Des coopératives de travail du XIX e siècle aux CAE et aux Scic : les coopératives comme espace méso critique

Cooperatives, through their model and operations, ensure a critical function with respect to the dominant economic dynamics. Because of this, they exist in a meso space, differentiated from the capitalist regime within which they operate. To analyze the channels through which this differentiation occurs, the authors rely on the theory and the study of nineteenth-century worker cooperatives, as well as of SCICs (cooperative societies of collective interest) and CAEs (business and employment cooperatives) for the contemporary period. After discussing the dynamics at work between the meso-cooperative space and the capitalist regime, they show how the critical function of cooperatives can constitute a meso critical space with respect to recovering from current crises.