The text begins with a critical synthesis of French research on participatory practices by salaried employees. Next, we offer a new analytic framework on participatory practices which, on the basis of fieldwork in 30 enterprises, presents a social economy of enterprises: social and occupational relations are related to the nature of markets and products, the organization of production and technology systems. The analysis commences by bringing out the links between participatory practices and the new characteristics of productive labour. This leads us to formulate hypotheses concerning the formation of a new form of productive association or, alternatively, the emergence of a new occupational model. The article then focuses on further development of these hypotheses.