This article focuses on the importance of quantifying Bourdieu's "research programme", linked with the concepts of field, habitus, and capital. It presents possible ways of doing statistics within this framework and argues that continuous methodological development should be pursued. To support this argument, the article highlights the methodology and empirical results of a doctoral dissertation on the Swiss field of economic sciences. It stresses the relevance of using a prosopographical strategy and advocates further development of multiple correspondence analysis, and the use of sequence analysis and social network analysis. The main contributions of these methods concern the investigation of subgroup profiles in fields, the trajectories of accumulation and conversion of capitals and the structure of social capital. When asking whether or not we should think with or beyond Bourdieu when suggesting new methodological developments to his programme, this article argues that we ought to think beyond his strict written work, but still within his theoretical framework, which proves particularly relevant to the study of power relations among individuals.
Cette thèse questionne l'affirmation et les transformations des sciences économiques (économie politique et gestion d'entreprise) en Suisse au XXe siècle. Nous utilisons une base de données biographiques sur cinq cohortes (1910, 1937, 1957, 1980, 2000) de professeurs d'université (N=561). Premièrement nous montrons que les sciences économiques s'affirment institutionnellement et disciplinairement dans l'académie. En particulier le capital académique (positions de recteurs) des professeurs de sciences économiques est le plus important parmi toutes les disciplines dans la période récente. Deuxièmement les professeurs de sciences économiques deviennent les professeurs les plus représentés parmi les élites économiques suisses (les grands patrons). Certains réalisent également des carrières parmi les élites politiques (les élus nationaux) et les élites administratives (les hauts fonctionnaires fédéraux). Nous observons une standardisation des carrières des professeurs entre deux types de profil : purement académique et partiellement extra-académique. Troisièmement nous montrons un processus de « nationalisation » des profils de professeurs après 1918 et de ré-internationalisation après 1945. Nous observons un déplacement d'une internationalité d'« excellence » scientifique des pays germanophones et francophones vers les USA. Finalement nous voyons que le capital scientifique (citations dans des revues prestigieuses) est lié au capital cosmopolite (internationalité) et opposé aux capitaux académique, économique et politique, plus nationaux. Quatrièmement cette opposition est confirmée par l'étude des interactions entre différents capitaux des professeurs. Nous identifions ainsi d'un côté un pôle scientifique et international et de l'autre un pôle « mondain », caractérisé par des capitaux nationaux, académiques, politiques et économiques. Le pôle scientifique utilise de plus en plus les mathématiques, et chacun des deux pôles a ses propres domaines de spécialisation. Nous observons que la dominance parmi les ...
This article focuses on (inter)disciplinary collaborations through the co-application to research projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the main provider of research funding in Switzerland. We suggest that interdisciplinarity is a potential mode of distinction and that its frequency and the disciplines involved may be associated with specific configurations of scientific, institutional, international, extra-academic, and network resources. We rely on biographical data on all biology and chemistry professors in Switzerland in 2000 ( n = 342), including all their funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation. In a first step, we highlight the role of the resources mentioned previously in structuring the symbolic hierarchy of disciplines using multiple correspondence analysis. In a second step, we look at how interdisciplinarity fits into these structures based on an opposition between international and institutional resources and on the unequal distribution of scientific (and social) capital. We show that these interdisciplinary logics of social distinction differ across the two disciplines. On the one hand, collaborations with biologists seem to help chemists reaching dominant positions in the academic field, while their degree of internationality is associated with interdisciplinary collaborations. On the other hand, the biologists who are the most endowed with symbolic capital are more likely to collaborate with the medical sciences.
Résumé À partir de 366 entretiens biographiques et 284 calendriers de vie collectés auprès de militant.e.s des années 1968 dans cinq métropoles françaises, et dans le cadre d'une recherche collective qui explore les conséquences biographiques de leur engagement tant dans leur sphère de vie militante que professionnelle et affective (Sombrero, 2013-2018), nous proposons une stratégie originale de traitement de ces données biographiques. En associant analyse de séquences, analyse des correspondances multiples, analyse factorielle multiple et analyse de clustering , nous avançons une proposition de méthode pour mieux répondre aux exigences théoriques d'une analyse interactionniste en termes de carrière. Laquelle permet de produire des typologies incarnées par des portraits représentatifs de chaque groupe identifié.
In recent times internationality has become an indicator for scientific excellence arguing that it will create talent, diversity, and inspiration. But what does "in-ternationality" really stand for in science? In order to answer this question we study two of the most hierarchized and internationalised disciplines – economics and business studies – in one of the most internationalised academic labour markets – Switzerland. Based on a historical database of 411 (full and associate) university professors of economics and business studies at three benchmarks (1957, 1980, and 2000), we investigate the evolution of internationality during the second part of the 20th century, and its link to scientific prestige and recognition. For both disciplines we find an increase in foreign professors and internationalisation of Swiss professors due to doctorial and postdoctoral phases spent in the US and other shorter stays abroad. This development can first be observed in economics, but business studies have managed to "catch up." Using three negative binomial regression models we show that Switzerland imports excellence among professors and that high scientific prestige is linked to stays abroad, especially in the dominant US fields of economics and business studies.
