Reality Tests and Existential Tests, between Trust and Mistrust, in today’s Police Administration. The Case of the TV Series The Wire and Engrenages
Philippe Corcuff (2026)
Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques, 57(1), pp. 169-187. Open access
Résumé. La double question de la confiance dans les institutions et de ses défaillances est appréhendée sur le terrain de l’activité policière ordinaire à travers deux séries télévisées : la série américaine « The Wire » (HBO, 2002-2008) et la série française « Engrenages » (Canal+, 2005-2020). C’est dans une méthodologie de dialogue entre un « jeu de langage » (au sens de Ludwig Wittgenstein), celui des séries TV, et deux « jeux de connaissance » (au sens, dérivé de Wittgenstein, formulé par Henri Atlan), ceux de la sociologie et de la philosophie, que ces séries sont lues. Pour nourrir conceptuellement cette analyse, des emprunts sont effectués à deux sources : la sociologie critique-pragmatique de Luc Boltanski dans son ouvrage De la critique (2009) et la philosophie perfectionniste de Stanley Cavell. Les épreuves de réalité et les épreuves existentielles dessinées par Boltanski sont alors mises en rapport avec les perspectives perfectionnistes associant l’amélioration de soi et l’amélioration démocratique de la collectivité proposées par Cavell. Cet outillage méthodologique et théorique permet de saisir en quoi la vérité fictionnelle peut nourrir la réalité scientifique, sans pour autant confondre les deux, en éclairant les jeux ordinaires et interactionnistes de la confiance et de la défiance.
Abstract. The question of trust in institutions is addressed in the context of ordinary police work through two TV series: the American series The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008) and the French series Engrenages (Canal+, 2005-2020). These series are read in the context of a dialogue between a “language game” (in the sense of Ludwig Wittgenstein), that of TV series, and two “knowledge games” (in the sense, derived from Wittgenstein, formulated by Henri Atlan), those of sociology and philosophy. To provide theoretical support for this analysis, we borrow from two sources: the critical-pragmatic sociology of Luc Boltanski’s De la critique (2009) and the perfectionist philosophy of Stanley Cavell. Boltanski’s reality tests and existential test are then compared with Cavell’s perfectionist perspectives of self-improvement and democratic community improvement. This methodological and theoretical toolkit enables us to grasp how fictional truth can nourish scientific reality, without confusing the two.
Abstract. This article explores the potential connection between place and school performance. We conducted a statistical analysis of school results encompassing 420 of Norway’s 429 municipalities. Based on this regression model, two socioeconomic similar municipalities were selected for qualitative comparison. In Sunplace, students scored considerably higher than expected; in Woodland, students scored considerably lower than expected. Subsequently, we analysed data from two schools’ catchment areas, conducted fieldwork, and interviewed local experts, students and teachers. Following the most similar case design, we sought differences between the two cases. The study is theoretically informed by Laurent Thévenot’s pragmatic sociology, which provides a detailed conceptual framework for capturing people’s diverse forms of engagement. Our findings suggest that Sunplace is a tightly integrated, egalitarian community whose residents take pride in their place. We propose that this pride and what we call confident collectivism extends into the school, which is characterised by discipline, a strong academic-pedagogical framing and confident students and staff. In contrast, Woodland is more loosely integrated and socially and culturally divided. Our interpretation is that there is an absence of pride, and what we call indecisive individualism might influence the school culture which is marked by a weak academic-pedagogical framing and uncertainty among students and teachers.
