Translation of “Une justification écologique? Conflits dans l’aménagement de la nature” Revue française de sociologie, 1993 34(4), pp. 495-524 (Part I is not translated)
Claudette Lafaye & Laurent Thévenot (2026)
Traduction de André Hansen
Apropos 2


Claudette Lafaye & Laurent Thévenot (2026)
Traduction de André Hansen
Apropos 2


Maria-Luisa Schmitz, Philipp Gonon, Juliette Désiron, Tessa Consoli & Chiara Antonietti (2026)
Journal of Vocational Education and Training. Online first, open access

Abstract. School leaders play an important role, when it comes to digitalisation of teaching and learning. In this study, different arguments for school-specific digital strategies by school leaders were analysed from a convention theory perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 Swiss school-leaders of 2 secondary school types (7 vocational schools and 2 upper secondary specialised schools), regarded as digitally advanced schools. Content analysis revealed legitimation patterns including enhanced pedagogical added value, but also efficiency and networking. Moreover, most school leaders described the COVID-19 pandemic as a strong booster for digitalisation efforts at their schools. Schools with a bolder digital integration policy tend to adhere to a project-oriented legitimation. In this study we highlight the strong pedagogical focus for digital integration uttered by school leaders, which is – as our typology reveals – combined with industrial, market and project justifications.

Michael Ernst-Heidenreich & Matthias Roche (2026)

In: Michael Ernst-Heidenreich, Paul Eisewicht, Winfried Gebhardt (eds.), Empörte Welten. Moralschwere Sinnsuche in polarisierten und polarisierenden Zeiten. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 93-111
Zusammenfassung. “Der Beitrag analysiert die politischen Folgen der Digitalisierung aus lebensweltanalytischer Perspektive und entwickelt hierfür ein konzeptionelles Modell im Anschluss an die phänomenologische Soziologie Alfred Schütz’. Ausgangspunkt ist die These eines ‚Strukturwandels der Lebenswelt‘ durch digitale Technologien, der Raum, Zeit und Sozialität neu konfiguriert und dabei tiefgreifende Verschiebungen in politischen Formen der Kommunikation, Organisation und Kritik hervorbringt. Mit besonderem Akzent auf die digitale Kommunikation mit Artefakten wird gezeigt, wie sich subjektive Weltverhältnisse transformieren und neue Möglichkeitsräume für politisch-moralische Kollektive entstehen. Der Beitrag führt diese Veränderungen auf einen zweiten Prozess zurück: den Strukturwandel der Kritik, in dem sich Kritik zunehmend als existenziell motivierte, affektiv getragene Empörung artikuliert. Damit liefert der Text eine Analysefigur für die ‚Retribalisierung‘ politischer Vergemeinschaftung im digitalen Zeitalter.
Auszug: “3 Strukturwandel der Kritik im Strukturwandel der Lebenswelt
Luc Boltanskis pragmatische Soziologie der Kritik (Boltanski, 2010; Boltanski & Thévenot, 2007) ist prinzipiell an der Möglichkeit und der Praxis von Kritik als Gegenstand theoretischer wie empirischer Reflexion interessiert. Ein Frag-ment dieses Theoriegebäudes lässt sich für die hier verfasste Argumentation mit Gewinn explizieren: In seinem Essay Individualismus ohne Freiheit. Ein prag-matischer Zugang zur Herrschaft aus dem Jahr 2008 entwirft Boltanski drei Instanzen der Prüfung zur Legitimation und Kritik von Institutionen.”
Summary. This article analyzes the political consequences of digitalization from a lifeworld analytical perspective and develops a conceptual model based on Alfred Schütz’s phenomenological sociology. The starting point is the thesis of a ‘structural change in the lifeworld’ brought about by digital technologies, which reconfigures space, time, and sociality, thereby producing profound shifts in political forms of communication, organization, and criticism. With a particular emphasis on digital communication with artifacts, it shows how subjective world relations are transformed and new spaces of possibility for political-moral collectives emerge. The article attributes these changes to a second process: the structural change of criticism, in which criticism is increasingly articulated as existentially motivated, affectively driven outrage. The text thus provides an analytical model for the ‘retribalization’ of political communitization in the digital age.
Excerpt: “3 Structural Change in Criticism in the Structural Change of the Lifeworld
Luc Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology of criticism (Boltanski, 2010; Boltanski & Thévenot, 2007) is fundamentally interested in the possibility and practice of criticism as a subject of theoretical and empirical reflection. One fragment of this theoretical construct can be usefully explained for the purposes of the argument presented here: in his 2008 essay Individualism without Freedom: A Pragmatic Approach to Domination, Boltanski outlines three instances of examination for the legitimization and critique of institutions.”
Cfp Workshop “Worlds of food in movement” at the upcoming congress “Communities and societies in movement” of the Swiss Sociological Association, 2-4 September 2026 at the University of Fribourg, https://events.unifr.ch/ssa-conference2026/en/
Organization: Rainer Diaz-Bone (Universität Luzern)

