Archives de catégorie : Publications / Actualités / News

Reassessing Moral Legitimacy in Times of Instability

Mattia Anesa, Andreas Paul Spee, Nicole Gillespie & Fabio James Petani (2022)

Journal of Management Studies. Open access

Abstract. The presence of conflicting cues about what is legitimate provided by various stakeholders, begs the question of how the legitimacy of contested institutionalized practices is justified. Recent critique of tax minimization strategies exemplifies this difficulty: on one hand, practitioners need to increase shareholders’ profits; on the other, a growing number of stakeholders push for ‘fairer’ corporate tax payments. Conducted during a time of public criticism of Australian corporate tax strategies, our study draws on justifications of corporate tax minimization strategies by senior tax practitioners and corporate submissions to a Senate Inquiry on corporate tax avoidance. The study explores how legitimacy judgements come under pressure by conflicting cues. Through the application of Boltanski and Thévenot’s (2006) Economies of Worth (EW) framework, we advance legitimacy scholarship by clarifying what constitutes situated judgements in times of instability. Our work puts forward the concept of perceived forecasted consensus as a guide for individuals in making situated legitimacy judgements in times of instability.

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La convention d’identité coopérative : création de compromis sectoriels et territoriaux – Analyse critique

The cooperative identity convention: creation of sectoral and territorial compromises – Critical analysis

Amélie Artis, Maryline Filippi et Francesca Petrella (2023)

Revue de la régulation, 34(1). Open access

Résumé. Alors que l’entreprise reste une institution majeure, l’entreprise coopérative demeure encore relativement peu étudiée malgré sa contribution significative et durable aux systèmes économiques. Nous proposons de l’aborder à partir d’une convention d’identité coopérative fondée sur la propriété collective et la gouvernance démocratique. À partir de différentes études de cas, nous dégageons les propriétés de cette convention d’identité coopérative et la manière dont elles entrent potentiellement en tension avec les contraintes sectorielles et territoriales. L’originalité de notre apport réside dans l’analyse de cette convention d’identité coopérative et dans la compréhension de ses ajustements et compromis, à travers une grille analytique, au croisement des logiques sectorielles et territoriales. Notre conceptualisation s’inscrit dans la perspective d’une singularisation de l’entreprise coopérative dans une lecture institutionnaliste.

Abstract. While the firm remains a major institution, the cooperative firm remains relatively understudied despite its significant and enduring presence in economic systems. In this article, we highlight the specificity of cooperatives based on a convention of cooperative identity founded on collective ownership and democratic governance. Using case studies, we reveal how the cooperative identity convention and the search for equilibrium caught in sectoral and territorial constraints are expressed. The originality of our contribution lies in the analysis of the cooperative identity convention and the highlighting of adjustments and compromises at the crossroads of sectoral rules and territorial logics. Our conceptualization is in line with the idea of singling out the cooperative enterprise in an institutionalist interpretation.

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Conventions, markets and industry evolution: the example of the wind turbine industry in Germany 1977–2021

Max-Peter Menzel (2023)

Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. Online first, open access

Abstract. Markets are drivers of evolutionary change. They link social norms to the evolution of an industry. The study uses a process tracing approach to identify two mechanisms of this link. The first mechanism describes how different conventions change the construction of markets. The second mechanism describes how the changing principles of evaluation influence the resource construction of firms and thus the life cycle of the industry. The empirical example is the wind turbine industry in Germany from 1977 to 2021. The development of the industry can be divided into different phases shaped by different conventions, each affecting market construction and industry evolution in different ways.

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コンヴァンシオン経済学と価値づけの射程

Values, Valuation, and Economics of Convention

Special issue of The quarterly journal of economic studies, 40, 1-4, 2022

Masafumi Yokemoto: Forms of Valuation and Ethical Values in Contemporary Capitalism: A Case Study on the Regeneration of Pollution-devastated Areas

