Commons and self-management: Rediscovering emancipatory practices in Quebec from 1960 to 1980
Commons and self-management are forms of experimentation with collective organizations that are emerging in response to the various crises we are experiencing. This article presents different approaches to the commons and identifies the elements that seem essential to linking it with the tradition of self- management, particularly as it manifested in Quebec from the 1960s to 1980s. Drawing on the research on emancipatory practices carried out by Gabriel Gagnon and Marcel Rioux in the 1980s, this article highlights the organizational practices and issues that characterized the commons and their self-management at that time. Furthermore, the article engages with their concept of transferability in order to illustrate the emancipatory potential of self-managed organizations. We demonstrate that the organizational structures observed in the commons (configurations, practices, conventions) are the essential dimension in the management of the internal and external tensions generated by the conflictual relationship between self-management/commons and capitalism.