WILL-DDDC Chair - Démocratisation Durable et Démocratique des Communs

= Chaire WILL-DDDC

URL = https://chairesec.univ-lille.fr/chaire-will/lancement-de-la-chaire-will-dddc/

"Commons research has often focused on resource governance while workplace democracy research has focused on firms. The WILL-DDDC project seeks to bridge those worlds through the key research question: How can the governance principles developed within commons theory be applied to the organization of production itself?"

Description

The Chair addresses a question that has become increasingly important within commons-oriented and peer-to-peer research:

• Can production itself become a commons?

• Its work explores how enterprises, productive assets, and economic decision-making processes might be governed according to principles of democratic participation, shared stewardship, and collective responsibility.

WILL-DDDC is a research chair focused on the relationship between:

• • commons governance,
  • workplace democracy,
  • the democratization of production.

In project documents, DDDC refers to the broader objective of the democratic and sustainable governance of commons-based institutions.

The Chair is co-directed by:

• • Pierre Robert (University of Lille)
  • Isabelle Ferreras (UCLouvain / FNRS)

• Isabelle Ferreras' research argues that workers should possess governance rights comparable to those exercised by capital investors, leading to more democratic forms of economic organization. (See: Economic Bicameralism and the Firm)

The Chair seeks to bring together two research traditions that have largely developed separately:

• • the theory and practice of the commons,
  • the movement for workplace and enterprise democracy.

While commons research has traditionally focused on the governance of shared resources and collective institutions, research on economic democracy has primarily focused on the governance of firms and workplaces.

The WILL-DDDC Chair explores how these two traditions can be articulated within a common framework.

The Chair investigates how productive organizations can become both:

• • democratically governed,
  • organized as commons-oriented institutions.

Its central question can be summarized as follows:

• How can the governance principles developed within commons theory be applied to the organization of production itself?

The WILL-DDDC Chair occupies a strategic position at the intersection of:

• • commons studies,
  • economic democracy,
  • cooperative and participatory governance,
  • institutional transformation.

Its work contributes to the broader search for alternatives to shareholder capitalism and state-centered economic organization.

By linking commons governance with workplace democracy, the Chair seeks to develop new institutional models capable of democratizing production while ensuring long-term social and ecological sustainability.