The promised qualities of algorithmic HRM operations: Morphology of the qualification convention of applicant-job matching
Agathe Fonsagrives (2025)
@GRH, 57(4), p. 11-36
Résumé. Certains recruteurs délèguent la présélection à des algorithmes quantifiant l’adéquation candidat-poste. Bien que les éditeurs promettent la neutralité comme qualité phare, l’objectivité de la quantification fait néanmoins débat. Contrairement à l’idée que la qualité d’un service résulte des attentes des clients, le conventionnalisme cherche à comprendre quel est le sens socio-économique de la qualité. Pour analyser la construction de la qualité de l’opération d’appariement RH algorithmique, nous décrivons la morphologie de la convention gouvernant la qualification au sein d’un petit groupe d’adopteurs. Un an durant, nous avons collecté chez un éditeur de logiciels de recrutement différents types de données que nous avons exploitées au sein d’une analyse qualitative reprenant les composantes morphologiques des conventions de qualification de Gomez (1994). Même si elles s’ancrent dans les préoccupations techniques et commerciales des éditeurs (productivité, objectivité), les qualités de l’opération d’appariement RH algorithmique évoluent néanmoins sous l’effet du jugement qualitatif des clients, ouvrant ainsi la voie à une potentielle meilleure prise en compte des attentes des recruteurs (adaptabilité, maturité, pertinence et transparence). Avec son prisme conventionnaliste, notre travail se démarque des nombreux travaux où la quantification en GRH est uniquement envisagée sous un angle technique.
Abstract. Some recruiters delegate pre-selection to algorithms that quantify the candidate-position match. Although publishers promise neutrality as a key quality, the objectivity of quantification is nevertheless a matter of debate. Contrary to the idea that the quality of a service results from customer expectations, conventionalism seeks to understand the socioeconomic meaning of quality. To analyze the quality construction of the algorithmic HR matching operation, we describe the morphology of the convention governing qualification within a small group of adopters. Over the course of a year, we collected various types of data from a recruitment software publisher, which we used in a qualitative analysis based on the morphological components of Gomez’s (1994) qualification conventions. Although rooted in the publishers’ technical and commercial concerns (productivity, objectivity), the qualities of the algorithmic HR matching operation are nonetheless evolving as a result of clients’ qualitative judgment, paving the way for better consideration of recruiters’ expectations (adaptability, maturity, relevance, and transparency). With its conventionalist lens, our work stands out from the many works in which quantification in HRM is viewed solely from a technical perspective.
Résumé. Troisième opus d’un triptyque consacré à une lecture renouvelée de l’entrepreneuriat, cet ouvrage poursuit sa quête théorique selon une perspective conventionnaliste. L’auteur y introduit deux opérateurs conceptuels, l’écotemporalité et les éco-temporalités, pour construire une approche écotemporelle permettant de penser les milieux avec lesquels l’organisation entrepreneuriale se compose par un double geste. À rebours d’une vision strictement séquentielle ou programmatique de l’action, l’ouvrage met en évidence des dynamiques faites de tensions, d’ajustements et de stabilisations toujours provisoires. Il montre également comment ces dynamiques peuvent être médiatisées par des artefacts de gestion, au premier rang desquels le business model comme support de composition de l’organisation entrepreneuriale. Cet essai clôt un triptyque dont les trois volets débouchent sur sept propositions invitant chercheurs, enseignants et praticiens à saisir, discuter et éprouver cette lecture renouvelée de l’entrepreneuriat.
Abstract. As the third volume of a triptych devoted to a renewed reading of entrepreneurship, this book pursues its theoretical inquiry from a convention-based perspective. The author introduces two conceptual operators, ecotemporality and eco-temporalities, in order to develop an ecotemporal approach for thinking about the milieus with which the entrepreneurial organization composes through a double gesture. Moving away from a strictly sequential or programmatic view of action, the book highlights dynamics shaped by tensions, adjustments, and always provisional stabilizations. It also shows how these dynamics may be mediated by management artefacts, foremost among them the business model as a support for the composition of the entrepreneurial organization. This essay concludes a triptych whose three volumes culminate in seven propositions inviting researchers, educators, and practitioners to grasp, discuss, and put to the test this renewed reading of entrepreneurship.
