2023-04-19 13:00:08
Lhe interest of sociologists for the associative world is old. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), one of the fathers of the discipline, had already underlined the need for the principle of the free association of individuals in a modern society. Since then, it is rather from the angle of their role of counter-power and space for engagement that associations have first been analyzed by the social sciences, as organizations that support altruistic, recreational, sporting and cultural practices. , artistic, but also of influence and defense of more or less particular interests. Their role in democratic and social life has thus been underlined, as well as their heterogeneity and their pluralism: from an association for the protection of animals to a petanque club, via an association for the distribution of food or the fight against racism. , the range is very wide.
The world of associations is also of interest to sociologists specializing in public action, with the State relying more and more often on associations to carry out some of its missions – we can cite the example of the fight against poverty, city policy, of the entire medico-social sector. On many subjects, these structures produce expertise that is useful for public action, in particular because of their proximity to the field, and their autonomy vis-à-vis more constrained political and administrative agendas.
Having become an employer for nearly 2 million employees, the associative world could not function without the voluntary work of more than 15 million people. He is also a big user of integration contracts, trainees, young people in civic service. It therefore provides expertise and services at a lower cost. It is for this reason that associations are also of interest to sociologists of work and employment. Spaces of commitment and expression of citizenship, subcontractors of public action, employers, associations have thus been the subject of numerous surveys through interviews, observations, questionnaires, work on archives, but whose different perspectives did not always dialogue, due to the effect of specialization.
Threat to jobs
Recent political statements on the subject of the League of Human Rights by ministers and deputies have brought to the fore a subject whose understanding benefits greatly from the complementarity of the associations’ sociological approaches. The financing of associations, and more precisely their public financing, is indeed a subject which directly places in dialogue – and often in tension – the causes supported, the way in which the public authorities envisage the role of associations, and the working conditions that they can offer to their employees.
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