Archives de catégorie : Séminaires & conférences / Seminars & workshops

Appel à communication – Panel “économie des conventions” du 11e congrès de l’AFEP, 28 juin-1 juil. 2022 Amiens (France)

Call for papers – Panel “Economics of conventions” of the 11th AFEP Congress, June 28-July 1, 2022 Amiens (France)

L’économie des conventions est une théorie de l’action située fondant son programme de recherche sur la pluralité des modes de coordination. La convention, considérée comme une règle ou comme une représentation, est révélée dans l’appartenance à une action collective. Elle suppose d’être partagée par plusieurs acteurs afin que la coordination aboutisse. Nombreux sont les chercheur.e.s qui s’appuient sur le cadre d’analyse conventionnaliste dans leurs travaux. L’appel à communication propose de présenter ces recherches afin de rendre compte de la pluralité des domaines dans lesquels les cadres de pensées et les concepts de l’économie des conventions sont mobilisés.
Ainsi, ce panel propose d’explorer différents apports de l’économie des conventions mettant en exergue les limites ou les logiques d’adaptation du capitalisme contemporain dans les domaines de la santé, du travail, de l’environnement, de l’énergie, de la finance, etc. En mettant en évidence les rapports de force, les arrangements institutionnels, les représentations et les interprétations des règles, l’économie des conventions permet d’appréhender le capitalisme sous différents aspects (capitalisme sanitaire, capitalisme financiarisé, capitalisme « vert »…) et d’en proposer une critique.
Afin d’explorer ces questions, sans pour autant exclure d’autres types d’applications, cet appel à communication attend des travaux (article, chapitre de thèse, projet de recherche, etc.) ayant différents niveaux de maturité. L’objectif est de réunir des chercheur.e.s expérimenté.e.s et de jeunes chercheur.e.s afin de discuter de leurs travaux.

Les réponses à appel à communication ne devront pas excéder deux pages, présentant un titre, des motsclés, une question de recherche claire, le caractère empirique ou non du travail et un maximum de 5 références bibliographiques.

Merci de déposer vos propositions de communication avant le 5/02/2022 sur le site :
https://afep2022.sciencesconf.org dans la thématique économie des conventions ainsi qu’à Olivier Gayot (olivier.gayot@univ-lille.fr), Cécile Vasseur (cecile.vasseur@univ-lille.fr) et Guillemette de Larquier (guillemette.de-larquier@univ-lille.fr)

Les propositions acceptées seront notifiées le 2/03/2022.

Vortrag “Handlungskoordination in föderalen Bildungssystemen und Schulkultur(en) als Wertigkeitdispositive. Eine multimethodische Studie zu Zugangswegen ins Lehramtsstudium.”

Presentation “Action Coordination in Federal Education Systems and School Culture(s) as Value Dispositives. A multi-method study of entry routes into student teaching.”

Sandra Hafner (2022):

10 February 2022 17:00-18:00 via Zoom.

Zusammenfassung. In vielen Ländern bereitet traditionell das Gymnasium auf die Lehramtsausbildung vor. Die im Referat vorgestellte multimethodische Studie befasst sich mit der historisch umkämpften Institutionalisieru ng eines zweiten, alternativen Zugangswegs (in die Lehrpersonenbildung in der Schweiz. Ebenso nimmt die Studie die Fachmittelschule und das Gymnasium vergleichend als schulische Dispositive in den Blick. Anhand von Fallstudien wird gezeigt, wie die beteiligten schulischen Akteur*innen diese Dispositive konstruieren und (de-)valorisieren und wie daraus unterschiedliche Sozialisationsumgebungen für Jugendliche entstehen. Auf dieser Grundlage lässt sich die unterschiedliche Bedeutung der bei den Schultypen für die Lehrpersonenbildung erklären. Im Referat wird kurz ins Thema eingeführt sowie der theoretische Rahmen der Soziologie der Konventionen sowie dessen methodologische Prämissen vorgestellt. Anschließend wird entlang von drei Hauptfrages tellungen das Forschungsdesign der Studie präsentiert. Dabei steht im Fokus, wie verschiedene Datenformate wie Dokumente, Protokolle, Interviewtranskripte, Notizen von Unterrichtsbeobachtungen sowie quantitativ deskriptive Daten vor dem erkenntnistheoretischen Hintergrund der Soziologie der Konventionen fruchtbar zueinander in Beziehung gesetzt werden und im mit Blick auf das oben genannte Erkenntnisinteresse analysiert werden können.

