Sociologie de la transparence de la vie publique: jeux d’acteurs et circulation de la régulation. Analyse de cas: RegardsCitoyens

Cet article analyse le jeu des acteurs civils et publics précédant la création de la Haute Autorité, plus spécifiquement comment cette dernière est l’aboutissement d’une circulation nouvelle de la réflexion citoyenne et de l’exécutif, mais aussi l’ambivalence de la notion de transparence dans la mesure où celle-ci peut aussi bien montrer que cacher. La transparence s’appuie sur l’exigence de ‘vigilance épistémologique’ (Bourdieu, Chamboredon et Passeron, 1968 Bourdieu, P., Chamboredon, J.-C., and Passeron, J-.C., 1968. Le métier de sociologue: Préalables épistémologiques. Paris: Mouton de Gruyter. [Google Scholar]) typique de la sociologie, mais elle est aussi une fabrication sociale née de jeux d’acteurs et de leurs légitimités respectives. Pour illustrer cette nouvelle forme de circulation régulatrice, le terrain choisi est celui de l’association Regards Citoyens et de son ‘lobbying citoyen’ revendiqué. Il s’agira d’étudier ici les forces et les limites d’une telle approche.     

TRANSLATING MELANCHOLIA

This paper is about the (im)possibility of ‘the Black community’. Specifically it is about how the process of translating melancholia in talk on life stories makes ‘the Black community’ (im)possible. Its (im)possibility arises because translating melancholia leads to critical agency (Khanna, 2003 Khanna, R. 2003. Dark continents: Psychoanalysis and colonialism, London: Duke University Press. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) in Black women's and men's talk on identity, belonging and community. I deal centrally, therefore, with ‘the Black community’ and affect. As affect, melancholia's ‘object of emotions can be ideals [such as “the Black community”] and bodies, including bodies of [communities which] can take shape through how they approximate such “ideals”’ (Ahmed, 2004 Ahmed, S. 2004. The cultural politics of emotion, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.  [Google Scholar], p. 16). To this extent then translating melancholia is performative, as Black community takes shape in talk. I use talk on life stories to show that there is an ideal in the form of a dominant discourse on ‘the Black community’ which is constantly disturbed and re-made by melancholic translations at the level of the everyday. This disturbance constitutes what I call a poetics of Black interstitial community. By poetics I mean how community means, not just what it means to its members. I am then not talking about physical boundaries when I say ‘the Black community’, but those of affect. These boundaries are circumscribed by a politics of ‘race’ which underlie inclusion in the Black collective and are continually re-negotiated through talk on belonging. Here, the significance of essentialist notions of ‘race’ for inclusion within the Black community can be no longer taken for granted. Last, I consider what this means for the continuation of Black anti-racist politics.     

Sexuality Examined Through the Lens of Attachment Theory: Attachment,Caregiving, and Sexual Satisfaction

Attachment researchers have proposed that the attachment, caregiving, and sexual behavioral systems are interrelated in adult love relationships (Mikulincer &; Shaver, 2007 Mikulincer , M. , &; Shaver , P. R. ( 2007 ). Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change . New York , NY : Guilford . [Google Scholar]). This study examined whether aspects of partners’ caregiving (proximity, sensitivity, control, compulsive caregiving) mediated the association between their attachment insecurities (anxiety and avoidance) and each other's sexual satisfaction in two samples of committed couples (Study 1: 126 cohabiting or married couples from the general community; Study 2: 55 clinically distressed couples). Partners completed the Experiences in Close Relationships measure (Brennan, Clark, &; Shaver, 1998 Brennan , K. A. , Clark , C. L. , &; Shaver , P. R. ( 1998 ). Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview . In J. A. Simpson &; W. W. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 46 – 76 ). New York : Guilford .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), the Caregiving Questionnaire (Kunce &; Shaver, 1994 Kunce , L. J. , &; Shaver , P. R. ( 1994 ). An attachment-theoretical approach to caregiving in romantic relationships . In K. Bartholomew &; D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (pp. 205 – 237 ). London : Kingsley . [Google Scholar]), and the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction (Lawrance &; Byers, 1998 Lawrance , K. , &; Byers , E. S. ( 1998 ). Interpersonal Exchange Model of Sexual Satisfaction Questionnaire . In C. M. Davis , W. L. Yarber , R. Bauserman , G. Schreer &; S. L. Davis (Eds.), Sexuality-related measures: A compendium (pp. 514 – 519 ). Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage . [Google Scholar]). Path analyses based on the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) revealed that caregiving proximity mediated the association between low attachment avoidance and partners’ sexual satisfaction in distressed and nondistressed couples. Sensitivity mediated this association in nondistressed couples only. Control mediated the association between men's insecurities (attachment-related avoidance and anxiety) and their partners’ low sexual satisfaction in nondistressed couples. Attachment anxiety predicted compulsive caregiving, but this caregiving dimension was not a significant mediator. These results are discussed in light of attachment theory and their implications for treating distressed couples.     

