Theory of Conventions Research Papers (original) (raw)

Within global food networks, multiple and diverse meanings of social justice, environmental sustainability, livelihoods, fairness and well-being (or ‘ethicality’) exist in parallel to those embedded in ethical sourcing schemes. This paper considers the dilemma facing ethical sourcing when consumer- or retailer-driven ethical values around social justice, environmental sustainability, livelihoods, fairness and well-being (or ‘ethicality’) - differ from the issues that women smallholder farmers may prioritise. Drawing on conventions theory and qualitative research with women French bean farmers in Kenya, the paper describes the ways in which meanings of ‘ethicality’ are highly gendered and context-specific. Findings suggest that women smallholders draw from a wide variety of domestic, civic and green conventions in order to make meaning of the livelihood outcomes that matter most to them within ethical trade networks. Only some of these are compatible with the market and industrial conventions currently underpinning fair and ethical trade.

- by Journal of Consumer Ethics
- •
- Gender, Theory of Conventions, Fair Trade, Ethical Trade

Entrée du "dictionnaire des conventions" édité en 2016 par Ph. Batifoulier, Franck Bessis, Ariane Ghirardello, Guillemette de Larquier, Delphine Remillon, aux presses universitaires Septentrion. Elle expose l'originalité et la profondeur du concept de rationalité procédurale développée par Olivier Favereau, en comparaison avec les approches de Herbert Simon et Jürgen Habermas.

- by Jean De Munck
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- Jurgen Habermas, Theory of Conventions, Bounded Rationality, Herbert Simon
- by Paulo Niederle
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- Economic Sociology, Rural Sociology, Sociology Of Markets, Anthropology of Food

Abstract: This article compares a variety of modes of quantifying individuals to govern them. The analytical grid issues from a former research program on the Politics of Statistics that focused on one of these modes of governing by num- bers, the statistical nation state, which is here included in an array of more recently developed governing numbers based on benchmarking, digital tracking, or self-quantifying. Three main operations differentiate modes of governing by numbers: measuring individuals for quantification, taking political measures accordingly to guide their behaviors, and an intermediate operation that is of- ten less visible although situated between the two previous ones and needed to link them: evaluating the situation through a measured judgment that justifies the monitoring based on numbers. This analysis breaks down data into the sequential steps of the transformations chain of information formats needed to pass from an individual person to a governing figure. The plurality of modes of evaluation, and its reduction by quantification, is given high significance, as well as the way each mode of governing affects individuals, their identity and their possibility to critically reflect and question.

- by Laurent THEVENOT
- •
- Political Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Theory of Conventions, Quantification

This study is one of the first to use content analysis of images as a means
of interpreting architectural discourse. Nine facts were extracted from
a detailed analysis of images that appeared in 3493 pages of the Finnish
Architectural Review (ARK) between 1912 and 2012. Close attention
was paid to the types of images used repeatedly in order to focus on
key editorial and photographic decisions. Editorial decisions consisted
of type, size, chromatic scale and number of images. Photographic decisions
consisted of human presence, weather, depth-of-field and camera
orientation for interior and exterior photographs. Data, which quantifies
the frequency of each type of image, indicates that there is a strong
reliance on visual conventions in ARK. When considering the limited
range of images used in the publication, it becomes clear there is little
correlation between the complexity of architectural language and environments
and the simplicity of its depiction. That discrepancy suggests
there is a need for research and development in the field of architectural
photography in order to better inform readers about the diversity of architectural
practices. This argument will be unfolded in this paper and
supported both by data and practitioner insights.

- by Dr Marc Goodwin
- •
- Architecture, Photography, Content Analysis, Theory of Conventions

This study is one of the first to use content analysis of images as a means of interpreting architectural discourse. Nine facts were extracted from a detailed analysis of images that appeared in 3493 pages of the Finnish Architectural Review (ARK) between 1912 and 2012. Close attention was paid to the types of images used repeatedly in order to focus on key editorial and photographic decisions. Editorial decisions consisted of type, size, chromatic scale and number of images. Photographic decisions consisted of human presence, weather, depth-of-field and camera orientation for interior and exterior photographs. Data, which quantifies the frequency of each type of image, indicates that there is a strong reliance on visual conventions in ARK. When considering the limited range of images used in the publication, it becomes clear there is little correlation between the complexity of architectural language and environments and the simplicity of its depiction. That discrepancy suggests th...

