrangements implies taking into account a diversity of actors, each one of whom has their own stakes of existence and development. It is not therefore surprising that their governance is developing according to a dynamic at several levels and modalities. While presenting itself as relatively distributed, this dynamic is in no way homogeneous. Everyone – including newcomers – will have to find their own place. Among other things, particular attention should be paid to maintaining a discussion on the substance of the cooperative project, to questioning the renewal of the formal management bodies or also to the critical size around which the project reaches its maximum relevance. In the end, only a systemic assessment of these groupings will make it possible to better understand the peculiarity of their innovative running. The analysis thus shows the full interest, but also the structural difficulties, of such approaches, if only to consolidate the economic viability of these projects whose stakes are not first and foremore economic.