The Organisation and the Mouth of Hell

FLESH

‘We are now beginning a two week consultation period—but let me say this [finger raised for emphasis)—if you are not for this project [dramatic pause) you ought to be looking for a move elsewhere’. (Announcement preceding a post‐1992 university restructuring, April 2002)

‘Hang on. I am just parking the car. I am walking into the building. I am now entering the mouth of hell…’ (Conversation with a friend who was calling from his mobile phone as he entered his workplace)

‘My heart sinks every time I have to go there. It takes away your spirit’. (Former colleague writing about her experiences of going to work)

‘I am nailed to the desk at the moment…’. (My email to friend in another institution) ‘Your email was full of Catholic imagery’. (Reply)

‘We live on that border, crossroads beings, crucified beings’. (Kristeva, 1987 Kristeva, J. 1987. Tales of love, Edited by: Roudiez, L. New York: Columbia University Press.  [Google Scholar]: 254)     

Undocumented Acts: Migration,Community and Audience in Two Chicana Plays

Abstract

The 1980 Refugee Act endeavoured to provide effective settlement for refugees entering the United States. But most South American refugees escaping from dictatorships and civil wars were denied political asylum. This article explores the representation of migration and border crossing in Latina (1980 Sánchez-Scott, Milcha, with Jeremy Blahnik. 1980. “Latina.” In Necessary Theatre Six Plays about the Chicano Experience, edited by Jorge Huerta, 85–141. Houston: Arte Publico Press. [Google Scholar]), a play by Milcha Sánchez Scott that stages the difficulties associated with this journey. In 2010 Senate Bill 1070, one of the strictest anti-immigration legislative acts to be enforced, encouraged racial profiling in the identification of border crossers in the state of Arizona. Detained in the Desert (2011), a play by Josefina L?pez, is a Chicana response to the passing of SB 1070, and contributes to a deeper understanding of the fraught experiences of migrant women’s lives. The study of the plays places an emphasis on transnational community building and audience engagement and builds on a range of recent critical work by border theorists and scholars such as Alicia Schmidt Camacho and Deborah Boehm, and theatre and performance critics such as Diana Taylor.     

Participatory spaces and the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC): reshaping government plans

This article challenges the prevailing orthodoxy in the South African literature on participation in development, which suggests that it is government structures alone that determine citizen participation in development. It focuses on the empirical example of the Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC), an affiliate of the Anti‐Privatisation Forum (APF), to show the ways in which agents shape and recreate development practices on the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), an African National Congress flagship programme. To do this, the article draws from interviews with stakeholders involved in the ARP as well as the AVCC who seek to contest the allocation of houses in the ARP. Following Cornwall (2004 Cornwall, A. 2004. “Spaces for transformation? Reflections on issues of power and difference in participation in development”. In Participation from tyranny to transformation: exploring new approaches to participation in development, Edited by: Hickey, S. and Mohan, G. 75–91. London: Zed Books.  [Google Scholar]), this article argues that agents can force the government to concede to their demands despite the government's structures which initially appeared to exclude them.     

Foucault,plague, Defoe

For Foucault, the experience of plague is a vital moment in the development of new techniques of power and ways of thinking about the social world. Plague compels city or state authorities to take extreme measures to control disease. Quarantine, of the home, the city, and the nation forces assessments of issues of state power, individual liberty and medical knowledge. The most important study of plague during this period was provided by Daniel Defoe’s (1722 Defoe, Daniel. 1722. Due preparations for the plague as well for soul as body London [Google Scholar]) A journal of the plague year. Defoe’s narrative style blurred the line between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’, an authorial strategy similar to Foucault’s. If quarantine marks the turn towards disciplinary power and knowledge in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, then its failure to check the cholera epidemic of 1832 signalled the shift toward ‘biopower’, the assumption by the state of pastoral as well as disciplinary roles to public health. The state’s new role in preserving or improving the health of the population relied upon the steady accumulation of detailed empirical data. The administrator gradually displaced the author as the chronicler of disease, health and normality.     

