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Schwegler, Guy (2025):
In: Rainer Diaz-Bone & Andreas Lehmann-Wermser (eds.), Perspectives on Music after Bourdieu. Contributions from Music Education and Sociology of Music. Cham: Springer, pp. 211-243.
Abstract. The contribution takes up Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual framework of three parts—habitus, field, and capital—and adjusts it. Habitus as the first part of the framework is adapted to the perspective of a plural habitus, introduced by Bernard Lahire. This perspective highlights a heterogeneous socialization process of individuals. From there, consequence for the other two parts of the framework are drawn and adjustments are proposed. Field analysis is already in Bourdieu’s thinking open to multiplicities and intersections. However, the concept of fields itself becomes more and more problematic when a plural habitus is considered. For the third part of the framework, new questions of worth arise that the limited, structural principles of capital cannot explain easily. The adjustment presented here realign the framework as a thinking and research tool to start with a plurality in mind when analyzing cultural production. These arguments are introduced alongside the empirical case of experimental electronic music. In this subsector of the field of music, scientific practices seem to be present within the work of musicians, most apparent in references to theories from the social science and humanities. Such a presence illustrates new values for musical production, distribution, and consumption. The adjusted framework enables an appropriate analysis of the different practices and the new values.
]]>In: Rainer Diaz-Bone & Andreas Lehmann-Wermser (eds.), Perspectives on Music after Bourdieu. Contributions from Music Education and Sociology of Music. Cham: Springer, pp. 145-190
Abstract. Sociology of music is strongly influenced by the work of Pierre Bourdieu for several decades now. The chapter introduces Bourdieu’s main concepts and focuses on the neostructuralist methodology of field analysis. It is argued that the analysis of musicals worlds is most substantially proceeded by employing field analysis. It is probably precisely because of his influence that Bourdieu’s theoretical perspective and his methodology are also subject to fundamental criticism. This includes the questions of a non-reductionist explanation of the value of culture and of the relative autonomy of cultural discourses as well as the needed inclusion of agency and objects in cultural analysis. Also, criticism has pointed to the plurality of logics of quality and orders of justification (instead of the assumption of field structures and habitus as the only structuring principles). Neostructuralist and neopragmatist objections against Bourdieusian positions are introduced and perspectives to advance field analysis are introduced. For this, the neopragmatist approaches of Howard S. Becker and of the “economics and sociology of conventions” (in short EC/SC) are employed to work out a neopragmatist-neostructuralist perspective. Especially EC/SC has gained its own standing and contributed to cultural analysis in general but also to sociology of music in particular.
]]>Anna Maria Wittorf & Arjan Kozica (2025)
Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für angewandte Organisationspsychologie. Online first, open access, pp. 1-10.
Zusammenfassung. Dieser Beitrag in der Zeitschrift „Gruppe.Interaktion.Organisation“ (GIO) schlägt vor, Führungssituationen als dichte soziale Arenen zu analysieren, in denen feldspezifische Konventionen sichtbar werden. Anstatt Führungsbeziehungen isoliert zu betrachten, wird die Situation betrachtet, in der sich Akteure koordinieren, um ein gemeinsames Ziel zu erreichen. Auf Basis der Soziologie der Konventionen wird argumentiert, dass Akteure in Führungssituationen auf unterschiedliche Konventionen („Welten“) zurückgreifen, um Handlungen zu legitimieren und Machtverhältnisse auszuhandeln. Der Beitrag führt die Situationsanalyse als Methode ein, um komplexe Führungsinteraktionen systematisch zu erfassen und Konventionen bzw. Handlungslogiken sichtbar zu machen. Zudem lassen sich so Dynamiken innerhalb von Führungsbeziehungen sowohl empirisch als auch heuristisch-praxisorientiert herausarbeiten und es wird möglich, den Einfluss von feldübergreifenden Umwelteinflüssen – etwa durch Digitalisierung oder Wertepluralisierung – auf Führungssituationen differenziert zu analysieren. Der Beitrag unterstreicht ein neues Verständnis von Führung als situative, geteilte Praxis, die sich in der Aushandlung von Konventionen und Interessen zwischen Akteuren zeigt.
Abstract. This article in the journal “Gruppe.Interaktion.Organisation” (GIO) proposes analyzing leadership situations as dense social arenas in which field-specific conventions become visible. Instead of viewing leadership relationships in isolation, the article considers situations in which actors coordinate to achieve a common goal. Based on the sociology of conventions, it is argued that actors in leadership situations draw on different conventions (“worlds”) to legitimize actions and negotiate power relations. The article introduces situation analysis as a method for systematically recording complex leadership interactions and making conventions and logics of action visible. In addition, this allows dynamics within leadership relationships to be identified both empirically and heuristically in a practice-oriented manner, and makes it possible to analyze the influence of cross-field environmental influences—such as digitalization or value pluralization—on leadership situations in a differentiated manner. The article emphasizes a new understanding of leadership as a situational, shared practice that manifests itself in the negotiation of conventions and interests between actors.