- by Dr Marc Goodwin
- •
- Computer Science, Architecture, Photography, Content Analysis

This article investigates the implications of the ancient nomos/physis debate to Trinitarian theology. While the Cappadocians, countering Heteroousians, eventually demonstrated that naturalist understanding of naming did not work for Christian theology, Hilary still assumed that it did. Hilary is usually grouped with naturalists who held that names were not arbitrary and conventional impositions, but that they corresponded to the nature of what they designated. Yet, there are several complications with such a grouping, because not all naturalists (e.g., Cratylus, Stoics, Origen, Eunomius) say the same thing, focus on same issues, have theological interest in names, or agree with Hilary. Accordingly, this paper will argue that Hilary can be called a “naturalist” only in a qualified sense.

- by tarmo toom
- •
- Discourse Analysis, Religion, Christianity, History
- by Will Davies
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- Economic Sociology, Economics, Political Economy, Neoliberalism
- by emmanuelle cheyns and +1
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- Theory of Conventions, Economie des conventions

In this article we review the evolution and current status of Global Value Chain (GVC) governance theory and take some initial steps toward a broader theory of governance through an exercise in ‘modular theory-building.’ We focus on two GVC governance theories to which we previously contributed: a theory of linking and a theory of conventions. The modular framework we propose is built on three scalar dimensions: (1) a micro level – determinants and dynamics of exchange at individual value chain nodes; (2) a meso level – how and to what extent these linkage characteristics ‘travel’ up- and down-stream in the value chain; and (3) a macro level – looking at ‘overall’ GVC governance. Given space limitations, we focus only on the issue of ‘polarity’ in governance at the macro level, distinguishing between unipolar, bipolar and multipolar governance forms. While we leave a more ambitious analysis of how overall GVC governance is mutually constituted by micro/meso factors and broader institutional, regulatory and societal processes to future work, we provide an initial framework to which this work could be linked. Our ultimate purpose is to spur future efforts that seek to use and refine additional theories, to connect theories together better or in different modular configurations, and to incorporate elements at the macro level that reflect the changing constellation of key actors in GVC governance – the increasing influence of, for example, NGOs, taste and standard makers, and social movements in GVC governance.

- by Stefano Ponte
- •
- Globalization, Governance, Theory of Conventions, Value chain analysis

L’introduction de projets de changement pose de nombreux défis en matière de gestion des ressources humaines. Ils sont d’ailleurs traduits, dans la littérature en management, comme autant d’opportunités à saisir et de prescriptions à observer pour piloter ceux-ci avec succès. Cet article présente le cas particulier de l’introduction d’une nouvelle forme d’organisation du travail, le télétravail à domicile, et invite à considérer à la fois la re-régulation des dispositifs de règles –en particulier, les règles de contrôle, et les croyances sur ce qu’il est normal d’attendre des travailleurs en situation de déspatialisation. Les théories de la régulation sociale et des conventions sont présentées dans leurs similarités et dissemblances, justifiant en cela l’articulation que nous proposons ici de considérer simultanément les croyances partagées par les acteurs « a priori » comme une condition nécessaire à l’adoption de nouvelles règles, et la négociation de dispositifs de règles par laquelle les acteurs produisent ces nouvelles règles et organisent (ou non) le projet et sa pratique. Afin d’illustrer cette proposition théorique, deux études de cas sont convoquées. L’une questionne l’échec de l’introduction du télétravail dans une administration publique alors que l’autre interroge le succès d’un projet identique. Finalement, notre proposition soutient les efforts d’enrichissement de notre compréhension des situations de gestion entrepris par d’autres, par le biais de la mobilisation de cadres théoriques qui peuvent être empruntés à d’autres disciplines des sciences sociales.

- by Laurent Taskin and +1
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- Public Administration, Public Management, Organizational Change, Theory of Conventions

For some time, a complex stream of more or less directly connected confidence crises has been confronting both managerial practice and the communities producing and diffusing management knowledge. The first reaction has been to extend and develop the teaching of business ethics. Academic research has turned more vigorously to the question: "what is good managerial behaviour?", trying to investigate how society can support the emergence of more sustainable and responsible systems, norms, incentives and behaviours. This, however, is only a beginning. If new generations of leaders have to be trained with a more responsible and sustainable take on their own role and activities, then we need to have a hard look at the ways in which management knowledge incorporates the ethical dimension.

