Archives de catégorie : Séminaires & conférences / Seminars & workshops

EC/SC Panel at the 28th Congress of the Austrian Association for Sociology in Graz (July 2, 2025)

Report by Jakob Gasser (University of Graz) and Frithjof Nungesser (University of Graz)

From June 30 to July 2, 2025, the biennial Congress of the Austrian Association for Sociology (ÖGS) took place at the University of Graz (Austria). Part of the extensive and diverse program was a panel (a so-called “ad-hoc group”) on the “Sociology and Economics of Conventions”. By providing insights into some current theoretical and empirical developments, the panel aimed to present the EC/SC approach to the Austrian sociological community, where it is not yet widespread compared to other countries. The panel, which took place on the morning of July 2, was organized by Jakob Gasser and Frithjof Nungesser, both from the Department of Sociology at the University of Graz. Following a short introduction by the organizers, the panel featured three presentations by Julia Brandl, Valeska Cappel, and Eva Nadai/Anna Gonon.

Speakers and organizers of the EC/SC panel. From left to right: Anna Gonon, Julia Brandl, Valeska Cappel, Eva Nadai, Jakob Gasser, and Frithjof Nungesser

Julia Brandl from the Department of Human Resource Management & Employment Relations at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) kicked things off with a presentation entitled “The Art of Compromise: Challenges and Solutions in the Implementation of Rules in the Corporate Context”. In her talk, Julia Brandl addressed the question of how the EC/SC approach can help to explain the actions of actors within organizations during phases of regulatory change. In doing so, her presentation concentrated on the theoretical concept of compromise. Drawing on the work of Boltanski and Thévenot, Brandl argued that a compromise enables different actors to respond jointly to a situation—even when they hold contradictory positions. A compromise represents a temporary agreement that ensures various modes of action are equally integrated and viewed as legitimate. As it becomes embedded in organizational structures and boundary objects, and through the actor’s daily commitments, such a compromise can be stabilized in the long term.
After outlining the theoretical framework, Julia Brandl applied the concept to an empirical case—the reform of personnel evaluations in the German armed forces (the Bundeswehr). In 2008, the central service regulation governing performance appraisals in the German Bundeswehr was revised. The background to this reform was that, under the existing evaluation system, an increasing number of soldiers were receiving high ratings, which made it increasingly difficult to justify promotion decisions. The new system required superiors to rank their subordinates within an ordering system. Additionally, they were allowed to issue top evaluations only in exceptional cases. This reform represented a critical moment within the organization: In order to avoid conflicts, the involved actors developed a compromise that balanced the functional requirements of the new evaluation system and the responsibility toward those being assessed. The new rules were jointly documented and communicated transparently. Interestingly, the compromise also rested on a system of managing expectations, whereby soldiers with poor evaluations were placated with the prospect of improved ratings at the time they became eligible for promotion. Thus, in her presentation, Julia Brandl demonstrated how in the process of regulatory change multiple goals of different organizational actors can be integrated by means of compromise.
The second presentation was given by Valeska Cappel from the Department of Sociology at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland). The topic of the talk was “Digital Health Classifications Between Justification and Engagement: Regime Change in the Use of Health Apps”. Drawing on a qualitative study of health apps use, Valeska Cappel demonstrated that innovations and technologies do not determine how actors actually use them. Although it is undoubtedly important to consider the history of the development of health apps or the potentially conflicting interests of tech companies, health insurance providers, and data protection authorities (which Valeska Cappel briefly outlined at the beginning), this is not enough to understand the concrete and varied use of these apps. Rather, actors actively shape how these technologies are used—often beyond their originally intended functions.
In order to analyze how health apps are used in practice, Valeska Cappel combined the EC/SC perspective with Thévenot’s concept of “regimes of engagement.” By means of this concept, Laurent Thévenot captures in an exploratory manner the manifold forms of engagement with the environment. Within this framework, justification appears only as one regime of action among others. If actions are situated within the regime of familiarity or the regime of planned action, for example, they are not linked to a broader common good and do not claim generalizability. Building on this framework, Valeska Cappel illustrated how app users strategically develop ways to either enable or avoid shifts between different regimes of engagement, thus situating themselves in specific relationships to health apps, their categories and standards of evaluation. While some use the app for preventive health purposes, others rely on it for self-management (e.g., tracking calorie intake or sleep patterns). Still others use the app outside its original scope, for instance, for social interaction or navigation. By drawing on both EC/SC concepts and the regimes of engagement, Valeska Cappel contributed valuable insights into how digitalization processes succeed or fail in everyday contexts.
The panel was concluded with a presentation by Eva Nadai and Anna Gonon from the School of Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, who shared their insights into “Distribution Systems for People Affected by Poverty from a Convention Theory Perspective.” Based on a qualitative long-term study on households affected by poverty in Switzerland funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the researchers’ presentation explored two main questions: Which distribution systems are available to those affected by poverty in order to obtain consumer goods? How do the people affected by poverty actually use these systems?
With regard to the first question, the researchers found that those affected by poverty have three main distribution systems at their disposal: In addition to the system of the profit-oriented market, the dominant system for society in general, they also make use of the secondary distribution system of the “charity economy”, which provides those affected by poverty with donated basic goods free of charge or at a symbolic price. In addition, some of the people in the sample also use online peer-to-peer platforms on which second-hand goods are sold, lent, or given away for free by private individuals. Drawing on the EC/SC approach, Eva Nadai and Anna Gonon interpret these systems as compromises between different coordination logics, specifically between the market convention, the ecological convention and the philanthropic welfare convention. They also emphasize that access to the different systems is regulated by specific tests and formats. If, for example, the neediness of the persons is tested, this format implies the separation of poor and non-poor consumers and thus also a determination of the value of the actors.
With regard to the second question, Eva Nadai and Anna Gonon showed that the use of these different distribution systems is determined not only by the availability of economic means, but also by competent and flexible use of these systems. For example, those affected by poverty make strategic use of certain budget brands and discounts, which often requires precise local knowledge and exact timing of purchases, thus involving these individuals in the regime of planned action. An important aspect of (non-)use of the systems is the associated risk of shame and humiliation. While this often results in the non-utilization of services such as food banks, at least in some contexts, coping with this is made easier by the social revaluation of using second-hand goods or avoiding waste. Even if those affected do not typically employ environmental justifications themselves, Eva Nadai and Anna Gonon argued, the growing prominence of the green world in society may help reduce the risk of embarrassment and humiliation.
Overall, the panel once again demonstrated the diversity of research topics and analytical possibilities opened up by the EC/SC – especially through interdisciplinary exchange. In addition, all contributions showed how productive it is to consider both the plurality of justifications and the diversity of regimes of engagement and to integrate these two conceptual frameworks with each other.

