What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

This article uses a combination of Bourdieu's concept of habitus theory and an interactionist perspective to examine women's participation in the traditionally `man's world' of boxing. The two major aims of the study were to identify how women entered and stayed involved in boxing and the types of identities that they forged in the process. The data were collected via participant-observation and in-depth interviews with a sample of women boxers and their coaches. It was found that the women's entry into and continued involvement in boxing depends on both disposition and situation. It was also concluded that women boxers occupied an ambivalent position: on the one hand, by definition, they challenged the existing gender order; on the other hand, they also reinforced the status quo by displaying traditional modes of femininity. This tension was related to the modalities of boxers' practice (`hard' or `soft') and their social histories. In short, the process of identity-formation among women boxers was insep...

'Hard' women and 'soft' women. The social construction of identities among female boxers

Le métier de sociologue

The objective of this article is to understand how the specific interactions between actors involved in the production of performance influence the socialization process by which cyclists learn the...

The Socialization of Young Cyclists and the Culture of Doping

The aim of this study was to identify the main reasons for withdrawal from team sports and to examine the influence of significant others (i.e., coaches, parents, peers, and siblings) in the decision making concerning withdrawal from youth sports. An attempt was also made to compare withdrawal components and the influence of significant others in terms of gender, level of competition and years of involvement in youth sports. The participants in this study were young football (American soccer) (n=397), ice hockey (n=88) and basketball (n=50) players who had terminated their participation in their sports. Principal component analysis was used to reduce the number of withdrawal items and identify principal withdrawal components. The results indicated that having other things to do and a decline in excitement were the most important reasons for withdrawal. Coaches and teammates appeared to be the two main groups of significant others who influenced young player's decision making related to their withdrawal. S...

Personal Reasons for Withdrawal from Team Sports and the Influence of Significant others among Youth Athletes

Francis Chateauraynaud, directeur d’etudesPierrick Cezanne-Bert, chercheur de l’association DoxaJosquin Debaz, charge de recherche contractuelPatrick Trabal, professeur a l’Universite Paris-Ouest Nanterre La-Defense Outils et methodes pour la sociologie des dossiers complexes Le seminaire a poursuivi le croisement des experiences methodologiques autour de l’usage des outils informatiques au sein de la sociologie pragmatique. Le mouvement pragmatique, qui s’affirme comme une tendance forte de ...

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Socioinformatique des controverses

Le dossier du dopage dans le sport interroge les facons de concevoir la recherche comparee. D'une part, parce que les pratiques sociales que les institutions s'efforcent de combattre se nourrissent a la fois de reseaux internationaux et de specificites locales. D'autre part, car la politique d'harmonisation menee par l'Agence mondiale se construit sur des alignements a des standards internationaux. Enfin, les processus d'evaluation de ces politiques sont parfois auto-references et s'appuient sur la production d'indicateurs opaques. Cet article propose une alternative par la constitution de corpus textuels en plusieurs langues permettant des comparaisons internationales dont une vocation serait de comprendre les modes d'articulation entre un processus d'internationalisation et les realites locales ainsi que les fonctionnements d'institutions heterogenes.

Comparer les politiques antidopage. Enjeux d’un observatoire international du dopage et des politiques antidopage

A “conformidade” e um instrumento utilizado pela Agencia Mundial Antidopagem (WADA) para a aderencia das agencias nacionais as exigencias do capturador. No presente artigo, descrevemos, com base na sociologia pragmatica, as acoes de atores no trabalho de constituicao da “conformidade” da Autoridade Brasileira de Controle de Dopagem (ABCD), tendo em vista a realizacao dos Jogos Olimpicos e Paralimpicos Rio 2016 e o desenvolvimento de uma “cultura antidopagem”. A partir de uma etnografia multissituada, procuramos descrever os trabalhos dos mediadores , transformando, traduzindo, distorcendo e modificando os seus interesses. Elegemos como fontes de controversias a criacao e funcionamento da ABCD; a aprovacao do Codigo Brasileiro Antidopagem; e a constituicao e funcionamento do Justica Desportiva Antidopagem. O trabalho social de conquista da “conformidade” da ABCD reflete um processo de translacao para a estabilizacao dessa comunidade nacional antidopagem protagonizada por uma agencia de Estado e, portanto, na composicao de uma politica publica.

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A antidopagem em face das demandas da agência mundial: uma etnografia da ‘conformidade’ em ação

This article studies the questions on doping and on the fight against doping in reference to healthism. One can interpret these social activities as expressions of health practices reshaping and strengthening the relations between patients, their health and the medical staff. The analysis of three chat forums (we have examined more than 244,000 messages altogether), highlights on the one hand, that powers cannot be identified in a permanent way and, on the other hand, that the Internet users are leading inquiries collectively. A pragmatics of powers interested in the asymmetries of “grips/grasps” and of “influence” (Chateauraynaud, 2015) allows us eventually to describe subtly these complex processes.

Doping Oneself Cautiously : A Critical Approach of Healthism

En France, a partir des annees 1990, l’Etat a commence a se preoccuper de la prevention du dopage et s’est appuye sur quelques acteurs qui se sont peu a peu institues comme un groupe d’experts. Cet article s’efforce a un premier niveau de decrire ce processus en analysant les relations entre une administration des sports qui pose peu de contraintes et des « preventologues » (c’est ainsi qu’ils s’auto-designent) qui s’organisent pour se rendre incontournables. Dans un deuxieme moment, nous avons etudie les facons dont ce groupe construit scientifiquement son expertise et les messages qu’il diffuse lors de ces campagnes de prevention. Notre analyse souligne les tensions entre leur difficulte a inscrire ces connaissances dans des disciplines academiques d’une part, et leur propension a rappeler la legitimite scientifique de leur propos par des arguments d’autorite, d’autre part. Enfin, l’etude de leurs relations avec le terrain, c'est-a-dire avec les personnes en contact avec les cibles de la prevention montre une profonde asymetrie. En interrogeant les conditions de perennisation de ce groupe d’experts, il apparait que c’est sans doute cette distance avec la realite des actions de terrain qui constitue a la fois une ressource et une menace pour sa perpetuation.

Patrick Trabal

Papers

Socioinformatique des controverses

Comparer les politiques antidopage. Enjeux d’un observatoire international du dopage et des politiques antidopage

A antidopagem em face das demandas da agência mundial: uma etnografia da ‘conformidade’ em ação

Doping Oneself Cautiously : A Critical Approach of Healthism

La construction d´une expertise: le cas de la prévention du dopage