Numbers in Action: Uncovering the Actors, Practices, and Infrastructure of Quantification
Alexandre de Paiva Rio Camargo, Moisés Kopper, Eugênia Motta (eds.)(2026)
São Paulo: Hucitec. Open access
Números em Ação apresenta panorama dos estudos sobre quantificação no Brasil, examinando como os números produzem autoridade, moldam afetos, sustentam políticas e reorganizam a ideia de público. O livro propõe compreender a quantificação como prática social, técnica, ética e imaginativa, mediadora das disputas em torno da verdade, legitimidade e cidadania. Os capítulos abordam diferentes objetos, de estatísticas oficiais ao ativismo de dados, da biomedicina à economia, e exploram uma pergunta central. O que sustenta a confiança nos números? O que acontece quando ela se desloca? Em contextos de desconfiança institucional, e saturação informacional, a coletânea tem experimentos e resistências que denunciam e reinventam a confiança nos dados, acompanhando os seus deslocamentos das instituições para infraestruturas dos gabinetes técnicos para territórios, dos instrumentos de cálculo para alianças afetivas. Com essa diversidade, o livro mostra que seguir os números é também seguir as formas pelas quais o Brasil pensa, sente e disputa o real.
Indicadores, rankings e painéis de monitoramento atravessam governos, mercados, territórios, populares e ativismos. Esta coletânea, baseada em pesquisas rigorosas, convida o leitor a seguir a vida social dos números, como são produzidos, estabilizados, traduzidos, disputados e postos em articulação entre censos, laboratórios de dados em favelas, sistemas de saúde e arenas de política econômica. Ao reunir investigações etnográficas, históricas e sociológicas, a obra mostra que contar, classificar e comparar nunca são ações neutras, podem consolidar hierarquias e silenciamentos, mas também sustentar denúncias, reivindicar direitos e criar novos públicos. As ciências sociais sempre escreveram com quanto e com o como. Em diálogo tenso com a quantificação, este livro, porém, marca uma nova etapa e uma intervenção pública. A etnografia intensiva aqui não apenas complementa dados extensivos, ela os contesta, reabre suas convenções, desloca categorias e faz os números avançarem, ao mesmo tempo em que denuncia seus usos abusivos. Debatendo criticamente com os estudos da quantificação e com os estudos de dados, a obra reivindica uma perspectiva latino-americana para iluminar questões globais emergentes, como a confiança nos números, soberania de dados, cidadania informacional e ativismo estatístico, destacando o ponto de vista de grupos marginalizados, a proteção de seus direitos e a imaginação de outros futuros possíveis para a vida pública.
About the book. “Numbers in Action” presents an overview of studies on quantification in Brazil, examining how numbers generate authority, shape emotions, underpin policies, and reshape the concept of the public. The book seeks to understand quantification as a social, technical, ethical, and imaginative practice that mediates disputes surrounding truth, legitimacy, and citizenship. The chapters address different subjects, from official statistics to data activism, from biomedicine to economics, and explore a central question: What sustains trust in numbers? What happens when that trust shifts? In contexts of institutional mistrust and information overload, this collection features experiments and acts of resistance that challenge and reinvent trust in data, tracing its shifts from institutions to technical office infrastructures and into territories, and from computational tools to affective alliances. Through this diversity, the book demonstrates that following the numbers also means following the ways in which Brazil thinks about, feels, and negotiates reality.
Indicators, rankings, and monitoring dashboards cut across governments, markets, territories, grassroots movements, and activism. This collection, based on rigorous research, invites the reader to trace the social life of numbers—how they are produced, standardized, interpreted, contested, and linked across censuses, data labs in favelas, health systems, and economic policy arenas. By bringing together ethnographic, historical, and sociological investigations, this work shows that counting, classifying, and comparing are never neutral acts; they can reinforce hierarchies and silence, but they can also support accusations, assert rights, and create new audiences. The social sciences have always focused on “how much” and “how.” In a tense dialogue with quantification, however, this book marks a new phase and a public intervention. Intensive ethnography here not only complements extensive data; it challenges it, reopens its conventions, shifts categories, and pushes the numbers forward, while simultaneously denouncing their abusive uses. Engaging in critical debate with studies of quantification and data studies, this work advocates for a Latin American perspective to shed light on emerging global issues—such as trust in numbers, data sovereignty, informational citizenship, and statistical activism—highlighting the viewpoints of marginalized groups, the protection of their rights, and the imagination of other possible futures for public life.