Food is a total social and cultural phenomenon. Food research topics link questions such as what people eat and why, how food is part of their lifestyle, how food is produced and consumed, with what organizational logic and social and ecological consequences, and what contribution food makes to cultural identities. So far food has been mainly approached with different too narrow perspectives as “sociology of eating” (Murcott 2019) or approached from the perspective of one topic only such as the sociology of health, economic sociology, and consumer sociology or the sociology of social inequalities (Bourdieu 1984). The concept of “worlds of food” was developed by the so-called convention theory (Storper and Salais 1997; Murdoch et al. 2006) and enlarges perspectives on food.
Worlds of food, their movements, transitions, and the socio-economic and socio-cultural nexus of food production, distribution, and consumption are the focus of this more comprehensive
approach. Applying this concept, the changes in production, distribution, and consumption of food are key aspects and forms of articulation of social (both regional and global) movements. New life-styles, the discussion of climate change, the effects of migration and of globalization on the spectrum and discourses of food are just a few indicators. The neopragmatist convention theory in particular has made a wide range of contributions to the analysis of problems and critiques related to food production, distribution, eating and their consequences. Since the 1980s and up to the present day, convention theory (or economics and sociology of conventions, EC/SC) has produced a large number of studies that initially dealt with the structure and dynamics of the food industry (Diaz-Bone and Larquier 2022). The focus then moved on to the analysis of quality concepts (evaluation logics), institutional logics of food production, distribution, and consumption as well as emerging social conflicts and disputes related to food issues.
The planned workshop will bring together presentations that examine, compare, and evaluate different worlds of food in motion.
Proposals (max. 2 000 characters) based on EC/SC or related approaches can be submitted until March 31, 2026 to rainer.diaz-bone@unilu.ch
References
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984): Distinction. A social critique of the judgement of taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Diaz-Bone, Rainer/Larquier, Guillemette de (eds.)(2022): Handbook of economics and sociology of conventions. Living reference edition. Cham: Springer.
Morgan, Kevin/Marsden, Terry/Murdoch, Jonathan (2006): Worlds of food. Place, power, and provenance in the food chain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Murcott, Anne (2019): Introducing the sociology of food and eating. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Storper, Michael/Salais, Robert (1997): Worlds of production. The action frameworks of the economy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Netta Kahana & Hillel Schmid (2026)
Social Problems. Online first

Abstract. Recognition of one’s positive qualities is fundamental to human dignity. Research in the cultural sociology of morality, worth, and evaluation has explored how individuals respond to stigmatization and moral devaluation, emphasizing the recognition claims that they formulate. However, less attention has been given to what happens when such claims are rejected. This study addresses this gap by examining elite philanthropy: a practice that forms part of claims by economic elites to moral worth, but which is also challenged by a critical public view. Analyzing how elite philanthropists account for such challenges, we identify a sequence of evaluations and devaluations whereby philanthropy is evaluated, the critical public view is devaluated, and the focus of the moral debate is shifted to other social issues. This sequence results in a recognition claim about the moral worth of philanthropy and in what we refer to as a negation claim, whereby social actors discredit the public view. Recognition and negation claims reflect two distinct, but not necessarily incompatible, ways in which social actors wrestle with moral devaluation. This distinction, we argue, is conceptually and analytically important for analyzing the responses of social actors to moral devaluation, and has implications for the study of dominance and symbolic inequality.

