This symposium is a direct extension of the
"Fiction & Social Sciences" meeting organized in May
2024, dedicated to contemporary articulations between
fiction devices and social science methodologies. The
exchanges initiated on this occasion made it
possible to deepen already long-standing reflections on the
relationships of competition, tension, but also complementarity between academic
and fictional writing, paying particular attention to emerging practices such
as fictional investigation. The central challenge was to
analyze how the hybridization between the documentary and fictional genres
shifts the ways of investigating, writing and reproducing research results.
The 2024 edition thus highlighted the emergence of a real "language
community", bringing together researchers, writers, and artists around
shared issues. It emerged that fiction cannot be reduced to a simple aesthetic
ornament; it constitutes a powerful methodological and epistemological approach
that allows us to explore reality in a different way. Through a reflection on
"alternative writings" (comics, literary narratives, hybrid forms),
we also questioned the academic legitimacy of these practices, which are capable
of making visible parts of the social world that are often difficult to access through
classical methods. Ultimately, this work,
which led to the writing of a collective work published by Éditions Effigi,
in the In Situ collection (to be published in June 2026), laid the groundwork
for a renewed dialogue where fiction becomes a laboratory for rethinking the
boundaries of sociological, anthropological and historical knowledge.
The
"Fiction & Social Sciences
II" symposium, which will be held on June 29 and 30, 2026 in
Montpellier, will be an opportunity to extend this chain of thought by
highlighting concrete cases of fictional investigations, while questioning
their uses, their conditions of existence, their forms of dissemination and
their effects. This second edition will also pay particular attention to the
diversification of alternative literature, to the new publication spaces
offered by the digital age, as well as to the offer for thematic
workshops and performative conferences, in order to bring out
collaborative exchange formats related to the themes of this symposium.
Main
research questions
In France, the work of Éric Chauvier occupies an important
place in the contemporary reflection on the relationship between fiction and
the social sciences. It invites us to no longer think of fiction as a simple
literary supplement that comes after the investigation, but as one of the very
modalities by which the investigation can be written, moved, and produce
intelligibility. From this perspective, the investigation is not only presented
in a narrative form: it can, in some cases, be fictional in its mode of
deployment, without renouncing the requirements of rigour, attention
to reality and demonstration.
From Anthropologie
(2006) to Somaland (2012), from Plexiglas
mon amour (2021) to Laura (2020), Chauvier has contributed to opening up a workspace in which fiction no
longer appears as the reverse side of the investigation, but rather as one of
its possible extensions, especially when it comes to capturing experiences,
experiences of language malfunctions, areas of uncertainty or forms of life
that withstand the most stabilized academic formats. In this sense, fictional
investigation is neither a simple literary license nor an abandonment of
reality: it is a way of working on the limits of investigation, of inhabiting
its blind spots, and of exploring its descriptive and critical powers.
These considerations resonate with the work of James Clifford
& George E. Marcus (1986), Clifford Geertz (1973),
Kirin Narayan (2012), Ivan Jablonka (2017)
and Marc-Henry Soulet (2021), each of whom has contributed, in
different contexts, to the reflection concerning the issues of writing,
reflexivity, authority, narration and restitution in social sciences. This symposium
thus wishes to offer a space for discussion around the heuristic,
methodological, epistemological, political,
religious and public uses of fiction within social
sciences.
In order to structure this reflection, the conference proposes three lines
of discussion. The first will question the uses of fictional inquiry in the
production of knowledge and the shifts it introduces in the ways of writing,
describing and reproducing reality. The second will examine the conditions of
publication, legitimation and institutional circulation of these forms of
writing, which are still often peripheral within the academic space. Lastly, the
third will focus on the public uses of fiction in the mediation of social
sciences, as well as on the forms of collaboration that it makes possible
between researchers, artists, and professionals in cultural dissemination.
Line 1. Fictional investigation, writing and
knowledge production
The
articulation between fiction and social sciences can be explored in several
ways. Some works
emphasize the resources of non-fiction literature to reinforce the reflexivity,
description, and analytical scope of social sciences. Others, in the wake of
Clifford or Geertz, invite us to think of the writing of the investigation as
an operation of formatting, composition and narrative construction, without however
reducing it to a lying fabulation.
