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This paper seeks to examine students' values in "relationship to their studies." After defining the concept within this rubric, we attempt to define the values at work from the perspectives of (1) the motivation for pursuing post-secondary studies; (2) the pace of studies; (3) the time devoted to study; (4) the time spent in the institutions; and (5) student culture. The study focuses on students enrolled in the medicine and sociology programs. Our paper draws primarily from the results of an online survey and interviews of a sampling of the target student population, with the analysis in both cases developed in light of the distinction between "instrumental" values and "expressive" values. The analysis presented here is based on theories recently developed in France and Quebec regarding values, students and student attitudes toward their program of study. (Contains 6 notes, 2 tables, and 2 figures.)

Drawing on our experiences of interviewing elites, this article suggests that methodological reflexivity yields insights into the construction of symbolic and social hierarchies in contextualised interactions. The paper focuses on "academic culture" as the "locus" through which power relations were experienced in interview situations--more so than structures such as age, gender, race and class. We argue that academic cultural resources do not always function as valuable assets in interviews with elites, and explore how different elite interviewees mobilise a wide-ranging cultural repertoire to display status.

Although much overlooked by both sociologists and educators, Emile Durkheim's "The Evolution of Educational Thought" ("EET"; lectures from 1904-1905) not only provides extended insight into the developmental flows and disjunctures of Western education and scholarship from the classical Greek era to Durkheim's own time but also indicates the fundamentally sociological nature of these transformations. As well, and in contrast to the more heavily structuralist, Cartesian rationalist approach that Durkheim adopts in his earlier, better known works (especially "The Division of Labor in Society," "Rules of the Sociological Method," and "Suicide"), Durkheim's "EET" may be better characterized as a historically informed, sociological pragmatist approach to the study of education as a humanly engaged process. Given the extended amount of material covered in "EET" and the necessity of establishing in some detail Durkheim's position on the development of educational thought over the preceding 2000 years, it has been necessary to divide this material into smaller packages for the purpose of presentation. In the first six chapters of "EET" Durkheim addresses (a) the Greek and Latin foundations of educational thought in France, (b) the role that the early Christian church assumed in shaping and preserving education and scholarship, and (c) the nature and emphasis of the Carolingian Renaissance (8th and 9th centuries), along with its relevance for the development of universities in Europe. Following (1) an introduction to Durkheim's "EET," (2) a synopsis of the first six chapters of "EET," and (3) a highly compacted overview of the remaining 21 chapters of this volume, this paper concludes with (4) a commentary on the necessity of attending to the historical development of Western social thought for a sociological analysis of knowing and acting. An epilogue briefly considers (5) some ways that sociologists, classicists, and other students of the human condition may contribute to this exceptionally consequential venture.

The paper approaches the issue of school choice in an indirect manner by investigating the effectiveness of public, private government-dependent and private independent schools in 19 Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development countries selected from the PISA 2000 survey for this purpose. In a multilevel approach we estimate these sector effects, controlling for sociological characteristics of students and parents, school composition, teaching and learning conditions of schools and students', and principals' perception of the climate of their schools. The main explanation of the gross differences in mathematical achievement is the better social composition of private schools, both government-dependent and independent, which is a clear consequence of school choice. But our analysis also reveals that private independent schools are less effective than public schools with the same students, parents, and social composition, while private dependent schools are more effective than comparable public schools. The explanation of these remaining net differences in mathematical achievement seems to be the better school climate of private dependent schools. The comparison concludes that these net differences in mathematical achievement between public and private school sectors are equal across nations, despite the historical and legal variations in their educational systems and school choice approaches. (Contains 4 tables and 36 notes.)

Explores the development of videotex in Great Britain, west Germany, France, and the United States from 1968-90. Using the Social Construction of Technology framework, the interaction of social groups, problems, solutions, and technological artifacts in videotex development is discussed. Transmission, display, standards, and marketing problems are examined from this perspective. (45 references) (LRW)

Through an examination of the development of the discipline of sociology in France in the period 1880-1925, this article sheds light on some of the more general processes at work in the institutionalization of the social sciences and on the social and political consequences of that institutionalization. (RM)

Divides the history of urban sociology in France into three periods: (1) functionalism, which lasted from 1910 until the 1960s, (2) neo-Marxist socioeconomics lasting from 1968 until 1979, and (3) anthropological approach which is still dominant. Reviews theoretical perspectives and research characteristic of each period. (JDH)

Maintains that the French family and school intentionally avoid the subject of politics. Reports the results of a survey of 13- to 18-year-old students regarding their sources of political information and level of interest in politics. (JDH)

Examines the role played in community life and in work associations by young people born of immigrant parents from North Africa. Maintains that they must be more fully integrated into the mainstream of French social and cultural life. (JDH)