]]>Laura Centemeri, Veronica Macchiavelli & Davide Olori (2025)
Année sociologique, 252(2), pp. 135-170
Résumé. Dans la recherche sur les catastrophes, l’analyse de la gouvernance est appréhendée au travers de deux conventions de l’État : l’État extérieur, imposant sa vision du bien commun ; et l’État absent, qui laisse les acteurs se coordonner par le marché. Après les séismes de l’Apennin central en 2016-2017, le gouvernement a confié la reconstruction à un Commissaire extraordinaire, agissant en tant qu’État extérieur tout en favorisant une coordination située. Face à la complexité politique et administrative de la tâche, ce dispositif a abouti à une impasse renforçant une convention de l’État défaillant. Il s’est mis à fonctionner quand le Commissaire nommé a su mobiliser, en s’appuyant sur une forme de légitimité charismatique tant dans les relations avec le gouvernement central qu’aux autres échelles, une convention de l’État en personne.
Abstract. Research on disasters approaches the governance of reconstruction through two conventions of the State: the external State, when the State imposes its vision of the common good from above, and the absent State, when the State allows actors to coordinate themselves through the market. After the 2016-2017 earthquakes of the Central Apennine, the task of governing the reconstruction was entrusted to a “Special Commissioner” who was expected to act as an external State while at the same time supporting situated State action. Given the political and administrative complexity of the post-earthquake situation, this model of governance led to an impasse that reinforced a convention of the failing State. It began to work when the appointed Commissioner convincingly mobilized, with the support of both the central government and regional and territorial actors, a convention of the State in person, based on a form of charismatic legitimacy.
Higher Education, online first
Abstract. This study utilizes a novel analytical framework to examine large-scale development-focused scholarship programs for international higher education. The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) is systematically analyzed here utilizing its 2013–2022 annual reports. Applying the orders of worth approach, LPDP’s claims and justifications towards the common good are studied, alongside the organization’s changing policies and practices. Investigation focuses on the perceivable but uncertain value of these programs for the modern developmental state and LPDP’s efforts to overcome these ambiguities. Findings highlight challenges related to the dominant share of justifications based in human capital theory (HCT). In parallel, justifications based in nationalist sentiments have grown, as have project-centered assertions of worth. These findings are analyzed; the varied inspirational and nationalist rationale LPDP forwards and undertakings it delineates to support its claims are detailed. Reflecting on LPDP’s shifting justifications, the discussion introduces “valuable coordination,” an emergent conceptualization which nuances and problematizes narrow HCT-based understandings of education for development. The paper concludes by reviewing its findings towards better understanding the societal embeddedness of scholarship programs and how harmonization might be improved. In furthering these aims, it suggests future research into Indonesian actors’ reception of LPDP’s justifications.
Peter Buchner (2025)
In: Elbe, Martin/Kümmel, Gerhard/Steinbrecher, Markus (eds.), Militärische Sozialisation. Anpassungsprozesse zwischen Militär und Gesellschaft. Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 269-291
Zusammenfassung. Das Leitbild der Staatsbürgerin und des Staatsbürgers in Uniform ist die Sozialfigur der Inneren Führung als Organisationskultur der Bundeswehr. Ausgehend von den althergebrachten Vorstellungen über Soldatentum wird hier die Frage beantwortet, wie solche Staatsbürger in Uniform sozialisiert werden müssen. Dazu wird der Sozialisationsbegriff als pädagogisches Basiskonzept diskutiert und insbesondere zum Erziehungsbegriff hin abgegrenzt. Auf der Grundlage der nach-Bourdieuschen französischen Soziologie der Kritik wird Innerer Führung ein Handlungsregister gerechtfertigten Handelns zugeschrieben, das das althergebrachte Handlungsregime der Hingabe ablöst. Ziel der Sozialisation muss es sein, die Staatsbürger in Uniform im Handlungsregime des gerechtfertigten Handelns fest zu verankern, indem sie Reflexion als Bildungsideal verinnerlichen.
