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Pour en finir avec l'incertitude
Schooling markets and their effects on inequalities have become a special focus for sociology of education. Yet the question remains how to define these «schooling markets» and provide them with empirical and theoretical content. This article uses economics of quality categories to analyze schooling markets. The analysis, fueled by two empirical studies, one on middle schools and one on high schools, brings to light the characteristics of these markets, how they operate, who the actors are and what effects the markets have on scholastic inequalities. The study's three main results are : 1) education is a highly particular commodity characterized by great uncertainty about educational quality and difficulty in obtaining information on quality ; also by the fact that all the actors involved are implicated in the functioning of the education quality market ; 2) public institution actors are also players on the schooling market, and their action consists in managing pupil flow quantitatively rather than working to explicitly regulate these markets ; 3) schooling markets are «feedback» markets, meaning that as soon as some degree of a given school's educational quality is due to the nature of its pupil population, educational quality at that school - both in terms of schooling effectiveness and quality of school life itself- begins to be defined by the market on this very basis.
The organization of connections between jobs and applicants is periodically questioned and revised. How economic and sociological theories explore the role of intermediaries ? Several models can be used to analyze their activities and justify their interventions. We argue that institutional theories, studies of social networks and uncertainties about quality can be useful to understand why the assessment of applicants' qualities must be formed in close contact to work situations. Recent evolutions are not favourable to such types of judgment: they constrain intermediaries to form « pre-judgments » about applicants and matching qualities. Public employment policies in France help to reinforce this tendency, and may aggravate exclusion from employment.
The French geographic indications - the « Appellations d'Origine Contrôlée » - go again through a crisis. Since a long time, the « terroir » which they protect are polemical; it is suspected to be nothing but an imaginary construction. But this time, the vintners themselves denounce the permissiveness of its regulations: for them, terroir are something real, but its regulation has to be reinforced. This article analyses the different conceptions of terroir by « objective » sciences, vintners defending a renewal of terroir and the public administration. The authorities require that a public certification rest upon criteria defining the presence of terroir. Since objective sciences do not seem to be able to stabilize any list of such defining criteria, objective sciences are inclined to conclude to the illusory nature of terroir, a « pure » subjective or social construction. Yet producers - as well as their clients - do not experience trouble in evaluating the wines terroir quality. It even supports commercial qualitative differentiation strategies. Should we agree with the scientists and denounce the vintners and drinkers mistake? By analyzing how proof of terroir is implemented the article show that part of the controversy rests upon the ontology of the notion of terroir. For the administration terroir must be a "thing" which presence can be guaranteed by objective tests provided by science. For vintners it is a constantly produced and reproduced expression, impossible to definitively stabilize a priori and nevertheless evaluated ex post. In both cases the guarantee of the presence of terroir does not rest upon the same implementation of proof. The "thing" shaped objects are autonomous and predetermined. They can be observed from "outside" without enduring perturbations of their nature. On the contrary, "product"-shaped objects cannot be analysed independently from their elaboration process. They are the result of an a priori uncertain quest and do not fit into predefined criteria. The article follows in trying to make this difference and some of its consequences more precise: does it only resort to a philosophical hypothesis on the world nature? Are the two ontologies mutually exclusive? Do they require methodological precautions?.
This book addresses academic labor markets in three countries: France, Germany, and the United States. The management of faculty careers is a critical issue in university autonomy, and in many countries recent reforms have increasingly addressed this area. Musselin's exhaustive empirical research on academic job hiring practices and faculty career patterns included over 200 interviews with faculty members and administrators concerning two disciplines: history and math. Each of the countries has very different historical traditions with regard to how peers recruit their colleagues within the academy. Using what is known as an "economics of quality" comparative approach, she sheds new light on faculty worklife. The author's focus on the criteria of evaluation in academic hiring decisions is a unique contribution and one that should stimulate the current debates on higher education reforms.
MARKETING SIMILARITIES Distributor brand products
This article examines the construction of similarities for two types of distributor brand product. “Me too” distributor brand products are defined as equivalents of national brands but are sold at a lower price. “Marque-Terroir” distributor brands are upmarket, traditional local products whose appearance on supermarket shelves was an innovation. In both cases the construction of similarities is an essential driver of product development which calls for a specific form of organization.
