Claire Lemercier

A Spinning Top Model of Formal Organization and Informal Behavior: Dynamics of Advice Networks Among Judges in a Commercial Court

The longitudinal study of advice networks among 240 judges at the Commercial Court of Paris permits the examination of learning as an interactive process. We argue that a spinning top model is a useful heuristic for intra-organizational learning in dynamic advice networks. This model proposes that a stabilized elite preserves accumulated knowledge in a community that overall experiences high turnover and systematic job rotation, and hence runs the danger of inadequately sharing knowledge among its members. We test the model by analyzing the structure and dynamics of advice networks among judges at the Commercial Court of Paris. This dynamic structure reflects the informal homophilous preferences among judges organized in a strong formal system, a high relational turnover in the selection of advisors, and the emergence of an elite of senior advisors that stabilizes the learning process - much like the behavior of a spinning top. This case study also identifies an endogenous process of increasing and then decreasing centralization of this network over time, raising questions about the maintenance of the stability of the pecking order and about the relationship between learning and seniority. Results illustrate the importance of dynamic over static network analysis and call for a renewed attention to formal structure in organizations.

Formal network methods in history: why and how?

This paper discusses the application of the kind of formal network methods more commonly used in sociology to historical materials and especially to rural history. It addresses specifically historical questions related to sources and to the dynamics of network as well as more general questions about the underlying theories of social network analysis.

Une histoire sans sciences sociales

Résumé Cet article discute l’association affirmée par David Armitage et Jo Guldi entre usage de sources numérisées, quantification et retour à la longue durée, sur la base d’une tradition d’histoire quantitative ouverte aux sciences sociales et renouvelée par la micro-histoire. Il rappelle que la numérisation de nombreuses sources n’exonère pas de toute prudence dans l’analyse, notamment du fait des biais qu’elle crée. Il insiste surtout sur le fait qu’elle ne règle en rien une question centrale pour la quantification : celle de l’anachronisme contrôlé, c’est-à-dire de la difficile création de catégories adéquates lorsque l’on veut compter sur la longue durée. L’auteure discute aussi des implications d’un choix exclusif de la longue durée pour la réflexion historienne sur les causalités. La longue durée n’est-elle qu’une échelle de pure description ? Si ce n’est pas le cas, peut-elle éviter une version simpliste, de la dépendance au sentier ? Pour éviter ces écueils, il faut prendre en compte les débats des sciences sociales sur l’articulation des temporalités et des causalités.

For a New Approach to Credit Relations in Modern History

Credit relations have not been thoroughly examined by modern historians and are usually viewed through the lens of evolutionist narratives recounting the victory of “ economic rationality” by means of the institutionalization, formalization, and modernization of these relations, although the veritable meaning of these terms are never precisely defined. This article examines the notion of credit relations by exploring their formalization and personalization, which are viewed as two relatively compatible elements. Drawing on a survey of recent publications on the subject, this article analyzes the complementarity of the various types of people involved in credit relations, the transformation of the tools for undertaking such a transaction, and the difficulties surrounding credit in addition to the (non-)existence of sanctions.

Pays ruraux et découpage de l'espace : les réseaux migratoires dans la région lilloise au milieu du XIXe siècle ?

Lemercier Claire, Rosental Paul- Andre. -«Paises» rurales y division del espacio: las redes migratorias en la region de Lille a mediados del siglo XIX La movilidad rural en la Francia del siglo XIX se conoce relativamente mal. Com- parandola con el exodo rural, a menudo se la cualifica como «micro-movilidad». A partir del ejemplo de un centro urbano destacado, la futura area metropolitana de Lille-Roubaix- Tourcoing, alrededor de 1 850, un analisis estructural de redes aplicado a las relaciones entre municipios muestra la importancia de los campos migratorios locales. Contrariamente a las previsiones de los modelos gravitatorios, el mundo rural se compone de conjuntos de municipios con vinculos intensos. Tales conjuntos dividen el espacio sin llegar a formar «parses» (en terminos geograficos) o «grupos» (en terminos de analisis de redes). Su compacidad es heterogenea, y pone en evidencia la variada morfologia espacial. Los resul- tados, obtenidos a traves del metodo de los block-models, muestran la importancia de la frontera lingiiistica que separa las migraciones internas de flamencos y francofonos; tam- bien explican la formacion de suburbios y municipios alrededor de las grandes ciudades, de- terminan la importancia relativa del sedentarismo y de las migraciones de corta o larga distancia y redefinen el papel de la red urbana en la movilidad.