本稿は, コンヴァンシオン理論を参照することによって, これまで筆者が論じてきた「地域の価値」の概念や公害地域再生の意義を, より深く理解することを目的とする. 理論的には, 主にボルタンスキーらによる価値づけの諸形態の議論に依拠しつつ, ネグリらを含む認知資本主義論の枠組みも適宜援用する. 本稿で取り上げる事例は, 熊本県水俣市における「もやい直し」などの取り組みと, 岡山県倉敷市水島地区における公害訴訟和解後のまちづくり(とくに「みずしま地域カフェ」と公害資料館づくり)である. これらを「地域の価値」を構築しようとする試みとして位置づける. 本稿の考察を通じて明らかになったのは, 公害を含む「困難な過去」(difficult past)を避けずにむしろ積極的に向き合いつつ, それを価値に反転させていくことの重要性である. 公害被害を受けた地域では「困難な過去」をどう解釈するかをめぐって, 異なるコンヴァンシオンの間の対立がしばしば生じてきた. しかし本稿の考察によれば, 「過去」の意味づけを反転させることによって対立を無効化するとともに, 「地域の価値」を再構築しうる可能性がある. また, コンヴァンシオン理論に依拠しつつ, 公害地域の再生に向けた現代的戦略を提示しうる, という展望も示された.

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the concept of “regional value” and the significance of the rehabilitation of polluted areas, which have been discussed by the author, by referring to the convention theory. Theoretically, the paper mainly relies on the discussion of various forms of valuation by Boltanski et al. and also draws on the framework of cognitive capitalism theory including Negri et al. The cases discussed in this paper are the “moyai kaoshi” and other efforts in Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, and the community development after the settlement of a pollution lawsuit in the Mizushima area of Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture (especially the “Mizushima Community Cafe” and the creation of a pollution museum). These are positioned as attempts to construct “community values”. What has become clear through the discussion in this paper is the importance of not avoiding the “difficult past”, including pollution, but rather actively confronting it and turning it into value. In pollution-affected areas, conflicts between different conventions have often arisen over how to interpret the “difficult past”. However, according to the discussion in this paper, there is a possibility to nullify the conflict and to reconstruct the “value of the region” by reversing the meaning of the “past”. The paper also offers the prospect of presenting a contemporary strategy for the revitalization of polluted areas, relying on the convention theory.

Kota Kitagawa and Yu Kurosawa: Conventionalists’ Constructive Investigation and Ethical Role

本稿は, コンヴァンシオン経済学には, 偉大な先駆者がつくった類型や図式に当てはめて観察対象を理解する, あるいは, 諸事例をもとに分類を増やしてゆくといった「分類学」とは異なる「構成的研究」があることを主張する. それを構成的とよぶのは, 調査等の実践を通じて, 研究に用いられる概念や分析の枠組みを構成(ときに再構成)するとともに, 研究を通じて, 関係する人々が変容していく(つまり再構成されていく)ことも含んでいるからである. くわえて, 本稿は, 私たち(コンヴァンシオン派の研究者)がこの構成的な研究手法を通じて, 経済学のコミュニティの外で倫理的役割を果たすことができると主張する.

Abstract. This paper argues that there is a “constructive research” in the field of convention theory, which is different from the “taxonomy” of understanding the observed objects by applying them to the types and schemes created by the great pioneers, or by increasing the number of classifications based on various cases. The reason why we call it constructive research is that it includes not only constructing (and sometimes reconstructing) the framework of concepts and analysis used in the research through surveys and other practices, but also transforming (i.e., reconstructing) the people involved in the research through the research. In addition, this paper argues that we (researchers of the Conventionalist school) can play an ethical role outside the economics community through this constructive research method.

Junya Tatemi and Taizo Yamamoto: Theoretical Consideration on Values and Valuation: A Perspective of Economics of Convention

本稿では, コンヴァンシオン経済学における価値づけというテーマの展開を明らかにするべく, 価値づけ論の概念的要約, 価値論の検討, 価値づけの権力という概念の導入, 搾取概念の再定義について整理をおこなった. コンヴァンシオン経済学の観点から価値づけの基本的な契機をまとめると以下の3点になる. 1. 価値とは価値づけの作業の結果であるが, その作業は, 一般的に共有される基準を具体的状況において引照し, 解釈し, 利用してなされる実践である. 2. 複数の価値基準が存在する. 3. 経済的価値と規範的諸価値という分断は棄却される. コンヴァンシオン経済学はアクターが有する政治的能力を強調することで, コーディネーション概念を(価値)判断のコーディネーションへと拡張し, 規範的な意味での諸価値に重要な位置づけを与える. そしてこのことを通じて, 価値基準の制定および諸物の価値づけをめぐる権力の所在(「価値づけの権力」)や, 労働・分配の問題(搾取)といった政治経済学的な論点を分析の俎上に載せる. そこでは, 搾取は, 客観的価値の計算の論理的帰結ではなく, まさにアクターの政治的能力がかかわる正当化や批判の言語として再定義され, また価値づけの権力の問題として捉え直されることになるのである.

