Gwenaële Rot

Gwenaële Rot’s interests lie in the sociology of work, firms, and organizations. Her work centers on concrete production forms and on the way rationalization of economic activities has effected labor and its modalities.
She is contributing to the development of a sociology of productive activity, with the aim of studying fragile organizations by looking at three types of processes: serial production, assembly lines, and construction sites.
Her preferred area of fieldwork is the workshop, seen as a production collective in different types of firms. Examples include an automobile production workshop which works with a “just-in-time” (JIT) production model, the control room and distribution main in the nuclear and petrochemical industries, or a film set in the cinema world.

Gwenaële Rot also works in the field of visual sociology and the history of the sociology of work, in particular regarding the history of the large collective research projects in industrial sociology in the post-World War II era.

Teaching Activities

2014-
Full Professor at Sciences Po (teaching in regular curriculum and in executive education: sociology of labor and economic activities and research methods)

2001-2014
Assistant professor in sociology, Social sciences and administration research group, Sociology department, at the University of Paris-West Nanterre La Défense.

Researcher at the Economic and Social Institutions and Historical Dynamics research center (IDHE).

Other Activities

Scientific activities

Member of section 40 of the CNRS national committee (2008-2012).
Founding member and bureau member of the RT 23.
Member of the scientific council of the History Society of the Renault group.

Teaching activities

Co-director with Guillemette de Larquier of the vocational major for second year master’s students (ATOGE – Analysis of organizational labor and employment management) of the economics and society master’s program at the University of Paris-West (2012-2014)
Pedagogical director for the double major in sociology and economics of the economics and society master’s program at the University of Paris-West (2005-2014)

Editorial activities

Member of the editorial board of the Revue française de sociologie (since 2008).
Curator, with Anni Borzeix and Didier Demazière, of a special issue of Sociologie du travail on writing in the workplace (2012-2014).
Member of the editorial board of Images du travail, travail des images, Poitiers (journal founded in 2014).

Education

2012
Habilitation (HDR) in sociology at the EHESS (advisor: Sabine Chalvon-Demersay): Professorial thesis: "Chantiers sociologiques. Le travail entre activité et organisation" (Volume 1)
Original thesis: "Les espaces du tournage. Une sociologie économique de l’activité cinématographique" (Volume 2)

2000
PhD in sociology from Sciences Po-Paris: Les usines Renault à l''épreuve de leur modernisation, contribution à une sociologie de l''atelier. Advisor: Erhard Friedberg.

1994
Master’s in sociology from Sciences Po-Paris. Advisor: Erhard Friedberg.

1992
Agrégation (teaching certification) in economics and management at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan.

1990-1991
Bachelor’s and master’s degree in private law at the University of Paris I.