Le territoire englouti de Mologa

The fate of the people of Mologa, a provincial village in central Russia, was forever marked by two consequences stemming directly from a single major event when the Rybinsk dam went into service in 1941. Not only did the waters of the lake it created cover their homes, but ene entire population was displaced as well. From then on, the inhabitants' new-found mobility was assimilated to the attachment to their territory, which on a symbolic level constituted their collective identity. In this sense, their forced displacement was incorporated into a culture of mobility: based on the spatial overlaying of individual and collective identities, it expressed its true dynamic nature in the principle of a potential return. The case of the community of Mologa is in many ways emblematic of the Soviet redistribution of populations; the bond between identities (personal, familial, or collective) and a territory seems to have been constructed in such a way that the displacement, rather than putting this bond into jeopardy, established or activated it. It did this by stimulating a living relationship within the spatial dimension. This dialectical movement between distance and return contributed to the formation and the preservation of a communal identity taking the form of mobility.     

La mobilité quotidienne de banlieusards vieillissants et âgés: Déplacements, aspirations et significations de la mobilité

Les premières banlieues pavillonnaires nord-américaines sont problématiques pour le vieillissement à domicile. Malgré la dépendance à l'automobile, les banlieusards âgés aspirent à y vieillir. Plutôt que de déménager, ils adaptent leur quotidien et leurs déplacements. L'accès à la mobilité est un enjeu majeur au maintien d'une expérience résidentielle positive, notamment pour les individus en perte d'autonomie. Or, parce qu'elle est étudiée avec le concept de déplacement, la mobilité des aînés demeure mal comprise en tant qu'expérience individuelle et collective. C'est dans cette optique que les pratiques et les significations de la mobilité quotidienne de 87 banlieusards âgés de 55 à 82 ans de l'agglomération de Québec au Canada sont ici étudiées. En croisant des méthodes quantitative et qualitative ainsi que des techniques d'analyses spatiales, l'article développe une typologie de mobilité pour explorer les stratégies d'adaptation des aînés à leur environnement socio-spatial. Les résultats montrent que, sans véritablement entrer dans un processus de décision, les banlieusards choisissent implicitement de vieillir en banlieue en adaptant de manière continue leurs modes de vie. La conservation de l'indépendance et l'attachement au «mode de vie banlieusard>> sont à la source des aspirations résidentielles. Cette mobilité quotidienne en transformation risque aussi d'influencer les trajectoires résidentielles, alimentant les réflexions sur la requalification de ces milieux vieillissants.     

Functional specialization across space: a case study of the Canadian Electricity Industry, 1971–2001

This article examines the location of functions within the electricity sector in Canada from 1971 to 2001, using a centre‐periphery model. Power generation, distribution and retailing are generally carried out by multiestablishment crown corporations. Location patterns of different functions—management, scientific, production, etc.—are analyzed via the use of occupational groups. The spatial distribution of functions is found to be generally consistent with centre‐periphery relationships, with evidence of a growing functional specialization between large metropolitan and nonmetropolitan locations. However, differences emerge depending on power generation sources: fossil fuels, hydro, nuclear, solar or biomass. The choice of a power generation source has consequences for local economies.     

4. “KEEP THAT WOMAN OUT!” NOTIONS OF SPACE IN TWENTIETH‐CENTURY FLEMISH WITCHCRAFT DISCOURSE

This article considers the importance of a spatial dimension for witchcraft research, which has so far been largely neglected. In twentieth‐century Europe people in certain regions still considered their world in terms of witchcraft; they attributed misfortune to bewitchments and usually blamed their neighbors. Here a part of Flemish‐speaking Belgium is investigated with the help of legend texts collected in the 1960s. The witchcraft discourse that informed these texts did not just contain formulations of space; sometimes it also determined how people negotiated space. In this part of Flanders, witchcraft was embedded in Roman Catholicism; monasteries were the favored destinations of all those who considered themselves or their family members bewitched. In order to find cures for bewitchments people undertook hazardous journeys of considerable distance and found their efforts hindered by the witch they sought to counteract. The measures against evil influences that they were given were meant to consolidate the boundaries between their own (private) space and the (outside) space where witches roamed. Bewitchments were generally blamed on women. In the contemporary patriarchal social order, both public and domestic spaces were nearly always under men's control. This is why bewitchment was caused less by transgressions of male‐defined boundaries than by infringements of bodily spaces such as by eying or touching somebody else's children. This suggests a different approach to female space based on notions of proximity.     

THE “THEORETICAL REVOLUTION” IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY: FROM THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL IDEAS TO THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL LANGUAGES

This article intends to clarify what distinguishes the so‐called new “politico‐intellectual history” from the old “history of political ideas.” What differentiates the two has not been fully perceived even by some of the authors who initiated this transformation. One fundamental reason for this is that the transformation has not been a consistent process deriving from one single source, but is rather the result of converging developments emanating from three different sources (the Cambridge School, the German school of conceptual history or Begriffsgeschichte, and French politico‐conceptual history). This article proposes that the development of a new theoretical horizon that effectively leads us beyond the frameworks of the old history of political ideas demands that we overcome the insularity of these traditions and combine their respective contributions. The result of this combination is an approach to politico‐intellectual history that is not completely coincident with any of the three schools. What I will call a history of political languages entails a specific perspective on the temporality of discourses; this involves a view of why the meaning of concepts changes over time, and is the source of the contingency that stains political languages.