WORKSHOP ON SOCIAL PROTEST AND ITS FUTURE

Thursday, June 1st, 2023 from 9am to 4pm, at SciencesPo, Salle Goguel, B-56 rue des Saints-Pères.

(The entrance must be done by the 27 rue St Guillaume).

• Registration form required - before May 31
• Program
• Organizer:

Madeleine Sallustio, CNRS post-doctoral fellow on the project: Conjugating the perspective of collapse with protest engagement. The case of European "autonomous environments" analyzed from the perspective of multiple temporalities - Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of the CNRS

• No planned zoom.

In what future temporalities are contemporary mobilizations inscribed?
In terms of social protest, the hopeful future and the conviction that a better future is within reach have long marked revolutionary rhetoric and progressive political fervor.
But is this enthusiastic "until then" a temporality that still belongs to contemporary imaginaries of struggle? Does the idea of a global and permanent "crisis" have repercussions on the nature and form of social protest? What conflicts of temporality exist between the demands of civil society and the functioning of public action? Are the actors on the ground withdrawn into "presentist" or "collapse" temporalities, where urgency (anticipated or experienced) favors individualistic withdrawal? Are they digging, in spite of disappointments and anxiety about the future, the furrow of utopian projects of collective emancipation?

Through a transdisciplinary discussion and on the basis of works based on fields in Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, France, Italy and Belgium, this study day wishes to take note of the diversity of temporal interactions that exist in contemporary social protest.

Contact : madeleine.sallustio@sciencespo.fr

La Chaire santé de Sciences Po, en partenariat avec le Centre de Sociologie des Organisations et l'IRDES organise le mardi 23 mai prochain à Sciences Po, une journée d'étude intitulée :

Déroger pour transformer : Les expérimentations et leurs usages : une montée en puissance dans les politiques publiques en France

Les discussions porteront, au-delà de la santé et des expérimentations articles 51 sur lesquelles nous travaillons collectivement, sur différents domaines d'action publique incluant l'éducation, les politiques de l'emploi, la régulation de la finance, etc.

Notre objectif étant de prendre un certain recul permettant de remonter en généralité et de saisir les différentes modalités d'expérimentation et leur impact sur l'action publique.

Les échanges seront basés sur la présentation et la discussion des travaux de différents chercheurs -- et notamment jeunes chercheurs.

• Mardi 23 mai 2023 à Sciences Po, Salons scientifiques (salle B108), 1 Place St Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris
• Formulaire d’inscription
• Programme de cette journée (PDF)

Comité d’organisation :
Anne-Laure Beaussier, Cécile Fournier, Anne Girault, Noémie Morize, Magali Robelet et Alice Valiergue

Call for papers for the second volume of the Memory Studies Review (Brill publishing), 2024

Abstracts submission deadline May 15

Is artificial intelligence the future of collective memory? Bridging AI scholarship and Memory Studies

PDF of the CFP

Editors

Frederic Clavert (C²DH, University of Luxembourg) frederic.clavert@uni.lu

Sarah Gensburger (CSO, Sciences Po - CNRS) sarah.gensburger@sciencespo.fr

In addition to the publication of the forecast special issue, this CFP ambitions to identify a network of colleagues, across the two fields, who are interested in this issue and the development of co-conceived case studies and research programs. Do not hesitate to contact us beyond the sending of your abstract.

The definition of « collective memory » has been a major topic of discussion and dispute among scholars coming from humanities and social sciences interested in understanding the dynamics of remembrance (Gensburger 2016). However, and besides their different views, most of them agreed on the fact that “collective memory” was nothing like a “computer memory”: it was different from a stock of souvenirs and images of the past. In 2000, still, Liam Bannon suggested that « what has blinded us to the richness of human activities related to the theme of collective remembering has been the dominance of the computer model of mind in more recent cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence research, where models of human memory have been imported from computing” (Bannon 2000 p. 278).

Twenty years later, however, artificial intelligence and machine learning could seem to be the future of collective memory. In the aftermath of Covid, the need for mourning and an immediate visual memorialization of the dead relied on artificial intelligence to produce a memorial of portraits of all the victims of the Pandemic in the US based not on their actual pictures, impossible to gather in a non-biased practical way, but through representative portraits generated by an artificial intelligence using data available about the dead (age, ethnicity, gender, etc.) (Korostoff n.d.). Again, while, with the last witnesses of the Holocaust dying, a crisis of witnessing has been underway (Lothe et al. 2012), artificial intelligence has been increasingly used to give birth (again) to them and enable interaction between their hologram, school students or museum visitors (Makhortykh 2021b; Shur-Ofry and Pessach 2020; Walden 2021). Of course, this “New perspective on testimony”, as says the name of the program which created these holograms, has no reason to be limited to the Holocaust in the future. « Imagine, for example, an AI that integrates a large collection of testimonies from the Vietnam War, thus creating the “ultimate witness” – one that delivers an integrated testimony about the War – or a “virtual Abraham Lincoln” – one that relies on the 40,550 ‘Lincoln papers’ stored at the Library of Congress to answer people’s questions.” (Shur-Ofry and Pessach 2020 p. 988). Meanwhile, other works have highlighted what artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can bring to heritage and archives institutions (Barlindhaug 2022; Bultmann et al. 2022; Jaillant 2022; Pessanha and Salah 2021; Rolan et al. 2019), assessing the extent to which they are “the future of memory institutions” (Horsley 2020). Is artificial intelligence (really) the future of collective memory?

1. How can we meet the ethical challenges raised by the current development of artificial intelligence in the field of memory?

By raising this (slightly) provocative question, this special issue aims at fostering a dialogue between specialist in memory studies and in engineering and machine learning. It is now clear that these two fields could respectively benefit for an informed dialogue (Kvasnička and Pospíchal 2015). The issue of the relationship between collective memory and artificial intelligence has already been addressed by some colleagues. However, it is striking to see that most of these articles have focused on the ethical dimensions of it and on the policy needs implied by the development of artificial intelligence in the field of memory institutions, history and witnessing (Presner 2016).

The memory studies scholars, Victoria Grace Walden, Mykola Markhoryth and Kate Marrison, have coordinated an initiative for “Guidelines for Using Machine Learning and Artifical Intelligence for Holocaust Memory and Education”. The law specialists Shur-Ofry and Pessach have called for « memory fiduciaries » to be imposed to artificial intelligence (2020) and historian Wulf Kansteiner has been dreaming of a GPThistory, an adaptation of GPT3 for it to become an actual auxiliary to the production of history and an from their of collective memory : “If we think that the stories and images we consume influence our memories, identities, and future behavior, we should be very wary about letting AI craft our future entertainment on the basis of our morally and politically deeply flawed cultural heritage” (Kansteiner 2022 p. 124). These reflections on the regulation of the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence in the field of historical narration and collective memory are crucial and moving forward in this area of investigation is one of the ambitions of this special issue. However, we would like to invite contributors to also, and first and foremost, to move beyond these considerations and build some techno-ethnographies through case studies involving collective memory issues and machine learning processes. In doing so, we may investigate IA systems as actual practices of collective memory and, also, question what social impact will have the IA generated collective memory artefacts, such as memorials, in the future ?

