Peut-on penser le travail par le don ? Présentation du débat

Abstract

Since Georges Friedmann and Pierre Naville’s seminal treatise was first published 50 years ago, the sociology of work has always tried to understand the full range of human communities that arise when work occurs, under all of their different aspects. It has tried to achieve this by introducing a very wide variety of paradigms into the field and by addressing any ancillary theoretical conflicts. It is in this spirit of openness and debate that the first Chorus file in the Nouvelle Revue du Travail (NRT) looks at how the gift paradigm has been implemented in the sociology of work. Alain Caillé, one of the main drivers behind the “Anti-Utilitarian Social Sciences Movement” (Mouvement anti-utilitariste en sciences sociales, MAUSS) – along with Norbert Alter, a leading Maussian figurehead in the sociology of work and organisations – use two original texts to review the heuristic virtues of the gift/counter-gift theory in order to apprehend the world of work in all of its changing forms. Following this, the NRT opens a debate with the two authors.

Keywords

• work
• gift/counter-gift
• working relationships
• organisations
• primitive societies
• capitalism