New Social Pragmatism: Politics of Engagements, Conventions and (E)valuations

University of Helsinki, May 8-9, 2025

In a world increasingly torn apart by mistrust, polarization, and tensions between and within nations, local contexts and groups, it becomes pertinent to ask how societies are made possible. How to build commonality, solve conflicts and adjust different ways of relating and belonging to the world? How to create and maintain mutual understanding and build common ground without excluding or taming down differing voices? How to create, change, and maintain societies based on multiple modes of valuation and plural conceptions of the common good?

These questions open avenues for analysing key cultural and political trends in today’s societies including processes of politicization, participation, and marginalization. Understanding the processes in which common ground is found – or lost – requires an approach that is anchored in situations, chains of events, and processes. It also emphasizes the material world not only as an immobile context, but a dynamic, and mobilizable, part of people’s efforts to live together.

The Centre for Sociology of Democracy (CSD) organizes the New Social Pragmatism Conference to bring together theoretical and empirical analyses that build on and develop pragmatist approaches on societal and political action. These approaches focus on practices, habits and patterns of action that build communities, societies and through those, our democracies.

Keynote speakers:
Rachel Brahy is University Lecturer at the University of Liège, Belgium.
Her approach expands from her work on the socio-anthropology of experience and public spaces towards building further theoretical tools to address sensitive, often non-discursive experiences. Brahy draws from the pragmatist theorizing by Laurent Thévenot, Laura Centemeri, and others, and has recently addressed the concept of resonance by Hartmut Rosa and to discuss the questions of presence and enchantment.
Isaac Ariail Reed is Professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, US. He is a historical and cultural sociologist whose recent work has concentrated on power and transitions to modernity. He draws on Arendt and American pragmatism to theorize the questions of agency, signification, authority, delegation, and modernity. He is one the authors and editors of New Pragmatist Sociology (2022).

We invite both theoretical and empirical presentation drawing from pragmatist, pragmatic, and cultural sociology. Potential topics for papers include, but are not limited to:

  • Research on political participation and social movements
  • Theory development within pragmatist, neopragmatist and pragmatic sociology on how to build commonalities and solve conflicts
  • Novel theoretical combinations
  • Sociology of (e)valuation, and its potential and existing connections with neighbouring intellectual movements
  • Urban questions and broader role of material environments
  • Commonalities between humans and nonhumans
  • Theoretical and empirical approaches to environmental questions and activism

Submit your 200-word abstract by March 21, 2025 here: https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/133731/lomakkeet.html

We also welcome panel suggestions.

We aim to have the notification of acceptance of papers by March 15th. Conference attendees will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation. Conference fee including lunches is 40 eur for PhD candidates and 60 eur for others. If you have any difficulties to cover these expenses, do not hesitate to contact us. Further information such as practical details will be updated in coming weeks.