2. Is AI an indicator or a generator of collective memory?

This second group of questions we would like to address tackle the nature of the relationship between artificial intelligence and collective memory. To what extent AI and Machine Learning tools can help social sciences and humanities to overcome the methodological loopholes social sciences and humanities have been confronted with when trying to grasp and circumscribe “collective memory” in its shared narrative dimensions? Can AI help to make apparent often indivisible social frameworks of collective memory or will the emergence of IA, and the social uses it will lead to, change the very nature and functioning of “collective memory” (Makhortykh 2021a)? Can we speak of “Robotic collective memory” or “Algorithmic Memory” beyond simple metaphors? Should we consider these AI and Machine learning tools as a way to make visible “collective memory” or should we acknowledge the fact that they generate and promote a new form of “collective memory”?

In other words, can scholars’ works on collective memory use these new AI products as innovative research tools to critically and experimentally engage with the often given for granted “historical analogies” mechanism or the relationship between moral values and collective memory. Could we imagine that the very biased nature of AI – which is the reason why comments have so far been focusing on ethical issues -could make it a promising tool for exploring “collective memory” dynamics when defined as a socially structured and spatially located point of view of the past? The debate about ethics, collective memory and AI invites to concretely and explicitly list what is left of the concept of collective memory if it is separated from all its moral, and often left implicit, implications. In other words, this special issue considers that thinking critically about the relationship between collective memory and artificial intelligence can help the memory studies field to move forward. Here, we encourage theoretical precision about the notions of “collective memory” which contributors consider when addressing IA and Machine learning practices and development.

3. What memory studies can bring to the field of Artificial Intelligence?

This special issue also considers that memory studies can bring to the field of artificial intelligence. IA and Machine Learning tools are first and foremost memory products. However, most of the current remarks on the implications of this simple fact are very rarely informed by the knowledge memory studies works have established these past twenty years. Crossing these two literatures could help works on AI to move beyond the very notion of bias to pay attention to the organizational, spatially, and socially framed nature of all memory dynamics. Some different AI relied on different conceptions of memory and internal memorialization dynamics (Romero 2021). In this matter, memory studies have a lot to teach people developing “multi-agent systems” meant to deal with memory, but so far very few works have crossed the two literatures. We call for this cross-fertilization in order, for example, to build some typologies in this matter. Samely, the articulation between accuracy, authenticity, and exemplarity as between fictional and non-fictional has been at the core of public history and memory studies work for some time. However, it has not so far nourished the reflection about the future of artificial intelligence and its social uses.

Moreover, artificial intelligence memory is peculiar given the fact that the data used during the machine learning process have their own temporality and spatiality (Clavert et al. 2022). The more we go in the past or the more we go in “data poor” regions of the world, the less data are available to “nourish” the IA system. This very simple fact makes that the first and main “bias” of any IA system is one of temporality and spatiality, topics which has been at the core of memory studies since the very beginning.

Finally, the collective memory of artificial intelligence - as both an economic product and a symbolic object/actor -, its mythologies and its narratives are an important part of the investigation this special issue wants to foster. The way “history” of AI has been written through times has only recently started to be studied (Gefen 2022). This special issue ambition to have these promising and still ongoing work dialogue with the ones dealing with the effects of AI and Machine learning tools on the future of collective memory.

Editors

Frédéric Clavert is assistant professor at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH, University of Luxembourg). A member of the digital humanities community, he turned his attention to the study of the relationship between historians and their primary sources in the digital age on the one hand, and the use of massive data from web platforms in memory studies on the other. He led the #ww1 project around the Centenary of the Great War on Twitter. With Caroline Muller (Université Rennes 2), he is co-editor of the online book Le Goût de l’archive à l’ère numérique. He is managing editor of the Journal of Digital History.

Sarah Gensburger is Full Professor of sociology and political science at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and Sciences Po-Paris. She is the author of Beyond Memory. Can we really learn from the past ? (with Sandrine Lefranc, Palgrave, 2020, also in Arabic, French and Spanish), Memory on my doorstep. Chronicles of the Bataclan Neighborhood (Paris, 2015-2016) (Leuven University Press, 2019) and the co-editor of Administrations of Memory (with Sara Dybris McQuaid (Springer, 2022). Her current research interests concern the relationship between neoliberalism, the crisis of the welfare state and the contemporary memory boom as well as the impact assessment of memory policies and the inequal access to participatory archiving. In 2021, she was elected President of the international Memory Studies Association. 

Submissions

Please send your abstract (up to two pages), highlighting your claims, your methodology and materials and including a short biography to sarah.gensburger@sciencespo.fr and frederic.clavert@uni.lu by May 15 2023.

Answers will be given to the authors by May 22 2023 and the final texts, between 5 and 7 000 words long, will be expected by October 1^st 2023. A first review by the editors will first be processed and the final submission on the Brill platform will take place in a second time.

The journal

Learn more about the Memory Studies Review [PDF] and [website]

References

Bannon, L (2000) Towards Artificial Memories? Le Travail Humain, 63(3), 277–285. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40660263

Barlindhaug, G (2022) Artificial Intelligence and the Preservation of Historic Documents. Proceedings from the Document Academy, 9(2). doi:10.35492/docam/9/2/9.

Bultmann, D, Makhortykh, M, Simon, D, Ulloa, R, and Zucker, EM (2022) Digital Archive of Memorialization of Mass Atrocities (DAMMA) Workshop Whitepaper. Yale University Genocide Studies Program: Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era Working Paper, 3. Retrieved from https://gsp.yale.edu/digital-archive-memorialization-mass-atrocities-damma-workshop-whitepaper

Clavert, F, Mahroug, S, and Schafer, V (2022) Préservation et distorsion : l’espace-temps des réseaux socio-numériques et du web archivé. Revue d’histoire culturelle, 2022(5). doi:10.56698/rhc.2791.

Floridi, L, and Chiriatti, M (2020) GPT-3: Its Nature, Scope, Limits, and Consequences. Minds and Machines, 30(4), 681–694. doi:10.1007/s11023-020-09548-1.

Gefen, A (2022, January 21) CulturIA. A cultural history of artificial intelligence. [Billet]. Retrieved from https://cultureia.hypotheses.org/703

Gensburger, S (2016) Halbwachs’ studies in collective memory: A founding text for contemporary ‘memory studies’? Journal of Classical Sociology, 16(4), 396–413. doi:10.1177/1468795X16656268.