Abstract. In this paper, in order to clarify the development of the theme of valuation in convention  theory,  an introduction of the concept of the power of valorization, and a redefinition of the concept of exploitation are presented. The following three points summarize the basic opportunities of valuation from the viewpoint of the theory of economics of convention. 1.  Value is the result of the process of valorization, which is a practice of referring to, interpreting, and using generally shared criteria in concrete situations 2. There are multiple value criteria. 3. The division between economic and normative values is rejected. By emphasizing the political capabilities of actors, the concept of coordination is extended to the coordination of (value) judgments, giving an important place to values in the normative sense. Through this, political economy issues, such as the location of power over the establishment of value standards and the valuation of things (“the power of valorization”), and the issues of labor and distribution (exploitation), are placed on the chopping block of the analysis. There, exploitation is redefined not as a logical consequence of the calculation of objective value, but as a language of justification or criticism involving the political capacity of actors, and is redefined as a problem of the power of valorization.

 

Sociologie du marketing

Sociology of marketing

Kevin Mellet (2023)

Repères n°810, Paris: La Découverte.

Présentation. Le marketing regroupe un vaste ensemble de métiers, de savoirs et d’outils, qui étend son emprise sur nous. Mais qu’est-ce que le marketing ? Comment s’est-il construit, diffusé, imposé ? Qui sont ses professionnels, ses spécialistes ? Comment influencent-ils l’économie et la société ?
Depuis une quarantaine d’années, des sociologues se sont intéressés au marketing qui, comme discipline et ensemble de techniques et savoir-faire opérationnels, a continué de se développer et de se spécialiser au fil des décennies. L’objectif de cet ouvrage est de présenter les principaux apports de ces travaux et de les associer aux concepts voisins de la sociologie (la consommation, le marché, l’entreprise, la culture).
Rédigé dans un style accessible, cet ouvrage offre un regard original et réflexif sur ce domaine, complémentaire des cours d’introduction et de spécialisation en marketing, ainsi que des manuels de sociologie de la consommation.

About the book. Marketing brings together a vast array of skills, knowledge and tools, and is extending its grip on us all. But what is marketing? How was it created, disseminated and imposed? Who are its professionals and specialists? How do they influence the economy and society?
Over the past forty years or so, sociologists have taken an interest in marketing, which, as a discipline and a set of operational techniques and know-how, has continued to develop and specialize over the decades. The aim of this book is to present the main contributions of this work, and to link them to related sociological concepts (consumption, the market, the company, culture).
Written in an accessible style, this book offers an original, reflective look at the field, complementing introductory and specialist marketing courses, as well as consumer sociology textbooks.

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Extrait et table des matières / Extract and table of contents

The Genesis of Economics and Sociology of Conventions at the Turn of the 1970s and 1980s

Thomas Amossé (2023)

In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Guillemette de Larquier (eds.), Handbook of economics and sociology of conventions. Cham: Springer, Online first

Abstract. This chapter presents, in the form of a historical account, the genesis of economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC). Three levels of presentation are distinguished – institutions, people, and ideas – which place the founders’ initial intuitions in the professional (scientific and administrative) environment of France in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The idea of “conventions,” both a heuristic concept and a theoretical notion, emerged from a double confrontation with official statistical data and categories and with models of the economic literature. This gradual development benefited from a favorable institutional framework within the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) and then from public research centers. It is the fruit of a generational core of six economists – also public statisticians and a public engineer for five of them – who, with a mathematical background, shared an openness to the human and social sciences. Their meeting constituted the first matrix of the multidisciplinary network that EC/SC has become.

