Archives mensuelles : novembre 2024

La mesure d’impact : construction d’un objet commun entre capital-risqueur et entrepreneur ?

Measuring impact: building a common object between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs?

Daniel Freiss & Lucas Boucaud (2024)

Innovations, n°75. Online first, pp. 127- 154.

Résumé. L’Impact Investing (II) vise à produire un impact positif et mesurable sur le plan social et/ou environnemental tout en conservant un retour financier positif. Les organismes de capital-risque à impact (CRI) occupent une place importante en tant qu’intermédiaire entre les investisseurs et les entrepreneurs à impact. La littérature s’est focalisée sur l’étude de l’articulation de ces deux enjeux (financiers et environnementaux/sociaux) difficiles à concilier au prisme des logiques institutionnelles. La construction de l’accord entre CRI et entrepreneur et la façon dont l’impact est intégré dans cette démarche est encore assez méconnue (Agrawal, Hockerts, 2021). S’appuyant sur l’Économie de la Grandeur (Boltanski, Thévenot, 2022), notre étude de plusieurs dyades CRI-entrepreneur a identifié deux enjeux clés: la corrélation positive entre activité et impact (i) et la possibilité de traduire cet impact dans une métrique d’impact générique (ii).

Abstract. Impact Investing (II) aims to produce a positive, measurable social and/or environmental impact while retaining a positive financial return. Impact Venture Capital (IVC) organizations play an important role as intermediaries between investors and impact entrepreneurs. The literature has focused on the articulation of these two issues (financial and environmental/social), which are difficult to reconcile through the prism of institutional logics. The construction of the agreement between IVC and entrepreneur and the way in which impact is integrated into this process is still relatively unknown (Agrawal, Hockerts, 2021). Drawing on the Economy of Worth (Boltanski, Thévenot, 2022), our study of several IVC-entrepreneur dyads identified two key issues: the positive correlation between activity and impact (i) and the possibility of translating this impact into a generic impact metric (ii).

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L’influence des agents immobiliers sur les prix du logement

The influence of real estate agents on housing prices

Nicolas Siounandan (2024)

Thèse en sciences économiques soutenue le 28 novembre 2024 à l’Université Paris Cité

Jury:
Lise BERNARD Chargée de recherche CNRS École Normale Supérieure Examinatrice
Loïc BONNEVAL Maître de conférences Université Lyon II Examinateur
Guillemette DE LARQUIER Professeure des universités Université de Lille Rapporteuse
Sophie HARNAY Professeure des universités Université Paris Nanterre Rapporteuse
Philippe MOATI Professeur des universités Université Paris Cité Directeur

Résumé. L’agent immobilier, en tant qu’intermédiaire, facilite la mise en relation entre vendeurs et acquéreurs de biens immobiliers. Dans le cadre d’une prestation de services, le praticien accompagne la fixation du prix de vente. Pour ce faire, il considère les attributs du logement, les conditions du marché, le profil du vendeur, la concurrence avec les autres intermédiaires, les outils technologiques à sa disposition et s’appuie sur son expérience personnelle. Face à la complexité de ces multiples considérations, comment les agents immobiliers procèdent-ils pour établir le prix d’un logement ? Si le prix hédonique d’un logement se fixe à partir de ses caractéristiques et des conditions du marché, comment, dans les faits, les intermédiaires immobiliers arbitrent-ils entre l’application de ce principe théorique, d’une part, et la prise en compte de leurs propres intérêts et limites, d’autre part ? Finalement quel est l’impact des intermédiaires sur les prix du marché immobilier ? Cette recherche montre qu’au-delà de l’analyse de l’interaction entre l’offre et la demande, le professionnel recourt à un ensemble de règles implicites, établies individuellement ou collectivement, afin de formuler un prix « satisfaisant » (H. Simon) pour l’ensemble des acteurs impliqués dans la transaction, y compris lui-même. Plus précisément, l’agent immobilier écarte le bien de sa supposée « valeur intrinsèque » (E. Fama) tout au long du processus de fixation du prix. Tout d’abord, le prix estimatif est calculé à partir d’une information imparfaite et de décisions subjectives ou biaisées. Ensuite, motivée par l’intensité de la concurrence entre intermédiaires, une pression à la hausse exercée sur le prix affiché se répercute dans le prix final. Pour aboutir à ce dernier, l’agent immobilier, en réponse à ses impératifs de rentabilité, incite fortement les vendeurs à revoir leurs attentes à la baisse. Par conséquent, l’étude de l’impact de l’agent immobilier sur le prix d’un logement montre que le marché ne corrige pas la subjectivité des acteurs, mais s’en alimente. Dans la lignée des travaux de Keynes et de Shiller, relatifs aux dimensions psychologique et sociale des marchés, ce sont les acteurs qui construisent les prix sur le marché immobilier plutôt que les prix qui coordonnent les acteurs en s’imposant à eux. Cette recherche se concentre sur le marché résidentiel formé par 33 communes du Val-d’Oise. Selon une démarche méthodologique mixte, elle exploite des entretiens semi-directifs (n=16), les données internes d’une agence immobilière (n=585 mandats), une revue de la presse spécialisée (n=578 articles) et de la communication institutionnelle (n=63 communiqués de presse d’organisations professionnelles) ainsi qu’une base de prix agrégés (n=1970 transactions) pour étudier les pratiques professionnelles des agents immobiliers. Le cadre théorique convoqué combine la rationalité procédurale et la théorie des conventions pour comprendre le processus de décision, tant à travers les choix individuels que les interactions sectorielles. Ce travail aboutit à la formulation de recommandations destinées aux acteurs publics chargés d’améliorer le fonctionnement du marché immobilier.