Further information:
Professor Eeva Luhtakallio
Coordinator Jutta Juvenius
email addresses firstname.lastname (a) helsinki.fi

Conference is supported by Kone Foundation, Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities and University of Helsinki.

Pre-Workshop session “Applying multiple correspondence analysis in convention theory– practical introduction(s) and exercise(s)”

8 September 2025 (14.00-18.00), at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland
Organized by Julia Brandl (University of Innsbruck, Austria), Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne) and Guillemette de Larquier (University of Lille, France).

Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) is seen as a “best practice” for analyzing quantitative data in EC/SC, however, remains still little used in current research projects. The half-day training session is intended to develop knowledge on convention-theoretical analysis with the help of MCA and provide impulses for participants’ own research projects within the tradition of convention theory. The session consists of two parts: In part 1, the organizers provide a practical illustration of a convention-theoretical analysis with MCA and reflect theory-based decisions for adequate research designs. Comparisons to the uses of MCA in the field-theoretical tradition of Pierre Bourdieu are intended, too. In addition, the suitability of MCA compared to other statistical methods, such as regression techniques (i. e. multi-level analysis or logistic regression), will be discussed. Part 2 offers space for participants to discuss their own research projects and develop ideas for using MCA in these projects. We use round tables for small-group discussions and conclude with a plenary discussion.

We welcome scholars who are experienced with MCA and other statistical methods as well as scholars who have worked mainly with qualitative data.

Scholars who want to participate can register until 31 May 2025 (via email to julia.brandl@uibk.ac.at). Please let us know if you wish to share your research project the group discussion part and provide a ½page summary of the project.

Julia Brandl
Rainer Diaz-Bone
Guillemette de Larquier

Workshop “Doing neopragmatist research – Using and reflecting methods and methodologies in convention theory”

9-10 September 2025, at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland
Organized by Léonie Bisang, Rainer Diaz-Bone, Guy Schwegler (all University of Lucerne) and Kenneth Horvath (University of Teacher Education Zurich).
Laurent Thévenot (EHESS Paris) will be the keynote speaker and special guest.

Over the decades after its foundation in the 1980s around Paris, the approach of economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) has become a well-established and internationally recognized neopragmatist institutionalism. There are several generations of scholars who have applied EC/SC to an increasing extent of topics and scientific fields, resulting in a huge body of research. Accordingly, scholars in the field of EC/SC have begun to systematize, evaluate and reflect on the EC/SC’s achievements, its specificities, and its proper scientific practices. The workshop intends to drive this process of reflection and development forward, focusing on EC/SC’s research methods and practices as well as on its methodological and epistemological positions and contributions.
The topic of methods and methodologies can be related to various aspects such as (1) the more general reflection on characteristics and developments of doing and reflecting about research in the style of EC/SC; (2) the methodological properties of EC/SC as a pragmatist institutional analysis; or (3) the particularities and usages of EC/SC’s methods and methodologies when applied to specific topics and research areas. (4) Also, EC/SC can serve as a framework to consider methodological developments outside in the broader field of social sciences. Below are several examples of questions that could be addressed:

  • How can we plan convention theorist research and unfold a neopragmatist explanation in institutional analysis?
  • What are general principles of neopragmatism and what about their practical consequences for applied research?
  • What would be the special features of empirical convention theorist analysis compared to other institutionalist approaches?
  • How are conventions identified and their dynamics and impacts in situations tracked?
  • Which kind of data can and should be used?
  • How can existing methods be adapted and employed?
  • How should we assess the quality of EC/SC’s empirical research?
  • How can more recent developments, such as digitalization and AI, be incorporated into EC/SC’s research practice, and how can research on their e􀆯ects be conducted?
  • What are the a􀆯ordances of neopragmatist methodological perspectives for understanding and addressing current dynamics and challenges that social researchers face (e.g. the methodological fragmentation of social research)?

Scholars intending to actively participate and to give a presentation in the workshop can contribute with different kinds of presentations. Options include (but are not limited to): (a) discussions of methodological issues or problems related to one’s ongoing research (as PhD projects), (b) presentations of new methods or methodological innovations, and (c) general contributions to methods as well as methodological and epistemological issues. Scholars are invited to send their title and abstract (round about 250 words) until 31 March 2025 (via email to rainer.diazbone@unilu.ch).
Scholars who want to participate without presenting can register until 31 May 2025 (also via email to rainer.diazbone@unilu.ch).
Sessions will be implemented that gather presentations linking the fields of applied research (e.g. labor, education, management/HRM, sustainability/climate change, health, culture) to the questions listed above.
The workshop continues the series of (almost annual) EC/SC workshops. Participants will meet and discuss with experts in the field and can expect valuable and intense exchanges.