Horsley, N (2020) Intellectual autonomy after artificial intelligence: The future of memory institutions and historical research. In N. Lushetich, ed., Big Data—A New Medium?, Routledge.

Jaillant, L (Ed.) (2022) Archives, Access and Artificial Intelligence: Working with Born-Digital and Digitized Archival Collections, 1st edn, Vol. 2, Bielefeld, Germany: Bielefeld University Press / transcript Verlag. doi:10.14361/9783839455845.

Kansteiner, W (2022) Digital Doping for Historians: Can History, Memory, and Historical Theory Be Rendered Artificially Intelligent? History and Theory, 61(4), 119–133. doi:10.1111/hith.12282.

Korostoff, M (n.d.) 535,000 faces. Comprehending the Death Toll of Covid-19. Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://mkorostoff.github.io/hundred-thousand-faces/

Kvasnička, V, and Pospíchal, J (2015) Artificial Intelligence and Collective Memory. In P. Sinčák, P. Hartono, M. Virčíková, J. Vaščák, and R. Jakša, eds., Emergent Trends in Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Cham: Springer International Publishing, , 283–291. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-10783-7_31.

Lothe, J, Suleiman, SR, and Phelan, J (2012) After Testimony: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Holocaust Narrative for the Future, Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press. Retrieved from https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/51398

Makhortykh, M (2021a) Memoriae ex machina: How Algorithms Make Us Remember and Forget. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 22(2), 180–185. doi:10.1353/gia.2021.0027.

Makhortykh, M (2021b, February 4) Algorithmic Auditing, the Holocaust, and Search Engine Bias. Retrieved from https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/digitalholocaustmemory/2021/02/04/algorithmic-auditing-the-holocaust-and-search-engine-bias/

Pessanha, F, and Salah, AA (2021) A Computational Look at Oral History Archives. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 15(1). doi:10.1145/3477605.

Presner, T (2016) 8. The Ethics of the Algorithm: Close and Distant Listening to the Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive. In C. Fogu, W. Kansteiner, and T. Presner, eds., Probing the Ethics of Holocaust Culture, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, , 167–202. doi:10.4159/9780674973244-009.

Rolan, G, Humphries, G, Jeffrey, L, Samaras, E, Antsoupova, T, and Stuart, K (2019) More human than human? Artificial intelligence in the archive. Archives and Manuscripts, 47(2), 179–203. doi:10.1080/01576895.2018.1502088.

Romero, A (2021, June 6) GPT-3 Scared You? Meet Wu Dao 2.0: A Monster of 1.75 Trillion Parameters. [Medium]. Retrieved from https://towardsdatascience.com/gpt-3-scared-you-meet-wu-dao-2-0-a-monster-of-1-75-trillion-parameters-832cd83db484

Shur-Ofry, M, and Pessach, G (2020) Robotic Collective Memory. Washington University Law Review, 97(3), 975–1005. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3364008.

Walden, VG (2021) Afterword: Digital Holocaust Memory Futures: Through Paradigms of Immersion and Interactivity and Beyond. In V. G. Walden, ed., Digital Holocaust Memory, Education and Research, New York: Palgrave, , 267–296. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-83496-8_11.

Nous sommes ravis de vous présenter le rapport d'activité du CSO pour l'année 2022 avec une présentation des membres du laboratoire, les faits marquants de l'année, les activités des axes scientifiques, les projets de recherches, les manifestations scientifiques, les interventions dans les médias, les soutenances, les publications et l'activité de l'Association des Sociologues des Organisations.

Et avec un mot de la nouvelle directrice Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier.

Accèder au PDF 

Le 21 avril, Clara Jacquot, doctorante au CSO, fera une communication intitulée :

Des politiques de santé publique au niveau municipal : enjeux de compétences et compétences en jeu.

Résumé :

La santé, selon le Code de la Santé Publique, est une compétence de l’État. Les lois relatives à ce domaine qui se sont succédé au cours des vingt dernières années ont reconnu l’importance de prendre en compte les variations entre les territoires et d’entreprendre une mise en œuvre différenciée de la politique publique de santé, sans pour autant déléguer cette compétence.

Cependant, au niveau municipal, des actrices et acteurs conçoivent et réalisent bel et bien des actions de santé publique, parfois depuis des décennies ou seulement depuis peu, en s’appropriant les instruments étatiques ou en faisant preuve d’innovation. Comment construit-on et met-on en œuvre une politique de santé publique locale sans en avoir la compétence ?

La thèse se propose d’explorer cette ambiguïté et ses conséquences en termes de constitution de réseaux partenariaux, de socialisation à la santé publique, de définition des contours de ce domaine et d’enjeux politiques. Elle s’appuie sur une enquête réalisée dans quatre communes différentes et articulant des entretiens, des observations et des sources écrites.

La séance se tient de 10h à 12h à la fois en présentiel à Sciences Po, sur le campus Saint-Thomas, salle K.011 et en distanciel sur zoom. Si vous souhaitez y assister, merci de contacter Samia Ben.

De gauche à droite : Jean-Louis Chambon, président du cercle turgot- Jean-Claude Trichet, ancien gouverneur de la Banque de France et ancien président de la BCE - Jeanne Lazarus et André-Paul Bahuon, directeur général Jegard Creatis

Le jeudi 30 mars 2023 s'est déroulée la 36e édition du Prix Turgot.

A cette occasion, André-Paul Bahuon, Président d'honneur de la CCEF, a eu le plaisir de remettre le Prix de la Recherche à Jeanne Lazarus pour son ouvrage : "Les politiques de l'argent".

Voir la cérémonie de remise

Le Prix Turgot du meilleur livre d’économie financière a été créé en 1987 par l’Association des élèves et anciens élèves de l'Institut des Hautes Finances (AEAE IHFi) qui en a déposé la marque. Le succès rencontré par ce prix, la qualité des ouvrages primés et le désir de prolonger la dynamique créée lors de la remise de ce prix ont poussé les deux membres fondateurs, Jean-Louis Chambon, Président du Prix Turgot, et l’AEAE IHFi à créer en 2009, le Cercle Turgot.

Un comité de présélection du Prix Turgot, dit Club de lecture, composé de dix-huit anciens élèves de l'Institut des Hautes Finances, propose au Jury de sélection du prix Turgot, dit Grand Jury, une liste restreinte d'ouvrages parus dans l'année. Le Grand Jury, composé de quinze personnalités du monde économique et d'anciens lauréats du Prix Turgot, est présidé par Jean-Claude TRICHET, qui a succédé à Michel BON. Il sélectionne le lauréat du prix de l'année et peut décerner d'autres prix, plus spécialisés.

Dans le cadre d’une convention pluriannuelle avec l’AEAEIHFi, Le Cercle Turgot contribue au processus de sélection du lauréat du Prix Turgot, soutient financièrement ce prix et son événement annuel de remise au Ministère de l’économie et des finances. Les lauréats du Prix contribuent aux rencontres organisées par le Cercle et participent aux ouvrages collectifs qu’il édite.

