A Pragmatic Redefinition of Value(s): Toward a General Model of Valuation

Abstract

This paper is intended to draw the main theoretical lines of the notion of value, in order to avoid some flaws in the quantitative surveys on values as well as in some qualitative studies of value judgements. Through a number of redefinitions based on a pragmatic approach, inspired not only by Dewey’s concept of ‘valuation’ but also by the new French pragmatic sociology and by the pragmatist trend in linguistics, it tries to specify the conditions under which sociology can address the notion of ‘value’ while avoiding their reduction to scholarly supports for morals or normative guides for action and evaluation. Meanwhile, it tries to construct a unified concept of value that would work for all the concerned disciplines: not only sociology but also economics, psychology, anthropology, and even philosophy.

Emotions and Valuations: Notre-Dame de Paris on Fire as a Case Study for Axiological Sociology

“…Third, this pragmatic turn makes it possible to consolidate the orientation of sociology towards a scientific and no longer a moral or political aim, by understanding and explaining actors' relationship to axiological principles (or "values") through their contextual implementations and justifications (Lamont 1992(Lamont , 2012Boltanski 1993Boltanski , 2004Kaufmann 2012;Ogien 2016;Heinich 2017;Kaufmann and Gonzalez 2017). Far beyond the mere issue of valuation, and far beyond French borders, this indeed can be seen as an important step in the history of sociology (Heinich 2020a;Kuipers and Franssen 2020).…”

“…Indeed, analyzing the production of norms, their effects and their transgressions certainly allowed fundamental contributions to sociology (Goffman 1959;Becker 1963;Elias 1969). But the exclusive focus on norms tends to hide what makes them efficient, namely their grounding on relatively consensual axiological principles (Heinich 2020a).…”

“…In the line of this pragmatic turn in the sociology of valuation, I proposed a model helping to analyze the three kinds of valuation: measure, attachment and judgment (Heinich 2017(Heinich , 2020a(Heinich , 2020b. Based on actual valuation processes observed in their context of production, this model has been initiated through the analysis of controversies about bullfighting (Heinich 1993), contemporary art (Heinich 1995) and national heritage (Heinich 2009), most of them dealing with tensions between aesthetic and ethical values.…”

Three Modes of Valuation Practices in Art Games

“…Sociologists in Bourdieu's intellectual tradition have maintained the focus on practices of consecration, albeit with diverging assumptions: Michèle Lamont discovers practices of valuation beyond evaluation; Nathalie Heinich proposes an elaborate model of valuation practices that is structured, among other features, by three "forms" of action in three temporal "moments"; while Marion Fourcade emphasizes the similarities between ordinal and monetary valuation (Lamont 2012;Fourcade 2016;Heinich 2020).…”

Ugly and uglier: defining value and politics in architecture

“…This article does not offer a detailed examination of Lenin Avenue, but rather uses its example to springboard to a broader issue. What defines the transformation of Lenin Avenue is not the meaning of style (Barthes 1989), but its worth and desirability, in other words, its value (Heinich 2020). As in many other former socialist cities, residents of Kaliningrad partake in a drive to enhance the historicity of the city's space and to downplay the architectural legacy of socialism (Samutina and Stepanov 2014;Dimova 2013;Colomb 2007;Boyer 1994;Gottdiener 2001).…”