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Wie Beschäftigte zu Verantwortungsträgern gemacht werden – und warum das nicht zu weniger Ausbeutung führt. Über den Diskurs und die Techniken

How employees are made responsible – and why this does not lead to less exploitation. About the discourse and techniques

Hermann Bueren (2023)

Telepolis (Online Magazin) 16 August 2023

Einleitung: „Die Erweiterung der Arbeitsaufgaben, die im IBM-Werk in Endicott das Problem der Störungen im Produktionsfluss beseitigen sollte, war im Grunde ein untauglicher Lösungsversuch. Denn solange die Beschäftigten sich trotz vergrößerter Arbeitsbereiche nicht als verantwortlich für Unterbrechungen der Produktion betrachten, taucht das Problem von Maschinenstopps, Ausfallzeiten und nicht ausgelasteten Kapazitäten immer wieder auf. Stillstände aller Art sind aber in einem kapitalistischen Unternehmen das Worst-Case-Szenario schlechthin: Sie stellen die Betriebsabläufe auf den Kopf und vermindern den Mehrwert. “Folglich”, schreiben die Sozialwissenschaftler Luc Boltanski und Eve Chiapello mit Blick auf die Frage, die Unternehmensleitungen und Management zu lösen hatten und bis heute haben, “ist es nunmehr von grundlegender Bedeutung, das Bedienungspersonal so auszubilden, dass es eine behelfsmäßige Wartung gewährleisten, Pannen antizipieren und diagnostizieren und im Bedarfsfall zügig Fachpersonal heranziehen kann. Die Arbeiter für die “Gesundheit” der Maschinen in die Verantwortung zu nehmen, ist also unerlässlich geworden.” (Luc Boltanski, Eve Chiapello: Der neue Geist des Kapitalismus, Konstanz 2003, S. 123)“

Introducction: “The expansion of work assignments intended to eliminate the problem of disruptions in the flow of production at IBM’s Endicott plant was essentially an ineffectual attempt at a solution. For as long as workers do not consider themselves responsible for interruptions in production, despite enlarged work areas, the problem of machine stoppages, downtime, and underutilized capacity will recur. However, stoppages of all kinds are the worst-case scenario par excellence in a capitalist enterprise: they turn operations upside down and reduce added value. Consequently,” write the social scientists Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello, referring to the issue that company management has had to solve, and continues to have to solve today, “it is now essential to train operators to ensure makeshift maintenance, to anticipate and diagnose breakdowns, and to quickly call in specialized personnel when needed.” Making workers responsible for the “health” of machines has thus become essential.” (Luc Boltanski, Eve Chiapello: The New Spirit of Capitalism, Konstanz 2003, p. 123)”

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Plurality in urban politics. Conflict and Commonality in Mouffe and Thévenot

Veikko Eranti & Taina Meriluoto (2023)

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Online first, open access

Abstract. In this article we introduce a pragmatist interpretation of agonistic pluralism and develop this into an analytical framework that is applied to the analysis of urban conflicts. In the article, we take stock of contemporary critical and radical urban scholarship, our aim being twofold. First, we substantiate Chantal Mouffe’s notion of agonistic pluralism with tools from French pragmatic sociology. We suggest that, in a democracy, plurality emerges both as a plurality of conflict manifested in the variety of possible ways to identify injustices, and formulate and justify claims in public struggles, and a plurality of commonality, manifested in different logics by which a ‘we’ can be formed and action coordinated so as to solve issues without resorting to physical violence. Secondly, by applying the developed conceptualization of plurality to an ongoing urban conflict concerning an airport, we showcase the value of the approach for identifying and analyzing different forms and phases of actually existing political conflicts, and for recognizing their meaning for democracy.

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Green or roasted coffee? How a collective of organic producers challenges the quality construction by overseeing quality attributes, relational approaches and knowledge

Xiomara F. Quiñones-Ruiz & Camilo A. Salcedo-Montero (2023)

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 21(1)

Abstract. This paper studies the conditions under which quality conventions in coffee can be revised. It shows how value is captured by a collective composed by Colombian producers overseeing coffee quality attributes, engaging in relational approaches and building knowledge with international buyers. Interviews were conducted with selected organic producers in Santa Marta, Colombia and buyers (e.g. in Germany, the Netherlands). Due to the sound relations between the staff of the producer organization and a German buyer, the manager of the collective proposed to also export roasted coffee in addition to green coffee. Although roasting at origin is not common in coffee exports, in the case analyzed existing hesitations were abandoned. Eye-level relationships, trust based on a relational approach and knowledge were key to achieving a collective quality construction and subsequent value capture by producers. Over time, these producers have improved their material quality techniques and become more familiar with the places where their coffee circulates and is valued, allowing them to influence the commercial spheres of the coffee business. The discussion is not about changing quality conventions, but on how quality conventions are institutionalized and the narratives behind them.