These job talks follow the recruitment announcement for the position of assistant professor in sociology of the environment and ecological transition.

Location:
Sciences Po, 1 Place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris, Room K.011 or on zoom: https://sciencespo.zoom.us/j/97619951825 

Date:
Monday, April 3, 2023 from 9am to 1pm 

Program : 

8h45 Welcome coffee

9h00-9h35 Basak SARAC LESAVRE
Nuclear Remains: On temporalities, responsibilities, and values

9h40-10h15 Manisha ANANTHARAMAN
Recycling Class: The Contradictions of Inclusion in Urban Sustainability Transitions

10h20-10h55 Nadine ARNOLD
Serving magically perfect fruit globally: Local nesting in translating multiple standard

15‘ Break

11h10-11h45 Ian GRAY
Making Climate Knowledge Actionable: The Fraught Politics of Pricing Climate Risk

11h50-12h25 Joeva ROCK
Patented Promises: Biotechnology, Public Private Partnerships, and the Future of Food in Ghana

The time is divided between the presentation (20 min.) and the questions and answers (15 min.).

Chaque année, la Fondation des Treilles décerne un prix « Jeune chercheurs » à des chercheurs français ou étrangers en fin de thèse et à des post-doctorants menant leur recherche en France.

Cette année, Brianne Dubois et Julie Madon, doctorantes au CSO, ont obtenu ce prix.

Brianne Dubois finit sa thèse sur "Les professionnel·les de l’art contemporain. Analyse du travail de co-production des œuvres d’art".

Julie Madon soutient sa thèse le 27 juin prochain intitulée "Faire durer ses objets. Pratiques, ressources et négociations des consommateurs pour ralentir l’obsolescence".

Toutes nos féliciations !

RENCONTRE – DÉBAT

La mémoire collective en question(s). 

Autour de l’œuvre de Marie-Claire Lavabre, Directrice de recherche émérite CNRS au Centre d’Etudes Européennes et de politique comparée

• Vendredi 7 avril 2023 de 16h à 19H, à Sciences Po, Salons Scientifiques (B103, B108), 1 Place Saint-Thomas d’Aquin 75007
• Lien d’inscription : https://forms.gle/F6e2MpZzBMACf8y27
• Voir le programme (PDF)

Rencontre organisée à l’occasion de la sortie, le 10 janvier 2023, du livre La mémoire collective en question(s), sous la direction de Sarah Gensburger (Sciences Po, CSO, CNRS) et Sandrine Lefranc (Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS). Cet ouvrage collectif, construit autour de l’œuvre de Marie-Claire Lavabre, présente lors de cette rencontre, rassemble les contributions de 50 chercheuses et chercheurs.

Résumé du livre

La référence au passé occupe aujourd’hui une place centrale dans l’affirmation de positions politiques au présent. En 2022, le sens à donner à la Seconde Guerre mondiale a ainsi été en France au cœur des débats de la campagne présidentielle comme de ceux qui ont accompagné l’invasion de l’Ukraine. La question de savoir ce qu’on doit retenir des sociétés coloniales et esclavagistes ou encore de l’absence des femmes du récit national a également continué de nourrir les controverses autour du déboulonnage de statues et des changements de noms de rues.
Pour le meilleur comme pour le pire, les sociétés contemporaines se doivent donc de tirer les leçons du passé et sont enjointes de garder des traces, pour le futur, des événements qui s’y sont déroulés. Comment comprendre l’avènement de cette société de la mémoire ? Qui décide des leçons du passé ? Quels coupables sont dénoncés et quelles victimes, consacrées ? 

Dans le débat public, ces questions sont le plus souvent traitées par des historiens et historiennes. Pourtant, suite aux travaux pionniers de Marie-Claire Lavabre, sociologue et politistes, mais aussi anthropologues et spécialistes des études littéraires, se sont également emparées de ces sujets. La Mémoire collective en question(s) rassemble l’ensemble des sciences sociales pour dresser, de manière clair et accessible, le bilan de ces travaux.

PROGRAMME

16h - Mots d’accueil

Florence Faucher, Directrice du Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée

16h15 - Pourquoi ce livre ? 

Sarah Gensburger (Sciences Po, CSO, CNRS) et Sandrine Lefranc (Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS)

16h30 - Nos rencontres avec Marie-Claire Lavabre ou comment en vient-on à étudier la mémoire ?

Antonia García Castro (EHESS)

Valérie Rosoux (FNRS-Université Catholique de Louvain)

17h- Table ronde autour de la mémoire collective dans les sociétés contemporaines Animée par André Loez, historien, professeur en classes préparatoires et créateur du podcast Paroles d’histoire

Fabien Jobard, (CNRS-Université́ Paris-Saclay)

Philippe Mesnard, (Université́ Clermont-Auvergne)

Alexandra Oeser, (Université́ Paris-Nanterre)

Gérôme Truc, (CNRS-Université Paris Nanterre)

Suivi d’un échange avec la salle jusqu’à 19h.

Rencontre en présence de nombre des contributrices et contributeurs de l’ouvrage que sont :

Sylvain Antichan, Malena Bastias Sekulovic, Michèle Baussant, Florent Brayard, Audrey Célestine, Marion Charpenel, Marina Chauliac, Anemona Constantin, Sarah Daynes, Irène Dos Santos, Sophie Duchesne, Thibault Ducloux, Claudia Feld, Antonia García Castro, Carol Gluck, Anne-Marie Granet, Emmanuelle Hébert, Jean-Philippe Heurtin, Paolo Jedlowski, Elizabeth Jelin, Fabien Jobard, Cécile Jouhanneau, Pascale Laborier, Marie-Claire Lavabre, Julie Lavielle, Marc Lazar, Patrick Le Galès, Nina Leonhard, Jie-Hyun Lim, Julien Mary, Françoise Mayer, Nonna Mayer, Dominique Memmi, Philippe Mesnard, Patrick Michel, Alexandra Oeser, Denis Peschanski, Bernard Pudal, Pierre Rouillard, Valérie Rosoux, Henry Rousso, Peter Schöttler, Anne Simonin, Sélim Smaoui, Jean-Charles Szurek, Ewa Tartakowsky, Antony Todorov, Gérôme Truc, Michael Werner.

Le séminaire en ligne (uniquement) "Enseignement supérieur et recherche" a pour objectif de permettre la présentation et la discussion de recherches menées en France, mais aussi en Europe et dans d'autres régions du monde, sur l'enseignement supérieur et la recherche.

Le jeudi 20 avril 2023 de 12h30 à 14h, Etienne Bordes, ATER au sein de l’Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Docteur en histoire contemporaine fera une présentation online :

Incarner les universités. La Conférence des présidents d’université comme porte-parole de l’enseignement supérieur (1971-2007) ?

