Archives mensuelles : juillet 2024

Firms’ recruitment practices: the powers of segmentation and of valuation

Guillemette de Larquier & Géraldine Rieucau (2024)

Cambridge Journal of Economics, Volume 48, Issue 6, November 2024, Pages 1091–1118

Abstract. This article proposes an original framework to show the plurality of matching dynamics, the processes by which firms and applicants meet and match in the labour market. It combines segmentation theory and economics of convention to characterise the powers of segmentation and valuation of firms when they recruit. Drawing on a national survey of French employers, the article identifies four matching dynamics. Thirty-five percent of the matches correspond to proximity-based matching dynamics, wherein firms do not control the candidates’ profiles. Thirty-four percent of matches result from standard dynamics and 17% from professional-based dynamics. In both cases, firms know the outline of the offer, evaluated through personalised criteria. Partnership-based matching dynamics (14% of the matches) are relatively open for candidates placed by intermediaries, whose evaluation is standardised. The article argues that no matching dynamic is more effective than others, and that employment policies must adapt to the plurality of labour market functioning.

Lien / Link

Conventions of skilling: The plural and prospective worlds of higher vocational education

Rebecca Ye & Erik Nylander (2024)

European Educational Research Journal, online first, open access.

Abstract. When comparing lifelong learning systems in Europe, Swedish vocational education has been characterised as a statist, school-based ideal type, with strong emphasis on egalitarianism and social citizenship. However, the popularisation and expansion of higher vocational education (HVE), a post-secondary training form that has a mandate to train people to meet local labour market needs, complicates these composite descriptions. Building on conventions theory and pragmatic sociology, our analysis probes the plural worlds of HVE participation, beyond simplistic understandings of human capital accumulation or universalistic welfare. Drawing on interviews with participants and archival material, we analyse forms of justifications evoked by those engaged in this transforming skilling regime. Our analysis reveals that participants do not enrol merely for getting work or getting ahead. Rather, participation is described as a response to constraints, a means to challenge difficult circumstances encountered in the labour market, or related to contingencies. Taken together, HVE emerges as a flexible mode of governing vocational knowledge to match local labour market needs, with rivalling conventions of worth. We discuss the increasing significance of projection and anticipation for individuals and organisations involved in skilling regimes, and propose a prospective convention that underscores expectancy and promise.

Lien/Link

Zwischen Weltrettung und Marktfähigkeit. Ecopreneurs im Spannungsfeld von ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit, Unternehmertum und kapitalistischer Wirtschaft

Between saving the world and marketability. Ecopreneurs in the field of tension between ecological sustainability, entrepreneurship and capitalist economy

Eltje Gajewski (2024)

PhD thesis defended at University of Duisburg-Essen 28 June 2024

Jury
Prof. Dr. Frank Kleemann (supervisor and reviewer)
Prof. Dr. Rainer Diaz-Bone (reviewer)
Prof. Dr. Helen Baykara-Krumme
Prof. Dr. Anja Steinbach
Prof. Dr. Gregor Bongaerts (dean)

Auszug: “Wichtige Impulse liefert hierfür das Modell der kapitalistischen Vereinnahmung von Kritik, welches von Boltanski und Chiapello (2001, 2003) als „Der neue Geist des Kapitalismus“ entwickelt und von Chiapello (2014) unter anderem auch auf ökologische Kritik bezogen wurde. Darüber hinaus werden jedoch auch weitere Ansätze diskutiert, die die zunehmende Bedeutung von ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit in kapitalistischen Wirtschaftszusammenhängen erklären können. Anhand dieser Ausführungen wird verdeutlicht, dass das Verständnis von ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit, das in aktuellen gesellschaftlichen, politischen und wirtschaftlichen Diskursen dominant ist, eine kapitalistisch vereinnahmte und überformte Variante ökologischer Kritik darstellt. Auf dieser Grundlage erfolgt im Anschluss eine ausführlichere Betrachtung dieses Nachhaltigkeitsverständnisses. Hierfür wird unter Rückgriff auf den Begriff der Konventionen  […] gezeigt, dass sich die kapitalistische Produktion in historisch veränderlichen Ausprägungen vollzieht, in denen unterschiedliche Ensembles der von Boltanski und Thévenot (2014) definierten und von Thévenot et al. (2011) sowie Boltanski und Chiapello (2003) weiterentwickelten Konventionen vorherrschend sind und sowohl das Denken und Handeln der gesellschaftlichen Subjekte wie auch die konkreten wirtschaftlichen Organisationsformen strukturieren […]. Vor diesem Hintergrund lässt sich der Begriff der ökologischen Nachhaltigkeit für die vorliegende Untersuchung schließlich als Konfiguration ökologischer beziehungsweise grüner sowie kapitalistischer Ideen, Wertmaßstäbe und Handlungsschemata bestimmen und für die empirische Analyse zugleich zu der Fragestellung wenden, auf welche Weise(n) Nachhaltigkeit im Denken und Handeln der befragten ecopreneurs an die kapitalistische Wirtschaft andockt […]. “ (S. 86-87)

