How Conservative and Progressive Gay Marriage “Experts” Negotiate Unequal Academic Fields in the U.S. and France

• In Event: 471 - Regular Session. Sociology of Science 3: Expertise and Knowledge

Abstract

Since 1990, the United States and France have considered legal reforms to recognize the partnership and parenting rights of same-sex couples. As judges and lawmakers in both countries have grappled with these decisions, they have drawn on an array of “experts” to inform their process. Despite dealing with the same legal questions, however, they have faced divergent pools of people from which to draw. For example, among psychologists, such experts have been more supportive of same-sex parenting than their French counterparts. Drawing on interviews with 71 of these experts, this article argues that such differences are due in part to the way American and French academic and professional fields are structured in each country. Specifically, U.S. an French experts working on issues related to gay family rights do not have access to the same levels of economic and social resources or recognition in their fields. In the U.S., they have a larger, older, and more institutionalized field in academic disciplines and in the professions. In France, the field is smaller, more contested, and lacking in professional and academic recognition. In addition, experts supporting increased legal recognition for same-sex couples and their families now dominate their fields in the U.S., where conservatives are more marginalized, while in France they have only recently become more prominent relative to conservatives. This analysis can help us better understand why knowledge producers working on certain issues, such as empirical research on sexual minorities and their families, are more successful in the United States than France.

Author

• Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, Université Bordeaux Montaigne