Abstract. As an intermediary, the real estate agent facilitates contact between sellers and buyers of real estate. As part of the service provided, the agent assists in setting the selling price. To do so, he or she considers the attributes of the property, market conditions, the seller’s profile, competition with other intermediaries, the technological tools at his disposal, and draws on his or her personal experience. Given the complexity of these multiple considerations, how do real estate agents go about pricing a home? If the hedonic price of a home is based on its characteristics and market conditions, how do real estate intermediaries actually arbitrate between applying this theoretical principle, on the one hand, and taking into account their own interests and limitations, on the other? Finally, what impact do intermediaries have on real estate market prices? This research shows that, over and above the analysis of the interaction between supply and demand, the professional uses a set of implicit rules, established individually or collectively, to formulate a “satisfactory” price (H. Simon) for all the players involved in the transaction, including herself or himself. More precisely, the real estate agent sets aside the property’s supposed “intrinsic value” (E. Fama) throughout the price-setting process. Firstly, the estimated price is calculated on the basis of imperfect information and subjective or biased decisions. Then, driven by the intensity of competition between intermediaries, upward pressure on the posted price is reflected in the final price. To achieve the latter, real estate agents, in response to their profitability imperatives, strongly encourage sellers to revise their expectations downwards. Consequently, the study of the real estate agent’s impact on the price of a home shows that the market does not correct the subjectivity of the players, but feeds off it. In line with the work of Keynes and Shiller on the psychological and social dimensions of markets, it is actors who construct prices on the real estate market, rather than prices coordinating actors by imposing themselves on them. This research focuses on the residential market formed by 33 communes in the Val-d’Oise. Using a mixed-methods approach, it makes use of semi-structured interviews (n=16), internal data from a real estate agency (n=585 mandates), a review of the specialized press (n=578 articles) and institutional communication (n=63 press releases from professional organizations), as well as an aggregated price database (n=1970 transactions) to study the professional practices of real estate agents. The theoretical framework used combines procedural rationality and convention theory to understand the decision-making process, both through individual choices and sectoral interactions. The result is a set of recommendations aimed at the public players responsible for improving the functioning of the real estate market.

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A world of evidence: the global spread and silent politics of evidence cultures

Holger Straßheim (2024)

Policy and Society, Online first, open access

Abstract. How can we explain the worldwide spread of evidence-based policymaking despite continuous criticism? What are the underlying mechanisms of its persistence on a global scale? This article aims at answering these questions by focusing on the cultural constellations in which evidence is imbued with political as well as epistemic authority. Evidence cultures are discursive and institutional forces (re-)producing both the scientific validation of knowledge and its relevance in policymaking. They need to be understood as self-propagating constellations of interlinking science and policy through practices, discourses and institutionally sedimented regulations. Evidence is the product of chains of practices in which the initial knowledge struggles are gradually made publicly invisible and often inaccessible. The article reconstructs the immunization of evidence cultures from criticism and their silent politics by looking at quantifications, benchmarking and randomized controlled trials as typical cases. To overcome the circularities and closures so characteristic of the evidence culture of evidence-based policymaking, politico-epistemic diversity should be actively promoted.

Extract: “Within the sociology of conventions and, more specifically, the sociology of quantification, a different concept of culture has emerged (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006; Desrosières, 1998; Diaz-Bone & Didier, 2016; Lamont, 2012; Mennicken & Salais, 2022). First, this stream of analysis agrees with the more habitual concepts of culture that conventions indeed provide a “shared frame of interpretation, evaluation and valuations” (Diaz-Bone, 2016, 49). As classifications, categories, or principles they become reference points and repertoires of how to determine the worth of objects and persons, how to justify actions and how to coordinate collectives. Second, institutions such as rules or standards are seen as both normatively and cognitively incomplete and underdetermined. They need to be concretized in social interactions. Third, actors are competent and have the ability to concretize institutions, to judge conventions, criticize and re-evaluate them and to find new ways of interlinking them in order to deal with situations of coordination and justification (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006). In this sense, culture refers to a more situational and pragmatic repertoire of discourses and practices directing action and coordination but one that is also open to re-evaluation and critical re-formulation. “Evaluative practices” are certainly shaped by conventions, collective values and beliefs; they are, however, also up to criticism and disagreements between scientific peers, experts, policymakers, and other societal actors which might lead to a reorganization of the cultural constellation (Lamont & Huutoniemi, 2011; Lamont & Thévenot, 2000).” (p. 6)

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Die Politisierbarkeit ökonomischer Modellwelten. Zum Einfluss der Wirtschaftswissenschaft auf die Gesellschaft

The politicizability of economic model worlds. On the influence of economics on society

Damm, Carsten (2024)

Bielefeld: Transcript. Open access

Über das Buch. Dem Zusammenhang zwischen wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Modellen und modelliertem Wirtschaftsleben kommt eine Schlüsselbedeutung bei der Bewältigung gesellschaftlicher Krisen zu. Wenn ökonomische Modellwelten mit anderen Welten interagieren, spricht man von »Performativität«. Carsten Damm erforscht Phänomene politisierender Performativität, die sich dadurch auszeichnen, dass Personen ökonomische Modellwelten zur Rechtfertigung normativer Geltungsansprüche heranziehen. Damit stellt er nicht nur kritische Fragen an das Verhältnis zwischen Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Gesellschaft im Allgemeinen, sondern behandelt diese auch empirisch durch ein interdisziplinär entwickeltes Forschungsdesign mit Anschlusspotenzial für künftige Analysen.

Auszug: “In den nun folgenden Abschnitten möchte ich in die Rechtfertigungstheorie (nach Boltanski und Thévenot, 2008) nur so weit einführen, dass sich mit dem dort verwendeten Analyseraster ökonomische Modellwelten für verschiedene Modellfamilien aus dem wissenschaftlichen Diskurs der Arbeitsmarktökonomik rekonstruieren lassen (2.1). Den Anfang machen im zweiten Abschnitt (2.2) die Modellwelten walrasianischer Prägung zunächst in ihrer allgemeinen Form (2.2.1), bevor danach zuerst die klassische (2.2.2) und dann die keynesianische (2.2.3) Version spezifiziert werden. Abschließend geht es um die – im Vergleich zu Abkömmlingen der walrasianischen Modellfamilie – doch deutlich anders gestrickten Such- und Matchingmodellwelten (2.3).”