Léonie Bisang
Rainer Diaz-Bone
Kenneth Horvath
Guy Schwegler

Regula Julia Leemann’s farewell lecture at Basel

On 21 June 2024, Prof. Dr. Regula Julia Leemann, Professor & Chair of Educational Sociology, gave her farewell lecture at the University of Teacher Education at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) in Basel. With Regula Julia Leemann, one of the key German-speaking representatives of the Economics and Sociology of Conventions (EC/SC) in the field of education is retiring.

Lecture hall at Basel/Muttenz

Over the past 15 years, Regula has been intensively pursuing the reception and empirical application of EC/SC to questions of Swiss educational institutions, partly in collaboration with Christian Imdorf, another scholar in the field of EC/SC. A core result of these endeavors was the edited volume “Bildung und Konventionen” (Education and Conventions) with Christian Imdorf and Philipp Gonon (published in 2019; see https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-23301-3).

In Regula’s last three research projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (“Training networks in practice” with Christian Imdorf, “Specialized middle school as an independent educational pathway alongside vocational training and baccalaureate schools” with Christian Imdorf, and the current project “Governance of transitions in the Swiss education system“, whose proposal was awarded an excellence grant by the SNSF), she also productively applied and further advanced EC/SC in the field of education, generating important insights for educational sociology, teacher training as well as evidence-based education policy.
In 2014 Regula has – together with Julia Brandl (University of Innsbruck) – invented the workshop series “Sociology of conventions” (first time held in Basel). This series has been institutionalized since then and become very important for the establishment of EC/SC outside of France. In sum, Regula’s Team has organized three of these biennial workshops, which bring together researchers from different disciplines to discuss theoretical, methodological and methodological issues relating to the EC/SC.

Leanna

On 21 June 2024, after a long career, Regula Julia Leemann was given a well-deserved farewell. The lecture theatre was filled with many important representatives of German-speaking educational sociology, as well as family and friends of Regula. LEANNA provided the live music for the event. After a welcome address by the head of the Institute, Prof. Dr. Claudia Schmellentin Britz, Prof. Dr. Christian Imdorf gave a speech on the importance of universities of teacher education for the establishment of educational sociology as a reference discipline for teacher training, thereby emphasizing the role of EC/SC in contemporary sociology of education. He paid tribute to Regula’s work and her great commitment, not only to the EC/SC in particular, but also to educational sociology in general. Regula was a persistent advocate of the institutionalization of a sociological perspective in teacher education.

Christian Imdorf

 One expression of these efforts was a handbook on sociology of education for prospective and practicing teachers, which Regula published with colleagues from the Universities of teacher education in Zurich and Bern. The teacher training that Regula and her team initially conducted in seven degree programs in four cantons at seven locations also benefited greatly from the high-quality research projects, Regula has trained and supported “a second Swiss” generation of EC/SC researchers in the field of sociology of education. This way, EC/SC was also productively used and further developed in their dissertations.
In addition to her commitment to teaching, research and the EC/SC, Christian Imdorf also recognized Regula’s dedicated work for the scientific community.
Christian also paid tribute to Regula’s long-standing commitment (2008-2020) to the board of the Education Section of the German Sociological Association. For many years, Regulas chair of sociology of education has been responsible for the monthly newsletter for this section and for the section of educational sociology of the Swiss Society for Sociology. Since 2020, Regula has been a member of the board and treasurer of the latter.
Regulas team then took the opportunity to say goodbye with some personal tributes to the many years of close collaboration and thanked Regula for her tremendous support, encouragement and excellent leadership in both research and teaching over the past 15 years.

Regula’s Team (from the left to the right): Damaris Wittwer, Rebekka Sagelsdorff, Andrea Fischer, Luca Preite, Raffaella Esposito, Sybille Bayard, Sandra Hafner, Fanny Klaffke, Bettina Weller, Jasmin Näpfli, Kim Stäheli.

To conclude, Regula herself gave a speech on the importance of sociology of education for the teacher education. She provided an overview of the most important research findings that have been produced by the staff of the Chair of Sociology of Education in the last years, and showed how these findings can be put to practical and fruitful use in teacher education.
The event closed with a heartfelt and moving thank-you speech from Regula, in which she expressed her gratitude to her relatives and friends, current and former colleagues, professional and personal companions, acquaintances and, in particular, her long-standing team.

Regula Julia Leemann

Sandra Hafner, Raffaella Esposito, Rainer Diaz-Bone

“Vulnerable Societies: Risks and Responses“

At the upcoming congress “Vulnerable Societies: Risks and Responses“ of the Swiss Sociological Association at Basel (9-11 September 2024) two sessions are devoted to convention-theory based presentations.

