Contenu du sommaire

Luc Boltanski : The positional field : the multiplicity of institutional positions and class habitus. The problems raised by such a technically simple operation as census, according to the position within the social structure of the members of the Academic staff of the Institut d'Etudes politiques of Paris, lead to considerations about multipositionality as a socially conditionned ability to hold simultaneously several social positions in one or different fields. After examining the methodological implications of multipositionality in relation to the elaboration of the survey samples dealing with the ruling class, i.e. « elites », the author attempts to determine the nature of the social structure created by multiplicity of institutional positions and thus, the type of habitus necessary in order to adopt behaviours consistent with needs objectively inscribed in each position they occupy. Finally, by an analysis of law vocabulary which institutionalizes the distinction between the agents and their social positions, we have tried to specify the functions filled, in the ruling work, by the multipositionality, by comparing the structure of the ruling class produced by individual's positional multiplicity with the formal model (illustrated by the cast system) of societies in which each agent is assigned to one and only one institutional position.

Philippe Besnard : Durkheim vs. women or the incomplete Suicide. The strange and contradictory interpretations given by Durkheim of the female suicide ? women are excluded from the anomie theory ? are related to the fact that his theory of suicide is uncompleted. In particular they are at the origin of the change in the intellectual frame of reference which occurs in Suicide, an equilibrium model taking the place of a happy medium model. This also explains why Durkheim paid so little attention to « fatalistic suicide ». A reexamination of the durkheimian analysis concerning the influence of marriage and family on suicide shows that Durkheim had at his disposal the necessary data to support a consistent theory of suicide that he progressively abandonned and eventually rejected.

Noëlle Gerome : The discrepancies of the Primary School Administration. Considerations about the centralization process. This article deals with a clinical study of the administrative functioning of an educational system. Its main purpose is to show the actual traits of the French School Administration in relation to the Central Administration proceeding from the political institutions, and to the specific requirements of the Public Education Service. The survey concerns 4 French départements. The analysis of the activities of the Managing Board of the Academic Inspectorship enables the author to determine the functioning of the School Administration. The survey data stresses the role of the existing connections between the Central Administration of National Education and the Departmental Administration. The comparative analysis brings out the important variations in the functioning of the School Administration among the different Départements. More- over we note substantial discrepancies between the actual set-up of the administration apparatus and the regulation procedures. The patterns and origin of the organizational power and the former traits of the Administrative functioning vary as well. The analysis of the institutional practice of a school administration in a given departement gives an unusual representation of it. However, in spite of the administrative diversity, there is little variation in the schooling achievements. Can we thus consider the patterns of administrative practice as elements of a lexicon taken up in regard to their ability in a given circumstance to convey a given information, with a freedom of choices and combinations ?

Jean-Michel Chapoulie : On the sociological analysis of professional groups. Based on the anglo-saxon studies and exemplified by the French academic field, this article analyses the conceptual congruity and the empirical validity of the theories related tho the professional groups. It deals in particular with : 1° The functionalist studies which define the concept of profession on the basis of cultural traits. 2° The approach made by other sociologists who study professional groups through one of their social manifestation. 3° The symbolicinteractionist approach which mainly studies the individual's professional social relationships. Finally, the article suggests another approach to the study of professional groups which would analyse their objective relationship to the class structure, i.e., the social functions of different groups, the social origin of their members and their social and professional mobility.