Archives de catégorie : Publications

Towards the (Re)Making of Public Space?

Simon Susen (2026)

Berlin Journal of Critical Theory, 10(1). Open access

Abstract. This article provides a critical analysis of Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre’s The Making of Public Space: News, Events and Opinions in the Twenty-First Century (2025 [2022]). While their earlier work, Enrichment: A Critique of Commodities (2020 [2017]), is situated within economic sociology, their latest book – originally published as Qu’est-ce que l’actualité politique? Événements et opinions au XXIe siècle (2022) – marks a significant shift towards political sociology, broadly conceived. The article contends that The Making of Public Space represents a highly original contribution that will further consolidate the considerable influence of Boltanski and Esquerre’s collaborative work on cutting-edge debates and research agendas in the contemporary social sciences. In particular, the book makes a strong case for examining the relationship between processes of ‘turning into current affairs’ [processus de mise en actualité] and processes of politicization [processus de politisation]. The analysis is structured in two main parts. The first part summarizes the central arguments advanced by Boltanski and Esquerre in The Making of Public Space. The second part offers a careful assessment of the book’s principal limitations and suggests possible ways to address them.

Extract. “Given the thematic focus of their study, it is not surprising that the concept of public space [espace public] is central to Boltanski and Esquerre’s investigation. The two authors make it clear, however, that their analysis is not founded on a ‘normative definition of public space’ or attached to a particular political philosophy. Rather, their approach is inspired by the bottom-up spirit of the ‘pragmatic sociology of critique’. In accordance with this outlook, Boltanski and Esquerre are committed to shedding light on ‘the implicit notions underlying the competences that people draw on in order to act’ when navigating everyday life. Far from treating these competencies as transcendental faculties, removed from the experiential realms of spatiotemporal contingencies, Boltanski and Esquerre regard them as ‘historically and socially situated ontologies’.” (p. 8)

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(Re)Inventing influence: valuation and justification in the influencer marketing industry

Arturo Arriagada and Matías Valderrama (2025).
In: Journal of Cultural Economy, online first, pp. 1–17.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17530350.2025.2559312

ABSTRACT
“This article examines how influencer marketing companies and their algorithmic tools define and measure ‘influence’ in Latin America. Drawing on Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s ‘orders of worth’ framework, and based on case studies and interviews with executives from three Chilean companies, the study analyses how these firms deploy digital quantification practices to identify, monitor, and manage influencers. The findings show that agencies seek to calculate influencers’ value through opaque indicators, pricing structures, and monitoring systems that remain largely invisible to content creators. Despite the volatility, lack of regulation, and risks that characterise the industry, these companies promise brands greater certainty by offering algorithmic tools that select, control, and evaluate influencers. Far from acting as neutral intermediaries concerned only with brand safety, agencies actively shape influencer practices by setting expectations, defining performance metrics, and enforcing pricing standards-often to the detriment of creators. By tracing how agencies justify and operationalise metrics to assign value to influencer labour, the article highlights how processes of quantification reproduce asymmetrical relations of power. It argues that these dynamics undermine influencers’ agency whilst consolidating the dominance of platforms and intermediaries in the wider influencer economy.”

Value struggles and place: Looking at tradition, authenticity, and heritage through the wine glass

Stefano Ponte (2025)
In: Competition and Change, online first, pp. 1-24.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10245294251399855

Abstract. Wine is one of the most fragmented and diversified agro-food industries in the global economy, and one that is not yet utterly dominated by large corporate interests. It is also where all sorts of antagonisms to the power of capital are happening, and where the expansion of uniform and branded offerings is counterbalanced by alternative discourses and practices that attempt to instil appreciation for how ‘place’ can deliver a large range of different wines. At the same time, a large proportion of wine has industrial and ‘placeless’ qualities – just like in many other commodities circulating globally through value chains. In this article, I draw on the sociology of value to explore how different ‘worlds of valuation’ shape the ways place becomes a site of value struggles in wine, particularly through contested notions of tradition, authenticity, and heritage. I conclude that capital accumulation along value chains is based not only on superior bargaining power and regulatory and institutional setups that benefit capital against smaller producers and labour but also on the normative work around conflicting worlds of valuation related to place.

