French Pragmatic Sociology Research Articles

Experiencing meaningful work through worthwhile contributions: A critical discourse analysis

Why do individuals find their work meaningful and what is the role of worthwhile contributions in this experience? We undertake an analysis of accounts related by individuals working as nurses, creative artists and lawyers in which they explain why they find their work meaningful. Drawing on the traditions of critical discourse and narrative analysis, and informed by French pragmatic sociology, we move beyond a focus on what is said to consider how accounts are structured in explanations of meaningfulness. We find meaningfulness to be discursively constituted in the judgement that work makes a worthwhile contribution to others or wider society. We add theoretically to the literature on meaningful work, first, by revealing worthwhile contributions to be a complex, three-fold evaluation comprising the value attached by the individual to their contribution, validation from others that aligns with the individual’s own evaluation concerning the worth of the contribution and the individual’s self-efficacy belief that they are able to make the contribution. Second, we build bridges between hitherto disconnected branches of the meaningful work literature grounded in positive psychology on the one hand and moral worth on the other by showing how judgements of worth are fundamental to the experience of meaningfulness.

Representing personal and common futures: Insights and new connections between the theory of social representations and the pragmatic sociology of engagements

AbstractTo understand social issues and practices such as those related to climate change and technological change that are clearly future‐oriented – collectively experienced events that are “not yet” – and co‐constructed by different actors, we need nuanced conceptualizations of how people think about, negotiate and co‐create futures that allow us to understand not only what people (can) think and do about future‐related issues but also how that happens, what for and with which implications. However, so far, one of the key theoretical approaches that has conceptualised how people make meaning in situations of change and uncertainty – the socio‐psychological social representations theory (SRT) – has not often engaged with the future or with different forms of temporality. By contrast, the French pragmatic sociology of engagements and critique (PS) has engaged with these notions, conceptualising them in relation to materiality and a plurality of moral orientations – two dimensions often seen as key to how collective futures are made and imagined. To offer a more nuanced and systematic conceptualization of how people represent the future and with what consequences, this paper will present, compare and synthesise SRT and PS, as a first step towards an interdisciplinary research agenda on social change and representations of the future.

Varieties of alternativeness: Relational practices in collaborative housing in Vienna

This article develops an empirically grounded frame for analysing varieties of alternativeness, using the case of such collaborative housing groups in Vienna (so-called Baugruppen) which aim to overcome the commodification of housing as well as the standardisation in social housing provision. Through experimenting with alternative ways of organising and living together they strive for social and political change. Taking inspiration from literature on commoning and alternative spaces, the article draws on French pragmatist sociology as well as post-actor-network theory (ANT) and assemblage approaches to focus on relational practices and different kinds of commonality as a basis for collective action. It analyses varieties of alternativeness as relational constellations by tracing how different groups compose commonality amongst each other, and how they relate to various actors. In doing so, it contributes to a situated understanding of the relations and relational practices that sustain alternatives, as well as the possibilities of scaling and transformation that specific variations of alternative housing hold.

Pragmatism, partnerships, and persuasion: theorizing philanthropic foundations in the global policy agora

Abstract Foundations are one of the oldest organizational forms globally; their number and resources, as well as their socio-political and economic importance, have steadily continued to grow. Yet, foundations’ attributes, activities, and actual achievements remain underexplored and poorly understood. This is particularly noticeable in the context of global policy and transnational administration, an area where foundations tend to be subliminal players, acting as a widely unrecognized socio-political undercurrent. Addressing the resulting need for better and alternative conceptualizations of foundations, our paper uses French pragmatic sociology of critique (FPSC), a non-structuralist, post-Bourdesian, approach to sociology, to theorize philanthropic foundations within the policy agora. Through FPSC, we present foundations as a composite setup of activity, where critically reflexive actors bring normative ideologies and knowledge to policy, providing a new avenue for how scholarship can interpret and critique foundations and their influence.

