Archives de l’auteur : fbessis

Sur fond de crise socio-écologique du capitalisme, la théorie de la valeur revisitée.

Harribey, Jean Marie (2020)

Revue française de socio-économie 24, pp. 101-120.

RESUME

La crise écologique a entraîné la recherche théorique dans plusieurs directions. Une « économie de l’environnement » s’est constituée au sein de la théorie néoclassique afin de prendre en compte la « valeur de la nature ». Une autre réflexion est née pour élaborer de nouveaux indicateurs de richesse. Il existe aussi une problématique marxienne de l’écologie inscrite dans les rapports sociaux. La révolution technique de l’information et l’enjeu des communs bousculent les catégories de valeur et de richesse. Ce texte examine ces questions en présentant d’abord ce que fut le premier débat théorique à la naissance de l’économie politique et qui perdure jusqu’à aujourd’hui : la richesse ne se réduit pas à la valeur économique. Puis, il montre en quoi la valeur est une catégorie sociale qui permet de prendre en compte la question écologique. Enfin, il discute l’hypothèse de dépassement de la catégorie valeur.

Against the backdrop of the socioecological crisis of capitalism, the theory of value is revisited

ABSTRACT

The ecological crisis has resulted in theoretical research in several directions. An “ecological economics” has developed within neoclassical theory in order to take into account the “value of nature.” Another reflection has begun to develop new indicators of wealth. There is also a Marxian problematic of ecology inscribed in social relations. The technological revolution of information and the issue of commons are disrupting the categories of value and wealth. This text examines these questions by first presenting the initial theoretical debate that started at the birth of political economy and that continues today: Can wealth be reduced to economic value? Then, it shows how value is a social category that makes it possible to take into account the ecological question. Finally, it discusses the hypothesis of surpassing the value category.

Five ways to ensure that models serve society: A manifesto. Pandemic politics highlight how predictions need to be transparent and humble to invite insight, not blame (comment).

Saltelli, Andrea/Bammer, Gabriele/Bruno, Isabelle/Charters, Eric/Di Fiore, Monica/Didier, Emmanuel/Espeland, Wendy Nelson/Kay, John/Lo Piano, Samuele/Mayo, Deborah/Pielke, Roger Jr/Portaluri, Tommaso/Porter, Theodore M./Puy, Arnald/Rafols, Ismael/Ravetz, Jerome R./Reinert, Erik/Sarewitz, Daniel/Stark, Philip B./Stirling, Andrew/van der Sluijs, Jeroen/Vineis Paolo (2020)

Nature 582/2020 June 2020.

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Convenciones sociales y certificación de los productos pesqueros.

Gonzales Laxe, Fernando (2020)

Journal of Marine and Coastal Sciences 12(1), pp. 135-155.

RESUMEN

Los pescadores siguen tres lógicas. La que está definida por la maximización del beneficio; la relacionada con la abundancia y la situación de los stocks; y la vinculada a las expectativas sociales y económicas. Piensan en “comportamientos ideales”; y, sobre esa base, actúan en función de sus habilidades y con prevalencia de una actitud individual más que colectiva. No obstante, en la medida que los problemas de la gestión pesquera tienen su origen en el análisis de los recursos y en la configuración de los mercados, los pescadores acuden a las convenciones sociales para dar coherencia a sus acciones y poner el acento en la coordinación de los agentes. Metodológicamente, se analizan aquellas convenciones sociales que mantienen una regularidad estable en lo concerniente al proceder de los pescadores y que permiten crear una conducta recurrente en términos de interacciones sociales. El objetivo del trabajo es recoger aquellas prácticas, costumbres, intereses comunes y normas que definen las reglas de comportamiento. Destacamos seis tipos de convenciones sociales: a) las organizativas (que reflejan la actitud de voluntariedad); b) las representativas (que son instrumentos de negociación); c) las reivindicativas (que plasman exigencias ante problemas); d) las comerciales (que refuerzan ventajas diferenciales); e) los procesos de certificación (que subrayan ventajas comparativas y barreras de entradas); y f) las de defensa de la sostenibilidad y bienes comunes (que enfatizan más sobre la preservación que sobre la producción). Finalmente, subrayamos que los productos certificados se han convertido en herramientas políticas y de negociación comercial.