Visualising state-led gentrification in Tāmaki, Auckland

Morgan Hamlin (2025)

Visual Studies, online first, pp. 1-20.

Abstract. This article examines how artist-activists deglamourised the large-scale Tāmaki regeneration programme and visualised the impact of state-led gentrification in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Extending Laurent Thévenot’s sociology of engagements to the analysis of visual data, I argue that familiarity, as a type of valuation, can be evoked effectively to critique gentrification. The positive aspects of state-led gentrification can make it difficult for housing activists to justify their arguments and expose the negative effects of a redevelopment/regeneration project. However, in the case of the Tāmaki regeneration, the artist-activists used images of gentrification to reveal displacement and the privatisation of state housing. Analysing interviews, public exhibitions, and researcher-produced images, I highlight the important role that visual activism and research plays in resisting and documenting state-led ‘positive’ gentrification.

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The Transformation of Conventions for Artistic Quality. The Case of the One Percent-for-Art Program in France (1951-2022)

Christian Bessy (2025)

Œconomia [En ligne], 15-3 | 2025, Online and Open access

Abstract. From the very first years of its creation in France, the public commissioning system known as the 1% artistic contribution (to the cost of construction) has been the subject of much criticism, fueling controversy surrounding contemporary art and the denunciation of avant-garde academicism. This article departs from this critical sociology of cultural policy, based on the hypothesis of a plurality of conventions for evaluating the quality of public commissions. By taking a historical perspective (1951-2022), the analysis of artistic quality conventions provides a privileged vantage point from which to observe changes in the aims of this regulatory mechanism and the criticisms to which it is subjected. The text begins by characterizing each of the three periods distinguished with reference to a dominant quality convention supported by a certain type of market intermediary. In the fourth part, it offers a summary, showing the specific nature of each of these conventions, according to different characteristics, as well as their interrelationship.

Résumé. Dès les premières années de sa création en France, le dispositif de la commande publique dit du 1% artistique (du coût de la construction) a fait l’objet de nombreuses critiques qui ont alimenté les controverses autour de l’art contemporain et la dénonciation d’un académisme d’avant-garde. Ce texte s’éloigne de cette sociologie critique de la politique culturelle à partir de l’hypothèse d’une pluralité de conventions d’évaluation de la qualité de la commande publique. En retenant une perspective historique (1951-2022), l’analyse par les conventions de qualité artistique constitue un point d’observation privilégié des évolutions des finalités de ce dispositif réglementaire et des critiques dont il fait l’objet. Le texte commence par caractériser chacune des trois périodes distinguées en référence à une convention de qualité dominante portée par un certain type d’intermédiaire marchand. Dans une quatrième partie, il propose une synthèse en montrant la spécificité de chacune de ces conventions, suivant différentes caractéristiques, ainsi que leur intrication.

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Vocational Education and Training as a Research Topic for Convention Theory: A Historical and Comparative Perspective

Philipp Gonon & Cristian Imdorf (2025)

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

Abstract. Vocational education and training (VET) has been discovered as a field of research for economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) since the turn of the century, first in France and Switzerland and then in other countries. The dispositive of VET is mainly based on civic, industrial, and market orders of worth as shown in historical debates and studies summarized in this chapter. This historical approach makes it possible to trace the role and importance of competing orders of justification, promoted by various actors, in particular industry and the state. Moreover, an interregional and international comparative perspective helps to identify several quality claims for VET that are crucial for the development of a VET system. The current form of a VET is dependent on historical pathways, which are based on different often nationally specific values and orders of worth. Nevertheless, VET research based on EC/SC could be extended to a broader theory and more complex studies by integrating more actor- and dispositive-centered perspectives in order to gain a deeper understanding of VET.

