This article explores the relationships between superstar firms, states, and labor during a period of sharp challenge to normal functioning of capitalist societies. My working definition of superstar firms includes firms that have amassed a formidable economic power in their home markets, but also hold a large amount of social, economic, and political influence in societies more generally. They are powerful enough to maneuver within the global capitalist field to side-step challenges from the state and labor as well as market competitors. This paper is focused on superstar firm Amazon in the United States and France during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. I find that governing practices affect Amazon workers through their state’s relationships to both firms and labor. Amazon workers in the U.S. have no strong ties to the firm, the state, nor the labor movement, while French workers have strong ties to labor unions and unions to the state, which ultimately informed the outcomes in each country. Similarly, I find that there can be variation even within nations, most apparent in the distinct behavior of U.S. (local) states. The U.S./France comparison illustrates that although both countries operate under neoliberal capitalist logics, each state’s relationship to firms and organized labor is significant in understanding the autonomy of Amazon, and by extension other superstar firms, from state control and labor challenges. It is with the rise of superstar firms and the variable power between superstar firms, state, and labor, that inequality is upheld, strengthened, and reinforced as normal within the system. Still, I hope that this work is lined with optimism in that there is a more just approach in managing superstar firms in an effort to delay or curb the harmful effects that workers or customers face.

La gastronomie peut être considérée comme une attention portée à la dimension esthétique de l’alimentation. Les biens gastronomiques sont donc des biens symboliques dont l’échange sur le marché passe par l’existence de dispositifs de valorisation particuliers. En tant qu’il contribue à orienter les consommateurs sur un marché opaque et à leur indiquer le « bon » produit ou la « bonne » manière de cuisiner, le journalisme gastronomique constitue un dispositif de médiation marchande. À partir notamment d’entretiens, d’observations, d’une enquête quantitative et de statistiques textuelles, cette thèse s’attache à rendre compte de la manière dont se construit un tel dispositif. Dans une perspective diachronique, les premiers chapitres sont consacrés à l’émergence du dispositif au XIXe siècle et à sa construction à l’articulation de différents espaces sociaux (gastronomique, amateur et journalistique). Il apparaît qu’à la fin du XXe siècle, un marché de la presse gastronomique se met en place qui rend le point de vue des titres dépendant de leur positionnement dans la concurrence et de leur modèle économique. Ce sont ensuite les acteurs individuels de la fabrication de l’information journalistique qui sont étudiés. L’analyse des parcours et des compétences des journalistes ainsi que de leurs concurrents potentiels que sont les blogueurs culinaires met en évidence différentes formes d’écriture gastronomique et les types de confiance qui en découlent. Enfin, l’étude du travail concret des journalistes permet de rendre compte de la similitude des contenus médiatiques et l’analyse du parcours de journalistes renommés autorise à saisir leurs modes de différenciation professionnelle. / Gastronomy can be regarded as a particular attention paid to the aesthetic dimension of food. Gastronomic goods are thus symbolic goods and their market exchange needs the existence of specific valuation devices. As a tool that directs consumers in an opaque market and that indicates the “right” product, or the “right” way to cook, food journalism can be considered as a market device. This thesis is based upon a fieldwork including in-depth interviews, observations, statistics and text analysis. It focuses on the way such a device is built. In a diachronic approach, the first chapters deal with the emergence of this device during the 19th century and with its construction at the crossroads of different social spaces (food world, connoisseurs’ world and journalistic world). It appears that at the end of the 20th century, with the setting up of a food magazines’ market, the vision carried by magazines becomes dependent on their position in competition and on their business model. Then, the individual actors and the making of news are studied. The analysis of the trajectories and the skills of journalists and food bloggers who may compete with them put the light on different forms of food writing and different kinds of trust associated with them. Finally, the study of the actual work of food journalists allows to account for the similarity of media content. The analysis of the career paths of renowned food journalists helps to understand the way they manage to differentiate themselves from the others.

