Becoming a researcher-employee to study social action foundations and associations: opportunities and limits of a research 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. That of a submission of the PhD student 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 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.