Social classification and the changing boundaries of learning. A neopragmatic perspective on social sorting in digital education

ABSTRACT Allowing learners to move across learning contexts in novel ways, digital tools play an increasingly central role for the formation of learning trajectories and identities. They thus presumably also affect dynamics of social sorting in education. Against this background, this article introduces a conceptual framework for unravelling dynamics of social sorting in digital learning environments. Inspired by French pragmatic sociology, we propose classification as analytical anchor point for disentangling the intricate interplays between educational technologies, learning situations, and wider moral and social orders. We present a ‘speculative inquiry’ into current AIED to demonstrate the added value this analytical perspective. We identify a hiatus between ‘inspired’ and ‘industrial’ logics of classification in current digital learning tools and environments that are likely to yield unwanted social sorting effects. A classification lens helps foreground social dynamics underlying such patterns, thus furthering our understanding of persistent patterns of disadvantaging in (digital) education.

Bridging inquiry and critique: a neo-pragmatic perspective on the making of educational futures and the role of social research

ABSTRACT The making of digital educational futures raises pressing social justice concerns. Against this background, scholars face the challenge of bridging the tasks of investigation and critical engagement. Inspired by French pragmatic sociology, this article presents the notion of plural school worlds as analytical anchor point for dealing with this double-task coherently and productively. Varying understandings of what makes ‘good and fair school education’ are identified as defining features of different school worlds. These understandings (1) are historically entangled with social and political orders, (2) inform how we envision, enact, and evaluate possible educational futures, and (3) define a shared discursive space for exchange between various groups of actors. We claim that the notion of school worlds thus furthers both our understanding of persistent patterns of disadvantaging in digital education and our capacity for critical dialogue with involved actors through sensitizing explication, shifting problematizations and reflecting performativity.

Differentiating natures, connecting environments pragmatic sociology and the emergence of green justifications

ABSTRACT As the environmental crisis gains pace, different strands of posthumanist theorizing have aimed to reshape the ecological conditions of human actions. This article examines ecological justifications in French pragmatic sociology, developed by Boltanski and Thévenot, situating it to discussions about materiality. The approach has proven useful for analyzing various controversies as it provides tools for examining how actors coordinate conflict situations and cope with uncertainty. However, previous studies have also raised questions about the applicability of pragmatic sociology in studying environmental problems. These discussions have revolved around the distinctiveness of ‘green’ justifications. In this article, we examine organic agriculture as a case of green critique that has brought ecology to the fore. Our analysis focuses on contestations about organic agriculture and the possibilities of novel green justifications to establish a ‘green reality test’. By combining conceptual work on justifications and empirical analysis of organic agriculture, the study underlines the key task of critically differentiating a new form of worth as meaningfully different from established forms thereof. In so doing, it also contributes to topical discussions of developing social theoretical frameworks for addressing environmental issues.

Visuals in History Textbooks

Abstract This article is based on a bibliographical data set of over 2,600 history textbooks from the post-1945 Soviet Union and eleven out of its fifteen successor states, including books on international, national, and regional or local history. Among these, it analyzes the illustrations used in 450 books that cover the period of the Second World War. Arguing against a reduction of history-related visuals to a “narrative,” this article seeks to contribute to analyzing the visual grammar of history textbooks. It does so by drawing on notions of familiarity developed in French pragmatic sociology and identifies visual techniques used to make pupils approach war memorials in a mode of familiarity rather than critical analysis. Decontextualized presentations of monuments located outside the former Soviet Union turn them into timeless icons experienced via familiarity-as-recognition; monuments shown with surrounding landscapes or on maps turn them into intimately known markers of a Sovietized local identity.

What Lies Beneath: Organisational Responses to Powerful Stakeholders

This article takes recourse to a particular branch of French Pragmatic Sociology, namely, Boltanski and Thévenot’s ‘orders of worth’ paradigm, as a lens through which to both explore the misalignment between espoused values and retrospective discourses and illustrate the underlying motivations behind decision making in an organisation within the creative industries sector. By virtue of its contributions at the organisational, social and sectorial levels, our study contributes to extant debates pertaining to individual agency versus structural constraints as well as demonstrating the heterogeneity of modes of formal compliance to wider institutionalised legitimacy. In so doing, it builds upon recent work that seeks to broaden the notion of value in the creative industries, while, simultaneously, calling for greater heterogeneity in policy making in the sector through an ongoing process of ‘creative conflict’.