Background: Digital spaces, and in particular social networking sites, are becoming increasingly present and influential in the functioning of our democracies. In this paper, we propose an integrated methodology for the data collection, the reconstruction, the analysis and the visualization of the development of a country’s political landscape from Twitter data. Method: The proposed method relies solely on the interactions between Twitter accounts and is independent of the characteristics of the shared contents such as the language of the tweets. We validate our methodology on a case study on the 2017 French presidential election (60 million Twitter exchanges between more than 2.4 million users) via two independent methods: the comparison between our automated political categorization and a human categorization based on the evaluation of a sample of 5000 profiles descriptions; the correspondence between the reconfigurations detected in the reconstructed political landscape and key political events reported in the media. This latter validation demonstrated the ability of our approach to accurately reflect the reconfigurations at play in the off-line political scene. Results: We built on this reconstruction to give insights into the opinion dynamics and the reconfigurations of political communities at play during a presidential election. First, we propose a quantitative description and analysis of the political engagement of members of political communities. Second, we analyze the impact of political communities on information diffusion and in particular on their role in the fake news phenomena. We measure a differential echo chamber effect on the different types of political news (fake news, debunks, standard news) caused by the community structure and emphasize the importance of addressing the meso-structures of political networks in understanding the fake news phenomena. Conclusions: Giving access to an intermediate level, between sociological surveys in the field and large statistical studies (such as those conducted by national or international organizations) we demonstrate that social networks data make it possible to qualify and quantify the activity of political communities in a multi-polar political environment; as well as their temporal evolution and reconfiguration, their structure, their alliance strategies and their semantic particularities during a presidential campaign through the analysis of their digital traces. We conclude this paper with a comment on the political and ethical implications of the use of social networks data in politics. We stress the importance of developing social macroscopes that will enable citizens to better understand how they collectively make society and propose as example the “Politoscope”, a macroscope that delivers some of our results in an interactive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most widely used measure for studying social, economic, and health inequality is the Gini index/ratio. Whereas other measures of inequality possess certain useful characteristics, such as the straightforward decomposability of the generalized entropy measures, the Gini index has remained the most popular, at least in part due to its ease of interpretation. However, the Gini index has a limitation in measuring inequality. It is less sensitive to how the population is stratified than how individual values differ. The twin purposes of this paper are to explain the limitation and to propose a model-based method—latent class/clustering analysis for understanding and measuring inequality. The latent cluster approach has the major advantage of being able to identify potential “classes” of individuals who share similar levels of income or one or more other attributes and to assess the fit of the model-based classes to the empirical data, based on different cluster distributional assumptions and the number of latent classes. This paper distinguishes class inequality from individual inequality, the type that is better captured by the Gini. Once the classes are estimated, the membership of estimated classes obtained from the best fitting model facilitates the decomposition of the Gini index into individual and class inequality. Class inequality is then measured by two relative stratification indices based on either the relative size of the Gini between-class components or the relative number of stratified individuals. Therefore, the Gini index is extended and assisted by model-based clustering to measure class inequality, thereby realizing its great potential for studying inequality. Income data from France and Hungary are used to illustrate the application of the method. INSETS: Figure 1. Gini indices and Lorenz curves for income data...;Figure 2. Empirical income distribution of France in 1990...;Figure 3. Income clustering in France, 1990.;Figure 4. Income clustering in Hungary, 1992. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a videoconferencing project that was conducted between an American and a French university. Describes the way that the exchange was set up and run, the types of equipment and materials that were used, the students' activities and assignments, the methods used for evaluating students' work, and the relationship of the project to the goals of the course and the department's curriculum. (Author/VWL)

Cultural Theory, as developed by Mary Douglas, argues that differingrisk perceptions can be explained by reference to four distinct cultural biases: hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism, and fatalism. This paper presents empirical results from a quantitative survey based on a questionnaire devised by Karl Dake to measure these cultural biases. A large representative sample (N = 1022) was used to test thisinstrument in the French social context. Correlations between cultural biases and perceptions of 20 social and environmental risks were examined. These correlations were very weak, but were statistically significant: cultural biases explained 6%, at most, of the variance in risk perceptions. Standard sociodemographic variables were also weakly related to risk perceptions (especially gender, social class, and education), and cultural biases and sociodemographic variables were themselves inter correlated (especially with age, social class, and political outlook). The authors compare these results with surveys conducted in other countries using the same instrument and conclude that new methods, more qualitative and contextual, still need to be developed to investigate the cultural dimensions of risk perceptions. The paper also discusses relationships between perceptions of personal and residual risk, and between perceived risk and demand for additional safety measures. These three dimensions were generally closely related, but interesting differences were observed for some risk issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the fragmentary nature of research findings and conceptual models, the Durkheimian legacy remains undervalued in contemporary spatial theory. The paper addresses this neglect by proposing a unified Durkheimian model of place which can be applied to case history and comparative analyses. It draws together the fragmented insights of Durkheimian theory to characterize four elementary forms of place: sacred, profane, liminal and mundane. These place/space identities are maintained and transformed through rituals and narratives which depend upon contingent human actions for their sustenance. The paper concludes with an extended case study which deploys the model to explain the changing meanings of the site of the Bastille (Paris, France) over the past two centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comparative study of the social mobility of women in France and Sweden. One question which will be central to this and to subsequent papers will be that of how far analyses of the mobility of women tend to support, or to require qualification of conclusions that have been drawn with respect to the mobility of men. On the basis of absolute rates of intergenerational mobility for women, Sweden would appear to have markedly more mobility overall than France. The total mobility rate is consistently higher than in France, whether mobility is assessed in terms of our nine-class schema or various collapses of this. The composition of the various occupational classes of women as regards social background is somewhat more similar in Sweden than it is in France. But the striking contrast is that the differences in origin distributions of women by occupational category are much greater as compared to men in Sweden than they are in France. It is in the case of women's outflow mobility patterns-and thus chances of mobility according to social background--that our two societies show the most marked differences, in contrast to results obtained when comparing men's mobility.

