Où en sont les théories de l?action collective ?
Lyon
VIIIeme congrès de l?association française de science politique
Relegated or confined for a long time to a marginal place, the
sociology of social movement and collective action have reached, within
the last ten years, a central position in French political sociology
which, up to now, did not participate very much in the theoretical
debates, mostly (but not exclusively) coming from the other side of the
Atlantic ? except for the Touraine school. Its contribution has rather
taken side roads, coming for instance from sociology of party
involvement, and from a dialogue with other disciplines like history.
It has recently gone through a development of empirical studies on the
subject.
Collective action is a topic situated on the interface of disciplines
using methods and concepts sometimes heterogeneous (history, sociology,
anthropology). This topic still remains a space of fragmented
problematic. This situation has been reinforced, within the past twenty
years, by the search for pluridimensional explanatory models, together
with a critique and an effort to go beyond prevailing paradigms.
The patchwork of the case studies realized in our country is
nonetheless quite coherent : lines of force are emerging, and fruitful
tracks of research are taking shape. Consequently, it seems absolutely
necessary to carry out a large reflection, and start a critical debate,
about the conceptual tools used today (militant careers, framing,
repertories of action, political opportunities structure).
The organization of the round table and the choice of the
communications will be guided by three principles.
- Deepen an international dialogue between French, European and
American researchers. In a context of internationalization of the
discipline, this opening is especially necessary because French studies
propose an original reflection which can help to go beyond today's
routine, and sometimes repetitive frames of dominant paradigms.
- Ensure pluridisciplinarity by encouraging interventions of
historians, sociologists, psychologists and anthropologists, but also
by contributing to develop a dialog within the discipline itself, by
starting a fruitful dialog with other branches of Political Science. We
want to contribute to this process through this round table by urging
studies on the socialization process, as well as public policies,
media, social problems, etc.
- Articulate the contributions on methodological reflections and/or
analysis. To date, there has not been much methodological thinking in
the field of mobilization studies, which is especially problematic
since conceptual debates are closely linked to a reflection on
empirical tools. In that sense, the main goal of this round table is
not to collect a series of theoretical analyses or monographic studies,
but rather to propose a reflection on the tools and ways of processing,
which will systematically articulate the conceptual discussions with
the constraints of field work.
The conference will be organized around four axes which will constitute
four half-days of debates.
WORKSHOP 1. Social ties and dynamics of individual engagement.
During the past ten years, a lot of studies have been implemented,
which emphasize the logics of individual involvement, in the context of
a revival of biographical analysis and life story. Enriched by studies
on political socialization on the one hand, and by a reinvestment of
symbolic interactionism on the other hand, but also by the ongoing
critical debate on rational choice theory, this orientation is also
connected with a reflection about inter-individual networks, about the
articulation between militant frequentations and sociability, between
spheres of life and militant activities, contributing this way to
re-formulate, in a renewed way, the question of rewards and incentives.
We ask the participants in this workshop to analyze the various
dimensions of militant careers, especially through dispositional traits
and the importance of secondary socializations, the transformation of
identities and the plurality of actors, the effects of conversion and
of socialization linked to militancy, the biographical consequences of
engagement, the logics of professional reconversion of militant
resources, etc.. It is required here to especially focus on the
importance of class affiliations and on the specificity of activist
trajectories across gender (membership issues, degree of activism and
exit), together with the theoretical and methodological problems raised
by the articulation between context and individual history, between
objective conditions and reasons of acting.
WORSHOP 2. Naming, claiming blaming. The symbolic dimensions of
collective action.
The structuralist approaches which prevailed for a long time in the
field of sociology of social movements have led, in the past 20 years,
to raising criticisms, questioning the mediations through which the
actors experience social constraints and react to them.
For this workshop, the papers are required to question the
contributions of the theories emphasising individual and collective
identities, ideologies and beliefs, analysis in terms of "frame" and
"framing".
In this perspective, we especially encourage the analysis which will on
the one hand explore the emotional dimension of mobilization processes,
and will on the other hand focus on the contributions of sociology of
public problems and those of media studies.
WORKSHOP 3. Repertories of action and diversity of forms of
organizations.
The notion of repertory of action underlines to which extent the
recourse to political protest is connected to a management of scarce
resources. From a diachronic point of view, the methods of action are
characterised by a great stability, which makes so much the more
remarkable eventual innovations. From a synchronic point of view, not
all groups have an equal access to the available forms of action and,
depending on the resources they possess, make a choice or are obliged
to have recourse to various tools of struggle. Among these resources,
forms of organization play a central role. This is the reason why this
workshop considers linking the reflection on the repertories of action
with the one on building organzations.
The papers could, beyond a theoretical reflection on a widely
recognized concept, focus especially on the logics subtending the use
by the groups of various elements of the repertory, on the dimensions
of a possible contemporary transformation of the methods of action (for
instance, trans-nationalization, expertise, renovation of the forms of
direct action, impact of the NTIC), linked with the organizational
dynamics (for instance, professionalization and institutionalization,
structuration in networks and claims for participatory democracy).
WORKSHOP 4. Social movements in the political space.
The sociology of collective action has emphasised the structural
factors of mobilization. This has led to making the notion of political
opportunity structures a key concept in the explanation of the
emergence, but also of the development of protest. This notion led to a
copious and multiform set of criticisms, and has been the subject of
numerous and various attempts of explanation or refinement from its
promoters. By taking these debates as a starting point, this workshop
intends to explore possibilities of theoretical reformulation of the
influence of structural and contextual political factors in the
determination of the chances of success or failure of the movements.
We would like here to emphasise the relationships linking protest
groups to the State, understanded as a multi-level and heterogeneous
actor, and to the whole field of social and political forces active in
the political space (parties, unions, associative sector, companies,
etc.) The idea here is to centrally question the articulation between
collective action, public agendas and policies on one hand, between
representation of interests, expertise and mobilizations on the other
hand.
The proposals should be sent by e-mail to the three organizers, no
later than November 30, 2004.
They are required to expose in an explicit way, in a 2- or 3-pages
document, the subject, the argument developed, and the nature of the
data used. The authors who will be selected will be informed on
december 15th at the latest, and will be required to send a first
version of the complete text of their paper on june 15th (because of
the preparation of the publishing of a CD-ROM of all the texts
presented at the Conference).
The papers can be written and given in English or French.
In the perspective of an efficient valorisation of the papers
presented, the written contributions should not exceed 50 000 signs,
including spaces and footnotes. The bibliography will be presented on
the end page.
Contributions from graduate students are particularly encouraged.
Date limite
? mardi 30 novembre 2004
Contact
? Eric Agrikoliansky (agriko@???)
Université Paris IX Dauphine et CURAPP
? Olivier Fillieule (Olivier.Fillieule@???)
Université de Lausanne IEPI/CRAPUL et CRPS PAris I.
? Isabelle Sommier (sommier@???)
Université Paris I, CNRS-CRPS.
----------------------------------------
Tommaso Vitale
http://homepage.mac.com/tommaso.vitale/
Dipartimento di Sociologia e della Ricerca Sociale
Università di Milano Bicocca
via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8
20126 Milano
tel: ++39.02 6448 7538
fax: ++39.02 6448 7561
home: ++39.02 36555384
-------------- parte successiva --------------
Un allegato non testuale è stato rimosso....
Nome: non disponibile
Tipo: text/enriched
Dimensione: 10243 bytes
Descrizione: non disponibile
Url: https://www.autistici.org/mailman/public/movimenti.bicocca/attachments/20041104/1c71f2b2/attachment.bin
