In light of the renewed expansion of independent work and the blurring of the boundaries between wage labour and independence, the emergence of new collective actors in the space between wage labour and independent work/contracting is of critical significance. In this article we propose to highlight two experiences of collective action, both in France. On the one hand, we examine the Intermittent and Precarious Workers Coordination and, on the other, the project launched by a Coopérative d’Activité et d’Emploi (CAE: employment and activity cooperative or BEC: Business and Employment Cooperative) with the aim of evolving towards a ‘work mutuality’. While quite different with regard to their origins and means of mobilisation, these experiences nevertheless share two common significant traits: they are both what we term ‘instituting factories’ ( fabriques instituantes); and they both experiment with non-hierarchical forms of decision-making, organisation and collaboration. We attempt to shed light on the background of these two experiences of collective action whose origins are rooted in professional situations on the margins of the salariat, as well as upon the innovative displacements they introduce into the working world by re-interrogating forms of workplace democracy.

L’article montre comment les Coopératives d’Activité et d’Emploi (CAE) constituent des fabriques d’innovation institutionnelle : elles élaborent de nouvelles formes de relations professionnelles et de liens entre activité individuelle et engagement collectif. Nous analysons d’abord l’histoire des CAE en France, leurs racines sociales et politiques et la tension qui traverse le développement de leur projet singulier. Puis, nous nous focalisons sur une CAE, pour analyser la fabrique institutionnelle qui est au cœur de son évolution, avant d’en interroger la portée et les limites pour imaginer de nouvelles institutions, au-delà de la logique binaire à l’intérieur de laquelle a été enfermé le travail.

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