The Pasts in the Present cluster seeks to understand current social appropriations of the past and history  along three lines of inquiry: (1) examining prior interactions with the mediation of history to become better acquainted with general interest in the past and history, which is all too often taken for granted; (2) becoming better acquainted with diverse uses of the past and history by socially differentiated audiences; and (3) analyzing the form such appropriations have taken in the past and how they have evolved.

Narrowing the focus to these issues, a third cluster workshop will examine the possible contribution of the survey instrument in comprehending “social appropriations of historical exhibitions,” to cite one of the cluster’s projects. How can surveys, often measurements of customer satisfaction or a proxy for an establishment’s self-evaluation rather than serving as a genuine interaction with the public, be mobilized for research already in progress? Under which conditions and according to which methods? From which position?

The question is not simple for three reasons. As the second cluster workshop has shown, history and the past are not synonymous; in fact, they are in constant tension. History is a complex object; its “mediation” and “transmission” can be considered from different perspectives, notably: a scientific culture’s pedagogy, a citizen practice, material of a cultural memory. Finally, there is a discrepancy between the singular “public,” in the civic sense, and its plural, which suggests consumers of an institutional system of mediation (Le Marec).

Based on works in progress within the cluster and thanks to the presentation of public surveying practices and pertinent research practices, the workshop will break new collective ground.

Programme

9h30 : Accueil par Pierre Rouillard, Responsable scientifique et technique du labex
Introduction, par Ghislaine Glasson Deschaumes, chef de projet du labex

Le labex au travail : retour sur les enquêtes de public(s).

Sarah Gensburger, Chargée de recherches au CNRS, Institut de Sciences Sociales du Politique, et Sylvain Antichan, doctorant, CESSP, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
Valérie Tesnière, conservateur général des bibliothèques, directrice de la BDIC, et Cécile Tardy, responsable du département des services aux publics, BDIC

Discussion

11h15-11h30 Pause café

11h30-13h00 Contrepoint : la question du public

Joëlle Le Marec, professeur en sciences de l’information et de la communication, Université Paris Diderot

Discussion générale

13h00- 14h00 Déjeuner

14h00-15h30 Connaître les publics en amont et en aval des expositions : l’expérience du musée des Confluences

Nathalie Candito, sociologue, adjointe direction Stratégie et Communication musée des Confluences

Les expositions historiques des Archives nationales : méthodes et enjeux de l’enquête

Pierre Fournié, conservateur général du patrimoine, responsable du département de l’action éducative et culturelle - Musée des Archives nationales

Discussion

15h30-17h00 Enquêter sur les publics des Archives de France : méthode et enjeux

Brigitte Guigueno, Conservateur en chef chargé de la politique des publics,  Bureau de la coordination du réseau, Sous-direction de l’accès aux archives et de la coordination du réseau, Service interministériel des Archives de France

Contrepoint : les appropriations sociales du passé

Alexandra Oeser, maître de conférences en sociologie à l’Université Paris Ouest, chercheuse à l’ISP.

Discussion générale et conclusions