Abstract. In many countries, the Gymnasium traditionally prepares students for teacher education. The multi-method study presented in this paper deals with the historically contested institutionalization of a second, alternative route (into teacher education in Switzerland. The study also takes a comparative look at the Fachmittelschule and the Gymnasium as school dispositifs. Case studies are used to show how the school actors involved construct and (de-)valorize these dispositives and how different socialization environments for young people emerge from them. On this basis, the different importance of the different types of schools for teacher education can be explained. The paper will briefly introduce the topic and the theoretical framework of the sociology of conventions as well as its methodological premises. Subsequently, the research design of the study will be presented along three main research questions. The focus is on how different data formats such as documents, protocols, interview transcripts, notes from classroom observations, and quantitative descriptive data can be fruitfully related to each other against the epistemological background of the sociology of conventions and analyzed in light of the aforementioned epistemological interest.

Link to the Colloquium website

Selektionsmechanismen/Reproduktion sozialer Ungleichheit/Bildungsmobilität im Hochschulwesen

Leonie Bisang (University of Lucerne)

Lecture in the colloquium social research 15 December 2021 via Zoom

Zusammenfassung. Inwieweit spielen Habitus und Reflexivität beim Übertritt von der Sekundarstufe II in die Tertiärstufe eine Rolle? Mit der Einführung der Fachhochschulen wurde eine binäre Struktur geschaffen: Es wird ein universitärer und ein nicht-universitärer Bereich differenziert. Die gymnasiale Maturität ist seither sozial stärker geschlossen und Personen aus sozial tieferen Schichten werden in die Berufsbildung, die ihnen weniger aufwendig und riskant erscheint, «abgelenkt». Es gibt jedoch Maturandinnen und Maturanden, die sich für ein Fachhochschulstudium entscheiden, obschon sie sich prüfungsfrei an einer Universität einschreiben könnten. Wie entscheiden sich angehende Studierende für den Hochschultyp? Haben sie eine Wahl oder handelt es sich um eine «non-decision», zumal der Entscheidungsraum a priori eingeschränkt ist? Wie funktionieren Selektionsmechanismen? Um Fragen nach Selektionsmechanismen, sozialer Ungleichheit und Bildungsmobilität zu untersuchen, enthalten sowohl der Ansatz von Bourdieu als auch die Économie des Conventions spannende Aspekte. Durch Einbezug beider Ansätze wird das Spannungsfeld von Habitus und reflexiver Wahl sichtbar und analysierbar.

Abstract. To what extent do habitus and reflexivity play a role in the transition from upper secondary to tertiary education? With the introduction of universities of applied sciences, a binary structure was created: A university and a non-university sector are differentiated. Since then, the gymnasiale Matura has become more socially closed, and people from socially lower classes are “diverted” into vocational training, which seems less costly and risky to them. However, there are high school graduates who decide to study at a university of applied sciences even though they could enroll at a university without having to take any exams. How do prospective students decide on the type of university? Do they have a choice or is it a “non-decision”, especially since the decision space is limited a priori? How do selection mechanisms work? In order to investigate questions about selection mechanisms, social inequality and educational mobility, both Bourdieu’s approach and the Économie des Conventions contain exciting aspects. By including both approaches, the tension between habitus and reflexive choice becomes visible and analyzable.

Von Datenwelten zur digitalen Kette: Eine konventionentheoretische Reflexion zur digitalen Transformation der Gesellschaft

From Data Worlds to the Digital Chain: A Conventional-Theoretical Reflection on the Digitized Transformation of Society

Vortrag von Karolin Kappler (FernUniversität Hagen)
10 November 2021, 16.15 via Zoom in the lecture series «Kolloquiums Sozialforschung» at University of Lucerne

Zusammenfassung. Likes, Schritte, Kalorienaufnahme und -verbrauch, Chats mit Freunden, berufliche Videokonferenzen, digitale Zahlungen und viele weitere Datenpraktiken hinterlassen tagtäglich Daten(-spuren), die auf verschiedene Art und Weise und für unterschiedliche Zwecke weiterverwendet werden. Neben deren Einordnung in Datenwelten bietet die Soziologie der Konventionen mit der statistischen Kette ein Konzept, das die Arbeitsteilung in der Generierung, Auswertung und Präsentation von Daten beschreibt. Die Ausweitung der Datenpraktiken, deren Echtzeitcharakter sowie zunehmende Vernetzungsmöglichkeiten führen zur Entstehung digitaler Ketten, die den Prozesscharakter digitaler datengestützter Valuationen (im Sinne von Deweys) in den Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung setzen. Diese Weiterentwicklung der statistischen hin zur digitalen Kette erlaubt eine dichte Beschreibung unterschiedlicher miteinander verwobener Situationen und berücksichtigt dabei, dem pragmatischen Ansatz der Soziologie der Konventionen folgend, das in weiten Teilen zyklische Zusammenspiel von Akteuren, unterschiedlichen Technologien, (kognitiven) Formaten und anderen Objekten, Praktiken und Konventionen in der Hervorbringung von Bewertungen.