When actors meddle in ontology
The French geographic indications - the « Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée » - go again through a crisis. Since a long time, the « terroir » which they protect are polemical; it is suspected to be nothing but an imaginary construction. But this time, the vintners themselves denounce the permissiveness of its regulations: for them, terroir are something real, but its regulation has to be reinforced. This article analyses the different conceptions of terroir by « objective » sciences, vintners defending a renewal of terroir and the public administration. The authorities require that a public certification rest upon criteria defining the presence of terroir. Since objective sciences do not seem to be able to stabilize any list of such defining criteria, objective sciences are inclined to conclude to the illusory nature of terroir, a « pure » subjective or social construction. Yet producers – as well as their clients – do not experience trouble in evaluating the wines terroir quality. It even supports commercial qualitative differentiation strategies. Should we agree with the scientists and denounce the vintners and drinkers mistake? By analyzing how proof of terroir is implemented the article show that part of the controversy rests upon the ontology of the notion of terroir. For the administration terroir must be a “thing” which presence can be guaranteed by objective tests provided by science. For vintners it is a constantly produced and reproduced expression, impossible to definitively stabilize a priori and nevertheless evaluated ex post. In both cases the guarantee of the presence of terroir does not rest upon the same implementation of proof. The “thing” shaped objects are autonomous and predetermined. They can be observed from “outside” without enduring perturbations of their nature. On the contrary, “product”-shaped objects cannot be analysed independently from their elaboration process. They are the result of an a priori uncertain quest and do not fit into predefined criteria. The article follows in trying to make this difference and some of its consequences more precise: does it only resort to a philosophical hypothesis on the world nature? Are the two ontologies mutually exclusive? Do they require methodological precautions?
Dans son numéro d'avril-juin 2002, la revue Sociologie du travail ouvrait aux chercheurs un espace de discussion dédié à la question de la qualité. Les auteurs invités à débattre faisaient notamment ressortir deux mécanismes de qualification : l'identification/singularisation, entendue comme processus sociotechnique de coconstruction de la qualité des biens et des services ; l'évaluation, entendue comme un mécanisme de mise en confiance permettant de lever l'incertitude sur la qualité de certains biens et services. Ces deux mécanismes peuvent-ils être analysés conjointement ? Et dans ce cas, comment comprendre leur articulation ? Telles sont les questions auxquelles s'intéresse cet article. En partant de l'exemple de la gestion de l'eau et de l'assainissement, nous verrons tout d'abord que l'analyse conjointe des deux mécanismes est féconde pour comprendre le travail de qualification/requalification. Nous chercherons ensuite à clarifier le rapport entre singularisation et évaluation en introduisant la notion de régime de gouvernement. The April-June 2002 issue of Sociologie du Travail opened its pages for a discussion of the question of quality. Authors highlighted two mechanisms: "identification/singularization" (a socio-technical process of co-constructing the quality of goods and services) and evaluation (a process of building up confidence so as to do away with uncertainty about the quality of goods and services). Can these two processes be analyzed together? If so, how to understand their interactions? As the example of managing the water supply and wastewater shows, jointly analyzing these two processes helps us understand the work of "qualification/requalification". The relation between singularization and evaluation is clarified by introducing the notion of a "regime of government".
Generic drugs, introduced on the French drug market in the late 1990s, have deeply affected relations between patients, doctors and pharmacists. Pharmacists and patients are now able to choose the brand of drugs. Comparing the prescribed drug with its generic equivalent, far from being automatic, involves evaluating products and, too, the prescriptions for them. Can one drug be taken for another? Is one prescriptionist the equivalent of another? Some persons claim that there is a generalized equivalence between drugs and those who prescribe them, whereas others try to maintain the older hierarchy of values. The quid pro quo introduced by generic drugs is a litmus test for analyzing the values that shape the behavior patterns of those involved in health and the organization of care.
Over the last 20 years, major innovations in the French social sciences emerged from focusing on quality and qualification (of work, of products, of technical and management tools, etc.). It opened new ways to conceptualize social and economic exchanges. Our journal offers a tribune for further elaboration, from different disciplinary perspectives. Christine Musselin and Catherine Paradeise present a brief review and raise three questions. 1) how are attributes of quality defined and evaluated ? 2) What types of intermediation link supply and demand and how far do both interact; 3) How is price set in quality-based economic exchange? Five social scientists provide personal answers to these questions. Two are sociologists (Michel Callon, Lucien Karpik), two are economists (François Eymard-Duvernay, Jean Gadrey), one is an historian (Alessandro Stanziani). Altogether, the file includes six contributions: [Premières lignes].
Small construction companies mobilize different kinds of confidence for capturing and reassure their customers. Beyond the interpersonal networks, the most common device, they create devices such as professional qualifications and certifications, and adhere to organizational instruments such as mediation systems run by supermarkets or assistance companies. The article shows how the use of these devices varies according to the conventions of quality and strategic positioning of companies.
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