Solidarity (and alternative) Economy and Its Anarchist Grammar

This paper demonstrates the value of French pragmatist sociology, and particularly the methodological device of a ‘grammar’ to articulate the normative macro-elements that underpin the organizational principles of the solidarity economy movement in France. Our grammatical analysis demonstrates that the loosely coupled movement is held together by a shared libertarian imaginary. We identify as its core four principles about an alternative organization of economic activity: creativity, conviviality, self-management and political activism; and we trace their historical roots in 19^th century libertarian socialism and their renaissance in radical social movements in the 1970s. Analyzing the theorization of the libertarian imaginary provided by Proudhon in the 19^th and movement protagonists in the 20^th century, we argue that the values of the libertarian imaginary have become recombined into a composite construct of complementary, yet potentially conflicting grammatical elements. Presenting a case of a solidarity economy organization, we illustrate how organizational practices are evaluated through a grammatical lens, but also how the movement can loose its critical edge when the grammar is ‘extrapolated’. ‘Extrapolation’ offers an alternative explanation for movement instrumentalization, a frequently observed and deplored phenomenon in social movements, and suggests that it takes place not by co-optation of an external and conflicting value logic, but by over-emphasizing a value that is constitutive of the grammar itself.