Organizational and social non-market and non-hierarchical practices related to new information technologies and communication, caused many reactions and controversy. Some actors and thinkers their existence, others say it is a minority or unsustainable phenomenon, and others confined it exclusively to the virtual sphere. As part of these discussions, this thesis tries to make the synthese of the various theoretical approaches to these new practices and to confront them with a rigorous empirical observation of the cooperative network of free software and the free and open project of encyclopaedia Wikipedia. In developing a conceptual framework suitable to study the social entities, built on the symbolic interactionism and sociology critic Ivan Illich, this work show the specific organizational, economic and social form of these new practices, and understand what was able to promote their development and growth over the past three decades. We especially insist on cultural factors, rather than technical factors. Finally, the thesis attempts to reflect on what could eventually promote the development and expansion of these new practices. We are joining here a questioning of society deeper, and without answer : the challenges and uncertainties posed by the development of non-market economy and non-hierarchical.
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