autogestionan

Autogestionan is the third-person plural present indicative form of the Spanish verb autogestionar, meaning to self-manage or to organize and administer something without external control. In practice, autogestionar refers to processes in which groups take responsibility for decision-making, planning, and execution, while autogestionan denotes that multiple subjects are actively self-managing.

The noun autogestión (or autogestión) describes the process or state of self-management itself. The concept is commonly discussed in relation to workplaces, cooperatives, communities, and institutions that aim to operate with participatory governance and shared ownership, rather than hierarchical, centralized authority. Autogestionan thus signals ongoing action by a subject group.

Usage and contexts: autogestionan appears in sentences describing ongoing self-management by organizations or collectives. For example, in a cooperative setting one might say that “las cooperativas autogestionan sus recursos” to indicate collective control of resources. The term is especially prevalent in discussions of labor movements, social economy, and forms of worker empowerment, though it can be used more broadly to describe self-directed administration in communities and projects.

Origins and associations: the prefix auto- (self) combined with gestión (management) frames autogestionar concepts that challenge traditional top-down administration. The idea has historical roots in worker self-management movements, anarchist and socialist thought, and later in cooperative and solidarity economy initiatives across Spanish-speaking regions and beyond.

See also: autogestión; cooperativa de trabajo; economía social; empresa autogestionada; autogestión educativa.