Abstract. Likes, steps, calorie intake and consumption, chats with friends, professional video conferencing, digital payments, and many other data practices leave data (traces) every day that are reused in different ways and for different purposes. In addition to their classification into data worlds, the sociology of conventions offers the statistical chain, a concept that describes the division of labor in the generation, analysis, and presentation of data. The expansion of data practices, their real-time character as well as increasing networking possibilities lead to the emergence of digital chains, which put the process character of digital data-supported evaluations (in Dewey’s sense) in the center of consideration. This further development of the statistical towards the digital chain allows a dense description of different interwoven situations and, following the pragmatic approach of the sociology of conventions, takes into account the largely cyclical interplay of actors, different technologies, (cognitive) formats and other objects, practices and conventions in the production of evaluations.

Kolloquium Sozialforschung / Program

Überlegungen zu Auswirkungen von Digitalisierung auf (qualitative) Sozialforschung

Reflections on the Impact of Digitization on (Qualitative) Social Research

Rainer Diaz-Bone (2021)

Paper presented at the 16th Berlin Method Meeting 2021 (July). Open access

Rainer Diaz-Bone, Debora Niermann und Günter Mey (Moderation)

Auszug. “Die Internetpolitiken und Algorithmen werden wesentlich durch private Internetfirmen entwickelt, organisiert und kontrolliert. Und sie sind eben auch für universitär Forschende zumeist intransparent. Diese Datenmengen sind für die akademische Sozialforschung nicht oder nur beschränkt zugänglich. Hier treffen sich nun die Diagnose von Savage und Burrows einerseits mit derjenigen der Soziologie der Konventionen andererseits, welche Konventionen als institutionelle Logiken im Bereich der Sozialforschung auffassen und die eine Pluralität der Datenwelten identifiziert, in der die akademi-sche Datenwelt neben derjenigen der amtlichen Statistik, der zivilbürgerlichen und derjenigen der Big-Data-Welt eben nur eine ist und eben absehbar nicht mehr die hegemoniale in Sachen Methodendefinition. Die neopragmatische Position der Konventionentheorie besteht nicht nur in der Betonung dieses Pluralismus von Datenwelten, die verschiedene Wissenschaftsauffassungen artikulieren, sondern in der Betonung der Spannung und der wechselseitigen Kritik zwischen diesen Datenwelten sowie in dem Aufweis von Allianzen zwischen Datenwelten.” (p. 4)

Extract. “Internet policies and algorithms are essentially developed, organized and controlled by private Internet companies. And they are also mostly intransparent for university researchers. These data sets are not accessible, or only to a limited extent, for academic social research. This is where the diagnosis of Savage and Burrows on the one hand meets that of the sociology of conventions on the other, which understands conventions as institutional logics in the field of social research and identifies a plurality of data worlds, in which the academic data world is just one alongside that of official statistics, the civil society world and that of the Big Data world, and it is foreseeable that it will no longer be the hegemonic one in terms of defining methods. The neopragmatic position of convention theory consists not only in emphasizing this pluralism of data worlds that articulate different views of science, but in emphasizing the tension and mutual critique between these data worlds, as well as in pointing out alliances between data worlds.” (p. 4)

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Video of the conference session

Kolloquium Sozialforschung

Colloquium Social Research

Organized by Kenneth Horvath and Rainer Diaz-Bone at University of Lucerne, the colloquium offers a series of lectures based on or referring to convention theory.

Präsentation. Im Kolloquium Sozialforschung werden aktuelle Projekte und Fragen sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschungs- und Berufspraxis besprochen. Im Fokus stehen methodische und methodologische Herausforderungen, Neuerungen und Probleme. Das Kolloquium deckt das breite Spektrum der empirischen Sozialforschung ab – präsentiert und diskutiert werden Arbeiten aus der Markt-, Meinungs- und Medienforschung ebenso wie aus amtlicher Statistik, Evaluations-, Akzeptanz- und Begleitforschung und aus universitären Kontexten.

Presentation. In the Colloquium Social Research, current projects and questions of social science research and professional practice are discussed. The focus is on methodological and methodological challenges, innovations and problems. The colloquium covers the broad spectrum of empirical social research – papers from market, opinion and media research as well as from official statistics, evaluation, acceptance and accompanying research and from university contexts are presented and discussed.

Zeit/Time: mittwochs (Tuesday) 16.15-17.45

Ort/Room: Seminarraum 3.B47

  • Mi, 13.10.21
    Miriam Kutt (Universität Luzern)
    «Closing one’s Eyes. Methodische Ansätze zur Untersuchung von Prozessen der Konfliktvermeidung»
  • Mi, 27.10.21
    Prof. Dr. Eva Nadai (FHNW Olten)
    «’Unqualifiziert’ – zur Konstruktion von Wert(losigkeit) im Arbeitsmarkt»
  • Mi, 10.11.21
    Dr. Karolin Kappler (FernUniversität Hagen)
    «Von Datenwelten zur digitalen Kette: Eine konventionentheoretische Reflexion zur digitalen Transformation der Gesellschaft»
  • Mi, 24.11.21
    Dr. Arne Böker (Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
    «Bildungsaufstiege in der Krise? Auswirkungen der Corona-Pandemie auf First Generation Students»
  • Mi, 15.12.21 (via Zoom)
    Leonie Bisang (Universität Luzern)
    «Selektionsmechanismen/Reproduktion sozialer Ungleichheit/Bildungsmobilität im Hochschulwesen»

