François Pichault
Biographic Data
| ID | 5657652 |
|---|---|
| NAME | François Pichault |
| GIVEN NAMES | François |
| FAMILY NAME | Pichault |
| SIGNATURE | PICHAULT F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Liège |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1569-2938 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Research Handbook of Careers in the Gig Economy
This Research Handbook explores how gig workers’ careers fit into the evolving employment landscape. It provides essential insights into how individuals can navigate the gig economy successfully and sustainably.
Smart City Development as Public Entrepreneurship
This article examines how mayors in Belgium facilitate smart city development through interactions with actors in public administrations, businesses, and civil society. By applying public entrepreneurship and actor-network theories, it explores actions mayors can take to establish urban innovation networks. The research reveals mayors’ crucial role in translating initial ambiguous smart city ideas into public programs shared and implemented by di…
Managers in the Era of Digital Transformation
In a professional world that demands instantaneity and immediate availability, digitalisation affects not only the way we work, but also the way we think about work. In this article, we explore how the introduction of new technologies in Belgian companies specialised in different sectors impacts managers as regards their concept of time. We do so by analysing in‐depth interviews and providing qualitative evidence of managerial perspectives. In pa…
Setting sustainability agenda at the local level
This paper examines how local actors set the sustainability agenda. By relying on the economies of worth, we explain how actors dwell upon multiple worlds to evaluate what is valuable, what is not valuable, and to promote their views. Empirically, we draw evidence from the Walloon region in Belgium, by investigating how multiple actors discuss their views in an attempt to set a sustainability agenda. We outline the multiple worlds that actors ref…
The Panopticon reloaded
This article examines Performance Management Systems (PMSs) as socio-technical policy instruments for shaping power relations in megaprojects. Employing an abductive approach, it innovatively applies Foucault's Panopticon theory to the case of the Lyon-Turin railway, a megaproject funded by the European Union's Trans-European Transport Network policy. Our research reveals that PMSs operate as intellectual technologies that enable megaproject prom…
How does institutional context shape work-related functionings for regular and self-employed workers? A contextualised application of the capability approach to Belgium, France and the Netherlands
Purpose According to Sen's theoretical framework of capability (1985), individuals reach their full potential once they have the freedom, intended as the set of functionings at their disposal, to do so. However, many critiques have been developed against the lack of embeddedness of the capability approach in social and political relations and structures. In this article, the authors investigate the influence of three institutional contexts (Belgi…
Emerging Forms of Precariousness Related to Autonomy at Work
Societal, technological, and economical changes in the last decades have led to the development of new work arrangements located in a ≪ gray zone ≫ between standard employment and classical self-employment (Cappelli and Keller, 2013a; ILO, 2016; Katz and Krueger, 2016). Official labor market statistics must be adapted to provide researchers and policymakers with relevant data on this population (Gazier et al., 2016; National Academies of Sciences…
Urban entrepreneurship through art-based interventions
This paper explores the conditions under which urban entrepreneurship can develop through art-based interventions. Drawing on two contrasting case studies (Civic City in France, Fieris Fééries in Belgium) and taking actor-network theory (ANT) as a starting analytical point, we outline the tensions involved in the implementation process of such interventions. We focus on the capacity of urban entrepreneurs to engage different relevant stakeholders…
From a new workplace to a new way of working
Purpose Several studies have recently documented projects of organizational transformation and modernization which, commonly clustered under the umbrella term “New Ways of Working” (NWoW), simultaneously entail material, technological, cultural and managerial dimensions. Academic contributions, however, have paid little attention to the mechanisms allowing such projects to progressively become legitimized in organizational discourses and practice…
Autonomy at work in the gig economy
This paper offers a critical perspective on the debate surrounding autonomy at work for a specific category of non‐standard workers: independent professionals. The increasing numbers now working this way as well as their spread into all sectors, industries and occupations, mean that their work arrangements can no longer be dismissed as non‐standard or atypical. Defining them by what they are not is quite simply no longer an option. Our paper exam…
La construction des dispositifs de GRH territoriale
Les projets de GRH territoriale trouvent leur origine dans le besoin de voir se développer de nouvelles formes de collaboration entre des acteurs privés et publics à l’échelle locale. Ces formes de collaboration inédites autour des ressources humaines d’un territoire méritent d’être appréhendées dans la complexité des processus qui concourent à leur émergence. En mettant en perspective deux cas de GRH territoriale français, cet article propose un…
Au-delà des success stories , quel processus de libération ?