Engagée à l’occasion de l’introduction en France de contrats de commande publique de type "partenariat public-privé" [PPP] – elle fut initiée peu après la promulgation de l’Ordonnance du 17 juin 2004 créant les « Contrats de Partenariat » – notre recherche explore les PPP, modalités de commande publique complexe à caractéristiques financières, en tant qu’ils constituent un marché émergent pour des acteurs financiers, fournisseurs de capitaux et de techniques de financement, potentiellement porteurs de valeurs, modes de raisonnement, et logiques économiques, exogènes au monde de la commande publique. Aiguillonné par notre désir de participer aux débats disciplinaires des mondes de la sociologie économique, des études sociales de la finance, et d’autres approches hétérodoxes des phénomènes économiques, par notre souci de contribuer à la compréhension des formes d’organisation des services publics et des infrastructures urbaines, stimulé également par notre curiosité à l’égard des mutations des économies occidentales, interpellé évidemment par l’actualité incontournable de la grande crise financière, puis économique, entamée en 2007-08, notre travail prend prétexte de ce "phénomène" – l’immixtion, par l’entremise des PPP, de nouveaux acteurs financiers dans une partie de la commande publique de grands équipements – pour nous inscrire dans le programme de recherche qui vise à caractériser le mouvement socio-économique plus large parfois qualifié de "financiarisation". Ce terme recouvre, sans grande précision ni définition consacrée et indiscutable, un ensemble d’évolutions liées à l’extension du domaine de la finance, que ce soit au niveau macroéconomique, sectoriel, ou cognitif, dans l’ordre de la connexion de pans entiers de la vie économique et sociale aux "marchés" financiers et à leurs exigences. Notre ambition est donc, à partir d’un sujet particulier et technique, non réductible à sa seule dimension financière4, de considérer la valeur heuristique du cas des PPP pour interroger plusieurs dimensions caractéristiques de ce mouvement de "financiarisation" – voire essayer d’en identifier les principaux éléments constitutifs. Ce dessein passe par une analyse en termes de sociologie économique menée à plusieurs niveaux / Committed (Hired) on the occasion of the introduction in France of contracts of state commission of type(chap) "Public Private Partnership" [ PPP] - She (it) was introduced shortly after the promulgation of the Prescription of June 17th, 2004 creating "Partnership agreements" - our search (research) explores the PPP, the modalities(methods) of complex state commission with financial characteristics, as they establish (constitute) an emerging market for financial actors, suppliers of capital and techniques of financing, potentially valuable carriers, ways of reasoning, and economic, exogenous logics to the world of the state commission

Cette thèse propose d’étudier la construction sociale d’un marché des programmes de télévision en Afrique subsaharienne. A travers l’étude d’un salon où se rencontrent acheteurs (chaînes de télévision et intermédiaires de distributions) et vendeurs de programmes de télévision (studios, entreprises de distribution et producteurs indépendants), nous cherchons à comprendre comment ce salon entraîne la formation d’un milieu social et participe à l’intégration du marché africain des programmes au marché mondial. En effet, jusque dans les années 2000, une grande partie des chaînes de télévision africaines obtenaient des programmes gratuitement via plusieurs canaux. De lentes évolutions des règlementations et des infrastructures ont conduit ce secteur à adopter peu à peu un fonctionnement marchand. Le salon que nous étudions participe à ce processus puisqu’il est le premier à regrouper des distributeurs internationaux et des chaînes africaines. A travers une enquête ethnographique et trois analyses de réseaux d’échanges d’informations entre les participants menées durant trois ans au cours de différentes éditions du salon, cette thèse étudie comment plusieurs normes marchandes coexistent dans ce salon. Nous étudions le processus d’apprentissage collectif entre les participants du salon et montrons comment cet apprentissage favorise la sélection de normes marchandes communes. / In this dissertation, we analyze the social construction of a market of TV programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on the study of a trade fair where buyers (TV channels, distribution intermediaries) and sellers of TV programs (studios, distributors and independent producers) can meet, negotiate, discuss, and close deals, we try to understand how this event participates in the transformation of the ways in which TV programs were “exchanged” in Africa and in the integration of the African TV programs market into the global one. TV programs distribution at the global level has long been considered to be a market. But until recently in Sub-Saharan Africa, TV channels used to acquire programs “for free” through diverse ways. Political, economic and technical evolutions have slowly transformed this sector into a market. The trade fair under examination in this research plays a central role in this evolution because it is the first to bring together the microcosm of this industry. We studied this event for three years and ran three surveys in order to collect social network data and analyze informal information exchange networks between attendees of the events. We study how trade fairs attendees learn from each other and define, select and share market values, norms and rules.