Dominique BOULLIER
Sociologist, Full Professor emeritus of Sociology at SciencesPo (Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris), member of the CEE, Center for European Studies and Comparative Policies
dominique.boullier@sciencespo.fr
Degrees: Ph. D in sociology (EHESS, Paris, 1987), master degree in linguistics (1991), HDR thesis in information and communication sciences (1995)
Occupations
- 1982-1989: Scholar in urban anthropology and in social uses of communication technologies (ICT) in Rennes, University Rennes 2 (France)
- 1985-1986 Visiting scholar at UC Berkeley on anthropology of ICT (at the IURD, Manuel Castells’s lab)
- 1989-1996: CEO of the consulting company Euristic Media (technical communication and interfaces usability)
- 1996-2005: Professor at the University of Technology of Compiegne (UTC)
- 1998-2005: Director of the Costech laboratory EA n° 2223 (Knowledge, Organisation and Technical Systems, 40 researchers), University of Technology of Compiegne.
- 1997-2005: Head of (and chief designer of) the first French on-line master curriculum Dicit (technical writing and design in industrial documentation) available on IBM Lotus Notes/Learning Space
- 2001-2004: Special adviser of the CNRS-STIC department director (Human interactions and Cognition).
- 2004-2008 : Director of LUTIN User Lab, UMS CNRS n°2809 Laboratoire des Usages en Technologies d’Information Numériques
- 2005-2009: Professor at the University Rennes 2, Department of Sociology
- 2006-2009 : Director of the LAS EA n°2241 (Laboratoire d’Anthropologie et de Sociologie, 110 scholars), Université Rennes 2
- 2007-2008: Project Leader of LOUSTIC User Lab, Rennes (open in 2009)
- 2007-2008: Project Leader for the test bed ANR-RIAM Lutin Game Lab
- 2009- 2015: Professor in Sociology at Sciences Po Paris (Cl. exc. 1)
- 2008- 2012: Special adviser of Richard Descoings (director of Sciences Po, Paris) on digital strategies
- 2013-2015: Leader of digital pedagogy board in charge of MOOC strategy
- 2009-2013: Scientific coordinator of the médialab at Sciences Po Paris (co-direction with Bruno Latour)
- 2012- 2015: Executive director of Forccast (Idefi program) pedagogical innovation based on controversy mapping (13 partners international, 8 years, 6M€)
- 2015-2016: director of the Social Media Lab, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- 2016-2019: senior scientist at the Digital Humanities Institute, EPFL.
- 2019-2022: Full professor in Sociology at Sciences Po Paris.
- 2022-…: Full professor emeritus in Sociology at Sciences Po Paris.
- 2025-… Scientific director of LA WARROOM
Domains
- Propagations : social theory, models and observations
- Personal data ecosystem (habitele)
- Digital architectures policies and platforms strategies
- Digital cities
- Digital humanities (social data sciences)
- Cognitive technologies
- Opinion mining
- Digital security issues
- ICT uses
- Digital education strategies
Courses and conferences
- Propagations : theory, methods and use cases
- AI shift: strategies in organizations, in education and research
- “Socio-political Digital stakes” (master, and video channel on you tube “enjeux socio-politiques du numérique”)
- Quantification of user experience (in english)
- “Sociologies” general introduction (in English, bachelor)
- “Digital City” (in English, master)
- Digital methods for social data sciences
- Smart cities
- Attention economy
- Managing digital change in companies
- Pluralism of digital policies (the compass method)
- Cosmopolitics.
Recent research projects
- Coeso (COLLABORATIVE ENGAGEMENT ON SOCIETAL ISSUES), 2021-2023, H2020 funding (SwafS), EHESS Leader, 15 partners, 1,6M€
- Meme tracker 2017-2018 (funding from Havas)
- Ipinion (methods in opinion mining, 2009-2011, FUI, 0,8M€, 3 partners),
- Solen (Business models for e-books, 2011-2012, FUI, 12 partners, 2M€).
- Habitèle (ANR, 2012-2013, 0,5 M€, 8 countries, DB leader)
- Building Trust for Enabling Big Data ( 2014-2015, Sponsored by Axa Research Fund, 200 K€, DB leader)
Recent publications about digital matters
Books (since 1999)
BOULLIER, Dominique.- L’urbanité numérique. Essai sur la troisième ville en 2100, Paris : L’Harmattan, 1999.
