Olivier Pilmis

Olivier Pilmis’s research in economic sociology is grounded primarily in the sociology of risk, work, and expertise. It explores how individuals and organizations cope with uncertainty, focusing on economic forecasting as a processus. From the Great Depression of the 1930s to the pandemic-induced lockdown in 2020, via the Great Recession of 2008, each economic crisis reminds of the impossibility of deciphering the mysteries of the economy’s future. Economic
forecasting remains nonetheless indispensable as a guide for action, both public and private.

Forecasting is a discourse on both the economy and the future. It aims at reducing risk and uncertainty—or, better yet, at transforming uncertainty into risk. As a sociological topic,
forecasting raises several questions: What is a discourse on the future? What are the conditions for its legitimacy? How does it manage to survive the recurrence of sometimes spectacular
errors?

To answer these questions, Olivier Pilmis employs mixed methods: interviews, archives, observations, and databases.

Olivier Pilmis is a member of the editorial board of the journal Sociologie du travail and co-coordinates the Thematic Network 12 (“Economic Sociology”) of the French Sociological
Association (2023–2027). At the Center for the Sociology of Organizations, he is co-coordinator of the “Governance and Economic Organizations” research track and co-adviser for
VSS/QWL/EDI.

He has taught economic sociology at the master’s level at Sciences Po, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and the École Polytechnique.

Podcast 
Objets Trouvés avec Olivier Pilmis : De l'art à l'économie, un parcours de recherche sur l'incertitude (“From the arts to the economy, investigating uncertainty”)

EDUCATION

2008
PhD in Sociology, EHESS (advisor: Pierre-Michel Menger)
Dissertation title: “L'Organisation de marchés incertains. Une sociologie des mondes de la pige et de l'art dramatique” [The organisation of uncertain markets: A sociology of the worlds of freelancing and of the dramatic arts]

2003
Agrégation in Economic and Social Sciences

2002
DEA (M.Phil) in Sociology, EHESS

2001
Degree, Political Studies Institute (IEP) - Paris

• InfoGouv : Informer pour gouverner. Les dynamiques institutionnelles des mondes de la gouvernance macroéconomique
• The Worlds of Economic Forecasting. The Management of Uncertainty in the Economy

RESEARCH STAYS

Sept 2022-May 2023 
Fulbright Fellow, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European
Studies (Harvard University).

Nov. 2013 – July 2014 
Visiting Sholar, Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
(MPIfG, Cologne, Germany).

Ecole Polytechnique (2018 – 2020)

• Economic Sociology (graduate programme)

Sciences Po

• Classics of Sociology (Master’s programme in Sociology, 2014 - 2019)
• Written sources (Master’s programme in Sociology, 2016 - 2019)
• Producing research (Master’s programme in Sociology, 2017 - 2019)

EHESS

• Economic sociology (Lecturer, Master’s programme, 2011 - 2013)

OTHER ACTIVITIES 

• Member of the French Sociology Association’s Economic Sociology network committee (2019 - present)
• Co-leader of the CSO’s doctoral seminar (2015 - 2019)
• Member of the French Sociology Association’s Methods network committee (2006 - 2012)
• Member of the jury for the written test in Sociology component of the entrance exam to École Normale Supérieure - Cachan (2009 - 2013)

2007

Young author prize (1^st prize), Sociologie du travail

• Olivier Pilmis. L'intermittence au travail. Une sociologie des marchés de la pige et de l'art dramatique. Economica, pp.208, 2013, Etudes sociologiques.⟨hal-01152638⟩
• Henri Bergeron, Patrick Castel, Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, Jeanne Lazarus, Etienne Nouguez, et al.. Le biais comportementaliste. Presses de Sciences Po, pp.128,
  2018. ⟨hal-01914970⟩
• Olivier Pilmis. Produire en urgence : La gestion de l’imprévisible dans le monde du journalisme. Revue française de sociologie, Presse de Sciences Po / Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 2014, 55 (1), pp.101 - 126. ⟨hal-01176823⟩
• Olivier Pilmis. Un futur antérieur : Le rapport aux données dans le travail de prévision macroéconomique. Revue Française de Socio-Economie, Paris : La Découverte, 2018,
  pp.59 - 76. ⟨hal-01960086⟩
• Olivier Pilmis. Escaping the Reality Test: How Macroeconomic Forecasters Deal With 'Errors'. Uncertain Futures, Oxford University Press, pp.124 - 143, 2018,
  9780198820802. ⟨hal-01865296⟩
• Sylvain Brunier, Olivier Pilmis. La règle et le rapporteur : Une sociologie de l’inspection. Sylvain Brunier; Olivier Pilmis. Presses des Mines, pp.206, 2020, Sciences
  Sociales. ⟨hal-02529589⟩

All publications