About the book. The connection between economic models and modeled economic life is of key importance in overcoming social crises. When economic model worlds interact with other worlds, we speak of “performativity”. Carsten Damm researches phenomena of politicizing performativity, which are characterized by the fact that people use economic model worlds to justify normative claims to validity. In doing so, he not only poses critical questions about the relationship between economics and society in general, but also deals with them empirically using an interdisciplinary research design with potential for future analyses.

Extract: “In the following sections, I would like to introduce justification theory (according to Boltanski and Thévenot, 2008) only to the extent that the analytical framework used there can be used to reconstruct economic model worlds for various model families from the academic discourse of labor market economics (2.1). The second section (2.2) starts with the Walrasian model worlds, first in their general form (2.2.1), before specifying first the classical (2.2.2) and then the Keynesian (2.2.3) version. Finally, we look at the search and matching model worlds (2.3), which are clearly different from the descendants of the Walrasian model family.”

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La consommation et l’épreuve de réalité : comment les individus justifient-ils les limites assumées à leurs efforts de consommation face aux enjeux climatiques ?

Consumption and the reality check: how do individuals justify the limits they set on their consumption efforts in the face of climate change?

Clément Dubreuil & Stéphane Borraz (2024)

Recherche et Applications en Marketing (French Edition). Online first

Résumé. Cette recherche vise à comprendre comment les individus conscients des enjeux environnementaux justifient le caractère limité de leurs propres efforts de consommation, à la lumière d’une épreuve de réalité, c’est-à dire la mesure de leur empreinte carbone. Elle adopte une approche interprétativiste et s’appuie sur le cadre de la théorie de la justification. Premièrement, elle contribue à mieux comprendre le green gap, en identifiant les justifications formulées par les individus dans des situations où ils assument les limites à leurs efforts constatées dans le résultat de leur empreinte carbone. Détaillant les mondes et catégories essentielles auxquels les individus se réfèrent à travers ces justifications, cette recherche met en évidence comment ils critiquent l’épreuve de réalité, et parfois le système dans lequel elle s’inscrit, censée trancher le bien-fondé des pratiques. Deuxièmement, cette recherche révèle l’épreuve de réalité comme l’élément conceptuel conciliant les compétences critiques réformistes et radicales des consommateurs. Enfin, 3 contributions managériales sont présentées, ainsi que certaines limites et voies de recherche.

Abstract. This research aims to understand how environmentally conscious individuals justify the limited nature of their own consumption efforts, in the light of a reality check, i.e. the measurement of their carbon footprint. It adopts an interpretivist approach and draws on the framework of justification theory. Firstly, it contributes to a better understanding of the green gap, by identifying the justifications formulated by individuals in situations where they assume the limits to their efforts observed in the result of their carbon footprint. Detailing the essential worlds and categories to which individuals refer through these justifications, this research highlights how they criticize the reality test, and sometimes the system in which it is embedded, supposed to decide on the merits of practices. Secondly, this research reveals the reality test as the conceptual element reconciling consumers’ reformist and radical critical skills. Finally, 3 managerial contributions are presented, along with some limitations and avenues for further research.

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Die (neo)pragmatische Perspektive der Soziologie der Kritik auf Herrschaft, Macht und Ungleichheit in der schulichen Bildung

The (neo)pragmatic perspective of the sociology of critique on domination, power and inequality in school education

Mario Steinberg, Kenneth Horvath & Andrea Isabel Frei (2024)

Gesellschaft – Individuum – Sozialisation, 5(2), Open access

Zusammenfassung. Die  Soziologie  der  Kritik  stellt  einen  Theorierahmen  bereit,  der  die  moralisch-kritischen  Kompetenzen von  sozialen  Akteur*innen  zum  Ausgangspunkt  für  die  Analyse  von  Macht  und  Ungleichheiten  in  der Bildung macht. Deren Umgang mit ungewissen Situationen ist Anker- und Ausgangspunkt für das Verständnis der Stabilisierung, aber auch des Wandels sozialer Ordnungen. Dieser Beitrag führt diese Perspektive als Grundlage für ein Forschungsprogramm ein, mit dem rekonstruiert werden kann, wie in verketteten schulischen  Handlungssituationen  soziale  Ordnung  wirksam  hergestellt,  aufrechterhalten und/oder verändert wird. Dieser Zugriff auf bildungsbezogene Herrschafts-, Macht- und Ungleichheits-verhältnisse wird anhand eines laufenden Forschungsprojekts veranschaulicht, in welchem das Zusammenspiel von schulischen Sortierungsprozessen und digitalen Bildungstechnologien beleuchtet wird.

Abstract. The sociology of critique provides a theoretical framework that makes the moral-critical competencies of social actors the starting point for analyzing power and inequalities in education. Their handling of uncertain situations is the anchor and starting point for understanding the stabilization, but also the change of social orders. This article introduces this perspective as the basis for a research program that can be used to reconstruct how social order is effectively established, maintained and/or changed in interlinked school situations. This approach to education-related relations of domination, power and inequality is illustrated on the basis of an ongoing research project in which the interplay between school sorting processes and digital educational technologies is examined.