Background: NEETs (young people not in employment, education or training) are at higher risk for poorer mental and physical health. In France, the Missions locales (MLs) are the only social structures dedicated to this population. We sought to determine whether the systematic offer of a social and preventive medicine consultation at a ML might increase NEET participants’ access to training in the 12 months following the intervention. Methods: This intervention research was a parallel randomised controlled interventional study conducted at five MLs in mainland France in 2011–2012. It included 976 NEETs aged 18 to 25 years who attended one of the five MLs. At inclusion, participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to three groups: those in the first group were invited to see a social worker (not studied in this paper), those in the second group were invited to see a doctor and a social worker (intervention group), and the third was a control group. The primary outcome was participation in at least one training session during the year following study inclusion. Results: Among the 976 participants, 504 were randomly assigned to the intervention group and 472 to the control group; 704 (72.1%) were included in the analyses. A significantly higher proportion of the participants in the intervention group participated in a training session in the 12 months following the intervention than of those in the control group (63.3% vs 55.6%; p = 0.04). This difference was significantly greater for women, those less than 21 years of age, those unstably housed and those with a lower level of education. Conclusions: Social and preventive medicine consultations that are fully integrated into the social services for NEETs have an impact on their access to training and contribute to changing some of their health-related behaviours. This may improve their access to the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to point out that tax fraud, recognized as a scourge by both governments and responsible tax-payers, hits public finances hard with an inevitable knock-on effect on general welfare. Based on this observation, key players interviewed for this paper, including magistrates, a trade unionist and a high-ranking official, will attempt to provide some possible solutions to help understand why significant sections of public opinion consider this very particular form of financial crime to be legitimate, largely inspired by the notion that tax fraud and evasion are socially acceptable and even seen as a national sport in certain countries. Design/methodology/approach – The survey was carried out among 20 tax officials, a trade unionist, two magistrates and a high-ranking civil servant. The interviewees were carefully chosen for their ability to provide valuable insights into the reasons behind the lenient treatment of fraudsters by a state lacking the necessary means and structures to fight this crime. Findings – The fight against tax fraud has clearly sparked numerous controversies around evaluation, scope, criminal perpetrators and cooperation between services. Social implications – Tax fraud, an offence committed with the aim of avoiding taxation or reducing the amount of tax to be paid, ranges from low-level illegal activity, such as undeclared work to make ends meet, to more serious offences, such as value-added tax carousel fraud. All the unpaid tax resulting from such blatant flouting of the law represent a serious loss of revenue for the state and local authorities. Originality/value – The fight against tax fraud is crucial in determining taxpayers’ acceptance of the contribution required for state expenditure and investment. In a country such as France, where tax fraud is almost a national sport, combating this scourge will help restore the state’s budgetary sovereignty by making it central to people’s concerns about redistributive justice, tax equality and fair access to public goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociology of Sport Journal is the property of Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose – Referring to the sociology of conventions, the purpose of this paper is to examine how various conventions of work coordination and employee relations affect how recruiters in the domestic labour industry use ethnic categories to match jobs to applicants in the domestic services sector and how institutional gatekeepers relegate immigrant women to jobs with poor career opportunities. Design/methodology/approach – Case studies of a public job centre, a domestic service provider and an occupational integration service show the core conventions structuring job placement in Marseille's domestic service industry. Based on nine semi-structured interviews with representatives of the three respective intermediaries, the authors reconstructed conventions and compromises between them related to the use of ethnic categories as significant criteria in recruitment. Findings – Characteristic compromises of work conventions frame the organisational use of ethnic categories in the job placement process. Market and domestic conventions are particularly crucial for ethnic criteria to become meaningful in the recruitment process as indicators of cheap and readily available labour. Intersecting with gender, they signal competence in the "domestic world" of beneficiaries' private homes. Ethnic categories are less meaningful, however, when coordination between intermediary, clients and workers is based on the civic and industrial work conventions. Originality/value – The paper contributes to better understanding ethnic labelling processes in the placement of immigrant job seekers in the domestic service industry. It points to the problematic fact that denying the recognition of foreign certificates in the industry works to the economic benefit of domestic service providers, while it impedes the careers of female immigrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the significance of resources in determining a group's ability to respond to the European Integration process. Both domestic and supranational opportunity structures are constantly shaped and re-shaped by EU policy processes. The single country case study of France is selected on the basis of the state's longstanding traditions of civil society exclusion. The influence of the EU in transforming these Jacobin predilections is explored with reference to a comprehensive European environmental implementation programme (NATURA 2000). Resource Mobilisation theory reminds us that a group's resource base is a decisive variable in attempting to influence decision makers. It is argued, first, that the European Commission has empowered some French civil society actors with resources allowing them to mobilise on more levels for longer, while failing to influence others. Second, it is revealed that this empowerment is dependent upon the level of financial incentives offered as well as the overall favourability of the group to the EU project itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper addresses the question of whether a sociology of mental health is possible. This question raises the issue of the theoretical conditions necessary to establish a sub-field, and requires a debate about the boundaries and epistemological status of such an enterprise. Aim: To analyse the various historical building blocks and contexts relevant to understanding the contemporary expression and state of a sociological perspective on mental health in France. Method: Literature review and a current empirical research about the politics of distress and psychoanalysis as case study, used to discuss the genesis and development of French sociological influences from a historical epistemological framework. Results: The context and limitations of previous social approaches to the study of mental health and suggestions as to the future direction of a sociology of mental health in a French context are discussed, centring around relevant influences and interests. Implications: The use of an interactionist orientation combined with a critical analysis of psychoanalysis in the context of contemporary social conditions lays the foundation upon which to recapture a sociology applied to mental health. Declaration of interest: None. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the links between the French school of sociology and anthropology and the surrealist avant-garde in inter-war Paris by unearthing their common reliance on a cross-cultural critique of European modernity. Accordingly, the paper focuses on how both currents and notably the College de sociologie-used representations of a mythical 'primitive' condition to produce an outside of modern society and an alternative socio-cultural universe from which Europe's pathologies could be diagnosed. This self-critique through a comparative lens aimed to radically situate, relativize and decentre the phenomena of rationalization, disenchantment and anomie characterizing modernity, which could be shown to be neither natural, eternal, universal nor inevitable, but rather the socio-historical products of developments in a particular culture during a specific period of its history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While cognitive sociology is a relatively new area in U.S. sociology, the subfield has a lengthy history in French sociology. Developing a typology based upon the existing literature, we identify three branches of cognitive sociology in France. The first was initiated by Raymond Boudon, one of the scholars most responsible for popularizing the area, who envisioned cognitive sociology as helping delineate the role of beliefs in rational action. Second, another group of researchers seeks to found sociology upon a naturalistic basis, thus drawing upon the disciplines constitutive of cognitive science (e.g., psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive anthropology). Finally, the third approach to cognitive sociology in France takes inspiration from linguistics as a foundation for sociological investigations. We conclude the paper by discussing the relationship between these three sub-fields and by examining the relationship between French and American cognitive sociologies in order to identify fruitful directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migrants account for 35% of HIV diagnoses in the European Union (ECDC/WHO 2014). Little is known about the impact of such a lifelong infection diagnosis on lives that are already disrupted by migration. In this paper, we assess the impact of HIV diagnosis on activity, union, well-being among African migrants living in France, the second group most affected by HIV after MSM. We compare it with the impact of the diagnosis of Hepatitis B, another lifelong infection affecting African migrants. Methods: We use the ANRS PARCOURS survey, a retrospective life-event survey led in 2012–2013 in 74 health structures in Paris greater area which collected 926 life histories of Sub-Saharan migrants living with HIV and 779 with Hepatitis B. We modelled the probability year by year since 18 years of age until data collection to lose one’s activity, to experience a conjugal break up and degradation of well-being and we estimated the impact of migration and of HIV and Hepatitis B diagnoses on these probabilities, after adjustment on other factors, thanks to discrete-time logistic regressions. Results: Migration entailed loss of activity and conjugal break up, though HIV diagnosis after migration did not statistically impact on these outcomes. Yet HIV diagnosis had a massive negative impact on well-being (aOR = 11.31 [4.64–27.56] for men and 5.75 [2.79–11.86] for women). This negative impact on well-being tended to diminish for persons diagnosed after 2004. The negative impact of HIV diagnosis on African migrants’ well-being seems to be attenuated in the last decade, which hints at a normalization of the subjective experience of HIV diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is another pragmatic attempt to include women in the comparative study of intergenerational class mobility in France and Sweden, two societies that differ in their political history and in the prevalence of women's activity outside the home. In the main, it addresses two questions: How do the mobility patterns of women via marriage compare with those of men via occupational career? How do the mobility patterns of women via marriage compare with those of women via occupational career? These questions are treated in terms of actually observed life chances as well as in relative terms, which shows the impact of the division of labour by sex on differences in life chances by alternative channels of mobility. An attempt is also made to assess the relative importance of interactions between women's social origin, own occupation, and class position by marriage. The association between the latter two proves to be the strongest by far. Rather unexpectedly, social origin does not appear to affect the association between husband's class and wife's occupational category either in France or in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'social fluidity' is to be understood as intergenerational occupational mobility net of direct structural effects, i.e. effects of differences in the marginal distributions of the mobility tables. Though not entirely adequate in the case of women, the terminology of earlier studies of class mobility is retained to simplify the task at hand, namely to complement the picture of the stratification process in the occupational system obtained from intergenerational mobility data regarding men. In this paper, log-linear models are used to test possible outcomes to the questions: Do men and women in the same nation have the same pattern of social fluidity? Do women/or men have the same pattern of social fluidity cross-nationally? Is the relation of women's to men's patterns of social fluidity the same cross-nationally? On the basis of data from France and Sweden the first two questions are answered in the negative, though one may be impressed by how small differences are and how important structurally induced variation is. The last question may well be answered affirmatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to confront two models of the French pattern of action: the well-known 'bureaucratic' model, depicted by Michel Crozier, and a model which emphasizes the persistence within modem French organizations of what Montesquieu called the honour principle. This model is tested successfully against the ethnographical material presented in The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. In addition, the paper explains, using a semiotic approach to culture, how a mode of functioning said to be archaic can persist in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universum is the property of Instituto de Estudios Humanisticos Juan Ignacio Molina, Universidad de Talca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Fisheries statistics are known to be underestimated, since they are mainly based on information about commercial fisheries. However, various types of fishing activities exist and evaluating them is necessary for implementing effective management plans. This paper assesses the characteristics and catches of the French European sea bass recreational fishery along the Atlantic coasts, through the combination of large-scale telephone surveys and fishing diaries study. Our results demonstrated that half of the total catches (mainly small fish) were released at sea and that the mean length of a kept sea bass was 46.6 cm. We highlighted different patterns of fishing methods and type of gear used. Catches from boats were greater than from the shore, both in abundance and biomass, considering mean values per fishing trip as well as CPUE. Spearfishers caught the highest biomass of sea bass per fishing trip, but the fishing rod with lure was the most effective type of gear in terms of CPUE. Longlines had the highest CPUE value in abundance but not in biomass: they caught numerous but small sea bass. Handlines were less effective, catching few sea bass in both abundance and biomass. We estimated that the annual total recreational sea bass catches was 3,173 tonnes of which 2,345 tonnes were kept. Since the annual commercial catches landings were evaluated at 5,160 tonnes, recreational landings represent 30% of the total fishing catches on the Atlantic coasts of France. Using fishers' self-reports was a valuable way to obtain new information on data-poor fisheries. Our results underline the importance of evaluating recreational fishing as a part of the total amount of fisheries catches. More studies are critically needed to assess overall fish resources caught in order to develop effective fishery management tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France, some institutions seem to call for the engineer’s sense of social responsibility. However, this call is scarcely heard. Still, engineering students have been given the opportunity to gain a general education through courses in literature, law, economics, since the nineteenth century. But, such courses have long been offered only in the top ranked engineering schools. In this paper, we intend to show that the wish to increase engineering students’ social responsibility is an old concern. We also aim at highlighting some macro social factors which shaped the answer to the call for social responsibility in the French engineering “Grandes Ecoles”. In the first part, we provide an overview of the scarce attention given to the engineering curriculum in the scholarly literature in France. In the second part, we analyse one century of discourses about the definition of the “complete engineer” and the consequent role of non technical education. In the third part, we focus on the characteristics of the corpus which has been institutionalized. Our main finding is that despite the many changes which occurred in engineering education during one century, the “other formation” remains grounded on a non academic “way of knowing”, and aims at increasing the reputation of the schools, more than enhancing engineering students’ social awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the sociology of deviance can be used to improve our understanding of some difficulties and unintended effects of health-promotion interventions designed to change risk behaviours, especially drug-taking. Firstly, many people engaged in 'risk behaviours' tend to deny the 'risky' label just as delinquents neutralise the 'deviant' label, and preventive information itself may be used by individuals in shaping risk denial. Secondly, deliberate risk-taking may be an 'innovative deviance',which is related to difficulties of conforming to the dominant 'risk culture'. Health promotion is likely to be quite ineffective if it remains wedded to the dominant risk culture and de facto contributes to the spread of it.