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Propriétés et économies entre matériel et immatériel XVIe-XXIe siècle

Properties and savings between tangible and intangible assets, 16th-21st centuries

Michela Barbot, Christian Bessy et Anne Conchon (dir.) (2025)

Vincennes: Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique (Open access)

A propos de l’ouvrage. Quel est le point commun entre le canal de la Loire à l’Yonne, un tableau de Jean-François Millet, un immeuble à Milan et un étang de Camargue ? Ces biens appartiennent tous à une personne physique ou à une institution. Les chapitres de ce livre envisagent la genèse et les évolutions d’un large éventail de régimes de droits, qu’il s’agisse de la propriété éminente, utile ou divisée, des fidéicommis, des maîtrises de métier, des privilèges pour l’Ancien Régime, des fonds de commerce, du domaine royal puis public, ou encore, pour la période la plus récente, des droits de reproduction et de suite d’un artiste ainsi que des conséquences des « droits » à polluer et à prélever des ressources naturelles. Les contributions de cet ouvrage apportent ainsi un éclairage historique sur les mutations contemporaines des différents droits régissant les propriétés matérielles et immatérielles.

About the book. What do the Loire-Yonne Canal, a painting by Jean-François Millet, a building in Milan, and a pond in Camargue have in common? They all belong to a natural person or an institution. The chapters in this book examine the origins and evolution of a wide range of legal regimes, including eminent domain, beneficial ownership, divided ownership, trusts, trade guilds, privileges under the Ancien Régime, business assets, royal and then public property, or, in more recent times, artists’ reproduction and resale rights, as well as the consequences of “rights” to pollute and extract natural resources. The contributions in this book thus shed historical light on contemporary changes in the various rights governing tangible and intangible property.

Extrait: “Structuré en trois parties, cet ouvrage pose la question de la définition des droits de propriété, et de leur caractère plus ou moins tangible, à partir des processus d’accumulation et de transmission des actifs, de leur régulation et des modes d’évaluation qui sont mis en œuvre par des professionnels. Si chaque partie traite plus particulièrement d’un type d’opération, tous les textes les abordent d’une façon ou d’une autre, du fait de l’interdépendance entre ces processus. Cette présentation permet d’articuler différentes échelles d’analyse et de bien mettre en évidence les pratiques des acteurs intermédiaires. De ce point de vue, l’esprit de cet ouvrage s’inscrit dans une méthodologie proche du « structuralisme pragmatique » défendu par Luc Boltanski et Arnaud Esquerre dans leur essai Enrichissement présentant la structure des formes conventionnelles de mise en valeur des choses. Néanmoins, à la différence de ces sociologues, les contributeurs de ce volume mettent la focale sur la définition des droits de propriété qui rendent possibles ces formes de valorisation (droits qui restent un angle mort dans l’ouvrage précité) en se centrant autant sur les questions de la transmission de la richesse que sur les processus de sa formation et les politiques de redistribution.” (Michela Barbot, Christian Bessy et Anne Conchon, Introduction générale)

Excerpt: “Structured in three parts, this book examines the definition of property rights and their more or less tangible nature, based on the processes of asset accumulation and transfer, their regulation, and the methods of valuation used by professionals. While each part deals more specifically with one type of transaction, all the texts address them in one way or another, due to the interdependence between these processes. This presentation makes it possible to articulate different levels of analysis and to highlight the practices of intermediary actors. From this point of view, the spirit of this book is in line with a methodology close to the “pragmatic structuralism” advocated by Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre in their essay Enrichissement, which presents the structure of convention-based forms of valorization of things. Nevertheless, unlike these sociologists, the contributors to this volume focus on the definition of property rights that make these forms of valorization possible (rights that remain a blind spot in the aforementioned work), concentrating as much on issues of wealth transmission as on the processes of its formation and redistribution policies.” (Michela Barbot, Christian Bessy, and Anne Conchon, General Introduction)

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Digital teaching and engagement in Nordic contemporary settings: tensions in educational practices

Eli Smeplass & Jan Frode Haugseth (2025)