The
2024 conference thus invited us to go beyond the classic opposition between
scientific truth and narrative construction in order to consider fiction as a
legitimate mode of knowledge. Beyond the debate on the veracity of the
narratives, the aim was to analyze the heuristic gains of the "fictional
investigation" (Soulet, 2022), understood as a device that allows the investigation to be pushed beyond
strict factuality to better grasp the concrete experience, a place where the
most traditional methods run out of steam. From this perspective, fiction can
become, for Chauvier, a pragmatic necessity to combat spaces of non-knowledge,
to work on uncertainty, to exemplify situations, or to approach what remains
difficult to express in the social world. Other
researchers use similar
devices to circumvent the resistance of the field (Milhé,
2020; Jounin, 2021), to
reconstruct sensitive experiences, or to extend empirical work in less
conventional forms. The challenge of this axis will therefore be to
discuss what such approaches imply in terms of writing strategies,
relationship to materials, staging of characters,
status of evidence, reception and scientific
validity.
Proposals may include:
- contemporary forms of fictional investigation;
- the empirical uses of fiction in an investigation;
- the heuristic gains of fictional narration;
- the relationship between fiction, truth,
verisimilitude and demonstration;
- the use of fiction to reconstruct experiences
that are difficult to document;
- the ethical and methodological implications of
these devices.
Line 2. Publishing fictional investigations: editorial spaces, legitimacy, dissemination
While fictional or hybrid writings now occupy a
more visible place within social sciences, their forms still have difficulty
fitting in with the ordinary procedures of academic validation. The standards
for the presentation, evaluation and promotion of research remain largely
structured by stabilized formats, which are often not conducive to the
recognition of experimental narratives, uncalibrated writings or hybrid
editorial elements.
This second axis intends to deepen a dimension
that was still left unresolved in the discussions initiated in 2024: that of
the editorial and institutional anchoring of this type of work.
Writing against the dominant genres, disregarding expected formats or shifting
the boundaries between research, narrative and creation often amounts to
proposing a different division of the sensitive, but also to
confronting specific constraints: difficulties of evaluation, uncertainties
about the places of publication, tensions with career norms, institutional
fragility of certain productions.
The existence of the In Situ collection, published
by the Éditions Effigi, which will host the work resulting from the 2024 symposium,
testifies to this desire to open up publication spaces for investigative
narratives and alternative writing. But what are the other possible editorial
avenues? What roles do publishing houses, journals, digital platforms,
cross-disciplinary collections, and artistic or cultural structures play in the
dissemination of this work? What forms of recognition — or marginalization —
accompany these writing choices?
Proposals may question:
- the conditions for the publication of
fictional investigations;
- the relationship between format innovation and
scientific legitimacy;
- the institutional, professional and symbolic
effects of these writing choices;
- editorial policies favourable to hybrid
writing;
- concrete experiences of publication, reception
and dissemination.
Line 3. Fiction, mediations and public dissemination of social sciences
This axis questions the uses of fiction in the
dissemination of social sciences to non-academic audiences. Whether for
sociology, anthropology or history, storytelling can be used as a powerful
vector of mediation. During the May 2024 symposium, comics occupied an
important place in the exchanges. However, other forms of valorization deserve to be explored further: theatre,
cinema, sound creation, art exhibitions, performances, digital devices,
podcasts, visual or scenic writing.
The aim here is to reflect on the forms by which
social sciences circulate outside of the academic space, sometimes borrowing
the codes of fiction or sensitive narrative. The symposium will thus make it
possible to analyse the concrete modalities of collaboration between
researchers and artists, between researchers and professionals in the world of
theatre, cinema, publishing, museums or audiovisual sectors. Beyond the
creative approach, the challenge will also be to understand the institutional
devices, economic models, material
constraints and forms of public reception that make
these hybrid productions possible.
Proposals may relate to:
- the uses of fiction in the popularization and
mediation of science;
- collaborations between researchers and
artists;
- the scenic, visual, auditive or editorial
forms of research dissemination;
- the institutional and economic conditions of
these projects;
- the effects of these mediations on the very
writing of research.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSIONS
Oral presentations will be made in French.
Each presentation will last 20 minutes, followed by 10
minutes of discussion.
Proposals should include:
- the title of the
communication;
- the name of the
author(s);
- institutional affiliation;
- an email address;
- an abstract of 300 words
maximum;
- 5 keywords specifying
the themes and scientific fields concerned;
- where applicable, an indication of
the axis in which the submission is based.
Information: https://santesih.edu.umontpellier.fr/congres/
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
The International Symposium on "Fiction and Social Sciences" will be held on June 29 and 30, 2026 at the MSH-Sud Montpellier. It is co-organized by the
following HSS laboratories:
-
SantESiH (Health, Education,
Situations of Disability, UR_UM211, University of Montpellier) SOC division ;
-
RiRRa21 (Representing,
Inventing Reality, from Romanticism to the Twenty-First Century) of the
Université Montpellier Paul-Valéry ;
-
CRISES (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the
Humanities and Social Sciences) EA 4424 of the Université Montpellier Paul-Valéry ;
-
UMR SENS (Knowledge,
Environment, Societies) of the Université Montpellier Paul-Valéry.
