Although it has now become the norm in the landscape of contemporary sociology, nonetheless, negotiation has an origin. It is the result of the experiences and reflections of sociologists who, through their own methodology and their intellectual synergies enabled the first forms of negotiation to emerge.

Many may think that negotiation theory emerged in France in the 1960s – and in particular following the events of May 1968. Olgierd Kuty shows in his article (1) that the founding elements of a theory of negotiation (brought together by Michel Crozier in 1963) were the result of American sociologists in the 1930s. It was in fact from the research of Elton Mayo and Talcott Parsons that the very beginnings of negotiation theory in the world of work. The 1929 crash and, Roosevelt’s recovery plan for the United States (within the context of the New Deal) were propitious in the development of negotiation theories. This conjecture questioned the American model of the day, through the anomie of its own system.

Finally, the Georges Friedmann school in France – with, notably, Michel Crozier – was very influenced by their American precursors, and brought new tools to industrial sociology from the 1950s, with the systemisation of the collection of data and interviews, which paved the way for scientific analysis of work relations.

In this way, the world of work acquired a vital indication of the increasing democratisation of a society which had to this point been authoritarian and the progressive autonomy of the worker.

In this article, Olgierd Kuty presents an analysis of the origins of negotiation. He takes another look at the historical and sociological history of the relationship between workers and employers, the ‘managers’ in today’s workplace. Over some 40 pages and an exhaustive bibliography, he reconstructs both the framework and the birth of negotiation, which remains one of the biggest milestones of the end of the 1950s. He also enables us to recreate the genealogy of sociologists who analysed the last century with courage, lucidity and determination.

(1) La naissance de la négociation (1933-1962) Mayo, Friedmann, Crozier et Reynaud, par Olgierd Kuty in SociologieS.