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Justifying the bored self: On projective, domestic, and civic boredom in Danish retail banking

Erik Mygind du Plessis & Sine Nørholm Just (2022)

Organization, 29(5), pp. 917–937

Abstract. In the wake of the financial crisis, Danish retail bankers have experienced a marked increase in mundane administrative tasks, which do not conform to what they expect their work lives to be. Seeking to understand how the bankers cope with this, the paper conducts a qualitative inquiry into the identity work of Danish retail bankers, focusing on the ways in which they reconcile experiences of boredom with their work-identity. Drawing on pragmatic sociology, this reconciliation is conceptualized as individual justifications of boredom through different orders of worth. The paper identifies three justifications of boredom: (1) Projective boredom posits boring administrative tasks as unwanted and problematic. This justification is generally in line with currently dominant empirical and theoretical accounts of the financial sector and finds no justification for boredom, seeking, instead, to eliminate it. (2) Domestic boredom justifies the boring tasks as a duty performed by the humble and respectable banker, who is concerned with their status in the local community and whose sense of pride has been damaged by the many scandals in the sector. Finally, (3) civic boredom justifies boredom as a sacrifice made by the selfless banker who acts in the interest of the common good, understood as a more responsible, and less greedy, financial sector. Here, the meaninglessness of specific tasks is transcended in the service of a higher purpose, which helps the individual sustain an identity as a solidary professional.

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La contamination du secteur de l’alphabétisation par les référentiels de l’insertion socio professionnelle, au miroir du recours contraint à la formation.

The contamination of the literacy sector by socio-professional integration benchmarks professional integration, in the mirror of forced recourse to training.

Josua Gräbener 2023

Conference paper, presented at the Réseau de l’Association Française de Sociologie: Protection sociale, politiques sociales et solidarités, 5 July 2023 at Lyon.

 

EXTRAIT
“Le premier objectif de cette communication est purement analytique : il propose une contribution à l’explication de certains processus à l’œuvre dans le champ de l’alphabétisation en Belgique francophone, ici la satellisation du monde civique dans le monde marchand. Le deuxième objectif est programmatique : il propose une stratégie de contre-offensive basée sur les ressources qu’offre le monde industriel. Dans les deux cas, l’intérêt d’une présentation en panel constitué de spécialistes des politiques sociales est de recueillir des suggestions théoriques et méthodologiques pour affiner l’analyse et le projet d’enquête qui en découle. […]
En 2012, Bernard Fusulier et David Laloy publient un rapport d’évaluation du secteur de l’alphabétisation en Belgique francophone. Construit sur le cadre théorique de la sociologie des conventions, il conclut notamment à la coexistence de plusieurs “mondes” ayant chacun leurs régimes de grandeur irréductibles.” (p. 1/2)
EXTRACT
“The first objective of this paper is purely analytical: it proposes a contribution to the explanation of certain processes at work in the field of literacy in French-speaking Belgium, in this case the satellisation of the civic world in the commercial world. The second objective is programmatic: it proposes a counter-offensive strategy based on the resources offered by the industrial world. In both cases, the advantage of a panel presentation by social policy specialists is to gather theoretical and methodological suggestions for refining the analysis and the resulting survey project. […]
In 2012, Bernard Fusulier and David Laloy published a report evaluating the literacy sector in French-speaking Belgium. Built on the theoretical framework of the sociology of conventions, it concludes in particular that several “worlds” coexist, each with their own irreducible regimes of grandeur.” (p. 1/2)

Download link: https://conventions.hypotheses.org/files/2023/09/Grabener-2023.pdf

Achieving active inclusion in an industrial community? Appropriating working-class culture in the local activation of unemployed

Jon Sunnerfjell (2023)

Culture and Organization, 29(2), Open access, pp. 175–189.

