WikiLeaks,Anarchism and Technologies of Dissent

Abstract: WikiLeaks is a controversial organisation that attracts polarised responses. This is not unexpected given its key objective of exposing the secrets and social control ambitions of the powerful. While its supporters laud its pursuit of an informational commons, its detractors condemn its antisocial character, its megalomania—and its anarchism. It is the latter that particularly interests us here. This paper treats the “charge” of anarchism seriously, however, giving it the analytical attention it warrants. It does this by first identifying those characteristics of the organisation that would render it anarchist, and then to conceptualise what this anarchism means. It highlights two important elements of the WikiLeaks story: the anarchical character of the technologies it utilises to foment its dissent; and the anarchical ethos of the organisation's radical politics. We conclude by also considering the tensions and contradictions in WikiLeaks that temper both its anarchism and its social change objectives.     

Spaces of Belonging: Home,Culture and Identity in 20th-Century French Autobiography

ALEXANDRE, P., Les Patrons de presse. Quinze ans d'histoires secrètes de la presse écrite en France (1982–1997), Anne Carrière, 1997, 297pp., 120FF., ISBN 2 84337 010 8

ATKIN, N., Pétain, Longman, 1998 238pp., £13.99, ISBN 0 582 07037 6 pbk; £39.99, ISBN 0 582 07036 8 hbk

BALL, R., The French‐speaking World, Routledge, 1997, 228pp., £10.99, ISBN 0 415 12987 7

BATCHELOR, R. E. and CHEBLI‐SAADI, M., French for Marketing: Using French in Media and Communications, CUP, 1997, 350pp., no price indicated, ISBN 0 521 58538 X

BEZBAKH, P., Histoire de la France, vol. 1, Des origines à 1914, vol. 2 De 1914 à nos jours, Larousse, 1997, 512pp. and 570pp., no price indicated, ISBNs 2 03 507141 0 and 2 03 507142 9

B?UF J.‐L., Quinze ans de décentralisation, Problèmes politiques et sociaux, 787 Documentation française, 11 juillet 1997, 45FF., ISSN 0015 9743

BRETON, A. (translated by Mary Anne Caws and Geoffrey T. Harris with notes and introduction by Mary Ann Caws), Communicating Vessels, Bison Books, 1997, 159pp., $12.00, ISBN 0 8032 6135 7

CHARAUDEAU, P., Le discours d'information médiatique. La construction du miroir social, INA‐Nathan, 1997, 286pp., 129F., ISBN 2 978209 190

COHEN, W. B. (ed.), The Transformation of Modern France. Essays in Honor of Gordon Wright, Houghton Mifflin, 1997, 242pp., £15.95 pbk

DROUIN, I. Salauds de pauvres! Programmation d'un génocide européen, Infrarouge, 1997, 253pp., 80F., ISBN 2 9086 14 20 0

FEBVRE L. (présentées et annotées par Jacqueline Pluet et Gilles Candar), Lettres à Henri Beer, Fayard, 1997, 640pp., 250F, ISBN 2 213 59566 6

FLOWER, J. E., France Today,, 8th edn Hodder &; Stoughton, 1997, 248pp., ISBN 0 340 63093 0

FOURIER, C. (edited by G. S. Jones &; I. Patterson), The Theory of Four Movements, Cambridge University Press, 1996 328pp., £14.95, ISBN 0521 35693 8

FRIOT, B. and ROSE, J., (eds), La construction sociale de l'emploi en France, L'Harmattan, Collection Forum de l'IFRAS, 1996 248pp., 130F., ISBN 2 7384 4764 3

GARAPON, A. and SALAS, D., La République pénalisée, Hachette, 1996 144pp., 59F., ISBN 2 01 235230 8

GRUBB A., The Politics of Pessimism. Albert de Broglie and Conservative Politics in the Early Third Republic, University of Delaware Press, 1996 427pp., £42.00, ISBN 0 87413575 3

JACOB G., Une histoire du cinéma moderne, Ramsay, 1997, 255pp., ISBN 2 84114 287 6

KOFMAN, M., Edgar Morin. From Big Brother to Fraternity, 140 pp., Pluto Press, 1996 £10.99, ISBN 0 7453 0852 X

MARICOURT, T., Les Nouvelles Passerelles de l'extrême‐droite, Syllepse, 1997, 199pp., 120F., ISBN 2 907993 52 6

MILZA, P., Sources de la France du XX^e siècle (de 1918 à nos jours), Larousse, 1997, 789pp., no price indicated, ISBN 2 03 741022 0

MORI, J., William Pitt and the French Revolution 1785–1795, Keele University Press, 1997, 305pp., £17.95, ISBN 1 85331 137 5

