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La Nouvelle Revue du Travail asked three social science researchers holding political office to give their views on the possible links between their field of expertise and political action. The discussions, in the form of a series of questions, invite our three interlocutors to share their opinions: what does it mean to be involved in politics as a researcher in the humanities and social sciences?

Since the mid-1970s, youth employment has become a political issue, an election issue and a particular focus of public policy. Over the last 45 years, successive governments have come up with ever more innovative schemes to improve young people's access to employment. But what are the long-term trends in terms of supporting working-class young people into employment? What forms do they take in practice?

Commune commune is a documentary directed by Dorine Brun and Sarah Jacquet, released in 2022 and produced by La Société des Apaches and Bocalupo Films. With a duration of 114 minutes, it traces the journey of a democratic experiment from 2014 to 2020. During this period, the Drôme commune of Saillans elected a citizens’ list carrying a participatory democracy project. The film looks back at the hopes raised and the collective achievements of a powerful moment in local politics.The sociologist Séverin Muller and the political scientist Mario Bilella, who were both able to investigate the same field in Saillans, give their personal reading of the film, before giving the floor back to the directors. The comments were collected by François Sarfati.

This dossier is based on the film “Nos batailles”, released in October 2018. It offers a space for comparing the visions of two sociologists, who, each in their own way, have broached the issues that the director raises. Topics include how work organisation impacts on family life, in a highly rationalised professional world such as the logistics sector; and how domestic and parental constraints affect workers, especially men, in their daily lives. The questions were asked to two sociologists, David Gaborieau and Julie Landour. who have mobilised their respective research production to offer additional insight into the subject that Guillaume Senez addresses.

Questions raised here include how sociologists analyse consumption; which methods, tools and concepts they use to account for social practice; how they envision the low cost model; and what linkages they suggest between the sociology of consumption vs. the sociology of production.

Abstract : This paper focuses on the Ken Loach’s movie I, Daniel Blake. The film follows Daniel Blake as he tries to face with the british social system. How does filmmaker try to show the evolution of the unemployement system? How do sociologists try to explain the turn in the social protection system? What is the difference between the british filmmaker eye and the sociologist one? What is the difference between the situation in Great Britain and in France? And how close are British and French realities? These questions were asked to three sociologists, Jean-Marie Pillon, Claire Lefrançois, and Sacha Leduc. Their perspectives provide additional insight into the subject.

Researchers have to face some hard epistemological and paradigmatic choices when analyzing biographical materials. In line with the ambition of the section in which it appears, the present article highlights the importance of verbatim interviews, discussing different sociological readings of temporary work based on the singular trajectory of one 54 year old worker.