»Internationalisierung der Volks- und Betriebswirtschaftslehre: Exzellenzimport, kosmopolitisches Kapital oder amerikanische Dominanz?«. In recent times internationality has become an indicator for scientific excellence arguing that it will create talent, diversity, and inspiration. But what does "internationality" really stand for in science? In order to answer this question we study two of the most hierarchized and internationalised disciplines – economics and business studies – in one of the most internationalised academic labour markets – Switzerland. Based on a historical database of 411 (full and associate) university professors of economics and business studies at three benchmarks (1957, 1980, and 2000), we investigate the evolution of internationality during the second part of the 20th century, and its link to scientific prestige and recognition. For both disciplines we find an increase in foreign professors and internationalisation of Swiss professors due to doctorial and postdoctoral phases spent in the US and other shorter stays abroad. This development can first be observed in economics, but business studies have managed to "catch up." Using three negative binomial regression models we show that Switzerland imports excellence among professors and that high scientific prestige is linked to stays abroad, especially in the dominant US fields of economics and business studies.
In recent times internationality has become an indicator for scientific excellence arguing that it will create talent, diversity, and inspiration. But what does "internationality" really stand for in science? In order to answer this question we study two of the most hierarchized and internationalised disciplines – economics and business studies – in one of the most internationalised academic labour markets – Switzerland. Based on a historical database of 411 (full and associate) university professors of economics and business studies at three benchmarks (1957, 1980, and 2000), we investigate the evolution of internationality during the second part of the 20th century, and its link to scientific prestige and recognition. For both disciplines we find an increase in foreign professors and internationalisation of Swiss professors due to doctorial and postdoctoral phases spent in the US and other shorter stays abroad. This development can first be observed in economics, but business studies have managed to "catch up." Using three negative binomial regression models we show that Switzerland imports excellence among professors and that high scientific prestige is linked to stays abroad, especially in the dominant US fields of economics and business studies.
AbstractThe Chilean military regime offered a prime example of interactions among elite groups in the making of macroeconomic policies. Through the lens of both Bourdieu's field theory and Mills's elite coordination through networks, we show how Chilean elites sought to implement these policies despite being divided by their transnational and national ties. We have constructed an original database on the 62 most influential individuals within the space of macroeconomic policies using a variety of descriptive methods (multiple correspondence analysis, cluster analysis, and social network analysis), only used on very few occasions to study South American elites. We explore the internal divisions in these elites in terms of their orientation to national and transnational capital and biographical trajectories. We identify three groups – high‐ranking military officers, Chicago academic economists, and public and private sector professionals. Military officers were mostly endowed with national assets, while civilian groups relied on transnational resources. Moreover, the Chicago economists, characterized by their transnational and scientific legitimacy, were the closest to influential state positions overall (the Ministry of the Treasury and the Central Bank). Finally, we categorize the same three groups through (national and transnational) network ties. Organizational ties between those groups were significant, particularly among Chicago economists and professionals, which suggests an intense coordination process, facilitated by transnational affiliations and profile.
AbstractThis paper studies the rise of professors of economics and business studies in the second half of the 20th century in Switzerland. It focuses on three types of power resources: positions in the university hierarchy, scientific reputation and extra-academic positions in the economic and political spheres. Based on a biographical database of N = 487 professors, it examines how these resources developed from 1957 to 2000. We find that professors of economic sciences were increasingly and simultaneously successful on all three studied dimensions – especially when compared to disciplines such as law, social sciences or humanities. This evolution seems to challenge the notorious trade-off between scientific and society poles of the academic field: professors of economics and business increased their scientific reputation while becoming more powerful in worldly positions. However, zooming in on their individual endowment with capital, we see that the same professors rarely hold simultaneously a significant amount of scientific and institutional capital.
In the resurgence of elite sociology, formal (organizational-based network resources) and informal (non-organizational relations) social capital have garnered attention, but their mutual dynamics remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap, examining how both forms intersect among urban business elites, focusing on their roles on corporate boards, perceived as a front stage of power, and their places of residence, representing a back stage. Using multiple correspondence analysis, and thanks to social network analysis and geographic information systems, we examine the evolution of business elites (n = 2164) in Basel, Geneva and Zurich along the 20th century. Our findings identify two dominant elite fractions: the 'heirs' and the 'established'. The heirs' power is concentrated within a clearly defined spatial context especially through informal social capital, while the established derive their power from extensive possession of formal social capital. The varying presence of these two groups mirrors developments of Swiss capitalism in the 20th century.