La sociologia contro il fatalismo

Abbiamo intervistato Luc Boltanski ed Ève Chiapello il 24 maggio 2006, a Parigi, presso la sede del Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale, il laboratorio di cui entrambi fanno parte. L’intervista è stata molto cordiale e ha permesso ai due autori di tornare sulle ragioni del successo del loro libro, nonché sul significato politico che ha assunto nel dibattito francese, sulla condizione dei quadri di azienda e sulle difficoltà e sulle potenzialità della critica oggi (...)

La fragilité de la réalité. Entretien avec Luc Boltanski. Propos recueillis par Juliette Rennes et Simon Susen

Luc Boltanski, sociologue, est directeur d’études à l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. Né en 1940, il est l’auteur d’une quinzaine d’ouvrages qui, tout en s’appuyant sur des terrains d’enquête variés – de la puériculture à l’engendrement et l’avortement, en passant par le monde professionnel des cadres, l’humanitaire ou le management — n’en sont pas moins liés par des questions transversales. L’analyse des dispositifs normatifs mobilisés par les acteurs pour faire "tenir" la réalité sociale ou la mettre en cause fait partie des fils conducteurs de sa sociologie. Si les outils d’analyse qu’il a contribué à forger pour mener ces enquêtes ont profondément marqué la sociologie de ces vingt dernières années, ces outils évoluent plus vite que ce que l’on retient généralement du "tournant pragmatique". Et c’est une trajectoire sociologique tissée de doutes, de remises en cause méthodologiques et de petits virages théoriques, que nous livre ici ce sociologue sensible aux bricolages et aux "incertitudes de la vie sociale

To Frack or Not to Frack? The Interaction of Justification and Power in a Sustainability Controversy

How could a de facto moratorium on shale gas exploration emerge in Québec despite the broad adoption of fracking in North American jurisdictions, support from the provincial government and a favourable power position initially enjoyed by the oil and gas industry? This paper analyses this turn of events by studying how stakeholders from government, civil society, and industry mobilized modes of justification and forms of power with the aim to influence the moral legitimacy of the fracking technology during a controversy surrounding shale gas exploration. Combining Boltanski and Thévenot's economies of worth theory with Lukes’ concept of power, we analytically induced the justification of power mechanisms whereby uses of power become justified or ‘escape’ justification, and the power of justification mechanisms by which justifications alter subsequent power dynamics. We finally explain how these mechanisms contribute to explaining the controversy's ultimate outcome, and advance current debates on political corporate social responsibility

Una sociologia politica e morale delle contraddizioni

Luc Boltanski è directeur d’études all’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) a Parigi. I suoi principali contributi si inscrivono nel solco della riflessione durkheimiana sui processi di costruzione di classificazioni e categorizzazioni. Nella seconda metà degli anni ’60 è stato allievo di Pierre Bourdieu, con cui nel 1975 ha fondato la rivista Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales. La collaborazione con Bourdieu è proseguita strettamente fino alla redazione comune del famoso saggio La production de l’idéologie dominante nel 19761. In seguito, subendo l’influenza di A. Hirschman ed E.P. Thompson si è allontanato dall’approccio bourdieusiano, per storicizzare i processi di costruzione delle categorie sociali. Studiando i quadri di azienda a partire dagli anni ’30, Boltanski ha mostrato come una categoria, lungi dal poter essere data per scontata, si costituisce attraverso un processo politico, per poi istituzionalizzarsi in un discorso amministrativo, oggettivarsi nelle istituzioni e incarnarsi in rappresentazioni allo stesso tempo sociali, politiche e cognitive2 (...)