Ad hoc session “Worlds of food in movement” at the upcoming congress “Communities and societies in movement” of the Swiss Sociological Association, 2-4 September 2026 at the University of Fribourg Time: Thursday, 3 September 2026 15:15 – 16:45 Venue: HETS, Campus Mozaïc, Route des Arsenaux 16a
Program:
Rainer Diaz-Bone: Worlds of food, agrifood studies, and the quality of food. Perspectives on the economics and sociology of conventions.
Christian Hilpert: Power and justification in markets. Ecological and fair-trade narratives in the German coffee industry
Jürgen Kädtler/Gisela Kottwitz/Thomas Stieber: High-quality production through routine work? The case of German high-quality viticulture
Working paper. Bielefeld/Duisburg: University of Bielefeld/University of Duisburg-Essen.
Extract: “1. Introduction Cross-border labour mobility and migration have developed into key issues within globalization research. Remarkably, however, ‘cross-border labour markets’ have rarely been addressed as a phenomenon sui generis in either migration or labour market research. Global structures and dynamics are still largely studied as factors impacting national labour markets, and the terms ’emigration’ and ‘immigration’ that dominate the relevant literature underscore this focus on nation-states as units of analysis. Given this state of debate, in this Working Paper, we suggest a research agenda for examining cross-border labour markets as a phenomenon of its own and, in doing so, broaden the scale of analysis to the structures and processes enabling cross-border labour exchanges above, between, and across nation-states. The emergence of cross-border labour markets can be observed in multiple sectors: in lowwage labour (e.g. in domestic work, meatpacking, logistics) as well as among highly skilled workers and professionals (e.g. academics, consultants, medical doctors), and in sports, the arts, and the entertainment industry at large. Why do cross-border labour markets emerge in some sectors, but not others? Why do they link some countries, while others stay outside the exchange? And to what extent do cross-border labour markets display social orders different from those of national labour markets? Questions such as these are at the heart of the research agenda we propose. The specific focus is on investigating what makes it possible for cross-border labour markets to emerge and be consolidated, i.e., how are the coordination problems that are amplified in border crossing markets ‘solved’? What are the constitutive prerequisites or ‘enablers’ of cross-border labour markets? How do actors draw upon these ‘enablers’ to enact, fashion and consolidate cross-border labour markets? In answering these questions, we begin by considering three transnational ‘enablers’: market makers, infrastructures, and institutions. […] 6.3 Transnational market institutions: Which institutions govern cross-border labour markets and how do they contribute to their social constitution? We draw on sociological research on transnational institutions in developing an approach to studying how cross-border labour markets are embedded in structures, including institutionalized life courses and paths of social mobility (Erlinghagen 2021), and attempts to mitigate uncertainties and risks through formal regulations as well as less formalized but equally important conventions (Diaz-Bone 2018). The focus is on the emergence and formalization of transnational institutions beyond the national settings of the employment regimes that have been the focus of comparative labour market sociology. How crossborder labour markets are characterized by multi-layered embeddedness […] is an important question in theorising how they are socially constituted (Quack 2022).
