As the digital revolution and the widespread adoption of smartphones take hold in cities, they are leading to the creation of new mobility offerings and services. These are provided by new entrants whose business model is primarily based on that of online platforms. This phenomenon is disrupting the French model of mobility governance and management, which is organised through concessions and structured primarily around the partnership between Mobility Organising Authorities (AOMs) and public transport operators.

This research examines the effects of these disruptions on mobility governance in French cities, with a particular focus on how the role of established mobility operators has evolved. Conducted within a consultancy firm, a subsidiary of a major urban public transport group, this thesis draws on empirical data and employs approaches from political science and management science to shed light on the trajectories of traditional stakeholders and the reconfiguration of their interactions within an urban public service undergoing rapid change.

The findings of this research show that, despite the disruptions caused by the digital revolution and the widespread adoption of smartphones, the French model of urban mobility governance and management – organised through concessions – is becoming increasingly entrenched around the partnership between AOMs and public transport operators. However, this development is bringing about changes in the governance of urban public services, whose management model is becoming hybridised, combining established contractual practices with new approaches to platformisation.

Composition du jury

• François-Mathieu Poupeau, Research Director, CNRS, Thesis Supervisor
• Hélène Reigner, University Professor, Aix-Marseille Institute of Urban Planning and Regional Development, External Examiner
• Maxime Huré, Senior Lecturer (HDR), University of Perpignan, External Examiner
• Antoine Courmont, Senior Lecturer, Gustave Eiffel University, Examiner
• Gilles Pinson, University Professor, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Chair
• Virginie Boutueil, Senior Research Fellow, École nationale des ponts et chaussées, Examiner
• Doriane Raly, Senior Manager, Kisio, Guest

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.

The ongoing evolution of technologies and the methods associated with the IT profession, as observed throughout a career, coupled with the acceleration of this trend in recent years and the lack of sociological analysis of its impact on the IT profession, form the basis of this research
topic. The sociological analysis aims to describe the organisational realities of agile transformation: which projects involve a transition to agility, what deployment trajectories are followed, what levels of penetration exist in theory and in practice, but also how this is perceived by the various professional groups involved, particularly by members of the management line—such as, in the case of an IT department, the various categories of IT professionals?

The theoretical framework draws primarily on symbolic interactionism and the sociology of activity, or the pragmatic sociology of work. The research approach adopted is qualitative in nature; it is conducted from an action research perspective. To provide a framework for the conditions of the study and the relationship with Pôle Emploi’s IT department throughout the research, a collaboration agreement was signed between the latter and Gustave Eiffel University.

Building on an agile methodology that originated within the development profession, we will seek to understand how Pôle Emploi interprets it and what adjustments it has made; we will focus on assessing all aspects of the organisational work undertaken in support of this transformation. We will then examine Pôle Emploi’s strategic dimension and how its social and political initiatives are interwoven with its drive for transformation. At the heart of our approach lies the transformation of IT professionals’ work; we will explore the changes in their profession and professional identities, going so far as to understand how IT professionals have come to embrace these changes.

Composition of the jury :

• Bénédicte Geffroy, Professor of Business and Management Sciences, IMT Atlantique, External Examiner
• Cécile Guillaume, Associate Professor of Employment Relations, University of Surrey, External Examiner
• Gilles Jeannot, Professor, École nationale des ponts et chaussées, Examiner
• Pascal Ughetto, Professor of Sociology, Université Gustave Eiffel, Thesis Supervisor
• Philippe Paumard, Head of the Skills, Training & Educational Engineering Department, France Travail, Deputy Director-General for Technology

“Know what people think”. This slogan, displayed on the homepage of the British company Brandwatch’s website, sums up the promise of this new industry dedicated to analysing public opinion online: finally knowing what people think, without even having to ask them. Since the mid-2000s, a range of agencies, start-ups and software publishers have indeed been offering to gauge public opinion based on the millions of daily posts on social media: tweets, blog posts, forum messages and even comments in the online press. This vast pool of data is thus utilised by a wide variety of players and tools to measure everything from the reputation of major brands and companies to reactions to an advertising campaign or a televised debate, or even emerging consumer trends; what they all have in common is their focus on the unsolicited opinions of internet users. This approach has, moreover, enjoyed considerable success for several years: in 2015, ten years after the first companies in this field were established, the social media analysis software industry generated $2.2 billion in revenue, according to the consultancy Markets and Markets, which also forecasts that this market will grow to $17.9 billion by 2019.

Distancing itself both from the positivism that surrounds these technologies and from a constructivist critique that remains external to its subject matter, this thesis seeks to describe the emergence of a new type of mediation that harnesses conversational traces from the social web to measure public opinion, thereby renewing the epistemological and political content of this category. Starting from the hypothesis that there is a plurality of forms of opinion and of the mechanisms that measure it, we thus examine an extremely varied set of models, developed by start-ups and innovative companies. We are thus initially interested in attempts to redefine the notion of representativeness through the sampling of mobilised and influential audiences. Secondly, we examine the model that appears to be gaining the upper hand in this market, based on software aimed at the exhaustive and continuous indexing of traces of online conversation. By measuring opinion as a continuous flow of singular events, these tools break definitively with the idea of representativeness and revitalise a framework for understanding opinion as a collective and discursive activity, attentive to the media and relational dynamics of online discussion. This indexical regime of opinion knowledge thus moves away from quantifying majorities and minorities towards measuring mobilisations and shifts in public opinion.

Members of the jury

• Loïc Blondiaux, Professor at the University of Paris I Sorbonne
• Dominique Cardon, Associate Professor at the University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée
• Patrice Flichy, Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (Director)
• Alexandre Mallard, Research Director at Mines ParisTech
• Cécile Méadel, Professor at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas
• Sylvain Parasie, Senior Lecturer at the University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (co-director)

Whilst digital technology is transforming the energy sector, the scale and nature of this transformation remain to be examined. The design of the Linky smart meter has been accompanied since 2005 by numerous attempts to redefine individual behaviour, advocating the emergence of a ‘smart consumer’, based both on the logic of opening up energy markets and on the principles of energy saving and the energy transition. However, the roll-out of this new technology, which has already been in use in many other countries since the early 2000s, has been the subject of debate ever since its experimental launch in 2010.

Challenging the notion of a place-less and history-less rationality surrounding the Linky meter, this thesis in the sociology of innovation sets out to analyse the forms of politicisation and the ways in which the design, reception and operation of this new technology are appropriated. This study highlights that the characterisations of the Linky meter extend beyond the design phase: meaning and appropriations are constructed within the social worlds involved with the Linky meter. At each stage of innovation within the social worlds studied in relation to the Linky meter, new controversies emerge, centring on debates that appear, on the surface, to be very distant from one another. The Linky meter, as an infrastructure for the digitalisation of the energy sector, thus acts as a catalyst for new questions, in the context of contemporary debates on consumption, health, and digital technology, as negotiated by various ‘cause entrepreneurs’, whether professional or not (advocates for personal data protection, groups of people with electromagnetic hypersensitivity, promoters of the energy transition, campaigners for open personal data, and frontline staff). Omnipresent, the figures of the user and the citizen are constantly invoked within these frameworks of criticism: the user as an active participant in their own consumption, those facing energy insecurity, victims of health impacts, people whose privacy is compromised, and so on.

Focusing on the novelty of the Linky meter or the media controversies it has sparked partly obscures the full range of regulatory processes at work within the social spheres surrounding the Linky meter: this thesis demonstrates that the dynamics of these controversies are linked to local specificities (the socio-political history of the regions; associative and political networks; and the characteristics of the existing stock of analogue meters). The study of the service relationship between field staff and customers also highlights the significance of local regulations: following an intense phase of dispute resolution, professionals will redefine the meaning and uses of the infrastructure within the framework of a pacified service relationship centred on the figure of an honest customer kept at a distance from their metering infrastructure. The Linky meter — what it should be, what it ultimately becomes — reveals a plurality of societal models (a society focused on energy savings, a ‘connected’ society, etc.). This thesis is devoted to the analysis of this process, this ‘socialisation’, which underpins the transformation and adaptation of the Linky meter.

This research, carried out in partnership with the Energy, Technology and Society Research Group (EDF Lab), is based on nearly 135 interviews and ethnographic observations (in Île-de-France, the south-west, in Indre-et-Loire and the Lyon metropolitan area), carried out with all stakeholders involved in both the design and roll-out phases, focusing on two contrasting pilot sites for the Linky meter, as well as analyses of media content and historical archives from energy companies.

Members of the jury

• Sandrine Barrey, Senior Lecturer, University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès (Examiner)
• Cécile Caron, Research Engineer in Sociology, Energy, Technology and Society Research Group, EDF Lab (Visiting Member)
• Olivier Coutard, Research Director, CNRS (LATTS) (PhD supervisor)
• Éric Dagiral, Senior Lecturer, Paris Descartes University (Examiner)
• Gérald Gaglio, Professor, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (Jury Rapporteur)
• Benoit Lelong, University Professor, Paris 8 University (Examiner)
• Thomas Reverdy, Senior Lecturer, INP Grenoble (Jury Rapporteur).

Various studies have shown that the physical nature of money contributes to its social significance. The digitalisation of financial services has encouraged young adults to adopt digital methods of storing, managing and paying with money. These new forms of financial services are emerging alongside new methods of bank fraud, which are claiming an increasing number of victims.

It is against this backdrop of the digitalisation of payments that this research into young people and their financial habits is set. This demographic group, characterised by various changes in social and professional status, is considered to be more tech-savvy than others and is thought to be one of the driving forces behind the spread of new forms of technological culture.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and examine young people’s digital practices relating to household accounting, payments and saving. The research will explore how they make use of digital tools for accessing money, how these practices fit into their life trajectories, and what risks are associated with the digitalisation of banking services.

Digital technologies based on artificial intelligence, which have seen a palpable surge in popularity in recent years, make it possible to collect vast amounts of data rich in information, to the extent that businesses are now considering how to utilise them within the workplace. Their developers therefore suggest using the data collected as a means of informing the development of occupational health policies by gathering data on work activity. Is this a genuine tool for advancing the design of policies to prevent and manage risks, accidents and occupational illnesses, or merely a technocratic illusion?

Does this knowledge of work benefit employees as much as it does employers and insurers, or does it merely represent new surveillance tools? These technologies raise numerous questions (regarding their use, purpose and applications). The thesis argues that one of the most crucial questions concerns the conceptual model underlying the design of these devices: does this model represent work as a mechanical and controllable act, or as an activity carried out by individuals? Its aim is to shed light on the question of how work is understood through the analysis of a series of technical innovations which some—who still question their usefulness—wish to see as solutions for the future.

By analysing how a digital market seeks to organise itself and establish its legitimacy, we demonstrate how a conception of ‘connected health in the workplace’ is being shaped by actors who are sometimes far removed from this field, yet who are committed to promoting new models of innovation; this process resonates with the history of how occupational health issues have been framed, particularly those based on quantification.

When these new technological forms come up against the reality of practice, the thesis demonstrates—by examining both the construction of the innovation framework and the issues raised by these experiments, as well as the meanings attached to them by project leaders and their beneficiaries—that service design cannot afford to overlook the link between technology and work.
Furthermore, the thesis argues that this link is not self-evident and requires, in the design phase, a commitment to learning not only about technical and design methodologies but also about labour issues.

Composition of the jury

• Marc-Éric BOBILLIER-CHAUMON, lecturer at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (rapporteur)
• Sophie BRETESCHÉ, Professor, Institut Mines Telecom Atlantique (rapporteur)
• Pascale LEVET, Associate Professor, University of Lyon 3 (examiner)
• Manuel ZACKLAD, lecturer at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (examiner)
• Pascal UGHETTO, Professor, University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (PhD supervisor)