Die Zerbrechlichkeit der Realität – Luc Boltanski im Gespräch mit Juliette Rennes und Simon Susen

Luc Boltanski ist Soziologe und Directeur d’études am École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Er ist 1940 geboren und hat 15 Bücher geschrieben, die auf diver-sen Feldstudien basieren und disziplinäre Grenzen überschreiten: Pflege, Reproduktion, Abtreibung, die Arbeitswelt der Führungskräfte [cadres], humanitäre Fragen und Management – um nur einige seiner Themen zu nennen. Seine Soziologie konzentriert sich auf die Analyse normativer Ordnungen und die Ressourcen, die menschliche Akteure mobilisieren, um gesellschaftliche Übereinkünfte aufrechtzuerhalten oder herauszufordern. Die Debatten, die sein pragmatischer Wandel ausgelösthat, haben einen tiefgreifenden Einfluss auf die gegenwärtige Soziologie – sowohl innerhalb als auch außerhalb Frankreichs. Seine intellektuelle Stoßrichtung ist geprägt von Zweifeln, methodologischen Korrekturen und theoretischen Verschiebungen. Sie zeigen, dass der Soziologe Luc Boltanski empfänglich für die Konstruktionsprozesse und Unsicherheiten des gesellschaftlichen Lebens ist

(Re)conceptualising physical activity participation as career

Physical activity is increasingly positioned as playing an important role in preventing and mitigating many of the decrements associated with biological ageing. As a result, public health messages encourage older people to remain active in later life. Despite this, physical activity participation rates among older adults are low. This may be in part related to the conventional approach to understanding physical activity participation as a product of motivation. We contend that this approach does not allow for a deeper exploration of the wider structural, historical and discursive contexts in which physical activity participation occurs. Therefore, we propose that physical activity can be reconceptualised as a career. Through a synthesis of findings from four studies exploring physical activity experiences in later life, we demonstrate that beginning and maintaining a physical activity career requires a disposition towards physical activity, the legitimation of physically active practices and dealing with contingencies. In addition, we demonstrate that maintaining a physical activity career requires investment and deliberation to adapt physical activity practices continually within an individual's own personal biography. As such, we conclude that current strategies to promote physical activity to older adults are unlikely to result in increased levels of participation. To promote physical activity to older adults an understanding of how structural, cultural and historical contexts influence participation is needed

Towards a Critical Sociology of Dominant Ideologies: An Unexpected Reunion between Pierre Bourdieu and Luc Boltanski

This article aims to demonstrate the enduring relevance of Pierre Bourdieu and Luc Boltanski’s ‘La production de l’idéologie dominante’ [‘The production of the dominant ideology’], which was originally published in Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales in 1976. More than three decades later, in 2008, a re-edited version of this study was printed in book format as La production de l’idéologie dominante, which was accompanied by a detailed commentary, written by Luc Boltanski and entitled Rendre la réalité inacceptable. À propos de « La production de l’idéologie dominante » [Making Reality Unacceptable. Comments on ‘The production of the dominant ideology’]. In addition to containing revealing personal anecdotes and providing important sociological insights, this commentary offers an insider account of the genesis of one of the most seminal pieces Boltanski co-wrote with his intellectual father, Bourdieu. In the Anglophone literature on contemporary French sociology, however, the theoretical contributions made both in the original study and in Boltanski’s commentary have received little – if any – serious attention. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature, arguing that these two texts can be regarded not only as forceful reminders of the fact that the ‘dominant ideology thesis’ is far from obsolete but also as essential for understanding both the personal and the intellectual underpinnings of the tension-laden relationship between Bourdieu and Boltanski. Furthermore, this article offers a critical overview of the extent to which the unexpected, and partly posthumous, reunion between ‘the master’ (Bourdieu) and his ‘dissident disciple’ (Boltanski) equips us with powerful conceptual tools, which, whilst illustrating the continuing centrality of ‘ideology critique’, permit us to shed new light on key concerns in contemporary sociology and social theory. Finally, the article seeks to push the debate forward by reflecting upon several issues that are not given sufficient attention by Bourdieu and Boltanski in their otherwise original and insightful enquiry into the complexities characterizing the daily production of ideology

Knowledge, Food and Place: a way of producing a way of knowing

The article examines the dynamics of knowledge in the valorisation of local food, drawing on the results from the CORASON project (A cognitive approach to rural sustainable development: the dynamics of expert and lay knowledge), funded by the EU under its Framework Programme 6. It is based on the analysis of several in-depth case studies on food relocalisation carried out in 10 European countries