In
collaboration with the Institute for Sports-Health Sciences of Paris (I3SP - EA
3625) and the support of the CONTACT association (association of young
researchers of Montpellier)
The
organizing committee is composed of:
- Yann Beldame: Associate Researcher - University of Montpellier
- Eric Perera: Professor - University of Montpellier
- Jérôme Soldani: Lecturer –
Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University
- Godefroy Lansade: Lecturer -
Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University
- Pierre Philippe-Meden: Lecturer
– Paul-Valery University Montpellier 3
SCIENTIFIC
COMMITTEE (provisional)
Beldame
Yann: Associate Researcher - University
of Montpellier (France)
Boutroy Eric: Lecturer - University of Lyon (France)
Bresson Jonathan: Associate Researcher - University of Rennes 2 (France)
Didierjean Romaine: Lecturer - University of Nîmes (France)
Fauré Laurent: Lecturer - University of Montpellier 3 (France)
Guérandel Carine: Lecturer - University of Lille (France)
Héas Stéphane: Associate Professor HDR - University of Rennes 2 (France)
Issanchou Damien, Senior Lecturer - University of Lyon (France)
Kinnunen Taïna: University Lecturer of Cultural Anthropology -
University of Eastern Finland
Lansade Godefroy: Lecturer - Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University
(France)
Le Henaff Yannick: Lecturer - University of Rouen (France)
Liotard Philippe: Associate Professor, HDR - University of Lyon (France)
Louchet Cindy: Lecturer - University of Lille
(France)
Marsac Antoine: Lecturer - UFR STAPS, University of Burgundy (France)
Marcellini Anne: Professor - University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
Matichescu Marius: University Lecturer – West University of Timisoara
(Romania)
Meden Pierre Philippe: Lecturer - Paul-Valery Montpellier 3 University
(France)
Morales Yves: Professor - University of Toulouse (France)
Neto Avélino: Professor - Federal Institute of Rio Grande Norte (Brazil)
Pappous Sakis: Reader - University of Kent (England)
Eric Perera: Associate Professor, HDR - University of Montpellier
Petracovschi Simona: Lecturer, West University of Timisoara (Romania)
Ricaud Camille: Lecturer - University of Pau (France)
Richard Arnaud: Professor - University of Toulon (France)
Ruffié Sébastien: Professor - University of the West Indies Guyana
(France)
Salazar Noël: Research Professor - University of Leuven (Belgique)
Soldani Jérôme: Lecturer
Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University (France)
Soulé Bastien: Professor - University of Lyon (France)
Terral Philippe: Professor -
University of Toulouse (France)
Vallet Guillaume: Associate
Professor HDR - University of Grenoble (France)
Villloing Gaël: Lecturer - University of the West Indies Guyana (France)
References
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SDF. Ethnofiction. Paris, Seuil.
Chauvier E. (2022). Plexiglas
mon amour. Paris, Allia.
Clifford J. & Marcus G. E.
(1986) Writing culture. The
poetics and politics of ethnography. University of
California Press.
Clifford
J. (2011 traduction 1986). Vérités partielles, vérités partiales. Journal des anthropologues, 126/127, 385-432.
Clifford J. (1981). On
Ethnographic Surrealism. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 23(4), 539-564.
Clifford J. (1983). On ethnographie Authority, Représentations, 1-2, 118-146.
Chauvier E. et Viart D. (2019), « Rencontre avec Éric
Chauvier », Revue critique
de fixxion française contemporaine [En ligne].
Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Culture. New York, Basic Books.
Jablonka I. (2017). L’histoire est une littérature contemporaine. Manifeste pour
les sciences sociales. Paris, Éditions
du Seuil.
Jounin N. (2021). Le caché
de la poste. Enquête sur l’organisation du travail des facteurs. Paris, La découverte, col. Cahiers libres.
Milhé C. (2020). Le
Mystère de la cagoule. Enquête bolivienne. Toulouse, Anacharsis, col. « Les
ethnographiques ».
Narayan
K. (1999). Ethnography and Fiction: Where Is the Border? Anthropology and Humanism, 24 :
134-147.
Narayan
K. (2012). Alive in the Writing. Crafting
Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.
Rancière J. (2000). Le partage du sensible, Paris, La Fabrique Éditions.
Soulet M.-H. (2022). Pousser le curseur.
L’enquête fictionnelle chez Eric Chauvier. Versants, 1/69, 89-115.
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