Workshop: Crises, conflicts, catastrophes – on the relationship between “self-vulnerabilization” and collective capacities for action from a convention theory perspective
– Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne/Switzerland): Sociology of conventions and self-vulnerabilization
– Ross Wallace/Kaya Schwemmlein/Susana Batel (University of Lisbon/Portugal): From place imaginaries to regimes of engagement with alternative energy futures: A report from a Portuguese “sacrifice zone”
– Valentin Rottensteiner (University of Duisburg-Essen/Germany): Conflicting worlds of production: How the strive for supply chain vulnerability creates conflict in the semiconductor industry
– Luca Perrig (University of St. Gallen/Switzerland): Enrolling hackers into a market for cyber-vulnerabilities

Workshop: The Pluralization of Social Knowledge Production and the Paradox of Vulnerability
– Frithjof Nungesser (University of Graz/Austria): Vulnerable Societies: Risks and Responses
– Valeska Cappel (University of Lucerne/Switzerland): Health-Apps: The pluralization of knowledge production and its consequences
– Guy Schwegler & Léonie Bisang (University of Lucerne/Switzerland): Is place the new social? Geodata and the encounter of data worlds
– Walter Bartl (University of Halle-Wittenberg/Germany): Worlds of scientific knowledge transfer

Lien / Link

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

Économie des conventions et politiques sociales

Economics of convention and social policies

Appel à communication

Journée d’étude organisée le 10 novembre 2023 organisée par Olivier Gayot, Guillemette de Larquier & Cécile Vasseur

Laboratoire Clersé – Université de Lille

L’objectif de la journée d’étude économie des conventions et politiques sociales est de réunir des chercheurs et chercheuses de toutes disciplines (économie, sociologie, gestion, sciences politiques…) qui travaillent sur les politiques sociales à partir du cadre théorique de l’économie des conventions (Diaz-Bone et Larquier, 2023). Les propositions de communications peuvent porter, par exemple, sur les transformations du secteur de la santé (Batifoulier, Da Silva et Duchesne, 2019), de la protection sociale (Chiapello et Knoll, 2020), du travail (Larquier et Rieucau, 2019 ; Semenowicz, 2018), de l’éducation (Imdorf, Leemann 2023) ou encore du développement durable (Sébert 2022; Carnoye 2017). »

The aim of the ‘Economics of Convention and Social Policies’ study day is to bring together researchers from all disciplines (economics, sociology, management, political science, etc.) working on social policies within the theoretical framework of the economics of convention (Diaz-Bone and Larquier, 2023). Paper proposals may focus, for example, on transformations in the healthcare sector (Batifoulier, Da Silva and Duchesne, 2019), social protection (Chiapello and Knoll, 2020), labor (Larquier and Rieucau, 2019; Semenowicz, 2018), education (Imdorf, Leemann 2023) or sustainable development (Sébert 2022; Carnoye 2017).

Deadline: 15 Septembre 2023

App oder Arzt?

App or doctor?

Round table with Valeska Cappel

Thursday 25 May 2023, Zurich

Digital wellbeing is a booming market. Mobile applications and increasingly sophisticated algorithms provide competent advice and support for individual fitness goals, but also recommend themselves as sensitive early warning systems for one’s own health. This is accompanied by a host of ethical questions: How do such programs handle the highly sensitive data that make their success possible in the first place? What incentives for behavioral prevention using trackers and apps can be justified? And how serious and accurate are diagnoses made by the virtual health professional?

Lien / Link

Economics and sociology of conventions – Taking stock, Looking ahead

There will be four sessions devoted to economics and sociology of conventions at the upcoming 12th congress “Crises et inégalités: comment habiter le monde de demain?”[Crises and inequalities: how to inhabit the world of tomorrow?] of the French Association of Political Economy (AFEP), 4-7 July in Paris.

Economics and sociology of conventions – Taking stock, Looking ahead (1): “Perspectives of the founders”

  • Olivier Favereau (Paris/France): “The economics and sociology of conventions, a critical theory?”
  • André Orléan (Paris/France): “Où en est l’économie des conventions?”
  • Robert Salais (Paris/France): “Convention et capacités”

Economics and sociology of conventions – Taking stock, Looking ahead (2): “Labor and finance”

  • Guillemette de Larquier (Lille/France): “Labor, conventions and conventions of labor”
  • Julia Brandl (Innsbruck/Austria): “Economics and sociology of conventions in the field of human resource management: taking stock and looking ahead”
  • Lisa Knoll (Paderborn/Germany): “EC and the plurality of finance”
  • Tom Duterme (Louvain-La-Neuve/Belgium): “Standards as reforms. The role of conventions in sustainable finance”

Economics and sociology of conventions – Taking stock, Looking ahead (3): “Value and valorization”

  • Christian Bessy (Paris/France): “Contributions of economics of convention to theories of value and valuation”
  • Samuel Zarka (Paris/France): “The power of valorization. A notion to reconcile political economy and the sociology of work?”
  • Daniel Urrutiaguer (Paris/France): “Art Worlds facing the socio-ecological stakes”
  • Antoine Rieu (Paris/France): “The conventional construction of the economic values of social joint-ventures”

