Thesis Defense : Marion Gaboriau

Title: Unfit for work as a dispositif. From institutional production to in situ judgments: the case of the city of Paris

Members :

- Émilie Biland-Curinier, Professeure des universités de sociologie, CSO, Institut d’études politiques de Paris

- Marie Cartier, Professeure des universités de sociologie, CENS, Université de Nantes (Directrice)

- Nicolas Dodier, Directeur d’études à l’EHESS, Directeur de recherche à l’INSERM, CEMS (Rapporteur)

- Odile Join-Lambert, Professeure des universités d’histoire, Printemps, Université de Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

- Jérôme Pélisse, Professeur des universités de sociologie, CSO, Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Directeur)

- Isabelle Probst, Professeure associée, Haute École de Santé Vaud (HESAV) et Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO)

- Delphine Serre, Professeure des universités de sociologie, CERLIS, Université de Paris (Rapporteure)

Abstract:

This sociology thesis focuses on the recognition of unfitness for work for health reasons in France’s local civil service sector. It explores this phenomenon in Paris City Hall, an employer of more than 51,000 permanent civil servants, which recognizes more than 500 workers as unfit for their functions each year. This work is based on a three-year ethnographic survey combining observations of work situations and expertise, interviews with various professionals and workers recognized as unfit for their functions, qualitative analyses of medico-administrative files, and statistical processing of databases. Rather than being thought of as a fixed and punctual decision, the thesis considers unfitness as a composite dispositif (at the intersection of law, health, and work), processual and dynamic (from the fact that it involves many actors who, through alliances, negotiations or contestation, can change the outcome). The analysis aims to understand the institutional logics (legal, financial, and managerial) that underlie the system, as well as what constructs the judgments of unfitness in the situation. This thesis explores different scenes where expertise is played out (medical consultation and reform commission). They are characterized by dissymmetrical power relations and gaming with information source of misunderstandings and uncertainty. Finally, the thesis demonstrates the (re)production of social inequalities (especially between men and women) in terms of recognition and taking care of occupational health problems whose potentially occupational causes are often ignored.

Key words: unfitness for work; France’s local civil service sector; certified doctor; expertise; law; subordinate public sector workers; retirement for disability; professional reclassification; dispositif