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Zur folgenreichen Unmöglichkeit, Potenziale zu prüfen: Neopragmatische Perspektiven auf beharrliche Bildungsbenachteiligungen

On the momentous impossibility of examining potential: Neopragmatic perspectives on persistent educational disadvantage

Kenneth Horvath (2024)

Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 2024/6, pp. 758-774

Zusammenfassung. Persistente Bildungsungleichheiten bilden seit Jahrzehnten den zentralen Gegenstand bildungssoziologischer Debatten. Ihre Erforschung hat sich lange Zeit im Spannungsfeld von Rational-Choice-Modellen und bourdieuschen Habitus-Feld-Analysen bewegt. Vor diesem Hintergrund rückt dieser Beitrag sozialtheoretische Verschiebungen in den Fokus, die sich mit der (neo-)pragmatischen französischen Soziologie für eine sozialkritische Bildungsforschung ergeben. Als zentraler Gegenstand einer solchen Forschung werden Prüfungen ausgemacht, die es sozialen Akteur*innen erlauben, in ungewissen Situationen Wahrheits- und Gerechtigkeitsentscheidungen zu treffen. In Bildungskontexten spielen insbesondere Potenzialprüfungen eine Schlüsselrolle, weil in ihnen die Kernaufgabe von Schule zum Ausdruck kommt, ausgehend von einem grundlegenden Gleichheitspostulat biographisch folgenreiche Ungleichheiten herzustellen und zu legitimieren. Potenzialprüfungen sind allerdings mit einer fundamentalen Schwierigkeit konfrontiert: Ihr Gegenstand ist per definitionem nicht prüfbar. Der politische und pädagogische Umgang mit dieser Unmöglichkeit erweist sich als Ansatzpunkt zum Verständnis von Praktiken, die Bildungsungleichheiten auf Dauer stellen, die allgemein bekannt, umfassend erforscht und breit als ungerecht anerkannt sind.

Abstract. Persistent educational inequalities have been the central subject of educational sociology debates for decades. For a long time, research into these inequalities has been caught between rational choice models and bourdieusian habitus-field analyses. Against this backdrop, this article focuses on social-theoretical shifts that arise from (neo-)pragmatic French sociology for socio-critical educational research. Tests that allow social actors to make truth and justice decisions in uncertain situations are identified as the central object of such research. In educational contexts, tests of potential in particular play a key role because they express the core task of schools to create and legitimize biographically consequential inequalities based on a fundamental postulate of equality. However, tests of potential are confronted with a fundamental difficulty: Their subject matter is by definition not testable. The political and pedagogical handling of this impossibility proves to be a starting point for understanding practices that perpetuate educational inequalities that are generally known, extensively researched and widely recognized as unjust.

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Intermédiation numérique, coordination et cognition distribuée. Etudes théorique, méthodologique et empirique du pouvoir des plateformes numériques

Digital intermediation, coordination and distributed cognition: theoretical, methodological and empirical studies of the power of digital platforms

Mathilde Abel (2024)

Thèse en sciences économiques soutenue le 20 novembre 2024 à l’université Sorbonne Nouvelle

PhD thesis in economics defended on November 20, 2024 at Sorbonne Nouvelle University.

Membres du jury :
M. Christophe BENAVENT, Professeur des universités Université Paris Dauphine
M. Christian BESSY, Professeur des universités ENS Paris-Saclay
Mme Guillemette DE LARQUIER, Professeur des universités Université de Lille
M. Patrick DIEUAIDE, MCF/HDR Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
M. Fabrice ROCHELANDET, Professeur des universités Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
Mme Paola TUBARO, Directrice de recherche CNRS

Résumé. Cette thèse a pour objet d’analyser le pouvoir des plateformes numériques en s’appuyant sur l’approche conventionnaliste de la coordination et le concept de digital labor. Elle explore la manière toute particulière dont les plateformes, en tant que firmes intermédiaires, font usage de la triangulation pour distribuer les capacités cognitives et organiser la coordination entre les différents usagers connectés. On montre que cette opération consiste à contrôler la circulation, le traitement et la mise en forme des informations échangées afin de stabiliser des solutions de coordination. Pour étayer cette proposition, une enquête statistique, combinant une analyse qualitative et des outils de traitement automatique du langage, est menée à partir d’un corpus de messages de chauffeurs VTC. Ce travail montre que les intermédiaires s’appuient sur des technologies de coordination et une division cognitive et spatiale du travail pour formater et créer un espace intermédiaire de marché. Il souligne aussi un phénomène de dualisation spatiale du travail lié à la création de cet espace, entre un espace numérique, où le travail est programmé, et un espace public (ou physique), où il est exécuté. La thèse met en évidence des asymétries de pouvoir de nature cognitive entre les plateformes et les chauffeurs VTC connectés, où les premiers valorisent le travail cognitif des seconds. Bien que les chauffeurs conservent une certaine agentivité sur des aspects professionnels de leur travail, on montre qu’ils vivent aussi dans un « monde de production » formaté par les plateformes, lesquelles imposent une subordination tacite à des conventions de marché qu’ils ne peuvent modifier.

Abstract. The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the power of digital platforms, drawing on the conventionalist approach to coordination and the concept of digital labor. It explores the way in which platforms, as intermediary firms, use triangulation to distribute cognitive capacities and organize coordination between different connected users. It shows that this operation consists in controlling the circulation, processing and formatting of information exchange in order to stabilize coordination solutions. To support this demonstration, a statistical investigation combining qualitative analysis and automatic language processing tools was carried out on a corpus of messages from ride-hailing drivers. This work shows that intermediaries rely on coordination technologies and a cognitive and spatial division of labor to format and create an intermediary market space. It also highlights a phenomenon of spatial dualization of work linked to the creation of this space, between a digital space, where work is programmed, and a public (or physical) space, where it is performed. The dissertation highlights power asymmetries of a cognitive nature between platforms and connected ride-hailing drivers, where the former value the latter’s cognitive labor. Although the drivers retain a certain agency over professional aspects of their work, the results reveal that they also live in a “world of production” formatted by the platforms, which impose a tacit subordination to market conventions that they cannot modify.

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Convention theorist presentations at SSA congress at Basel 9-11 September 2024

Congress report by Rainer Diaz-Bone

From 9 to 11 September 2024 the congress “Vulnerable Societies: Risks and Responses” of the Swiss Association of Sociology (SSA) took place at Basel (Muttenz). Two workshop sessions were organized by Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne, Switzerland) and devoted to economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC).