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The 11th EC / Sociology of Conventions Workshop (virtual)

Report by Mario Steinberg (Basel)

For the first time in a virtual format, the annual EC workshop took place from 06-07 May 2021. This year the event was organized by Regula Julia Leemann (FHNW Basel-Muttenz) and her team. The 11th EC / Sociology of Conventions Workshop was held under the working title “Quantification and Conventions”. However, contributions not explicitly related to the conference theme were also welcome.

Thursday 06 May 2021

After a welcome to the participants by the organizer, Lisa Knoll (University of Paderborn) introduced Eve Chiapello (École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris/Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) for her keynote speech.

Eve Chiapello’s keynote was entitled “Impact and the fight against financialized conventions of quantification”. She presented a convention-based interpretation of the financialization of economy. With an analytical focus on the concept of “impact”, Eve Chiapello showed how financial decisions come about, what role different actors (such as financial investors) play, and how the concept of “impact” can be framed in terms of conventionalist theory.

After Eve Chiapello’s keynote and a short coffee break, the program moved to the first slot in the plenary, “Quantification, digitization and convention research studies”. Regula Leemann, Sandra Hafner and Raffaella Simona Esposito (FHNW Basel-Muttenz) gave a speech about “Quantification and conventions in the governance of educational transitions (in Switzerland)”. They introduced into the topic of their ongoing SNSF-project and presented first conceptual questions on the relevance of numbers in governing transitions: What is the role of quantification in these processes of governance? In which situations numbers are important? Which instruments and technologies are applied? What forms of strategies and policies are enabled by quantification? What are the effects of quantification? Regarding convention theory they pointed to important theoretical concepts and methodological approaches as e.g. the statistical panopticism, statistical chains and the convention-based foundations of indicators.

After a short break, the program moved on to the next slot, “Show and Tell”. Valeska Cappel (University of Lucerne) and Carolin Kappler (FernUniversität Hagen) presented their current publication project “Gesundheit – Konventionen – Digitalisierung”, which will be published by Springer VS, Book Series Soziologie der Konventionen (Eds. Rainer Diaz-Bone & Lisa Knoll). The publication has the significance of opening up a field of research for convention theorists that has hardly been transferred in German-language research on the sociology of convention: the field of health research. Valesca Capell and Karolin Kappler deliver a volume that connects the sociology of conventions and the plurality of conventions with digital transformation processes, which can be considered a novelty so far.

In the continued slot “Quantification, Digitization and convention research Studies”, Kenneth Horvath (University of Lucerne) and Mario Steinberg (PH FHNW/University of Basel) first presented their planned research project “The politics and pedagogies of algorithmic sorting in education”. In their presentation, the authors trace the role that conventions play in the implementation of artificial intelligence and digitization, especially regarding the question of what impact the so-called technological transformation will have on concrete school practices.

In the last slot of the first day, “Comments and Reflection“, Rainer Diaz Bone (University of Lucerne) spoke about quantification from a conventionalist perspective. He gave an overview of fundamental principles of EC when considering quantification. Fundamental to understanding quantification processes is the EC’s view that measurements themselves are convention-related. Consequently, quantification as a black box can only be understood if not only the consequences, benefits and effects of quantification are considered, but also their origin and distribution. In addition, measurements create new realities. Only because measurements are based on conventions, they become a social practice and are tested, justified and challenged in collective actions. The plurality of data worlds allows for different ways of taking measurements – but (from a neopragmatist point of view) no measurement can claim universal validity. At the end of his talk Rainer Diaz-Bone presented the concept of analytical axes for the convention-based analysis of quantification-processes as a heuristic for the analysis of quantification processes (see screenshot below).

The first day of the conference ended with a virtual apéro at the meeting-platform wonder me. Here, the participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas about specific topics of the conference and about topics beyond the conference itself.

Friday 7 May 2021

Friday started with parallel sessions. In the session “Education Research Studies”, Philipp Gonon (University of Zürich), Lorenzo Bonoli (Eidgenössisches Hochschulinstitut für Weiterbildung), Jackie Vorpe (Eidgenössisches Hochschulinstitut für Weiterbildung) and Lena Freidorfer-Kabashi (University of Zürich) started with their presentation on regional differences in the justification of Swiss VET education. Colleagues ask how and why regional differences in Switzerland’s VET system are possible. They identify different education regimes in dual VET that can explain cantonal differences. Following Eric Verdier, they describe a neo-comparativist regime for the canton of Zurich, a hybrid of market and academic regimes for the canton of Ticino and a universal regime for the canton of Geneva.

