Operators in the cultural and media sectors are highly diverse in both their structure and activities, yet they also share similar realities, such as the aim to inform, entertain, or foster social connection. For a long time, these sectors have been positioned on the sidelines of digital development, due to a lack of resources, technical skills, or interest. Today, however, digital engagement has become essential, whether it be for internal operations, external communication, international outreach, or even survival. A study conducted in 2023 in French-speaking Belgium among 401 operators from this sector provides a snapshot of their digital development. The study presents overall results on the sector’s level of digital maturity and outlines the specific characteristics of organisations by grouping them into five profiles, each sharing common challenges, barriers, and motivations. These findings are then contextualised by comparisons with other sectors impacted by digital development, as well as with other geographical areas, in order to highlight the specificities of the cultural and media landscape in French-speaking Belgium.
This article examines digital development in the Mediterranean region and its impact on Euro-Mediterranean regional integration. To measure this impact, we use key composite indices of digital companies and digital research and study centers. The article also draws on the social network LinkedIn, a professional platform that can benefit the Euro-Mediterranean region. The results show that the gap between Euro-Mediterranean countries is not that significant, and it is narrowing. However, without taking flow data into account, this convergence toward the European level of digital development – embodied by France – does not confirm any form of integration. This is why this article draws on the mobility and exchanges of LinkedIn users across countries, which demonstrate the development of social integration among Euro-Mediterranean countries. After establishing that regional proximity is conducive to the digital revolution – which one might have thought to be global rather than regional in scale – the article examines its sustainability, given the new geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges linked to artificial intelligence (AI).
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have long had a reputation for fostering the development of more democratic organizational practices. Their increasingly powerful ability of information and communication makes them ideal tools for social groups seeking to develop more participatory organizations, such as such as those in the Social Solidarity Economy sector. We will focus on how collaborative tools are being mobilized within two associations, examining their ability to support the implementation of democratic principles specific to the Social Solidarity Economy sector. By adopting a co-evolutionary approach, we uncover the paradoxical effects of these tools, whose strengths are also the main flaws in the structures that push democratic principles to their limits: fully accessible information and the possibility of unrestricted individual contribution contribute as much to supporting democratic organizational forms as to disrupting them. This situation is not inevitable, however, but it requires intense joint structuring of organizational and informational processes, which must be carried out democratically to continually adapt to the experiences and needs of workers.
The digital acculturation of individuals facing digital illiteracy reveals complex challenges related to the appropriation of tools designed for more privileged groups. These individuals, often from modest backgrounds, with low levels of education and limited exposure to digital practices (Pasquier, 2022), face linguistic, social, and technical barriers (Lahire, 1994; Beaudouin, 2002) that make their progress difficult to articulate (Granjon, 2022), and thus seemingly ineffable. This lack of verbalization, marked by deficits in vocabulary, self-reflection, and digital anxiety, highlights the obstacles to their learning process. This article demonstrates how these learners develop forms of "bricolage" (Certeau, 1990), such as gestures, informal exchanges, collective narratives, or personal note-taking, to compensate for the ineffable and showcase their adaptability. In parallel, instructors play a key role by employing analogical teaching methods and familiar references to demystify digital tools and reduce learners' apprehensions. These pedagogical adjustments, both improvised and contextual, also represent forms of bricolage. Together, these dynamics transform an ostensibly ineffable digital acculturation into an interactive and collective process, where learners and instructors collaborate to build a shared understanding of digital competencies.
The digitization of society and the shift toward a “data economy,” driven by the use of artificial intelligence, raise new challenges – if not in nature, then certainly in scale – regarding the ethics of data governance. To address these issues, actors in the social and solidarity economy (SSE) must establish new legal frameworks in accordance with the principles and values of the SSE. These entities will need to ensure data protection against the risk of interception, while also establishing the conditions for managing the social and solidarity economy’s intangible assets. To this end, two legal mechanisms derived from free software and digital commons should be considered within the framework of current European data regulations. The first approach involves the development of new contractual and partnership frameworks based on flexible agreements and shared practices. The second draws inspiration from the Anglo-Saxon data trust through its adaptation into an endowment fund. In this regard, the first part of the article will focus on the shift in emphasis from formalizing the protection of the resource to formalizing the rules protecting the community, notably through new frameworks for collaboration. We illustrate this with the example of the Open Partnership, which incorporates provisions for collaborative governance, shared responsibility, and co-creation of value, enabling diverse stakeholders to collaborate effectively while preserving their unique characteristics. Next, we will examine the new European regulatory framework for data, which opens the door to a model of collective data management inspired by data trusts and Quebec’s data fiducies. Finally, we will examine how an innovative use of endowment funds enables the transposition of these models into civil law and offers a complementary and promising path for social economy actors. Several case studies will be presented to illustrate their implementation, as well as the challenges involved, for which we will propose concrete solutions to explore.
In the context of the European market, this text aims to provide a provisional overview of the proven or anticipated socio-economic and environmental impact of artificial intelligence in France by outlining a sectoral assessment of this type of digital innovation within the agri-food economy. In particular, this contribution seeks to identify the impact of digital applications based on artificial intelligence systems as factors in increasing productivity in key sectors of agri-food systems and trade. In particular, it will examine the role of artificial intelligence in reducing the negative environmental externalities of agri-food supply chains and in promoting sustainable development objectives, in conjunction with other innovations such as blockchains and internet of things.
L’extension de la gig economy et l’ubérisation des relations de travail ont mis en lumière les impasses du paradigme de l’économie collaborative, notamment la dépendance technique croissante des travailleurs vis-à-vis de plateformes numériques propriétaires. Face à ces inégalités, le coopérativisme de plateformes se présente comme une alternative visant à reprendre la main sur les outils numériques, leur gouvernance et les conditions d’usage. À partir de l’analyse de CoopCycle, réseau et fédération européenne de coopératives de coursiers à vélo, cet article interroge les modalités de développement et de gestion partagée d’un commun numérique dans le champ de la logistique urbaine. Croisant les apports des science and technology studies (STS) et des théories des communs, l’enquête montre comment un logiciel libre, articulé à une licence à réciprocité, devient support d’une infrastructure collective gouvernée de manière distribuée. L’étude met en évidence les formes de coordination multi-échelle nécessaires à la maintenance et à l’évolution du logiciel, l’intégration des besoins locaux dans une stratégie fédérale, ainsi que les tensions entre principes coopératifs, contraintes techniques et logiques de marché. Elle souligne enfin en quoi la réappropriation des outils numériques par les collectifs de travail ouvre des perspectives concrètes pour une gouvernance démocratique des infrastructures de l’Internet.
Social and solidarity economy (SSE) organizations are distinguished by the importance they place on participatory practices involving members and stakeholders in the management, coordination, and enhancement of these organizations. In this context, a wide variety of tools— including digital ones—are used to support renewed participatory practices. This paper focuses on the analysis of an internal digital social network used by a group of cooperatives engaged in the energy transition. We draw in particular on Arnstein’s work (1969) to understand the possible interactions between representatives and represented individuals, as well as online participatory practices. Using a qualitative and interpretive methodological approach, we combine a socio-semiotic analysis of the digital network with data collected from collective workshops and semi-structured individual interviews. The results allow us to identify the limitations of these online spaces, while also proposing ways to move beyond top-down and bottom-up participation logics.
