People are more sensitive to criticism of their group when made by an outgroup member than when made by an ingroup member (Homsey, Oppes, & Svensson, 2002). Outgroup members are perceived as relatively malicious in their intentions and lacking in experience compared to 'insiders'. Homsey and colleagues argue that these perceived differences arise from social identity concerns driven by ingroup members' need to hold their group in positive regard. However, people's reactions to critical group messages may also be driven by social norms that govern communication in general (Brown & Levinson, 1987). To test this explanation, the current research examines the importance of message source and communicative context in shaping insiders' reactions to group criticism, and the reactions of 'bystanders' who are not members of the criticised group. The ISE was found for both insiders and bystanders. Because bystanders have no vested interest in the criticised group, it is unlikely that social identity concerns drove this effect. However, both insiders and bystanders only preferred intragroup criticism to intergroup criticism when the audience consisted of ingroup members alone. These results suggest that there may be nonnative concerns about the perceived consequences or potential damage of taking criticism outside a group. In the next studies participants were asked to rate the acceptability of criticism under a range of conditions. Results verified that internal criticism is seen as more normatively acceptable than external criticism. Also, when general norms associated with the appropriate intentions and expertise underlying criticism were controlled for, there was no difference in acceptability of internal versus external criticism. These results suggest that general communicative norms drive people's reactions to group criticism. This thesis contributes to the understanding of intergroup relations by complementing the social identity account of people's reactions to group criticism.

In December 2010, the Romanian pop-rock band Vunk launched the single ‘I want a country like abroad’. This marked the beginning of the band’s homonymous campaign aimed at motivating Romanians to take an active part in their country’s development. The popular campaign advocates learning from more successful nations and striving to reach a similar level. Such examples of positive regard for high status groups are not uncommon – economic, national, or political groups of lower status often seek to forge relations with and emulate higher status groups. However, this type of behaviour towards more successful groups has not been directly investigated empirically in social psychology, and is not encompassed in existing theories on intergroup relations. In this thesis, I explore the way in which social groups relate positively to higher status groups and how they emulate successful traits in order to improve. I investigate why members of social groups may admire outgroups, and how admiration is linked to becoming inspired and learning from these outgroups. I look at what features of the social system encourage groups to learn, rather than use other strategies, such as competing or justifying their lower status position. I also investigate what kinds of features are most likely to be learned, and what group members ultimately aim to achieve through learning. I investigate intergroup emulation from a social psychological perspective, working mainly within the theoretical framework of Social Identity Theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). However, in order to understand fully the processes of admiration and emulation, I draw upon insights from a variety of social science disciplines. In Chapter 1, I present the relevant body of knowledge in social psychology in the study of status relations. The review of literature will focus on how the various theories view and discuss lower status groups and the strategies available to them for improvement. I will argue that existing theories in social psychology have had a particularly conflictual focus, and do not adequately explain positive, collaborative relations within status hierarchies. Most approaches suggest that conflict in status hierarchies is inherent and unavoidable, while those approaches that accept consensus as ubiquitous state that lower status groups are deluded into accepting hierarchy consensus. In Chapter 2, I look at sociological and psychological approaches that offer insight into positive relations within status hierarchies. Based on these theoretical approaches, I propose intergroup emulation as one of the positive ways in which lower status groups relate to higher status models. I further describe emulation as a distinct strategy available to lower status groups, with an eye to integration with existing intergroup relations literature. In Chapter 3, I present the relevant literature for understanding intergroup emulation. This includes literature on social comparison, particularly upward comparison, and literature on individual and group-based admiration. I will also look at research connected with social learning, intergroup learning, and assimilation. Finally, I will review relevant research on intergroup help and collective action, as both concepts are central to the subsequent assessment of intergroup emulation. Chapter 4 presents a series of empirical results that look at the features that are admired in higher-status groups (i.e., “who is admired”) in order to understand why certain outgroups are preferred targets of emulation. Study 1 introduces prototypicality as an admired feature and stresses the importance of a common reference category for comparing groups. Study 2 further explores prototypicality in an experimental setting, looking at different facets of prototypicality and their relation to admiration and emulation. Study 3 is a thematic analysis of Scottish nationals’ comments on proposals that Scotland could emulate Scandinavian countries; this study further explores the role of common reference categories and common values in intergroup emulation. Chapter 5 is concerned with understanding the conditions that favour groups choosing an emulation strategy over other strategies (i.e., “when does emulation occur”). Study 4 looks at the role of legitimacy, showing that emulation is more likely when status relations are perceived as legitimate. Study 5 further explores the role of status stability, showing that the emulation strategy is most likely to be employed when status relations are perceived as legitimate and unstable. Chapter 6 presents a thematic analysis of a representative example of intergroup emulation, analysing the comments of members of the Facebook group associated with the ‘I want a country like abroad’ campaign. This analysis is focused on two specific questions: what is being emulated and how does emulation occur. To answer these questions, I look at the categories of attributes that are likely to be emulated, and I investigate how group members implement the emulation strategy and what they see as the aim of emulation, analysing how this strategy is distinct from assimilation. In Chapter 7, I outline the various directions for further work stemming from current analyses. This chapter includes some data that suggest directions for future research into the interplay of emulation and distinctiveness threat in social groups, and emulation’s relation to individual mobility strategies and group goals. In Chapter 8, I discuss all the empirical results taken together. I relate them to the existing literature, and discuss the theoretical implications of these results. I also discuss the practical implications for social psychologists interested in understanding intergroup help and the development of disadvantaged national groups. Finally, I outline the limitations of these results and discuss the overall contribution of this work.

