Description du projet :
Déposé le 23.04.19
Projet accepté le 27.09.19
Début reporté au 01.03.2020
Personal development, understood in this study as techniques of the self, is seeing an ever-growing popularity: bestsellers translated into a huge array of languages are published worldwide, courses and workshops are on offer in a wide range of areas, and the internet is teeming with videos. This controversial popularity, in the sense that it has also attracted criticism, has not yet been investigated by social sciences. This research program therefore aims to get a grasp of the reasons for the popularity of those techniques of the self and to analyze them from within. It will be based on an
empirical study examining a specific technique of the self: nonviolent communication (NVC). The mixed qualitative study comprises an analysis of the techniques of the self described in books, observations gathered from participants at courses and workshops held in French-speaking Switzerland as well as in California, and interviews with
workshop trainers and participants as well as with people skeptical to NVC.
Our research program has three specific objectives:
1. Understand the tools used in one specific technique of the self, Nonviolent
communication. Firstly, by analyzing the proposed tools and the normative
assumptions they are based on. Secondly, by analyzing the processes involved in
users' appropriation of these techniques of the self during their life trajectory, within a
dispositional and career path perspective.
2. Identify the forms of power tied to the techniques of Nonviolent communication.
Firstly, in cases where these techniques are used by a third party, by examining power
that is external to individuals and influences them. Secondly, when individuals
appropriate these techniques, by focusing on the empowerment these techniques offer
to individuals by enabling them to identify and question internalized social norms or
the unequal distribution of resources and privileges.
3. Analyze the complexity of experiences of techniques of the self by means of a
cross-cutting analysis. This, by studying NVC in different areas (at work, in the family
and in personal life), different geographical contexts (French-speaking Switzerland and
California), and within an intersectional perspective, taking account of the effects of
social position (gender, class) on access to these techniques, their appropriation or
their rejection.
By adopting a comprehensive approach allowing us to grasp processes of appropriation
of these techniques, this research program will produce a scientific analysis of
so-called personal development techniques and the transformation processes they
engender, which have otherwise often been associated with 'magic' by their devotees
or with 'manipulation' by their skeptics. By studying personal development
enthusiasts as well as its sceptics and critics, the program will also provide a balanced
overview of this research topic. Finally, the program will also highlight the political
leverage of self-transformation by means of these techniques.
Forschungsteam innerhalb von HES-SO:
Bachmann Laurence
, Perriard Anne
Partenaires académiques: HETS-GE - CERES
Durée du projet:
01.03.2020 - 30.11.2024
Montant global du projet: 406'407 CHF
Statut: Abgeschlossen
SWITCH edu-ID
Verwaltung