ABSTRACT

Fishermen’s logic is related to three aspects: profit maximization; abundance and stock situation; and social and economic expectations. They think in terms of “ideal behaviors” and, based on that, they act according to their abilities mostly with an individual rather than a collective attitude. However, when problems in fishery management stem from the analysis of resources and the configuration of markets, fishermen resort to social conventions to give coherence to their actions and emphasize agents’ coordination. Methodologically speaking, the paper analyzes the social conventions that maintain a stable regularity in fisherman behavior and that allow establishing a recurrent behavior in terms of social interactions. The purpose of the article is to collect those practices, habits, common interests, and norms that define behavior rules. Six types of social conventions are highlighted here: a) organizational (which reflect voluntary attitudes); b) representative (used as negotiation instruments); c) reclaiming (make demands when there are problems); d) commercial (reinforce differential advantages); e) certification processes (underline competitive advantage and entry barriers); and f) social conventions to defend sustainability and common goods (more emphasis on presentation rather than production). Finally, it should be noted that certified products have become political and trade negotiation tools.

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Reprendre la main sur le marché : la construction de circuits intermédiés innovants pour la viande bovine

Le Velly, Ronan/Désolé, Mathieu/Chazoule, Carole (2020)

Revue française de socio-économie 24, pp. 129-147.

RESUME

En s’appuyant sur la sociologie de l’action organisée et la sociologie des agencements marchands, l’article décrit la construction de nouveaux circuits marchands pour la viande bovine observés dans la Loire et en Isère. Pour leurs promoteurs, des éleveurs et des détaillants, l’objectif était de reprendre la main sur l’organisation des circuits de commercialisation sans pour autant construire des circuits courts. Il s’agissait de construire des circuits intermédiés dont les règles du jeu sont conjointement élaborées. Les auteurs soulignent l’ampleur de la tâche nécessaire à la construction de tels circuits en distinguant trois processus qu’ils nomment qualification, tarification et fluidification. Pour chacun d’entre eux, ils montrent que ne pas laisser les intermédiaires organiser le marché requiert des négociations et des apprentissages collectifs.

Regaining control of the market? The construction of innovative intermediated supply chains for beef

ABSTRACT

Drawing on the sociology of collective action and the sociology of market “agencements,” this article describes the construction of innovative supply chains for beef in Loire and Isère (France). For their promoters, cattle producers and meat retailers, the goal was to keep working with intermediaries but also to regain control of the organization of the supply chains. The aim was to build intermediated supply chains whose rules are collectively established. The authors show the scope of the tasks required to reach this goal by identifying three processes that they call qualification, pricing, and fluidification. For each of them, they show that not letting intermediaries organize the market requires collective negotiation and learning.

EXTRAIT

“3.1 – Qualification

Mettre l’accent sur l’importance du processus de qualification dans la constitution des circuits d’ESI et 100 % est incontournable. Tout au long de leurs histoires, ESI comme 100 % ont été confrontés à des questions de définition de la qualité et d’établissement de règles permettant de l’obtenir. Les cas ESI et 100 % permettent alors de rappeler, à la suite de l’Économie des conventions [Eymard-Duvernay, 1993], la centralité de la qualification dans la constitution des marchés agricoles et alimentaires. Mais l’intérêt des cas ESI et 100 % est aussi de donner particulièrement à voir l’établissement de qualités « en train de se faire », dans un processus d’innovation porté par des acteurs cherchant une régulation conjointe.”

EXTRACT

“3.1 – Qualification

Emphasising the importance of the qualification process in the constitution of WISE circuits and 100% is unavoidable. Throughout their histories, both ESI and 100% have been confronted with questions of defining quality and establishing the rules for achieving it. The cases of ESI and 100% then serve as a reminder, following the Economics of Conventions [Eymard-Duvernay, 1993], of the centrality of qualification in the constitution of agricultural and food markets. But the interest of the WISE and 100% cases is also to show the establishment of qualities “in the process of being established”, in a process of innovation carried out by actors seeking joint regulation.”

Quand les agentes de développement agricole cultivent l’incertitude. Stratégies de légitimation de nouveaux intermédiaires dans la construction des marchés locaux.

Paranthoën, Jean-Baptiste (2020)

Revue française de socio-économie 24, pp. 149-168.

