Self-administered Industrial Enterprises in Western Europe during the 1970s and 1980s

Funded by the Foundation for Education and Science
Research project with two PhD projects
Duration of the project: October 2012 - 2016

As a result of the structural crisis of the late 1960s and early 1970s, so-called self-administered businesses emerged in all Western European countries. They shared the common search for radical alternative forms of organisation of labour and capital as well as democratic forms of economic activity. They strove for control of entrepreneurial decision-making processes and disposal over company property by the workers themselves. The adoption of self-administration was, on the one hand, a form of self-help in view of the looming unemployment of the employees and the threat to the further existence of the enterprises of the ‘old industries’. On the other hand, the protagonists regarded them as a means for societal change and as a practical possibility to realise their political and social visions. The project examines the emergences, practices and processes of dissolution of the self-administrations as well as their economic, political and social impact via case studies in two Western European countries, the Federal Republic of Germany and France.

Forschung

Projekte

Self-administered Industrial Enterprises in Western Europe during the 1970s and 1980s

Funded by the Foundation for Education and Science
Research project with two PhD projects
Duration of the project: October 2012 - 2016

As a result of the structural crisis of the late 1960s and early 1970s, so-called self-administered businesses emerged in all Western European countries. They shared the common search for radical alternative forms of organisation of labour and capital as well as democratic forms of economic activity. They strove for control of entrepreneurial decision-making processes and disposal over company property by the workers themselves. The adoption of self-administration was, on the one hand, a form of self-help in view of the looming unemployment of the employees and the threat to the further existence of the enterprises of the ‘old industries’. On the other hand, the protagonists regarded them as a means for societal change and as a practical possibility to realise their political and social visions. The project examines the emergences, practices and processes of dissolution of the self-administrations as well as their economic, political and social impact via case studies in two Western European countries, the Federal Republic of Germany and France.

Forschung

Projekte