Comment réorganiser le réseau postal suisse? Une application de l'aide à la décision territoriale

How to reorganize the Swiss postal network? A case study of spatial decision making‐support. This article presents a case study of spatial decision making‐support in relation to the Swiss Post and its efforts to reorganize the postal network in eight Swiss cities. The first part of the article describes the methodology and highlights selected original elements used in the processing of geographic information (spatial analysis and multi‐criteria analysis). The second part, more analytical, examines the process used to apply the method defined in the previous section. Based on a constructivist approach of decision‐support, it explores the modes of interaction between available information and decision makers. The analysis shows that the decision maker is relatively difficult to identify since the decision making process includes a set of partial and dependent decisions that are taken by a diversity of people. In conclusion, geographic information played an important role, not only on the decision, but mainly in allowing decision makers to better understand spatial complexity     

Territoire et actions collectives atikamekw nehirowisiwok dans l'espace médiatique québécois: légitimité politique ou persistance d'une vision coloniale?

The reception by the media of Indigenous peoples' political actions raises the issues of the discourses and representations at work in the public space. This paper examines how the Atikamekw Nehirowisiw Nation, their territorialities and political actions are represented by French‐speaking written media in Quebec. What are the discourses mobilized to apprehend the issues related to their land claims and contestation? By mobilizing a corpus of newspapers' articles published between 2000 and 2015, this study underlines the coexistence of opposed discourses. On the one hand, a colonial conception remains, reinterpreting the legal and historical legitimacy of the Atikamekw occupation and claims on the territory. On the other hand, the presence and reproduction, particularly through the words of Indigenous leaders, of an accommodating discourse towards Atikamekw's political actions cannot be ignored. The cohabitation between these two discourses highlights different sets of representations, emphasizing the ongoing colonial imaginaries in Quebec.     

Les corridors maritimes stratégiques dans l'Arctique canadien : un programme adapté au tourisme marin ?

The melting of summer sea ice in the Canadian Arctic allows for better accessibility and therefore increased development of marine tourism. This paper highlights a significant increase in cruise ships and pleasure craft in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago since the 1990s, especially in the strategic areas of the Lancaster Sound and southeast of Baffin Island. Based on spatial analysis, cruise ships and pleasure craft were mostly sailing inside the primary corridors and outside the secondary corridors; this is particularly obvious for the fourth secondary corridor of the western Arctic. Moreover, marine tourism activity related to cruise ships or pleasure craft occurred within a distance of 15 nautical miles and beyond the outer limit of a corridor, whether primary or secondary. The Northern Marine Transportation Corridors Initiative is an important tool to manage marine traffic in the Canadian Arctic and we need to continue to encourage its development through a multipartite approach and taking traditional Inuit knowledge into account.     

Mapping the desert: Arthur Rimbaud,Charles de Foucauld,and the Société de Géographie, 1884–85

This article focuses on two disparate figures in the French colonial period in Africa, the ex-poet Arthur Rimbaud and the ex-soldier Charles de Foucauld. Between 1883 and 1884, each lived in Africa in self-imposed exile of a sort, and undertook rigorous exploration of the region to which he had relocated himself. Both composed reports on their regions of the ‘dark continent,’ and both reports were submitted to, and recognized by, the Société de Géographie back in Paris. The two geographical texts – Rimbaud's Rapport sur l'Ogadine and de Foucauld's Reconnaissance au Maroc – are watersheds of life-writing, as much as they are representations of colonial Africa observed by Frenchmen. Through comparing the two desert narratives, and considering the two authors' African lives, I argue that the process of writing about the desert actually evokes the essential character of each writer's voice, a voice to which he only found access in the desert. Finally, these voices in turn provide valuable information about the relationship between France and Africa, colonial force and colony, and about the various forms of resistance to each of those roles.     

Is nationalism left or right? Critical junctures in Québécois nationalism*

ABSTRACT. Sub‐state nationalist parties of the industrialised West occupy different positions along the left–right political spectrum. Despite the similarities of their political agendas, these parties adopt different ideological identities. This paper seeks to explain the choice of party position and the long‐term consistency of these positions by employing a path‐dependent perspective. The focus is first, on the critical junctures during which such choices are made; and second, on the mechanisms of continuity ensuring the persistence of the left–right identities. The argument is explored within the empirical context of Québécois nationalism.     

