The research programs

The lab’s new project prolongs the orientations that first shaped it around the professions and temporalities – at the root of our scientific identity – while at the same time initiating transformations in fields where research has been most productive, particularly the sociology of the professions.
The project revolves around the two main topics:

These poles are neither sub-groups nor simply juxtaposed research fields: they are conceived as springboards for the work carried out in the lab, shared by all the members and meant to facilitate the interweaving and pooling together of research questions. Similarly, the institutional perspective that, from the start, irrigated the research carried out at Printemps, remains an undercurrent that most of the members have in common, whether their center of interest is the categories produced, observing professionals as they perform or the frameworks surrounding individual careers and itineraries.

The pole "Professional worlds" is open to themes that have never as yet been truly investigated but which various scientific events organized by Printemps have shown to be of great interest, such as the stakes surrounding knowledge, professional territories, labor institutions and professional relations, work-linked commitments – especially the work of activists and the link between professional activity and activism – and, lastly, expertise.
Several new objects of study therefore enhance the more classical fields of research that have been the lab’s daily fare for 15 years :

The "Careers and temporalities" axis too has been reinforced. A number of different themes explains its dynamism :This axis is also committed to producing innovative, methodological tools to allow studying careers and itineraries more objectively. From this standpoint, the epistemology and methodology that from the start has been one of the lab’s strong points, are today particularly called upon to pursue our efforts in developing a quantitative approach. For, on the one hand, it represents an empirical approach that has as yet to be fully developed in French scientific research, and, on the other hand, because our wish is to contribute to creating a pole of quantitative sociology on the Saclay Plateau.

By taking our lead from demography – a traditionally strong field in our research unit – and drawing on the competence of several of our members, as well as on our participation in directing the ISIS project, we are engaged in developing a truly scientific strategy based on quantitative sociology. It will have several, various outcomes – seminars, workshops, teamwork – both inside Printemps and together with other teams and research groups on the Plateau de Saclay.