Karl Polanyi distinguished capitalist and pre-capitalist modes of provisioning. Following Polanyi, pre-capitalist provisioning carries the meaning of the ‘objective-material’ (the dependence of men from others and nature in provisioning) whereas capitalist provisioning goes back to a formal logic of provisioning characterised by the rational choice between different possible uses (Polanyi 1979). In recent years, economic sociology was concerned with discovering social logic in capitalist societies. Convention theory first distinguished between six patterns of social action (Boltanski/Thévenot 1991), whereby Boltanski and Chiapello (2003) later diagnosed a dominance of justifications referring to market logic, which is now again contested due to the hegemonic crisis of neoliberalism and the apparent crisis’ of capitalist forms of formal logic provisioning.
In this contribution I discuss whether in today’s societies there are approaches to establish institutions that tend to replace market institutions in the sense of capitalist formal logic of provisioning by modes of provisioning focussing on the ‘objective-material’ meaning. Which justifications tend to overrule market based justifications? Here, I focus on concepts emerging from the degrowth movement because of the need for an ecological, social and economic transformation (Ötsch 2014, 2016a, 2016b). Whereas Eric Olin Wright discusses strategies for transformation (reform, interstitial transformation, revolution), and whereas further authors focus on the material transformation of the economic system, in this contribution, I focus on qualitative justifications and conventions aiming to overcome capitalist institutions by replacing its dominant logic. I assume that within today’s movements there are diverging justifications that may be analysed in more differentiated categories than in Boltanski/Thévenot cité of civil society, using Polanyis categories of provisioning as point of reference. I compare different approaches from mayor compilations on degrowth (Alisa et al. 2014; Brand et al. 2012; Kolleg Postwachstumsgesellschaften 2015; Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie 2016) and distillate six key notions of movements that identify contrasting drivers of change, namely buen vivir, the commons, anti-utilitarism, conviviality and autonomy, sufficiency, radical ecological democracy and criticism of capitalism. I discuss whether the movements’ justifications are linked to conventions and whether they have the capacity to move society towards ‘objective-material’ ways of provisioning. I conclude that most movements have characteristics of convention and appealing justifications that may contribute to shift the landscape of provisioning if these elements are combined in a complementary way. However, there are strong counter forces that may use contradictions within movements and indeterminacy to split movements and misuse and reinterpret justifications.

- by Silke Ötsch, PD Dr.
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- Economic Sociology, Social Movements, Karl Polanyi, Theory of Conventions

Erweiterung einer pragmatisch-kritischen Soziologie im Anschluss an "De la justification" Laurent Thévenot Der vorliegende Text antwortet auf die Anfrage, die Anfänge einer pragmatischen Soziologie, wie sie von Les économies de la grandeur (Boltanski und Thévenot 1987) und später von De la justification (dt. Über die Rechtfertigung, im Folgen den kurz DJ) (Boltanski und Thévenot 2007) eingeführt wurden, in die spätere Entwicklung, die ich ihr gegeben habe, einzuarbeiten.1 Der erste, einleitende Teil geht auf die Art und Weise ein, wie der Güter und Realitätssinn der sozialen Ak teure in den Wissenschaften des gesellschaftlichen Lebens verstanden wird. Un sere Vorgehensweise erforscht die eingesetzten Arten von Gütern und Realitäten in der Pluralität ihrer Bezüge zur Welt und zu anderen. Sie erläutert die von den Personen und Dingen geforderten Transformationen, um diese in eine politische Gemeinschaft zu integrieren. Der zweite Teil behandelt die Disposition der Din ge im Öffentlichen im Gegensatz zu einer Pluralität anderer Zustände, die mit der Interaktion von Personen und Dingen einhergehen. Der dritte Teil widmet sich der Disposition der Personen im Öffentlichen, im Gegensatz zu einer Pluralität von Situationen, in die diese Personen engagiert sein können. Die Untersuchungs bereiche, die durch diese Unterscheidung beleuchtet werden, betreffen histori sche Veränderungen, in denen diese politischen Formen über Marktpolitik, und Sozialpolitik wie auch über kritischpolitische Handlungen bestimmen, die einer Stimme öffentlich Gehör verschaffen. Der vierte Teil analysiert die Möglichkeiten, 1 Aus diesem Grund schließt dieser Text eine lange Liste mit Referenzen zu Publikationen des Autors mit ein. Er bietet eine aktualisierte Version des Kapitels "Biens et réalités de la vie en société. Disposition et composition d'engagements pluriels", erschienen im kritischen Werk zu DJ: Breviglieri et al. 2009. Es wurden einige Referenzen hinzugefügt und der letzte Teil wurde ergänzt, um die Entwicklungen nach dem Werk von 2009 miteinzubeziehen. Für eine Präsentation und Diskussion der Ökonomie der Konventionen und der pragmatischen So ziologie auf Deutsch siehe:

There are a number of conflicts today involving groups and individuals as regards nature in its various forms. The aim of this article is to examine how these give rise to changes in the forms of critique and justification that underpin them. Based on various points of disagreement as to how nature should be developed, three possibilities of change have been put forward for examination according to the importance of the transformations required: a) integration of the model into existing orders of justification, b) development of a new order based on the same model, c) serious adjustment of the underlying common matrix of orders and the basis it offers for appreciating injustice.

- by Laurent THEVENOT and +1
- •
- Political Science, Ecology, Theory of Conventions, Pragmatic Sociology

Convention theory helps refine our understanding of the governance of global value
chains through its analysis of ‘quality’. In this article, it is argued that global value
chains are becoming increasingly ‘buyer-driven’, even though they are characterized
by ‘hands-off ’ forms of co-ordination between ‘lead firms’ and their immediate
suppliers. This is because lead firms have been able to embed complex quality
information into widely accepted standards and codification and certification
procedures. As suggested by convention theory, their success in doing so has
depended on defining and managing value chain-specific quality attributes that are
attuned to broader narratives about quality that circulate within society more
generally.

- by Stefano Ponte
- •
- Quality, Governance, Standards, Theory of Conventions

When taking part in a community and communicating disagreement or difference, one has to rely on common forms to be understood by others. And being understood by others is essential to composing the good of the community-the central task of politics. Given this, we should pay close attention to how intimate experiences and personal concerns are transformed into an accepted common format that makes sense to others during disputes. Rules govern these practices of communicating issues in a common format, disputing them and compromising to compose the good of the community. These rules are grouped together in different "grammars of commonality and difference", which structure different ways of maintaining a composite and conflicting community: which kinds of disagreement are integrated, which kinds of difference are legitimate, even at the cost of sacrificing others? Identifying these grammars is all the more difficult because the categories of the social and political sciences themselves depend on these grammars. This results in bias when these categories are used in comparisons or even descriptions. Therefore a detour abroad might be profitable not only to compare but also to correct biases of the research tools we use. The collaborative French-Russian program that I named "From close ties to public places" enabled the comparative study of learning politics in practice. The political and moral ethnography I conducted for this research focused on communal residences (in Russia, United States, France, Brazil) where students live together and learn politics in practice from the most basic level of dwelling in a common habitat, having to transform personal familiarity into commonality and difference. The article also benefitted from studies by other researchers working in the same program as well as subsequent research using the same framework, which influenced both the so-called French "Pragmatic Sociology" and socioeconomic "Convention Theory". The analytical framework I used evolved throughout this fieldwork as I identified commonality grounded on personal affinities to common places. In the context of

- by Laurent THEVENOT
- •
- Political Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Populism, Theory of Conventions

O artigo visa a realizar uma análise da política de ciência, tecnologia e inovação brasileira a partir do campo teórico da Teoria das Convenções, uma perspectiva que surge na interface entre Sociologia e Economia através de um foco na contestação situacional da coordenação das ações. A ligação entre essas situações e a elaboração de políticas e instituições é formulada como um problema, procedendo-se à recapitulação histórica do processo de construção institucional científica e tecnológica brasileira, com especial atenção às políticas públicas de promoção das atividades de ciência e tecnologia nacionais e às conferências organizadas pelos governos e voltadas para a reflexão sobre a área. Dessa maneira, é possível realizar uma análise que identifica os princípios normativos (cités) envolvidos no processo de formulação, implementação e execução das políticas de ciência e tecnologia, possibilitando o clareamento das continuidades e descontinuidades de nossa trajetória histórica.