Résumé :

Lors de la naissance de leur fonction par la loi Faure de 1968, les présidents d’université se dotent d’une organisation représentative (la Conférence des présidents d’universités) faiblement reconnue car non prévue par le législateur. Comment ont-ils lutté dès lors pour incarner un porte-parolat des universités et même de l'enseignement supérieur ? 

Cette communication propose une analyse de l’affirmation politique et symbolique des présidents et des tensions qu’elle a pu générer en interne ou avec le reste des acteurs du champ. Elle cherche à mieux comprendre, en mettant les deux éléments en relation, comment les crises et les transformations de l’enseignement supérieur ont pu rendre cette lutte plus efficiente.

Lien d'inscription: https://forms.gle/oLKV9hwWLh1bhAs66

La prochaine séance du séminaire de l'axe Gouvernance et organisations Economiques se tiendra le 17 mars avec Hugo Jeanningros, Professeur assistant en sociologie à l’Université de Technologie de Troyes et membre du laboratoire List3n. 

Titre : 
Quand l’assurance rencontre les sciences du comportement : prévention et objets connectés dans l’assurance française.  

Résumé de l’intervention : 

Depuis une dizaine d’années, l’industrie assurantielle se saisit à la fois des traces numériques des assurés et des sciences du comportement, avec plus ou moins de réussite sur le plan commercial. Renforcement de la segmentation des risques, individualisation des tarifs ou encore prévention des risques sont autant de possibles de cette rencontre. L’assurance comportementale, articulant captation et valorisation de traces numériques des comportements quotidiens des assurés en constitue un cas frappant.  

À partir d’une enquête qualitative mêlant entretiens, exploitations d’archives et observations de rencontres professionnelles, cette présentation portera sur la circulation des connaissances et les modalités de conception à l’origine d’un produit d'assurance comportementale. Des pistes explicatives de l’échec de l’implantation de ce type de produit en France y seront dégagées. 

La séance se tient de 10h à 12h à la fois en présentiel à Sciences Po, sur le campus Saint-Thomas, salle K.011 et en distanciel sur zoom.

Si vous souhaitez y assister, merci de contacter Samia Ben.

Department of Sociology Seminar

Friday, March 10th 2023, 12:30pm - 2:30pm

Sciences Po (9 rue de la Chaise) - Room C910

Algorithmic Management and New Forms of Class Conflict

David C. Stark 
Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
Director, Center on Organizational Innovation

The turn of the 20th Century saw the emergence of a new knowledge class, pioneered by mechanical engineers championing a movement known as Scientific Management. Today, in the opening decades of the 21st Century we find the emergence of a different knowledge class. At its forefront we also find engineers, but these are software engineers championing Algorithmic Management.
In this presentation, I first discuss the platform organizational form and then examine how algorithmic management addresses the peculiar managerial challenges when valuable assets and activities occur on the platform but not in the firm. After comparing and contrasting scientific and algorithmic management. I then discuss the current era of platform monopoly capitalism as one of class conflict between two middle classes. On one side is the established professional-managerial class, organized around claims of professional expertise. On the other side, the challengers, organized around new, algorithmic knowledge claims.

Registration is mandatory. Thank you.

To find out more: https://davidcstark.net/

Demain, tous servis ?

Débat autour de l'ouvrage "Servir les riches. Les domestiques chez les grandes fortunes" de Alizée Delpierre.

Mardi 21 mars 2023 de 17h à 19h30 à Sciences Po, dans les Salons Scientifiques, au 1 Place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin 75007 Paris.

Lien vers le formulaire d'inscription

En s’appuyant sur une enquête immersive de plusieurs années, ce livre lève le voile sur les relations quotidiennes entre ceux qui servent et ceux qui sont servis. Ce faisant, il éclaire les ressorts d’une cohabitation socialement improbable, faite de domination et de résistances. Elle-même prise dans ces relations, en travaillant un temps comme domestique, Alizée Delpierre montre comment une certaine « exploitation dorée » peut faire rêver des femmes et des hommes qui y voient une réelle opportunité d’ascension sociale.

Du côté des grandes fortunes, déléguer toutes les tâches ingrates demeure essentiel pour consolider leur pouvoir et jouir à plein de leur capital. Elles sont prêtes à tout pour fidéliser leurs domestiques et conserver ce privilège de classe, pour le meilleur comme pour le pire.

Nos invités :

Alizée Delpierre, Sociologue, chercheuse post-doctorale au CSO.

Céline Marty, Agrégée de philosophie et chercheuse en philosophie du travail.

Guillaume Richard, Président Fondateur de Oui Care.

Maud Simonet, Directrice de recherches CNRS et Directrice adjointe de l'IDHES-Nanterre.

Modérateur :
Un·e journaliste d'Alternatives Economiques (en attente de confirmation)

Le séminaire "Enseignement supérieur et recherche" a pour objectif de permettre la présentation et la discussion de recherches menées en France, mais aussi en Europe et dans d'autres régions du monde, sur l'enseignement supérieur et la recherche.

Mardi 14 mars 2023 de 12h30 à 14h, Claudia Sarrico,Professor of Management, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho and CIPES Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies, Portugal fera une présentation online :

The Changing Nature and Purpose of the Doctorate.

Sumary :

Doctorate level attainment has been growing fast in developed economies. The OECD average share of 25-64 year-olds with a doctorate is around 1%, but the share has been increasing fast, and if current trends continue, 2.3% of today’s young adults will enter doctoral studies at some point in their life. This paper reflects on the causes of this growth and its consequences for the nature and purpose of the doctorate.

Lien d'inscription: https://forms.gle/VcKrsi2d9iURfRK4A

Emilie Bilandhas just published "Family in law. Divorce and Inequality in Quebec and France" published by UBC Press. Enter in the discount code 6392-40 at the checkout screen to receive 40% off the retail price.

Sumary in french :

En se fondant sur des recherches collectives au sein de leurs systèmes judiciaires et de leurs administrations socio-fiscales, Emilie Biland analyse comment institutions et professionnel.les qui interviennent à l'occasion des séparations conjugales affectent durablement la vie des anciens couples hétérosexuels et de leurs enfants.

Si les inégalités de classe sont moins prononcées en France qu'au Québec, tandis que les inégalités de genre y sont plus fortes, cet ouvrage montre que la reproduction institutionnelle des rapports sociaux repose sur les mêmes mécanismes dans les deux contextes : elle se noue dans les inégalités d'accès aux différentes formes d'interventions professionnelles, dans les rapports de pouvoir qui structurent les interactions entre parents et professionnel.les et finalement dans l'encadrement des conditions et des modes de vie post-rupture. Parce que prédomine une conception libérale voire protectionniste des droits individuels, parce que la massification des ruptures d'union est contemporaine du tournant néo-libéral de l'action publique, parce que rares sont les professionnel.les engagé.es contre les inégalités qui se nouent entre les familles et en leur sein, le droit au divorce ne tient toujours pas ses promesses émancipatrices, que cet ouvrage appelle à reconquérir.

