Des alternatives aux communs

What meaning can be given to the proliferation over the last decade of alternative forms of territorial management and production? Emerging in a context of social crisis, the rise of the participatory imperative and the theme of ecological transition, these experiences are for some initiated by public authorities, for others by social movements. What they have in common is that they are part of pragmatic strategies aimed at transforming practices and that they rely on collectives or commons. What is their transformative scope? How are they negotiated between institutions and social movements?

These questions have opened the way for international, interdisciplinary and collective research. They were worked on by researchers belonging to several disciplines (sociology, geography, urban planning, architecture, anthropology and archaeology) and this work reports on these various works. It presents the empirical results informed by a theoretical discussion based on the notions of alternative and common and on the contributions of actors from civil society.