Alfredo Grattarola, Jean-Pascal Gond & Stefan Haefliger (2026)
Journal of Management Studies. Online first, open access

Abstract. This conceptual article argues that the mutual relevance of grand challenges and organization and management studies is best approached phenomenologically. Rather than constituting objects to be theorized or denoting special empirical contexts, grand challenges structure researchers’ attention and shape their interpretations of the processes and systems of deliberation through which collective action is coordinated. From this perspective, grand challenges require researchers to innovate their understandings of deliberation and to ensure that newly generated knowledge is redirected towards management and policymaking. The article integrates the Carnegie School theory of organization with French pragmatic sociology’s theory of justification, or economies of worth, to develop a phenomenological model of situated deliberation that links decision-making with moral reasoning. This model highlights deliberation’s articulated, evaluative, contestable, and trans-institutional character, as well as its grounding in the cognitive capacities and sociality of actors and observers – regardless of the scale, scope, or stratification of the underlying coordination problems. Building on this framework, the article advocates that grand challenge researchers adopt the standpoint of entrepreneurial observers: actors anchored by socio-economic and scientific commitments who envision the integration of previously disjointed social systems of deliberation to orient collective action.
Extract: “Adopting the view that existing theories can contribute to the construction of novel framings of reality (Alvesson and Sandberg, 2024), this article approaches deliberation simultaneously through two classic theoretical traditions. The first is the Carnegie School theory of organization (CS), developed in Simon (1997), March and Simon (1993), Cyert and March (1963), and related works before and after these foundational texts. CS has been widely influential, both directly and through its impact on subsequent organizational theories (Anderson and Lemken, 2019; Bromiley et al., 2019; Gavetti et al., 2007).
The second is justification theory (JT), represented mainly in Boltanski and Thévenot (2006). JT is a cornerstone of French pragmatic sociology and the economics of conventions, two fields that emerged from a transdisciplinary movement attracting sociologists, economists, and other scholars from the 1980s onwards (Diaz-Bone and Larquier, 2022a; Jagd, 2011; Wilkinson, 1997). Beyond Boltanski and Thévenot’s economies of worth framework, this article also draws on concepts from these fields and from a growing body of JT-informed organization, management, and business studies (Cloutier et al., 2025; Grattarola et al., 2024).
The joint mobilization of CS and JT is warranted in terms of theoretical proximity, compatibility (Okhuysen and Bonardi, 2011), and complementarity. Both theories recognize a phenomenological dimension in action and socio-economic coordination (Frère and Jaster, 2019; Weick, 2019): actors address relevant problems by constructing representations of their circumstances that combine factual and normative elements. Reasoned approaches to socio-economic problems are grounded in such situated constructions, rather than in universally valid models or criteria. As March and Simon (1993) note, ‘from a phenomenological viewpoint, we can only speak of rationality relative to a frame of reference’ (p. 159). This applies equally to actors and to observers assessing their procedures, including scientists, who are granted neither superior rationality nor special critical faculties. Even in everyday situations, actors formulate judgments and critiques that ‘translate states of mind that act like scientific inquiries’ (Frère and Jaster, 2019, p. 148).
In both perspectives, frames of reference are products of social processes (Koumakhov, 2025). Complementarily, CS acknowledges the function for decision-making of social norms and moral evaluations that represent the focus of JT, while JT draws from CS key notions such as bounded rationality and composite organizational systems that extend decision-making over space and time (Favereau, 1989a; Koumakhov, 2009, 2025; Simon, 1952). Yet each theory emphasizes different aspects of cognition and organization, thus jointly offering an articulated conceptual toolkit for approaching deliberation along processual and structural dimensions. To anticipate key elements, CS focuses on how actors equipped with bounded rationality search for actionable options among which to realize a choice; in organizations, this process is orchestrated through organizational programs. JT, in turn, emphasizes how actors make situated judgments about the normative constraints of action, exercising critical capacity and coordinating through emergent conventions. Integrating CS and JT therefore enables a unified account of how situated actors construct coordination problems rationally and critically and extend coordination across spatial and temporal scales, and how observers, in turn, build higher-order representations of these constructions.” (p. 6/7)
Udo Hagedorn, Sophie Gigl & Sebastian Seybusch (2026)
In: Udo Hagedorn, Nicole Ackermann, Sophie Gigl (eds.), Transformationen der Arbeit. Herausforderung für sozioökonomische Forschung, Bildung und Lehre. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 235-259