Best known for his pioneering study Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, in which the aesthetic attitude of disinterestedness is accounted for as the expression of a class ethos, Bourdieu has become something of an icon of relativism. In thus effecting a Bakhtinian 'discrowning' of official hierarchies of the arts, he is often celebrated for his concern to place all tastes, popular and high, on a similar footing, equally rooted in specific class practices. Only a careless inattention could support such a conclusion. From his early interventions in French cultural policy debates up to and including The Rules of Art and Pascalian Meditations (1996), Bourdieu has consistently repudiated the view that a sociological approach to questions of aesthetic judgment must result in a levelling form of relativism. In exploring why this should be so, this paper considers the issues at stake in the forms of 'historical universalism' that are associated with Bourdieu's account of the autonomy of the aesthetic sphere. It does so with a view to identifying some of the difficulties underlying his understanding of sociology as a historical practice.

This paper analyzes Durkheim's concepts of society and collective representation in order to get an insight of the self-justification dilemma of modern society. Though Durkheim studied the primitive religion in The Elementary Form of Religious Life, he concerned more about the dilemma of modern society, especially excessive individualism. On one hand, Durkheim inherited the social contract tradition, emphasizing society being a creation of the individuals. Durkheim' s society could be traced back to social theology, different from Milband's thought that society was created and given by the God. The author argues that Durkheim's society, a human aritificum, depends more on the individuals. Firstly, the moral force of society grounds in the inner heart of the individuals. Secondly, society depends on individuals' periodic participation to reproduce it. On the other hand, Durkheim didn't agree with what the social contract tradition contended, I. e. , society generates merely from individuals' convention. He wanted to argue for society's primacy and priority. In order to resolve this tension, he introduced the theory of collective representation. Collective representations come from the interaction of the individuals when they participate in the assembly or collective effervescence, and they are so like the production from the reaction of chemical reaction that can't be reduced to the contracts or conventions among the individuals. So they are the production of the society itself, which are prior to the individuals. Through the totemic forms or symbolic signs, they not only express the individuals' emotion or affection of the society, but also become the intermediaries of the periodical reproduction of the society. In other words, collective representations not only represent the relationship between the individual and the society, but also create that relationship. Further, the theory of collective representation concerned with Durkheim' s re-interpretation of the French Revolution. He" opposed other scholars' interpretation of the French Revolution as a production of individuals' free will and reinterpreted it as a periodic reproduction of the society by itself. The sacredness of the collective representation neither depends on the God who is above society, nor grounds on each individual's will. On the contrary, it is social and results from the periodic reproduction of society. But the author doesn't think that the theory of collective representation can adequately account for the heritage of the Revolution. Collective effervescences and representations can't provide a stable and sufficient moral foundation for society to replace the foundation of individualism for modern thought. The sacredness of society has to depend on individuals' periodic participation, reproduction, and maintenance. However, without defining the essence of happiness and goodness, this artificial sacredness is nothing but an empty form that may be filled with various dogmas and opinions to induce individuals into dangerous worship instead of providing society with a stable foundation. This just reflects the problem of the self-justification of modern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of the state in the development of French Sociology after 1945. This role was important in the institutionalization of the discipline. It favoured the creation of research teams, resarch centres or laboratories. The State favoured the funding of french sociology too. This funding, in the form of research contracts with various public bodies, has contributed to the emergence of the figure of the expert and, more broadly, to the involvement of sociologists in sectoral policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper considers the issues surrounding the social, professional and family (re-) integration of end-of-career professional athletes in France. Drawing on the case of French rugby player Marc Cecillon, a former captain of the national team whose descent into alcoholism culminated in his conviction for murder of his wife in August 2004, it examines how sports institutions fail to meet athletes' aspirations and needs for support. Drawing on a series of interviews with representatives of sports institutions and analysis of print media coverage, the research investigates the issues surrounding career-change difficulties for professional athletes. It demonstrates through the story of Marc Cecillon why the career of professional sportsmen and women cannot be divorced from their social trajectory. Rather than acknowledging this, however, the sports institutions concerned are seen to attribute blame for any ills affecting French rugby to exterior causes, such as individual weakness. By rejecting responsibility in this way the sporting 'family' falls apart, removing any support system and denying athletes the information and guidance necessary to manage their career change effectively. This is particularly significant for team players, who have been in a subservient position in relation to their clubs and can therefore suffer identity uncertainty from this lack of guidance. The case study suggests that French sports institutions do not play their role in preparing athletes for the realities of a new life based on different values and different social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory plant breeding began in developing countries and now some European farmers and scientists are proposing its suitability in contributing to sustainable agriculture. This paper uses both genetics and sociology to determine the conditions required. A review of the sustainability of projects implemented in developing countries initiated discussion of an organic durum wheat participatory breeding programme, which