- by Victor Mourão
- •
- Latin American Studies, Science Policy, Brazilian History, Brazil

3. Abondance relative cependant si l'on effectue des comptages sur les personnes connectées à un moment donné. Certaines des plates-formes s'avèrent désertées, la plus connue d'entre elles contenant également un nombre très réduit de «... more

- by Emmanuel Kessous
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- Internet Studies, Love, Theory of Conventions, Internet & Society
- by Emmanuel Kessous
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- Economic Sociology, Conventions, Theory of Conventions, Attention Economics

Global value chain (GVC) analysis examines the dynamics of economic globalisation and
international trade. The concept of GVC governance illustrates how ‘lead firms’ achieve
certain functional divisions of labour along a value chain – resulting in specific allocations
of resources and distributions of gains. In this article I argue that agri-food lead
firms do not govern chains solely on the basis of buyer power, market share, and/or
economies of scale or scope but also through normative work. In order to do so, I apply
convention theory to the analysis of governance in the value chain for South African
wine. I analyse how wine quality conventions applied in the UK are translated in South
Africa into specific functional divisions of labour and supply relations, themselves underpinned
by local configurations of quality conventions. The case study of wine suggests
that lead firms are able to drive a value chain only when industrial and market conventions
are dominant, such as in basic quality wine. These conventions are more portable
and thus easier to transmit at a distance. Where other, less portable, conventions are
more important in discovering quality, as in mid-range and top quality wines, the value
chain is much more fragmented and less driven.

- by Stefano Ponte
- •
- Conventions, Wine Economics, Theory of Conventions, Value chain analysis

Among the contributions to the presently growing domain of quanti-fication studies, a long-standing French tradition has built on an approach to the "politics of statistics" based on the formatting practices of the trans-formative chain that leads to data. It resulted from staticians-economists who, in the critical spirit of the sixties, were reflexive and largely open to the social sciences, and cooperated with historians and sociologists. The article offers a 30 years perspective on the avenue of research that began with the article "The économie du codage social" which goes from labour designation and qualification to ways of making occupation worthy. It leads to the broader notion of "investments in forms" which produce equiv-alence and economies of coordination. While making available in English large extracts of the original paper, the author adds comments from today perspective on the development of this trend which has fueled both On Justification. The economies of worth, co-authored with Luc Boltanski, and Convention Theory more generally.

Geographic research on food quality, while considering many of the ways in which quality is socially constructed, has largely focused on the place-based aspects of the raw materials of food production. Here, we use French convention theory to look at a highly processed food in order to show how place associations in the social construction of food quality extend to manufacturing. For chocolate, quality is based on material characteristics whose relative importance in determining quality depends on the country in which different stages of economic innovation took place. Struggles over the definition of quality chocolate, as exemplified by the “European Chocolate War,” show how quality issues are connected to geographies of manufacturing and innovation.

- by Julie Cidell and +1
- •
- Economic Geography, Theory of Conventions, Cocoa and chocolate

- by Emmanuel Kessous
- •
- Internet Studies, Love, Theory of Conventions, Internet & Society
- by Gaël Plumecocq
- •
- Discourse Analysis, Economics, Institutional Economics, Theory of Conventions

A collection of new articles on the nature of conventions and on the tenability of conventionalist positions in various areas of philosophy, from metaphysics to epistemology, value theory, logic, and the philosophy of language. Introduction by E. Casetta. Papers by M. Ferraris, L. Franklin-Hall, M. García-Carpintero, F. Guala, A. P. Hazen, K. Miller, L. Morena, M. Rossi and J. Tagliabue, G. Torrengo, V. Tripodi, J. Westerhoff.

