“Todos são iguais”, “todos são responsáveis” e “todos estão no mesmo barco”: os (des)entendimentos da autogestão cooperativa

Abstract

This case study investigates how members of an industrial cooperative bargain interests and build understandings in everyday self-management of their cooperative. With this object, we conducted ethnographic observation of daily work of the members, which included long conversations on the side of the machines, and six semi-structured interviews. We obtained that the members drew up at least three important tacit rules about their collective functioning: "everybody is equal," "everybody is responsible" and "everybody is in the same boat." The members use such rules to maintain the symmetry of power in the cooperative, to demand attitudes from each other, and to maintain group cohesion. Each rule corresponds to a psychosocial characteristic of these members: they are concerned about the cooperative, they control the other members, and they feel part of the cooperative. We conclude that the members alternate, symbolically, positions and interests, sometimes as “partners favorable to the cooperative”, or as “workers in favor of members” and sometimes as “people seeking a better life."