RESUME

Cet article s’intéresse à l’activité des agentes d’une chambre départementale d’agriculture dans les échanges marchands. Il s’agit, dans le prolongement de l’article de Marie-France Garcia [1986], de rendre compte de l’implication de ces intermédiaires dans le fonctionnement des marchés agroalimentaires locaux. L’enquête ethnographique menée dans un département de l’Ouest de la France montre que les stratégies de légitimation des salariées de la chambre d’agriculture pour s’imposer au cœur de ces marchés reposent sur trois rôles sociaux : celui de pédagogue, celui de représentant commercial des agriculteurs et celui de représentant des territoires.

Uncertainty and legitimacy in the construction of local food markets: The role of agricultural advisers

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the activity of agricultural advisers in commercial exchange. Following the perspective developed by Marie-France Garcia (1986), we explain the role of these intermediaries in local agri-food markets. Ethnographic research carried out in a western department of France shows how advisers succeed in entering the core of these market by taking on three roles: the teacher, the sales representative, and the territory representative.

La polarisation entre valeur-travail et valeur-utilité en économie : une perspective généalogique

Gazier, Bernad (2020)

Revue française de socio-économie 24, pp. 81-99.

RESUME

Cet article exploratoire vise à replacer les débats critiques actuels sur la théorie de la valeur en économie dans leur socle épistémologique afin de caractériser l’espace de leur déploiement. Il utilise les apports des travaux de Foucault, en les explicitant et en les prolongeant. Il présente des pistes expliquant pourquoi les discussions actuelles manifestent l’affaiblissement de la polarisation entre valeur-travail et valeur-utilité, et ouvrent sur une socio-économie des processus de valorisation.

The polarization of the labor and utility theories of value in economics: A genealogical perspective

ABSTRACT

This exploratory paper aims to connect the current critical debates on the theory of value in economics to their epistemological bases in order to identify the space in which they develop. It mainly relies on the methodology of Foucault’s “genealogical” works, furthering and enriching this foundation. It discusses how current debates illustrate the weakening of the polarization between the labor and utility theories of value and open up a socioeconomic approach to valorization processes.

La valeur au croisement du rapport salarial et de l’ordre monétaire. Propositions à partir du cas allemand (1974-1999)

Bellon, Charlotte (2020)

Revue française de socio-économie 24, pp. 21-39.

RESUME

Les approches monétaires de la valeur peinent à saisir la dimension symbolique de la monnaie comme équivalent général. Cette dimension se comprend comme la capacité de la monnaie à faire référence à un collectif qui lui donne sa force sociale comme médium de la valeur. À partir de l’analyse de l’ordre monétaire allemand entre 1974 et 1999, nous formulons l’hypothèse que la forme monétaire d’équivalent général ne peut se comprendre sans réintroduire la relation salariale et nous proposons des pistes de recherche pour articuler valeur, monnaie et rapport salarial.

EXTRAIT

“Pour ce faire, nous nous appuyons sur l’analyse d’André Orléan et Michel Aglietta de la monnaie souveraine. Les deux auteurs soulignent le caractère nécessairement intersubjectif de la convention monétaire et donnent un rôle central à la confiance pour stabiliser l’ambivalence de la monnaie entre violence et confiance. La monnaie présente ainsi une structure triadique fondée sur la confiance méthodique, hiérarchique et éthique [Aglietta et Orléan, 1998 et 2002].”

The value at the crossroads of the wage relation and the monetary order. Proposals based on the German Case (1974-1999).

ABSTRACT

The monetary approach to value fails to capture the symbolic dimension of money as a general equivalent. This dimension is understood as the capacity of money to refer to a collective that gives money its social strength as a medium of value. Based on the analysis of German monetary policy between 1974 and 1999, we formulate the hypothesis that the monetary form of a general equivalent cannot be understood without reintroducing the wage relation, and we propose avenues for research to connect value, money, and the wage relation.

EXTRACT

“To do so, we rely on the analysis of André Orléan and Michel Aglietta of sovereign money. The two authors stress the necessarily intersubjective nature of monetary convention and give a central role to confidence to stabilize the ambivalence of money between violence and confidence. Thus, money has a triadic structure based on methodical, hierarchical, and ethical trust [Aglietta and Orléan 1998 and 2002].”

