Neither the boss nor another guy would bully us. Self-realization and relations of power in popular productive practices

Abstract

Factories controlled by workers without the presence of an owner or administrator constitute a Latin American phenomenon which is to be regarded as one of the different forms of conflict that have been taking place during the last fifteen years. Based on extensive field work carried out in production units in the City and Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, which combined tools of qualitative and quantitative research traditions, the article analyzes the changes in the relationship among workers and in the procedures for the distribution of responsibilities and roles, as well as the mechanisms by which those roles and the corresponding wages are defined. The study shows how a group of people are capable of creating a different time and space and discusses the need to develop new forms of labor organization, to value workers’ knowledge and to overcome hierarchical and paternalistic management styles. 

Key words: recovered factories, self-management, practical sense.