Centre de Sociologie des Organisations

Urban studies today is marked by many active debates. In an earlier paper, we addressed some of these debates by proposing a foundational concept of urbanisation and urban form as a way of identifying a common language for urban research. In the present paper we provide a brief recapitulation of that framework. We then use this preliminary material as background to a critique of three currently influential versions of urban analysis, namely, postcolonial urban theory, assemblage theoretic approaches and planetary urbanism. We evaluate each of these versions in turn and find them seriously wanting as statements about urban realities. We criticise (a) postcolonial urban theory for its particularism and its insistence on the provincialisation of knowledge, (b) assemblage theoretic approaches for their indeterminacy and eclecticism and (c) planetary urbanism for its radical devaluation of the forces of agglomeration and nodality in urban-economic geography.

This paper addresses the transformation of competition in higher education. Not only have competition and competitive schemes dramatically developed in the last decades, from competition for students to competition for budgets and competition for professors, but the nature of competition has also evolved, leading to new forms of competition, especially on the segment where this evolution has been the strongest, i.e. research universities. It is argued that competition in higher education is no longer only occurring between individuals and countries, but has become institutional, leading to a multi-level form of competition and transforming universities into competitors. This competition is framed as a competition for quality which has become more organized and equipped, and that increasingly relies on impersonal judgment devices. It is shown that this growing form of competition has spawned new classifications and categories, and that alliances of competitors belonging to the same category (like leagues, guilds or associations) are simultaneously emerging. Consideration will be thus given to how competition and cooperation intersect and combine.

Ouvrage issu d'une reflexion entamée lors d'un congrès tenu en juillet 2000 à Helsinki par l'European group for organization studies et poursuivie lors d'un 2nd congrès tenu à Lisbonne par l'European summer research institute. - Bibliogr. en fin de chapitres. Index

This volume investigates the relationship between economic globalization and institutions, or global governance, challenging the common assumption that globalization and institutionalization are essentially processes which exclude each other. Instead, the contributors to this book show that globalization is better perceived as a dual process of institutional change at the national level, and institution building at the transnational level. Rich, supporting empirical evidence is provided along with a theoretical conceptualization of the main actors, mechanisms and conditions involved in trickle-up and trickle-down trajectories through which national institutional systems are being transformed and transnational rules emerge.

Abstract Face-to-face contact remains central to co-ordination of the economy, despite the remarkable reductions in transport costs and the astonishing rise in the complexity and variety of information - verbal, visual, and symbolic which can be communicated near instantly. Over the past quarter century, long-distance business travel has grown faster than output and trade (Hall, 1998). There must be powerful reasons for economic agents to congregate and see each other,given the relatively high pecuniary and opportunity cost of business travel. Forces of urbanization and localization remain strong. For example, the geographical density of employment in many sectors in the US has actually increased in recent years (Kim, 2002).

Abstract This overview article sets out the broad themes behind the transformation of local political leadership, in particular the forces that have led to the introduction of stronger forms of local executive, such as directly elected mayors. After setting out the role of local political leadership in traditional local government and different traditions and patterns across Western Europe, the article sets out the likely factors driving the changes toward a stronger form of leadership in the more complex pattern of governing described as local governance: complex networks, the ‘new political culture’, Europeanization of public policy and institutional mimetism. The article observes that the articles in this symposium do not fully confirm these hypotheses, showing the complexity of the responses and the different contexts across Western Europe. The concluding sections draw together the implications of the stronger forms of local executive for the current practice and functioning of local politics and policy‐making: the legitimacy crisis that may have emerged from more autonomous political leaders, which combines with the decline in the conventional measures of local political participation; the lack of complementary institutional resources to assist the performance of the enhanced executive function; and the emergence of a new north‐south divide in governing styles. Cet article général expose les grands thèmes qui sous‐tendent la transformation de l'autorité politique locale, notamment les forces qui ont conduit à l'introduction de formes d'exécutif local plus puissantes, comme l'élection des maires au suffrage direct. Après avoir expliqué le rôle d'une autorité politique locale dans un contexte classique et selon plusieurs traditions ou modèles d'Europe occidentale, l'étude s'intéresse aux facteurs susceptibles de tendre vers une forme plus forte d'autorité dans le cadre pluscompliqué d'une gouvernance locale intégrant réseaux complexes, ‘nouvelle culture politique’, européanisation des politiques publiques et mimétisme institutionnel. Les articles proposés pour ce symposium ne confirment pas totalement ces hypothèses, révélant la sophistication des réponses et la multiplicité des contextes européens. La conclusion déduit ce qu'implique le renforcement de l'exécutif local dans la pratique et le fonctionnement actuels de la politique et du processus décisionnel locaux: crise de légitimité, éventuellement née de leaders politiques plus autonomes, combinée au déclin des dispositifs classiques de participation locale; manque de ressources institutionnelles complémentaires qui faciliteraient la mise en œuvre de la nouvelle fonction exécutive; émergence d'une scission nord‐sud dans les styles de gouvernement.