GENERAL PROFILE

The ecological transition involves the transformation of public, private and non-governmental organizations. These transformations affect their objectives, their means of action, their interactions and their modes of regulation. However, they are still poorly understood and often constitute a blind spot in transition policies. The recruitment of an assistant professor in sociology will strengthen the laboratory's research on the environment and ecological transition, at the crossroads of economic, organizational, public policy, social movement, labor, law and science and expertise sociologies.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Research

The new hire will conduct in-depth empirical research based on the production of original data. Research topics may focus, for example, on:

•  the construction and implementation of national and territorial transition public policies; the role of instruments, regulations, and the law; 
• transition policies in organizations and corporations, new economic models, environmental assessment instruments; 
• social movements in the ecological crisis; issues of social and environmental justice; 
• the production and dissemination of knowledge and expertise on global warming, sustainability and transition (e.g. models); 
• the construction of instruments for regulating and steering the transition (e.g. prospective scenarios, instruments and measures); 
• the controversies around the ecological transition; the definitions and the assumption of responsibility of the ecological crisis; 
• effect on work, employment, training, professions and professional relations.
  The new recruit will be expected to take a part in the various collective initiatives on the environment at Sciences Po, such as: 
• the Environmental Transformations Initiative, 
• the Interdisciplinary Environmental Research Workshop (AIRE) - LIEPP's Environmental Policies axis, 
• the European Chair on Sustainable Development and Climate Transition, 
• the Centre for Earth Policies, 
• the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI).
  A sustained investment in the collective life of the laboratory is also expected.
  
  

  Teaching

  The teaching service is 128 hours per year, i.e. 3 lectures of 24 hours and 56 hours of complementary pedagogical services, at both levels of teaching offered by Sciences Po: college and schools (including the PhD track). The service is reduced to 88 hours/year during the first three years of the tenure track (2 courses of 24 hours and 48 hours of complementary pedagogical service).
  
  The future recruit is expected to teach college courses at one of the seven Sciences Po campuses, as well as master courses in one or several of the Sciences Po schools. Candidates are expected to teach general sociology as well as organizational approaches to transition.
  
  Candidates' ability to teach in both English and French, and to teach in areas and on topics that go beyond the strict limits of their research interests, will be particularly appreciated.
  
  

  PROFILE

  Candidates should hold a PhD in sociology or political science by the time they take up the post and have an excellent knowledge of one or more of the fields in which the CSO's research is conducted. Their research should be characterized by a strong empirical foundation, using a combination of: qualitative methods (interviews, observation, documentary analysis); quantitative methods (general statistical methods, longitudinal analysis, dynamic network analysis or textual analysis); and digital methods. The research must also demonstrate his or her ability to take part in more general debates in the sociology of capitalism, the state, markets, social movements, public policy, science and technology, or regulation. Candidates must demonstrate a strong level of internationalization through their publications and their insertion in international scientific networks. An excellent level in English is required, a good level in French is expected. Sciences Po is an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to balanced gender, geographical, and minority representation. We particularly welcome applications from women.
  
  

  APPLICATION PROCESS

  Candidates must have defended their PhD by the time they apply. They should submit their application in electronic form to Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, president of the hiring committee, before February 15 2023 with:
  - a cover letter, which includes future research projects;
  - CV and a list of publications;
  - 3 major publications;
  - a syllabus of a course for college or masters’ level, and if available, evaluations of past courses.
  
  

  Evaluation of Applications

  The selection committee will examine applications in March 2023 and establish a short list of candidates who will be interviewed.
  See the composition of the committee members.
  
  

  Interviews

  Interviews will be held in Paris in April and May 2023. They will be organized in two stages. The first part, open to the public, will include a presentation of the work of the candidate, followed by an open discussion with the audience. The second part will consist of an interview with the selection committee.
  
  

  Decision and start date

  The final decision will be made by June 2023 at the latest. Expected starting date of employment at Sciences Po: September 1st 2023.

 Contact

Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, sophie.dubuissonquellier@sciencespo.fr

• File (PDF)

La séance de l'axe droit, normes et régulation reçoit Christian Bessy, directeur de recherche au CNRS, IDHES, Ens-Paris Saclay qui fera une présentation de son ouvrage paru en 2022 intitulée :

L'expropriation par le droit. Propriété intellectuelle, valeur et travail.

Résumé :

De quoi la prolifération des droits de propriété intellectuelle est-elle le nom? Telle est la question à laquelle tâche de répondre Christian Bessy en se plaçant au croisement de l’économie, du droit et de la sociologie. Fort d’un important travail d’enquête, il montre comment des choses jugées jusqu’ici inappropriables, y compris des éléments du vivant, sont devenues des « biens», des valeurs, objet d’un droit de propriété, au moyen d’une codification juridique rampante. Mais aussi combien cette extension donne lieu à de nouvelles formes d’expropriation de la richesse produite.

Les brevets sont en effet au cœur du développement économique des multinationales, des start-ups et de l’essor des nouvelles technologies. Cette croissance entraîne la naissance d’une vaste compétition où l’on croise inventeurs, souvent salariés, investisseurs, intermédiaires, avocats et juges qui bataillent sur le terrain flottant d’une juridiction internationale soumise à d’intenses contradictions.

En dessinant les contours de l’appropriation de la création intellectuelle et de la nouvelle classe de juristes qui y participe, l’auteur dresse le portrait en creux du capitalisme contemporain, où l’emprise du droit menace les travailleurs de l’innovation.

La séance se tient le 20 janvier de 10h à 12h à la fois en présentiel à Sciences Po, sur le campus Saint-Thomas, salle K.011 et en distanciel sur zoom.

Si vous souhaitez y assister, merci de contacter Samia Ben.

On January 27, Suzanne Quintin, doctoral student at Arènes / Université de Rennes 2 and at the CSO will give a presentation entitled :

In Search of Respectability. An Ethnography of the Work of Municipal Officers at the Bottom of the Ladder at the Intersection of Class and Gender Relations.

Sumary (in french) :

Le séminaire présentera l’état d’avancement d’une thèse qui prend pour objet la respectabilité des agent·e·s municipaux du bas de l’échelle. Ces dernier·ère·s se rejoignent sur leur position d’exécutant·e et leur appartenance aux fractions stables-modestes des classes populaires. Mais ils/elles sont aussi faiblement doté·e·s en capitaux et constamment exposé·e·s à des interactions et des jugements de classe. Cette recherche entend ainsi montrer comment la scène professionnelle est investie par les agent·e·s comme un espace de négociation et de redéfinition de leur valeur.