On Tuesday 10 September the first (out of two) workshop session “Crises, conflicts, catastrophes – on the relationship between «self-vulnerabilization» and collective capacities for action from a convention theory perspective” took place. The main aim of this session was to grasp self-vulnerabilization as resulting out of societal process. The loss of social self-evidence or consensus can be regarded as caused by social mechanisms as emerging populisms, increasing social inequality, ageing societies, environmentally destructive lifestyles, the inadequate handling of migration consequences (as failing to integrate migrants). There have been four presentations at this workshop. First, Rainer Diaz-Bone introduced some of EC/SC’s core concepts which can be fruitfully applied in the analysis of self-vulnerabilization. For him, self-vulnerability can be conceived of as the damaging of fair evaluation, critique and justification as well as the institutional corruption of coping capacities. He pointed to EC/SC’s concept of bad conventions (Philippe Batifoulier and Guillemette de Larquier), self-referentiality (André Orléan) and the power of evaluation (François Eymard-Duvernay) which could be employed. Also, he argued that the difference between conventions and institutions (Robert Salais) could cause effects of self-vulnerabilization.

Ross Wallace

Valentin Rottensteiner

Luca Perrig

​Ross Wallace (University of Lisbon, Portugal) presented research on a local project for energy transition and the resistance against it in Cercal in Portugal. In his lecture “From place imaginaries to regimes of engagement with alternative energy futures: A report from a Portuguese” Wallace shared insights from his research project team (with Kaya Schwemmlein and Susana Batel) about how a local social movement emerged to act against a planned solar plant in 2021/2022. The analysis focused on the discourse and how critique was mobilized in it. One of the key findings was that the state is accused to ignore the vulnerability of the Portuguese community of Cercal. In the third lecture on supply chain vulnerabilities titled “Conflicting worlds of production: How the strive for supply chain vulnerability creates conflict in the semiconductor industry” Valentin Rottensteiner (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany) employed the model of worlds of production (developed by Michael Storper and Robert Salais) to study how actors in different worlds identify supply chain vulnerabilities. He argued that vulnerabilities are identified and solved in different ways – depending on the world of production. The last presentation “Enrolling hackers into a market for cyber-vulnerabilities” was given by Luca Perrig (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland). He referred to the market of hacking services and the hacking activist movement of “hactivism”. Perrig tracked the way how the mobilization of justifications for hacking (“ethical hacking”) goes hand in hand with the construction of a market for hacking service and hacking activism.

The second workshop session took place on Wednesday 11 September and was entitled “The Pluralization of Social Knowledge Production and the Paradox of Vulnerability”. Four lectures were given which were focusing the “paradox” that science is at once regarded as a resource for tackling uncertainty and crises as well as a realm which generates uncertainty and becomes vulnerable itself. The pluralization of knowledge production and the questioning of academic knowledge now lead to the fact that its analyses and solution perspectives for vulnerability(ies) themselves come under social criticism (e. g. “climate deniers”).

Frithjof Nungesser

Léonie Bisang and Guy Schwegler

Valeska Cappel

Walter Bartl

​The first presentation was given by Frithjof Nungesser (University of Graz, Austria) on “Forms of valuing livestock: On the pluralization of justifications, vulnerability claims, and the uses of science in animal welfare debates”. Nungesser offered first elements of a beginning analysis of two situations of animal welfare legislation in Germany (the 1972 Animal Welfare Act and the 2023 introduction of a mandatory animal husbandry label). Relying on the notion of order of justification (Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot) he sketched the pluralization of justifications and critiques on the two legislation initiatives. The second presentation by Valeska Cappel (University of Lucerne) on “Health-Apps: The pluralization of knowledge production and its consequences” presented first results of a research project on health app users’ practices. Cappel demonstrated how actors invent “multiple truth” and different justifications about the validity and usages of health data. Guy Schwegler and Léonie Bisang (both University of Lucerne) showed in their presentation “Is place the new social? Geodata and the encounter of data worlds” how geodata can be used to generate a different kind of representation of “the social”. They based their presentation on the notion of “data worlds” and questioned the approach to replace class concepts by geodemographic classifications as explanatory principles (e.g. postcodes as it was proposed by Richard Webber and Roger Burrows). The last presentation in this workshop session was given by Walter Bartl (University of Halle, Germany). Entitled “Worlds of scientific knowledge transfer” Bartl’s presentation applied the “worlds of production” model and showed how scientific knowledge transfer can be understood in different worlds. Bartl made the perspective of EC/SC evident by applying it to two examples of scientific knowledge translations in Germany.

Beside the eight presentations in the two workshop sessions, there have been other presentations based on EC/SC, too, as Kenneth Horvath’s (University of Teacher Education Zurich, Switzerland) presentation “Beyond resilience and vulnerability: employing the Sociology of Critique to explore the social foundations and implications of the AI-transformation of educational organisations” or Jessica Pidoux, Núria Sànchez-Mira and Philip Balsiger’s (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland) lecture on “Algorithmic Predictions in Uber’s Digital Labor Market: A Study on Economic Risks and Autonomy of Drivers” in which they used Robert Salais’ concept of labor conventions.
The convention theorist presentations at the SSA congress in 2024 continued the series of workshops and presentations included in the SSA congresses for almost ten years now (SSA congresses in Lausanne 2015, Zurich 2017, Neuchâtel 2019, Geneva 2021), which are devoted to convention theory’s research in Switzerland and abroad.

Construire les métiers et les emplois de la transition écologique et sociale

Building the jobs and professions of the ecological and social transition

Géraldine Rieucau, Jennifer Laussu, Annie Jolivet, Carole Brunet, Philippe Légé, Sylvain Celle, Thibault Guyon, Stéphane Longuet, Viet-Ha Tran, Guillemette de Larquier (2024)