- by Achille C . Varzi and +1
- •
- Theory of Conventions

This paper discusses the institutionalization of the Geographical Indications (GI) system in Brazil. Emphasis is placed on the evaluative disputes underway in hybrid forums where different actors seek to build compromises concerning production rules and standards. Linking economic sociology and a conventionalist approach to market institutions, analysis highlights the different understandings of GIs as they emerge from the discourses and practices of actors involved in food qualification processes. The results are derived from research conducted in the most important GI areas in Brazil over the last six years. That research demonstrates that GI projects have been developed without a stabilized institutional frame, thus leading to the reproduction of a variety of subsystems implemented within different territorial and sectoral contexts. This, in turn, has created several obstacles to market development.

Dans leur récent ouvrage, les économistes Ali Douai et Gaël Plumecocq considèrent que l'absence de théorie de la valeur constitue une lacune majeure, tant scientifique que politique, de la socioéconomie écologique actuelle. Cet article exprime son désaccord avec cette thèse et en expose les raisons. Il suggère au contraire que le champ interdisciplinaire de la socioéconomie écologique s'abstienne de toute définition a priori de la valeur, afin de rendre les chercheurs attentifs aux différentes façons d'attribuer une valeur à l'environnement et aux entités naturelles. Pour rendre compte de l'intérêt de ce déplacement, l'article s'attache à présenter des outils permettant d'étudier les processus sociaux d'attribution de valeur à l'environnement. Deux approches-en apparence éloignées-s'avèrent complémentaires : le courant « conventionnaliste » en sociologie et, en économie, l'« environnementalisme des pauvres » de Joan Martinez-Alier. Mots-clés : valeur(s) / socioéconomie écologique / interdisciplinarité / sociologie des conventions / théorie marxiste / environnementalisme des pauvres / pluralisme en sciences sociales Abstract-The future of ecological socioeconomics. Environment and value beyond academic boundaries. In their recent book, economists Ali Douai and Gaël Plumecocq consider the absence of value theory as a major lack, both political and scientific, of current ecological social economics. The author disagrees with this position and explains the reasons why. He suggests to found the interdisciplinary conversation in "ecological social economics" on the absence of any a priori definition of value, to enable researchers to fully take into account the plurality of ways people attribute a value to their environment or to natural entities. In order to illustrate the interest of this methodological twist, the article highlights two complementary approaches: the "conventionalist" stream in sociological economics and the work of Joan Martinez-Alier on the environmentalism of the Poor. They provide precious tools to help researchers study the social processes of valuing nature and the environment. Keywords: value(s) / ecological socioeconomics / interdisciplinarity / sociology of conventions / Marxist theory / environmentalism of the Poor / pluralism in social sciences

- by Gildas RENOU
- •
- Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Marxist Economics, Sociology of Knowledge

In Jacques Perriault et Céline Vaguer eds, La norme numérique : savoir en ligne et Internet, Paris, CNRS-éditions. Ce chapitre aborde un autre grand problème de la société contemporaine : l'utilisation des traces que nous laissons, directement ou indirectement, par notre utilisation d'Internet et la protection de nos données personnelles. L'auteur, Emmanuel Kessous, tenant compte des interactions entre technique et société, formule l'hypothèse que le contour de la vie privée se modifie en même temps que se développe l'utilisation des outils numériques. Le droit dans son état actuel n'est plus capable de réguler cette évolution et la construction d'un droit et de normes procédurales s'impose. Je partage avec l'auteur depuis très longtemps l'intérêt pour le concept de procéduralisation, que l'on doit au juriste belge, Jacques Lenoble. Un autre aspect de l'évolution en cours est l'asymétrie entre l'offreur de services et le consommateur. Afin de mieux cerner la question, Kessous mobilise le concept « d'économie de l'attention », emprunté à Herbert Simon. Attirer l'attention d'un internaute est, en effet, un préalable nécessaire à un acte économique en ligne. La question de la protection des données personnelles (privacy) s'inscrit dans ce tableau mouvant des modèles d'affaire du numérique. En termes de normalisation, cela revient à décider des règles de protection de l'anonymat de l'identité et des actes qui lui sont attachés. Là, deux approches sont possibles : l'une statique, l'autre dynamique. L'attitude statique revient à définir a priori les données qu'il convient de protéger. Mais comment les normalisateurs doivent-ils procéder lorsque l'on constate que les internautes sont les premiers à truffer les réseaux sociaux de données que le sens commun considérait encore récemment comme confidentielles ? La réponse fournie par l'auteur est de laisser l'internaute décider lui-même, et à n'importe quel moment, du caractère public ou privé de ses données, pour autant que l'accès à ses traces lui soit facilité et autorisé. La privacy, comprise comme englobant à la fois la gestion des données personnelles et la définition du contour du privé, correspond alors à une définition davantage procédurale que substantielle : c'est en donnant les moyens aux individus de corriger en permanence leurs identités numériques qu'on peut la faire respecter. J.P.