À partir d’une sociologie du travail, elle s’appuie sur une enquête ethnographique doublement comparative : entre trois services municipaux – les jardins, l’État civil, les sports – et deux grandes municipalités françaises (opposées politiquement et géographiquement). Une attention particulière est portée sur l’articulation des rapports de classe et de genre qui conditionnent le déploiement des conduites « respectables » ; et sur la manière dont elles sont façonnées par les organisations de travail.

La séance se tient le 20 janvier de 10h à 12h à la fois en présentiel à Sciences Po, sur le campus Saint-Thomas, salle K.011 et en distanciel sur zoom.

Si vous souhaitez y assister, merci de contacter Samia Ben.

Nous vous convions à la prochaine séance du séminaire « DomesticitéS dans l’espace et dans le temps ».

Nous sommes heureuses de recevoir le mardi 14 march Camille Peugny (Printemps, UVSQ) :

Comment mobiliser des salariées isolées ? Le cas des femmes de ménage. 

Afin que vous puissiez accéder aux locaux, merci de remplir ce formulaire d’inscription.

La séance aura lieu dans les locaux de Sciences Po, salle Goguel, 56 rue des Saints Pères, bât. B.

Et pour avoir accès à nos actualités, vous pouvez vous inscrire à notre mailing-list ! C’est ici.

Au plaisir de vous retrouver, Alizée Delpierre (CSO) et Hélène Malarmey (IRISSO)

On January 1st, 2023, the Center for the Sociology of Organizations will change direction: Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier will succeed Olivier Borraz, who has been in the position since July 2013. 

Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, Mathias Vicherat, director of Sciences Po, Olivier Borraz and Marie-Hélène Papillon, Déléguée régionale de la délégation Île-de-France Villejuif du CNRS.

Interview with the new director of the laboratory

You have been a researcher at the CSO since 2003, and you are about to take over as director. What are your links and your history with this research centre?

Unlike previous directors, I am not a 'pure' product of the CSO. I was trained at the Centre de sociologie de l'Innovation at the Ecole des Mines de Paris. I did a thesis in economic sociology there which helped to highlight the role of material devices in economic coordination. But I soon wanted to develop a more political approach to market relations, by highlighting the power relations between supply and demand, but also between suppliers, and finally between the various actors seeking to frame economic action, such as militant organisations through committed consumption, or the State through the government of conduct.
When I applied to the CNRS in 2003, after having been a lecturer at the Ecole des Mines de Nantes, the CSO seemed to me to be a logical research centre, both because the market was already perceived as an organised space and because the notion of power is fundamental in the sociology of organisations. Moreover, I discovered a deeply collective research centre. And twenty years after I joined, I find that this dimension has been further strengthened, as shown by the many collective projects and books we produce there, most recently with the publication of “La société des organisations”. The book, directed by Olivier Borraz, my predecessor at the head of the centre, involved all 28 CSO researchers. This quality of the CSO is essential in my eyes, as research is a collective activity, even if today's public policies place more value on individual careers. In addition to the benefits we derive from this for scientific production and teaching, it also means that the CSO is a place of strong solidarity, mutual support and respect between all its members. These are values that I hold dear, and that are shared by Patrick Castel, who will be at my side as deputy director.

What are the main projects you would like to carry out at the CSO?

The CSO is organised around five research programmes that allow us to make the objects we are investigating and our research questions on contemporary societies more understandable. I would like us to be able to highlight the meaning of the transformations that are disrupting our societies today: the multiplication of pandemic risks, tensions over energy, the digitalisation of societies, the financialisation of domestic economies, the multiplication of inequality dynamics, etc. The ecological crisis is one of the major upheavals. It must be examined in its multiple social, political and economic dimensions. The various studies that the CSO conducts on environmental issues can make our centre a strong player in the institutional landscape of social science research on climate and the environment. This is research that our societies need to answer essential questions such as: where does the ecological crisis come from and how to get out of it?
We can also provide educational resources for training, at the college level, in graduate schools and in executive education on these environmental issues, at a time when Sciences Po is taking up these training issues.

What will be the highlights of the next few months?

We will be recruiting in the next few months for a position of assistant professor in sociology of the environment and ecological transition (see the job description). Recruitment is an important step for us, because if we are demanding in terms of scientific excellence and international openness, we are just as demanding in terms of the candidates' ability to work in a team.

We are also going to bring our partnership with the Copenhagen Business School to life, through the reciprocal hosting of researchers and doctoral students and the organisation of joint workshops. The environmental issue will have a prominent place, but we have other common interests, notably in organisations and economic governance. Finally, several important projects are being submitted, in which we will be associated with the hard sciences. We already have experience of cooperation with disciplines other than the social sciences (physicists, doctors, epidemiologists) and we know that they are essential for grasping the complexity of contemporary problems such as public health or the environment. 

Les frontières de la santé publique

Journées d’étude les 16 et 17 janvier 2023

Sciences Po, Salle Goguel, 13 rue de l’Université 75007 Paris

Lien d’inscription : https://forms.gle/961L62BiotLYm2AM7

Voir le programme de ces deux journées [PDF- 259Ko]

COMITE D’ORGANISATION

Les journées d’étude sont organisées par une équipe de doctorant·e·s du Centre de Sociologie des Organisations: Crystale Aounit, Damien Garcia, Clara Jacquot, Lucie Kraepiel, Cécile Lavier (également membre du réseau doctoral de l’INCA), Stéphane Lavoipierre et Noémie Morize (également chercheuse associée à l’Irdes).

The CSO is pleased to welcome Giuseppe Cugnata at the beginning of this year.

Since November 2020, he is a PhD student in Political Science and Sociology under the supervision of Donatella Della Porta at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, and he is also a member of the Centre on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos) in Florence and a member of the research collective Quantité Critique in Paris.
He is preparing a thesis in political science and sociology entitled: Working title: Living differently and changing society. A comparative analysis of ecological practices of climate protesters in Italy and France.

Giuseppe is a visiting PhD student at the CSO from January to June 2023 where he is hosted by Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier. He is working on the ecological practices of climate activists, with a comparison between France and Italy, at the articulation between sociology of consumption and sociology of social movements.

Abstract

Emerging as a reaction to the failure of the ecological modernization paradigm, the wave of climate protests started in 2018 has re-focused the attention on governmental inaction on climate issues and on the need to pursue a political and collective transformation rather than attributing the responsibility for the climate crisis to individuals and consumers. In this sense, this wave of protests can be interpreted as an attempt to re-politicize the climate debate after a period of depoliticization of environmental issues. However, despite this re- centralization of political and collective action, everyday ecological practices (such as boycott, zero-waste consumption, vegetarianism, etc.) do not seem to be eradicated in the daily life of protesters. Starting from this point, the research aims at analyzing the social determinants and the meanings that everyday ecological practices have for climate protesters. Based on quantitative protest surveys and qualitative interviews, the research will explore the links between individual practices, collective repertoires of action and ideological orientations of climate protesters in two countries with different mobilization contexts, i.e. Italy and France.