Si l’on peut s’attendre à ce qu’un processus de libération s’inscrive logiquement dans une perspective polyphonique (Pichault, 2013) – marquée par l’importance de la communication et de la mobilisation des acteurs, mais aussi par les affrontements entre voix opposées (Sullivan & McCarthy, 2008), il peut tout aussi bien être sous-tendu par une volonté de contrôle et de disciplinarisation du corps social relevant davantage du panoptisme. À travers …
Les critiques de la gestion
Depuis plusieurs décennies, on assiste au développement d’un nombre important de recherches qui mettent en cause la gestion des entreprises. Elles ouvrent la réflexion dans plusieurs directions : elles font place à des finalités autres que strictement économiques et financières, comme l’équité sociale ou le respect de l’environnement ; elles prennent en compte les dimensions émotionnelles et affectives de la vie en entreprise ; elles mettent en l…
Du Tiers à la Tercéisation
Cet article propose une nouvelle figure du tiers soutenant la conclusion de compromis équilibrés et durables dans les configurations inter-organisationnelles. Au travers de l’analyse transversale de deux cas contrastés d’intervention, l’un ayant abouti à la création d’un nouveau dispositif de régulation, l’autre n’ayant pu dépasser le stade du bricolage unilatéral, on relève cinq caractéristiques de l’action du tiers qui contribuent à expliquer l…
Le chercheur comme entrepreneur de l’innovation inter-organisationnelle
Notre interrogation quant aux modalités d’institutionnalisation des pratiques de régulation sociale émergeant au niveau inter-organisationnel nous a amenés à déployer une méthodologie de recherche-intervention de type entrepreneurial, qui a généré des données inédites et particulièrement riches. Ce choix méthodologique pose la question de notre capacité à analyser ces données ainsi que notre rôle entrepreneurial de manière réflexive. Le questionn…
Partenariats inter-organisationnels et nouvelles formes de gouvernance
A partir d’une démarche expérimentale et participative, cet article propose un ensemble de variables permettant de qualifier le caractère plus ou moins soutenable des pratiques émergentes de gouvernance interorganisationnelle. Ces variables constituent également des leviers d’action permettant la conclusion de nouveaux compromis sociaux équilibrés et pérennes dans les partenariats inter-organisationnels.
Faut-il brûler la gestion des compétences ?
L'intervention en organisation
À partir d’une revue critique de la littérature et de notre propre expérience d’intervention, cet article tente de cerner les spécificités d’une intervention en organisation dans une perspective systémique. Il aborde en particulier la question du pouvoir de l’intervenant, c’est-à-dire sa capacité à modifier les représentations des acteurs qui composent le système client. Cette question revient à traiter les diverses stratégies de légitimation que…
Traité de sociologie du travail
Autonomy at work in the gig economy
This paper offers a critical perspective on the debate surrounding autonomy at work for a specific category of non‐standard workers: independent professionals. The increasing numbers now working this way as well as their spread into all sectors, industries and occupations, mean that their work arrangements can no longer be dismissed as non‐standard or atypical. Defining them by what they are not is quite simply no longer an option. Our paper exam…
Setting sustainability agenda at the local level
This paper examines how local actors set the sustainability agenda. By relying on the economies of worth, we explain how actors dwell upon multiple worlds to evaluate what is valuable, what is not valuable, and to promote their views. Empirically, we draw evidence from the Walloon region in Belgium, by investigating how multiple actors discuss their views in an attempt to set a sustainability agenda. We outline the multiple worlds that actors ref…
Emerging Forms of Precariousness Related to Autonomy at Work
Societal, technological, and economical changes in the last decades have led to the development of new work arrangements located in a ≪ gray zone ≫ between standard employment and classical self-employment (Cappelli and Keller, 2013a; ILO, 2016; Katz and Krueger, 2016). Official labor market statistics must be adapted to provide researchers and policymakers with relevant data on this population (Gazier et al., 2016; National Academies of Sciences…
Traité de sociologie du travail
Faut-il brûler la gestion des compétences ?