America's Protégé in the East? The Emergence of Poland as a Regional Leader

Following the events of September 11 Poland has emerged as one of the key allies of the United States—arguably its protégé in east-central Europe. The close affinity of interests on security matters between the two states became even more apparent in Afghanistan and then more recently over Iraq, where Warsaw has proved to be a strong and highly vocal supporter of Washington's stance. The overall context to this is provided by the growing divergences between the US and Europe, but especially within Europe, towards the situation in Iraq, which has prompted endless commentary based around notions of 'old Europe' and 'new Europe' and 'American power and European weakness'. This article will reflect upon these debates and explore Poland's position within them by addressing the notion that Poland is becoming a regional leader. The 'instinctive' Atlanticism within Poland's strategic culture drives Warsaw's security policies and is evident across a range of examples. Focusing on the missile defence initiative and ESDP as key issues where there has been a clear set of interests between Poland and the US, it will be demonstrated that Warsaw has always opted for Atlantic as opposed to European solutions and institutions to meet its security needs. A question remains, however, as to whether Poland can continue to be America's protégé and whether Warsaw has the political will and capacity to assume the role required of it by the US, or a regional provider of security in the longer term. This article proposes that to assure this, Poland's eastern policies require not only a more focused and consistent line but also that its security thinking needs to be 'modernized' and should be led by a 'security' rather than a 'traditional defence' rationale reminiscent of the pre-1989 era.     

Des coquillages… outillages des Ichtyophages? Mise en évidence d'industries sur Veneridae,du Néolithique à l’âge du Fer (Yémen,Oman, E.A.U.)

From Yemen to the Arabian/Persian Gulf the coastal societies of Arabia developed an industry utilising bivalve shells (Veneridae). From the Neolithic to the Iron Age these shells were transformed into knives or scrapers, the latter sometimes having a characteristic notch. The majority of these tools are manufactured from the left valve, probably selected by right-handed people. The shell tools are very standardised and did not replace stone tools; they were probably intended for specific and complementary uses. In Arabia this industry constitutes a specific element of the material culture of the Ichthyophagi .     

Civilisation et Naissance de l’Histoire Mondiale Dans l’<Emphasis Type="Italic">Historie des Deux Indes</Emphasis> de Raynal

In the Histoire des deux Indes, the concept of civilization applies initially to the making of modern Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire, in which the commerce does much to promote the civil and political «enfranchisement» of the third-estate in sovereign states. For Raynal, this historical experience of Europeans serves as paradigm, based upon which he depreciates the civilization of the ancient empires of the two Indies, and also elaborates various political proposals for transformation, or even for abolition, of the European colonial empires. Thus, universalizing the political structure of modern Europe, and pursuing the realization of civil and political liberty in diverse modes, he announces the advent of historical and political space of the modern world, composed of nation-states against the background of the global commercial networks.     

The Middle Pleistocene argali (Ovis ammon antiqua) assemblages at the Caune de l'Arago (Tautavel,Pyrénées‐Orientales,France): were prehistoric hunters or carnivores responsible for their accumulation?

The argali (Ovis ammon antiqua) assemblages from the Middle Pleistocene site of the Caune de l'Arago (Tautavel, southern France) were studied in terms of zooarchaeology and taphonomy. It is possible to discern palaeobiological information lost during fossilisation, as well as the palaeoethology of the bone collector, by the observation of taphonomic details preserved on the bone assemblages. The observations leave no doubt that both humans and carnivores were involved in the accumulation of argali carcasses in the cave. In some assemblages, the type of bones found in articulation and the gnawing marks observed are characteristic of carnivores. In other levels, the intense fracturing of the major limb bones in relation to their marrow content and mineral density, and butchering marks found on specimens in the earlier levels, are in favour of human accumulation, the modalities of which are discussed. The results suggest that the degree of carnivore activity seems to have been higher in levels M, N and O than in level F. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extraits de la Semaine de Synthèse <Emphasis Type="Italic">Civilisation. Le Mot et L’idée</Emphasis> (1930)

Sans résumé éric Brian est directeur d’études à l’école des hautes études en sciences sociales. Marie Jaisson est ma?tre de conférences à l’université de Tours.