There is currently a significant resurgence of interest in academic and professional circles in incorporating residents’ practical expertise and taking their lifestyles into account within project processes. This focus, which first emerged in the 1980s, has gained fresh momentum since the mid-2000s in light of the energy challenges posed by the ecological transition.

An assessment of efforts to promote energy-efficient renovation shows that there are significant discrepancies between projected energy efficiency and actual post-renovation figures. Taking into account the specific needs of residents and their practical expertise in energy-efficient renovation projects therefore appears to be essential. Whilst the concept of “user expertise” had already emerged during the 1990s, in recent years we have seen the emergence of a field known as User Control Assistance (UCA), driven by professionals from a wide range of backgrounds (architects, designers, sociologists, etc.) who offer services in this area or respond to requests from urban developers, or more specifically within the housing sector.

This thesis project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the growing interest in AMU practices among a wide range of operators and professionals. It will examine how this type of service is viewed by its proponents, as well as the outcomes it produces.

This thesis analyses the relationship between the design and implementation of new IT tools aimed at achieving integrated information management within an organisation, and the resulting changes in organisational design and practices.

This is a recurring theme in sociological analysis, the relevance and topicality of which are ensured by successive technological developments that are constantly reshaping the world of work. As a result, new issues regularly emerge and demand the attention of researchers working in this field.

To understand this relationship, we examined how proposals for a new integrated information system and a new organisational model are formulated, and who formulates them, as well as the references made by one project to the other. We are also interested in how the various stakeholders—both internal and external to the organisation, including designers and users of information systems, as well as the organisation’s managers and employees—perceive and position themselves in relation to the two projects, which in a sense represent organisational innovations.

Our aim is to analyse the ‘internal dynamics of innovation’ within a public organisation by examining how, from the late 1990s onwards, one of the ‘most emblematic’ forms of managerial innovation of recent decades—integrated information management—was introduced within the French tax administration.

With remote working, employees no longer need to come into the office on a fixed and regular basis; some workstations remain unoccupied, and the future of commercial property can be reimagined. This is what companies are doing by implementing the flex-office model. It involves doing away with designated workstations by providing fewer desks than there are employees, thereby ensuring a rotation in the use of space. It aims to fulfil a dual management objective: on the one hand, to modernise management through more flexible organisational methods, and on the other, to meet the need to reduce property costs.

Its implementation relies on a significant process of decision-making and negotiation involving senior management, who work in tandem with a rapidly growing sector: workplace design consultancy. Together, these factors have a considerable impact on and transform the way work is carried out within the organisation. The hypothesis underpinning the thesis is therefore that flex-office projects are driven by a variety of stakeholders with multiple rationales: on the one hand, corporate negotiators and decision-makers torn between financial and managerial interests; and on the other, the diverse range of consultancy services on offer.

We must therefore ask whether there are different approaches to designing flex-office projects, by examining who the key players are and what power dynamics lie behind management and consultancy teams, and then assessing whether these projects make meaningful provision for the realities of work and their complexity.

An analysis of regional strategies reveals a recent surge in ‘smart city’ projects being undertaken by medium-sized towns and major cities (Paris, Rennes, Nice, Marseille, Dijon, Brest, Saint-Étienne, Chartres, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Nevers, La Rochelle, Arras, etc.). This incorporation of smart city issues into the French urban agenda has sparked a number of debates, questions, concerns and proposals regarding their integration into socio-technical systems and their effects on regions and governance.

Analysis of smart city strategies and their impact on organisations, local authorities and public services has so far focused on major cities. The arguments put forward to date have adopted a framework that is less readily applicable to medium-sized towns. These studies tend to focus on metropolitan stakeholders, who possess greater expertise and capacity than their counterparts in smaller towns. This observation suggests that medium-sized towns are not affected by these new opportunities. This is jumping to conclusions.

Our project will adopt three approaches to address our questions regarding the specific characteristics of the relationship between medium-sized towns and smart city and regional policies.
The first focuses on the modernisation of public administration through the work of public officials, the integration of new management tools, and the co-production of public services and regional innovations with the local ecosystem.
The second examines the nature of the incentives and policies that build a local data and innovation economy.
The third examines the specific characteristics of the innovation market within medium-sized towns. It is through this approach that we will attempt to understand how medium-sized towns influence smart city and smart region policies, and vice versa. This two-way dynamic, according to our hypotheses, defines the specific nature of this level of government for this type of study.

Environmental risks, terrorist threats, health risks, identity-related risks, food safety risks, educational risks… the list of risks on which we are expected to take a stance seems to grow a little longer every day. Some sociologists see this as the emergence of a genuine ‘risk society’, undermining all the key principles of wealth redistribution inherited from past centuries. The process is said to have begun in France at the end of the 19th century with the issue of workplace accidents, which were gradually addressed by laws authorising compensation for many workers in exchange for the introduction of compulsory insurance for all.

Since then, the management and prevention of risks through insurance have clearly become ubiquitous, even indispensable, in the daily lives of everyone, whenever they wish to travel or find accommodation, for example. Our thesis project aims to understand how this evolution is manifested and continues today, at a time when digital tools, giving rise to new models, could lead us to rethink the definition of the risks surrounding us.

More specifically, we propose to examine the characteristics of a particular social group, namely ‘actuaries’ – statisticians specialising in the insurance sector, whose work focuses on assessing and defining the risks to which a given population is exposed.

When the first pilot tenders were launched in 2003, offshore wind power looked set for a bright future along the French coastline. Nineteen years later, only one wind farm is generating electricity, whilst all the initially planned production targets have been postponed. Behind the scenes, the state’s role in shaping offshore wind energy policy deserves to be scrutinised and placed within the broader context of energy transition policies.

Whilst the State is the main driving force, it does not have a free hand: offshore wind power is a classic example of multi-level governance, where all levels (local, national and supranational) have the capacity to act. Through the general process of planning (spatial and sectoral), conceptions of technology and territory will be shaped, as well as the role of the State and local authorities in general, whether political, economic or community-based. This thesis therefore aims to examine the development of offshore wind energy through the lens of its planning processes (past and present).

By understanding the decision-making processes and the scope for action of the relevant stakeholders (the State, RTE, interest groups, local authorities, etc.), the study aims to shed light on the processes driving the regionalisation of offshore wind power and the multi-level governance mechanisms at work.

By examining the introduction of public-private partnerships in France and the involvement of financial actors in this context, this thesis sets out to analyse public-private partnerships [PPPs] in terms of the ‘financialisation’ of public procurement.

It draws on a wide range of materials and areas of investigation (developments in public procurement law, relevant literature, observation of stakeholders and initiatives promoting PPPs, interviews with financial stakeholders, and work placements at financial institutions involved in PPPs). In line with Bourdieu’s framework for studying the social structures of the economy, our approach involves interpreting this diverse material through multiple levels of analysis within the field of economic sociology.

 PPPs are first analysed from the perspective of the social construction of a market. We propose ideal-typical, decontextualised organisational characteristics that allow public procurement arrangements to be classified as “PPPs” where long-term comprehensive contracts (design, construction, maintenance) are established, and where the public contracting authority, in return for payment of rent, from a service providing a building, equipment or infrastructure to support the final public service. Legal certainty is added as a prerequisite for their existence.

This approach ties in with our longitudinal study of changes in the legal rules specific to the French context, which for a long time stood in the way of the establishment of PPP-style contractual arrangements free from legal risks. The disengagement from an old rationality embedded in administrative law is followed by a re-engagement with a new rationality. Governed by regulatory mechanisms in line with the recommendations of New Public Management, PPPs reflect, through their intrinsic characteristics, the contributions of microeconomic theory on optimal forms of public procurement. Competition for the market is combined with a governance architecture based on contracts, the cornerstone of which is the control function provided by finance. This legal, historical and conceptual interpretation of PPPs finds its empirical expression in the mobilisation and argumentative repertoire of a coalition of public and private actors with a stake in the successful development of PPPs.

In practice, public-private partnerships open up a segment of public procurement to the financial sector. The project financing approach employed involves stakeholders with divergent interests and timeframes. The financing mechanisms – structures and tools – are analysed as a series of securitisation operations, contributing to the fragmentation of public infrastructure into assets linked to the financial markets and their requirements. The analysis of the supply side also examines the stakeholders – banks, investment funds, consultants – involved in PPPs, a field of actors whose dynamics of division of labour are studied. By the end of this work, the project finance industry emerges as a new player in urban development and public services. Beyond our aim of proposing a sectoral research framework contributing to the sociological analysis of financialisation, this thesis sheds light on new challenges for public policy.

The research presented in this document focuses on the dynamics of industrial R&D centres based abroad.

Like Ronstadt (1978), Asakawa (2001) and Asakawa & Som (2008), we observe that the role and position of R&D centres within a firm’s internal innovation network are evolving. We have modelled this evolution in four distinct phases: the establishment of the centre; the dual phase of building its identity through integration into the firm’s internal innovation network and the development of its external innovation network; and finally, the centre’s maturity. We then sought to understand how the centre moved from its establishment phase, during which it does not yet have its own identity, to its maturity phase, where it has succeeded in specialising and becoming a key element of the firm’s internal innovation network. We characterised each stage of the centre’s evolution by the types of relationships between the centre, its internal innovation network and its local environment.

To achieve this, we drew on the literature on clusters, which has examined the types of links required for the exchange of knowledge and expertise and for building relationships of trust between multiple organisations, looking beyond the mere consideration of their geographical proximity. This literature provides a tool that is rarely utilised in the literature on the globalisation of R&D: proximities (Boschma, 2005). We used six types of proximity to understand and analyse how an R&D centre established abroad evolved: geographical, organised institutional, unorganised institutional, structural, cognitive and social proximity. Our work shows that each phase of the centre’s evolution is characterised by a specific architecture of proximities between the centre, its internal innovation network and its local environment. To arrive at these results and to validate them, we combined several methodological tools: 1/ we established and facilitated a focus group comprising industrial R&D managers on the theme of R&D globalisation over a two-year period; 2/ we studied the R&D centres established in Bangalore by four multinational companies: ABB, AkzoNobel, Procter & Gamble and Siemens; 3/ finally, we drew on a large number of ‘mini-cases’, gathered during informal interviews or meetings relating to the issue of R&D globalisation; All of this empirical work was carried out as part of a CIFRE thesis in collaboration with the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA).

Do local and regional authorities have any influence on legislation adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure at European level?
Focusing on the energy and waste sectors and adopting a definition of influence as being taken into account in the texts, this thesis examines how these types of actors mobilise and attempt to shape the EU legislative process throughout its course (from its preparation within the European Commission through to the trilogues and the adoption of the texts). To this end, it draws on a methodology centred on ‘drafters’ and combining process tracing, attributed influence and textual analysis.

Our research shows that, depending on the circumstances, local authorities may have varying degrees of influence at all stages of the legislative process, and that they are not necessarily supported by the Commission or the Parliament as institutions. Whilst certain political groups, sections of the Commission or Member States appear more inclined to support them depending on the issue (with variations even within each sector), local authorities actually face two obstacles: legislators’ interpretation of the principle of subsidiarity and the objective of a competitive European internal market.

In situations where, despite these obstacles, local authorities are found to exert significant influence, we have identified certain formulations in legislative texts that make it possible to circumvent these obstacles; we have termed these ‘drafting workarounds’.

In our case studies, we highlight two types: ‘blended strategies’, which involve incorporating local authorities into a broader private sector category, and ‘invisibility strategies’, which avoid mentioning local authorities and their role. These ‘editorial strategies’ reveal a subtle and relatively discreet, yet very real, influence of local authorities within the texts.

Members of the jury

• Sabine Saurugger, Professor at Sciences Po Grenoble – PACTE (Rapporteur)
• Romain Pasquier, CNRS Research Director at Sciences Po Rennes – ARENES (Rapporteur)
• Anne-Cécile Douillet, Professor at the University of Lille – CERAPS (Examiner)
• Magali Dreyfus, Research Fellow at the University of Lille – CERAPS (Examiner)
• Charlotte Halpern, Research Fellow at Sciences Po Paris – CEE (Examiner)
• François-Mathieu Poupeau, CNRS Research Fellow at LATTS (PhD supervisor)

This thesis examines the freelance work of experts on assignment for banks, within organisations significantly affected by digital transformation. As the banking sector becomes increasingly digitised, it is facing a shift in roles and skills, resulting in a need for expertise and the use of ‘tech’ professionals on assignment. Known as ‘self-employed workers’, these freelance professionals are defined by their expertise and professional skills ‘offered’ within a specific market: that of business services and banking. This highly dynamic field of activity enables many experts, particularly in the IT sector, to become self-employed.

This thesis explores the ecosystem that supports and organises the work of these professionals, the conditions under which they enter their expert careers, and their experiences of this form of employment within the specific context of Bank M. We will demonstrate how freelance career paths are socially situated. From a professional and biographical perspective, they are the result of individual actors—qualified experts—who choose independence within a given state of the labour market.

Composition of the jury
Sophie BRETESCHE, Professor of Sociology, HDR, Institut Mines Telecom Atlantique
Martine D’AMOURS, Professor Emeritus, HDR, Laval University, Quebec
Jean-Michel DENIS, University Professor, Director of the ISST (Chair)
Yannick FONDEUR, Researcher, LISE-CNAM
Cécile GUILLAUME, Sociologist, Senior Lecturer, HDR, University of Surrey, UK (co-director)
Pascal UGHETTO, Professor of Sociology, HDR, UGE, researcher at LATTS
Nadège VEZINAT, Professor of Sociology, HDR, University of Paris 8, researcher at CRESPPA (UMR 7217)

This doctoral research project focuses on remote working, that is to say, a form of remote work organisation which, over the past year and a half, has been undergoing a major transformation. It aims to re-examine the experience of teleworking and its implementation in the corporate world, in a context where such arrangements have been imposed as part of the health measures taken by the French government to combat the spread of Covid-19.

Whilst numerous surveys and studies were conducted on remote working in the decades leading up to the health crisis, the current value of new research lies in the fact that the context in which it is being implemented has changed significantly. Firstly, companies were forced to impose it at extremely short notice on various categories of employees, often covering a much larger proportion of working hours than in the past. Remote working was therefore not a choice or the result of negotiation, whereas it could have been prior to the health crisis and government measures. Consequently, a large number of employees had no choice but to work remotely and, within a matter of days, to learn how to use new tools, incorporate new practices into their work and communicate in a different way.

This trend has also helped to reshape perceptions of work and blur the boundaries between home and work life. It has led to confusion regarding roles and time management, forcing some employees to work remotely whilst simultaneously carrying out domestic chores or home-schooling their children. Finally, during this period, remote working has been linked to employees’ mental health. In other words, it appears that this way of organising work has had a very significant negative impact on mental health. The aim here is to attempt to understand the priority given by companies and the various stakeholders within them to occupational health issues in the context of remote working since the first lockdown. More specifically, the focus is on the link that has been made between this mode of remote work organisation and mental health. Several time periods will be considered: periods of ‘predominantly’ or even ‘exclusively’ remote working (in terms of working hours), introduced following the first lockdown in March 2020; periods of partial or even full return to the relevant workplaces; and future periods.

This research project draws on interactionist sociology and lies at the intersection of several branches of the discipline, such as the sociology of work and activity, organisations, institutions, and information and communication technologies. It aims to study telework and the importance placed on occupational health and mental health, focusing on three levels of analysis: macro, meso and micro-sociological.

Based on a study of the implementation of master plans for electric vehicle charging infrastructure (SDIRVE), this dissertation project aims to examine the territorial organization of the transition to electric mobility. The aim is to examine the effects of the national policy mix on the electric mobility ecosystem (and vice versa), the ways in which relations between the central government and local authorities are being reshaped in the energy transition, and the effectiveness of the regions’ integrative role in the field of mobility.

This project also aims to examine the modalities of cooperation between public and private actors regarding the development of new mobility infrastructure, focusing in particular on how the participation of diverse actors influences the trade-off between public service objectives and economic profitability and, in doing so, contributes (or not) to redefining the role of local public authorities in regional planning. Finally, this thesis project analyzes the role played by electricity distribution network operators in supporting the deployment of publicly accessible charging infrastructure, to understand the transformation of their role in the era of the energy transition.