BECOMING A RESEARCHER-EMPLOYEE TO STUDY SOCIAL ACTION FOUNDATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS: OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITS OF A STUDY CONDUCTED WITHIN THE CIFRE PROGRAM

Abstract

This article proceeds from a reflexive work on access and relationship to the field in a particular research context: that of the industrial convention of training by research in companies (CIFRE) conducted at the heart of a foundation. The description of the organizational framework of the survey and of the interactions with the surveyed subjects aims to explore some positive and complex aspects of a research in a particular context, where the PhD student was subject not only to the methodological and deontological rules of her discipline—as well as those of her supervisor and her university—but also to those imposed by her employer, both on a formal and informal level. The article considers the constraints as well as the opportunities of a long presence in the field associated with a salaried relationship and a feeling of belonging to a professional group. Finally, the article takes a critical perspective on the professional activity of the foundation’s employees, who build social action projects targeting various categories of “fragile,” “excluded,” “precarious,” or “vulnerable” people.