Gérard Marty, Sociologie des institutions marchandes : le cas de la mise en vente des bois publics en Lorraine

This thesis focuses on the choice of methods for selling public timber. Based on a study carried out in Lorraine, we have identified the conditions of the embeddedness of auctions, considering that during the exchanges actors are influenced by the complex interaction of economic, socio-structural, politic, cognitive, formal and informal institutional factors. We have shown that the point in using auctions has to do with its capacity to collectively find a consensus about the value and the distribution of timber lots. Then, we have demonstrated that, despite the institutional lock-in that has been organized around the auction, the raise of supply contracts − due to exogenous and endogeneous factors − has indicated the outbreak of an institutional junction regarding the selling methods of public timber