Abstract. The model of the citizen in uniform is the social figure of inner leadership as the organizational culture of the German Armed Forces. Based on traditional ideas about soldiering, this article answers the question of how such citizens in uniform must be socialized. To this end, the concept of socialization is discussed as a basic pedagogical concept and, in particular, distinguished from the concept of education. Based on post-Bourdieusian French critical sociology, Inner Leadership is attributed a register of justified action that replaces the traditional regime of devotion. The goal of socialization must be to firmly anchor citizens in uniform in the regime of justified action by internalizing reflection as an educational ideal.
]]>Organization Theory, 6. Online first, open access
Abstract. Legitimacy tests occur when an event – such as an organizational accident, revelations about unethical business practices, or the detection of potentially harmful products – calls into question the conformity of an organization’s modus operandi with the expectations of its evaluating audiences. In this paper, we draw on the concept of justification work to improve our understanding of how legitimacy tests arise, evolve and are eventually settled. Specifically, we theorize how legitimized higher-order principles (orders of worth) are mobilized through discursive and material account giving during legitimacy tests. Our framework emphasizes the process of complexifying accounts as legitimacy tests evolve, which can serve to decrease the initial polarization between challengers and focal organizations. Furthermore, we theorize the conditions that affect whether or not a legitimacy test becomes settled, such as social actors’ competence in mobilizing appropriate orders of worth and aligning situational evidence with established societal categories of value.
]]>PhD thesis in sociology. Uppsala: University of Uppsala
- External reviewer: Bertil Rolandsson
- Supervisors: Patrik Aspers, Andreas Melldahl, Michael Allvin
Abstract. In sociological accounts of post-industrial societies, rising work complexity and increasing demands on workers’ competencies are seen as defining features. However, since recruitment and work are typically studied in isolation and without employer perspectives, how the expectations placed on workers during recruitment correspond to work content remains underexplored. This thesis builds on a case study of Swedish pharmacy retail – an industry marked by labour shortages and tensions between professional standards and redefined service ideals following a 2009 marketisation reform. It examines: (1) the meanings and practices through which recruitment is organised; (2) the challenges of pharmacists’ everyday work; and (3) the extent to which ideal pharmacists, as constructed in recruitment, align with actual work content. Theoretically, the thesis draws on economic sociology to conceptualise employers as situated between labour markets and customer markets, enabling an analysis of how asymmetries between them shape the purchasing and use of labour power.
The study shows that employers’ preferences for extroverted, flexible, and engaged pharmacists align with tasks requiring swiftness and interactional skills – especially in maintaining legitimacy for an industry at the intersection of welfare and commerce. Yet other findings reveal a divergence between employer practices. Although professional development features prominently in attraction discourses, the main complexities at work arise in areas partly unrelated to pharmacists’ disciplinary expertise. Moreover, selection processes are driven by a commitment to finding competence, leading to hiring thresholds beyond actual needs, even as companies opt to provide services with limited pharmacist involvement. These findings are understood through the concept of loose couplings, which can help employers meet strategic goals while reinforcing organisational control and discipline among job-seeking pharmacists.
Rather than confirming a straightforward link between complex work and higher skill demands, the thesis shows how competence is revalued across market contexts.
]]>Extract: “Whereas the second empirical chapter focus on candidate traits, the third chapter examines how evaluations are made, that is, it examines outines, practices, tools, and ideals for what an ideal process looks like. This chapter relies on interviews with evaluators (that is, pharmacy managers, recruiters, and sometimes regional managers acting as deputy pharmacy managers). The coding procedure for this analysis focused first on the different evaluation tools, procedures, and ideals for how to evaluate candidates (cf. “conventions” (Boltanski and Thévenot 2006; Brandl 2020; Larquier and Marchal 2016)), and second on what may be termed an attitudinal dimension. In line with what in the theory chapter is called a commitment (as opposed to legitimacy as appearance), I coded instances where evaluators articulate the importance of the whole practice of selection, and to what extent spending resources (in terms of time, attention and organisational finances) on it seems worthwhile.” (p. 112)
Working paper. SocArXiv Papers. Open access
Abstract. This article examines how the online fan community on the German platform transfermarkt.de co-constructs the market values of professional footballers. Through a qualitative text analysis of 1,030 forum posts, the study identifies six central justificatory conventions: performance, comparison, market, speculation, reputation, and yield. Fans’ arguments encompass assessments of sporting performance, statistical data, comparisons with peers, current transfer offers, speculative projections, club-specific contributions, and considerations of public reputation. Market values thus arise as dynamic and collectively negotiated constructs, reflecting multiple, sometimes conflicting, norms of evaluation. The findings demonstrate that fans are not passive observers but active participants who shape the criteria and legitimacy of market values. In doing so, they contribute both to the ongoing economisation of professional football and to the social legitimation of market value as a key category within the sport.
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