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carolina Bohorquez Herrera.pdf: 1215974 bytes, checksum: b6abc7d5c8a0773aae4ad37bc13dcb32 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The objective of this research is to show the emergence of a new type of company that seeks to reconcile two dimensions using the traditional tools of the market: the pursuit of profit and generate social impact. This type of development is the social business, which itself is far from covering a single concept. Different perspectives from some regions of the world are explained in this work, to show and need to define the concept and legal frameworks that support the corporate business, for the contribution in social development achieved by this type of business asserts its importance in the context current crisis and search for options on income generation and poverty alleviation. From the analysis of the concepts studied four perspectives: the Asian perspective, the European perspective, the perspective of the United States and the perspective of Latin America and Brazil, the research seeks to adapt the concepts considered central to each of a single model, termed as model proposed by the research. The work focused on project experience MidiaCom.net, in the municipality of Aquiraz, Ceará. Fruit of Advanced Vocational Technology Institute-ITEVA, MidiaCom.net born as social enterprise within the legal terms of a Brazilian cooperative, but analyzed in detail and according to the parameters and characteristics explained in this research can consider it as social business. After identifying a need assessment of the community, and using technological tools creatively MidiaCom.net the project is part of the solution which effectively tries to break a cycle of poverty and ignorance in the region where it operates. Social business MídiaCom.net has a positive impact on the region through training and integration of young teenagers in the labor market of qualified digital communication. Social business identified, invests directly in the evolution of society and the alleviation of social problems through an enterprise project and complementary training to help enter the market for skilled labor, young teenagers, mostly low-income, coming from public school and under conditions that would eventually be conducted prior to the informal economy or even marginalization. In short, institutions that believe in training young people invest in a company with promising future. MidiaCom.net is demonstration of that fact, to be created as a social business from a social project and a research institute. It is a social business that generates wealth and social opportunity for choice / O objetivo desta pesquisa é mostrar o surgimento de um novo tipo de empresa que busca conciliar dois dimensões utilizando as ferramentas tradicionais do mercado: a busca pelo lucro e gerar impacto social. Este tipo de empreendimento é o negócio social, que por si mesmo está longe de abarcar um único conceito. Diferentes perspectivas provenientes de algumas regiões do mundo são explicadas no trabalho, a fim de mostrar e necessidade por definir o conceito e os marcos jurídicos que respaldem os negócios sociais; pois o aporte no desenvolvimento social alcançado por este tipo de negócio afirma sua importância no contexto atual de crise e busca por opções na geração de renda e diminuição da pobreza. A partir da análise de conceitos das 4 perspectivas estudadas: a perspectiva asiática, a perspectiva europeia, a perspectiva dos Estados Unidos e a perspectiva de América latina e o Brasil, a pesquisa busca adaptar os conceitos considerados centrais de cada uma num único modelo, denominado como modelo proposto pela pesquisa. O trabalho centrou-se na experiência do projeto MidiaCom.net, no município de Aquiraz, Ceará. Fruto do Instituto Tecnológico Vocacional Avançado- ITEVA, MidiaCom.net nasce como empresa social dentro dos termos jurídicos brasileiros de uma cooperativa, mas analisado em detalhe e segundo os parâmetros e características explicadas nesta pesquisa é possível considerá-lo como negócio social. Depois de identificar uma real carência da comunidade, e usando ferramentas tecnológicas com criatividade o projeto MidiaCom.net é parte da solução que busca romper efetivamente um ciclo de pobreza e ignorância na região onde está inserido. O negócio social MídiaCom.net tem um impacto positivo na região através da capacitação e inserção de jovens adolescentes no mercado de trabalho qualificado da comunicação digital. O negócio social identificado, investe diretamente na evolução da sociedade e na atenuação dos problemas sociais, através de um projeto empresarial e de formação complementária para ajudar a inserir no mercado de trabalho qualificado, jovens adolescentes, principalmente de baixa renda, vindos da escola pública e que em condições anteriores acabariam sendo conduzidos à economia informal ou, mesmo à marginalidade. Em suma, instituições que acreditam na formação dos jovens investem numa sociedade com futuro promissório. MidiaCom.net é demonstração desse fato, ao ser criada como o negócio social proveniente de um projeto social e de um Instituto de pesquisa. É um negócio social que gera riqueza social e oportunidade de escolha