 

Die Soziologie der Konventionen. Beiträge zur Analyse von Wohlfahrtsmärkten im Wandel

Lisa Knoll (2019)

The sociology of conventions. Contributions to the Analysis of Changing Welfare Markets

Cumulative Habilitation in Sociology, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences

Lisa Knoll (2020): “Geldsoziologie. Eine Diskussion und kritische Reflexion aktueller Debatten” [“Sociology of money. A discussion and critical reflection of current debates”] Lecture given at University of Hamburg (22 June 2020) to finish the habilitation procedure.

Committee
Jürgen Beyer (University of Hamburg)
Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne)
Anita Engels (University of Hamburg)
Stefanie Kley (University of Hamburg)
Katharina Manderscheid (University of Hamburg)
Sieghard Neckel (University of Hamburg)

SUMMARY.

This compendium of work provides a contribution to the understanding of welfare markets and their transformation. On the basis of research projects on welfare taxation, carbon markets, social impact bonds, energy performance contracting, and nudging, Lisa Knoll highlights how the governing regimes of welfare markets change alongside a paradox: on the one hand market theories deny the state as an intervening force and on the other hand the state is required to acertain just market structures. It seems that a great deal of political frustration stems from this paradox: promising the absence of the state on the one hand, but still producing a lot of bureacracy on the other (which is then associated with the “regulatory frenzy” of politicians, without any connection to liberal politics). The habilitation of Lisa Knoll illuminates this free market-paradox with the social science toolkit of the Convention School of Economics (Économie des conventions).

With its claim to overcome the state vs. market divide, its take on the omnipresence of critique, and the constant pragmatic adaptation of institutions and structures, the Convention School is well equipped to shed light onto the critical struggles that make welfare markets change their character over time. Lisa Knoll shows that important debates within welfare economics itself can be analyzed as a cycle of criticism over the question of how the state should and should not intervene. Economic debates do not appear as a monolithic bloc in Lisa Knolls work, but as an outcome of constant struggles over the question of justice. Market interventions, such as social impact bonds are deeply connected to state and governance structures and to something, Lisa Knoll and Eve Chiapello call “welfare conventions”. Lisa Knoll highlights in her work, how struggles over the welfare or justice question are deeply inscribed into the institutional repertoire of governance. When new welfare market instruments become institutionalized, they are confronted with an institutional legacy they need to transform and compromise. The process of implementation is thus far from obvious and full of critique from different sites. Together with Konstanze Senge, Lisa Knoll shows how the German brake on debt gets confronted by more entrepreneurial/ neoliberal styles of public sector accounting that are carried with instruments such as the energy performance contract.

Furthermore, Lisa Knoll illuminates the cycles of re- and depolitization within the process of market-making. The private, technical and natural aura of markets gives the particular institutional structures an apolitical pretense, which is constantly confronted by moments of critique and repolitication.[1] Lisa Knoll’s work is impregnated by thoughts of Laurent Thévenot on the regimes of engagement or Luc Boltanski on modes of action. She highlights the dynamic process of critique and critique avoidance in different parts of her work. The moments of de- and repolitization of markets often arise in moments of quantification, evidence-building and commensuration (the very moments of depolitization). Lisa Knoll, with reference to the work of Alain Desrosières, puts great emphasis on showing how the avoided struggles over justice reappear in moments of quantification/ commensuration (for example, the emission rights allocation in carbon markets, or the contract negotiations of social impact bonds and energy performance contracts). The Convention School of Economics particularily highlights the historical and political character of statistics and metrics. In the work of Lisa Knoll the disputes over these techniques play a pivotal role and she connects these questions to the subject of de- and repolitization of markets.

[1] In an interesting side-way, Lisa Knoll discusses how this is also true for the subject of gender. The maneuvers of naturalization can be observed as maneuvers of depolitization with different phenomena.