After a short coffee break, Leonie Bisang (University of Lucerne/FHNW Olten) talked about her dissertation project on the reproduction of social inequalities in the tertiary education market. In her lecture, she also wanted to find out how the sociology of conventions can help to understand social inequalities in the swiss university landscape in her dissertation project.

Afterwards, Matthias Alke (HU Berlin) presented on the formation and historical change of job profiles in public adult education. The focus of Matthias Alke’s lecture was the public discourse on adult education and questions of its professionalization. Professional action in adult education as a young phenomenon, Matthias Alke explains from the perspective of the EC how job advertisements (understood as formal investments) describe conventionally formed requirements for quality, activity and occupation.

In the parallel session “Labor Market Intermediaries /HR Practices / PHD Presentations” Julia Brandl (University of Innsbruck) reported on the role of the labor market in shaping wage expectations – using the example of job advertisements. The research project she presented asks to what extent mandatory salary information in job advertisements can reduce gender-specific, different salary expectations. From a conventional sociological perspective, job advertisements can be seen as mediators between employers and job seekers. Job advertisements as such not only present information, but also have a transformative influence on the recipients.

Dominik Zellhofer (Vienna University of Economics and Business) presented his paper based on his dissertation entitled “The people problem of information security: A CISO’s quest for compromise”. In his lecture, he asks how actors in organizations negotiate policies and how technology information security policies are influenced by them. To answer these questions, he draws on the concept of form investment, which comes from EC. Empirically, he takes look at key figures like the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer).

Afterwards Eva Nadai (HSA FHNW) spoke about the role of labor market intermediaries from a conventionalist perspective. She described forms of recruitment of the low-employed from a conventional sociological perspective with a focus on intermediaries. Her presentation focuses on labor market intermediaries as human actors, organizations and dispositives, the evaluation of the quality of labor, and the significance of form investment from an EC perspective.

After the lunch break, the parallel sessions “Methodology” and “Health – Mental Distress Research Study /Paper Presentation” started. In the first sessions (Methodology), Simon Schrör (University of Lucerne/Weizenbaum Institut Berlin) gave a talk on methodological implications of artifacts in pragmatist research. Simon Schrör’s lecture is about making artefacts fearful for the pragmatic analysis of situations in the Sociology of Conventions and also proposing them as an independent epistemological unit. According to this, artefacts represent an extension of the empirical view, which, however, does not dissolve the reference to the object. Using the example of changes in the Deign furniture industry, he shows how the artefact-based identification of situations is made empirical.

Later on, in the same session, Simon Weingärtner (HSU Hamburg) presented on “On the Micro- and Macro-Politics of Work and Employment”. His lecture takes as its starting point whether the effects of the current COVID-19 situation will lead to a situation similar to what Polanyi described as the “Great Transformation” in 1944. Guided by the theoretical focus of boundary work, he investigates the transformation of political fields. In order to derive the historical change, he concludes his lecture by presenting a heuristic of employment regimes and socio-political change, which ranges from the mid-20th century (mass production) through the late 20th century (collaborative production) to the end of the 21st century (platformization).

Meanwhile in the parallel session (Health – Mental Distress Research Study /Paper Presentation) Miriam Kutt (University of Lucerne) spoke about the conflict potential of damaged identities and the connection between practices of silence and conflict avoidance and stigmatization of mental illness. Her presentation was entitled “Das Konfliktkapital beschädigter Identitäten – Praktiken des Schweigens und der Konfliktvermeidung im Zusammenhang mit der Stigmatisierung psychischer Krankheiten” [“The Conflict Capital of Damaged Identities – Practices of Silence and Conflict Avoidance in the Context of Mental Illness Stigma.”]. She focused on the extent to which social structural conditions in situations of stigmatization and discrimination lead those affected to remain silent and avoid conflict. She also asked how these conditions need to be changed so that those affected can be normative, stand up for themselves and their peers, and thus engage for the common good. From the perspective of the sociology of conventions, she works with regime theory and the concept of conflict avoidance “closing ones eyes”, following Thévenot.

Anna Gonon (FHNW Olten) then reports in her presentation, entitled “Integration as justification work: a conventionalist perspective on the occupational reintegration of employees with mental distress” on recent findings of her doctoral project in which she investigates the processes of interpretation and the logic of justification of mentally ill employees in companies. She takes a particular look at collective processes of interpretation and justification. From the perspective of the sociology of conventions, Anna Gonon looks at justifications as problems of action in integration work. The aim of her lecture was therefore to show the principles of the assessment of reintegration and the decision on continued employment from an EC perspective.