Rapport de recherche du Centre d’études de l’emploi et du travail, n°113

Présentation. La recherche Comètes (Construire les métiers et les emplois de la transition écologique et sociale) a bénéficié d’un financement de l’ADEME de l’appel à projet de recherche (APR) TEES (Transition écologique, économique et sociale). Elle s’est déroulée sur deux ans, entre 2022 et 2024. Coordonnée par Géraldine Rieucau (Université de Picardie Jules Verne-UPJV), elle était portée par un consortium de sept partenaires.
À partir d’une enquête dans trois structures de l’économie sociale et solidaire, situées dans un territoire rural de l’Oise et dans un territoire urbain en Seine-Saint-Denis, elle vise à comprendre comment se transforment les métiers existants et comment d’autres émergent, dans les secteurs du réemploi (des objets, des vélos) et de la gestion des terres polluées ou excavées.
Elle montre que certains éco-métiers (Agent·e valoriste en recyclerie, Mécanicien·ne cycle en réemploi), exercés aujourd’hui par des salarié·es en insertion, se professionnalisent et pourraient correspondre à l’avenir à des emplois pérennes, quand d’autres (Horticulteur·trice urbain·e) sont plus récents et se structurent progressivement. La recherche délivre également des enseignements sur un métier classique de l’insertion, celui d’encadrant·e technique, qui évolue en s’écologisant et sur les métiers transversaux d’ingénierie de projets, d’animation et de gouvernance, indispensables aux projets territoriaux et innovants de transition écologique.
Mobilisant le cadre théorique de l’économie des conventions, l’analyse met en évidence la diversité des registres d’actions et des justifications des acteur·trices qui œuvrent, dans le cadre de leur travail et de leur emploi, pour la transition écologique. L’activité de réemploi (solidaire) des objets et des vélos s’amplifie, dans une logique civique-industrielle portée par les dispositifs de la politique publique, dynamique toutefois mise à mal par des logiques marchandes.
Par ailleurs, les actions favorables à l’économie des ressources naturelles reposent grandement sur l’engagement des chargé·es de projets et des encadrant·es envers l’écologie, ce qui interpelle la politique de l’emploi et de la formation professionnelle dans sa capacité à valoriser leurs parcours et leurs emplois. Une analyse approfondie de ces profils et parcours et, plus largement, des recherches combinant économie des conventions et travail pour la transition écologique, peuvent constituer des suites intéressantes.

Abstract. The Comètes research project (Construire les métiers et les emplois de la transition écologique et sociale) received funding from ADEME under the TEES (Transition écologique, économique et sociale) call for research projects (APR). It took place over two years, between 2022 and 2024. Coordinated by Géraldine Rieucau (Université de Picardie Jules Verne-UPJV), it was carried out by a consortium of seven partners. Based on a survey of three social and solidarity economy structures, located in a rural area in the Oise region and in an urban area in Seine-Saint-Denis, it aims to understand how existing professions are being transformed and how others are emerging, in the sectors of reuse (of objects, bicycles) and management of polluted or excavated land. It shows that certain eco-trades (Recycling agent, Reuse cycle mechanic), currently practiced by employees on integration schemes, are becoming more professional and could become permanent jobs in the future, while others (Urban horticulturist) are more recent and are gradually being structured. The research also provides information on a classic job in the field of integration, that of technical supervisor, which is evolving as it becomes greener, and on cross-disciplinary jobs in project engineering, leadership and governance, which are essential to territorial and innovative ecological transition projects. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the economics of convention, the analysis highlights the diversity of registers of action and justifications used by actors working for the ecological transition, in the context of their work and employment. The (solidarity) re-use of objects and bicycles is growing, in a civic-industrial logic supported by public policy measures, a dynamic that is nonetheless undermined by commercial logics. What’s more, initiatives to save natural resources rely heavily on the commitment of project managers and supervisors to ecology, which calls into question the ability of employment and vocational training policies to enhance their career paths and jobs. An in-depth analysis of these profiles and career paths, and, more broadly, research combining the economics of conventions and work for the ecological transition, could be an interesting follow-up.

Lien / Link

EC/Sociology of Conventions Workshop – Sustainability, conventions and compromise

Workshop report by Adèle Sébert (University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne )

What is going on at Paderborn? In between railway turmoils and a German wind coming with fall, another EC/SC Workshop took place on 26th and 27th September 2024.
Overview: Over two days, 5 sessions and 1 three-way roundtable took place, with a succession of 15 presentations, ranging from projects to be or just-submitted, to research projects or in-progress thesis, to published articles and chapters. Sessions covered a variety of themes: from the workshop, to training and work – a theme strongly present in the Department of Sociology at the University of Paderborn – and a variety of topics, as well as a session dedicated to the methodological issues involved in convention theory.
Expertly managed by the session moderators, each presentation was discussed at length with the audience, focusing on the research topics or the implications for EC/SC. Discussions focused on the units of analysis of the convention theorist’ approaches presented, the relevance of mixed methods for EC/SC, the use of typologies if they lead to an increase in generality, the translation issues of the EC/SC (its degree of internationalization and appropriation by non-French-speaking researchers). All of this in an open and spontaneous setting, to enrich everyone’s research and provide an interdisciplinary (sociology, history, economics, management), pluralist (in the sense of EC/SC frameworks applied) and inter-European viewpoint.

Wednesday 25th
The traditional pre-workshop diner took place on the evening of Wednesday 25th September, giving participants a chance to get together at the start of this academic year.

Thursday 26th
After the welcoming words of the organizers, and a first round of coffee, the session “Sustainability and conventions” opened the dance.

Felix Rossmann and Eltje Gajewski

Eltje Gajewski (University of Duisburg-Essen) introduced one of the results from her thesis: a typology of entrepreneurs according to the degree of ecological focus of their companies. She described her methodological approach, based on a qualitative design mixing interviews and documents analysis. Crossing this material study with the On justification framework (Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot), she ended showing there are four types of what she called “ecopreneurs”: minimalists, self-actualizers, world-saviors and strategists. In what it describes, the typology raised some questions from workshop participants, as well as the way in which one (or more) types can diffuse or not. Workshop participants shared a global interrogation about the relevance of typologies, which EC/SC’s researches tend to end with. A question that went through most presentations for the rest of the workshop.
Then Felix Rossmann and Lisa Knoll (Paderborn University) took the lead by discussing sustainable financial regulation in order to transform the manufacturing industry. Comparing different programs and standards while focusing on the East-Westphalia-Lippe, they showed that different logics are coexisting today, relying on diverse standards and engaging worlds of justifications. Using Alain Desrosières research, the ended their presentation by posing that different standards also imply different ways of managing the economy, then not complying with the ordoliberal scheme promoted by the EU’s programs.

