Effets de terrain.

What kind of knowledge do we produce in the social sciences ? The problem is constantly discussed, mostly from a review of the literature (after all stages of academic refining) more than by sharing what is learned from the survey. However, it can be reconsidered not as a technical stage of collection, but as an open process that begins well before and continues well after the phase described in theses and articles as the space-time reserved for the study area. [...]

Prétopologie et espaces habités.

This text presents the contribution of mathematical pretopology to the understanding of the morphology of inhabited spaces, although it can be applied to any type of space. The use of pretopology explains the relative, and not absolute, character of topological dimensions of inhabited spaces, such as interior, exterior, edge, etc. These dimensions are defined using an exploration of space, based on a process of extension which associates to any part a bigger part including it. A change of process [...]

L’opuscule et le progrès.

Bouveresse, Jacques. 2017. Le mythe moderne du progrès, décortiqué et démonté par le philosophe Jacques Bouveresse à partir des critiques de Karl Kraus, Robert Musil, George Orwell, Ludwig Wittgenstein et de Georg Henrik von Wright. Marseille : Agone, coll. « Cent mille signes ».

What is progress about ? In a short and convincing essay, Bouveresse demonstrates that progress, in science, adds some knowledge to the preexisting theories, but adds many more questions about new problems. So progress is not an acccumulation, but a questioning. [...]

Participer, à quelles conditions ? Pour une approche plurielle des engagements participatifs.

Charles, Julien. 2016. La participation en actes. Entreprise, ville, association. Paris : Éditions Desclée de Brouwer, coll. « Solidarité et société ».

La participation en actes is part of the pragmatic research in social sciences, which argues on the improvement of the classical model of participatory democracy. By exposing the experiences of the actors of several participatory projects, the author invites the reader to take into account the conditions and constraints that enclose participation, as well as the "cost" to pay to participate. The originality of this book is that it associates a focus on the burdens of participation with an [...]

L’internationalisme du 19e siècle : un exemple interdisciplinaire de global studies.

The transnational turn has renewed both the history of anarchism and the sociology of social movements. The purpose of this article is, by considering the international anarchist congress of London (1881), to evoke new possibilities for the junction of sociological analysis and historical research. This interdisciplinary approach is not meant to be a mere dialogue between well-divided fields using specific methods, but to embrace a larger field of global studies. This perspective, open to all the social sciences, will [...]

Pour une approche pluridisciplinaire du langage.

Le cas du whitisage chez des migrants camerounais à Paris.

This article aims to show the need for a multidisciplinary approach to the study of language in its social context, from the analysis of the practice of whitisage among francophone Cameroonian immigrants in Paris. This practice consists in "talking like a white person", by imitating the standard pronunciation of the interlocutor. After defining language as a social practice inseparable from the others, I argue, through the analysis of the actors' discourses on their own language practices, that a multidisciplinary [...]

Fred, Noah, Valérie et les autres… tous habitants !

Lion, Gaspard. 2015. Incertaines demeures. Enquêtes sur l’habitat précaire. Montrouge : Bayard.

The work of sociologist Gaspard Lion focuses on the precarious habitat of people living in the circumparisian woods, residing in year-round campsites or settling in the streets. It allows to account for these "marginal" forms of living. They then contribute to fuel the ongoing reflection on "dwelling". [...]

Une architecture des frontières.

Teyssot, Georges. 2016. Une topologie du quotidien. Lausanne : Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, coll. « Poche Architecture ».

In Une topologie du quotidien, Georges Teyssot positions himself as an architect of borders. The border is studied under various angles : physical, ontological, epistemological. This analysis stems from an initial observation that the traditional conception of borders is unsatisfactory, and doesn’t explain the current limits of a house, a field, or an object. A new concept of border is drawn by Teyssot. [...]

Bonnes feuilles de l’Atlas politique de la France.

Des révolutions de moins en moins silencieuses.

Lévy, Jacques, Ogier Maitre, Jean-Nicolas Fauchille et Ana Póvoas (dirs.). 2017. Atlas politique de la France. Les révolutions silencieuses de la société française. Paris : Éditions Autrement. The Silent Revolution, « la révolution silencieuse », est le titre d’un ouvrage de Ron Inglehart publié en 1977. Il y est question de l’émergence de nouveaux modèles de société [...]

Alfred Métraux, ethnologue à l’UNESCO (1947-1963).

Alfred Métraux, Swiss-American ethnologist, worked for UNESCO from 1947 until his death in 1963. This article analyzes three UNESCO programs in which he was deeply involved : the « fundamental education » project in Marbial Valley (Haïti), at the end of the forties, aiming at educating Haitian peasants ; the program on the « race question » in the fifties, aiming at fighting racism, and the « andin program », also in the fifites, aiming at helping Latin American [...]