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Le développement du football, en imposant l’instauration d’une autorité neutre susceptible de garantir l’ordre et l’équité des matchs, contraint les dirigeants du football français à intégrer une figure singulière dans leur organisation : celle de l’arbitre. Reposant sur une analyse d’archives, des entretiens et une immersion de 10 années dans le milieu de l’arbitrage dont 4 en observation participante, cette thèse retrace le processus d’un siècle de structuration et d’administration de l’arbitrage du football en France ayant conduit à l’émergence d’un groupe des arbitres de football traversé par des logiques antagonistes. Le processus d’institutionnalisation et de régulation interne de la pratique permet aux arbitres de revendiquer une position spécifique, d’acquérir une légitimité et une reconnaissance sociales. A travers l’élaboration d’un cadre fortement normatif et d’un dispositif de socialisation processuel, l’institution peut compter sur des arbitres convaincus de leur utilité sociale et disposés à exercer l’autorité pour imposer leur décision, tout en faisant preuve de docilité et d’obéissance à l’égard des dirigeants de la Fédération française de football. Le travail d’unification et de représentation effectif et nécessaire à la formation du groupe s’avère, en revanche, impuissant à empêcher les clivages en son sein. La segmentation s’intensifie à mesure que l’arbitrage s’institutionnalise et que la professionnalisation est prise en charge. L’homogénéisation du groupe est faible. Cette différenciation interne fait naître une divergence d’intérêts a priori communs aux arbitres et entraîne une segmentation associative et même syndicale déterminante dans l’élaboration récente du statut juridique des arbitres. En dépit du travail de définition sociale dont le groupe fait l’objet, la diversité des arbitres représentés, semble entraver son existence. / The development of soccer, imposing the establishment of a neutral authority likely to ensure order and equity in the matches, forces the leaders of the French soccer organization to integrate a singular figure to their organization : the referee. Based on an analysis of archives, interviews and ten-year of referee career - four-year ethnographic immersion among referees -, this doctoral thesis describes the structuring and organizational process during one century in the environment of French referees leading to the emergence of a social group crossed by opposed logics. The process of institutionalization and internal regulation of the practice allows the group to claim a specific position, to acquire a social legitimacy and a social recognition. Through the preparation of a strongly normative framework and a device of socialization, the institution can count on convinced referees, believing in their social utility, and ready to use their authority to be firm, but docile and obedient towards the FFF leaders. However, the actual and vital work of unification and representation for the formation of the group turns out to be powerless to prevent divisions within it. The more it is institutionalized and professionalized, the more its segmentation increases. The homogenization group is weak. This internal differentiation creates a difference of interests a priori common to the group and causes a crucial associative and even labour segmentation for the recently developed referees legal status. In spite of the work that has been conducted to socially define the group, the diversity of referees, seems to be under permanent threat of implosion.

