Julia Brandl, Guillemette de Larquier and Rainer Diaz-Bone
On 8 September 2025 the pre-workshop “Applying multiple correspondence analysis in convention theory” took place at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland). It was organized by Julia Brandl (University of Innsbruck), Guillemette de Larquier (University of Lille) and Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne) as a four-hours workshop before the EC/SC workshop “Doing pragmatist research” (see the report https://conventions.hypotheses.org/27824), which took place 9-10 September.
The aim was to present multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) as a statistical technique applied in EC/SC-based projects. From its beginnings French scholars of EC/SC as Francois Eymard-Duvernay employed MCA. The workshop intended to discuss this tradition of a quantitative methodology in EC/SC and to present ongoing applications of MCA. Twelve international participants took part in the workshop. Finally he recommende some resources to approach MCA more easily and the R package FatoMineR (in combination with the package explor).

First Rainer Diaz-Bone introduced MCA’s history as it has been invented by Jean-Paul Benzécri since the 1060ies for his research in mathematical linguistics. But it was the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu who took over MCA into sociology and who made MCA more popular in the social sciences. Bourdieu and his collaborators/colleagues trained several of the founders of EC/SC at the French national statistical institute (INSEE, Paris) and transmitted the usage(s) of MCA. Diaz-Bone pointed to some potentials and possible usage of MCA for the neopragmatist methodology of EC/SC.
Then, Julia Brandl presented MCA as a robust method for analysing complex data in convention theory research, focusing on Austrian higher education institutions. She demonstrated MCA’s application through research projects comparing it with traditional quantitative methods. MCA allows for the reconstruction of institutional action logics by developing and transforming variables, including complex ones such as “gender_education.” This method captures multidimensional complexity beyond simple dependent/independent variable models.

Julia Brandl
Julia Brandl highlighted key challenges like careful data labelling and interpreting multiple dimensions, recommending analysis of 4-6 dimensions. She stressed that subject expertise is crucial for interpreting MCA results. Visualizations depict constellations of variables, e.g., contrasting unitarist versus pluralist HRM teaching approaches in Austrian higher education. She also emphasized MCA’s value in revealing nuanced, multifaceted patterns and tracking organizational changes over time. Brandl encouraged researchers with creativity and a critical stance toward quantitative methods to adopt MCA. Her talk concluded with reflections on overcoming misconceptions and increasing MCA’s acceptance in academic research.
After a refreshing coffee break, Guillemette de Larquier presented an example of research based on the economics and sociology of conventions, using the method of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), which led to a publication with Emmanuelle Marchal: “Does the Formalization of Practices Enhance Equal Hiring Opportunities? An Analysis of a French Nation-Wide Employer Survey” (Socio-Economic Review 14(3): 567-589).
The starting point was theoretical: there are a variety of conventions of competence, as outlined by François Eymard-Duvernay and Emmanuelle Marchal in their book Façons de recruter (1997) based on qualitative research. Using the French Offre d’emploi et recrutement (OFER) survey on the hiring practices of 3,584 firms in 2005, Guillemette de Larquier and Emmanuelle Marchal had three main objectives: to quantify the plurality of ways of recruiting; to demonstrate that the use of a particular way is not arbitrary, but depends on the context (the company, its market, its size, working conditions, labor contracts, etc.), and that a way of recruiting valorizes or devalorizes different types of applicants.

Guillemette de Larquier then emphasized that they chose the active variables for their MCA in line with their hypotheses. They therefore selected indicators relating to screening methods and the organization of the screening process. The aim was to capture a diversity of ways of acting rather than a diversity of actors (for example, by selecting variables characterizing recruiters), because, in accordance with convention theory, it is the form of coordination situations that matters much more than the preferences or determinism of actors. Finally, in their article, the authors highlighted four ways of judging or assessing the quality of candidates, which are four different ways of formalizing the screening process.
Following the presentations, numerous questions were raised about the difficulty of the method, the time required to complete a full analysis, and the strategy for publication.
In sum the workshop made aware that at its beginnings EC/SC’s scholars as Francois Eymard-Duvernay employed MCA, because it can be adopted to a neopragmatist way of research. but that this technique has been long marginalized in EC/SC’s research. Only few scholars as Emannuelle Marchal and Guillemette de Larquier contibued employing MCA. Now the workshop mobilized the impression that MCA should be more focussed by EC/SC, because there is an now “culture” how to use MCA for neopragmatist institionalismas Julia Brandl’s contribution demonstrated.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
diazbone (28 septembre 2025). Workshop “Applying multiple correspondence analysis in convention theory” Économie des conventions. Consulté le 9 février 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14waz