Economics and sociology of conventions – Taking stock, Looking ahead (4): “Methodology and explanatory strategies”

  • Rainer Diaz-Bone (Lucerne/Switzerland): “Methodological positions and perspectives of economics and sociology of conventions”
  • Cécile Vasseur (Lille/France): “Conventions, democracy and social economy”
  • Kenkichi Nagao & Junya Tatemi (Osaka/Japan): “Regional development. How convention theory explains economic development”

Registration deadline: 6 June 2023 : https://afep2023.sciencesconf.org/?forward-action=index&forward-controller=index&lang=en

« L’économie est une science réflexive »

Book presentation at the Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin (Centre Marc Bloch, Germaine-Tillion-Saal, Friedrichstrasse 191, 10117 Berlin)

12 May at 10:00.

https://cmb.hu-berlin.de/kalender/termin/leconomie-est-une-science-reflexive

Annonce. Le Centre Marc Bloch vous invite à un séminaire en honneur de Robert Salais autour du livre ‘L’économie est une science réflexive’.
Présentation par Christian Bessy (ENS Paris-Saclay) et Claude Didry (IDHES-Cachan/CNRS)
Commentaires : Antonin Pottier (EHESS/Wiko Berlin) et Helge Wendt (MPI Histoire des sciences Berlin/Univ Münster)
Si l’œuvre de Robert Salais s’inscrit dans le courant de l’économie des conventions qu’il a contribué à fonder, c’est à partir d’une réflexion singulière articulant ‘détour par l’histoire’, intérêt pour le droit et questionnement philosophique. En cela, l’économie telle que la pratique Robert Salais se présente comme une science réflexive procédant d’un renouvellement constant de ses interrogations, à partir des résultats obtenus. Par son souci d’inscrire les analyses menées sur la France dans une perspective internationale, elle est aujourd’hui largement reconnue.

Announcement. The Marc Bloch Center invites you to a seminar in honor of Robert Salais on the book L’économie est une science reflexive.
Presentation by Christian Bessy (ENS Paris-Saclay) and Claude Didry (IDHES-Cachan/CNRS)
Comments: Antonin Pottier (EHESS/Wiko Berlin) and Helge Wendt (MPI History of Science Berlin/Univ Münster)
If the work of Robert Salais is part of the current of the economics of convention that he helped found, it is from a singular reflection that articulates a ‘detour through history’, an interest in law and philosophical questioning. In this way, economics as practiced by Robert Salais is presented as a reflexive science proceeding from a constant renewal of its interrogations, based on the results obtained. By its concern to place the analyses carried out on France in an international perspective, it is now widely recognized.”

Contact: Sébastien Vannier (sebastien.vannier@cmb.hu-berlin.de)

Lien / Link

Les fondements théoriques de la co-détermination

Theoretical foundations of co-determination

Intervention d’Olivier Favereau au séminaire RESPIR (Recherches en Economie et Socioéconomie Politique, des Institutions et des Régulations) de l’université Paris Nanterre ‘EconomiX)

La discussion sera assurée par Riyad MANSERI (Université Paris Cité et LADYSS)

Mardi 22 novembre 2022, de 13h30 à 15h15, sur le campus de l’Université Paris Nanterre (6ème étage, salle G614B)

Lien Zoom : https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/92527231920?pwd=a3lzaExuQ3lFRjhVbld6VHlUMHNQUT09

Session on Education and Conventions held at the German Sociological Association’s 2022 conference in Bielefeld (Germany)

Christian Imdorf (Leibniz University Hannover) & Kenneth Horvath (University of Teacher Education Zurich)

At the occasion of the German Sociological Association’s (DGS) bi-annual conference, held in Bielefeld, Germany, 26-30 September 2022, a session on education and conventions has been organised. The session “Bildung und Konventionen: Aktuelle Schwerpunkte, Entwicklungslinien und Herausforderungen im Überblick [Education and Conventions: An overview of current focal points, lines of development and challenges]” was chaired by Christian Imdorf (Leibniz University Hannover) and Kenneth Horvath (University of Teacher Education Zurich). The multifaceted field of French pragmatic sociology offers innovative explanatory and analytical approaches for a number of current processes in education and challenges in the sociology of education such as standardization, quantification and datafication of education, conflicts and controversies over educational quality and equity, or the interplay of science, politics and practice in the establishment and transformation of educational arrangements. The session aimed at discussing the potentials and findings, but also the challenges and desiderata of a “pragmatic” sociology of education and its further development. The following set of questions framed the session: How can convention theory help approach current topics and questions in the sociology of education more convincingly and productively than with “traditional” theoretical offers? How can we employ concepts of pragmatic sociology (such as school worlds, educational regimes, justification orders, tests/examinations, etc.) in order to deal with current research problems? How can understandings of meritocracy and (increasingly ambiguous and uncertain) processes of assessment in educational contexts be analyzed? What methodological challenges and consequences arise for the empirical implementation of such a theory-driven research perspective? How can the relationship between scientific research and educational practice be rethought and reshaped?