is currently being implemented in the south of France. The analysis highlighted the need for the critical participation of experts from different horizons in a socio-technical network. Multi-level interactions and cross-linked learning processes about breeding methods and sociological concepts are needed for effective communication between different stakeholders and scientific disciplines. This approach enables implementation of a range of different action systems in which the production of relevant knowledge and rules addresses the issue of the sustainable development of diverse agro-food systems, rather than the generalization of one model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the discourses to be read in painted representations of colonial motifs (and their modes of display) in France between the mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, i.e. until the dawn—but not the completion—of decolonisation. It will analyse selected images, some of which have become emblematic as triumphant and/or enduring manifestations of colonial domination. It will question the readings and uses of such images from the time of conquest to the post-colonial era. This article's focus, however, will be less on the well-rehearsed dominant discourses than on gaps, silences, unanswered questions, misgivings and various non-dits which can be detected, on closer examination, in these works, their modes of diffusion and their reception by contemporaries. It will look for signs of ambivalence in the rendition of colonial scenes by the artists themselves (such as Vernet or Fromentin), who visited the sites of battle scenes in Algeria shortly after gruesome events had taken place. In particular, the paper will look for haunting visions of what had happened there, beyond the official, hegemonic discourse which was fashionable at the time, and which, in some cases, these artists had been commissioned to illustrate. The main argument concentrates closely on discourse and counter-discourse analysis, as well as the fluidity and the transferability of discourses across the colonial/post-colonial divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transfer of modes of thought, concepts, models, and metaphors from Darwinian and Lamarckian evolutionary biology played a significant role in the mergence, constitution, and legitimization of sociology as an autonomous discipline in France at the end of the nineteenth century. More specifically, the Durkheimian group then came to be recognized as "French sociology." In the present paper, I analyze a facet of the struggle among various groups for this coveted status and demonstrate that the initial adherence to and subsequent abandonment of "the biological" played an important, but complex, role in the outcome of that struggle. Furthermore, the choice of biological model, whether Darwinian or Lamarckian, had repercussions on one's position in that cultural field. The outcome of the "battle" between René Worms' group that supported and contributed to the Revue Internationale de Sociologie (RIS) on the one hand, and Emile Durkheim's group and those committed to the L'Année Sociologique (AS) on the other—from which the Durkheimians emerged victorious—was due not only to internal scientific factors, but also to a particular juxtaposition of developments within sociology and anthropology and their relation to and interaction with French culture and politics at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine whether a long-term trend can be identified in the mobility regime of French society from the middle of the century. It begins with a review of the international literature on temporal trends in social fluidity within modern societies. Analysing recent French research which has concluded that inequality of opportunity has remained unchanged in France during the last two decades, the paper argues that such a conclusion can only have resulted from the use of insufficiently powerful statistical techniques. The second part of the paper analyses father-son and father-daughter mobility tables drawn from national representative surveys carried out in 1953, 1970, 1977, 1985 and 1993 (N=35,741 for males and 18,484 for females). The use of log-linear and log-multiplicative models reveals that the statistical association (as measured with the logarithm of the odds ratio) between social origin and destination has declined steadily by 0.5 % a year over a period of forty years. This finding highlights a slow but continuous trend towards a reduction in inequality of opportunity from the middle of the century. Of the twelve million French men and women between the ages of 35 and 59 who were in employment in 1993, nearly half a million would have belonged to different classes without this forty year increase in social fluidity. The paper concludes that the thesis of temporal invariance in the intergenerational mobility regime cannot be maintained for France, but that the reasons of this change still remain to be ascertained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine and critique Donald Levine's treatment of the "French Tradition" in sociological thought. After summarizing Levine's account of the development of the French tradition, I discuss the identification of the French tradition with the work of Durkheim, and discuss the reasons for the predominance of Durkheim's work over and above other plausible candidates for exemplars of the French tradition of sociology. I then use this discussion to problematize the identification of sociological theories with national traditions, and the idealist framework that Levine uses to discuss the development of sociological thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the role of third sector organizations in the field of “proximity services” from a francophone perspective. We analyze how the new wave of initiatives inside the third sector in France and francophone Belgium can be seen as providing institutional responses to state and market failures that arise from trust-dependent and quasi-collective attributes of these services. These initiatives are often called “solidarity based third sector organizations,” a concept defined in this paper. A central assumption of this analysis is that the political context in which these services are delivered is especially important, particularly as reflected in the changing regulatory role of the state. This analysis takes, therefore, an economic sociology perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was originally published in French in 1988 and was written by the sociologist E. Durkheim. In the forward by John Simons, it is noted that in this article the author "claims to demonstrate an inverse relationship between the suicide rate and the birth rate for the Departements of France, and to explain why this relationship was to be expected." The data concern the period 1801-1869., (excerpt)