THE COMMUNITIES WE ARE REGAINING BUT NEED TO LOSE

Michael Young and Gerard Lemos’ (1997 Young, M. and Lemos, G. 1997. The communities we have lost and can regain, London: Lemos and Crane.  [Google Scholar]) text The communities we have lost and can regain has had a substantial influence on New Labour's communitarian thinking. This paper critically examines a specific aspect of New Labour's communitarian agenda, namely, its use of public housing policy to rebuild communities in order to combat social exclusion on so-called ‘sink estates’. The paper is presented in four main parts. The first part of the paper discusses how, why and to what extent ‘community’ has been lost, with particular reference to public housing estates. The second part examines why community rebuilding is now seen as the solution to the problems caused by the loss of community on public housing estates and, to this end, pays particular attention to the communitarian values that underpin New Labour's third way. The third part of the paper examines some empirical studies of community in order to highlight the key characteristics of ‘community’ and thereby develop a critical understanding of what New Labour are currently seeking to achieve. The fourth part of the paper juxtaposes this discussion of ‘community’ with a discussion of emerging socio-economic trends that have been identified in the literature on late modernity and globalization. By highlighting emerging socio-economic trends such as residential mobility into the community debate, the paper concludes by criticizing the policy of community building as ‘good for you’. Our key point is that community building restricts the residential mobility of poorer households and exacerbates (rather than combats) their social exclusion because a key indicator of social inclusion is their ability to take advantage of the social, cultural and economic opportunities that so often exist ‘elsewhere’.     

An Exploratory Analysis of Executive Functioning for Female Sexual Offenders: A Comparison of Characteristics Across Offense Typologies

This study examined the association between female sexual offending behavioral patterns, as delineated by Sandler and Freeman's (2007 Sandler, J. C. and Freeman, N. J. 2007. Typology of female sex offenders: A test of Vandiver and Kercher. Sex Abuse, 19: 73–89. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) typologies, and executive functioning. The sample included all referrals for sexual offender assessments within a women's maximum/medium security prison between January 2009 and October 2009. Each subject was administered the Stroop (Golden & Freshwater, 2002 Golden, C. J. and Freshwater, S. M. 2002. The Stroop color and word test: A manual for clinical and experimental uses, Wood Dale, IL: Stoelting Company.  [Google Scholar]) and Trail Making Test (Reitan, 2004 Reitan, R. M. 2004. “Validity of the trail making test as an indicator of organic brain damage”. In Neuropsychological assessment, 4th, Edited by: Lezak, M. D., Howison, D. B. and Loring, D. W. 371–374. New York: Oxford University Press.  [Google Scholar]) and were assigned to a typological category. Nonparametric analyses were conducted to determine if there was an association between typology and performance on neuropsychological tests. Results yielded no significant associations between test scores and typological category. Subjects displayed average capacities for a subset of executive functions, suggesting that the mechanisms for sexually offending behavior in females may differ from males.     

Rethinking Theory

‘Capitalist racist patriarchy’ is how Zillah Eisenstein (1998 Eisenstein, Z. R. 1998. Global Obscenities: Patriarchy, Capitalism, and the Lure of Cyberfantasy, New York: New York Press.  [Google Scholar]) characterizes global inequalities and the hierarchies of ‘difference’ they constitute. This article assumes that feminist theory aims not only to ‘empower women’ but to advance critical analyses of intersecting structural hierarchies; that this entails not only a critique of patriarchy but its complex conjunction with capitalism and racism; and that such critique requires rethinking theory. Through a critical lens on devalued (‘feminized’) informal work worldwide, the article explores how positivist, modernist and masculinist commitments variously operate in prevailing theories of informality – including those of feminists – with the effect of impeding both intersectional analyses and more adequate critiques of capitalist racist patriarchy.     

Attachment Disturbances Delay Language Acquisition in Internationally Adopted Children

Cross-sectional research on internationally adopted children has indicated an association between early attachment disturbances and language deficits. Raaska et al. (2013 Raaska, H., Elovainio, M., Sinkkonen, J., Stolt, S., Jalonen, I., Matomäki, J., … Lapinleimu, H. (2013). Adopted children's language difficulties and their relation to symptoms of reactive attachment disorder: FinAdo study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 34(3), 152–160.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) have speculated that this relationship is likely bidirectional. In an attempt to elucidate the causal relationship between these two risk factors, the attachment disturbances and language skills of 44 internationally adopted children were assessed in a cross-lagged structural equation model. Greater attachment disturbances at wave 1 predicted less gain in language by wave 2. In contrast, language at wave 1 was not predictive of attachment disturbances at wave 2. These results suggest that early attachment problems may present an important risk for later language development and should be an immediate and primary focus of post-adoptive intervention for families adopting internationally.     