A Contextual Analysis of Electoral Participation Sequences

This chapter presents an ongoing research project based on a seldom-used and particularly interesting source for the longitudinal, multilevel study of electoral participation: signature lists. We have been able to observe turnout in 44 ballots in one French polling station in the Paris region, between 1982 and 2007 (ca. 30,000 acts of turnout or abstention) and to link turnout data with various attributes of voters. We used sequence analysis to emphasize the correlation of participation patterns inside “electorate households” and to study the effect on turnout of the individual position in these households. This chapter discusses the ways in which this type of data and sequence methods makes it possible to take into account not only this social context of electoral participation, but also its temporal and political contexts. More generally, it exemplifies the uses of peculiar sequence data, with a very limited set of possible states but many dimensions to analyze.

Réseaux sociaux Une « French touch »? Retour sur l’école thématique CNRS « Réseaux sociaux: enjeux, méthodes, perspectives », Cargèse (Corse), 15—20 septembre 2008

Social Network Analysis — ‘‘A French Touch’’? Looking Back on the CNRS Summer School « Social Networks — Issues, Methods and Outlooks », Cargèse (Corsica), 15—20 September 2008: This summer school was intended to present social network analysis and its recent developments to a French-speaking public. It was also the opportunity to take stock of work in this area by French and, more generally, French-speaking researchers. The article covers the presentations that were made on this occasion and attempts to identify what may be the specific nature of this work, which seems to be associated with a particular attention to theoretical and epistemological reflexivity. L’école thématique « Réseaux sociaux : enjeux, méthodes, perspectives » qui s’est tenue à Cargèse en septembre 2008 était destinée à présenter l’analyse des réseaux sociaux et ses développements récents à un public francophone. Elle a aussi été l’occasion de faire le point sur les travaux dans ce domaine des chercheurs français, et plus généralement francophones. L’article revient sur les présentations qui ont été réalisées à cette occasion et tente de cerner ce que peuvent être les spécificités de ces travaux. Celles-ci se situent semble-t-il dans un souci particulier de réflexivité théorique et épistémologique.

Failure or Flexibility?: Apprenticeship Training in Premodern Europe

Pre-industrial apprenticeship is often considered more stable than its nineteenth- and twentieth-century counterparts, apparently because of the more durable relationships between masters and apprentices. Nevertheless, recent studies have suggested that many of those who started apprenticeships did not finish them. New evidence about more than 7,000 contracts across several cities in three countries finds that, for a number of reasons, a substantial minority of youths entering apprenticeship contracts failed to complete them. By allowing premature exits, cities and guilds sustained labor markets by lowering the risks of entering long training contracts. Training flexibility was a pragmatic response to labor-market tensions.

Travelling salesmen as agents of modernity in France (18th to 20th centuries)

This paper reviews the available evidence on the history of travelling salesmen in France and offers more general hypotheses about the role of this profession in the «Great Transformation». Based on literary evidence as well as diverse archival material, it examines the emergence of a profession of its own from the mid-18th century and its expansion and recognition as an emblem of modernity from the 1830s to the beginning of the 20th century. It advocates a more systematic study of travelling salesmen and their position in the Industrial Revolution, the birth of large, integrated firms, the middle class and changes in the embeddedness of commer-cial transactions.

Beyond the personal-anonymous divide: agency relations in powers of attorney in France in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: AGENCY RELATIONS IN POWERS OF ATTORNEY IN FRANCE

Powers of attorney are often interpreted as evidence of trust among the parties involved. We build a novel dataset of notarized powers of attorney, capturing a wide variety of agency relationships in four large French commercial cities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to test hypotheses on the relational basis of economic relationships. We find little support for the idea of a radical shift from personal to anonymous relationships during our period. Our results point to more nuanced transformations. The preference for proxies in the same occupation as the principal somewhat declined, while professional proxies emerged and principals used relational chains, especially involving notaries, to find proxies.