This article explores the question: can the variation that have been observed in class mobility rates in England, France and Sweden be in fact attributed entirely to differences in the evolution of the class structures of these societies - or in other factors affecting the demand and supply conditions attending mobility; or is it rather the case that there are, in addition to such structural sources of variation, differences also among the three societies in the pattern of what we would term their social fluidity or, in other words, in mobility considered independently of structural influences? To use the conceptual language that has been conventional in mobility research- but from which we would wish to depart -- the issue could then be alternatively posed as that of whether the cross-national variation that we have demonstrated is confined simply to structural mobility, or whether it extends to exchange mobility as well. The source of mobility data in England, France and Sweden have been fully described in previous paper of these authors. Here it will be sufficient to say that the data derive from nationally-based sample survey inquiries undertaken in the three countries during the early 1970s.

This paper poses the question of the persistent absence today of a sociology of religion of Islam, an absence which coincides with the continuation of a lively orientalist tradition. This gap is all the more intriguing if seen in the context of the history of sociology in France, and in particular the history of Durkheimism, which quickly established itself as a science of religious phenomena, but which tacitly avoided the three Semitic monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). In contrast, the history of Indology and of the anthropology of ancient Greece shows clearly that the conjunction of sociological theory with the textual sciences could be accomplished only in relation to civilizations which are far from the West’s own religious core. It is possible then that Islam and the knowledge of it as a religion occurs within a blind spot (un impensé) characteristic of the history of ideas in nineteenth-century France in which Christianity, and especially the religion of the Ancien Regime, constitute an ever-present barrier to a clear vision. The scientific construction of Islam suffers from too close a proximity, or an absence of distance, with regard to French society’s own (problematic) religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented, in which the author discusses various issues within the issue on topics including socio-historical perspective on the sociology of deviance in France, overview of the French sociological tradition of international relations, and French cognitive sociology.