Zusammenfassung. Der Beitrag untersucht auf explorative Weise, wie die soziologische Analyse digitaler arbeitsbezogener Simulationen unterrichtliche Zugriffe auf Arbeit erweitern kann. Statt die lineare Anlage von Simulationen zu kritisieren, soll durch die Sichtbarmachung in Spiel- und Lernanlage unsichtbar bleibender situativer Facetten und Interaktionen als sozialwissenschaftlich relevante Aspekte ein für Unterricht vielfältiger Bedeutungskontext hergestellt werden (Clarke et al. 2018, S. 54–55). Als Fallbeispiel dient die digitale Simulation MeisterPOWER der baden-württembergischen Handwerkskammern (Abschn. 2). Die dem Beitrag zugrunde liegende Studie analysiert, wie kalkulatorische Aspekte des Spiels als rational orientierte Tätigkeiten verstanden werden und wie darüber hinaus unsichtbar bleibende Elemente der Arbeits- und Lebensweltsimulation die Lernerfahrung der Schüler:innen anreichern können. Methodisch werden über die Situationsanalyse konventionssoziologische und figurationsanalytische Ansätze mit Game-based-Learning verknüpft, um die im Spiel angelegten Handlungskorridore sowie nicht sichtbare Aspekte des Spiels zu visualisieren (Abschn. 3 & 4). Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Diskussion der Ergebnisse und deren Implikationen für die Reflexion solcher Spiele im sozialwissenschaftlichen Unterricht (Abschn. 5).
Abstract. This article explores how sociological analysis of digital labour-related simulations can broaden approaches to teaching about labour. Instead of criticising the linear design of simulations, the aim is to create a diverse context of meaning for teaching by visualising situational facets and interactions that remain invisible in the game and learning setting as aspects relevant to social science (Clarke et al. 2018, pp. 54–55). The digital simulation MeisterPOWER of the Chambers of Crafts and Trades of Baden-Württemberg serves as a case study (section 2). The study on which the article is based analyses how calculative aspects of the game are understood as rationally oriented activities and how elements of the labour and life-world simulation that remain invisible can enrich students’ learning experience. Methodologically, conventional sociological and figuration-analytical approaches are combined with game-based learning through situational analysis to visualise the action corridors created in the game as well as invisible aspects of the game (section 3 & 4). The article concludes with a discussion of the results and their implications for the reflection of such games in social science education (section 5).
Guillemette de Larquier & Thomas Lamarche (2025)
Revue de la regulation, 39. Open access.

Introduction. Guillemette de Larquier est économiste, reconnue pour ses travaux en économie du travail et pour son implication dans l’économie des conventions. Dès sa thèse à l’université de Nanterre sous la direction d’Olivier Favereau, elle développe une approche conventionnaliste en économie du travail. Maitresse de conférences dans cette même université jusqu’en 2017, elle a longuement contribué au Centre d’études de l’emploi, en y étant notamment en détachement entre 2007 et 2012. Depuis 2017 elle enseigne en tant que professeure de sciences économiques à l’université de Lille en conduisant ses recherches au Clersé, Centre lillois d’études et de recherches sociologiques et économiques.
Ses travaux ont porté sur les modes d’appariement sur le marché du travail, en lien avec la pluralité des conventions de qualité du travail en vigueur tant à l’échelle des entreprises que mise en mouvement par les intermédiaires du placement. Elle a développé des travaux de nature empirique, travaillant notamment via un traitement statistique de grandes enquêtes (enquêtes Emploi de l’Insee et Offre d’emploi et recrutement de la Dares). Elle contribue aussi à ses recherches via des méthodes qualitatives (par exemple sur l’évaluation de la méthode de recrutement par simulation).
Guillemette de Larquier est très impliquée dans les actions et œuvres collectives de l’économie des conventions, elle est notamment animatrice du Carnet de recherche Économie des conventions. Elle est coéditrice avec Rainer Diaz-Bone, du Handbook Economics and Sociology of Conventions, qui est une grande production collective de tous les auteurs et toutes les autrices qui se reconnaissent dans l’économie (et la sociologie) des conventions ou qui y contribuent en échangeant sur la construction conceptuelle et ses apports appliqués.”
Introduction. Guillemette de Larquier is an economist renowned for her work in labor economics and her involvement in the economics of convention. Since her thesis at the University of Nanterre under the supervision of Olivier Favereau, she has developed a convention theorist approach to labor economics. A lecturer at the same university until 2017, she contributed extensively to the Center for Employment Studies, notably through a affiliation between 2007 and 2012. Since 2017, she has been teaching economics at the University of Lille while conducting her research at Clersé, Lille’s center for sociological and economic studies and research.
Her work has focused on matching patterns in the labor market, in relation to the plurality of quality of work agreements in force both at the company level and as implemented by employment agencies. She has developed empirical work, notably through the statistical processing of large surveys (INSEE employment surveys and DARES job offers and recruitment surveys). She also contributes to her research through qualitative methods (for example, on the evaluation of the simulation recruitment method).
Guillemette de Larquier is heavily involved in collective actions and works in the field of economics of convention, notably as the coordinator of the Économie des conventions blog. She is coeditor, with Rainer Diaz-Bone, of the Handbook Economics and Sociology of Conventions, a major collective work by all authors who identify with the economics (and sociology) of conventions or who contribute to it by discussing its conceptual construction and applied contributions.
Valeria Ramirez (2025)
Working Paper. Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation. Cambridge: University of Cambridge
Abstract. This paper introduces the Meaningful Metrics Framework. It has the potential to provide a novel approach to evaluating Knowledge Exchange (KE) in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Moving beyond financial proxies, the framework captures the social value of interactions among universities, businesses, communities, and public partners. Grounded in four years of international research on digital performance indicators, it proposes a co-created methodology that reflects diverse stakeholder perspectives, builds trust, and supports long-term collaboration. Central to the framework is the concept of a measurement convention, operationalised through tools such as the Partnerships Pre-Settled Goals Agreement (PSGA) and the role of the Meaningful Metrics Convenor (MMC). These mechanisms foster early alignment, clarify shared objectives, and ensure transparent accountability. Fieldwork with KE practitioners highlights gaps in current metrics – particularly around student engagement, local impact, and tracking progress – and demonstrates the value of more inclusive, socially attuned indicators. The paper showcases metrics used by universities to demonstrate the success of their initiatives, inform strategy and support funding decisions. By reframing measurement as a collaborative and capacity-building practice, the framework aims to strengthen KE evaluation, improve decision-making, and enable the sector to capture its full social value. Beyond KE, this approach can help the wider research impact community account for and recognise the social value of academic-related activities. Funders and other philanthropic bodies increasingly emphasise co-designed research that reflects stakeholders’ perspectives and generates tangible social impact. To ensure that social value is effectively delivered and recognised, alternative evaluation perspectives can be applied. Translating collaborative research into progress metrics requires careful attention, and the Meaningful Metrics Framework offers a practical tool to support this process.