Felix Rossmann

Questions were asked on both green finance and effects of the financial crisis of 2008 when accessing these financial programs and governing the green transformation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The unit of analysis led to a back and forth discussion with workshop participants for EC/SC is not solely about programs but also about coordinating actors maneuvering those programs.

To complete this dedicated session, Alan Shipman and Ann Vogel (University of Applied Sciences of Güstrow) joined forces to introduced a working-progress project on which they try to overcome the Baumol effect encountered for some goods when it comes to environmental issues.

Alan Shipman and Ann Vogel

Drawing on a comparison with arts, they explained how costs in the art sector are bound to increase because other goods and services, in other sector, also increase. Using Kenneth E. Boulding definition of “saving”, they wished for a better integration of temporality and future when looking at consumptions. Colleagues asked questions about connections to convention theorists’ research of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, and about the adequacy of the orders of worth to understand specificities of environmental goods and services.Helped by a coffee to break ice, the participants partook to the second session “Convention theories”. This session investigated differently what was discussed previously, as typologies, units of analysis, adequacy between theoretical frameworks.

Rainer Diaz-Bone

Simon Schrör

Christian Schneijderberg

​Drawing on a chapter published in the Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions, Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne) chose to focus on specific designs of convention theorists researches: comparative studies, historical analysis and case studies. He reminded everyone that other designs are possible, but this proposition is a way to sum up what he encountered for the last years. He insisted on two shared questions faced by EC/SC researches: how to identify the boundaries of situations and how to identity conventions (and conversely the population, that is to say object of the disputes, institutions refers to by people, people coordinating with each other). Both unit of analysis and situation raised questions from participants, and it was stated that referring to unit of analysis avoided too early decision about causes and consequences, which are key to operate situations within the course of analysis.
Simon Schrör (Weizenbaum Institute e.V.) addressed physical goods in the realm of applied arts. He studied cases on protection in processes and laws designs, targeting the role of lawyers in the valorizing process, even valorization of things that were not thought as art before. In order to do so, he used Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre Enrichment and applied it to modular shelving system. Since the framework referred to was not the orders of worth, questions from colleagues focused on the choice made up here. Consequently, linking theory with methodology and methods, a second wave of questions dealt with data chosen to approach such judiciary subjects with this framework.
To round off the morning, Christian Schneijderberg (University of Kassel) presented his reflections on “good” and “bad” conventions, questioning the relevance of the idea of bad conventions, currently being explored by Paris Nanterre French colleagues. He introduced these conventions to characterize economies relying on illegal or marginal activities, showing how orders of worth can be turned the way round in order to qualify regimes of violence. Three cases were proposed in conceptual tables: mafia, prostitution and human trafficking, associating them with industrial, domestic and civic orders of worth. This presentation led to two sets of theoretical questions. One on the limits of the application of the order of worth’s toolkit when qualifying non-western European economies, in which On justification was thought about. Another set of questions focused on the adequacy of the model of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot to conceptualize bad conventions.

The afternoon opened with the first session “Education and Work”.

Christian Imdorf and Philipp Gonon

The education system was firstly addressed through the vocational education and training (VET) by Christian Imdorf (Leibniz University Hannover) and Philip Gonon (University of Zurich). They showed that VET is a recent phenomenon and is based on individual initiatives, making it difficult to fully grasp the coherence behind it. Using a convention theorist framework, they considered VET as a hybrid structure relying on a compromise that stabilizes demand coming from different actors (broader than firms level). Then they took time to draw on a diversity of researches, in different countries, that could lead them to better theorized VET. Colleagues vividly discussed their presentation by referring to different countries and varieties of perceptions towards such training, thus underlining the value of EC/SC framework for achieving greater coherence.

Kenneth Horvath and Stephan Dahmen

Following their path, Stephan Dahmen (University of Paderborn) and Kenneth Horvath (Teachers University of Zurich) took over and introduced their work-in-progress about potentials at school. They put under scrutiny the testing situation as a social one which enroots in a test chaining throughout education, and which results in effects on career guidance. Reactions of participants built on insights of EC/SC when it comes to understanding inequalities (and why they persist even if we know them) and on how EC/SC helps to consider test as investment in form (Laurent Thévenot), even when people and testing changed through time.

Léonie Bisang

Finally Léonie Bisang (University of Lucerne) chose to present a preliminary results of her PhD study on students path from secondary to higher education level in Switzerland. She explained her choice to go for a reintroduction of structure (agency) to consider students’ decisions and perceptions, but she also took into account their reflexivity. She introduced to workshop participants a game she designed, based on cards and videos (for her to analyse students’ reactions). With this game she aimed at getting students’ perceptions of higher education (entertaining vs. hard facts) and splitting those according to students’ expectations when it comes to higher education (quality criteria and conception of higher education). Colleagues raised questions on methodological implications behind this design and on how she evolved her presentation through times, Léonie Bisang partaking in different research events.
Last session of this eventful day put under scrutiny “various themes”. Laverne Iminza Chore and Julia Brandl (University of Innsbruck) presented a research based on a focus group with actors, who know each other, in order to address temporary workers issues. They created a setting relying on workshops and rounds of opinions in order to produce scenarios and somewhat failed to ensure the realisation of those scenarios afterwards. Reminding the audience that scenario planing is uncertain and may be shaped by social conventions. They discussed the fact that scenarios are compromise device themselves. Which led to many questions from workshop participants about the method behind this particular scenario planing setting, the type of actors involved, the possibility to create cooperation between actors in absence of hierarchy in such settings (even though underlying power relations might arise). Participants agreed to further discussion about the role of researchers that designed such setting and used it as both tool and research material. They also raised a related question when it comes to such a research process: who takes responsibility for ideas and what comes out of them? EC/SC enables researchers to embrace both the diversity of economic and institutional actors (coordinating in a way they were not used to before) and the effects of researchers themselves when trying to provoke a coordinating setting.
Relying on a variety of maps of work activities in Sweden, Rebecca Ye (University of Stockholm) presented a project, CYCLE, she launched and the way she envisions realising it, where it to be funded. She explained the Swedish cyclical context about skills shortages, often presented in the media as a problem and more and more intensively with green transition. Using data registers (available in Sweden), mixing their analysis with three case studies in diffferent municipalities and the frameworks of On justification (Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot), she wishes to study how public programmes have been justified and why people do engage in them. Participants had questions on the skills targeted with these programmes she intends to look at, and on the availability of quantified data in Sweden, compared to other countries. This reminded everyone how EC/SC is linked, all at the same time theoretically, methodologically and in methods, to data and successive operations of quantification (Alain Desrosières).
Last to present her research for the day, Adèle Sébert (University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne) discussed an article to be published in a French journal and that she wanted to present the participants, as a first time to introduce herself in the EC/SC network. In this article about French households energy access difficulties, she posed that Michael Storper and Robert Salais’ framework, Worlds of production and the concept of conventions of the state, is adequate to analyse the role of the state and expectations towards it in a situation where the state involves a diversity of economic actors to take in charge a public problem. Less used by colleagues than On justifications, the choice of the Worlds of production framework brought questions on how it helped saying something that do not stop at being another typology to describe a variety of actions.

