Abstract (EN)

Using a critical reading of H. Arendt and J. Habermas as a starting point, this article proposes to articulate the public and economic spheres and social questions from a theoretical and historical point of view. Developing an associationist reading of the “Arendtian” approach, it underlines how much in this approach the labour movement was historically seen as representing hopes for a new public sphere. Going further with this interpretation, the article offers an analysis of the French Associationist tradition which, within the labour and socialist movement, attempted to politicize the social question with the aim of redefining the borders of the public sphere. In short, by reviving the heritage of this tradition, the interdependent economy today seeks to include new forms of solidarity and citizenship in the economic sphere.