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Laurent Thévenot’s Sociology of Regimes of Engagement and Grammars of Commonality

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Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions

Abstract

As author of On justification (written with Luc Boltanski) and one of the founding fathers of the economics and sociology of conventions, Laurent Thévenot is a key figure throughout this handbook. However, while his texts of the 1980s and 1990s continue to be relevant, Thévenot has, since then, been develo** a new distinct research program: the sociology of regimes of engagement (in short SRE). Engagement refers to the investments human beings carry out to ensure coordination with oneself and the world surrounding them and it points to the trying situations they are faced with in doing so. Regimes refers to the map** of four formats of engagement: engaging in justification, plans, familiarity, and in exploration. Later, Thévenot added an additional layer to the framework by conceptualizing three grammars of commonality coining different formats of expressing concerns and forming commonality with others. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an introduction to the complex theoretical model and its concepts. On the one hand, the chapter argues that SRE should be seen as in continuation of the program of the pragmatic sociology of critique, morality, and everyday politics that he put forward together with Luc Boltanski. On the other hand, the chapter shows that SRE constitutes an original move from a specific sociology of critique to a much broader social theory of action and what it means to be human. Thus, the sociology deserves comparison with theories with similar ambitions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Magnus Paulsen Hansen

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  1. Magnus Paulsen Hansen
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Correspondence to Magnus Paulsen Hansen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Rainer Diaz-Bone

  2. University of Lille, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France

    Guillemette de Larquier

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Hansen, M.P. (2023). Laurent Thévenot’s Sociology of Regimes of Engagement and Grammars of Commonality. In: Diaz-Bone, R., Larquier, G.d. (eds) Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52130-1_61-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52130-1_61-1

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