Self-empowerment within the collaborative movement : A study of the actors’ motivations for taking part in the collaborative movement and its effect on a personal level.

Abstract: This thesis focuses primary on the actors of the collaborative movement and their motivations and reasons for participating in it. The notion of the collaborative movement was developed during our process as well as the notion of self-empowerment. Two series of interviews have been led with founders of organizations acting within the collaborative movement and users of one of these platforms. From the analysis of the collected data we tried to answer our two research questions: what does lead the actors of the collaborative movement to be part of it? To what extent do they empower themselves? The results indicate that the actors of this movement do empower themselves through their participation. However the level of self-empowerment would depend on the degree of involvement. Moreover, it appeared that self-empowerment is not only an effect of their participation but also the motivation for it.