- by Emmanuel Kessous
- •
- Privacy, Theory of Conventions, Standardization, Normalisation

Given that education infrastructure has been a crucial element of the infrastructural power of the welfare state, surprisingly little is known about how spatial disparities in school infrastructure have been governed. While emphasis has recently been placed on the role of numbers in governing the education system, there have been contradictory results on the use of numbers for measuring spatial disparities in schooling on the one hand and on allocating school infrastructure by numbers on the other. What role have indicators played in the governance of regional disparities in education and how can we explain changes to this role? Assuming that indicators typically fulfil two functions in decision making processes (information gathering and allocation of resources), this article develops an ideal–typical distinction between four ways of (not) using numbers for governance purposes. This typology is applied to a historical case study of indicators as a device for governing spatial disparities in education in Germany. Cognitive investments in indicators for observing spatial disparities in education and for administering schools have been made in Germany since the early 19th century. However, conceptual flaws and conservative education policies have kept them from being put to effective practice in school infrastructure policies. It was not until the 1970s that demographic and administrative indicators became institutionalized as part of decentralized but fairly standardized school planning practices. While the use of indicators in the spatial allocation of education resources seemed to work well during periods of educational expansion, this calculative practice produced tension with the civic idea of spatial justice when enrolments declined.

- by Walter Bartl
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- Sociology of Education, Theory of Conventions, Spatial Justice, Territorial politics
- by LUIS GIL MOYA
- •
- Theory of Conventions, Sociological Theory, Agreement, Principle

Consideration of an example of successful reference gives rise to two important insights. The first is that reference should be understood most fundamentally in terms of the pragmatic success of each individual utterance. The second is that linguistic conventions need to be understood as on a par with the non-linguistic regularities that competent language users rely upon to refer. Syntax and semantics are part of what Barwise and Perry (1983) call the context of the utterance, contributing to the pragmatics of the utterance.
We show why reference should be understood in pragmatic terms and point out that, since success is often achieved in non-standard, creative ways, any formalization of pragmatics can
only be partial. We show that the need for such an inventive approach to referring traces back to the need for language to be highly efficient, with expressions underdetermining their interpretation. Our second step is to argue that the semantic and syntactic regularities, which might seem to be independent of the context of an utterance, should actually be understood as also being part of that context. In doing so, our account spells out some of the possible implications of Millikan’s (1998) account of conventions and how it makes the creative use of language possible.

- by John Collier
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- Reference, Pragmatics, Semantics, Semantics/Pragmatics
- by Marc Breviglieri
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- Social Work, Social Sciences, Theory of Conventions, Sociologie
- by Federico José Arena
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- Conventions, Theory of Conventions, Rule-Following

The paper aims to develop an interactional account of illocutionary practice, which results from integrating elements of Millikan’s biological model of language within the framework of Austin’s theory of speech acts. The proposed account rests on the assumption that the force of an act depends on what counts as its interactional effect or, in other words, on the response that it conventionally invites or attempts to elicit. The discussion is divided into two parts. The first one reconsiders Austin’s and Millikan’s contributions to the study of linguistic practice. The second part presents the main tenets of the interactional account. In particular, it draws a distinction between primary and secondary conventional patterns of interaction and argues that they make up coherent systems representing different language games or activity types; it is also argued that the proposed account is not subject to the massive ambiguity problem.