GHITALLA, Franck, BOULLIER, Dominique et al.- L’outre-lecture. Manipuler, (s’) approprier, interpréter le Web, Paris : Bibliothèque Publique d’Information/Centre Pompidou, 2003, 267 p.
BOULLIER, Dominique.- La télévision telle qu’on la parle. Trois études ethnométhodologiques, Paris : L’Harmattan, 2004.
BOULLIER, Dominique.- La ville-événement. Foules et publics urbains, Paris : PUF, 2010.
BOULLIER, Dominique, Stéphane CHEVRIER et Stéphane JUGUET.- Evénements et sécurité. Les professionnels des climats urbains, Paris: Les Presses des Mines, 2012.
BOULLIER Dominique et Audrey Lohard, Opinion Mining et Sentiment Analysis: méthodes et outils, Paris: Open Editions Press, 2012.
BOULLIER, Dominique, Sociologie du numérique, Paris, Armand Collin (collection U) ( 2016), 2nd edition, 2019).
O.20- BOULLIER, Dominique, Comment sortir de l’emprise des réseaux sociaux. Le réchauffement médiatique, Paris, Le Passeur éditeur, 2020.
O.21- BOULLIER, Dominique, Puissance des plateformes numériques, territoires et souverainetés, Research paper, Sciences Po Chaire Digital, Gouvernance et Souveraineté, Mai 2021. (v2 avril 2022).
O. 22- BOULLIER, Dominique, Propagations. Un nouveau paradigme pour les sciences sociales, Armand Colin, 2023.
O.23- BOULLIER, Dominique, Social Media Reset. Redesigning the infrastructure of digital propagation to cut the chains of contagion, Sciences Po Chair Digital, Governance and Sovereignty, Policy Brief, June 2024.
O.24 BOULLIER, Dominique, Déshumanités numériques, Armand Colin, 2025.
Books chapters (since 2008) in english
BOULLIER, Dominique.- « The new manufacturing of SHS » in Reber and Brossaud, Digital Cognitive Technologies, Lavoisier, 2009.
A0 31. Boullier, Dominique.- « Preserving diversity in social networks architectures”, in Massit-Follea, F. , Méadel, C. and Monnoyer-Smith, L. (ed.), Normative Experience in Internet Politics, Paris: Presses de l’Ecole des Mines, 2012.
AO39.- BOULLIER, D. (2015) « Cosmopolitics: “To Become Within” – From Cosmos to Urban Life » in A. Yaneva (ed.) What Is Cosmopolitical Design?, Farhnam: Ashgate.
A041.- BOULLIER, D. (2017), « Big data challenge for social sciences and market research: from society and opinion to propagations », in Cochoy, F., Hagberg, J., Petersson McIntyre, M. and Sörum, N. (eds.), Digitalizing Consumption, Tracing How Devices Shape Consumer Culture, London and New York, Routledge.
A047.-Boullier, D. (2019), « Designing Envelopes for Attention Policies » in Doyle W. and Roda C. (eds.) Communication in an Era of Attention Scarcity, Cham (CH), Palgrave-Macmillan, pp. 63-73.
AO51.- Boullier, Dominique (2023) « New era for commensurable comparative urban research ? Machine Learning and/or propagations », in Le Galès P. & Robinson J., Routledge Handbook of Comparative Global Urban Studies, 246-259.
A054.- Boullier D. (2024), » The Drift of Attention Regimes in the Age of Digital Platforms. When Curiosity Was Taken Over by Reputation » in Enrico Campo and Yves Citton, The Politics of Curiosity. Alternatives to the Attention Economy,London, Routledge, Chapter 7.
Articles (since 2007) in english
BOULLIER, Dominique and Frédéric HUET.- « Dematerialization in the AV industry, from boxes to attention. A case study of a newcomer, Tivo”, Communication and strategies, n° 71, 2008.
BOULLIER, Dominique, P. JOLLIVET et F. AUDREN.- « Security : always too much and never enough. Anthropology of a non-starter market”, Annales des télécommunications, vol.62, n°11-12 Novembre 2007.
