Home>Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel
Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel
CNRS Research Professor, HDR
Centre for the Sociology of Organisations (CSO), Department of History
Research Interest(s): History of consumption, Business History, History of Christian organizations
Discipline(s): History
Research Group(s): Governance and Economic Organisations
Biography
Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel is interested in the economic and social history of France in the 20th century, with a focus on transnational movements.
Her primary research focus is consumer society. She studies the actors involved in shaping this sphere, whether they are experts in market creation or activists in consumer associations. It is in this context that she is interested in market research.
Her second area of interest is the business world and employer circles, in their relationship with society. She is particularly interested in management training methods and employer organizations.
In both areas, she focuses specifically on Christian circles and their social activism practices: social surveys, involvement in Catholic and Protestant organizations, etc.
Listen to the podcast Objets Trouvés : À la recherche des consommateurs : histoires d'enquêtes
Listen to the podcast Dans l'atelier des Historiens : Des patrons catholiques qui veulent changer le monde: l'expérience du Réarmement moral
EDUCATION
2009
Accreditation to supervise research in history, EHESS
1996
Doctorate in History and Civilizations from the European University Institute of Florence (Italy)
Projects
2024-2026
« The Making of Market Research in the 1950s and 1960s (France and Great Britain) » - Financement SAB Sciences Po-UPC (avec Kevin Mellet et Ariane Mak)
Teaching
Sciences Po - History Department
Since 2023
« Introduction to Historiography,» Master's course, with David Todd
Since 2016
Student tutoring and thesis supervision
2016-2024
« History of Surveys: Consumption and Work in the 19th and 20th Centuries,» Master's course, with Gwenaële Rot and Marion Fontaine
Sciences Po - Other departments
2022-2024
« Consumption and marketing: a historical approach,» master's course in marketing, with Kevin Mellet
2018-2022
« Qualitative methodology. Written sources,» master's course in sociology, with Olivier Pilmis then Gwenaële Rot
AWARDS
2014
CNRS Silver Medal
Editorial Activity
- Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Le Mouvement Social, since 2023
- Member of the editorial board of Entreprises et histoire
- Member of the editorial board of the journal Histoire@Politique
OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES
2024-2028
Elected member of the Scientific Council of Sciences Po
Since 2023
Member of the Committee for the Economic and Financial History of France
2020-2023
Member of the Executive Committee of the French Association for Contemporary Religious History
2019-2021
Elected member of Commission 33 of the National Committee of the CNRS
publications
- « From duties to rights. Re-visiting the ‘social Catholics’ in twentieth-century France», French history, Volume 33, n° 4, 2019, p. 587–605 -https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crz094 (hal-02526119, version 1)
- Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel (dir.), Consommation et conditions de vie. Enquêtes sociales au XX e siècle, Le Mouvement Social, n° 283/2, 2023.
- A la recherche de la décision. Etudes de cas en sciences sociales (avec Patrick Castel, dir.), Lille, Presses du Septentrion, 2024 (lien open-édition : https://books.openedition.org/septentrion/153249)
- « Les ‘Mamans Pomme d’Api’ : Genèse et professionnalisation du réseau de diffusion de la presse jeunesse de Bayard (1966-2024) » (avec Delia Guijarro
Arribas), Entreprises et Histoire, n° 119, juin 2025, p. 63-81 [hal-05370252 , version1]. - « In the name of human value. Religion and ethics in the business world » (with Gilles Guiheux and Bernard Thomann, with the collaboration of Lan Jiang Fu), in Gilles Guiheux, Bernard Thomann (ed.), Comparing Labor in contemporary China and in postwar Japan and France. Precariousness in High-Growth Economies, Londres, Routledge | Taylor and Francis Group), 2026 [En open access ici :
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003701965-6/name-human-value-religion-ethics-business-world-marie-emmanuelle-chessel-gilles-guiheux-bernard-thomann-lan-jiang-fu?context=ubx&refId=6f01edf2-a5fd-4cef-8d5a-652b05ed1562]
From duties to rights