François-Xavier de Vaujany : Making Sensible the Temporal Crisis of Work Practices

Most theories of communities rely on spatial concepts and spatial views (“in”/”out”, “layers”, “steps”, “space” or “place” views). I defend here a temporal and narrative view of communalization processes and argue that what is precisely at stake in most collective dynamics today is a twofold temporal rupture. By means of concepts borrowed from the hermeneutic phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur, I try to offer a vocabulary to describe these temporal ruptures. I then use the collaborative ethnography of two learning expeditions in the public spaces of Paris and Berlin to explore and experiment practices likely to make sensible the temporality at stake in contemporary work. A three days learning expedition in Berlin about the so-called “Future of work” and another learning expedition in Paris about the past of work from the Middle Age to the second empire is used to collaboratively document and reflect the lack of continuities and discontinuities necessary for communalization processes. Public experience (e.g. of the process of walking on the street) and open narratives both appear as very promising contexts to make sensible temporalities missing for communalization process. As a conclusion, I discuss implications both for academic and entrepreneurial work practices.