Nathan Rivet, lauréat du Premier prix de thèse 2025 de la Cour des comptes

The School of Research extends its warmest congratulations to Nathan Rivet, Doctor of Sociology and Associate Researcher at the Centre for the Sociology of Organisations (CSO), winner of the 2025 First Prize for Thesis of the Cour des comptes (joint winner).

His thesis, entitled Former l’État par sa privatisation. Le recours au secteur privé dans les prisons françaises (Forming the State through Privatisation: The Use of the Private Sector in French Prisons), provides a detailed analysis of the effects of outsourcing prison functions on professional practices, administrative logic and the redefinition of state boundaries. Based on in-depth ethnographic research, this study sheds light on the mechanisms by which the state reconfigures itself through contact with private actors in a sector that is highly symbolic of public sovereignty.

The Cour des comptes' thesis prize is awarded each year for outstanding work on public management and public policy. In recognising Nathan Rivet's work, the Cour des comptes honours a major contribution to the sociology of public action and contemporary thinking on the transformation of the state.

Find out more

• Read the thesis summary
• Visit Nathan Rivet's page
• See the Cour des comptes' announcement (in French)
• About the Doctorate in Sociology