The Startup Nation in Action: Sociological Observations at a Recent High-Tech Event

CAFE DES SCIENCES

 The Startup Nation in Action: Sociological Observations at a Recent High-Tech Event
A lecture by French sociologist Claude Rosental

Tuesday May 23rd, 2023, 7pm
Café Kiosko | HaRav Yizkhak Yedidya Frenkel St. 31

The French Institute in Israel is pleased to welcome on May 23^rd the French sociologist Claude Rosental to its next Café des Sciences to discuss on his recent sociological observations of the high-tech world. Claude Rosental is currently working at the French Research Center in Jerusalem (CNRS-MEAE). He conducts empirical studies on the « Startup Nation » : his ethnographic observations are focused on the activities and interactions that take place during high-tech events, where tomorrow’s world solutions are played out in commercial presentations.

Claude Rosental is the guest of the next Café des Sciences of the French Institute in Israel. This serie of lectures aims to present, to the widest audience, complex research themes by those who are experts on the field. Claude Rosental will analyze the activities and interactions that took place during a high-tech event recently held in Jerusalem, based on ethnographical observations he carried out on site. He will show how this high-tech event led to a massive production of public demonstrations, including public demonstrations of technology or “demos.” These performances offered a solutionist view of the world structured by solutions — especially technological solutions — brought to problems of all kinds. Since a very large number of high-tech conferences and fairs are organized in Israel every year, he will explore one important component of what he calls a “demonstration society” (Claude Rosental, The Demonstration Society, Cambridge (MA), MIT Press, 2021).

During this meeting, Claude Rosental will also present the series of performances “Demo of Demos”, which will take place at the Art Gallery of the Tel Aviv University on June 14 from 6 to 8 pm. If the “demos” are generally used to present the functioning of technologies, during this evening Claude Rosental will put forward their artistic legitimacy and show how they could be considered as “art pieces” on their own right.

Claude Rosental’s Biography:

Claude Rosental is Research Professor of Sociology at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a Member of the French Research Center in Jerusalem (CRFJ). He was previously a Member and Director of the Center for the Study of Social Movements (CEMS) at the Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, France. His publications include The Demonstration Society (MIT Press, 2021), Logical Skills: Social Historical Perspectives (Springer, 2021, ed. with J. Brumberg-Chaumont), Weaving Self-Evidence: A Sociology of Logic (Princeton University Press, 2008), Sociology of Cognition (La Cognition au Prisme des Sciences Sociales, EAC, 2008, ed. with B. Lahire), and The Capitalists of Science: Silicon Valley and NASA Demonstrators (Les Capitalistes de la Science: Enquête sur les Démonstrateurs de la Silicon Valley et de la NASA, CNRS Éditions, 2007).