This article discusses the way young professionals enter and commit themselves in the social economy and associative work field. The main objective is to understand the relationships between the process of subjectification and the construction of the professional ideal among workers up to 30 years old. The analysis of the interviews, methodologically based on the biographical approach, indicates a great diversity of ways of comprehending work relationships, concerning the principles of social economy and associativism. Lack of social support (from government or civil society) and financial sustainability of projects influence in the way young workers cohere to the model of social economy management. The analysis of the interviews and the long-term observation of the projects indicate that self-management principles are only partially accomplished, existing a tendency to reproduce paternalist and hierarchical relationships.
Social economy; young workers; work; subjectivity; self-management