Entreprises et gouvernance en France : perspectives historiques et évolutions récentes

Does France have a society that is blocked by nature and essence? A historical perspective yields a completely different view of the country's social and economic landscape. In particular, attention is drawn to the deep transformations of French firms and of their governance. The history of this change partly fits into a broader trend that, reaching well beyond borders, can be easily summed up through a single word — “globalization”. Changes in French firms and in their “logics of governance” can partly be seen as a reaction to powerful outside pressures that are pushing the economies of France and many other countries in a particular direction. Still, as we probe further, we realize that these changes are, in fact, adaptations, translations and hybridizations that involve ongoing negotiations with already existing institutional frames and logics. The advance of globalization and neoliberalism is quite real; but it interplays with and is embedded in local settings and logics that limit its scope and impact. — Special issue: New patterns of institutions.