Permanence and Transformation of an Institution — A Sociological Analysis of Three AFS Congresses: This analysis of summaries of presentations at the first three congresses of the Association Française de Sociologie (AFS) shows the stability of the 40 thematic sections founded in 2004, but a high turnover among presenters, 78% of whom have spoken in only one congress (1,777 out of 2,278 authors). Moreover, there is an increasing feminin presence (48% in 2004, 54.5% in 2009). At the third congress (Paris, 2009), the introduction of a general theme, "violence and society", influenced the thematic sections' activity, going from full acceptance in the concerned section, to the total lack of being taken into account. These changes allow us to demonstrate empirically the transformations generated by the subject when compared to previous conferences .