This article provides a detailed account of how surgeons perceived and used a device‐procedure that caused widespread patient harm: transvaginal mesh for the treatment of pelvic floor disorders in women. Drawing from interviews with 27 surgeons in Canada, the UK, the United States and France and observations of major international medical conferences in North America and Europe between 2015 and 2018, we describe the commercially driven array of operative variations in the use of transvaginal mesh and show that surgeons' understanding of their hands‐on, sensory experience with these variations is central to explaining patient harm. Surgeons often developed preferences for how to manage actual and anticipated dangers of transvaginal mesh procedures through embodied operative adjustments, but collectively the meaning of these preferences was fragmented, contested and deferred. We critically reflect on surgeons' understandings of their operative experience, including the view that such experience is not evidence. The harm in this case poses a challenge to some ways of thinking about uncertainty and errors in medical sociology, and calls for attention to a specific feature of surgical work: the extent and persistence of operative practices that elude classification as right or wrong but are still most certainly better and worse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many so-called developed countries, participation to at least one physical activity or sport is a mass phenomenon. More, the combination of a high involvement rate and omnivorousness/voraciousness results in a very high volume of practice and lead to a significant volume of accidents. Academic studies have shown the importance of socio-demographic characteristics, such as age and sex, the mode of practice and the physical activity or sport itself in the occurrence of accidents. However, it is also necessary to take into account certain cultural dimensions of investment in sport, and more particularly the legitimate definition of risk specific to each activity. Since commitment and risk-taking are characteristic of young men, we tested the hypothesis that there are more accidents in physical activity or sports in which young men are statistically over-represented. This study evaluated this hypothesis using a sample of 29,000 reported physical activity or sports for a sample of 7,424 practitioners (national survey of the Ministry of Sports in France, people aged 15 and over). We used a multilevel cross classified logistic regression. The results show first a strong effect of the variable concerning the overrepresentation of young men in a physical activity or sport. Secondary, other results are more usual with the effect of modes of practice involved (high frequency, club and competition) and of the physical activity or sport itself (example of alpine skiing) and a single sociodemographic characteristic (the under 30 yo). Conversely, some results are more original, showing the non-effect of sex taken independently. These results provide essential information for taking into account the cultural dimension in sport-related prevention and for the management of the teams responsible for administering it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible to undertake a sociological analysis of works of art? This article considers the arguments for both the negative and positive answers to this question that emerged in France in a vivid manner at the turn of the millennium. It examines the main arguments exchanged by the supporters and detractors of this sub-discipline of the sociology of art, notably those relating to the problem of interpretation (how does one verify this process sociologically when it is applied to a work of art?) and to the ways of presenting evidence. The discussion of these various arguments does not lead to the conclusion that it is impossible to explore heuristically the sociology of artworks in a pertinent way but to an insistence on heightened vigilance and to the formulation of certain principles for the use of sociologists who engage with such objects, if sometimes without the requisite caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]