- by Maciej Witek
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- Theory of Conventions, Speech Act Theory, Speech acts, Evolution of Language

Nella seconda metà degli anni ’80 è emerso in Francia un programma di ricerca finalizzato a rimettere al centro dell’economia politica le competenze normative delle persone: l’Economia delle convenzioni. Nel corso di questi vent’anni, l’Economia delle convenzioni è cresciuta notevolmente, coinvolgendo ricercatori e centri di ricerca ben al di là del primo ristretto gruppo di persone che la hanno fondata, suscitando un interesse crescente anche nel mondo anglosassone.
I fondatori del programma di ricerca hanno molta familiarità con la statistica e l’econometria, ed hanno lavorato molto sui processi storici di definizione delle categorie socio-professionali e dei criteri di codifica, partendo da una riflessione durkheimiana sui sistemi di classificazione. Ma a questo genere di riflessioni hanno accostato anche le acquisizioni più recenti sulle forme della razionalità, sul coordinamento in situazioni di incertezza radicale e sull’interpretazione delle regole nella vita economica. L’intreccio di tradizioni di analisi abitualmente tenute separate ha permesso di sviluppare una riflessione inedita sui criteri di valutazione (o “convenzioni”) e di giocare, soprattutto in Europa ma progressivamente anche negli USA, un ruolo importante nel rendere riconoscibili e praticabili dei terreni di ricerca comuni fra economisti, storici e sociologi.
Questo numero monografico di Sociologia del Lavoro intende iniziare un dialogo intenso e dialettico fra la scuola dell’Economia delle convenzioni e la Sociologia economica e del lavoro italiane. L’introduzione (Borghi e Vitale) ricostruisce brevemente la storia dell’Economia delle convenzioni e ne mette in luce i punti di contatto con altre tradizioni di studio dell’economia come scienza politica e morale. La prima parte comprende un testo collettivo di presentazione del programma di ricerca e sei articoli inediti sia di ricercatori che hanno contribuito a fondare l’approccio (Eymard-Duvernay, Favereau, Salais, Thévenot) sia di ricercatori più giovani che hanno contribuito a sviluppare la prospettiva (Bessy, Breviglieri). Gli articoli di questa prima parte si concentrano specificamente su temi legati all’organizzazione del lavoro e al mercato del lavoro. Nella seconda parte, l’Economia delle convenzioni viene discussa criticamente da alcuni dei massimi esponenti del dibattito in sociologia (Pizzorno, Stark, Swedberg, Tilly). In una terza parte, infine, alcuni giovani studiosi italiani di sociologia del lavoro (Bertolin, Chicchi, Fullin, Gosetti) discutono i limiti ed i possibili apporti dell’Economia delle convenzioni alla ricerca sociologica in tema di lavoro.

- by Tommaso Vitale and +1
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- Economic Sociology, E. P. Thompson and 'The Making of the English Working Class', Conventions, Theory of Conventions

The 21st-century university is a contested site of neoliberal transformation. Its role is moving away from that of a hub of culture, knowledge and critique to that of a provider of skills and employability for the market. The move towards a lean business model in the management of knowledge production is not an isolated phenomenon, but integral to the shifting economic, political and moral landscapes of global capitalism and the knowledge society. The literature discussing the changes in higher education, which could be collectively termed “critical studies of academia”, remains fragmented and is yet to yield tangible resistance or envision viable alternative models of academic governance. This article discusses the possibility of generating constructive critique of “the new spirit of academic capitalism” from within. French Convention Theory is employed as a conceptual toolbox for unpacking the worlds of worth, conventions and justifications which operate beneath the surface of the...

- by Milena Kremakova
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- Higher Education, Capitalism, Theory of Conventions, Boltanski & Thévenot

Dans leur récent ouvrage, les économistes Ali Douai et Gaël Plumecocq considèrent que l’absence de théorie de la valeur constitue une lacune majeure, tant scientifique que politique, de la socioéconomie écologique actuelle. Cet article exprime son désaccord avec cette thèse et en expose les raisons. Il suggère au contraire que le champ interdisciplinaire de la socioéconomie écologique s’abstienne de toute définition a priori de la valeur, afin de rendre les chercheurs attentifs aux différentes façons d’attribuer une valeur à l’environnement et aux entités naturelles. Pour rendre compte de l’intérêt de ce déplacement, l’article s’attache à présenter des outils permettant d’étudier les processus sociaux d’attribution de valeur à l’environnement. Deux approches – en apparence éloignées – s’avèrent complémentaires : le courant « conventionnaliste » en sociologie et, en économie, l’« environnementalisme des pauvres » de Joan Martinez-Alier.

- by Gildas RENOU
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- Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Human Geography