 

Review of: Valérie Boussard (ed.) (2017): Finance at work

Bardet, Fabrice (2020)

Revue française de socio-économie no 24

EXTRAIT

«La perspective de sociologie du travail défendue est l’héritière incontestable de l’école française en la matière. Masquée par la langue anglaise – malgré une directrice d’ouvrage et une majorité de contributeurs francophones –, cette tradition sociologique apparaît rapidement au cœur de cet ouvrage collectif. À l’heure de la standardisation du champ des sciences sociales sur des normes issues de l’univers anglophone, cette promotion, en anglais, d’une tradition sociologique « régionale » fait vivre une pluralité de regards sur la financiarisation au sujet de laquelle les points de vue étatsuniens sont déjà très influents. Elle alimente ce faisant une influence française dont l’analyse a été produite par l’une des promotrices les plus reconnues de la sociologie de la financiarisation – contributrice de l’ouvrage – qui estime que l’acte fondateur de ce champ de recherche fut la rencontre de l’école française de l’économie des conventions avec la tradition anglaise de la « comptabilité critique ». Le rôle de la dynamique sociologique française pourrait avoir été, dans ce rapprochement, d’autant plus important qu’Alain Desrosières, qui fréquentait l’un et l’autre de ces deux cercles académiques, travaillait alors à leur jonction à travers son projet d’une « sociologie des quantifications ». Cet ouvrage fournit notamment une occasion de considérer la véritable école de « sociologie des comptabilités » que constitue depuis des années la comptabilité critique anglaise.»

EXTRACT

«The perspective of sociology of work defended is the indisputable heir of the French school in this field. Masked by the English language – despite a director and a majority of French-speaking contributors – this sociological tradition quickly appears at the heart of this collective work. At a time when the field of social sciences is being standardized on norms from the English-speaking world, this promotion, in English, of a “regional” sociological tradition gives life to a plurality of views on financialization, about which American points of view are already very influential. In so doing, it feeds a French influence whose analysis was produced by one of the most recognized promoters of the sociology of financialization – a contributor to the book – who believes that the founding act of this field of research was the meeting of the French school of economics of convention with the English tradition of “critical accounting”. The role of French sociological dynamics in this rapprochement may have been all the more important since Alain Desrosières, who frequented both of these academic circles, was working at the junction between them through his project of a “sociology of quantification”. This book provides an opportunity to consider the true school of “sociology of accounting” that has for many years been the English critical accounting school”.»

Dualité des conventions de la valeur et marchandisation de l’université

Harari-Kermadec, Hugo/Porcherot Raphael (2020)

Revue française de socio-économie no 24, pp. 63-80.

RESUME

“Si la marchandise capitaliste est la forme dominante de la richesse dans la société contemporaine, elle n’est pas exclusive. À partir de l’hypothèse que l’université, après d’autres services publics, subit des transformations qui l’amènent à s’inscrire dans cette forme dominante, nous suivons les dispositifs qui soutiennent cette évolution. Nous nous inscrivons dans une approche constructiviste de la valeur, qui doit être produite et soutenue comme représentation de la richesse pour permettre l’émergence, au niveau institutionnel, d’un marché de l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche, mais aussi se déployer au sein même des établissements pour réorganiser la production. Ce sont les dispositifs de quantification du travail universitaire que nous proposons d’analyser ici comme vecteurs d’extension du domaine de la valeur sur la production et la transmission des connaissances.”

The duality of value conventions and the commodification of university. 

ABSTRACT

“The capitalist commodity is the dominant form of wealth in today’s society, but it is not the only one. We use the commodification of higher education and research as an experiment to observe the devices that support such a transformation of social form. This is a constructivist approach to value: value has to be constructed and supported as a representation of wealth to produce a market of higher education and research at an institutional level. However, it is mainly on the level of production within organizations that we examine its construction and effects. We study methods of quantification of academic work as a means of extending this commodity fetishism to the production and transmission of knowledge.”

The entrepreneur’s dream: credit card history between PR and academic research.

Kusz, Orsi (2020)

In: Östling, Johan/Olsen, Niklas/Heidenblad, David Larsson (eds.) (2020): Histories of Knowledge in Postwar Scandinavia. Actors, Arenas, and Aspirations. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 127-151. Open Access.

