Article by Martin Georges and Louise Magimel, Essplicite, Bordeaux
CONFERENCE ON INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM :
On March 7, ESSplicite had the honor of welcoming Catherine André, co-founder of Voxeurop and deputy editor-in-chief of Alternatives Economiques, a French cooperative media,, during a conference on independent journalism. It was able to shed light on the difficulties that independent media face as well as their operation. It will be noted from this exchange that democracy also requires pluralism in the the media, and that medias independence is one of the keys to maintaining it.
A DEBATE ON THE DOCUMENTARY “SCOPER”:
On March 2nd, we received researcher Valérie Billaudeau for her documentary “SCOPER”. This research work of an original format traces the history of a company’s transition towards the model of the SCOP, a cooperative society, which is based on shared governance. Indeed in the cooperative model, the manager but also the employees make decisions together to the company, which belongs to all. Patrice Moysan, the former head of the company in question, was also present to talk to us about all the changes induced by this new model, the advantages but also the difficulties, particularly in terms of governance.
Some thoughts about this model:
- reorganizing the way it operates to move to the cooperative model takes time, the construction is built in common and is done through many discussions. The difficulties are there, but to be owner and decision-maker is a source of motivation.
- the biggest challenges are communication and pedagogy: everyone, regardless of their status within the company, must be aware of its orientations, and everyone must be able to be aware of the role they can play.
- Beyond the knowledge of the procedures, it is sometimes necessary to help the members of the cooperative society to change their personal representations to avoid self-censorship or simply break the habits related to the classic operation of a company.