“Making Slow Path”. The Arts-Based Event “Gebermte” as an Act of Commoning

This paper explores the transformative potential of Commoning for establishing an urban governance arrangement of an inter-municipal slow path connection located on a former railway embankment—the “Berm” in Mortsel, in the Province of Antwerp, Belgium. To do so, this paper makes use of French pragmatist sociology, namely the “Théorie des Cités (TdC)”, and proposes what we term a “TdC plus” (TdC+), which enhances the TdC with insights from personal psychology, interpersonal interactions and socio-institutional dynamics; the TdC+ also incorporates features of the Landed Commons (Grand Principles of the Landed Commons) into the TdC's approach of common good and operationalises it from an Action research perspective. The paper focuses on the transformative potential of “Gebermte 2019”, an arts-based local initiative aiming to support the establishment of a slow path on the Berm. It illustrates how small scale actions, such as citizens' cultural activities (considered as embedded in processes involving multiple actors over an extended period of time), can be instrumental in empowering civil society groups and help overcome conflict and foster collaboration. It explores the role of supralocal urban governance arrangements in making local initiatives more effective.

Bridging, nudging and translating: facilitators of local creative industries in Norway

ABSTRACT The article sheds light on an often neglected group of professionals in creative industries, namely the facilitators who work on a local level in order to support and stimulate individual artists and creative microbusinesses. We discuss what characterises the practices of local facilitators, and how they act in order to ensure legitimacy within different contexts. Based on qualitative interviews and participant observation in Norwegian creative industries, and a theoretical approach based on Alexander’s theory on cultural performance and French pragmatic sociology, we argue that the facilitators are networking entrepreneurs with multi-contextual competencies operating in the gaps between art, business and bureaucracy.

On Gendered Justification: A Framework for Understanding Men's and Women's Entrepreneurial Resource‐Acquisition

AbstractStudies of gender in entrepreneurship acknowledge that gender norms are at the root of women’s disadvantage in resource‐acquisition but provide limited guidance on how societal (macro‐level) norms and their gendering influence entrepreneurs’ micro‐level behaviours and stakeholders’ decisions within local contexts. To address this lacuna, we draw on gender theory and French Pragmatist Sociology (FPS) to offer G‐FPS: an analytical and methodological framework of resource‐claiming as a process of justifying, engaging and testing, embedded in normative context that constructs gender roles and social worth. Through analysis of a historical case of business resource‐acquisition in pre‐state Israel, we theorize and demonstrate how local gendered norms steered men and women to diverge in their justifications and self‐presentation when making their claims, and how stakeholders evaluated those claims according to their fit with situated gender expectations. We thus illustrate how macro‐level gender norms infiltrate and operate within micro‐level processing, persistently favouring men over women.

Money, competences or behaviour? On the many worths of the unemployed

ABSTRACT The article investigates how ordinary citizens establish the worth of unemployed persons when discussing politics. It analyses data from two deliberative forums held in Copenhagen, Denmark and Birmingham, UK at which citizens discussed welfare policies. It uses core concepts from French pragmatic sociology in an attempt to grasp the moral complexity of such discussions. Contrary to the moral singularity found in the majority of existing analyses—distinguishing ‘negative’ from ‘positive’ perceptions of the unemployed—the article emphasises the plurality of coexisting normative standards that people turn to when establishing the (lack of) worth of the unemployed. It finds that three normative standards are most important in both countries but being applied in quite different ways: an industrial standard of worth, measuring worth in terms of competences; a domestic standard of worth, measuring worth in terms of behaviour; and a market standard of worth, measuring worth in terms of money.

A cry, a clash and a parting: a French pragmatic sociology approach to ‘the struggle over the teacher’s soul’

ABSTRACT This article argues for using French pragmatic sociology to explore tensions regarding teachers’ work, by studying critique formulated by teachers themselves. Based on interviews with teachers in Swedish adult education it shows how teachers labour to reconcile ‘what is’ with ‘what should be’ by voicing critique. The findings suggest that, while some critique echoes institutionalised conventions without questioning them, formulating critique is also a way of resisting, where teachers tap into alternative conventions, or disengage from established practices. Some choose to ignore institutional rules, while others change jobs. These findings establish that some critique can serve to maintain the status quo and its institutionalised truths. However, pushing at reality through acts of critique can also fracture reality, which in turn allows other conventions to take root in the cracks. Identifying the various types of critique employed to question institutionalised conventions highlights the work that teachers do to shape reality.

