The rise of the social sciences and humanities in France

institutionalization, professionalization, and autonomization

Gisèle Sapiro

Clarisse Fordant

pp. 25-68

in: Christian Fleck, Matthias Duller, Victor Karády (eds), Shaping human science disciplines, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Abstract

This chapter studies the institutional development of the SSH in France. The first part concentrates on the two major historical phases of their institutionalization as academic disciplines, their professional development, and the autonomization of scientific fields in these domains, focusing primarily on seven disciplines: economics; political science; sociology; anthropology; philosophy; psychology; and literary studies. The second part focuses on morphological trends since the 1980s, providing quantitative data on the evolution of the seven disciplines studied here (faculty, researchers and students). This part questions current transformations regarding the balance of power between different SSH disciplines. It underlines also two major evolutions in the morphology of SSH researchers and professors: feminization and internationalization.