Extract: “The model of the capitalist appropriation of critique, which was developed by Boltanski and Chiapello (2001, 2003) as “The new spirit of capitalism” and was also related to ecological critique by Chiapello (2014), among others, provides important impulses for this. However, other approaches are also discussed that can explain the increasing importance of ecological sustainability in capitalist economic contexts. These explanations make it clear that the understanding of ecological sustainability, which is dominant in current social, political and economic discourses, represents a capitalistically appropriated and reshaped variant of ecological criticism. On this basis, a more detailed examination of this understanding of sustainability is then carried out. To this end, the concept of conventions […] is used to show that capitalist production takes place in historically changing forms, in which different ensembles of the conventions defined by Boltanski and Thévenot (2014) and further developed by Thévenot et al. (2011) and Boltanski and Chiapello (2003) are predominant and structure both the thoughts and actions of social subjects and the concrete forms of economic organization […]. Against this background, the concept of ecological sustainability for the present study can ultimately be defined as a configuration of ecological or green and capitalist ideas, value standards and action patterns and, for the empirical analysis, can also be turned to the question of how sustainability docks onto the capitalist economy in the thoughts and actions of the ecopreneurs surveyed […]. ” (S. 86-87)

Abordaje de la pluralidad de modelos productivos desde la Economía de las Convenciones. Aplicación al sector vitivinícola

Addressing the Plurality Within Production Models from Convention Theory. Application to the Wine Sector

Juan Ignacio Staricco (2024)

Cuyonomics, 8(13), pp. 58-85. Open access

Resumen. Las preocupaciones con respecto a la sustentabilidad de nuestra relación con la naturaleza han motivado el surgimiento de múltiples propuestas de producción alternativas. Dicho fenómeno demanda el despliegue de herramientas analíticas capaces de dar cuenta de la pluralidad de modelos productivos que pueden coexistir en un mismo sector. En ese contexto, este artículo presenta a la Economía de las Convenciones (EC) como un marco analítico idóneo para dar cuenta de dicha diversidad. Para ello, primero se presenta el fundamento teórico de la EC para, luego, dar cuenta de su adaptación al campo de la economía. Por último, se provee un ejemplo de su aplicación a través del análisis del sector vitivinícola argentino. Mediante este recorrido se demuestra que la EC, gracias a su foco en los productos y su análisis en términos de las convenciones de calidad que los definen, ofrece importantes recursos analíticos para dar cuenta de la diversidad de modelos productivos. Palabras clave: economía de las convenciones, calidad, sector vitivinícola, modelos productivos.”

Abstract. Concerns regarding the sustainability of our relationship with nature have led to the emergence of multiple alternative production proposals. This phenomenon demands the deployment of analytical tools capable of accounting for the plurality of production models that can coexist within the same sector. Against this background, the article introduces Convention Theory (CT) as an analytical framework with the potential to address this diversity. To do so, it first presents the theoretical foundation of CT and then describes its adaptation to the field of economics. Finally, an example of its application is provided through the analysis of the Argentinean wine sector. Through this exploration, it is demonstrated that CT, focusing on products and their analysis in terms of the quality conventions that define them, offers significant analytical resources to account for the diversity of production models.