In their introduction to the session, Kenneth Horvath and Christian Imdorf outlined the theoretical and methodological characteristics of a pragmatic sociology of education and presented a short overview of the current research landscape. They highlighted the significant already existing research output especially in the field of post-compulsory education sector, more precisely in vocational education and training and in higher education, which, however, has hardly been internationally comparative so far. Further, some first research on school education points to future opportunities for the sociology of conventions to examine questions of inequality and quality (and their transformations) in compulsory education. The session then included four presentations:

Walter Bartl (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg) in his paper “Räumliche Bildungsungleichheiten durch Zahlen regieren: Information über und Allokation von Schulinfrastruktur [Governing spatial educational inequalities through numbers: Information about and allocation of school infrastructure]” asked what role numbers play in the governance of spatial educational inequalities and why there is only few data in Germany about spatial educational inequalities. Referring to Alain Desrosières’ work on quantification as a process of standardising information he asked how spatial inequality is measured and how school infrastructure governed by indicators is allocated. Bartl pointed to the lack of standardised indicators of spatial educational inequality in research and its quantification by expert judgement. He identified two mechanisms of governing spatial inequality through numbers in Germany, the standardisation of information and the regulation of allocation decisions, as well as four ideal types of a (situational) use of numbers and their problems (discretionary, bureaucratic, epistemic and calculative quantification). The paper concluded that long-term data on spatial inequality is currently lacking because there has not yet been a standardisation of information, but that the “theorising” of spatial inequality and of spatial justice as a concept is developing, as are attempts to measure it in and for spatial planning.

The contribution of Raffaella Simona Esposito (FHNW University of Teacher Education) and her co-authors Sandra Hafner and Regula Julia Leemann titled “Steuerung von Bildungsübergängen im Schweizer Bildungssystem – Komplexe Handlungskoordination innerhalb des bildungspolitischen Zielkorsetts [Managing educational transitions in the Swiss education system — Complex coordination of action within the education policy target]” analysed how the supply and access to vocationally oriented secondary schools in Switzerland is being coordinated in an interplay of education policy, education administration, academia and practice. Despite the education policy goal in Switzerland that 95% of all 25-year-olds shall have a qualification at upper secondary level, little is known about how the necessary educational transitions are managed by the cantons in terms of education policy, i.e. how they are regulated, organised, reformed and legitimised. Referring to the sociology of conventions, the research group has investigated how the actors involved in these processes coordinate their actions, by means of which strategies and instruments they do so, how educational policy objectives with regard to vocationally field-oriented secondary schools are targeted and realised in practice, how justification logics are mobilised by the relevant actors and what tensions, frictions and conflicts arise in the coordination of action. Based on a case study of a German-speaking canton and the analysis of documents and expert interviews Esposito et al. were able to reconstruct a compromise of domestic (individual fitting solution, guidance of young people), inspired (motivation, interests, inclinations, vocation, passion) and industrial (efficient educational transitions, no unnecessary educational loops, few drop-outs) steering logics in the management of educational transitions. In practical terms, an inherently normative ICT-based guidance tool for youths was implemented which serves as an object of compromise (intermediary object) to stabilise, format and handle the steering of educational transitions.

 

The presenters of the session on education and conventions at the DGS congress 2022: Walter Bartl (top left), Raffaella Esposito (top right), Luisa Junghänel and Bettina Ülpenich (bottom left), and Arne Böker (bottom right)

Bettina Ülpenich and Luisa Junghänel Krause (Heinrich-Heine-Univ. Düsseldorf) in their study “Studienabbrüche prognostizieren. Zur Rechtfertigung von Leistungsvorhersagen im Studium [Predicting study dropouts – On the justification of performance predictions in higher education]” accompany a project to develop a local system of performance prediction in higher education studies with a focus on the requirements of a respective performance prediction system. Embedded in the sociology of conventions and based on 35 expert interviews with university staff in computer science and social sciences, the two authors reconstruct performance prediction in higher education as a multidimensional ordering process with two underlying perspectives of how to interpret academic success. From the institution-centred perspective of the university, success translates to the completion of studies in the standard period and followed by entry into a profession (efficient and cost-sensitive regulation of university studies). In contrast, from a student-centred interpretative perspective, academic success can be linked to concepts of self-efficacy and self-determination, the achievement of individual goals and the accomplishment of problem-solving skills in the context of lifelong learning (studying as inspiration and a project). The authors concluded with some thought on the dilemma of the sought-after “Responsible Academic Performance Prediction” tool, which needs to conceive of study drop-out as a hybrid object and integrate a project-shaped convention of studying in the economisation and rationalisation of study processes at universities.

