scholarly journals Enrichment: a pragmatic sociology on the sources of commodity value in capitalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pragmatic Sociology

Coping with COVID-19. Dugnad: a case of the moral premise of the Norwegian welfare state

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Christin Eklund Nilsen ◽  
Ove Skarpenes
Keyword(s):  
Moral Ideal ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Collective Effort ◽  
Orders Of Worth ◽  
Pragmatic Sociology ◽  
Interview Studies ◽  
Welfare Model

PurposeThis paper provides an analysis of the notion of dugnad (collective effort) in the context of the first weeks of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Norway. By appealing to people's sense of collective effort (dugnadsånd) Norwegian leaders successfully managed to coordinate the actions of the population and beat the outbreak.Design/methodology/approachThe argument builds on the pragmatic sociology associated with Boltanski and Thévenot and their “orders of worth”. Building on qualitative interview studies of the Norwegian middle and working classes a moral ideal type labelled “the socially responsible citizen” is identified.FindingsThe authors argue that dugnad is embedded in a moral repertoire of the socially responsible citizen that is indicative of a specific Norwegian welfare mentality and that is imperative for the sustainability and resilience of the Norwegian welfare model. This repertoire is found across social classes and has to be understood in light of the Norwegian welfare model and the role of civil society.Social implicationsThe analysis explains the societal impact of the appeal and endorsement of the notion of dugnad in the context of the outbreak of COVID-19.Originality/valueThe paper explores the roots and impact of a social phenomenon that has not been a matter for much sociological analysis.

Pragmatic sociology and competing orders of worth in organizations

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Jagd
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Institutional Pluralism ◽  
Orders Of Worth ◽  
Competing Orders ◽  
Pragmatic Sociology ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects ◽  
Special Relevance

Different notions of multiple rationalities have recently been applied to describe the phenomena of co-existence of competing rationalities in organizations. These include institutional pluralism, institutional logics, competing rationalities and pluralistic contexts. The French pragmatic sociologists Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot have contributed to this line of research with a sophisticated theoretical framework of orders of worth, which has been applied in an increasing number of empirical studies. This article explores how the order of worth framework has been applied to empirical studies of organizations. First, I summarize the basic ideas of the framework, stressing the aspects of special relevance for studies of organizations. Second, I review the empirical studies focusing on the coexistence of competing orders of worth in organizations showing that the order of worth framework primarily has been related to three main themes in organizational research: non-profit and co-operative organizations, inter-organizational co-operation, and organizational change. Third, I discuss how the pragmatic, process-oriented aspect of the research program, focusing on the intertwining of values and action in various forms of ‘justification work’, has been translated into empirical studies. I argue that even if highly interesting empirical studies have begun to appear on the pragmatic aspects of the order of worth program, empirical studies of ‘justification work’ may be a potentially very promising focus for future empirical studies.

The Foundation of Pragmatic Sociology

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Joachim Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Pragmatic Sociology

Revisiting the History of Socio-professional Classification in France

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (04) ◽  
pp. 697-732
Author(s):  
Thomas Amossé
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Labor Law ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Statistical Tool ◽  
Subsequent Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pragmatic Sociology

The result of a process begun in the nineteenth century, the French system of socio-professional classification (code des catégories socio-professionnelles) was drawn up between 1951 and 1954 and has only been slightly modified since. With no strong theoretical framework and conceived according to a realist approach, it gave substance to social classes in the description of postwar society. During a period of “reworking” (1978-1981), it became an exciting topic of sociological exploration, furnishing a representation of Pierre Bourdieu’s two-dimensional social space and serving as a laboratory for the pragmatic sociology of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot. In a subsequent period of “updating” (1995-2001), administrative caution regarding changes contrasted with the evolution of categories used in labor law and the goal of analytical purity underpinned by econometrics. The history of this classification details the peculiar position of a statistical tool for representing the social world, ostensibly static amidst constant changes to the institution that managed it, the actors who used it, the social categories—everyday or legal—to which it referred, and, finally, the sociological theories that gave it a conceptual grounding.

Tests, compromises and policy change

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Magnus Paulsen Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Analytical Model ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Data Selection ◽  
Discursive Institutionalism ◽  
Case Selection ◽  
Pragmatic Sociology ◽  
Governmentality Studies

Chapter 2 introduces the meta-concepts inspired from French pragmatic sociology in order to develop an analytical model to map the plurality of moral and normative structures that are used to justify and criticise policies in public debate and lead to reforms in the governing of unemployment. The model is compared to other ideational perspective, mainly discursive institutionalism, discourse analysis and governmentality studies. Finally, the chapter presents how the model is operationalised through choices of case selection, data selection and coding procedures.

Politics between justification and defiance

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Blokker ◽  
Andrea Brighenti
Keyword(s):  
The Status ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Pragmatic Sociology ◽  
Settlement Of Disputes

The article discusses the status and role of politics — in its various facets — in the pragmatic sociology of critique. We focus on a number of different dimensions of politics — politics-as-justification, politics-as-distribution, politics-as-constitution, and politics-as-defiance — that can said to be of importance for a pragmatic sociology of critique, but that have not all been taken up equally in this approach. We situate pragmatic sociology in a tradition of thought that views politics as emerging in the settlement of disputes over differences without resorting to violence. However, we argue that pragmatic sociology tends to ignore questions of the constitution of politics, and suggest that one way of bringing the foundational aspect upfront is by conceptualizing and studying defiance, including forms of explicit (dissent) and implicit critique (resistance) of the existing order.

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