L'intervention en organisation
À partir d’une revue critique de la littérature et de notre propre expérience d’intervention, cet article tente de cerner les spécificités d’une intervention en organisation dans une perspective systémique. Il aborde en particulier la question du pouvoir de l’intervenant, c’est-à-dire sa capacité à modifier les représentations des acteurs qui composent le système client. Cette question revient à traiter les diverses stratégies de légitimation que…
Partenariats inter-organisationnels et nouvelles formes de gouvernance
A partir d’une démarche expérimentale et participative, cet article propose un ensemble de variables permettant de qualifier le caractère plus ou moins soutenable des pratiques émergentes de gouvernance interorganisationnelle. Ces variables constituent également des leviers d’action permettant la conclusion de nouveaux compromis sociaux équilibrés et pérennes dans les partenariats inter-organisationnels.
Le chercheur comme entrepreneur de l’innovation inter-organisationnelle
Notre interrogation quant aux modalités d’institutionnalisation des pratiques de régulation sociale émergeant au niveau inter-organisationnel nous a amenés à déployer une méthodologie de recherche-intervention de type entrepreneurial, qui a généré des données inédites et particulièrement riches. Ce choix méthodologique pose la question de notre capacité à analyser ces données ainsi que notre rôle entrepreneurial de manière réflexive. Le questionn…
Du Tiers à la Tercéisation
Cet article propose une nouvelle figure du tiers soutenant la conclusion de compromis équilibrés et durables dans les configurations inter-organisationnelles. Au travers de l’analyse transversale de deux cas contrastés d’intervention, l’un ayant abouti à la création d’un nouveau dispositif de régulation, l’autre n’ayant pu dépasser le stade du bricolage unilatéral, on relève cinq caractéristiques de l’action du tiers qui contribuent à expliquer l…
Les critiques de la gestion
Depuis plusieurs décennies, on assiste au développement d’un nombre important de recherches qui mettent en cause la gestion des entreprises. Elles ouvrent la réflexion dans plusieurs directions : elles font place à des finalités autres que strictement économiques et financières, comme l’équité sociale ou le respect de l’environnement ; elles prennent en compte les dimensions émotionnelles et affectives de la vie en entreprise ; elles mettent en l…
Au-delà des success stories , quel processus de libération ?
