Thesis supervisors:
and Mathias Thura
Since the mid-1990s, the armed forces have been confronted with organizational transformations that have challenged certain founding paradigms of the contemporary French military institution. The notion of a "revolution in military affairs" has come to be used to describe all the restructuring that Western armies have had to undergo during this period: professionalization, changing missions, and the digitization of the battlefield (NEB). This field of investigation has given rise to a wealth of literature, characterized by multidisciplinary contributions (sociology, political science, management science, history, etc.) that illustrate the interest of the social sciences and the military institution in these issues. It is widely accepted that the digitization of the battlefield (NEB) is one of the three major "transformations" that have marked the Army over the past twenty years (Lebraty, 2010). The introduction of information and command systems (SIR, SICF, CITEL) at the end of the 2000s and their widespread use in regiments during the 2010s represented a major turning point in military equipment and, subsequently, in the structure of the armed forces and the methods used to carry out military action (Godet-Sanchez, 2008). This movement is continuing as the armed forces are engaged in the development of new technical systems (Scorpion, Titan) and related doctrinal considerations.
Thus, like various other sectors of activity and a large number of professions, the military is not immune to the movement sometimes referred to as "digitalization" (Bouiller, 2016).Information and command systems, and more recently artificial intelligence, are the subject of numerous technological promises, which are thought to be capable of predicting a revolution in the purposes served by the armed forces, in military equipment, and even in the practices of soldiers. This research project aims to better understand the realities corresponding to this introduction of digital technology in its most recent forms, through an activity-based approach. The thesis will seek to understand how digital technology is being integrated into the operational activities of regiments, how it fits into the overall ecosystem of instruments used by the military, and how combat practices are being reconfigured as a result. The focus will be on the appropriation of new equipment, the effects on individual and collective professional practices, and the possible transformation of these practices and forms of collaboration and cooperation in the operational environment. This work thus aims to make a twofold contribution: to knowledge of the effects of the introduction of digital technology in the armed forces and the corresponding changes; and to a sociology of military activity in expansion (Jankowski, Thura, Muxel et al., 2021).
The thesis will focus specifically on the digitization of the battlefield and will seek to answer the following question: how does the prescribed and actual use of information and communication systems in an operational setting contribute to redefining "combat military activity " (Bardiès, 2011) (practices, skills, hierarchical relationships, environment, etc.); and the subsequent effects on the organizational structure of the Army's tactical groups. To this end, we will undertake a detailed analysis of the activity carried out, the visible and less visible dimensions of what is undertaken, the materiality of the work, and in particular the handling of tools, and an effort to understand practices, gestures, their logic, and their individual and collective aspects. Several subsidiary questions will feed into this research, such as the effects of ICT on officers' decision-making autonomy and individual strategies to avoid the possible dispossession of their traditional prerogatives; organizational developments (increased control and reporting or maintenance of a constant level of subsidiarity); actors' representations of technical transformations, etc.
Year of enrollment: 2023
Doctoral school: Organization, Markets, and Institutions (OMI)