This Strange Folding from which Nothing Is the Same. The Question of Contingency in Social Sciences: The Event
There exists, in the human and social sciences, a category named event which, chased as was Candide from the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh, was, like him, obliged to make a long journey before regaining its rights in areas where it reappears, although somewhat more circumscribed. The purpose of this article is to better understand the meaning that this term can embody today in order to make it into a real analytical category likely to help the modeling of contemporary societies. This modeling is not based solely on the event. It is based on the knot of relationships that binds this event, the individuals and the societal system. The approach of this modeling is therefore “relational”. And the event we are discussing here cannot be considered outside of this generalized relation which I call “relational field” and which suggests that none of the three analytic categories mentioned above has any meaning or interest in and of itself, for modeling purposes, outside of this field.