Technology, Pedagogy and Education, pp. 1-19

Abstract. This study examines digital teaching experiences among upper-secondary students and adult vocational teacher students, drawing on Laurent Thévenot’s sociology of engagements and Michèle Lamont’s sociology of valuation and evaluation. Using a mixed-methods design, the authors analyse survey responses from youth in Norway and Sweden alongside interviews with vocational teacher students in Norway. The findings show how social, material and emotional contexts influence participation in digital education, highlighting tensions linked to reduced social interaction, adaptation to digital tools and balancing personal learning preferences with institutional expectations. While many participants reported loss of motivation, connection and structure, others valued the flexibility and calm afforded by digital formats. The authors propose a context-sensitive understanding of digital engagement that acknowledges the plurality of students’ attachments and call for pedagogical strategies that accommodate varied modes of participation across different educational levels and professional contexts.

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An Adjusted Framework: Approaching Music with a Plurality of Practices in Mind

Schwegler, Guy (2025):

In: Rainer Diaz-Bone & Andreas Lehmann-Wermser (eds.), Perspectives on Music after Bourdieu. Contributions from Music Education and Sociology of Music. Cham: Springer, pp. 211-243.

Abstract. The contribution takes up Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual framework of three parts—habitus, field, and capital—and adjusts it. Habitus as the first part of the framework is adapted to the perspective of a plural habitus, introduced by Bernard Lahire. This perspective highlights a heterogeneous socialization process of individuals. From there, consequence for the other two parts of the framework are drawn and adjustments are proposed. Field analysis is already in Bourdieu’s thinking open to multiplicities and intersections. However, the concept of fields itself becomes more and more problematic when a plural habitus is considered. For the third part of the framework, new questions of worth arise that the limited, structural principles of capital cannot explain easily. The adjustment presented here realign the framework as a thinking and research tool to start with a plurality in mind when analyzing cultural production. These arguments are introduced alongside the empirical case of experimental electronic music. In this subsector of the field of music, scientific practices seem to be present within the work of musicians, most apparent in references to theories from the social science and humanities. Such a presence illustrates new values for musical production, distribution, and consumption. The adjusted framework enables an appropriate analysis of the different practices and the new values.

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Distinction, Discourses, Conventions and Valorization—Neostructuralist and Neopragmatist Perspectives for the Sociology of Music

Rainer Diaz-Bone (2025)

In: Rainer Diaz-Bone & Andreas Lehmann-Wermser (eds.), Perspectives on Music after Bourdieu. Contributions from Music Education and Sociology of Music. Cham: Springer, pp. 145-190

Abstract. Sociology of music is strongly influenced by the work of Pierre Bourdieu for several decades now. The chapter introduces Bourdieu’s main concepts and focuses on the neostructuralist methodology of field analysis. It is argued that the analysis of musicals worlds is most substantially proceeded by employing field analysis. It is probably precisely because of his influence that Bourdieu’s theoretical perspective and his methodology are also subject to fundamental criticism. This includes the questions of a non-reductionist explanation of the value of culture and of the relative autonomy of cultural discourses as well as the needed inclusion of agency and objects in cultural analysis. Also, criticism has pointed to the plurality of logics of quality and orders of justification (instead of the assumption of field structures and habitus as the only structuring principles). Neostructuralist and neopragmatist objections against Bourdieusian positions are introduced and perspectives to advance field analysis are introduced. For this, the neopragmatist approaches of Howard S. Becker and of the “economics and sociology of conventions” (in short EC/SC) are employed to work out a neopragmatist-neostructuralist perspective. Especially EC/SC has gained its own standing and contributed to cultural analysis in general but also to sociology of music in particular.

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Mehr Aushandlung als Ansage: Führung als Situation gedacht

More negotiation than announcement: Leadership conceived as a situation

Anna Maria Wittorf & Arjan Kozica (2025)

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für angewandte Organisationspsychologie. Online first, open access, pp. 1-10.