Abstract. Arbejdet er vigtigt, både for det enkelte menneske og for realiseringen af det gode samfund. Det har ledende politikere indskærpet igen og igen. Alligevel ser vi i disse år, at flere individer udfordrer netop den grundtanke ved at leve det, de selv opfatter som gode liv gennem en neddrosling af deres engagement i lønarbejde. Empirisk bygger artiklen på kvalitative interviews med forældre, der har valgt lønarbejdet fra for i stedet at passe deres børn derhjemme. Teoretisk er artiklen et forsøg på at udfolde og demonstrere Laurent Thévenots engagementssociologi som analytisk ramme. Særligt trækker vi på hans begrebsliggørelse af den menneskelige tvivl og på hans tredeling af menneskeligt engagement i henholdsvis et familiært, et planlæggende og et retfærdiggørende engagement. Analysen viser, at vores informanters valg ikke kan reduceres til én logik eller til at være et spørgsmål om arbejdsmoral. Ved at vælge livet som hjemmepassere til, søger informanterne i vores studie både 1) at opnå en indre ro i deres hverdag som forælder og familie, 2) at tage ansvar og udvise handlekraftighed på egne og familiens vegne, og 3) at bidrage positivt til den fortløbende udvikling af samfundet og dets værdier.
Abstract. Politicians have repeatedly emphasized the idea that labour market participation is important, both for the individual citizen and for the realization of a good society as such. Nevertheless, this idea is recently being challenged by groups of people pursuing good lives by downscaling their engagement in paid work. The article contributes to our understanding of such tendencies. Empirically, it draws on qualitative interviews with parents who have opted out of the labour market to care for their children at home. Theoretically, the article seeks to unfold and demonstrate Laurent Thévenot’s sociology of engagement as an analytical framework. In particular, we draw on his conceptualization of human doubt and his tripartite distinction between familial, planning, and justificatory engagement. The analysis shows that our informants’ choices are not simply related to their work ethic: By choosing lives as stay-at-home parents, they seek 1) to achieve feelings of being at ease in their everyday life, 2) to show agency and plan for the best possible life and 3) to contribute positively to the ongoing development of society and its values as such.
The IKEA Catalog as an Intermediary: On the Representation of Childhood-Related Concepts Between 1980 and 2000
Thomas Grunau (2026)
Diskurs Kindheits- und Jugendforschung, 1-2026, pp. 41-54.
Zusammenfassung. Der Beitrag geht aus konventionentheoretischer Perspektive der Frage nach, ob und in welcher Weise in den IKEA-Katalogen zwischen 1980 und 2000 zentrale Konzepte der damals entstehenden New Childhood Studies sichtbar werden. Analysiert wurden 16 deutschsprachige IKEA-Kataloge mittels einer modifizierten Justification Analysis. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich in den Katalogen drei zentrale Konzepte der Kindheitsforschung identifizieren lassen: kindliche Agency, Kindheit als sozialstrukturell verortete Lebenslage – insbesondere im Kontext von Wohnen – sowie eigenständige Kinderkultur. Während Kinder scheinbar als eigenständige Akteur*innen anerkannt wurden, wurden Kindheitskonzepte in Marketingstrategien übersetzt, die strukturelle Probleme in individuelle Konsumentscheidungen umwandelten. Der Artikel diskutiert die Ambivalenzen dieser Transformation und reflektiert, wie die Analyse von Warenkatalogen als Teil einer Quasi-Öffentlichkeit nicht nur Aufschluss über Marktstrategien gibt, sondern auch die Kindheitsforschung zur Selbstreflexion anregen kann.
Abstract. From a convention-theoretical perspective, this article examines whether and in what ways central concepts of the then-emerging New Childhood Studies are reflected in IKEA catalogs published between 1980 and 2000. Sixteen German-language IKEA catalogs were analyzed using a modified justification analysis. The results show that three central concepts of childhood studies can be identified in the catalogs: child agency, childhood as a socially and structurally situated life condition—particularly in the context of housing—and an independent children’s culture. While children were seemingly recognized as independent actors, concepts of childhood were translated into marketing strategies that transformed structural problems into individual consumer decisions. The article discusses the ambivalences of this transformation and reflects on how the analysis of product catalogs, as part of a quasi-public sphere, not only sheds light on market strategies but can also encourage childhood studies to engage in self-reflection.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology. Online first, open access.
