UCL - Sociology of Organisations and Organised Action

[SOC2025]

[30h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 2d semester.

Teacher(s): Christian Maroy

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

At the end of this course,
- The student will have familiarised with certain models of analysis and key concepts enabling him/her to conduct a sociological analysis of a concrete organisation and its organisational and institutional environ-ment ;
- The student will have a basic knowledge of the main theoretical approaches of organisations and, more gen-erally, of organised action.
He/she will be able to take a critical insight to the contribution and the limits of the main approaches ;

Main themes

- The course will approach the main classical and recent approaches of Sociology of organisations and of organised action, and will put them into perspective. It will locate its theoretical presuppositions and central concepts (aims, structures and environment ; actor's strategies and power ; cultures and institutions ; coor-dination, regulation and change processes ; inter-organisational relations and organisations' interdepend-ence, b.o.) and will approach the main debates and controversies opposing the different theories and approaches of the organisation.
- The course will approach the evolution of modes of organisations and will provide the means for under-standing the reciprocal interactions between organisational modes and the social, economic and historical context in which they develop.

Content and teaching methods

First, the course presents the classic theories on organisations and their environment (stream of structural con-tingency and strategic analysis). Beyond their differences, these theories stress the rationality and functionality of actors and organised systems of action. The course then concentrates on new theoretical approaches which renew and enlarge the object of Sociology of organisations. The action coordination modes and the justice re-gimes ( Régime de justice de Boltanski et Thévenot) that actors refer to in the daily life of the organisation are treated through the point of view of the "Economie des conventions". Organisations' social and institutional regulation and change are treated through the social regulation theories and through the Anglo-Saxon neo-institutionalism. The consequences of inter-organisational relations, of the phenomenon of competition and in-terdependency in the organisational field will also be evoked during the course.
On a pedagogical level, the course includes: 1) Ex cathedra lectures followed by discussions on the main theo-retical approaches 2) readings based on a texts portfolio and/or a syllabus 3) case studies (analysis and/or pres-entation in small groups) aimed at putting in practice the conceptual tools approached in the course.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Pre-requiste : Knowledge of the main sociological paradigms and of current sociological concepts

Evaluation : Written exam with open questions

Course materials : Syllabus and written material (texts)