Alejandro Bialakowsky & Elisa Ichaso (2025)
Pléyade, 35. Open access, pp. 150-174
Resumen. Este artículo analiza la obra de Boltanski a partir del problema de las reclasificaciones, esto es, las formas prácticas de dividir el mundo social y natural, que marcan atributos y jerarquías. Para abordar su “sociología pragmática de la crítica”, atenta a las capacidades críticas de quienes actúan, se profundiza en dos dimensiones que atraviesan los distintos momentos de su propuesta: los vínculos entre sus orientaciones opresivas y emancipatorias, y entre reclasificaciones sociológicas y sociales en general. Cada apartado del trabajo se focaliza en cierta etapa de su obra: el primero centrado en el concepto de “ciudades”, el segundo en el “nuevo espíritu del capitalismo” y el tercero en las “instituciones”. Se concluye con una reflexión sobre las tensiones y ambigüedades que impulsaron transformaciones y continuidades teórico-analíticas entre estos tres momentos, en particular, sus dificultades para dar cuenta de las relaciones entre sus propias reclasificaciones sociológicas y aquellas generales que analiza.
Abstract. This article analyzes Boltanski‘s work from the problem of reclassifications, that is, from the practical ways of dividing the social and natural world, which establish attributes and hierarchies. To approach his “pragmatic sociology of critique”, concerned with the critical capacities of those who act, the article delves into two dimensions that cut across the different moments of his proposal: the links between its oppressive and emancipatory orientations, and between sociological and social reclassifications in general. Each section of the paper focuses on a certain stage of his work: the first centered on the concept of “cities”, the second on the “new spirit of capitalism” and the third on “institutions”. It concludes with a reflection on the tensions and ambiguities that propelled theoretical-analytical transformations and continuities between these three moments and, in particular, his difficulties to account for the relationships between his own sociological reclassifications and the general ones he analyzes.
Johannes Krell, Tobias Hölterhof, Karolin Kappler, Christian Kenntner, Gesa Alena Linnemann, Julian Löhe, Swantje Notzon, Sara Remke, Eik-Henning Tappe & Birte Schiffhauer (2025)
In: Hans Hobelsberger (ed.), Soziale Arbeit und die sozial-ökologische Transformation. Leverkusen: Budrich. Open access, pp. 190-200