Abstract. Determining why people did this or that in the past – their justifications for their actions – is a common goal of qualitative interviews. Yet interview methods have been criticised for taking participants’ accounts at face value, and for obscuring the collective nature of decision-making by focusing on the individual. This article argues that both limitations of account-seeking interviews stem, in part, from a lack of attention to the complex temporal terrain of justifications. Justifications do not only recount the past: interviewees point in many temporal directions, including giving accounts of imagined futures that they sought to bring into reality in the past. The article outlines and demonstrates an approach to transcript analysis informed by the sociology of conventions that is attentive to this temporal complexity, arguing that this approach deals with some of the criticisms levelled at interviews as a means of accessing why things have been done.
Abstract. Demands for algorithmic accuracy and evaluations of racial and gender bias have emerged in the wake of extensive public controversies and civil society campaigns. Public attention to AI errors has also gained momentum with the rollout of facial recognition from borders to supermarkets and from airports to public squares. Yet, despite some early wins and even limited bans, public and private actors subsequently resumed or even intensified their use of facial recognition technologies. This paper argues that critiques of AI errors have shifted from ‘matters of concern’ to ‘matters of value’. Drawing on Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre’s analysis of the enrichment economy, I show that facial recognition bias has been articulated as algorithmic enrichment, whereby calculations of error increase the value of algorithms that perform better on evaluations. Through distinctions between exceptional and standard algorithms, evaluations of accuracy and error turn some facial recognition technologies into ‘enriched things’. In response to civil society critiques, private companies and police forces in the UK and the USA justify their deployment of facial recognition technologies by citing highly ranked algorithms. Critical interventions need to address how enriched AI is made more valuable through, rather than despite, its errors.
Alain Degenne, Frédéric Godart & Michel Grossetti (2026)
Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
About his book. This book explores the pioneering work of influential American sociologist Harrison C. White, known for his contributions to social network analysis, the sociology of culture, and economic sociology. It highlights his many insights that have reshaped how we understand the broader foundations of sociology. White’s theories reach well beyond technical methods: they offer a general vision of how social structures form, evolve, and give rise to new social formations. The authors, who have co-authored with White, translated his writings, or deeply engaged with his ideas in their own research, provide a thorough yet accessible discussion of his work, particularly Identity and Control. They show how White’s relational approach illuminates fundamental sociological questions about identity, meaning, and control, and how his concepts help us grasp the dynamic processes through which social formations such as institutions or styles emerge.
Extract: “A Renewed Concept of Markets The place occupied by markets in Harrison White’s sociology may come as a surprise to readers, especially those in Europe accustomed to a strict separation of disciplines, in particular of economics and sociology. But they should bear in mind that it was through his interest in art and art markets that he initiated his practice of sociology. The article introducing his work on markets was published in 1981 in the American Journal of Sociology. Highly mathematized and difficult to access, and appearing in a major sociological journal (a discipline unaccustomed to this type of modeling), the article did not have a major impact right away, but its influence grew significantly over time. Nevertheless, it sparked a renewed ambition on the part of certain sociologists to tackle the key questions of economic science (such as market formation) and no longer confine themselves to work on organization or careers. White would later take up and develop his theory in Markets from Networks: Socioeconomic Models of Production (2002), encouraged by French convention economists (notably Olivier Favereau, Olivier Biencourt and François Eymard-Duvernay) who saw strong parallels between White’s typology of markets and their own ‘Quality Conventions’.” (p. 36)
Virginie Amilien, Monia Saïdi & Matthieu Duboys de Labarre (eds.)(2026)
London: Routledge. Open access.
About the book. Presenting contemporary case studies of everyday food practices, this book examines food habits and the ways they are evolving or resisting change. The book draws on primary research with families, examining consumer practices and perceptions of food sustainability. It amplifies the voices of ordinary people, exploring how they experience and navigate everyday food practices. The concept of narrative provides a robust foundation for a dynamic and coherent conceptual approach while combining a social practice perspective which examines the interplay between routines, norms, ethics, and reflexivity with pragmatic sociology. This allows the analysis to follow food practices through adjustments and justifications. Focusing on food quality schemes as institutional tools for improving sustainable food systems, it includes diverse case studies from France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Serbia, the UK, as well as Sweden and Australia. Authors employ multi-method qualitative approaches to capture the interplay of discourses, practices, and materialities. The volume proposes research tools and methods for sustainable food, offering insights into how everyday food practices can contribute to socio-ecological food transitions.