Abstract. As a way of managing the challenges posed by automation, relocation of production, and economic crises, the Western welfare states have sought to implement so called active societies fostering changeable and self-reliant citizens able to navigate flexible capitalism responsibly. Increasingly, this plays out at the local level. Under the banner of active inclusion, a sense of community is here thought to turn the unemployed and presumably excluded into active and productive citizens. Drawing on much-needed ethnographical observations from a local activation scheme situated in a former industrial community, this article highlights the difficulties of implementing the active society locally. Employing Boltanski and Thévenot’s ‘worlds of worth’ framework, it is shown how the management of the operations sought to balance the fostering of employable individuals with maintaining institutionalised community obligations. Ultimately, the article raises questions of the ideals inherent in the active society policy orientation, and what tensions it entails.

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Liminale Kreativität. Praktiken kleinster Transformationen in der Produktion von Soundalikes

Liminal Creativity. Practices of Smallest Transformations in the Production of Soundalikes

Konstantin Hondros (2023)

Marburg: Büchner Verlag. Open access.

ÜBER DAS BUCH. Neue Produkte herzustellen, die bereits existierenden bis zur Verwechslung ähneln, verlangt von Kreativen den paradoxen Spagat zwischen Neuheit und Bekanntheit auf die Spitze zu treiben. Gerade Auftragszusammenhänge der Kreativwirtschaft können die Produktion ähnlicher Artefakte einfordern und dem Wunsch nach Einzigartigkeit widersprechen, der Gegenwartsgesellschaften angeblich auszeichnet. Diese bewerten das Besondere, das Werk als kreativ und stellen ihm Kopien oder Plagiate gegenüber, die als unkreativ gelten. Die Analyse intentionaler Produktionen von Ähnlichkeit öffnet hier den Blick auf die vielfältige und von Unsicherheiten geprägte liminale Kreativität der Versionen. Fallbeispiele der Herstellung von Soundalikes zeigen anhand von Beobachtungen, Interviews und Gerichtsfällen, wie ästhetische, rechtliche, wissenschaftliche und wirtschaftliche Grenzziehungen musikalisches Versionieren anleiten. Kreative nutzen Kombinationen kleinster Transformationen, um Musikprodukte einer Referenz anzunähern und von ihr zu entfernen, und produzieren dabei Artefakte im Graubereich zwischen Werk und Plagiat.

ABOUT THE BOOK. Producing new products that resemble existing ones to the point of confusion requires creatives to push the paradoxical balancing act between novelty and familiarity to the extreme. The very commissioning contexts of the creative industries can demand the production of similar artifacts and contradict the desire for uniqueness that supposedly characterizes contemporary societies. These evaluate the special, the work as creative and contrast it with copies or plagiarisms, which are considered uncreative.
Here, the analysis of intentional productions of similarity opens the view to the diverse liminal creativity of versions, marked by uncertainties. Case studies of the production of soundalikes use observations, interviews, and court cases to show how aesthetic, legal, scientific, and economic boundaries guide musical versioning. Creatives use combinations of minute transformations to approximate and distance musical products from a reference, producing artifacts in the gray area between work and plagiarism.

Auszug: „Für die Debatte um Wertordnungen sind Überlegungen des französischen Pragmatismus anleitend, insbesondere Boltanskis und Thévenots Über die Rechtfertigung (2007), die sich unter dem Forschungsansatz der Konventionenökonomie fassen lassen (Diaz-Bone, 2011, 2015). Dieser Ansatz ist damit befasst, einen soziologischen und auch heterodox ökonomischen Blick auf das neoklassisch dominierte Feld des ökonomischen Handelns zu werfen (Jagd, 2004) und kollektivistische (soziologische) und individualistische (rational wirtschaftswissenschaftliche) Perspektiven zu verknüpfen.  Wesentliches Erkenntnisinteresse Boltanskis und Thévenots ist, wie Einigung in Momenten des Konflikts, wie Kooperation in unsicheren Situationen gelingt, den critical moments. Ebenso gilt es aber aufzudecken, wie solche Situationen Kritik erlauben. Konsens und Konflikt sollen nicht als Opposition aufgefasst, sondern als ‚eng zusammenhängende Momente ein und desselben Handlungsverlaufs‘ (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2007, S. 45) behandelt werden. Um Einigungen ohne Gewalt zu erzielen, greifen Akteurinnen in ihren Rechtfertigungen und ihrer Kritik auf übergeordnete Prinzipien zurück, die Konventionen, Wertordnungen, wobei ich im Folgenden den zweiten Begriff nutze, um Wertordnungen von Beckers Konventionen als künstlerische Handlungsanleitungen abzugrenzen.“ (S. 83)