Zusammenfassung. Dieser Beitrag in der Zeitschrift „Gruppe.Interaktion.Organisation“ (GIO) schlägt vor, Führungssituationen als dichte soziale Arenen zu analysieren, in denen feldspezifische Konventionen sichtbar werden. Anstatt Führungsbeziehungen isoliert zu betrachten, wird die Situation betrachtet, in der sich Akteure koordinieren, um ein gemeinsames Ziel zu erreichen. Auf Basis der Soziologie der Konventionen wird argumentiert, dass Akteure in Führungssituationen auf unterschiedliche Konventionen („Welten“) zurückgreifen, um Handlungen zu legitimieren und Machtverhältnisse auszuhandeln. Der Beitrag führt die Situationsanalyse als Methode ein, um komplexe Führungsinteraktionen systematisch zu erfassen und Konventionen bzw. Handlungslogiken sichtbar zu machen. Zudem lassen sich so Dynamiken innerhalb von Führungsbeziehungen sowohl empirisch als auch heuristisch-praxisorientiert herausarbeiten und es wird möglich, den Einfluss von feldübergreifenden Umwelteinflüssen – etwa durch Digitalisierung oder Wertepluralisierung – auf Führungssituationen differenziert zu analysieren. Der Beitrag unterstreicht ein neues Verständnis von Führung als situative, geteilte Praxis, die sich in der Aushandlung von Konventionen und Interessen zwischen Akteuren zeigt.

Abstract. This article in the journal “Gruppe.Interaktion.Organisation” (GIO) proposes analyzing leadership situations as dense social arenas in which field-specific conventions become visible. Instead of viewing leadership relationships in isolation, the article considers situations in which actors coordinate to achieve a common goal. Based on the sociology of conventions, it is argued that actors in leadership situations draw on different conventions (“worlds”) to legitimize actions and negotiate power relations. The article introduces situation analysis as a method for systematically recording complex leadership interactions and making conventions and logics of action visible. In addition, this allows dynamics within leadership relationships to be identified both empirically and heuristically in a practice-oriented manner, and makes it possible to analyze the influence of cross-field environmental influences—such as digitalization or value pluralization—on leadership situations in a differentiated manner. The article emphasizes a new understanding of leadership as a situational, shared practice that manifests itself in the negotiation of conventions and interests between actors.

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De l’État défaillant à l’État en personne. Les conventions de l’état dans la reconstruction après-séisme de l’Apennin Central (Italie)

From a failing state to the state in person. State conventions in post-earthquake reconstruction in the Central Apennines (Italy)

Laura Centemeri, Veronica Macchiavelli & Davide Olori (2025)

Année sociologique, 252(2), pp. 135-170

Résumé. Dans la recherche sur les catastrophes, l’analyse de la gouvernance est appréhendée au travers de deux conventions de l’État : l’État extérieur, imposant sa vision du bien commun ; et l’État absent, qui laisse les acteurs se coordonner par le marché. Après les séismes de l’Apennin central en 2016-2017, le gouvernement a confié la reconstruction à un Commissaire extraordinaire, agissant en tant qu’État extérieur tout en favorisant une coordination située. Face à la complexité politique et administrative de la tâche, ce dispositif a abouti à une impasse renforçant une convention de l’État défaillant. Il s’est mis à fonctionner quand le Commissaire nommé a su mobiliser, en s’appuyant sur une forme de légitimité charismatique tant dans les relations avec le gouvernement central qu’aux autres échelles, une convention de l’État en personne.

Abstract. Research on disasters approaches the governance of reconstruction through two conventions of the State: the external State, when the State imposes its vision of the common good from above, and the absent State, when the State allows actors to coordinate themselves through the market. After the 2016-2017 earthquakes of the Central Apennine, the task of governing the reconstruction was entrusted to a “Special Commissioner” who was expected to act as an external State while at the same time supporting situated State action. Given the political and administrative complexity of the post-earthquake situation, this model of governance led to an impasse that reinforced a convention of the failing State. It began to work when the appointed Commissioner convincingly mobilized, with the support of both the central government and regional and territorial actors, a convention of the State in person, based on a form of charismatic legitimacy.