Lien / Link

A nova ciência canábica: controvérsias político-científicas e a canabização do humano

The new science of cannabis: political-scientific controversies and the cannabization of humans

Victor Luiz Alves Mourão (2024)

Montes Claros: Editora Unimontes. Open access

Sinopse. O livro A Nova Ciência Canábica, de Victor Mourão, é o resultado de um conjunto de reflexões que o autor vem realizando nos últimos anos em que acompanha e analisa o debate científico e político sobre a planta. Ao tomar as controvérsias como ponto de entrada fundamental nesse debate, a análise logra mapear os processos cognitivos, relacionais, simbólicos e políticos que envolvem a planta em diferentes espaços, seja no âmbito legislativo, seja no âmbito de posicionamentos públicos de associações interessadas nesse debate.

Extracto: “O livro se lê como um romance político. Sem nunca entrar nos aspectos técnicos da análise do discurso, ele segue os discursos e mostra como os argumentos nodais são sistematicamente subvertidos e sutilmente invertidos a medida que passamos do paradigma repressivo-religioso para o paradigma medicocientifico. Baseando-se livremente na sociologia da justificação de Luc Boltanski e Laurent Thévenot, o livro mostra como a luta ideológica é, de fato, uma luta moral sobre os valores e arranjos centrais da sociedade. O objeto em discussão pode ser aparentemente o mesmo para todas as partes, mas no final as associações entre a maconha e os repertórios morais do bem estar (a “Cité da saúde”) e da família (a “Cité doméstica”) mudaram significativamente. De drogas nocivas que intoxicam a mente e destroem a família a um corpo que é curado por dentro graças a um remédio que oferece consolo à família, no decorrer do debate, a fumaça se dissipou. No entanto, as alucinações da direita moral não desapareceram ainda. Em sua luta pelos corações e mentes dos cidadãos, a direita está sempre disposta a continuar a luta pela hegemonia, politizando cada discurso, buscando sempre novos objetos, mobilizando a gente do bem em uma luta heroica contra o mal em nome de Deus, a ordem e família.” (p. 12)

Sinopse. The book The New Cannabis Science, by Victor Mourão, is the result of a set of reflections that the author has been carrying out in recent years in which he follows and analyzes the scientific and political debate about the plant. By taking controversies as a fundamental entry point into this debate, the analysis manages to map the cognitive, relational, symbolic and political processes that involve the plant in different spaces, whether in the legislative sphere or in the public positions of associations interested in this debate.

Extract: “The book reads like a political novel. Without ever going into the technicalities of discourse analysis, it follows the discourses and shows how the nodal arguments are systematically subverted and subtly inverted as we move from the repressive-religious paradigm to the medical-scientific paradigm. Drawing loosely on Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s sociology of justification, the book shows how the ideological struggle is, in fact, a moral struggle over the core values and arrangements of society. The object under discussion may apparently be the same for all parties, but in the end the associations between marijuana and the moral repertoires of well-being (the “Cité of health”) and the family (the “Cité domestic”) have changed significantly. From harmful drugs that intoxicate the mind and destroy the family to a body that is healed from the inside thanks to a remedy that offers consolation to the family, in the course of the debate, the smoke dissipated. However, the hallucinations of the moral right have not yet disappeared. In its struggle for the hearts and minds of citizens, the right is always ready to continue the fight for hegemony, politicizing every discourse, always looking for new objects, mobilizing good people in a heroic struggle against evil in the name of God, order and family.” (p. 12)

Lien / Link

Economics as Rhetoric. The Thought of Bernard Maris

Anne Isla (2024)

Abingdon: Routledge.

About the book. Bernard Maris was killed in Paris on January 7, 2015, during the terrorist attack against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. He remains one of the most original intellectuals of contemporary France, but despite being a uniquely original heterodox thinker, his international reputation has been compromised by the fact that his writings are inaccessible to non-French speakers. This book remedies that.
By providing an overview of Bernard Maris’ life and intellectual trajectory as well as an English translation of an anthology of his most relevant writings, this volume provides the international audience – for the first time ever – the chance to know and understand the contribution of this major heterodox economist. An outstanding and atypical figure in economic thought and a virulent critic of mainstream dominant economics, he was also an all-round actor and thinker of his time. Through rigorous reasoning, he questioned the notion of well-being, which, he argued, is too often conflated with having more. Enslavement by work, or the endless destructive accumulation of natural wealth, is also inherent to the capitalist system. Probably his most original contribution is his epistemological reflection on the very nature of economics and his appraisal of this discipline as a form of rhetoric.
This book will be of great interest to readers in heterodox economics, economic methodology, epistemology, and French literature and culture more broadly.

