Corruption has been denounced since the late 18th century and the early 19th century by various people taking a critical stand against what they regard as the immoral practices of politicians and members of civil society and the business world. Relatively few studies have dealt so far to our knowledge with the denunciation and the denouncers of corruption, although a few authors of historical studies have addressed the processes whereby scandals and politico-financial affairs have been publicized, and especially how they originated and how they were made known world-wide. It is to be hoped that this symposium will help fill this gap by stimulating collective thinking about the denunciation of corruption, immoral political and economic practices which is taken to constitute a complex social fact.
The idea of organizing this event was based on the assumption that a broad overall comparative picture of the players and movements involved is likely to shed light on how the concept of "transparency" came into being and the many acceptations acquired by the term up to the present day. The aim in particular is to build a comprehensive comparative historical sociological picture of the main individual and collective players who have taken an ethical stand against corruption and denounced what they have regarded as illegal and/or immoral practices. These issues raise questions as to how specialised denouncers of corruption came into existence, such as the libelists at the end of the Ancien Régime and the 21st century pamphleteers, to quote a more contemporary example. Many facts still remain to be established about the individuals and the political groups who have set themselves up for various reasons as defenders of a cause or upholders of civic morality by denouncing the corruption of those in power. Other questions also arise about how corruption is advertised and judged: it will be necessary in particular to examine the discrepancies which have frequently occurred between the penal sentences pronounced by legal institutions and the moral judgements and ideological positions of some of the other people involved.

The second day of this meeting will be devoted to debates and round-table discussions with guest speakers who have been invited to participate and persons either previously or currently involved in fighting corruption and the underhand practices of some political and economic leaders, especially by denouncing them publicly. These speakers’ testimony will certainly give rise to fruitful discussions with the research scientists attending these round table meetings.

We are targeting participants from all the branches of social science, including those interested in the historical, political science, sociological, anthropological, information and communication science and linguistic aspects of social science. Proposals can be written in any of the four following languages: English, French, German and Italian. The oral presentations (lasting not more than 15-20 minutes) can be made in English, French or German, but the text of any accompanying material used (slides, photocopies, etc.) shoud be in either English or French.

Proposals should be submitted by 18 April 2016 at the latest to Olivier Dard (UMR IRICE, Université Paris-Sorbonne; or by mail to olivierdard@orange.fr), Cesare Mattina (UMR LAMES, Aix-Marseille Université; or by mail to cesare.mattina@univ-amu.fr) and Frédéric Monier (UMR Centre N. Elias, Université d’Avignon; or by mail to Frederic.monier@univ-avignon.fr).

These short proposals (approxiately 2.500 to 3.500 characters in length) should include the authors’ personal details, their occupational status, the institution(s) on which they depend and their e-mail address. Prior to the Symposium, authors whose proposals have been accepted will be requested to submit a 10.000-character summary of their paper, which will constitute the basis of a full scientific paper to be published subsequently in the proceedings of the Symposium: the production of this collective volume will be supported by the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR).

For a more detailed version of this CfP please visit http://pock.hypotheses.org.