Auszug: “Der Vortrag von Karolin Kappler befasst sich mit Varianten digitaler Bewertung im Gesundheits- und Sozialwesen, wie beispielsweise Diagnostikverfahren oder Zeugnissen und den dazugehörigen Einstufungen und Kategorisierungen (allgemein zur Bewertungssoziologie siehe Krüger 2022). Diese Varianten digitaler Bewertung sind eingebettet in eine gesellschaftliche Transformation durch Medienwandel, die Michael Latzer als „religionsähnliche digitale Dreifaltigkeit“ (2022) beschreibt, aus den drei Phänomenen „Datafizierung der Lebensbereiche“, „Algorithmisierung der Auswahlprozesse“ und „Plattformisierung der Märkte“ besteht und zu einer digitalen Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit (Couldry/Hepp 2023) führt. Kappler stellt in ihrem Beitrag die Perspektive der Ökonomie/Soziologie der Konventionen (auf franz. Économie/Sociologie des Conventions (EC/SC)) vor, die – als Teil der neuen pragmatischen (Bewertungs-)Soziologie – die Pluralität der am Gemeinwohl orientierten normativen Ordnungen untersucht […].” (p. 191)
Extract: “Karolin Kappler’s presentation deals with variants of digital assessment in health and social services, such as diagnostic procedures or certificates and the associated classifications and categorizations (for general information on the sociology of assessment, see Krüger 2022). These variants of digital assessment are embedded in a social transformation brought about by media change, which Michael Latzer describes as a “religion-like digital trinity” (2022), consisting of the three phenomena of “datafication of areas of life,” “algorithmization of selection processes,” and “platformization of markets,” leading to a digital construction of reality (Couldry/Hepp 2023). In her contribution, Kappler presents the perspective of the economics/sociology of conventions (in French: Économie/Sociologie des Conventions (EC/SC)), which—as part of the new pragmatic (evaluative) sociology—examines the plurality of normative orders oriented toward the common good […]” (p. 191).
Sicheng Long (2025)
PhD thesis. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh
Advisors: Isabell Darmon, Isabelle, Angelica Thumala & Theo Bourgeron
Abstract. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a critical analysis of the financialisation of human resources through an examination of Human Capital (HC). This thesis builds on the analysis of major institutional initiatives promoting HC reporting and emerging forms of HR management featuring intensifying metrification of HC and monitoring of employees. It links this managerial trend with the conception of value of the workforce derived from the changes in financialised capitalism. From a valuation perspective, this thesis situates the notion of value amongst the rhetorical apparatus that constitutes its intelligibility (theories that define what “true value” is) and the economic reality formed accordingly (operations that ascertain such value). The value of HC, in this context, is not intrinsic but produced by actors who promote it and results from practical valuation activities. Human capital as a prevalent concept has been increasingly recognised in financial reporting and management, but its validity in financial valuation remains contested and its measurement is dominated by non-financial metrics. Based on a comparative analysis of organisational documents of several initiatives to promote HC across governments, transnational agencies and professional associations, as well as interviews with key actors who are directly involved in designing and measuring HC metrics, the research shows that the emphasis in the conceptions of HC differs across scholars and practitioners involved as key actors in shaping and promoting HC, depending on whether they are located in finance and accounting, management, or whether they are investors. Drawing on a growing body of literature in the economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) and valuation studies, I argue that the valuation of HC is situated in the coordination of three different conventions: the convention of financial accounting (shared by accounting professions), the convention of management accounting (shared by management professions) and the convention of financial value estimation (shared by investors). They have all come into play in the constitution of HC value and the way it is measured. The financialisation of HC is driven particularly by the convention of financial value estimation which conceptualises the value of HC from a financial market perspective through the “investor’s gaze”. This study aims to contribute to existing scholarship in several aspects: 1) understanding the emerging trend of quantification and metrification in human resources management (HRM) from a valuation perspective, exploring the process of how HC as a concept derived from finance and economics is adopted in management and facilitates the financialisation of the valuation of the workforce, allowing the colonisation of financial valuation over non-financial metrics. 2) Providing a critical analysis of how the conception of HC is received and reacted to at organisational level, a level that has not been addressed much in existing scholarship where study in critical social sciences on HC often focus on the ideological and disciplinary effects of this idea over individuals. 3) Applying a pragmatist approach to develop a sociological critique of HC value in the research stream of economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) to reveal the configuration of HC and thus contribute to a better understanding of the financialisation of human resource.