Suchergebnisse

As part of an analysis of the growth of the activities of the ten provincial governments in the domains of immigration and integration since the 1990s, this paper proposes a revitalization of the concept of 'province building.' Taking as its starting point the criticisms of Robert A. Young, Philippe Faucher, and Andre Blais (1984), it is suggested to reposition province building as a social mechanism. Through this mechanistic approach and building on ten case studies, it proposes that the mechanism of province building operates via three components: activation, consensus building, and institutionalization. Despite these similarities in operation, the mechanism of province building produces variegated effects, depending on the context in which it is engaged. The heuristic potential of this approach is illustrated by tracing how a mechanism of province building centered on immigration has operated in Manitoba since the 1990s. Adapted from the source document.

Thirty years ago, the "patrimonial," or "property-ownership," effect discovered by Jacques Capdevielle & Elisabeth Dupoirier aroused the interest of political scientists in France & abroad in what was viewed as a heuristic subject. Since then, the "patrimonial" variable has been almost completely forgotten. Using 2007 French presidential election data, this article demonstrates that the presence of a patrimonial strategy remains a key factor in determining how the individual relates to politics & voting. Owning various kinds of property tends to blur the income-based distinction between "poor & wealthy" people & to neutralize the political norms embraced by the social, cultural or professional groups to which people belong. The patrimonial effect persists when the effects of other social variables are controlled for by logistic regressions. Adapted from the source document.

In French law, foreign examples and the mechanisms of policy transfer have played a significant role in the genesis and development of the use of videoconferencing to remotely carry out judicial activities such as judging, pleading and sentencing. In the case studied here, references to the international dimension are more than a simple source of borrowing; they constitute strategically mobilized resources. These are part of a more global process of innovation deployed by promoters of videoconferencing according to a particular and incremental logic. The approach developed to grasp the multiple dynamics at work as well as the consistently singular character of this process of innovation is inspired by the sociology of science and techniques. In a more general way, this borrowing demonstrates that the notion of policy transfer is not always the most heuristic for describing and understanding changes in public action and that the sociology of innovation can, in certain conditions, be particularly useful. Adapted from the source document.

Despite the reticence of traditional Belgian historians (those attached to exclusive recourse to written sources), Congo offers historians an interesting research alternative in the form of life stories. When carefully recorded life stories are crossed and confronted with written sources, these retrospective narratives provide objective data while unfolding the colonial period of Congo-Zaire history. The passage from orality to 'historical matter' implies, nonetheless, a solid methodology prior to the thematic information gathering phase and subsequent analytical processing. In their search for contacts, information and documents, European researchers working in Congo are confronted with the realities of urban dynamics and with the risks of preconceived -- but evolving -- concepts and images. Various technical and cultural manifestations likely to influence the context and the results of research illustrate how important it is be humble and flexible while carrying out research in the Congo. Adapted from the source document.

Based on a field survey dealing with the "social cinema" category in France in the years 1990-2000 and by mobilizing some cases of films featuring mobilizations, this article proposes to study under what conditions and how films can be a material for researchers in social sciences. Like other more traditional materials and despite the proximity of view between the artistic and the scientific fields, films (whether documentary or fiction films) are not providing direct access to the "real". In order to constitute them in sources, the researcher has to combine internal and external analysis, to link their conditions of production and of reception. Beyond this methodological proposal, cinema taken as an object (and not only as a source) can be the place of mobilizations and can open an heuristic field of researches to work on collective action and to study activists' know-how in a new perspective. Indeed "social films" from production to reception are the subject of multiple appropriations which can correspond to a process of politicization. Adapted from the source document.

Is the Islamic Republic of Iran an ideological state, an Islamic democracy or a classic dictatorship? The heuristic dimension of the debate regarding the nature of the Islamic Republic has to be found in a better understanding of the decision-making process inside the regime. In other words, the choice of the criterion to define the political system of the Islamic Republic affects our analysis of its political functioning. It is therefore important to shed light on the diverging political classifications of the Islamic Republic as defined by scholars specialized in Iranian studies. Finally, this article challenges the relevancy of analyses underlining the "elective" or "republican" dimensions in the complex web of institutions of an Islamic theocracy. Adapted from the source document.

Since the fall of communism, a vast body of literature has been devoted to the transfers to the east of international norms, rules & standards in public policy. Rather than view this process via the study of export rationales (alternately seen as virtuous or asymmetrical) or import rationales (supposedly passive or zealous), this article examines the concrete mechanisms through which "social problems," policies are devised & remodeled as the various local, regional & transnational actors take them up. Starting with a study of the role of NGOs in the construction of minority issues in Bulgaria, it highlights the multiple ways in which the categories & international priorities are shaped by Bulgarian leaders that have learned to use the international repertoire to position themselves on a competitive domestic market. The analysis also underscores the fragile, porous nature of borders between what is presented as pertaining to export or import due to the multipositionality of agents that are both "local" & integrated into transnational networks, even involved in formulating recommendations for so-called "export" institutions. In place of the "export/import" pair, it might be heuristic to substitute the notion of circulating themes & mechanism, while investigating their integration into local histories. Adapted from the source document.