Eextract: “The Economics of Convention, which developed in the late eighties in France (cf. Dupuy et al. 1989), appeared in a timely fashion to bridge rhetoric and economics. It is a theory that serves Bernard Maris’ rhetorical method. “If it was not for conventionalists, I certainly would have quit economics”, he says. This current, following the institutionalism of Commons and Veblen, stands out from the neo-institutionalism embodied by authors such as Coase or Williamson. Maris describes the latter as a “neo-orthodox”. According to Bernard Maris, the theoreticians of convention – JP Dupuy, Orléan, Favereau, Boltanski, and Thévenot – have a new social science project, he writes in “Les figures du marché et le champ de l’économie des conventions” [“Market figures and the field of the Economics of Convention”] (Maris 1996 ). The Economics of Convention allows one to include radical uncertainty and the importance of social relations in the analysis. Language, money, and law are the three institutions that all other institutions stem from. Such a vision situates the discipline of economics within a political economy. Bernard Maris is a conventionalist economist.” (p. 17)

Lien / Link

Luc Boltanski und die Literatursoziologie

Luc Boltanski and the sociology of literature

David-Christopher Assmann (ed.)(2024)

Wiesbaden: Springer VS

Über das Buch. Eine breite Rezeption der Arbeiten Luc Boltanskis steht in literatursoziologischen Zusammenhängen aus. Der Band setzt an diesem Befund an und eruiert explorativ die Anschlussfähigkeit von Boltanskis Studien für die Generierung und Schärfung literatursoziologischer Fragestellungen und Analysen. Die Beiträge fragen erstens in theoretischer Hinsicht nach der Brauchbarkeit der Arbeiten Boltanskis für die literatursoziologische Begriffsbildung, Entwicklung von Fragerichtungen und Perspektivierung von Untersuchungsergebnissen. Zweitens erproben sie in konkreten Fallstudien die Tragweite der Konzepte Boltanskis für literatursoziologisches Arbeiten. Seinen Fluchtpunkt hat der Band in der Frage, inwiefern Boltanskis Ansatz zu dem beitragen kann, was man probehalber neopragmatische Literatursoziologie nennen könnte.

About the book. Luc Boltanski’s work has yet to be widely received in literary sociological contexts. This volume addresses this finding and explores the usefulness of Boltanski’s studies for the generation and sharpening of questions and analyses in the sociology of literature. Firstly, from a theoretical point of view, the contributions ask about the usefulness of Boltanski’s work for the conceptualization of the sociology of literature, the development of lines of inquiry and the perspectivization of research results. Secondly, they use concrete case studies to test the scope of Boltanski’s concepts for work in the sociology of literature. The volume’s vanishing point is the question of the extent to which Boltanski’s approach can contribute to what could be tentatively called neopragmatic sociology of literature.

Lien / Link

Review of “Pierre-Olivier Monteil (2023): La fabrique des mondes communs. Toulouse: Editions Erès”

Olivier Favereau (2024)

L’Économie politique, n°102, pp. 104-112

Extrait : “L’ouvrage de Pierre-Olivier Monteil analyse la dissolution des collectifs de travail et la rhétorique managériale qui l’accompagne, où l’illusion des rapports non hiérarchiques dissimule l’indifférence généralisée vis-à-vis du travail et des travailleurs. Retrouver le sens perdu du travail présuppose une autre articulation des pouvoirs vertical et horizontal au sein des organisations.”

Extract: “Pierre-Olivier Monteil’s book analyzes the dissolution of work collectives and the managerial rhetoric that accompanies it, where the illusion of non-hierarchical relationships dis-simulates widespread indifference to work and workers. Rediscovering the lost meaning of work presupposes a different articulation of vertical and horizontal powers within organizations.”