A coffee break later, the last program item of the conference “Show and Tell” began. Here, authors presented current publications around the sociology of conventions. Arne Böker (University of Halle-Wittenberg) started off by presenting his completed dissertation project “Über die Rechtfertigung von Begabtenförderung. Eine Diskursanalyse am Beispiel der Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes” [On Justification of gifted education programs. A discourse analysis using the example of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation]. From the perspective of historical educational research, he examined how the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes [German Academic Scholarship Foundation] defined the criteria for the selection of its scholarship holders in terms of selection, promotion and social composition. Based on this, he empirically reconstructed the central used conventions, their stability and instability over time, as well as their relationship to problematizations and audits of the foundation itself.

In the following, Esther Berner (HSU Hamburg) reported on her research on the historical transformation of conventions in the shoe industry using the example of Bally and Bata in the period 1870-1940 (published in Journal of Vocational Education & Training, online). Esther Berner examines two large shoe companies in Switzerland, Bally and Bata, with regard to the constructions and changes of shoe quality in production worlds from a historical perspective. She particularly focuses on quality conventions (e.g. individuals, techniques, information) in her analysis. By examining the change in manufacturing processes and the qualification of employees, she is able to show the change, criticism and conflict of conventions in a period from 1870 to 1940.

The last contribution of the event was made by Julia Brandl (University of Innsbruck) and Arjan Kozica (University of Applied Science Reutlingen). They presented their forthcoming book, which will be published in the series Soziologie der Konventionen. The book will be published with the title “Betriebliche Personalpolitik. Eine konventionensoziologische Perspektive” [Workplace Human Resource Policies. A Sociology of Conventions Perspective.] In their work the authors apply the sociology of conventions-approach to human resource policies in economic companies. Julia Brandl reports (also on behalf of the excused Arjan Kozica) on their planned publication. It is aimed at students of economics and at practitioners of company personnel work and the structuring of company employment relationships. In doing so, they make the sociology of conventions fruitful for an understanding of business personnel policy. To this end, the book aims to establish practical links to the practice of business administration throughout, highlighting the significance of EC for company personnel policy as an alternative to established theories such as the Rational choice theory or social psychology.

At the end of the conference, all participants gathered again and looked ahead to the upcoming EC workshop which Christian Imdorf (Leibniz University of Hannover) will organize at Hannover. In summary we all look back on an instructive workshop, with new and exciting insights into current research on the sociology of conventions.

Many thanks to Regula Julia Leemann and her team for the organization of the 11th Sociology of Conventions Workshop!!!

The un/making of forms. Formographic inquiries into practice, accountability, and infra-critique

International workshop organized by Ingmar Lippert (IT University Copenhagen) and Susann Wagenknecht (Technical University Dresden)
at Technical University of Dresden 2-3 September 2021

Program Extract: “[…] As formality is made and unmade (Smart et al. 2017), forms help organize far-flung coordination and gain salience as prerequisite of accountability. They furnish the yardsticks of critique. With this workshop, we draw attention to the situated relation of form and critique that emerges from the ever changing tangle of practice. We suggest exploring “infra-critiques”—critiques ‘from within’ shifting forms of life (Verran 2014, Jaeggi 2018). Analyses of critique ‘from within’ emphasize the multiplicity and limitations of formal assessment. They help examining how in/form/alities boost and marginalize different modes of benchmarking and evaluation, denunciation and appraisal, determination and indetermination (Boltanski & Thévenot 1999). Requirements for specific in/form/ation, e.g., can feed authoritative regimes of control while effectively undermining accountability and attenuating critique (Lippert 2018). Against this backdrop, we are interested in formographic inquiries that problematize the enactment of form as a fixed, detached point of reference. […]
The workshop will take place at the Technical University Dresden, Germany, September 2-3, 2021. The workshop is designed as collective learning process, focusing on submissions that rely upon ethnographic materials to engage in the nexus of form, practice, critique, and accountability. To this end, we ask participants to circulate workshop papers (2,000w), accompanied by a digitally reproducible object (with permissions), prior to the workshop.

Link to the complete presentation

Congress of the Swiss Sociological Association (SSA) “Social justice in times of uncertainty”

Online, hosted at Geneva 28-30 June 2021.

 

Events related to EC:

1a) SEMI-PLENARY SESSIONS III.1 ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY OF CONVENTIONS. A NEOPRAGMATIST APPROACH TO INEQUALITIES AND PLURALITIES
Organizers: Jean-Michel Bonvin (University of Geneva), Diaz-Bone Rainer (University of Lucerne)

Wednesday 30 June, 09:00 – 10:30

  • Peter Wagner (University of Barcelona)
  • Philipp Batifoulier (University of Paris Sorbonne Nord)
  • Jean-Michel Bonvin (University of Geneva)
  • Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne)

1b) Paper-Session B7: SOCIAL INEQUALITIES AND ORDERS OF JUSTIFICATION IN THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Organizers: Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne), Valeska Cappel (University of Lucerne)

Monday 28 June, 15:00 – 16:30

  • Karolin Kappler (FernUniversität Hagen), Valeska Cappel (University of Lucerne): Trade-offs and conflicting goals in the digitization of health – Presentation of the anthology “Health – Conventions – Digitization”.
  • Stefan Janković (University of Belgrade), Milica Resanović (University of Belgrade): Breaking through the Pandemic Incertitudes: From Hazy Health Care Instruction to Commensuration of Worths among Serbia’s Young Professionals.
  • Giovanni Matera (EHESP French School of Public Health): Hospitality, Migration and Mental Health. Engaging a pluralist perspective to study the treatment of migrant persons suffering from mental illness.

