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The Rise of the Social Sciences and Humanities in France: Institutionalization, Professionalization, and Autonomization

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Book cover Shaping Human Science Disciplines

Part of the book series: Socio-Historical Studies of the Social and Human Sciences ((SHSSHS))

Abstract

This chapter studies the institutional development of the SSH in France. The first part concentrates on the two major historical phases of their institutionalization as academic disciplines, their professional development, and the autonomization of scientific fields in these domains, focusing primarily on seven disciplines: economics; political science; sociology; anthropology; philosophy; psychology; and literary studies. The second part focuses on morphological trends since the 1980s, providing quantitative data on the evolution of the seven disciplines studied here (faculty, researchers and students). This part questions current transformations regarding the balance of power between different SSH disciplines. It underlines also two major evolutions in the morphology of SSH researchers and professors: feminization and internationalization.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter relies in part on the collective work done by the French team of the Interco-SSH project, which included: Lucile Dumont, Quentin Fondu, Constantin Brissaud, Jean-Michel Chahsiche, Corentin Bourdeaux, and Annabelle Bonnet. Madeline Bedecarré helped to translate and proofread it.

  2. 2.

    Arrêté 1945/E, 19 August 1936.

  3. 3.

    The data concerns comparable series from available official sources that are cited for each figure. For university professors, comparable series start in 1984, when the status of “enseignant-chercheur” was established.

  4. 4.

    Data kindly provided by Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur, president of the EHESS, who conducted these tallies. The count that we made based on the school’s website in 2016 confirms the 2015 data.

  5. 5.

    This proportion increased at the end of the 1980s and then decreased (Backouche and Topalov 2008).

  6. 6.

    As evidenced by the recruitment in sociology, which is more open to degree holders in political science than political science is to sociologists, and the fact that the calls for tenders that finance research increasingly promote socioeconomic analyses.

  7. 7.

    Source: 2015 INSEE activity report.

  8. 8.

    In the first five years, SSH projects were financed up to 175 M€ all categories combined (close to half of them having responded to the open call) (Weil and Cases 2012, 33). In 2015, the 35 projects selected in the frame of the “challenge” “Innovative, integral and adaptive societies” (where most of the projects proposed by researchers in the SSH were submitted), represented only 5.3% of all projects accepted in 2015 (665) and, in terms of financing, 3.4% of funding for the generic call for projects, that is to say about 10 million euros out of 300 million (outside co-financing). The success rate of projects submitted by sociologists and political scientists was markedly lower than that of projects submitted by economists. Data presented by the head of the ANR’s SSH department François Héran, in the report of the Conseil scientifique de l’INSHS, “Analyse des résultats des projets SHS suite aux AAP “défis sociaux” de l’ANR pour 2015-2016 et propositions de réformes,” February 1st 2016 [online].

  9. 9.

    Le CNRS en chiffre, CNRS, 2000, p. 6.

  10. 10.

    See the INSH’s website: http://www.cnrs.fr/inshs/presentation/carte_chercheurs.htm.

  11. 11.

    Annual employee report of the CNRS, 2001 and 2014.

  12. 12.

    It is not a matter of affirmative action, but the growing awareness of discriminatory mechanisms against women.

  13. 13.

    The analysis of the age pyramid confirms this analysis, the distribution between men and women being more equal among the youngest. See the EHESS’s annual employee reports from 2010, 2014, and 2015.

  14. 14.

    Given that not all masters students who enrolled completed their master’s degree, and that not all of them chose to continue at the doctoral level, while some students coming from elsewhere in France or abroad enrolled directly in Ph.D. programs.

  15. 15.

    Data kindly provided by Audrey Gauthier (EHESS).

  16. 16.

    Data kindly provided by Audrey Gauthier (EHESS).

  17. 17.

    Data kindly provided by the human resources department of the EHESS.

  18. 18.

    At the French Senate, on 26 November 2015. Sonya Faure, Cécile Daumas, Anastasia Vécrin, «Culture de l’excuse: Des sociologues répondent à Valls», Libération, 12 janvier 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique (CESSP), Paris, France

    Gisèle Sapiro

  2. CNRS–École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, France

    Gisèle Sapiro

  3. University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France

    Eric Brun

  4. École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, France

    Clarisse Fordant

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  1. Gisèle Sapiro
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  2. Eric Brun
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Correspondence to Gisèle Sapiro .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Christian Fleck

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Matthias Duller

  3. Department of History, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

    Victor Karády

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Sapiro, G., Brun, E., Fordant, C. (2019). The Rise of the Social Sciences and Humanities in France: Institutionalization, Professionalization, and Autonomization. In: Fleck, C., Duller, M., Karády, V. (eds) Shaping Human Science Disciplines. Socio-Historical Studies of the Social and Human Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92780-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92780-0_2

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