Este estudo tem como objetivo principal avaliar a formação do mercado de agências digitais no Rio Grande do Sul a partir de relações sociais e econômicas desencadeadas pelo empreendedorismo institucional coletivo de empresários, reunidos em uma associação de negócios (business association). O estudo fundamenta-se teoricamente nos pressupostos da Sociologia Econômica dos Mercados. A tese busca evidenciar a relevância de estudos sociológicos sobre a atividade empresarial, notadamente das associações de negócios, com ênfase sobre as ações que uma organização do tipo desenvolve na tentativa de conferir identidade, normas, padrões e fronteiras de atuação comercial e também profissional a um mercado de origem recente, isto é, o mercado de serviços de empresas designadas como agências digitais e que possuem matriz em território gaúcho. Por agências digitais entendemos todas aquelas companhias que têm projetos de Internet como atividade-fim, bem como conteúdo para outras mídias/plataformas digitais (celulares, TV digital e games), e que se situam na interseção de áreas de criação e Comunicação Social, como a Publicidade e Propaganda, e de base técnica, no caso de Tecnologia da Informação (TI). Como resultado desta tese, apontamos qual papel que uma associação de negócios (Agadi / Abradi-RS) desempenha no mercado de agências digitais do Rio Grande do Sul e qual o estágio em que se encontra a formação desse mercado, que possui caráter híbrido, reunindo mais de uma expertise. / This study aims at evaluating the market creation of digital agencies in Rio Grande do Sul privileging the social and economic relations triggered by the collective institutional entrepreneurship within a business association. The study is based on theoretical assumptions of the Economic Sociology of Markets. The study seeks to demonstrate the relevance of sociological research on entrepreneurial activity, particularly related to a business associations, emphasizing the actions of an organization created to give identity, norms, standards and boundaries for the commercial operations as well as to a recent professional market, that is, the market for services companies designated as digital agencies with headquarters in RS. For digital agencies it is understood all those companies that work with Internet projects, as well as with content for other media / digital platforms (mobile phones, digital TV and games), and which lie at the intersection of areas of creation and the Media, as Advertising and Propaganda, and technical basis, in the case of Information Technology (IT). The study examines the role the association plays for the creation of the market for digital agencies do Rio Grande do Sul and the stage it is in the formation of this market, which has hybrid character, gathering more than one expertise.

Este estudo analisa como mudanças institucionais no mercado da soja brasileiro proporcionam as condições para negociação de um sistema de governança ambiental para a produção na Amazônia. Em junho de 2006, as principais agroindústrias anunciaram um acordo inédito parao setor agrícola do país: Elas se comprometeram a não comercializa a colheita produzidas em novas áreas desmatadas da floresta amazônica. Esse acordo ficou conhecido como a Moratória da Sója e deu origem a um sistema de segurança multistakeholders para conter o avanço da produção sobre a floresta. O comportamento dos atores ligados à agroindústria da soja é a face mais visível de um fenômeno social que também tem seus componetes econômicos, culturais e políticos. O arranjo que surgiu no campo da soja faz parte de um movimento que se espalha por vários mercados contemporâneos, onde cada vez mais as organizações, em vez de esperar pelo Estado antecipam-se criando sistemas voluntários de gestão ambiental, por meio de protocolos e acordos voltados a reduzir os impactos ambientais negativos daquilo que fazem. A decisão de decretar a moratória e a consequente criação de um comitê de governança ambiental é analisada sob uma perspectiva histórica, na qual grupos dominantes e desafientes constantemente disputam nos campos sociais a definição das instituições que dão estabilidade aos mercados. A partir de novas vertentes teóricas da nova sociologia econômica e da teoria das organizações, as ações tomadas pela agroindústria são vistas não apenas como escolha racional a partir dos recursos internos das empresas e dos sinais do mercado, mas como resposta a pressão externa por legitimidade. / This study focus on how institutional changes in the soybean market generated conditions to setting an environmental governance system for production in the Amazon region. On June 2006, the main soybean and trading companies working