1c) Paper-Session C.7 ENGAGING PLURALIST PERSPECTIVES IN CIVIC INTERVENTIONS: NEOPRAGMATISM AND SOCIAL RESEARCH», Organizers: Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne), Kenneth Horvath (University of Lucerne), Guy Schwegler (University of Lucerne), Simon Schrör (Weizenbaum Institute,  Humboldt University Berlin)

Tuesday 29 June, 10:45 – 12:15 (Session 1 of 2)

  • Kenneth Horvath (University of Lucerne): Invoking controversy, deciphering normativities: the method of “qualitative experiments” and the objectives of critical social research after the pragmatic turn
  • Anke Schad-Spindler (University of Vienna), Stefanie Fridrik (University of Vienna), Oliver Marchart (University of Vienna), Friederike Landau (Radboud University Nijmegen): Venturing into pandemic cultural policy conflicts.
  • Guy Schwegler (University of Lucerne): A different theory, a different culture? Considering ontologies of cultural production in light of performativity

Tuesday 29 June, 15:00 – 16:30 (Session 2 of 2)

  • Simon Schrör (Weizenbaum Institute, Humboldt University Berlin): Scientific Investigations as Part of Practical Discourses? Pluralities of engagement in professional debates on copyright reform.
  • Sinisa Hadziabdic (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne): Living and Dying with Your Own Ideas? Generational Replacement vs. Within-Individual Paradigm Change among Economists

 

Congress program

De la co-détermination à l’éco-détermination

Conférence d’Olivier Favereau, 15/01/2021, Science Po Alumni. YouTube

Même si loi PACTE vient de faire évoluer substantiellement la gouvernance des entreprises, les réflexions se poursuivent pour transformer le cadre de gouvernement des entreprises afin de résoudre les crises profondes actuelles. Olivier Favereau y contribue en plaidant dans son rapport à l’Organisation Internationale du Travail pour que la co-détermination déjà présente dans d’autres pays comme l’Allemagne ou la Suède fasse plus largement « descendre l’exigence démocratique au sein des entreprises », condition du succès selon lui de la transition écologique. Il apparaît en effet que les stratégies de « soft law » ne sont pas à la hauteur des mutations aujourd’hui nécessaires pour résoudre les crises. En effet la puissance des forces économiques, sociales ou politiques déclenchées mondialement par les bouleversements en cours nécessite que le cadre légal de gouvernance des entreprises soit revu en profondeur.
C’est à cette prise de recul et à ce débat que nous invite Olivier Favereau.

Even if the PACTE law has just substantially changed corporate governance, discussions are continuing to transform the corporate governance framework in order to resolve the current deep crises. Olivier Favereau contributes to this by pleading in his report to the International Labor Organization for the co-determination already present in other countries such as Germany and Sweden to “lower the democratic requirement within companies”, a condition for the success of the ecological transition, according to him. In fact, it appears that “soft law” strategies are not equal to the changes that are now necessary to resolve crises. Indeed, the economic, social and political forces unleashed worldwide by the current upheavals require that the legal framework of corporate governance be thoroughly reviewed.
Olivier Favereau invites us to take a step back and to engage in this debate.

Lien vers la vidéo YouTube/ Link to YouTube video

Les statistiques des empires

Compter, classer, connaître et dominer

Journée d’études par visioconférence – Vendredi 18 décembre 2020, 9 h – 17 h 30

La journée vise à éclairer la fabrication, les usages et les finalités des statistiques des empires à travers des situations et des époques distinctes. Centrée sur les statistiques publiques, celles qui sont fabriquées par et pour des Autorités politiques, elle interroge plus particulièrement la relation entre statistiques et pouvoirs et entre statistiques et domination.

ORGANISATION : Emmanuelle Sibeud | université Paris 8, IDHE.S
Béatrice Touchelay | université de Lille, IRHiS

Cette journée d’études a pour objet l’étude des circulations d’idées et de pratiques statistiques dans et hors des empires, mais également la formation des statisticiens, de leurs relations avec les autorités territoriales, avec les colons et avec les populations locales. Il s’agit également de comprendre comment, en dénombrant, en classant, en normalisant les statistiques « officielles » créent du lien, intègrent, marginalisent ou excluent, et s’imposent parmi les attributs essentiels du pouvoir. Le cadre des empires paraît propice pour expliquer et analyser les effets de leur généralisation à l’échelle du monde depuis deux siècles.
Pourquoi les statistiques ont été imposées parmi les critères essentiels de la hiérarchie des nations et en quoi influencent-elles leur développement ? Comment les statistiques participent à la formation, à l’affirmation puis à la transformation (dislocation?) des empires ? Enfin, comment les statistiques accompagnent, préparent, soutiennent et s’adaptent aux transitions politiques et économiques contemporaines?

