The Organocene: Change in Overorganized Societies

Maison Suger is pleased to host the fourth session of the seminar organised by GRETS, The Organocene: Change in Overorganized Societies, with Henri Bergeron & Patrick Castel, CSO, Sciences Po Paris. The session will be introduced by Nicolas Lot - EDF R&D, Crisis Lab Sciences P.

Contemporary society is characterized by over-organization. In business, administration, and even leisure activities, the establishment of organizations—or systems of “conscious coordination”—has become intrinsic to the realization of collective endeavors. Within these structures, a managerial approach unfolds, which, through steering mechanisms and reporting practices, increasingly complicates their functioning. These institutions, ever more interdependent, demand delicate forms of coordination that are difficult to implement.

In the age of organizations, established concepts such as bureaucracy and hierarchy, as well as psychological representations of leadership, have lost their capacity to grasp empirical reality. Likewise, traditional management recipes—such as the invention of new governance models or reliance on digital technologies—are insufficient to sustain the social and environmental transformations that are urgently required.

By decoding this “organocene” through concrete examples, Henri Bergeron and Patrick Castel propose a renewed analytical framework for decision-making, collective action, and the management of change.

• Henri Bergeron is Director of Research at CNRS, HDR, and Dean of the School of Public Affairs. He is affiliated with the Centre de sociologie des organisations (CSO) and the Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d’évaluation des politiques publiques (LIEPP). Jean’s research focuses on health policies and the transformations of medical practices and the medical profession, examining diverse objects such as illicit drugs, alcohol, obesity, medical research, and public health. He draws on the tools of public policy sociology, social movement studies, and, above all, organizational sociology to account for the dynamics at work in the processes of public policy formation and in the reconfigurations of organizational and institutional fields.
• Patrick Castel is Director of Research at FNSP, HDR, and Deputy Director of the Centre de sociologie des organisations (CSO), Sciences Po Paris. His work lies at the intersection of organizational sociology, the sociology of professions, and the sociology of science. Three main axes guide his research: decision-making within organizations; the organization of work and the conditions of professional cooperation; and the collective processes shaping public policy. While health constitutes his primary field of investigation, it is not his exclusive focus.

• Henri Bergeron, Patrick Castel. L’organocène. Du changement dans les sociétés surorganisées. Presses de Sciences Po, 2024. 
• Patrick Castel, Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel. A la recherche de la décision. Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2024. 
• Maël Dieudonné, Patrick Castel, Magali Robelet. L’impossible contrôle consultatif entre pairs. Le cas des relations entre médecins dans les EHPAD. Sociologie du travail. 66 (1), 2024. 
• Henri Bergeron, Olivier Borraz, Patrick Castel, François Dedieu. Covid-19 : une crise organisationnelle. Presses de Sciences Po, 2020. 
• Henri Bergeron, Patrick Castel, Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, Jeanne Lazarus, Etienne Nouguez, et al.. Le biais comportementaliste. Presses de Sciences Po, 2018.