La recherche porte sur l’observation et l’analyse des dynamiques, explicites et implicites, qui règlent les interactions communicatives entre les migrants, arrivés en Europe par la route de la Méditerranée centrale, et les intervenants (humanitaires et sécuritaires) impliqués dans la gestion de l’urgence migratoire aux frontières maritimes. L’étude se focalise sur l’île de Lampedusa et la Sicile où les observations ont été menées à trois périodes différentes de l’histoire récente des migrations en Europe : en 2011, suite aux révolutions arabes, en 2013, lors du naufrage du 3 octobre, et en 2014, pendant l’opération de recherche et sauvetage Mare Nostrum. Elle vise à saisir les spécificités de chacun de ces contextes et la manière dont celles-ci se lient, dans un rapport de conditionnement mutuel, à des variables de plus grande envergure – les politiques migratoires, le rôle des médias, les sentiments collectifs, etc. – en influençant les comportements communicatifs des sujets observés. / The research aims at observing and analysing both the explicit and the implicit dynamics that characterise the communicative interactions between migrants who reach Europe through the central Mediterranean route and the security and humanitarian players working at its maritime borders. The study focuses on the island of Lampedusa and Sicily where much of the fieldwork has been carried out over three significant periods of Europe’s recent migration history: in 2011, in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings, in 2013, at the time of the 3 October migrant shipwreck, in 2014, during the search and rescue operation Mare Nostrum. The purpose is to capture and take into account the specific characteristics of each context as well as their closely intertwined combination with wider factors – immigration policies, the role of the media, the general perception of migration, etc. – which influence the communicative behaviours of the subjects observed and the ways they interact with each other. / Il presente lavoro si pone l’obiettivo di osservare le interazioni tra i migranti da un lato, e gli operatori dell’accoglienza e della sicurezza dall’altro, nelle zonedi confine esposte ai flussi migratori, e nello specifico l’isola di Lampedusa e la Sicilia tra il 2011 e il 2014; di analizzarne le dinamiche comunicative col supporto di riferimenti teorico-letterari e di rilevazioni precedentemente prodotte in analoghi contesti di studio; di proporre, infine, delle riflessioni sui principali elementi individuatinell’osservazione del fenomeno, cercando di contribuire allo sviluppo di un percorso d’indagine che l’attuale declinarsi del fenomeno migratorio ha imposto al dibattito sociologico, e soprattutto di proporre spunti di riflessione e approfondimento rispetto a una narrazione che, nonostante la complessità del tema, risulta spesso troppo semplicistica osensazionalistica, e funzionale al tornaconto mediatico e politico.

L’objectif de cette recherche en communication interculturelle est de savoir comment les stéréotypes évoluent chez les étudiants chinois à l'égard des Français avant et pendant leur séjour en France . Quels processus de la communication interculturelle contribuent à l'évolution des contenus des stéréotypes portés par les étudiants chinois sur les Français et quels effets exercent la communication interculturelle sur les étudiants chinois ? Pour répondre à ces questions, la recherche s’appuie sur une approche interculturelle et systémique sous l’épistémologie constructiviste. Après une analyse quantitative et qualitative, les évolutions des stéréotypes vis-à-vis des Français de la part des étudiants chinois sont discutées en étudiant trois aspects et facteurs distincts : spatial, temporel et communicationnel. Le facteur communicationnel est considéré comme étant le facteur le plus déterminant de l’évolution des stéréotypes. Ainsi, la communication interculturelle des étudiants chinois avec les Français est analysée dans le but de savoir quels sont les éléments qui en influencent la qualité et comment en appréhender la dynamique du processus. Selon cette recherche, l’évolution des stéréotypes peut entraîner chez les étudiants chinois une évolution globale de leurs propres représentations. Cette évolution des représentations est également la conséquence du changement du contexte socioculturel et du système de communication. La communication interculturelle entre les étudiants chinois et les Français peut favoriser une construction de la conscience de l’altérité et une reconstruction identitaire basées sur un esprit ouvert et critique. Mais a contrario, la communication avec absence de la conscience de l’altérité peut également nuire à la reconstruction de soi-même et en même temps, renforcer les stéréotypes vis-à-vis de l’Autre et vis-à-vis de Soi. / The objective of this intercultural communication research is to know how stereotypes evolve among Chinese students towards the French before and during their stay in France. What processes of intercultural communication contribute to the evolution of the content of Chinese students' stereotypes about the French and what effects do intercultural communication have on Chinese students ? To answer these questions, the research relies on an intercultural and systemic approach under constructivist epistemology. After a quantitative and qualitative analysis, the evolution of stereotypes towards the French people on behalf of Chinese students are discussed under three aspects and factors: spatial, temporal and communicational. The communication factor is considered as the most determinant factor in the evolution of stereotypes. Thus, the intercultural communication of Chinese students with French is analyzed with the aim of knowing what are the elements that influence the quality of the communication and how to apprehend the dynamic of the process of the intercultural communication. According to this research, the evolution of stereotypes can lead among the Chinese students to an evolution of their own representations (to Chinese students' evolution of their own representations) in a general way. This evolution of representations is also the consequence of the change in the socio-cultural context and the communication system. The intercultural communication between Chinese students and the French can favor a construction of the consciousness of otherness and a reconstruction of identity based on an open and critical spirit. But on the other hand, this communication with the absence of the consciousness of otherness can also damage the reconstruction of oneself and, at the same time, strengthen the stereotypes towards the Others and towards him-self.