Lien / Link

Review of “Anna Gonon (2023): Eingliederung als Rechtfertigungsarbeit: Konventionen betrieblicher Arbeitsintegration am Beispiel psychisch erkrankter Beschäftigter. Wiesbaden: Springer VS”

Valeska Cappel (2024)

Soziologische Revue, 47(2), open access, pp. 224–230

Auszug: “Die Studie leistet wichtige Beiträge zum Verhältnis von Gesundheitssoziologie und Arbeitssoziologie und liefert auch substantielle Erkenntnisse zum Umgang mit der Kategorie Gesundheit in einem institutionalisierten Umfeld. Es wird deutlich, dass erst innerhalb der jeweiligen institutionellen Strukturen situativ die Wertigkeiten von Gesundheit verhandelt und mobilisiert werden. Obwohl die Kategorie der psychisch Erkrankten durch den gesamten Band hinweg eine zentrale Rolle spielt, fehlt hier noch eine stärkere Inbezugsetzung der Studie Gonons zu den Beiträgen der Economies des conventions (EC) zur Soziologie und politischen Ökonomie der Gesundheit. Dadurch könnten die Reichweite und die Anschlussfähigkeit der erkenntnisreichen Studie nochmals gesteigert werden.”

Extract: “The study makes important contributions to the relationship between the sociology of health and the sociology of work and also provides substantial insights into the handling of the category of health in an institutionalized environment. It becomes clear that the values of health are only negotiated and mobilized situationally within the respective institutional structures. Although the category of the mentally ill plays a central role throughout the entire volume, Gonon’s study still lacks a stronger reference to the contributions of the economics of convention (EC) to the sociology and political economy of health. This could further increase the scope and connectivity of this insightful study.”

Lien / Link

International Law in the Minds: On the Ideational Basis of the Making, the Changing and the Unmaking of International Law

Thomas Schultz (2024)

Leiden Journal of International Law, Preprint. King’s Research Portal. Open access

Abstract. Usual accounts of international law-making and international legal change focus on formal secondary rules. Others include societal and institutional facts. But international law consists of ideas too. Arguably it exists only in minds. To be sure then, the conditions of ideational change codetermine when and how international law is made, unmade, and otherwise changes. This is what this article is after. It first draws a general sketch of international legal change (including its making and unmaking) to then zoom in on its ideational elements, with a narrower focus on market opportunities for ideas. These market opportunities, it is argued, are determined by: paradigm shifts, struggles between competing schools of thought, the formation of distinct epistemic subfields, the core individuals’ different capitals, and changes in beliefs.

Extract: “The second exogenous factor is captured by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s theory of justification. An idea may be received in a field, it was argued above, if it resolves a question which was asked of the thinking. That resolution must be accepted. The solution it offers to a conundrum, for instance, must be accepted. Most questions can be interpreted, at some juncture in the reasoning about them, as a dispute; a dispute between solutions. (Recall the point above about knowledge as judgment.) For the solution to a dispute to be accepted, it needs to be justified, Boltanski and Thévenot would in essence say.” (p. 16-17)

Lien / Link

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

Insights From Insurance for Fair Machine Learning

Christian Fröhlich & Robert C. Williamson (2024)

ACM Digital Library, Open access

Abstract. We argue that insurance can act as an analogon for the social situatedness of machine learning systems, hence allowing machine learning scholars to take insights from the rich and interdisciplinary insurance literature. Tracing the interaction of uncertainty, fairness and responsibility in insurance provides a fresh perspective on fairness in machine learning. We link insurance fairness conceptions to their machine learning relatives, and use this bridge to problematize fairness as calibration. In this process, we bring to the forefront two themes that have been largely overlooked in the machine learning literature: responsibility and aggregate-individual tensions.

Extract: “The performativity of insurance and machine learning becomes especially relevant due to ethical implications. Many scholars have argued, providing insightful examples, that insurance is fundamentally a normative technology, depending on causality, control and responsibility. Doing insurance or machine learning involves enacting certain realities and suppressing others, as we have sketched in Section 3.2. For instance, in the process of collecting data, only some features are considered, and others neglected. Expanding on this, a performativity perspective would emphasize that there is no objective data ‘collection’ process, that quantification and categorization require significant and ongoing work; such work may be influenced by implicit normative judgements, which becomes ingrained and hidden in the ‘representation’. There is now a vibrant, if still nascent, research field on the sociology of quantification (including categorization), owing much to the seminal work of Desrosières; for overviews of this field see, where the reader finds plenty of evidence for such work. Central in this research field is again performativity, or what has been called the constitutive potential of quantification. As a noteworthy example, it has been demonstrated that the census, through the introduction of statistical categories, can contribute to the establishment of a collective identity among the individuals it aims to describe [20, 86, 110]. Thus, a category that was initially intended to merely represent acquires performativity by actively shaping the formation of this particular group. We propose that insurance can act as a model for the performativity of statistical, “calculative devices” that arise from their social situatedness.”