9780367894559

EXTRACT

“Transactions of knowledge and boundary work

Although I am writing about a failed book project, this is not merely a study on why circulation of knowledge may not be successful. While trying to reveal blockages, I also show how knowledge circulated during the process of researching, discussing, writing, and commenting the book. I use two analytical concepts to make sense of my empirical material. First, I propose the concept transactions of knowledge, which relates to the notion of circulation of knowledge5 but highlights an oft-overlooked aspect. Circulation stresses the importance of how knowledge takes shape and how it is transformed while moving in society. Now, the movements of knowledge sometimes take the form of hybrid exchanges based on both economic and other values. What was knowledge worth for the different actors? Which transactions were imagined, proposed, realised, or hindered? Which forms did knowledge take in these transactions? Hence, with the concept of transaction, I highlight the exchanges between actors operating along different logics of value, within different “orders of worth”, as originally defined by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot. I am interested in how – in relation to which order of worth – the actors justified their “investments” in the production, distribution, and exchanges of knowledge. The relevant orders of worth in this case are: (1) the market order of worth; (2) the one I choose to refer to as the scholarly order of worth (a version of what Boltanski and Thévenot denote “inspirational”); and (3) the civic order of worth (which in my case refers to general societal ideas, morals, and ideologies).” (p. 128)

«Aux origines de la rareté»

Radio session on France Culture 12 June 2020 with André Orléan. Podcast online

La science économique pose traditionnellement la rareté à la base de la rivalité économique entre les hommes. Mais peut-on envisager l’inverse ? Que la rivalité soit première et institutionnalise la rareté ? De Smith à Sartre, quel est le visage de la rareté ?

« Toute aventure humaine, au moins jusqu’ici, est une lutte acharnée contre la rareté”. Voilà ce qu’écrit Jean-Paul Sartre en 1960 dans la Critique de la raison dialectique. Comment passer en effet de la rareté à l’abondance ? Voilà un problème économique qui a interpellé les plus grands penseurs, d’Adam Smith à Keynes en passant par Walras.

“Pour Keynes comme pour Marx, le capitalisme fait partie de la préhistoire de l’humanité. Chez eux, le capitalisme est même un état assez déplorable mais qui est nécessaire pour l’advenue d’une société d’abondance.” (André Orléan)

To the origins of scarcity

Economic science traditionally lays scarcity at the root of economic rivalry between men. But can the reverse be envisaged? That the rivalry is primary and institutionalizes scarcity? From Smith to Sartre, what is the face of scarcity?

“Any human adventure, at least up to now, is a bitter struggle against scarcity”. This is what Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in 1960 in the Critique of Dialectical Reason. Indeed, how can we go from scarcity to abundance? This is an economic problem that has challenged the greatest thinkers, from Adam Smith to Keynes to Walras.

“For Keynes as for Marx, capitalism is part of the prehistory of humanity. For them, capitalism is even a rather deplorable state, but necessary for the development of an affluent society.” (André Orléan)

The Quest for an Adequate Test: Justifying the Sustainable City as an Order of Worth.

Holden, Meg (2020)

Sustainability, 12(11), pp. 1-19.

“The sustainable city represents an ideal of good and just living that has inspired urban development work for at least 25 years. While criticized by many for its scientific, social and political vagueness, the concept of the sustainable city has nonetheless continued to frame material and political efforts in urban redevelopment. From a perspective grounded in the pragmatic sociology of critique, this article takes this phenomenon as evidence of an international movement to generate not just political pronouncements or technical fixes, but a new order of worth, from the concept of the sustainable city. After presenting the pragmatic sociology of critique and the application of this body of social research as it pertains to better understanding sustainable urban development, we reflect on the factors that challenge the acceptance of the sustainable city as an order of worth, or as a mode and manner of justifying significant decisions in the public domain, recognizable and understandable to a majority. For efforts to create the sustainable city to justify themselves, socioculturally, in this way, the work demands a clear test of worthiness. This article illustrates the search for an adequate test through a review of two distinct efforts to generate new systems of assessment for sustainable building projects, and points out the contrasting nature of these two tests: one which aims to be accessible to thoroughgoing public debate fit to transform a context toward a political discourse of urban sustainability as well-being; the other that interprets the need for a test as affirmation of expertise related to the unfolding climate emergency.”

A pragmatic redefinition of value(s): Toward a general model of valuation.

Heinich, Nathalie (2020)

Theory, Culture & Society. Online first.

ABSTRACT

This paper is intended to draw the main theoretical lines of the notion of value, in order to avoid some flaws in the quantitative surveys on values as well as in some qualitative studies of value judgements. Through a number of redefinitions based on a pragmatic approach, inspired not only by Dewey’s concept of ‘valuation’ but also by the new French pragmatic sociology and by the pragmatist trend in linguistics, it tries to specify the conditions under which sociology can address the notion of ‘value’ while avoiding their reduction to scholarly supports for morals or normative guides for action and evaluation. Meanwhile, it tries to construct a unified concept of value that would work for all the concerned disciplines: not only sociology but also economics, psychology, anthropology, and even philosophy.