Researchers Deserve a Better Critique: Response to Larzelere,Gunnoe, Roberts,and Ferguson (2017)

This commentary addresses the critique by Larzelere, Gunnoe, Roberts, and Ferguson (2017 Larzelere, R. E., Gunnoe, M. L., Roberts, M. W., &; Ferguson, C. J. (2017). Children and parents deserve better parental discipline research: Critiquing the evidence for exclusively “positive” parenting. Marriage &; Family Review, 53, 24–35. doi:10.1080/01494929.2016.1145613[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]: Marriage &; Family Review, 53, 24–35) ostensibly concerning the quality of research on “positive parenting” but actually critiquing physical punishment research. The critique revealed that the authors have a poor understanding of positive parenting. After explicating the different meanings of that term and describing what positive parenting is, we then address each of their four critiques of the physical punishment research. Each critique was flawed in multiple ways. After identifying their errors and correcting misinformation, we then raise broader issues about children’s right not to be hit and how professional organizations are increasingly recognizing the need and calling for an end to all physical punishment of children.     

Disability,pain and love in Jewish cosmology?

Individuals with disabilities face numerous barriers that limit their inclusion within the Jewish community (Trieschmann 2001 Trieschmann, R. B. 2001. “Spirituality and Energy Medicine.” Journal of Rehabilitation 67 (1): 26–32.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). While many Jewish communities have progressed and moved towards an attitude of ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ for people with disabilities out of religious obligation, it is often a practice without the spiritual ethical governing force and guiding principles of respect, equality, and human rights (Shatz and Wolowelsky 2004 Shatz, D., and J. B. Wolowelsky. 2004. Mind, Body, and Judaism: The Interaction of Jewish Law with Psychology and Biology. Ktav Publishing House: Yeshiva University Press. [Google Scholar]). People with disabilities are stereotyped as dependent, draining, incompetent, pitiful, victims, freaks, angels, embarrassments, innocent, pathetic, and asexual social burdens (Nario-Redmond 2010 Nario-Redmond, M. R. 2010. “Cultural Stereotypes of Disabled and Non-Disabled Men and Women: Consensus for Global Category Representations and Diagnostic Domains.” British Journal of Social Psychology 49: 471–488.10.1348/014466609X468411 [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). What is lacking is the consideration of people with disabilities as human beings. This injustice is most evident, painful, and damaging at an individual and communal level when it comes to Jewish singles and their pursuit of intimate relationships. A central Jewish value, right, and goal, one that is strongly promoted in Israeli society, is that of committed intimate relationships. However, this value does not apply to people with disabilities     

Exploring the Overlap in Male Juvenile Sexual Offending and General Delinquency: Trauma,Alcohol Use,and Masculine Beliefs

Despite Burton and Meezan's (2004 Burton, D. L. and Meezan, W. 2004. Revisiting recent research on social learning theory as an etiological proposition for sexually abusive male adolescents. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 1(1): 41–80. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) finding that sexually aggressive youth are three to four times more likely to recidivate nonsexually than sexually, there is little to no research to date that explores this overlap in criminality. With a sample of 290 male sexually violent adjudicated and incarcerated youth, this study was able to successfully predict those who are exclusively sexually violent from those who are both nonsexually and sexually violent with each of the following factors: childhood trauma, masculine beliefs, and alcohol use. While alcohol use accounted for the greatest variance between the groups, masculine beliefs offered the greatest basis for the discussion and future projects for the authors of the study. Treatment and research implications are offered.     

Perceived Stress,Energy Drink Consumption,and Academic Performance Among College Students

Abstract

Objective: This study explored relationships regarding perceived stress, energy drink consumption, and academic performance among college students. Participants: Participants included 136 undergraduates attending a large southern plains university. Methods: Participants completed surveys including items from the Perceived Stress Scale ¹ Cohen, S, Kamarck, T and Mermelstein, R. 1983. A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav, 24: 385–396. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] and items to describe energy drink consumption, academic performance, and demographics. Results: Positive correlations existed between participants’ perceived stress and energy drink consumption. Participants’ energy drink consumption and academic performance were negatively correlated. Freshmen (M = 0.330) and sophomores (M = 0.408) consumed a lower number of energy drinks yesterday than juniors (M = 1.000). Males reported higher means than females for selected energy drink consumption items. Statistically significant interactions existed between gender and year in school for selected energy drink consumption items. Conclusions: Results confirm gender differences in energy drink consumption and illuminate a need for education regarding use of energy drinks in response to perceived stress.     

