On the occasion of his tenth anniversary, the review Practical sociologies highlights the contemporary practices of sociology and proposes an analysis of changes in the profession within the academic world and outside.
Founded ten years ago by the sociologist Renaud Sainsaulieu, the review Practical sociologies devotes his latest issue to a reflection on the activity and practices of sociologists. Thirteen contributions written by university sociologists or practitioners illustrate and emphasize the variety of contemporary practices in the profession of sociologist. It is also a question of identifying the contributions of sociology outside the academic world and of debating its methods of application in various sectors.
Testimonials
The first part of the review brings together the testimonies of personalities involved in the public debate, in the media and in the company. According to Michel Wieviorka, who returns in particular to his experience at the head of the scientific council of Gut (Representative council of black associations in France), intervening in public debate amounts to fulfilling the two objectives of the commitment: that linked to the activity of knowledge production and that of the dissemination of knowledge. Doctor of sociology and columnist in France Inter, Guillaume Erner conceives his mission as that of a scientific popularizer capable of “ Pont the bridge between two universes, the world of journalism and that of the academy ». For its chronicles, the objective is to deal with current topical themes by drawing a certain number of arguments of its work and its sociological readings. The interventions of the sociologist chronicler are not without constraints: he must renew himself each week, keep each intervention and combine, in the construction of his analyzes, two different temporalities, that of the immediacy of journalism and that longer of sociological reflection. Anthropologist of Labor and the Company, Nicolas Flamant occupies the functions of director of human resources in a group of building and public works. His training as an anthropologist, the lessons learned from the seminars he has followed (those of Gérard Althabe, Pierre Bourdieu, Patrick Fridénson) as well as surveys carried out within the management bodies of companies lead him to great vigilance with regard to the information he receives and to consider this information as attempted intervention on his decisions.
The sociologist outside the academy
The second part of the journal identifies the contributions of sociological knowledge in organizations. Véronique Pauly and Jacques Viers, executives at EDF And Gaz de France, highlight the limits of psychological approaches for taking into account psychosocial risks in the company and calls for the implementation of a sociological approach and adapted intervention tools.
Laurence Ould-Ferhadt returns to her experience as a scientific advisor in the social sciences, a position she occupies within a general council. She underlines the desire for sociological knowledge of her interlocutors and presents the productions responding to this desire. This role, located between the services of the local authority and researchers, consists in fueling the political action of scientific reflections concerning the debates and contemporary social issues. This involves writing a scientific letter and its dissemination within the actors of the General Council. This also involves strengthening scientific collaborations with the community of social sciences (interviews, conferences, restitution of subsidized surveys among community agents). Finally, it is a question of conducting punctually studies of a sociological nature. Ould-Ferhadt reveals the existing tensions between research and action. She recognizes for example that she looks at the administration of which she is a part with a certain exteriority such as a field of investigation. Her reflections on this experience lead her to assert that there is a space within this type of community for real sociological surveys leading political action. This type of investigations, which would aim at the intelligibility of social phenomena, nevertheless supposes learning administrative culture by sociologists, and scientific culture by the administration.
Future and trends in the profession of sociologist
The contributions gathered in the fourth part of the journal entitled “ The profession Treat the future and the evolution of sociology as a discipline.
Gérard Houdeville first shows that there are links between the exercise of sociology in the academic world and exercise outside the Academy in the reconstruction of the activities of the discipline since the post-war period. Based on a survey carried out with teacher-researchers at university and statutory researchers Cnrsits contribution highlights the intensification of interventions by academic sociologists outside the academy (media, commissions, study days organized by territorial, political, social, etc.). All these intervening sociologists bear witness to the fact that sociology benefits from a certain recognition. The scientific credit that these academic sociologists have operated outside the Academy. In other words, it is their scientific work and their position in the institution that makes them attractive outside and which play a decisive role in the fact that they are solicited or not. Faced with this observation, Houdeville affirms that there are no alternative bodies of legitimization as prevailing as the academic world. For sociologists today, there are not two distinct spaces for the exercise of the discipline: the academic and the outside academy. Some derive their legitimacy from one to intervene in public debate, others claim a posture of practitioners while remaining closely or indirectly linked to academic structures offering them a certain form of scientific legitimacy essential to their activity.
Odile Piriou claims that sociology has reached a new stage of development in recent years. Within the community of sociologists, other legitimate figures of exercise are gradually recognized, first of all: practitioner sociologists. The major sign of “ Practitioner Is the rapid growth of jobs in the non -academic (public, private) sectors which require applied sociology expertise and skills. On the training side, the increase in graduates of applied research sectors (professional master type) also contributes to the greatest visibility and the existence “ objective »Of Pratician sociology.
In the last contribution, Charles Gadéa returns to the turn of French sociology identified by Odile Piriou. In a context where very few academic positions are offered to sociology students, the progressive rise in professional training courses leads to a radical upheaval in the landscape of sociology. Based on Piriou’s data, Gadéa indicates that, as early as 2005, the flow of graduates of Designer has become superior to that of DEA. Faced with these transformations, it is advisable to question the risks of this evolution. First, no specific information is given on what is and what professional training should be. Also, Charles Gadéa points out the risks of the “ falsely professionalizing in a hurry uphill with a team of teachers where stakeholders having a real experience of applied sociology would only play a secondary role ». To prevent this type of pedagogically weak training to develop massively, the author recommends the “ professionalization »Sociology teachers. It is first of all a question of granting professional training, their stakeholders and their recipients, more consideration than at present. It is necessary to multiply the intervention in the lessons of practitioner sociologists working in companies and administrations. On the side of sociologists working outside the academic world, the knowledge generated by practical sociology must be made more visible and easily transmitted. Finally, the quality of sociology professional training can be the subject of studies and control by collective organizations. Gadéa relies on cooperation between the association of professionals in company sociology and the association of superior teachers sociologists.
Among other initiatives, in particular those organized by the French Association of Sociology, the contributions gathered in this issue invite you to reflect on the developments of the academic forms of the exercise of sociology in a very specific current context. Many articles also present the actions to disseminate sociological knowledge and the activities of practitioner sociologists. This last point is important: if we want to recognize the diversity of sociological practices and affirm the existence of a professional category in full expansion – that of practitioners -, it is essential to identify the activities, role and function of its members within organizations.