François Simiand

François Simiand (Grières 18 April 1873 – Saint-Raphaël 1935) was a French sociologist and economist best known as a participant in the Année Sociologique. As a member of the French Historical School of economics, [ [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/schools/frenchist.htm "French Historical School", New School, History of Economic Thought (on line)] ] Simiand predicated a rigorous factual and statistical basis for theoretical models and policies. His contribution to French social science was recognized in 1931 when, at the age of 58, he was elected to the faculty of the Collège de France and accepted the chair in labor history.

Simiand's career was unusual. Like many destined to become influential academics in France, he entered the École Normale Supérieure and graduated in philosophy at the top of his class in 1896. However, he quickly became interested in law and economics and submitted a thesis on the wages of coal miners in France (1904) to the faculty of law rather than becoming an academic. As a result, he foreclosed forever the possibility of a prominent university appointment. Thus in 1901 he became the librarian for the French Ministries of Commerce and Labor, a post he held until the outbreak of World War I. From 1910 on he also taught Economic History at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, an institution which did not require a doctorate from its lecturers.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century Simiand joined the editorial board of the Année Sociologique. He became a central member of the group as editor of the economic sociology section and served as its expert on statistics. At the same time, as someone removed from the politics of French academics, he was at an institutional remove from Émile Durkheim's ambitions for transforming the French university.

Simiand moved further into the administrative apparatus of the French state during World War I when he left his position as a librarian for work in the Ministry of Armaments where he played a prominent role in making policy. After the war, he served for a year as the Director of Labor for the province of Alsace-Lorraine. In addition, he took up a more permanent position as a teacher at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers.

A student of Henri Bergson and Emile Durkheim, Simiand advanced a view of economics as a social science grounded in observable phenomena rather than convenient assumptions. This would imply a large program of historical and statistical research. Joseph Schumpeter, who denied the existence of a French or an Italian Historical School despite the historical current evident in their economics, acknowledged the significance of Simiand's contributions. In Schumpeter's view, Simiand should be considered a French Institutionalist. [Joseph A. Schumpeter, "History of Economic Analysis," New York, Oxford U. Press, 1954, p. 820.]

Simiand's views on scope and method, which appear in "La Méthode positive en science économique" (1911), ["La Méthode positive en science économique" (1911); in "Critique sociologique de l'économie." Paris, PUF. VI ISBN 2130547567] were applied in his studies of real wages, ["Le Salaire: l'evolution sociale et la monnaie" 3 vols., Librairie Felix Alcan, París (1932)] money ["La monnaie, réalité sociale", "Les Annales Sociologiques," série D, fascicule 1 p. 45 (1934); in "Critique sociologique de l'économie." Paris, PUF. VI ISBN 2130547567] and long economic cycles. ["Les Fluctuations économiques à longue période de la crise mondiale" (1933)] They were applied in criticism of the work of contemporary economists, as well. [Cf. [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/texts/pareto/paretosimiand.pdf"] M. F. Simiand, Review of Jevons, Pareto and Marshall "L'année sociologique" pp.516-45 (1909) New School Net (on line)]

Works

* [http://www.uqac.uquebec.ca/zone30/Classiques_des_sciences_sociales/classiques/simiand_francois/simiand_francois.html Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, "Les classiques des sciences sociales:" François Simiand. (on line)]
* "Méthode historique et Science social" "Revue de synthèse historique" (1903); re-edited "Annales ESC" 15, no. 1. París (1960)
* Marina Cedronio, "François Simiand: Methode Historique et Sciences Sociales" Taylor & Francis (1987) ISBN 2881241883
* Review of Vialles, "La consommation et la crise Èconomique," in "Année sociologique" 7 p. 582 (1902/1903)
* Review of May, "Das Grundgesetz der Wirtschaftskrisen," in "Année sociologique" 7 p. 585 (1902/1903)
* "Le salaire des ouvriers des mines de charbon en France" Societe Nouvelle de Librarie et D'edition, 1904
* "La causalité en histoire" "Bulletin de la Société française de philosophie" 6, pp. 245-272, 276-290 (1906)
* [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/texts/pareto/paretosimiand.pdf"] M. F. Simiand, Review of Jevons, Pareto and Marshall "L'année sociologique" pp.516-45 (1909) New School Net (on line)
* "La Méthode positive en science économique" (1911); in "Critique sociologique de l'économie." Paris, PUF. VI ISBN 2130547567
* "Le Salaire: l'evolution sociale et la monnaie" 3 vols., Librairie Felix Alcan, París (1932)
* "Recherches anciennes et nouvelles sur le mouvement général des prix du VXIe au XIXe siècle" Paris, Domat-Montclirctien (1932)
* "Les Fluctuations économiques à longue période de la crise mondiale" (1933)
* "La monnaie, réalité sociale", "Les Annales Sociologiques," série D, fascicule 1 p. 45 (1934); in "Critique sociologique de l'économie." Paris, PUF. VI ISBN 2130547567
* "La psychologie sociale des crises et les fluctuations économiques de courte durée," Paris, Félix Alcan (1937). Originally published in "Annales Sociologiques."

References

Literature

* Lucien Gillard et Michel Rosier, "François Simiand (1873-1935): Sociologie. Histoire. Economie." Paris, éditions des Archives Contemporaines (1996) ISBN 2884490574
* Robert Marjolin, G. Jaffe, W. Jaffe, "Francois Simiand's Theory of Economic Progress", "The Review of Economic Studies" Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jun., 1938), pp. 159-171
* [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:AIjsSVPlsy4J:www.u-picardie.fr/labo/curapp/Publications/Lebaron-38_1.pdf+http://www.u-picardie.fr/labo/curapp/Publications/Lebaron-38_1.pdf%27&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us Frédéric Lebaron, "Bases of a Sociological Economy: From Francois Simiand and Maurice Halbwachs to Pierre Bourdieu" "International Journal of Contemporary Sociology," University of Picardie (on line)]
* [http://www.aportes.buap.mx/17ap1.pdf Carlos Antonio Aguirre Rojas, "La corriente de los Annales y su contribución al desarrollo de la historia económica en Francia" "Aportes: Revista de la Facultad de Economia-BUAP" VI No. 17, Puebla, México, August 2001 (in Spanish, on line)]
* Gérard Noiriel, "L'éthique de la discussion chez François Simiand. A propos de deux conférences sur l'Histoire (1903-1906)", in "Penser avec, penser contre. Itinéraires d'un historien," pp.47-61. Paris, Belin, (2003)
* Jean-Jacques Gislain, "La sociologie économique, 1890-1920: Emile Durkheim, Vilfredo Pareto, Joseph Schumpeter, François Simiand, Thorstein Veblen et Max Weber," Presses universitaires de France (1995)

ee also

* "François Simiand", French Wikipedia (on line)

* History of economic thought