L’innovation sociale résiste mal à l'épreuve du temps. Quand la plupart des expériences s’épuisent et disparaissent rapidement, certaines parviennent à se pérenniser. Le cas des réseaux de formation entre pairs pose encore d’autres questions. Qu’il s’agisse de réseaux d'apprentissage, de communautés de pratiques, de dispositifs collaboratifs, de Massives Open Online Courses (MOOCs), de groupes d'entraide mutuelle ou de formations par les pairs, ils sont particulièrement soumis à des transformations en fonction des besoins, des actualisations de contenu ou des engagements : quelles sont les caractéristiques particulières de ces dispositifs ? Quelles logiques les acteurs mettent-ils en oeuvre pour les inscrire dans la durée ? Peut-on dégager de leur analyse des facteurs de pérennisation ?C'est principalement à ces questions que cette thèse apporte des éléments de réponse, en prenant appuis sur le cas des Réseaux d’Echanges Réciproques de Savoirs (RERS). Elle présente successivement : une approche sociohistorique des différentes formes de coformation depuis le 19ème siècle ; une revue de la littérature dans le domaine ; un cadre théorique principalement appuyé sur la sociologie des organisations et l’approche sociotechnique ; la méthodologie principalement inspirée de la théorie ancrée ; les résultats les plus pertinents.Ce que cette recherche montre est l’importance des convergences de valeurs, conceptions, récits, aspirations, types d'organisation et outils qui fondent identité du collectif d’acteur engagés qui combinent ces éléments dans des formes locales d’appropriation qui permettent une réinvention du sens des actions et des pratiques. / Social innovation stands up with difficulty to the test of time. While most experiments run down and disappear quickly, some of them perpetuate. The case of knowledge exchanges networks between peers raises other questions. Whether in the case of learning networks, of communities of practice, of collaborative devices, of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), of mutual help groups or fo training by peers, these networks are particularly subject to change according to needs, according to content updating or to commitments. How are these devices characterized? What are their actors’ logics in order to make them perpetuate? Can we bring to light, from their analysis, some factors of perpetuation? Our doctoral thesis tries to provides some answers to these questions, through the example of knowledge exchanges networks. We present research studies about peer training after having described their different forms since the 19th century, in a socio-historical perspective. Based on a methodology inspired from grounded theory, this thesis articulates research studies from the organisational sociology with the socio-technical approach of training. The case of knowledge exchanges networks brings to light the role of shared values, of conceptions, of narratives, of expectations, of types of organisation and of tools that forge a national identity, combined with local forms of appropriation of these components that allow to reinvent the sense of actions and practices.

La santé des femmes au travail doit être envisagée comme une question collective, déterminée par les rapports sociaux de sexe. La vision médicale traditionnelle du corps des femmes y voit un corps toujours défaillant, ce qui constitue un obstacle à la reconnaissance des atteintes à la santé des femmes liées au travail. Le champ empirique de l’aide aux personnes âgées nous offre l’opportunité d’observer les pénibilités du travail d’aide à domicile. Nous pouvons également prendre connaissance des pathologies qui en découlent. Tous ces éléments confirment la pénibilité du métier d’auxiliaire de vie, visible même dans les données de reconnaissance de l’assurance maladie. Lire ces résultats à l’aune des rapports sociaux de sexe nous permet de comprendre comment l’ignorance de cette pénibilité amène un bénéfice collectif. Ils indiquent également tout l’enjeu qu’il y a à proposer une vision de la santé dégagée de la lecture strictement biomédicale, construite au masculin neutre. / Women occupational health should be seen as a collective issue, determined by social relations of sex. The traditional medical view of women's bodies refers to an understanding of an ever-failing body, and this is an obstacle to the recognition of attacks on women's health related to work. The empirical field of elderly home care gives us the opportunity to observe the physical and psychological discomforts for health care workers. We can also take note of the diseases linked to this work hardness. All these facts confirm the hardness of health care worker job, visible even in the recognition data of health insurance. Read those results in terms of social relation of sex allows us to understand how the ignorance of this hardship brings a collective benefit. It also indicates how important it is to offer a vision of health away from the strictly biomedical point of view, masculine neutral built.