Structuration d’un champ d’action publique : l’intervention publique sur les copropriétés dégradées

This article focuses on the social construction of the problem, which emerged in France during the 1980s, of dilapidated condominium apartment buildings and on the public policy instruments that have been used. A sociology of organized action serves to analyze this twofold process, which has resulted from the formation of networks of persons unfamiliar with the legal aspects of condominium ownership. Linking the periphery to the center, these networks have crystallized around norms ensuing from housing policy. The concept of “field” in the Weberian sense explains this crystallization, and also applies to the symmetrical process of conserving civil law on joint ownership. Parties attached to this normative system denied the problem of dilapidated condominiums, when it was presented to them. By pursuing a social activity based on applying and producing rules, individuals in the networks related to housing policy and persons concerned by condominium ownership contributed to maintaining and, too, revitalizing rules and norms.     

On some effects of variability in the westss epidemic model

The Weiss carrier-borne epidemic model is extended to incorporate random initial susceptible and carrier population sizes and general independent distributions for the infectious periods of the carriers. The qualitative effects of these variability factors on the spread of the disease are examined using different partial orderings for distribution functions.     

Making Sense through Touch

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of touch in the creation of meaning for ethnographic museum collections. It presents a collaborative study conducted at the McCord Museum in which groups of Inuit elders were invited to share their knowledge and memories about objects of everyday life collected in the Canadian Arctic during the first half of the twentieth century. The aim of this research was to gather the elders' interpretations of ancient hunting equipment, sewing paraphernalia, household utensils, and personal ornaments in order to inform archaeological analyses of analogous artifacts from Nunavut. The article focuses on the methodology of the group discussions, in which participants were invited to handle the objects without constraint. These interactions generated various meanings for the objects: their fabrication and uses in the past, their contemporary value for the preservation and promotion of Inuit traditions, and their role in supporting the well-being of Inuit visitors at the museum.     

Usages et conceptions des organisations syndicales chez les enseignants du second degré : une comparaison France-Angleterre

This article explores the practices and conceptions of trade union organisations found among secondary school teachers in France and England. To do so, the analysis draws on a set of interviews conducted with members of this professional group in the two countries. The French-English comparison reveals significant differences in terms of the levels of membership and the principles governing union involvement, as well as in the conceptions of trade union organisations that prevail in the two countries. This comparative approach provides a better insight into the link between union involvement and the culture of the teaching profession.