Keywords: climate protests, everyday ecological practices, protest survey, semi-structured interview

Le vendredi 14 décembre, Vincent Himmer, doctorant au CSO, présentera ses travaux relatifs à sa thèse :
La Réforme capitaliste : Une sociologie des circuits de la Finance à Impact.

Résumé :

Le capitalisme change – il se moraliserait, se responsabiliserait – et exprime en creux les mutations en cours dans nos sociétés : notre rapport au temps, au marché, à l’État. La finance à impact incarne cette volonté de réforme, portée par une des professions souvent considérées parmi les plus hégémoniques de notre époque. Cette nouvelle modalité de finance engagée cherchant à conjuguer le profit marchand avec l’intérêt général porte ainsi un projet qui ne vaudrait pas simplement pour les financiers, mais pour les mondes marchands en général. Cette recherche doctorale a pour objectif central de discuter les modalités de cette réforme et ce qu’elle nous dit des mutations à l’œuvre dans nos sociétés de marché.

Par cette enquête, nous souhaitons contribuer à enrichir les études sur le thème classique de l’évolution du capitalisme. En adoptant une perspective plus matérialiste que celle habituellement mobilisée dans la littérature sociologique, nous souhaitons remettre au cœur du matériau empirique les structures économiques et les transferts monétaires. Ainsi, grâce à l’étude concrète des circuits monétaires d’un fonds à Impact leader du marché français, allant de l’épargnant individuel qui abonde en amont ces circuits, au consommateur engagé qui achète la production de ces startups à impact en aval, et en passant par les méandres des multiples intermédiaires financiers, nous souhaitons restituer les conséquences concrètes de cette nouvelle finance engagée sur l’ensemble des mondes économiques qu’elle traverse. Cette perspective nous a amené à analyser trois fronts de réforme majeurs du capitalisme contemporain français : la finance, la régulation marchande et la protection sociale. Le principal résultat de cette recherche illustre en quoi la profession financière et les circuits traditionnels du capital préemptent la gestion de la nouvelle question sociale de notre époque : l’écologie.

La séance se tient de 10h à 12h à la fois en présentiel à Sciences Po, sur le campus Saint-Thomas, salle K.011 et en distanciel sur zoom.

Si vous souhaitez y assister, merci de contacter Samia Ben.

AAC Workshop

Social protest and its futures. For a temporal approach to political action

The program in PDF [120Ko]

What are the future temporalities of contemporary mobilisations? In social protest, the hopeful future and the belief that a better future is within reach have long marked revolutionary rhetoric and progressive political fervour (Koselleck, 2016: 87-105). Today, however, enthusiastic and strategic partisanship seems to be belong to the past. Indeed, for many historians, philosophers and sociologists, it is an entirely different approach to the future that has dominated Western social representations for several decades: that of the “crisis of the future” (Dubar, 2011: 2), the “crisis of the future” (Leccardi, 2011), the “loss of the future” (Anderson, 2017: 466). We are living in “apocalyptic” (Foessel, 2012; Carey, 2019), “dystopian” (Díaz, 2017: 5) or “catastrophic” times (Dupuy, 2002; Chateauraynaud and Debaz, 2017).

All these works refer to a defeatist approach to social struggle and the erasure of long-term future temporalities in progressive political discourses. It is no longer a question of projecting oneself into a distant future, especially when it comes to global warming and environmental degradation, economic recession or the feeling of lack of democratic control in the face of the dismantling of the social state and the organisation of the world of work, but into a catastrophic present.

And yet, social struggles continue to be organised around the world and in a variety of contexts (Semal, 2019). What do our ethnographies say about this? Does the optimistic and enthusiastic vision of the future no longer have a place in the contemporary political imagination? What relationships to the future are included in the social mobilisations that continue to be organised despite everything? Does the paradoxical idea (Revault d'Allonnes, 2012; Vigh, 2008) of a global and permanent crisis have repercussions on the nature and form of this social protest? What conflicts of temporality exist between the demands of civil society, the functioning of public action and the actions of enterprises? Are the actors on the ground confined to a temporality of “reaction” or do they nevertheless make distant temporal horizons exist? Are the aspirations for more justice and the desire for collective emancipation still digging the furrow of utopian projects or, on the contrary, is the prospect of a “collapse” (see Allard et al., 2019; Tasset, 2022) contributing to a demobilisation and an unprecedented individualism? Would “presentism” (Baschet, 2018; Hartog, 2013) then impose itself as a dominant temporal horizon?

Based on the postulates that 1) the temporalities surrounding social life are necessarily multiple and sometimes antagonistic (Grossin, 1996; Pels, 2015); 2) that individuals' projections towards future temporal horizons coexist with those of other relationships to time, whether they be past and present temporal horizons or rhythms, deadlines, feelings of urgency (Anderson, 2017) or boredom; and 3) that imaginaries of the future shape emotional states (individual or collective) that orient the content of practices aimed at transforming the world (Persoon and van Est, 2000; Adam, 2009; Appadurai, 2013; Chateauraynaud, 2013); this call for papers wishes to bring together researchers working on the temporal aspects of contemporary social contestations.

Through a transdisciplinary discussion and on the basis of works based on both European and international fields, this study day wishes to take note of the diversity of temporalities that exist in contemporary social protest. The aim is to provide empirical elements that will allow us to concretely understand which factors influence (or not) the elaboration of future temporal horizons, whether it be socio-biographical characteristics, political ideologies, cultural or religious frameworks, the desire to link up with past struggle movements or even current events.

Without pretending to be exhaustive, the works focused on international climate action networks, the phenomenon of "return to the land", whether driven by autonomous aspirations (Sallustio, 2022) or survivalist practices (Barker, 2020), boycott practices, contemporary forms of resistance and struggle in the workplace, activist strategies within political parties or associations, or emergency aid initiatives deployed in the context of migration, armed conflict or natural disasters will be welcome.

Organiser

Madeleine Sallustio, CNRS post-doctoral fellow at the Centre de sociologie des organisations (CSO), Sciences Po.

Timetable and modalities

Proposals can be written in French or English and should contain, excluding the bibliography, +/- 1200 words (1 page). They should be sent before 15 January 2023 to the following email addresses: madeleine.sallustio@sciencespo.fr and simon.cordonnier@sciencespo.fr.

Please name your document and the subject of the email as follows JE_CSO_Last_Name_First_Name.

Papers may be presented in French or English. All disciplines are welcome.

The programme of the study day will be designed to ensure that the papers are complementary and enter into dialogue.

Successful proposals will be announced by mid-February 2023.

The study day will take place in June 2023 at Sciences Po, Place Saint Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris.