Showing papers by "Eve Chiapello published in 2004"

Evolution and co‐optation

Abstract: ‘Artist critique’ is an umbrella term, synthesising the many forms of critique first levelled against the new industrial, capitalist, and bourgeois society of the nineteenth century, largely by art...

Le rôle des réformateurs sociaux dans la diffusion de nouvelles pratiques de gestion : le cas du contrôle budgétaire en France (1930-1960)

Abstract: Le developpement du controle budgetaire dans les entreprises en France s'est fait dans le contexte ideologique des reflexions sur l'organisation economique suscitees par les crises economique et politique des annees 1930 et 1940. Le controle budgetaire est apparu alors a de nombreux acteurs comme etant l'une des pratiques susceptibles de repondre aux problemes economiques et sociaux auxquels ils faisaient face. C'est dire que sa diffusion ne fut pas seulement portee par la volonte de rechercher une efficience toujours accrue mais aussi par une evidente seduction ideologique. Nous replacons ici le developpement du controle budgetaire dans l'histoire politique et economique du XXeme siecle et mettons en relation les pratiques comptables avec les institutions du capitalisme d'une epoque et d'un pays donne. Nous insistons sur un aspect jusqu'ici peu etudie : le role de la critique du capitalisme et des propositions des reformateurs sociaux dans la transformation des modes de gestion des entreprises.

Evolution and Co-Optation. The "artist critique" of management and capitalism: evolution and co-optation

Abstract: 'Artist critique' is an umbrella term, synthesising the many forms of critique first levelled against the new industrial capitalist, and bourgeois society of the nineteenth century, largely by artists in the name of freedom and individual fulfilment. Though many artists gave voice to this form of critique, they were neither the only ones to do so, nor did all artists participate in this movement. As a current of critical thought that has spanned modern society for almost two centuries, the social role of 'artist critique' is essential if the aspiration for a freer life -freed, that is, from the constraints of commodities - is to prosper. It is at the root of the intuitive opposition that can be made between art worlds and business worlds, between profit imperatives and those of artistic creation. Yet it must be acknowledged that over the past two decades this form of critique has fallen into unprecedented crisis. After first presenting what I understand by 'artist critique' and specifying its conditions of emergence, I will attempt to analyse some of the root causes of this crisis in the critique of capitalism. One of the key aspects to be analysed is neo-management's adoption of practices similar to those found in the art world. In many respects, one might say that neo-management practices are the result of paying careful attention to the complaints articulated by 'artist. critique'. In short, it is precisely the success of 'artist critique' that has led to its being co-opted by its adversary and losing so much of its poignancy.

Le rapport paradoxal de l'économie scientifique à la quantification des phénomènes économiques le cas de la "positive accounting theory"

Abstract: Nous traitons dans cet article de la quantification economique Et de son utilisation par la recherche en economie, en embrassant ses differentes sources qu'elles soient comptables ou statistiques. Diverses interrogations nous ont guides. La premiere est la meconnaissance qu'ont souvent les economistes des operations de quantification de l'economie notamment comptables qui leur sont pourtant utiles dans leurs travaux empiriques. La seconde est l'accroissement historique de cette meconnaissance depuis les annees 1950. La troisieme est la multiplicite des facons d'envisager la quantification de l economie (la quantification en generale au sein du champ economique (des sciences sociales en general). Notre hypothese est ici qu'un deploiement precis des modes de relation aux quantifications qu'entretiennent les chercheurs permet d'apporter des reponses aux trois interrogations mentionnees.

The Role of Social Reformers in the Spread of New Management Practices: The Case of Budget Control in France (1930-1960)

Abstract: Historically, the development of budgetary control in French businesses took place within the ideological context of the debate on organisation of the economy following the economic and political crises of the 1930s and 1940s. Budgetary control was seen by many actors as one of the practices that could provide a solution to the economic and social problems facing them. In other words, its increasingly widespread adoption was not only due to the search for ever-greater efficiency, but also to a clear ideological attraction. The development of budgetary control is examined in the light of the general political and economic history of the 20th century, associating accounting practices and the capitalist institutions of a given period and country. We stress an as yet largely unexplored aspect : the role played by the critique of capitalism and the social reformers’ proposals in changing business management methods.