Finally, Arne Böker (Institut für Hochschulforschung Halle-Wittenberg) gave a presentation titled “Bildungsorganisationen unter Druck – Zu Potentialen und Herausforderungen einer pragmatischen Bildungssoziologie der Kritik [Educational Organisations under Pressure – On the Potentials and Challenges of a Pragmatic Sociology of Education Critique]”. Embedded in the (educational) sociology of critique (orders of justification) and the sociology of knowledge, he presented findings of two research projects both focusing on the justification of the promotion of the gifted (Begabtenförderung): The first study reconstructed the change in the justification arrangement of the German Study Foundation (Studienstiftung) which was shifting from a more economic towards a civic justification. Thereby the Study Foundation used a creative approach to produce and interprete social statistics which allowed for telling a successful story of how it contributed to equal opportunities in the education system. The second, ongoing study focuses so-called state preparatory colleges (staatliche Studienkollegs), an institutional path in Germany which prepares international students for higher education (an example of diversification of university access routes and study preparation). As an empirical illustration, Böker presented the debate in North Rhine-Westphalia in the mid-2000s on closing the state-run study preparatory colleges after the educational institution had seen a year-long criticism and change of justification, moving from equal opportunities towards privatisation and educational excellence. Using the example of the justification order of equal opportunities the author showed how student representatives criticised the Studienkolleg, that is how an educational institution geared at promoting the gifted was problematised, criticised and what alternative solution were proposed. On the whole the two studies exemplified both the potentials (e.g. the strength to analyse situations of crisis and insecurity, the plurality of social orders, the interplay between criticism and justification, compromises and their tensions) as well as the challenges of an educational sociology of critique.

All in all, the presentations of this session at the DGS 2022 conference in Bielefeld showed convincingly, first, how a pragmatic sociology of education offers new perspectives on and insights in education and educational processes. Second, the contributions highlighted how educational values are materialised and implemented by different technologies and devices such as educational statistics, self-governance or academic performance prediction tools. The years and decade(s) to come will show whether the sociology of convention will have the power to become a game changer in the sociologies of education, a field which is still somewhat stuck between a ‘holistic’ sociology in the line of Durkheim and Bourdieu and an ‘individualistic’ model of actors and society in the aftermath of Boudon’s theory of rational decision making, at least in the German-speaking world.

Covid crisis, mainstream economics and economics of conventions

Online-Lecture (via Zoom) given by Philippe Batifoulier (via Zoom) at the Social Research Colloquium (University of Lucerne, Switzerland). 19 October from 16:15 -17:00 (afterwards discussion).

The institutional approach of economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) has developed a transdisciplinary movement in social sciences.  Health issues are one of the most active research topics in EC/SC’s approach in order to analysis health as social phenomenon and cover wide range of topics: professional ethics, doctor-patient interaction, health democracy, inequalities, industrialization, funding priorities, health insurance, hospital management, liberal medicine, digitization and quantification of health, health capitalism, etc.  Challenging mainstream health economics, EC/SC provides a theory of the plurality of values that are mobilized during the patient-doctor encounter but also in the making and elaboration of health policies. EC/SC in the field of healthcare has expanded conceptions of normativity to propose a finer mapping of coordination and regulation

The communication will seek to present some of the key lessons of EC/SC in the field of healthcare, taking into account the lessons of the health crisis. Then we propose a conventionalist way of thinking about neoliberal policy in health care and health capitalism.

The Substance of Conventions in Economics (of Convention)

Online-Lecture given by Guillemette de Larquier (via Zoom) at the Social Research Colloquium (University of Lucerne, Switzerland). 05 October from 16:15-17:00 (afterwards discussion).

Economics of convention (EC) became visible with the special issue of la Revue économique published in 1989, entitled “Économie des conventions.” It is remarkable that all the authors, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Olivier Favereau, André Orléan, Robert Salais, and Laurent Thévenot, except François Eymard-Duvernay, cited in their respective articles the notions of convention developed by the philosopher David Lewis in 1969 and the economist John Maynard Keynes in 1936. These are clearly the economic references of EC. They have in common to study situations characterized by an infinite specularity of individual reasoning, and confronting the two approaches lead to question the hypothesis of rationality that was best suited to the plurality of coordination studied by EC (Diaz-Bone and Larquier, 2022).

The communication will follow this economic entry of EC. Actually, the concept of conventions leads economists to ask themselves three questions: 1/ What type of uncertainty (of the coordination)? 2/ What type of rationality (of the individuals)? What type of normativity (of the conventions)? The answers to these three questions reveal what the substance of a convention is for David Lewis (and Robert Sugden), for John Maynard Keynes and for EC. Also, it will be of great interest to understand what each approach can say about the dynamics of conventions.