Léa Renard

During my stay at FRIAS, I will develop an analytical perspective combining phenomenological, praxeological, and historical-sociological approaches to study everyday knowledge within historical contexts. This work explores the necessary revisions to the sociology of knowledge to address colonial settings. Using counting practices and the exchange of figures and tables between German settlers and colonial officers in German South West Africa (Namibia) as a case in point, I will analyze the role quantification played in the conduct of forced labor policies. The focus is on socio-technical objects, primarily reports, worker lists, and monthly overviews, in which colonial perspectives were inscribed and which served as media for interactions between colonial actors. The goal is to contribute to our understanding of the connection between colonial mentalities and the practice of racist violence. Through this project, I also hope to expand the sociological toolbox of methodologies and theories to better understand how colonial patterns of interpretation were organized, reproduced, and internalized through everyday routines.