Lien / Link

Questions migratoires en milieu scolaire. Lorsque la diversité questionne l’universalisme républicain. Regard des professionnels de l’éducation en collège et lycée

[Migration issues in schools. When diversity challenges republican universalism. The views of education professionals in lower and upper secondary schools]

Gabriela Valente and Émilie Pontanier (2023).
In: Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques [Online] 54(1), pp. 49-68.
https://journals.openedition.org/rsa/5944

Couverture RSA 2023-54-2

RESUME
“Les questions migratoires ont été une des thématiques abordées par les professionnels de l’éducation interviewés dans le cadre d’une recherche nationale sur les pratiques enseignantes en contexte de diversité sociale et culturelle. Notre questionnement est le suivant : comment les tensions qui entourent les questions migratoires se traduisent-elles dans le milieu scolaire ? Comment travaillent-elles les pratiques enseignantes des professionnels de l’éducation ? Comment ces derniers interprètent-ils les situations en lien avec l’origine étrangère des élèves ? L’hypothèse soutenue est que la ou les compréhensions du rôle social de l’école en tant qu’instrument d’unification sociale et nationa­le se conjugue avec l’entendement d’une école perçue comme un espace de valorisation de la diversité sociale. En nous appuyant sur la sociologie pragmatique, nous avons analysé 47 situations professionnelles et contextuelles qui révèlent la complexité à penser la fonction sociale universaliste de l’école à la demande de reconnaissance de la diversité culturelle et d’origine de ses acteurs.”
ABSTRACT
“Migration issues were one of the themes addressed by the education professionals interviewed as part of national research into teaching practices in a context of social and cultural diversity. Our questioning is as follows: how are the tensions surrounding migration issues reflected in the school environment? How do they affect the teaching practices of education professionals? How do the latter interpret situations involving the foreign origin of students? The hypothesis defended is that the understanding(s) of the school’s social role as an instrument of social and national unification combines with an understanding of the school as a place where social diversity is valorized. Drawing on pragmatic sociology, we have analysed 47 professional and contextual situations that reveal the complexity of thinking on the universalist social function of the school in terms of the demand for recognition of the cultural diversity and origins of its actors.”

Compromise in multilateral negotiations and the global regulation of artificial intelligence

Michal Natorski (2024)

Democratization, Online first, open access

Abstract. As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies spread worldwide, international discussions have increasingly focused on their consequences for democracy, human rights, fundamental freedoms, security, and economic and social development. In this context, UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, adopted in November 2021, has emerged as the first global normative framework for AI development and deployment. The intense negotiations of every detail of the document brought forth numerous controversies among UNESCO member states. Drawing on a unique set of primary sources, including written positions and recorded deliberations, this article explains the achievement of global compromise on AI regulation despite the multiplicity of UNESCO member-state positions representing a variety of liberal and sovereignist preferences. Building upon Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology, it conceptualizes the practice of multilateral negotiations and attributes the multilateral fragile agreements to two embedded therein compromises: Structural normative hybridity and situated normative ambiguity allowed to accomplish a compromise by linking macro-normative structures with situated debates of multilateral negotiations.

Link / Lien

Embedding authenticity in production logics. The case of the microbrewery resurgence in Belgium

Pauline Delperdange & Marc Zune (2024)

In Andrea Maurer, Sebastian Nessel and Alberto Veira-Ramos (eds.), Economic Sociology in Europe Recent Trends and Developments, London: Routledge, pp. 23-69.

Extract: “Pursuing a thesis already developed by Boltanski and Chiapello (2005), Boltanski and Esquerre (2020) argue that capitalism succeeds in overcoming its critics and renewing itself by commodifying authentic goods, thus highlighting the historical and local roots that confer singularity upon them. The return of craft — which is based on forms of rediscovery coupled with the updating of traditional skills — is fully involved in the development of an “enrichment economy”. […] Inspired by a perspective attuned to the role played by market coordination conventions and the mechanisms underpinning production qualification (Eymard-Duvernay et al. 2006; Beckert and Musselin 2013; Storper and Salais 1997), the objective of this chapter is to further examine the multiplicity of meanings afforded to authenticity and the means by which craft producers translate these meanings into specific economic logics.” (p. 23/24)

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