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The valuable coordination of sponsored international education in a modern developmental state

Kieve Stone Saling (2025)

Higher Education, online first

Abstract. This study utilizes a novel analytical framework to examine large-scale development-focused scholarship programs for international higher education. The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) is systematically analyzed here utilizing its 2013–2022 annual reports. Applying the orders of worth approach, LPDP’s claims and justifications towards the common good are studied, alongside the organization’s changing policies and practices. Investigation focuses on the perceivable but uncertain value of these programs for the modern developmental state and LPDP’s efforts to overcome these ambiguities. Findings highlight challenges related to the dominant share of justifications based in human capital theory (HCT). In parallel, justifications based in nationalist sentiments have grown, as have project-centered assertions of worth. These findings are analyzed; the varied inspirational and nationalist rationale LPDP forwards and undertakings it delineates to support its claims are detailed. Reflecting on LPDP’s shifting justifications, the discussion introduces “valuable coordination,” an emergent conceptualization which nuances and problematizes narrow HCT-based understandings of education for development. The paper concludes by reviewing its findings towards better understanding the societal embeddedness of scholarship programs and how harmonization might be improved. In furthering these aims, it suggests future research into Indonesian actors’ reception of LPDP’s justifications.

Table 1 Code frequencies – shading by row indicates relative strength of coded OW across years

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Innere Führung und die Sozialisation zur Staatsbürgerin und zum Staatsbürger in Uniform

Internal leadership and socialization to become citizens in uniform

Peter Buchner (2025)

In: Elbe, Martin/Kümmel, Gerhard/Steinbrecher, Markus (eds.), Militärische Sozialisation. Anpassungsprozesse zwischen Militär und Gesellschaft. Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 269-291

Zusammenfassung. Das Leitbild der Staatsbürgerin und des Staatsbürgers in Uniform ist die Sozialfigur der Inneren Führung als Organisationskultur der Bundeswehr. Ausgehend von den althergebrachten Vorstellungen über Soldatentum wird hier die Frage beantwortet, wie solche Staatsbürger in Uniform sozialisiert werden müssen. Dazu wird der Sozialisationsbegriff als pädagogisches Basiskonzept diskutiert und insbesondere zum Erziehungsbegriff hin abgegrenzt. Auf der Grundlage der nach-Bourdieuschen französischen Soziologie der Kritik wird Innerer Führung ein Handlungsregister gerechtfertigten Handelns zugeschrieben, das das althergebrachte Handlungsregime der Hingabe ablöst. Ziel der Sozialisation muss es sein, die Staatsbürger in Uniform im Handlungsregime des gerechtfertigten Handelns fest zu verankern, indem sie Reflexion als Bildungsideal verinnerlichen.

Abstract. The model of the citizen in uniform is the social figure of inner leadership as the organizational culture of the German Armed Forces. Based on traditional ideas about soldiering, this article answers the question of how such citizens in uniform must be socialized. To this end, the concept of socialization is discussed as a basic pedagogical concept and, in particular, distinguished from the concept of education. Based on post-Bourdieusian French critical sociology, Inner Leadership is attributed a register of justified action that replaces the traditional regime of devotion. The goal of socialization must be to firmly anchor citizens in uniform in the regime of justified action by internalizing reflection as an educational ideal.

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Legitimacy Tests: Theorizing legitimacy as justification work

Gerardo Patriotta, Grace Augustine & Maxim Voronov (2025)

Organization Theory, 6. Online first, open access

Abstract. Legitimacy tests occur when an event – such as an organizational accident, revelations about unethical business practices, or the detection of potentially harmful products – calls into question the conformity of an organization’s modus operandi with the expectations of its evaluating audiences. In this paper, we draw on the concept of justification work to improve our understanding of how legitimacy tests arise, evolve and are eventually settled. Specifically, we theorize how legitimized higher-order principles (orders of worth) are mobilized through discursive and material account giving during legitimacy tests. Our framework emphasizes the process of complexifying accounts as legitimacy tests evolve, which can serve to decrease the initial polarization between challengers and focal organizations. Furthermore, we theorize the conditions that affect whether or not a legitimacy test becomes settled, such as social actors’ competence in mobilizing appropriate orders of worth and aligning situational evidence with established societal categories of value.

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