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French

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10670/1.9gu3qo

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The summary of the communication as a sociological object The summary of the communication as a sociological object: A thematic, ontological and literary analysis using the Prospero

Abstract

National audience software The first congress of the Association Française de Sociologie (AFS), held in Villetaneuse in 2004, gave rise to 1067 proposals for communication from the first 920 authors. Can this collection be given a role to represent the state of sociology in France? Should the reasoning structure of these summaries be taken seriously? Or is it a question of measuring their suitability for constraints or instructions in calls for communication? Should we focus on the socio-demographic characteristics of authors and seek to draw cognitive and political-sharing within the discipline? Each question involves investigations and a redefinition of the characteristics of this body of texts which will give rise to a special interpretative space. Far from producing an objective table of the equipment which would then be interpreted, we consider that the techniques used here, IT, are engaged in interpretative choices from their design. There is no “technology neutrality”: they should make the question of researchers visible in order to allow for the best possible interpretations. Therefore, rather than starting from the body of summaries and seeking to ‘make them talk’ by using tools as indicators — in the photographic sense of the term — our approach will be to circulate iteratively between sociological questions and textual material. In this connection, we have carried out three successive analyses, each addressing specific concerns. The first part of this article examines the treatment of three sociological themes (gender, inequalities, historicity), thus focusing on their presence and the ways in which they are presented. It therefore seeks to answer, in part, the question: “what do sociologists speak about?” through a thematic analysis. The second part of the article focuses on the way sociological objects exist and how they relate to ordinary ontology. Developing this approach seeks to answer the question: “do sociologists share a common world?” Finally, the third part focuses on the statement situation associated with the proposed communication and on the particular form of a reading contract which it establishes between the author and the addressee.

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