The self-management constitutes a radical critique of the Industrial Society. The more contemporary concept of self-management has meant a change in the ways of producing on a small and medium scale. We tell you all about What is itits definition, meaning Y examples of this democratic and critical movement.
Self-management: definition
The etymological definition of self management is that of ”management by oneself”. But his meaning has a much more collective root and It can be applied to other different fields, but not unrelated to economics, such as politics, sociology and cooperation.
Currently, the definition of self-management have what to do with the democracy and public participation in the spheres of society and economic activity. Its main paradigm favors independence, participation and consensus. It proposes an alternative and more humane way of producing resources.
Self-management: meaning
The self management has become very popular among social and student movements, precisely because constitutes an alternative form of organization, where the workers themselves are the ones who make the important decisions. It also favors community ties and thereby helps strengthen the struggle for social and political rights in various areas.
Today it is associated more with small self-organized community projects. Or even networks of local producers, who produce on a smaller scale and are concerned about both the environment and fair trade. The business self-management has begun to install a culture of buying from local businesses, very interesting for sustainable development.
As for the meaning of self management, in historical and modern terms, is much more than self-management. It has to do with a way of seeing organization of work, democratic and participatory, where everyone can decide on the course of the company or cooperative.
A clear example of this is that of a cooperative in Brazil, Coopat, formed by members of the Movement without Land (MST), who decided that in addition to organizing collectively they could favor a social and sustainable economy. They became massive organic rice producers.
Self-management: history
Although for historical reasons, it is usually associated with Marxism and socialism, the concept of self-management comes from anarchism and is closely related to the concept of cooperativism.
Throughout the history of the 19th and 20th centuries, various attempts have been made at self-managed organizations that always arose from movements with popular roots and linked to leftist ideologies.
The The first representative example of this type of movement in history is that of the Paris Communean insurrectionary movement that governed Paris briefly in the year 1871. The Commune promulgated a series of revolutionary decrees, among which the self-management of the factories abandoned by their owners was decreed, in the hands of the workers.
Another example was the collectivism present in Spanish anarcho-syndicalism during the Civil War, which gave rise to forms of organization such as agrarian collectivities. They considered themselves outside the state and for that reason they actually had problems with the dominant communism on the republican side.
These collectivities were organizations that within the towns themselves managed the production, work and distribution of goods and services. The decisions were of a democratic nature, whoever wanted from the community could participate and they had an assembly character.
Also, another experience and perhaps the most mentioned when we look for the definition of self management is the experience of socialism of self management either socialism self-managed. This experience was implemented in Yugoslavia from the 50s of the last century from the State, with the government of Marshal Tito.
In May 1968 with the student movement in Francethe self management it was revived as a slogan for some modern progressive movements.
These are just a few examples of different processes that through forms of organization that used the self management as a paradigm, creating experiences that questioned the Industrial Society and certain forms of capitalism. There have been different experiences in all parts of the planet, from Latin America to India.
There are even forms of organization that assimilate many of the characteristics of the self managementwithin the capitalist and liberal world. These are, for example, the large social cooperatives, the sole proprietorship or the self management business.
what is business self-management?
The business self-management consists of a form of business management where workers participate in general decisions. In the business self-management workers are capable of carrying out tasks of administration, organization of work, self-control and self-demand.
In this organizational paradigm, the important thing is cooperation and coordination. It is a form of organization where the workers themselves organize the work independently.
A example of business self-management, are the forms of organization adopted by the recovered companies. In a context of imminent capitalist crisis, when companies are abandoned by their owners or go bankrupt, workers take them back and self-manage as a way of coping with unemployment.
Also, self-management exists related to agricultural producers who want to work and deliver quality products free of agrochemicals -as we exemplified above-. Another example is also the Union of Land Workers in Argentina, present in several provinces, which is democratically organized, delivering products without agrochemicals and without intermediaries to different nodes. Promoting self-managed production and distribution of food from the land.
And you, do you buy from self-managed companies? With a simple change in your consumption behavior, you can help small producers and also the planet!
Sources: Sustainablepedia, UTT, Economipedia