Extract: “For the debate on value orders, considerations of French pragmatism are guiding, especially Boltanski’s and Thévenot’s On Justification (2007), which can be subsumed under the research approach of convention theory (Diaz-Bone, 2011, 2015). This approach is concerned with taking a sociological and also heterodox economic look at the neo-classically dominated field of economic action (Jagd, 2004) and linking collectivist (sociological) and individualist (rational economics) perspectives.  Boltanski’s and Thévenot’s main research interest is how agreement is reached in moments of conflict, how cooperation succeeds in uncertain situations, the critical moments. But it is equally important to uncover how such situations allow for criticism. Consensus and conflict should not be understood as opposition, but treated as ‘closely related moments of one and the same course of action’ (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2007, p. 45). In order to reach agreements without violence, actors’ resort in their justifications and their critique to overriding principles, conventions, value orders, although in the following I use the second term to distinguish value orders from Becker’s conventions as artistic manuals.” (p. 83)

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The Pragmatic and Democratic Approach to State as a Convention Between Persons

Robert Salais (2023)

In Rainer Diaz-Bone & Guillemette de Larquier (eds.), Handbook of economics and sociology of conventions. Cham: Springer, Online first

Abstract. The economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) distinguishes, to better understand their difference and interaction in social processes, the conventions of coordination between persons and institutions that aim at regulating the economy and the society from the center. In the case of the state, the chapter chooses as basic assumption the antecedence of conventions of coordination between persons over institutions of regulation. The term democracy comes directly from the Greek word demokratia, composed of two words demos and kratos. The Greek term demos at its origin means a territory inhabited by a community and, by extension, the people living in this territory. Conventions are the language of the demos and rules the language of the power. Anything can become language and make sense as soon as it is shared and understood by all members of a community. The so-called state is at the crossing of these two languages in that, for defining and implementing common goods, the members of the community should find a compromise between the two. One calls this compromise a convention of the state. One grasps the plurality of conventions of the state by looking at the state they refer: external state, absent state, and situated state. However, in ever-changing processes, one can never exclude new and unpredictable variants. New Public Management, political uses of performance indicators, etc. today lead to manipulate basic statistical concepts and tools. The channels from citizens to powers are cut, what one can call a-democracy.

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Towards a Pragmatic and Pluralist Framework for Energy Justice

Erik Laes, Gunter Bombaerts & Andreas Spahn (2023)

Philosophy and Technology, Open access, online first

Abstract. The three-tenet model, which focuses on ‘distributional justice’, ‘procedural justice’, and ‘justice as recognition’, has emerged as the most influential framework in the field of energy justice. Based on critical reviews of the three-tenet model, we identify three challenges that the model currently still faces: (i) a normative challenge on the grounding of the three-tenet model in philosophical theories; (ii) an ‘elite’ challenge on the justification of the use of power in energy-related decision; and (iii) a practical challenge on the application of the three tenets in situations of conflicting justice demands. In this article, we provide the basic contours of a three-step pluralist and pragmatic dialogue model for questions of energy justice that addresses the three challenges, based on the ‘commonwealth model’ of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot. The model proposes to create moral legitimacy in the face of plural demands for energy justice by engaging actors in an inclusive dialogue based on an explicit recognition of Boltanski and Thévenot’s commonwealth model. We thereby make three contributions to the existing literature on energy justice. First, the commonwealth model’s rootedness in normative political theory provides a stronger philosophical underpinning than was available up till now in the literature (challenge 1). Second, it allows one to go beyond the (almost exclusive) focus on injustices perpetrated on disempowered or marginalised groups, to include questions on the justified exercise of power (challenge 2). Third, the commonwealth model shows us practical ways out of situations where conflicting demands for justice are being made (challenge 3).

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