 

Rationalité autoréférentielle et mimétisme

André Orléan

Séminaire le 9 octobre 2020 – 12:00 – 13:30 – Pacte
Sciences Po Grenoble – Amphi F

Lors des crises financières, la panique prend brutalement le pas sur l’euphorie. L’économie casino conduit alors à des situations a priori incohérentes. Cette exubérance des marchés n’est pourtant pas irrationnelle. Bien au contraire, elle révèle la nature autoréférentielle des anticipations sur les marchés financiers. La prise en considération du mimétisme des comportements permet ainsi d’appréhender la déconnexion de la finance avec l’économie réelle et souligne l’impérieuse nécessité de la réguler.

Visioconférence disponible sur / Videoconferencing available on
Google Meet : https://meet.google.com/rpu-qzfb-rbj

Critical research of critique in an age of uncertainty, neoliberalism, and populism: insights from pragmatic sociology in dialogue with other critical perspectives

PhD course – Roskilde University, Denmark
28 – 30 October 2020

The focus of this Ph.D. course is set on how we can analyse and understand how actors live with, shape, and sometimes question and fight modern forms of power and government. Current challenges in welfare societies, such as developments of rising inequality in wealth and health, technological trends of artificial intelligence and automation, health, climate and biodiversity crises as well as the challenge to democracies that form populist and authoritarian currents, re-actualize the old but still highly relevant and interrelated questions of what is, and ought to be, critical research and what is the role and forms of critique in contemporary societies.

Through the theoretical and crosscurrent lenses of the French pragmatic sociology in dialogue with other critical approaches, we propose an interdisciplinary forum where Ph.D. scholars can exchange theoretical and methodological perspectives on their research material. The French pragmatic sociology is often presented in terms of ‘sociology of critique’. It thus provides tools to help us to understand various practices and formats of critique, in other words how critique is both an essential element in forms of power as well as challenging them. On the one hand new forms of governing that uses critique are emerging, such as instruments using algorithms to test human behaviour, bench marking, and participatory forms of management. On the other hand, new forms of critique, from populism and climate-scepticism to social media, are emerging ignoring hitherto accepted requirements to legitimate critique (based on facts, evidence). This challenges the critical role of research in social science and humanities.

The current debate is often pictured as a choice between, on the one hand, rational thought, science, enlightenment and relativism and postmodernism on the other in which the latter is sometimes blamed for rise of populism. The question is whether it is possible, and indeed needed, to carve out critical positions within social sciences and humanities that do not accept this dichotomy. Based on developments within pragmatic sociology and other strands such as Foucauldian studies, the course will discuss such positions and how they can contribute to critical interventions in society and academia. The objective of this course is two-fold. It aims at giving Ph.D. students the opportunity to address how to conduct research on current challenges in welfare societies through the theoretical lenses of French pragmatic sociology, Foucauldian-inspired analyses, and other critical approaches. Secondly, to give the Ph.D. students the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary reflections on how to conduct critical research.

Following this two-folded objective, the Ph.D. course last for three days. Around half of the time will be composed by lectures and the other half of discussing the work of participants.

Guest lecturers: Tom Boland, Lecturer in Sociology at University College of Cork, Ireland and Laurent Thévenot, Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).

Link to the IMT-Phd-course page

Sozialforschung in der Kritik und in der Krise – Soziologische Perspektiven auf und für Methodologien im Wandel

Session at the coming sociology congress «Gesellschaft unter Spannung»
19 September 2020 via Zoom

  • Rainer Diaz-Bone: «Krise der Sozialforschung und pragmatische Normativität ‒ konventionentheoretische Perspektiven für eine Soziologie der Sozialforschung» [The crisis of social research and pragmatic normativity – conventionalists perspectives for a sociology of social research.]
  • Guy Schwegler: «Theorie-informierte Akteur*innen als Herausforderung für qualitative Verfahren» [Theory-informed actors as a challenge for qualitative procedures]
  • Andreas Schmitz & Christian Schmidt-Wellenburg: «Sozio-Logiken der Methoden- und Theorien“wahl“ im deutschen Feld der Soziologie» [Socio-logics of method and theory “choice” in the German field of sociology]
  • Kenneth Horvath: «Neue Datenallianzen und ihre Implikationen für Sozialforschung und Methodenlehre» [New data alliances and their implications for social research and methodology]