After reviewing the historic origins of self-management in France and Brazil, this article questions people's ability for self-management, or the situation in which without a boss there is no viable society. It turns to Clastres to show that, if political power is an inherent need of social life, it does not need to be hierarchical. There is no innate human nature, but our specificity as human beings is precisely our ability to transform ourselves and the world. Self-management is a central concept of the Brazilian solidarity economics movement because it distances itself from capitalist and welfare relations and encourages radical democracy. Self-management has a multidimensional character (being social, economic, political and technical) and therefore, it is not enough to want to implant self-management. It is also necessary to create the conditions for its realization. The article also reflects on the methodology of self-management practiced by members of a university incubator of solidarity economics.
self-management; methodology; solidarity economy; incubation