Nancy Seminar – Philippe Steiner (Sorbonne Université)

Abstract:  For three decades now, goods and services of crucial importance to the lives of individuals (university education, medical care, dating, jobs, etc.) have been allocated according to the principles of matching (“deferred acceptance” and “optimal exchange cycle”), which can be summed up by the formula: “You choose and you are chosen”. The presentation will first review the way in which this institution operates, and then examine its legitimacy, taking the case of higher education and organ transplants. It will conclude by defining what we might call the “matching society”.