Luc Boltanski (born 4 January 1940) is a French sociologist, Professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris, and founder of the Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale, known as the leading figure in the new "pragmatic" school of French sociology.[1] His work has significantly influenced sociology, political economy and social history.
Boltanski contributed to the start of the "political and moral sociology" framework. Political and moral sociology has gradually developed as a research programme—in the sense proposed by Imre Lakatos—around a conceptual nucleus looking to construct a theory of action based on Émile Durkheim's theory of moral fact, revising the inheritance of ‘methodological structuralism’ from the point of view of dynamics and processes. The research program stresses how, in many conflicts, the characteristics of the disputants change during the course of the conflict. This work has influenced research on civic culture within and beyond French sociology.[2][3][4][5][6]
Boltanski's most recent work deals with the links between detective novels and the emergence of the nation state.[7]
A book co-authored with Laurent Thévenot, On Justification: Economies of Worth, 2006 (French original: 1991), presents a comprehensive framework for understanding how people justify their actions and critique others in modern societies. Boltanski and Thévenot argue that modern societies are not governed by a single social order, but rather by multiple, coexisting "orders of worth" or "economies of worth."
Boltanski and Thévenot identify six distinct orders of worth, each representing a systematic and coherent principle of evaluation:
1. The Inspired World: Values creativity, spontaneity, and inner guidance. Exemplified by figures like Saint Augustine, this world emphasizes unique character and the capacity for inspiration.
2. The Domestic World: Values tradition, hierarchy, and personal relationships. Modeled on familial structures, this world prioritizes loyalty, obedience, and respect for authority (illustrated by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet's Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture).
3. The Civic World: Values the common good, equality, and solidarity. Rooted in ideas of citizenship and collective responsibility, this world is exemplified by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
4. The Market World: Values competition, efficiency, and the pursuit of self-interest. As described by Adam Smith, this world operates on principles of supply and demand, valuing individuals based on their ability to compete and accumulate wealth.
5. The Industrial World: Values productivity, efficiency, and technological progress. This world, represented by Henri de Saint-Simon, emphasizes standardized processes and the optimization of systems for maximum output.
6. The Fame World: Values recognition, reputation, and the pursuit of fame. Exemplified by Thomas Hobbes, this world focuses on visibility and the accumulation of social capital.
These orders are not confined to specific social domains, but coexist and interweave throughout the social space. The authors demonstrate this through a content analysis of texts used in managerial training in contemporary French corporations.
Each order of worth is illustrated with work from classic authors:
Central to On Justification is the notion of the "test" (épreuve), a moment when the worth of people or things is evaluated according to the principles of a particular common world. Legitimate tests allow for the resolution of disputes within a single order of worth. However, when agents in conflict refer to different orders of worth, legitimate tests are not available within a single framework. In such cases, if the agents are oriented toward a notion of the common good, an (albeit fragile) "compromise" may evolve to settle the dispute. The authors provide the example of workers' rights as a compromise between the industrial and civic orders. However, these compromises are always fragile because attempts to define the common good can reignite the conflict due to the lack of a higher common principle that can fully integrate the different orders of worth involved.
The book combines theoretical analysis with empirical observation, drawing on a wide range of sources including management handbooks, union manuals, and classical texts in political philosophy. The framework developed in On Justification has broad implications for understanding social coordination, conflict resolution, and the plurality of value systems in modern societies. It offers a nuanced alternative to both universalist theories of justice and relativist approaches to social values.
The New Spirit of Capitalism, 2005 (French original: 1999), co-authored with Ève Chiapello, explores a seventh "projective city"[8] organized around the concept of flexible networks now prominent in the conception of "the project". While On Justification was based on an analysis of major texts of political philosophy, this book is based on a systematic analysis of managerial literature from the 1960s and 1990s and aims "to describe the 'residue', which cannot be interpreted in the language of the six existing cities" (p. 24).
By ‘enrichment economy’, Boltanski and Esquerre (2014, 2016) designate a development of capitalism based on tourism, luxury, art and heritage. The term ‘enrichment’ does not refer to the growth of private fortunes, but rather to the processes that increase the value of objects. Boltanski and Esquerre define value as the justification for price. Any object can be enriched, however ancient or modern it is, and the enrichment can be physical or cultural, through the use of a narrative device. At the heart of this ‘enrichment economy’ is the ‘collection form’, which makes room in the capitalist cosmos for increasing the value of things from the past and things that, though they may be recent, are treated as if they were destined to become immortal.