Building upon recent work on other major fossil fuel companies, we report new archival research and primary source interviews describing how Total responded to evolving climate science and policy in the last 50 years. We show that Total personnel received warnings of the potential for catastrophic global warming from its products by 1971, became more fully informed of the issue in the 1980s, began promoting doubt regarding the scientific basis for global warming by the late 1980s, and ultimately settled on a position in the late 1990s of publicly accepting climate science while promoting policy delay or policies peripheral to fossil fuel control. Additionally, we find that Exxon, through the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA), coordinated an international campaign to dispute climate science and weaken international climate policy, beginning in the 1980s. This represents one of the first longitudinal studies of a major fossil fuel company’s responses to global warming to the present, describing historical stages of awareness, preparation, denial, and delay.

Transnational communities are social groups that emerge from mutual interaction across national boundaries, oriented around a common project or 'imagined' identity. This common project or identity is constructed and sustained through the active engagement and involvement of at least some of its members. Such communities can overlap in different ways with formal organizations but, in principle, they do not need formal organization to be sustained. This 2010 book explores the role of transnational communities in relation to the governance of business and economic activity. It does so by focusing on a wide range of empirical terrains, including discussions of the Laleli market in Istanbul, the institutionalization of private equity in Japan, the transnational movement for open content licenses, and the mobilization around environmental certification. These studies show that transnational communities can align the cognitive and normative orientations of their members over time and thereby influence emergent transnational governance arrangements.

Interregional and intermetropolitan economic divergence is greater in many western developed countries than it has been in many decades. Divergence manifests itself in many ways, including per capita income, labor force participation, and the spatial distribution of skills and returns to education. At the same time, geographical polarization of political preferences and electoral choices has increased, with gains in populism and nationalism in some regions, and broadening of socially liberal, pro-trade and multicultural attitudes in other regions. The task of explaining these developments poses challenges to economic geography and regional and urban economics. These fields have already developed some of the building blocks of an account, but a number of important gaps persist. This article is devoted to identifying priorities for regional science and urban economics, the new economic geography and proper economic geography to tackle the key mechanisms behind divergence as well as to integrate them in a common overall framework.

Beginning in the year 2000, higher education policies all over Europe were transformed by the launching and evolution of the Bologna Process, otherwise known as the process of creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Initially, this process was flexible and informal, which makes the rapidity and scope of the changes it brought about surprising: why did European governments commit themselves to achieving the Bologna Objectives, and why so quickly, when there was no legal obligation to do so? I will argue the following: to understand the development of such a sense of obligation, we must take into account the special interests at stake when Bologna objectives are implemented at a national level. We must also consider the legitimacy lent to the process by the Bologna ideals of a knowledge‐based economy and society. These elements are present in other studies on this topic. However, and this is rarely considered, we also have to take into account the specific dynamics of the process of creating an institutional coordination and monitoring mechanism. This mechanism has a formal institutional structure and tools for evaluation and monitoring. Our analysis of the way in which it was developed and formalised enriches previous research on the topic and also sheds light on how a flexible European process of voluntary participation became a monitored system of coordinated national higher education policies.

International audience

Nous vivons dans une société du risque. Non que les dangers qui nous entourent soient plus nombreux ou redoutables qu'auparavant, mais tout simplement parce que la notion de risque occupe désormais une place centrale dans les politiques publiques, le management des organisations publiques et privées, et les controverses autour des nouvelles technologies. OGM, téléphonie mobile, déchets nucléaires, boues d'épuration urbaines : on ne compte plus les activités qualifiées de risque pour la santé ou l'environnement. Cette qualification met les pouvoirs publics en demeure d'assurer la sécurité des populations, quand bien même l'État constitue lui-même parfois un facteur de risque. Comprendre comment une activité se transforme en risque, et comment dès lors elle est gérée par les pouvoirs publics ainsi que par les entreprises, les associations et les collectivités locales. Tel est l'objectif de cet ouvrage qui s'inscrit dans une sociologie de l'État et des mouvements sociaux, mobilise les acquis de la sociologie des sciences, et privilégie une entrée par les territoires.

Personal protection equipment (PPE) holds a privileged position in safety interventions in many countries, despite the fact that they should only be used as a last resort. This is even more paradoxical because many concerns have arisen as to their actual effectiveness under working conditions and their ability to provide the protection attributed to them by certain occupational safety strategies and marketing authorisation procedures. Are these concerns justified? This article is intended to provide an update on what we know of the issue based on a critical analysis of the literature to date. Analysis focuses on the assessment of the effectiveness of coveralls used to protect from plant protection products in OECD countries. All forms of assessment were retained: discussion of the observed effectiveness of PPE in relation to the underlying assumptions of marketing authorisation procedures, laboratory tests of equipment, practical field tests in which PPE-wearing practices were controlled and uncontrolled, analyses of the efficiency of preventive instructions based on wearing such coveralls. Findings show that recommending the use of PPE is key to the granting of marketing authorisation. Some dangerous products only get marketing authorisation because it is assumed that wearing PPE will considerably limit exposure. They would be banned if it were not for this assumption of protection. However the actual effectiveness of PPE in working conditions may be over-estimated. In addition many factors (cost, availability, thermic and mechanical discomfort) may make instructions to wear PPE inapplicable. Advising the use of PPE does not always mean effective protection.