MOURIAUX, R. (ed.), L'année sociale., Editions de l'Atelier/Editions Ouvrières, 1997, 240pp., 98FF., ISBN 2 7082 3270 3

NOIN, D. and WHITE, P., Paris, John Wiley, 1997, 286pp., £45 hbk., ISBN 0 471 94944 2

NORTHCUTT, W., The Regions of France: a Reference Guide to History and Culture, Greenwood, 1996 310pp., no price indicated, ISBN 0 313 29223 X

O'BRIEN C., Women's Fictional Responses to the First World War, Peter Lang, 1997, 204pp., £28., ISBN 0 8204 3141 9

PÉAN, P. and NICK, C., TF1, un pouvoir, Fayard, 1997, 695pp., 160FF., ISBN 2 213 59819 3

RHODES, M., HEYWOOD, P., and WRIGHT V. (eds), Developments in West European Politics Macmillan, 1997, 363pp., no price indicated, ISBN 0 333 65128 6

RUFFIN, A., Normandie 1939–1944: le Temps des Épreuves, Presses de la Cité, 1997, 335pp., 130FF., ISBN 2 258 04417 0

SCHMIDT, V. A., From State to Market? The Transformation of French Business and Government, Cambridge University Press, 1996 447pp., £55.00 hbk, ISBN 0 521 49742 6

SCOTT, J., W., Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man, Harvard University Press, 1996 229pp., £10.95, ISBN 0 674 63931 6

SHEPPARD, D., SPARKS, S. and THOMAS C. (eds), On Jean‐Luc Nancy. The Sense of Philosophy, Routledge, 1997, 219pp., £14.99, ISBN 0 415 14794 8

TULARD, J., Napoleon, le pouvoir, la nation, la légende, Le Livre de Poche, 1997, 153pp., 30 F., ISBN 2 2539 0534 9

WILLIAMS, J., S., The Erotics of Passage. Pleasure, Politics, and Form in the Later Work of Marguerite Duras, Liverpool University Press, 1997, 243pp., £14.95, ISBN 0 85323 501 5

WISE, H., The Vocabulary of Modern French. Origins, Structure and Function, Routledge, 1997, 256pp., £45 hbk, ISBN 0 415 11738 0; £14.99 pbk, ISBN 0 415 11739 9

WISEMAN B., and GROVES, J., Lévi‐Strauss for Beginners, Icon Books, 1997, 175pp., £8.99, ISBN 1 874166 625     

Heritage Noire: truth,history, and colonial anxiety in The Blair Witch Project

When watching the film The Blair Witch Project we seem to be witnessing through its clumsy, apparently uncrafted footage the unmediated documentation of 'reality' as it occurs. This article argues that the carefully crafted deceit of The Blair Witch Project may be understood as part of a subversive 'public history' project that uses modern history's own scientific motifs and methodologies against itself and challenges its basic tenets. If positive myths of the past are structured into what we tend to call heritage, i.e. shared narratives affirming a positive sense of self and region or nation, then this paper argues that The Blair Witch Project takes the same notion and subverts it, giving its chosen audience a dark and unsettling sense of its own history.     

The prefects and party‐state relations in Fascist Italy

Abstract

This is a study of the prefects, the arm of central government in the provinces, under the Fascist regime. Using the author's own survey of those appointed prefects after the decision to establish the ‘totalitarian’ state, it considers the phenomenon of the ‘Fascist prefects’ in relation to the progress of career officials, methods of recruitment and the prevailing bureaucratic culture, in order to assess the extent of the ‘Fascistization’ of the Interior Ministry. It then looks at how both career and ‘Fascist prefects’ actually operated on the ground and their relations with the Fascist Party in the provinces. The article concludes, on the evidence of continuing party‐state conflict throughout the 1930s, that there was a ‘totalitarian’ regime in the making.     

State Support for Higher Education: A Political Economy Approach

This research examines state support for higher education by first ascertaining the amount supplied and demanded of this service. The approach assumes that supply and demand occur simultaneously, and that each is affected by higher education spending policies among the states. We argue that enrollment is the most satisfactory proxy for both supply and demand. State policy is measured as expenditure effort. We estimate three time-series equations using two-stage least squares regression with data for the years 1986–95. In the final equation, supply/demand (enrollment) emerges as the strongest predictor of state spending effort. Commitment to higher education (effort) is also especially sensitive to variations in the number of employees (per student). Employee costs clearly are a major factor in fueling increases in state higher education spending effort. State per capita income exerts a negative effect on the final dependent variable. Poor states exert greater financial effort in support of their colleges and universities than do more affluent states.     

Literary and social criticism

John Docker, Australian Cultural Elites: Intellectual Traditions in Sydney and Melbourne, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1974, pp. xii + 182. $5.95, paper.