Governing and Governance in France

One of the leading scholars in French Studies of my generation, I have published widely in the field of French politics and society and have been involved in a number of major funded-research projects involving France, obtaining large grants from the ESRC [L311253047 and L219252007 / evaluation 'outstanding'], the Fondation de France, the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy. Trained initially as a desk researcher, I have developed a belief in the importance of area-based research that is inductive in its methodological inspiration and assumptions, rigorously empirical and fieldwork based, yet theoretically and conceptually ambitious as well. Governing and Governance in France is intended to be my magnus opum, the work that draws together all the various strands of French history, politics, culture and society that I have engaged with over the past twenty years. The book sets out to elucidate the creative tension between the various forces impelling France to change (for example, European integration, changing international trends or the internal contradictions within French society) and the various forces determined to resist change, be they in the form of state-centric institutions, well-organised professional interests, deeply ingrained ideas about society, citizenship, equality and the Republic, or the discursive registers that underpin these structures. Taking as its starting point contemporary debates about governance, the book seeks to confront general statements about the direction of European societies with the difficult case of France, whose key institutions, interests, and ideas appear deeply resistant to change. The book argues that nation-states matter, and France matters more than most. The central hypothesis of Governing and Governance in Modern France is that the domestication of governance involves an ongoing process of frame reflection, adaptation and reinterpretation.
The aims and objectives of the research are fourfold. First, to deliver on time the monograph for Cambridge University Press. Second, to develop therein an innovative cross-disciplinary and implicitly comparative approach to the study of modern and contemporary France. The project will combine a case study-based analysis with insights from modern French history, law and the importance of the public law tradition, and language, especially the role of ideas, of discursive framing and of agenda-setting. Third, the research will engage in an active and ongoing manner with academics, policy-makers and other end-users (including governmental officials and in the higher education community) in France and UK. Fourth, the research will produce a datafile drawn from the anonymised interviews with around 40 key actors in French politics, the administration, the judiciary and society that will have been carried out since July 1st 2004.
In terms of potential applications and benefits, the research will draw upon a dense network of existing contacts in French government, politics, the administration, the media and in cultural and educational circles. The research will build bridges between the academic communities in France and the United Kingdom and will actively promote cross-fertilisation, intellectual and academic exchanges. I am Associate Researcher at the CEVIPOF, Sciences Po, Paris, one of only two British-based scholars with this status and will use this privileged position not only to facilitate research but also to deepen European networks. I have considerable experience in producing reports or conference contributions for organisations such as the French education ministry and the French interior ministry and in directly facilitating contacts between French and British governmental organisations (the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Brittany Regional Council and the National Assembly for Wales in 2003).