Si l’on peut s’attendre à ce qu’un processus de libération s’inscrive logiquement dans une perspective polyphonique (Pichault, 2013) – marquée par l’importance de la communication et de la mobilisation des acteurs, mais aussi par les affrontements entre voix opposées (Sullivan & McCarthy, 2008), il peut tout aussi bien être sous-tendu par une volonté de contrôle et de disciplinarisation du corps social relevant davantage du panoptisme. À travers …
La construction des dispositifs de GRH territoriale
Les projets de GRH territoriale trouvent leur origine dans le besoin de voir se développer de nouvelles formes de collaboration entre des acteurs privés et publics à l’échelle locale. Ces formes de collaboration inédites autour des ressources humaines d’un territoire méritent d’être appréhendées dans la complexité des processus qui concourent à leur émergence. En mettant en perspective deux cas de GRH territoriale français, cet article propose un…
Urban entrepreneurship through art-based interventions
This paper explores the conditions under which urban entrepreneurship can develop through art-based interventions. Drawing on two contrasting case studies (Civic City in France, Fieris Fééries in Belgium) and taking actor-network theory (ANT) as a starting analytical point, we outline the tensions involved in the implementation process of such interventions. We focus on the capacity of urban entrepreneurs to engage different relevant stakeholders…
From a new workplace to a new way of working
Purpose Several studies have recently documented projects of organizational transformation and modernization which, commonly clustered under the umbrella term “New Ways of Working” (NWoW), simultaneously entail material, technological, cultural and managerial dimensions. Academic contributions, however, have paid little attention to the mechanisms allowing such projects to progressively become legitimized in organizational discourses and practice…
Autonomy at work in the gig economy
This paper offers a critical perspective on the debate surrounding autonomy at work for a specific category of non‐standard workers: independent professionals. The increasing numbers now working this way as well as their spread into all sectors, industries and occupations, mean that their work arrangements can no longer be dismissed as non‐standard or atypical. Defining them by what they are not is quite simply no longer an option. Our paper exam…
Emerging Forms of Precariousness Related to Autonomy at Work
Societal, technological, and economical changes in the last decades have led to the development of new work arrangements located in a ≪ gray zone ≫ between standard employment and classical self-employment (Cappelli and Keller, 2013a; ILO, 2016; Katz and Krueger, 2016). Official labor market statistics must be adapted to provide researchers and policymakers with relevant data on this population (Gazier et al., 2016; National Academies of Sciences…
The Panopticon reloaded
This article examines Performance Management Systems (PMSs) as socio-technical policy instruments for shaping power relations in megaprojects. Employing an abductive approach, it innovatively applies Foucault's Panopticon theory to the case of the Lyon-Turin railway, a megaproject funded by the European Union's Trans-European Transport Network policy. Our research reveals that PMSs operate as intellectual technologies that enable megaproject prom…
How does institutional context shape work-related functionings for regular and self-employed workers? A contextualised application of the capability approach to Belgium, France and the Netherlands
Purpose According to Sen's theoretical framework of capability (1985), individuals reach their full potential once they have the freedom, intended as the set of functionings at their disposal, to do so. However, many critiques have been developed against the lack of embeddedness of the capability approach in social and political relations and structures. In this article, the authors investigate the influence of three institutional contexts (Belgi…
Setting sustainability agenda at the local level
This paper examines how local actors set the sustainability agenda. By relying on the economies of worth, we explain how actors dwell upon multiple worlds to evaluate what is valuable, what is not valuable, and to promote their views. Empirically, we draw evidence from the Walloon region in Belgium, by investigating how multiple actors discuss their views in an attempt to set a sustainability agenda. We outline the multiple worlds that actors ref…
Research Handbook of Careers in the Gig Economy
This Research Handbook explores how gig workers’ careers fit into the evolving employment landscape. It provides essential insights into how individuals can navigate the gig economy successfully and sustainably.
Smart City Development as Public Entrepreneurship
This article examines how mayors in Belgium facilitate smart city development through interactions with actors in public administrations, businesses, and civil society. By applying public entrepreneurship and actor-network theories, it explores actions mayors can take to establish urban innovation networks. The research reveals mayors’ crucial role in translating initial ambiguous smart city ideas into public programs shared and implemented by di…
Managers in the Era of Digital Transformation
In a professional world that demands instantaneity and immediate availability, digitalisation affects not only the way we work, but also the way we think about work. In this article, we explore how the introduction of new technologies in Belgian companies specialised in different sectors impacts managers as regards their concept of time. We do so by analysing in‐depth interviews and providing qualitative evidence of managerial perspectives. In pa…
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Social Sciences and Governance (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Humanities (5 works) · Management and Organizational Studies (5 works) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation (4 works)