Qualifying the green city: professional moral practices of trying urban rainwater forms

AbstractThis article explores how the green, sustainable city is built in situations of uncertainty though professional practical engagements of testing and trying, and how these are formed by moral investments in professional work. Following recent studies investigating professional work and moral agency, the article engages with Terence Halliday’s famous distinction between science-based and normative professions. Contrary to this argument, the article argues that the practice of engineers, the clearest example of the so-called ‘science-based’ profession, is fraught with moral questions and practices. By drawing on French pragmatic sociology, the article conceptualizes the different ways engineers and others work in situations of uncertainty as different modes of trying. In these modes, professionals rely on different moral principles and ideas for evaluating and judging the professional solutions. As such, the article contributes to the sociology of professions by suggesting a new analytical frame for analyzing moral work as fundamental to professional practice in situations of uncertainty. Empirically, the article builds on fieldwork observations and interviews with professionals from an ongoing research project on Danish climate adaptation in cities and urban rainwater management.

When the means modify the ends. (E)Valuating and transforming the purpose of a nonprofit organization through impact assessment.

In a context marked by a trend towards marketization and a rise in performance measures, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) suffer pressures to show that their activities have visible impacts. Based on the French pragmatist sociology’s Economies of Worth framework, we explore how NPOs may come to change what they value and what is their fundamental purpose. More specifically, we delve into the process of valuation triggered by the intervention of consultants to help a NPO develop an impact evaluation tool aimed at legitimizing its actions. Our findings show how this process led to a complete redefinition of the NPO’s “theory of change”, ultimately distantiating the NPO from its initial, explicit purposes.

Sociólogos de laboratório: reflexão sobre os efeitos do isolamento social no fazer sociológico

Neste ensaio tomo por tema geral os impactos da pandemia no fazer sociológico, focando particularmente nas consequências do confinamento dos próprios sociólogos. Desenvolvo dois pontos: no nível dos próprios sociólogos, a tendência à cristalização da distância social, posto a pandemia sustar, em grande medida, a troca de experiências entre pesquisadores e pesquisados, tendência esta que pode ter efeitos epistemológicos; o segundo ponto se refere às possibilidades abertas pela situação de “momento crítico” (terminologia dada pela sociologia pragmatista francesa) que vivemos, que exige dos agentes sociais não só uma investigação acerca dos pressupostos normativos da situação interrompida, como também os obriga a formular novas maneiras de estar no e ver o mundo.

When the means modify the ends. (E)Valuating and transforming the purpose of a nonprofit organization through impact assessment.

In a context marked by a trend towards marketization and a rise in performance measures, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) suffer pressures to show that their activities have visible impacts. Based on the French pragmatist sociology’s Economies of Worth framework, we explore how NPOs may come to change what they value and what is their fundamental purpose. More specifically, we delve into the process of valuation triggered by the intervention of consultants to help a NPO develop an impact evaluation tool aimed at legitimizing its actions. Our findings show how this process led to a complete redefinition of the NPO’s “theory of change”, ultimately distantiating the NPO from its initial, explicit purposes.

A Pragmatic Redefinition of Value(s): Toward a General Model of Valuation

This paper is intended to draw the main theoretical lines of the notion of value, in order to avoid some flaws in the quantitative surveys on values as well as in some qualitative studies of value judgements. Through a number of redefinitions based on a pragmatic approach, inspired not only by Dewey’s concept of ‘valuation’ but also by the new French pragmatic sociology and by the pragmatist trend in linguistics, it tries to specify the conditions under which sociology can address the notion of ‘value’ while avoiding their reduction to scholarly supports for morals or normative guides for action and evaluation. Meanwhile, it tries to construct a unified concept of value that would work for all the concerned disciplines: not only sociology but also economics, psychology, anthropology, and even philosophy.

The Skills Behind the Spatial Practices

This paper offers a theoretical investigation about the notion of “skills“ within a geographical approach. For spatial practices, the challenge is probably less about understanding what individuals do than their ways of doing. Building on an empirical survey about the tourists practices in Los Angeles, the paper first supports the idea that each spatial configuration is an issue for every individual, a gathering of spatial stakes that everyone must address. Then, it argues that the ways in which individuals deal with these stakes depend on their skills. Defining skills as “the mastery of techniques“, the article engages a critical discussion with French pragmatic sociology (Boltanski and Thévenot) and geography (Lussault) as well as upon works in anthropology (Ingold).