Tricks to doing global investigations: Readings, uses, and debates of/about Yves Dezalay’s sociology of the international

The product of a roundtable unique researchers from different disciplines and generations, this article takes the form of a collective discussion on the readings, approaches, and debates that have been sparked by the sociological work of Yves Dezalay. This exchange is an occasion to share more personal reflections on how to conduct global investigations as well as opportunity to reflect on positions occupied by researchers and how their relationship to their profession has developed over time. Mapping distances and proximities between Dezalay’s work and other approaches (International Relations, Connected History, Critical Sociology), the debates presented here also offer an overview of the many “middle-range” concepts (“compradors,” “brokers of the international,” “double agents,” “import-export strategies,” “palace wars,” etc.) and hypotheses formulated by Dezalay over the years.