Reply to Cameron et al.: Mistakes Were Made. Can They Be Corrected?

Cameron, Cameron, and Proctor (2017 Cameron, P., Cameron, K. M., &; Proctor, K. (2017). Children of homosexuals more apt to become homosexual and experience parental molestation: Surveys over three decades. Marriage &; Family Review, 53, 429–433. doi:10.1080/01494929.2017.1279942[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) have complained that Cameron and Cameron (1996 Cameron, P., &; Cameron, K. (1996). Homosexual parents. Adolescence, 31, 757–776.[PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) were not cited in some articles authored by this journal’s editor. As part of this editor’s policy of welcoming critiques of the editor or articles published in Marriage &; Family Review, we are pleased to respond, as part of an assignment for a graduate course in statistics and research design. Although remarkable for its time in terms of sample design, Cameron and Cameron’s (1996 Cameron, P., &; Cameron, K. (1996). Homosexual parents. Adolescence, 31, 757–776.[PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) research featured substantial limitations or ambiguity in sampling attrition, measurement of parental sexual orientation, and small sample size with respect to the number of children with same-sex parents. Although we cannot recall the exact reasons for which the editor neglected to cite Cameron and Cameron (1996 Cameron, P., &; Cameron, K. (1996). Homosexual parents. Adolescence, 31, 757–776.[PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in more frequency or detail, there were many scientifically reasonable possibilities. Cameron et al. (2017 Cameron, P., Cameron, K. M., &; Proctor, K. (2017). Children of homosexuals more apt to become homosexual and experience parental molestation: Surveys over three decades. Marriage &; Family Review, 53, 429–433. doi:10.1080/01494929.2017.1279942[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) are welcome to respond in detail to our concerns.     

Communities in Question: Sociality and Solidarity in Nancy and Blanchot

In his early essays “Violence and Metaphysics” and “The Ends of Man”, Jacques Derrida evoked a “community of the question” when he called for a fundamental questioning of the being of the “we” in the West. This demand was later formulated by Jean‐Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue‐Labarthe as the philosophical interrogation of the political (le politique), in distinction from the question of politics (la politique). This essay begins by arguing that what is at stake in this distinction is the very possibility of politics that is otherwise foreclosed. It then explores Nancy’s interrogation of le politique in The Inoperative Community, and compares his response to Maurice Blanchot’s response in The Unavowable Community. It is argued that both deconstructions of “community” depict a certain sociality that corresponds to Derrida’s call—a “communality” beyond or radically other than the traditional model of community as formed by sovereign individuals and as forming the sovereign state. Where they differ is that Blanchot founds the ethical relation of the “unavowable” community on the radical interruption of ontology signaled by death, whereas Nancy casts ontology itself in an ethical register, and thereby allows a certain solidarity to emerge as well.

At the very moment when there is no longer a “command post” from which a “socialist vision” could put forward a subject of history or politics, or, in an even broader sense, when there is no longer a “city” or “society” out of which a regulative figure could be modeled, at this moment being‐many, shielded from all intuition, from all representation or imagination, presents itself with all the acuity of its question, with all the sovereignty of its demand (Jean‐Luc Nancy 2000 Nancy, Jean‐Luc. 2000. Being Singular Plural, Edited by: Robert, Richardson and Anne, O’Byrne. Stanford [1996]: Stanford University Press.  [Google Scholar], p. 43).     

The devil in high heels: drugs,symbolism and Kate Moss

This paper contributes to critical voices on the issue of organisational responses to employee drug use. It does so by exploring symbolic readings of organisations’ relations with drugs and drug‐taking. Our focus is recent coverage of, and organisational responses to, the UK tabloid media’s exposé of fashion supermodel Kate Moss’s alleged cocaine use. We consider that the celebrity endorsement in this particular case highlights the ambiguities created by the symbolic associations between the organisation and the ‘image’ projected by the celebrity. Overall, we use this case to explore symbolic relationships between drugs, sex, femininity and organisation. Through highlighting these connections, we question further the rationality of organisational responses to employee drug use and, utilising Derrida’s (1981 Derrida, J. 1981. Dissemination, London: Atholone Press.  [Google Scholar]) extension of Plato’s notion of the pharmakon, consider whether workforce drug testing might be fruitfully seen as a symbolic mechanism for scapegoating and sacrifice in order to protect the organisation’s (masculine) moral order.