Julia Brandl and Laverne Iminza Chore

Rebecca Ye

Adèle Sébert

The first day of the workshop ended with a diner in the city center, a wonderful opportunity to catch up and to get to know with each other.

Friday 27th
Chaired by Christian Schneijderberg, the roundtable featured Sarah Lenz (University of Hamburg), Adèle Sébert (University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne) and Lisa Knoll (Paderborn University). Designed to go back and forth with the participants, the roundtable aimed at questioning the links between sustainability and conventions. Each featured participant began by choosing a starting point: sustainability as a new principle of justice (for future generations), the adequate framework for analysing a research subject that crosses social and ecological issues, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seen as compromise or a dynamic of unsolved conflicts. The discussion then opened to a shared reflection between featured participants and the moderator, tackling sustainability as a battlefield, and a built discussion between them and other workshop participants. This discussion can be summed up in three stages and a forward-looking statement. The first stage led to come back on how EC/SC is learned in Germany and France as well as on how a new generation of French convention theorists is trying to integrate EC/SC and environmental issues. The second stage spinned around convention theorist tools and concepts that were discussed during the workshop: the vision of temporality and the way EC/SC deals with it, the need to assess the plural nature of quantification and the diversity of wealth indicators, the dynamics that helps standards (private or public) to emerge and to diffuse. The third stage questioned the relationship between social and natural sciences and the degree of interdisciplinary that makes sense or, on the contrary, may put social sciences at risk. The final words of the roundtable were given by Rainer Diaz-Bone who pointed that the main question such crossing between sustainability and conventions raises is the one of identity: “why do we exist as convention theorists?” and how this identity enables us to consolidate an added-value to address environmental issues. To avoid falling into either a form of “service science”, which hyper-individualises things and paradoxically excludes plurality while promoting a systematic benchmarking and way of thinking, or a “media science”, which selects trendy subjects and cannot delve into issues, the convention theory researchers insight is that of a detection of non-intended perverted effects of addressing environmental issues and of a shedding light at compromises and their dynamics.

Christian Schneijderberg, Lisa Knoll, Sarah Lenz, Adèle Sébert

Last session of the workshop: “Education and work” second session. Three scholars presented in-progress researches while showing the participants that they took the previous day’s discussions into account while formulating their thought processes.

Sophie Gigl

Sophie Gigi (University of Bielefeld) begun by introducing the audience to her PhD project questionning the (de)stabilized goals of Germany’s upper secondary school level and which focuses on lesson preparation. She explained how she wishes to address the issues of the mode of preparing and adapting social sciences lessons (which is an uncertain situation of action) and of the social material environmental of social sciences lessons (the situation of planing and adapting being the unit of analysis), thus putting the light on horizontal and vertical pluralities. Methodologies and methods were discussed in order to reinforce the data collection and analysis process to come with such a research.

Laura Seifert-Uhl

Laura Seifert-Uhl (University of Tubingen) took over and described a project, StellaA, she coordinates as research assistant from 2022 to 2025. The research object being the occupational profiles of public adult education, the team wants to question both the development of public adult education centers in Germany and the occupational profiles themselves. The project articulates historical documents since the 1960s and job advertisements, thus creating a massive database to deal with. Laura pointed some of their interrogations when dealing with such an amount of data. Discussions ensued on analysis issues, on tips to avoid being too descriptive, on the way to find a convention using historical documents and databases (the answer being none because of the distance between data and conventions, relying on Alain Desrosières’s sociology of quantification).

Lena Nüchter

Lena Nüchter (University of Gießen) had the heavy task of closing the morning’s dynamic. She chose to discuss theoretical compatibilities of sociology of conventions and graduate capitals. Coming from a Bourdieusian perspective, she underlined the difficulties she has currently to characterise recruitment situation and the so-called employability. The main problem being that graduate capitals are not necessarily the driving force behind recruitment decisions. Rather she identified three examples of capital assessment (social, cultural, identity) that manifest what can be considered as domestic conventions. To what extent are capitals not only built within a situation? A lively exchange ensued, with colleagues wishing to contribute on the relevance of such a mixed framework with regard to the research object (discussing François Eymard-Duvernay and Emmanuelle Marchal research on recruitment, suggesting a comparison with financial capitals studied by André Orléan) but also from a disciplinary perspective (degree of compatibility of Bourdieu’s tools, capital theory).

After a quick lunch, closing words ended the workshop and gave perspectives for the next edition, in September 2025. Many thanks to the organising team: Lisa Knoll, Stephan Dahmen and Maurice Paaschen !

Stephan Dahmen and Lisa Knoll

Felix Rossmann, Maurice Paschen, Lisa Knoll