This paper outlines the main changes that have effected a transformation in the nature of academic work: on the one hand, the increasing diversification and specialisation of academic tasks, and on the other, new forms of control over academic work. An analysis of these trends leads to a discussion of the relationships between the evolution of academic work and non-academic work. The academic profession has always been in the process of change. While reading historical research or looking at academics ’ reflections on their situation over time (for

Research summary : Raters of firms play an important role in assessing domains ranging from sustainability to corporate governance to best places to work. Managers, investors, and scholars increasingly rely on these ratings to make strategic decisions, invest trillions of dollars in capital, and study corporate social responsibility ( CSR ), guided by the implicit assumption that the ratings are valid. We document the surprising lack of agreement across social ratings from six well‐established raters. These differences remain even when we adjust for explicit differences in the definition of CSR held by different raters, implying the ratings have low validity. Our results suggest that users of social ratings should exercise caution in interpreting their connection to actual CSR and that raters should conduct regular evaluations of their ratings . Managerial summary : Ratings of corporate social responsibility ( CSR ) guide trillions of dollars of investment, but managers, investors, and researchers know little about whether these ratings accurately measure CSR . In practice, there are examples of highly rated firms becoming embroiled in scandals and the same firm receiving sharply different ratings from different rating agencies. We evaluate six of the leading raters and find little overlap in their assessments of CSR . This lack of consensus suggests that social responsibility is challenging to measure reliably and that users of these ratings should be cautious in drawing conclusions about firms based on this data. We encourage the rating agencies to regularly validate their data in an effort to improve the measurement of CSR . Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Soyez en tête de la compétition mondiale mais coordonnez-vous à l'échelon territorial ! Telle est l'injonction contradictoire adressée aux universités françaises depuis les deux grandes réformes du système d’enseignement supérieur et de recherche initiées en 2000. D’un côté, l’État organise une compétition généralisée entre enseignants- chercheurs et entre universités. Les financements sur projet de la recherche, la publicisation des évaluations et leur utilisation pour allouer les budgets à la performance, comme les très sélectifs appels à projets qui se sont succédé sans relâche depuis le Grand Emprunt de Nicolas Sarkozy, ont accru les écarts entre établissements et fait voler en éclat le principe sur lequel reposait jusqu’alors, en théorie, le système français : des universités équivalentes sur l’ensemble du territoire. De l’autre, un remodelage du paysage universitaire est à l’oeuvre. Il impose que les grandes écoles, les organismes de recherche et les universités d’une même région coordonnent leurs actions dans le but de rationaliser les coûts et de grimper dans les classements mondiaux. De nouvelles structures sont ainsi créées à marche forcée, sans qu’il soit possible de savoir si ces changements majeurs atteindront leurs objectifs et assureront un avenir radieux à l’enseignement supérieur français.

The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world

Abstract Risk‐based approaches to governance are widely promoted as universally applicable foundations for improving the quality, efficiency, and rationality of governance across policy domains. Premised on the idea that governance cannot eliminate all adverse outcomes, these approaches provide a method for establishing priorities and allocating scarce resources, and, in so doing, rationalise the limits of what governance interventions can, and should, achieve. Yet cursory observation suggests that risk‐based approaches have spread unevenly across countries. Based on a comparison of the UK , F rance, and G ermany, this article explores the ways in which, and why, such approaches have “colonised” governance regimes in the UK , but have had much more limited application in F rance and G ermany. We argue that the institutionally patterned adoption of risk‐based governance across these three countries is related to how entrenched governance norms and accountability structures within their national polities handle both the identification and acceptance of adverse governance outcomes.

The growing interest in ecology has had the unexpected effect of granting new relevance to a theology interested not so much in the salvation of humans as in the salvation of the whole creation – non‐humans included. Since science studies has for many years probed several alternatives to the modernist divide between subject and object, it is interesting to combine the tools of science studies and theology to elicit a new contrast between nature and creation. Using tools from an anthropological inquiry of the moderns, the article draws a different connection between religion and science that bypasses the notion of nature. Résumé L'intérêt croissant pour l'écologie a eu pour effet inattendu de remettre en lumière une théologie qui s'intéresse moins au salut des humains qu'à celui de toute la Création, non‐humains compris. À l'heure où des études scientifiques explorent depuis de nombreuses années différentes alternatives à la dichotomie moderniste entre sujet et objet, il est intéressant d'associer les outils de ces études et ceux de la théologie pour établir une nouvelle différenciation entre nature et création. À l'aide des outils d'étude anthropologique des modernes, le présent article établit un lien différent entre religion et science, qui s'affranchit de la notion de nature.

The rise of standardization processes highlights two different paths toward a regulatory state. Within the EU, the New Approach serves as a model for co‐regulation, and European standards have become instruments of supranational governance. In France, standardization is much more part of a renegotiation of the state’s role and influence in a changing society. In both cases, standardization was undertaken with other motives; yet it evolved to answer the strains and constraints exerted upon regulatory processes in the two polities. As such, standards are a case for unintentionality in policy instruments.