La contingence et le travail de conception. Définir,organiser, délibérer

The activity of a design office consists in producing plans for things that do not yet exist. If, through poor management, the designers fail to anticipate accurately what the product will be, work will be inappropriately allocated and divided. Given the uncertain nature of the activity and the outcome, designers are simultaneously involved in the process of producing technical solutions, a process of organisation — through constant reallocation of tasks — and a political process of ironing out disagreements — through the exploration of multiple heterogeneous possibilities.     

Situation de dépendance et modèles de prise de décisions

The author attempts to demonstrate, using a case study, that the economic behaviour of peasants of Maranhão, Brazil, in spite of the extreme ecological and economic constraints under which they live, may be perceived as a coherent set of decisions. He first precedes to analyse these different constraints: ecotechnical (mostly the time factor), properly economic (the exchange patterns in both subsistence and market sectors), and finally cultural. With this background the author then works out an “ideal strategy” of action (normative model) which he compares with the actual strategies of peasants (statistical model). In view of the concordance of these models, it is concluded that this group of peasants, although even less integrated to a market system than are certain societies of Mexico, makes as judicious an allocation of their resources as the Mexican societies. Par une étude de cas, l'auteur s'efforce de démontrer comment le comportement économique d'un groupe de paysans du Maranhão au Brésil, en dépit de contraintes écologiques et économiques extrêmes qui pèsent sur eux, peut être saisi comme un ensemble cohérent de décisions. II procède d'abord, par l'analyse de ces diverses contraintes: écotechniques (surtout le facteur de temps), proprement économiques (les patterns d'échange dans les secteurs de subsistance et de marché), et finalement les contraintes culturelles. Dans l'ensemble, l'auteur définit une « stratégie idéale d'action » (modèle normatif) qu'il compare aux strategies effectives des paysans (modèle statistique). En vu de la concordance de ces modèles, il est conclu que ce groupe de paysans, quoique moins intégréà des systèmes de marché que le sont certaines sociétés du Mexique, pourrait faire une allocation aussi judicieuse de ses ressources que les sociétés mexicaines.     

La victime et le policier : point de vue profane et point de vue professionnel sur la délinquance

Comparing surveys of victims with police statistics illustrates the differences between lay and professional views of crime. Victims’expectations and the police handling of cases do not always match. The determinants of victims’ decisions to report incidents to the police are briefly summarised; and the ways the police classify victims’account and handle their complaints, examined. This analysis is based on two sets of data: a victimisation survey of a sample of 10?504 persons aged 15 and older, drawn from the Île-de-France Region; the police statistics corresponding to the same area.