Bruno Latour, Pablo Jensen, Tommaso Venturini, Sébastian Grauwin and Dominique Boullier “The Whole is Always Smaller Than Its Parts’ —A Digital Test of Gabriel Tarde’s monads”, British Journal of Sociology, Volume 63, Issue 4, pages 590–615, December 2012
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2012.01428.x/full
BOULLIER, Dominique, “Habitele: mobile technologies reshaping urban life”, URBE, v. 6 n. 1 Jan./Abr. 2014, pp.13-16.
BOULLIER, Dominique and Maxime CREPEL, “Vélib and data: a new way of inhabiting the city”, URBE, v. 6 n. 1 Jan./Abr. 2014, pp. 47-56.
A.104.- Boullier, D. (2016), « Big data challenges for the social sciences: from society and opinion to replications » https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.05034
A.105.- Boullier, D. (2016), « Cosmopolitical Composition of Distributed Architectures », First Monday, Volume 21, Number 12 – 5 December 2016
A.106.- D . Boullier, N. Sivakumar, M. Crepel, S. Juguet, (2016) « Trust architectures inpayment systems : the great bifurcation », First Monday, (submitted) disponible sur ArXiV https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.03864
A.107.- Boullier, D. (2017), « Big data challenges for social sciences: from society and opinion to replications », ISA esymposium, vol.7; issue n°2, http://www.sagepub.net/isa/admin/ebulletin-articles.aspx
A.111.- Boullier, D. (2018), Medialab stories: How to align actor-network theory and digital methods, Big Data & Society, vol. 5/2, p. 1-13.
A.130.- Pidoux, J. and D. Boullier (2024), « A Conceptual Framework for the Operationalisation of Cooperation Analytics in Citizen Science Projects », Citizen Science Theory and Practice, vol.9, Issue 1.
Education-related publications
BOULLIER, Dominique.- “ Diffusion et appropriation des savoirs ”, Archimède et Léonard, Cahiers de l’AITEC, Hors série n°13 (Science, pouvoir et démocratie, pour une science responsable) , Hiver 97-98, pp. 113-116.
BOULLIER, Dominique.- “ Internet et télévision : une convergence tentante et improbable ”, Les dossiers de l’Audiovisuel, n° 89, Janv-Fév 2000, pp. 49-52.
BOULLIER, Dominique- “ La loi du support : leçons de trois ans d’enseignement numérique à distance ”, Les Cahiers du Numérique, vol. 1, n°2 (L’université virtuelle), 2000, pp.145-172.
BOULLIER, Dominique.- “ Les choix techniques sont des choix pédagogiques : les dimensions multiples d’une expérience de formation à distance ”, Sciences et Techniques Educatives, vol. 8, n° 3-4 /2001, pp. 275-299.
BOULLIER, Dominique.- “ Les conventions pour une appropriation durable des TIC. Utiliser un ordinateur et conduire une voiture ”, Sociologie du Travail, 3/2001, pp. 369-387.
BOULLIER, Dominique.- “ Un public présumé paresseux? ” Les Dossiers de l’Audiovisuel, 2001, n°100, pp. 77-79.
BOULLIER, Dominique.- “Le Web immersif”, Quaderni, n°66, Printemps 2008.
BOULLIER, Dominique.- « L’attention : un bien rare en quête de mesures », Sciences de la société, n°87, 2013, pp. 129-145.
Boullier, D. (2013)« MOOC : standardisation ou innovation ? », Internet Actu , republié dans Le Monde, http://internetactu.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/03/01/cours-en-ligne-massifs-et-ouverts-la-standardisation-ou-linnovation/
Boullier, D. (2014), Médiologie des régimes d’attention, in Citton Y. (ed.), L’économie de l’attention. Nouvel horizon du capitalisme? , Paris: La découverte, 2014, pp. 84-108.
Boullier, D. « MOOC : en attendant l’innovation », Distances et médiations des savoirs [En ligne], 6 | 2014, mis en ligne le 26 mai 2014, . URL : http://dms.revues.org/685
Boullier, D. (2015) « Prof-en-ligne et prof-en-personne », Revue Projets, n° 347, Aout 2015, pp.80-87.
Activities in education
1997-2005: Head of (and chief designer of) the first French on-line master curriculum Dicit (technical writing and design in industrial documentation) available on IBM Lotus Notes/Learning Space
2012- 2015: Executive director of Forccast (Idefi program) pedagogical innovation based on controversy mapping (13 partners international, 8 years, 6M€)
2015: App available on AppStore and Google Play “enjeux socio-politiques du numérique”