Extract: “However, since routines and habits often act as constraints to effectively stimulating socio-ecological transitions (Wilhite, 2014), it becomes crucial to gain a deeper understanding of what drives the emergence of new ways of doing. To address this, we will draw on the theory of conventions developed by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006) to better grasp consumers’ justifications. We will particularly explore Thévenot’s concept of engagement regimes (Thévenot, 2006), which does not seek the social origin of actions or tactical exercises but instead focuses on how individuals engage with practices. Engagement in action, he argues, is itself multifaceted. For instance, the same individual might buy organic tomatoes out of habit (within the ‘familiar regime’), because they are following a specific recipe (within the ‘engagement regime’), or for environmental reasons (within the ‘justification regime’) […].” (Lecoeur/Amilien, p. 51)
Abstract. Legitimacy is an overlooked precondition for a tactic’s availability within social movement repertoires. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 37 Movement for Black Lives activists in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, this article identifies a three-step process through which activists legitimize riots. First, activists reclassify riots as protest by lumping them with revered tactics, thereby splitting them from criminality. Second, activists engage in moral legitimation: they acknowledge the harm riots can cause to Black communities but frame them as justified counterviolence to state repression. Third, activists use instrumental legitimation. Despite potential reputational risks, they argue that riots impose costs on capitalism, delegitimize the state and lend credibility to subsequent nonviolent protests. By tracing how activists legitimate a controversial movement tactic, this article argues that legitimation work shapes tactical availability. This challenges views of the repertoire of contention as a fixed toolkit from which activists choose tactics they regard as strategically effective or aligned with their collective identities.
The New “Spirit of Capitalism” Revisited: Continuity and Change in Capitalist Ideologies
Johannes Truffer (2026)
In: Friese, Heidrun/Nolden, Marcus/Schreiter, Miriam (eds), Handbuch Soziale Praktiken und Digitale Alltagswelten. Digitale Alltagspraktiken | Everyday Digital Practices. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 143-159.
Zusammenfassung. Der Beitrag rekonstruiert das Konzept des Geistes des Kapitalismus nach Luc Boltanski und Ève Chiapello und legt hierbei einen spezifischen Fokus auf die historische Dynamik kapitalistischer Rechtfertigung. Unter Einbezug aktueller Forschungen wird auf der Basis des Konzepts ein stratifiziertes Framework zur Analyse kapitalistischer Leitideologien entwickelt und im Hinblick auf digitalisierte Gesellschaften befragt. Dieses allgemeinere Modell hebt die Spannung zwischen Akkumulations- und Legitimitätserfordernissen hervor, die dem Geist des Kapitalismus stets innewohnt. Damit öffnet die Rekonzeptualisierung den Blick für Kontinuität und Wandel kapitalistischer Leitideologien und ermöglicht so neue Einblicke in die Dialektik zwischen kapitalistischer Akkumulation und ihrer ideologischen Rechtfertigung in digitalisierten Gesellschaften.
Abstract. This article reconstructs the concept of the “spirit of capitalism” as developed by Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, placing particular emphasis on the historical dynamics of capitalist legitimation. Drawing on current research, the article uses this concept to develop a stratified framework for analyzing dominant capitalist ideologies and examines its applicability to digitalized societies. This more general model highlights the tension between the requirements of accumulation and legitimacy that is always inherent in the spirit of capitalism. In doing so, the reconceptualization opens up a view of the continuity and change in leading capitalist ideologies, thereby enabling new insights into the dialectic between capitalist accumulation and its ideological justification in digitalized societies.