in Brazil reached an unprecedented agreement on not to trade soy grown in newly deforested area in the Amazon. The agreement was named Soybean Moratorium in the Amazon and led to the creation of the Soya Working Group, a multistakeholder arrangement to curb production from spreading throughout the forest. The soybean industry actors behavior is part of a broader complex social phenomenon, which also includes economic, cultural and political components. The new institutional arrangement in the soybean organizational field is connected to a broader move spreading on several contemporary markets, in which organizations, instead of waiting for State regulations, adopt initiatives, such as voluntary systems of environmental management through alliances, agreements and certifications systems, to control the negative impacts of their activities. The new attitudes are explained from a historical perspective, in which dominant groups and their challengers dispute, within social arenas, the definition of institutions that stabilize the organizational field. Using the theoretical approaches of economic sociology and sociology of organizations, the action of the soybean industry is seen not only as rational choices based on the company resources and market signals, but as answers to external pressures for legitimacy

Este estudo analisa como mudanças institucionais no mercado da soja brasileiro proporcionam as condições para negociação de um sistema de governança ambiental para a produção na Amazônia. Em junho de 2006, as principais agroindústrias anunciaram um acordo inédito parao setor agrícola do país: Elas se comprometeram a não comercializa a colheita produzidas em novas áreas desmatadas da floresta amazônica. Esse acordo ficou conhecido como a Moratória da Sója e deu origem a um sistema de segurança multistakeholders para conter o avanço da produção sobre a floresta. O comportamento dos atores ligados à agroindústria da soja é a face mais visível de um fenômeno social que também tem seus componetes econômicos, culturais e políticos. O arranjo que surgiu no campo da soja faz parte de um movimento que se espalha por vários mercados contemporâneos, onde cada vez mais as organizações, em vez de esperar pelo Estado antecipam-se criando sistemas voluntários de gestão ambiental, por meio de protocolos e acordos voltados a reduzir os impactos ambientais negativos daquilo que fazem. A decisão de decretar a moratória e a consequente criação de um comitê de governança ambiental é analisada sob uma perspectiva histórica, na qual grupos dominantes e desafientes constantemente disputam nos campos sociais a definição das instituições que dão estabilidade aos mercados. A partir de novas vertentes teóricas da nova sociologia econômica e da teoria das organizações, as ações tomadas pela agroindústria são vistas não apenas como escolha racional a partir dos recursos internos das empresas e dos sinais do mercado, mas como resposta a pressão externa por legitimidade. / This study focus on how institutional changes in the soybean market generated conditions to setting an environmental governance system for production in the Amazon region. On June 2006, the main soybean and trading companies working in Brazil reached an unprecedented agreement on not to trade soy grown in newly deforested area in the Amazon. The agreement was named Soybean Moratorium in the Amazon and led to the creation of the Soya Working Group, a multistakeholder arrangement to curb production from spreading throughout the forest. The soybean industry actors behavior is part of a broader complex social phenomenon, which also includes economic, cultural and political components. The new institutional arrangement in the soybean organizational field is connected to a broader move spreading on several contemporary markets, in which organizations, instead of waiting for State regulations, adopt initiatives, such as voluntary systems of environmental management through alliances, agreements and certifications systems, to control the negative impacts of their activities. The new attitudes are explained from a historical perspective, in which dominant groups and their challengers dispute, within social arenas, the definition of institutions that stabilize the organizational field. Using the theoretical approaches of economic sociology and sociology of organizations, the action of the soybean industry is seen not only as rational choices based on the company resources and market signals, but as answers to external pressures for legitimacy

