In the name of general interest: the "literary" lobbying strategy of French industry captains and think tanks

Résumé 0

Against a background of dominant narratives that blames the Internet for the loss of the authority of erudite culture (Keen 2007), we show that books may play a key-role in think tanks’ institutionalization and influence strategies. Writing a book may seem like a very expensive, time-consuming and improbable strategy to frame idea debates and to lobby. Yet, focusing on the case study of two collective books written by industry captains, yet editorialized and published by two think tanks (the Montaigne Institute 2013, and the Turgot Circle 2017), we show that publishing a book may play a decisive springboard role in a lobbying strategy. Books remain important legitimation objects in French idea debates; and their publishing is an important step in the process of having analysis and propositions widely reported in the media and the social media. Above all, even though they are probably read diagonally, books also serve as foundations for other discursive genres, for instance policy briefs and positions papers, as well as conferences.