September 2004
abstract
Gérer & Comprendre
Issue 77
Editorial
By Francis LEFEBVRE
Secrétaire général du Comité de rédaction
AN ELECTRIC DEBATE
A century of government interventions in the electricity sector in France
Pour éclairer le débat
By Frédérique PALLEZ
ENSMP
and Francis PAVÉ
Centre de Sociologie des Organisations (CSO) - ESPC
Public authorities in France have drawn up various policies for the sector of electricity with the aim of providing a framework for private interests so as to stimualte them to take into account the general interest. Till the eve of World War I, such policies tended to be liberal; thereafter, interventionist. Nowadays, they fit into a neoliberal economy as formulated by EU institutions. Faced with this transformation, local authorities are shaping a new public service model that will not at all resemble successive conceptions of public service over the past century.
A central purchasing department : A new assignment for SIPPEREC ? An interview with SIPPEREC
By Frédérique Pallez and Francis Pavé
Public authorities in France have drawn up various policies for the sector of electricity with the aim of providing a framework for private interests so as to stimualte them to take into account the general interest. Till the eve of World War I, such policies tended to be liberal; thereafter, interventionist. Nowadays, they fit into a neoliberal economy as formulated by EU institutions. Faced with this transformation, local authorities are shaping a new public service model that will not at all resemble successive conceptions of public service over the past century.
Five years of opening the electricity market in Germany: An assessment
Entretien avec M. CHARDON, directeur général adjoint du Sipperec, et Mme DUMAS, directrice de la communication
By Frédérique PALLEZ
ENSMP
and Francis PAVÉ
Centre de Sociologie des Organisations (CSO) - ESPC
Created at the start of the 20th century for the electrification of communes surrounding Paris, SIPPEREC has recently seen its assignment shift toward another field, namely institutionally organizing the distribution of electricity in the framework of EU policy for liberalizing public utility monopolies and placing on the market contracts for supplying electricity. Breaking the standoff between suppliers of electricity and dispersed consumers, SIPPEREC is trying to assume the role of a go-between with the aim of “mutualizing” demand. Will it measure up to the job of determining the nature and setting the level of expected services? Will it be able to define the terms for comparing offers from various suppliers ?
The privatization of the electricity industry in the United Kingdom
By Guillaume FERNET
CREDIT CONTROL MANAGER EDF ENERGY
and Nicolas OTT
Elève de l'école Polytechnique
In 1998, the German federal government decided to transpose in national law the principle of competition in the sector of electricity. To set up an electricity market, the new law has more or less dismantled the former system of the juxtaposed monopolies of approximately nine hundred local energy firms (Stadtwerke). How were the new market’s legal and institutional modalities determined ? What political choices underlie them? What benefits will consumers draw from this liberalization? What assessment has Germany made about these past five years ? What are the hopes and fears for coming years ?
What place for French local authorities in electricity ?
By François-Mathieu POUPEAU
Chargé de recherche CNRS au Laboratoire Techniques
Territoires
and Sociétés (LATTS)
The British electricity market was, in the main, opened prior to similar operations in other EU countries. A look back on this now accomplished process might be instructive, especially if we focus on its impact on private consumers.
Le client est-il roi sur le marché électrique anglais ?
Témoignage
By Nicolas OTT
Élève de l'école Polytechnique
Was the adoption of mechanical data-processing at the end of the 19th century rational ?
By François-Mathieu POUPEAU
Chargé de recherche CNRS au Laboratoire Techniques Territoires et Sociétés (LATTS)
After a half-century of nationalization, local authorities in France are rediscovering a more important role. This is part of a quite general trend to “territorialize” government interventions, a trend observed in many fields. How capable will French — or even Europan — local authorities prove of proposing an alternative to liberalizing the electricity sector ?
Mosaics
Heroism in organizations
On James March’s courses edited and annotated by Thierry Weil in Le leadership dans les organisations.
By Hervé LAROCHE
From the public to the traveler in the Paris subway
On Isaac Joseph’s Météor ou les métamorphoses du métro.
By Frédérique Pallez
In praise of organizational and strategic tinkering
On Claude Michaud and Jean-Claude Thoenig’s Stratégie et sociologie de l'entreprise.
By Vincent Mangematin
The secret charms of bookkeeping
On Nicolas Véron, Matthieu Autret and Alfred Galichon’s L'information financière en crise: Comptabilité et capitalisme.
By Bernard Colasse
Confidence, a federating or a fashionable?
On Vincent Mangematin and Christian Thuderoz’s (eds.) Des mondes de confiance: Un concept à l'épreuve de la réalité sociale. OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES Jean-Louis PEAUCELLE Université de la Réunion
By Olivier Lenay
OVERLOOKED
The international influence of French research in management, an analysis on the basis of publications in SSCI journals (1991-2002)
By Vincent MANGEMATIN
INRA, Université Pierre Mendes France
Two strategies have developed in response to innovations in information technology. The one seeks to embrace innovations, and do more and better thanks to the new systems. The other, in contrast, deals with new machines cautiously, while waiting for improvements and lower prices. These difficulties become our own when the economic impact of the computerization of management is to be assessed. But they were also encountered by the inventors of the punch-card. The United States has chosen the first of the aforementioned strategies; and France, the second. The American choice gave birth to IBM…
Réalités méconnues
Toward ratings for academics? An invitation to a debate
By Michel Berry
The limits of measures of impact, a reply to Vincent Mangematin
By Armand Hatchuel
Les limites des métriques d'impact
Réponse à Vincent MANGEMATIN
By Armand HATCHUEL
Professeur, École des mines de Paris