Being a Corporate Sociologist…an Insider’s View

Abstract

This paper is aimed at giving light to the profession of corporate sociologist, based on a literary review of the field of scientific and occupational sociology. It is an empirical observation based on an inside look gained as a professional sociologist within an international Group in the telecommunications sector, Orange. It defends the idea that it remains possible, despite the financial strains afflicting many companies engaged in a competitive global market, to explore new topics and thus bring a significant contribution to this discipline, especially since the industry has specific resources to offer, leading to a widened reflection regarding the status of researcher. This is by reusing notions specific to the norms of science while examining them in a corporate context. The article is written in the hopes of making a constructive contribution to the question of relating the worlds of industry, sociology and, more generally – science. As a matter of fact, although industrial science represents the largest share of the total science in France (over 60% of researchers work in the industry) – the complexity of the issues they face as well as their characteristics still needs to be documented and debated.