L’autobiographie allemande du XVIIIe siècle,interprétée à la lumière de la sociologie de niklas Luhmann

With the help of Luhmann’s theory, this essay tries to define the connection between the boom of autobiographical writing in the late 18th century and the rise of the middle classes. Central to this, is his definition of “career”, with which he describes the individuals’ behaviour in the new functional bourgeois society. Strictly speaking, the individual gains personal and social identity, through his or her spoken or written autobiography as can be seen clearly in Jung-Stilling’s autobiography, which was published bit by bit. The individual hereby improves its prospects of social advancement. On the other hand, K. P. Moritz in hisAnton Reiser describes his hero’s life as the “career” of a failure whose hyperactive imagination interferes with the formation of his identity. Thus autobiographical writing in the 18th century shows itself as the literary autopoiesis of the authors’ concrete individuality.     

Rancière,Derrida, and Egalitarian Politics in Pseudo-Dionysius

Abstract

Using the work of Jacques Rancière, I argue for an egalitarian reading of the political hierarchy in Pseudo-Dionysius. I first analyze various historical attempts to derive a political theory from Pseudo-Dionysius in the work of Juan Miguel Garrigues, René Roques, and Dominic O’Meara. I then turn to Jacques Derrida's attempt to distinguish deconstruction from negative theology, and consider especially the political effects of this strategy. I argue that Derrida's attempt to undermine Psuedo-Dionysius's system from within is unsuccessful, and suggest instead that Rancière provides the conceptual tools to identify an egalitarianism within Dionysian political theory     

Le Débat Wolffien Sur L’Idéalisme de Leibniz Lors de la Première Diffusion de la Monadologie Latine

This paper proposes a reconstruction of the Wolffian debate on Leibniz’s idealism arising from the initial response to Leibniz’s Monadology. This reconstruction requires us to revisit some problems central to the debate: an inaccurate translation of a term in the latin Monadology («le composé» is translated as «substantia composita»); status of body as composed substance; status of elements as simple substances from which bodies result (which goes against the Cartesian conception of substance); status of Leibnizian notions of perception, force and pre-established harmony; status of experience as a holistic and systematic process (which goes against its conception and the tabula rasa in Locke) in the Wolffian response and system. A thorough examination of the founding texts of the response (Bilfinger and Wolff) allows us to reconsider the relation between Leibniz and Wolff from a new perspective.     

Mitigating defeat: Vidal de la Blache’s 1885 France Frontière Nord-Est et Alsace-Lorraine

One contributing factor to France’s devastating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War was a lack of geographic knowledge at all levels of the army. As a result, politicians proposed significant educational reforms in the 1880s, which included an enhanced role of geography in the national curriculum. In order to improve access to and understanding of that subject, French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blache published a series of Cartes murales that appeared in classrooms throughout the nation. Yet his Carte 10 France Frontière Nord-Est et Alsace-Lorraine, one such map, deviates from his primary mission of teaching pupils about the nation and focuses instead on the delicate topic of France’s new border with Germany. This article will examine Vidal’s map, on which he accurately presents the post-1871 political landscape. However, his cartographic discourse (colour, text, symbols), based on his geographic writings and national sentiment, differentiates Alsace-Lorraine from the new German Empire and helps his readers to question its authority over the two provinces.     

La Sociologie de la Musique de Max Weber Après un Siècle

In this article, the author wonders how the research program sketched out by Weber in early 1910 appears to us today, but also how it would appear if we wished to return to it one hundred years later, making the necessary modifications while remaining true to its spirit. To this end, the author envisions each of the three fundamental components of Weber’s program successively (the particular evolution of Western music, Weber’s emphasis on musical “techniques” and the fact that for Weber, the motor of change is rationalisation) and places them in the context of Weber’s work and of our contemporary concerns.     

France,Patrie, Nation: figures de lutte et discours national (XVIème–XIXème siècles)

This article explores the conceptual changes and semantic shifts of ‘patrie’ and of nation from the Renaissance up to the French Revolution and the First Empire. It emphasises the causes and consequences of both concepts' occurrence and tries to discover their fundamental differences synchronically and diachronically. A brief comparison with other European countries allows us to understand that both concepts are not typically French and highlights the very fact that they are interactive, discontinuous, and at the same time evolutionary, since they are successively inserted in a specific historical context. Above all, ‘patrie’ and nation turn out to be used more often during national and international political conflicts, even though they did not have the same connotation and register. It is therefore interesting to consider precisely what characterises both concepts, and to reflect upon the origins of the modern meaning of nation.     

Partager et occuper l'espace public d'un quartier gentrifié : lecture de Jacques Rancière

This article attempts, based on the concepts and methods of the philosopher Jacques Rancière, to conceptualize the process of gentrification as a scene of sharing and disagreement, a scene in which the paradox of a limited access to housing and a shared occupation of public space occurs simultaneously. Three concepts of Jacques Rancière help us to encompass the scene of the disagreement of gentrification, as the partition of sensible, the equality of intelligence, and the dissensus.     

Thèses de sociologie et romans à thèse

Are the rhetorical markers in sociological discourse specific and of a «scientific» nature? To tackle this delicate question, let us start by drawing up the generic characteristics of sociological texts. Let us compare these characteristics with those of a literary genre: the French «roman à thèse» from the beginning of the XX^th century. This old-fashioned and decried literature will serve as a driving bolt in order to demonstrate that a formalism sometimes asserted as scientific, does not guarantee scientific character, but just conformity to editorial requirement. To conclude, if the difference between sociological these and novel is not embedded in the text itself then, what eventually make its «scientific nature»? May be just the fragile conditions of its production and reception: debate and criticism of the sources if effectively implemented. But is this always the case?     

De la carte au territoire: Portée et usages des outils cartographiques au sein de la Première Nation des Pekuakamiulnuatsh Entrevue avec Michel Nepton,membre de la Première Nation des Pekuakamiulnuatsh et conseiller en aménagement du territoire

From map to territory: Scope and uses of mapping tools within the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation Interview with Michel Nepton, member of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation and land use and planning advisor While the mapping of Indigenous territories has long been at the heart of land-grabbing strategies orchestrated by the colonial powers, these tools are now largely mobilized by Indigenous communities through the processes of claiming, negotiation, and affirmation. The specific context of land claiming in Canada has also contributed in a significant way to the increasing use of these tools by communities seeking to demonstrate their historical occupation of land. In any case, the translation of Indigenous knowledge into exogenous geographical language remains subject to criticism and caution, particularly by the tenants of critical mapping. In order to shed new light on these issues, the following interview was conducted with the land use and planning advisor Michel Nepton, working in the Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan Land rights and protection board (Council of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation, Mashteuiatsh). Bringing forward his experience and use of mapping tools within his professional practice, his thoughts reveal the role and scope they have in the specific context of his community.     

Communities and archaeology under the Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat,West Indies

Abstract

The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what Maria calls a “traumascape”—a site of tragedy and catastrophe that is also a place of coping and resilience. How Montserratians engage with trauma is evident in how they remember their recent and historical pasts, and in how they are reinventing aspects of their heritage in order to sustain a distinctly Montserratian identity for the future. Such a process of coping presents challenges for conducting archaeology in collaboration with the community. In this article, we describe the experiences of a recently established project on the island (Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat) and discuss the potential for, and the obstacles involved in, developing longer-term, sustainable forms of collaboration between archaeologists and local Montserratian communities when facing the unusual circumstances of volcanic disaster and hazard.