EXTRACT

“Entering the issue of value through evaluative acts is a fundamental condition of the pragmatic approach. It means passing from the value of an object to the close observation of the operations by which actors actually manifest the value they assign to this object (Brosch and Sander, 2016; Heinich, 2017). It thus means focusing on acts (including this particular act called a ‘speech act’ as studied by pragmatic linguistics: Austin, 1955; Goffman, 1981) and not only on mental representations. Those acts implement what John Dewey called a ‘valuation’ (Dewey, 1939), that is, an attribution of value, which can be both positive (valorization) or negative (devalorization). In other words, value is obtained by action, in the process of qualification or requalification. This process has been introduced in the agenda of economic science by the French economic school called ‘économie des conventions’, where the notion of ‘qualification’ is central in the analysis (Eymard-Duvernay and Thévenot, 1983; Eymard-Duvernay, 1986; Callon, 2009). It implies that the actor, far from passively evaluating a given object, actively participates in its very definition: that is ‘exactly what Dewey was after as he used the word “valuation”, against the dualist one of evaluation’ (Hennion, 2015: 48). Here the new French economic school meets Dewey’s pragmatist approach around the notion of ‘qualification’, as a possible equivalent of ‘valuation’ (Trébuchet-Breitwiller, 2015: 171–2). In such a reversed perspective, value is no longer intrinsic to an object, and it is no longer the cause of the various forms of value attribution: rather it becomes the result of these valuations.” (p. 3-4)

Urbane Kleingärten im Fokus von Stadtentwicklung. Übersetzungen eines mehrschichtigen Stadtraumes

Thomas, Nicola (2020)

Sub/Urban 8(1/2), pp. 11-34. Open access.

ABSTRACT

Kleingärten in verdichteten europäischen Städten sind zunehmend Druck ausgesetzt, ihre Existenz und ihr Nutzungsrecht gegenüber alternativen Ansprüchen zu legitimieren. Als Problem wird dabei artikuliert, dass sich die Kleingartenareale auf städtischem Boden befinden und damit ein grünes Allgemeingut darstellen, allerdings nur von einer begrenzten Anzahl von Pächter_innen genutzt werden. Damit wird eine private Nutzung auf öffentlichem Land postuliert. Aufbauend auf einer qualitativen Untersuchung zu Kleingartenumnutzungen in Hamburg und Basel und dem Wertordnungskonzept des Soziologen Laurent Thévenot, argumentiert der Aufsatz für die Begrenztheit dieser Sichtweise. Stattdessen werden Kleingärten als spezifischer grüner Stadtraum, der zwischen privaten und öffentlichen Grenzziehungen zu verorten ist und vielfältige Bezüge erlaubt, konzeptualisiert. Der Artikel folgert, dass Planungskonflikte um Kleingärten Ausdruck der Übersetzungen von persönlichen Raumbezügen in ein politisches issue sind und als Verhandlungen eines mehrschichtigen Raumes als commons zu verstehen sind.

Urban allotment gardens in the focus of urban development. Translations of a multi-layered urban dream

ABSTRACT

Allotment gardens in densifying European cities are increasingly under pressure to legitimize their existence and spatial use in response to alternative spatial claims being made. In this process, allotment gardens are being discussed as existing on publicly owned land and constituting a green commons while at the same time being accessible for a very limited number of users only. Thereby the claim is made that it constitutes private land use on public land. This paper argues for the need to expand this view by analyzing two contested cases of allotment garden redevelopment in Hamburg and Basel. For this matter, qualitative interviews with activists, planners and association representatives and observations from association meetings were analyzed. Based on this empirical material and the orders of worth concept from French sociologist Laurent Thévenot, allotment gardens are conceptualized as multilayered green urban spaces that are located between public and private spatial boundaries and allow for varied attachments. The paper concludes that planning conflicts surrounding allotment gardens are an expression of personal spatial attachments which are translated into a public issue and represent the negotiations of a multilayered green urban space as a common good.

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