Cette thèse a pour objectif de participer à l’étude du changement des industries contemporaines et d’appliquer des outils de la science politique à l’analyse de l’économie. À travers l’étude du cas de la voiture électrique, nous nous interrogeons sur les causes des évolutions de l’industrie automobile. Notre hypothèse est que la construction du marché des voitures électriques entre 2008 et 2013 n’a pas produit la « Révolution » annoncée par les acteurs sociaux. Au contraire, elle a permis la reproduction des structures et des hiérarchies industrielles existantes. Pour le démontrer, ce travail tente de comprendre non seulement comment la question du développement des voitures électriques a été érigée au rang de problème public, mais aussi comment ce « problème » s’est institutionnalisé comme un cadre consensuel d’action des constructeurs automobiles. Par ce biais, nous mettons en lumière l’importance des croyances et des représentations collectives sur l’activité économique, dans l’optique de déconstruire le mythe de la « Seconde Révolution automobile ». En outre, notre travail montre que la science politique, et plus précisément l’analyse des politiques publiques et la sociologie de l’action publique, peut apporter des outils analytiques heuristiques et des réponses concrètes au fonctionnement des industries et du capitalisme contemporain. Par cette voie, cette thèse entend apporter une contribution aux questions que se posent sociologues, économistes et politistes sur le changement économique et les processus qui en sont à l’origine. / This thesis aims to generate knowledge upon change within contemporary industries and apply tools from political science to the analysis of the economy. Through the case study of the electric car market, the focus is on the causes of the transformation of the automobile industry. The central claim made is that the social construction of the electric car market between 2008 and 2013, did not produce the “Revolution” announced by the actors involved in this industry. On the contrary, it has facilitated the reproduction of existing industrial structures and hierarchies. To demonstrate this claim, the thesis has sought to understand how the issue of the development of electric cars has been elevated to the status of public problem by several States around the world. From there, we then sought to discover how this “problem” has become a consensual strategic framework for automakers and a key issue within the automobile industry. Throughout this research, we highlight the impact of beliefs and collective representations upon economic activity, and deconstructed the myth of the “Second Automobile Revolution”. Furthermore, our work shows that political science, specifically the sociology of public action, can supply heuristic analytical tools and practical answers to the understanding of contemporary industries and capitalism. This thesis is thus a contribution to questions asked by sociologists, economists and political scientists about economic change

Este estudo tem como objetivo principal avaliar a formação do mercado de agências digitais no Rio Grande do Sul a partir de relações sociais e econômicas desencadeadas pelo empreendedorismo institucional coletivo de empresários, reunidos em uma associação de negócios (business association). O estudo fundamenta-se teoricamente nos pressupostos da Sociologia Econômica dos Mercados. A tese busca evidenciar a relevância de estudos sociológicos sobre a atividade empresarial, notadamente das associações de negócios, com ênfase sobre as ações que uma organização do tipo desenvolve na tentativa de conferir identidade, normas, padrões e fronteiras de atuação comercial e também profissional a um mercado de origem recente, isto é, o mercado de serviços de empresas designadas como agências digitais e que possuem matriz em território gaúcho. Por agências digitais entendemos todas aquelas companhias que têm projetos de Internet como atividade-fim, bem como conteúdo para outras mídias/plataformas digitais (celulares, TV digital e games), e que se situam na interseção de áreas de criação e Comunicação Social, como a Publicidade e Propaganda, e de base técnica, no caso de Tecnologia da Informação (TI). Como resultado desta tese, apontamos qual papel que uma associação de negócios (Agadi / Abradi-RS) desempenha no mercado de agências digitais do Rio Grande do Sul e qual o estágio em que se encontra a formação desse mercado, que possui caráter híbrido, reunindo mais de uma expertise. / This study aims at evaluating the market creation of digital agencies in Rio Grande do Sul privileging the social and economic relations triggered by the collective institutional entrepreneurship within a business association. The study is based on theoretical assumptions of the Economic Sociology of Markets. The study seeks to demonstrate the relevance of sociological research on entrepreneurial activity, particularly related to a business associations, emphasizing the actions of an organization created to give identity, norms, standards and boundaries for the commercial operations as well as to a recent professional market, that is, the market for services companies designated as digital agencies with headquarters in RS. For digital agencies it is understood all those companies that work with Internet projects, as well as with content for other media / digital platforms (mobile phones, digital TV and games), and which lie at the intersection of areas of creation and the Media, as Advertising and Propaganda, and technical basis, in the case of Information Technology (IT). The study examines the role the association plays for the creation of the market for digital agencies do Rio Grande do Sul and the stage it is in the formation of this market, which has hybrid character, gathering more than one expertise.