Contenu du sommaire : Façades institutionnelles

A Government's Unity Facade. A Case Study of a Municipal Coalition Government. This article uses the notion of facade in order to show how a coalition government succeeds in presenting itself as a unified institution. This facade is part and parcel of the municipal institution. It is a stake in the struggle between institutional actors, particularly because it contributes to frame their relationships. Our reflection relies on an empirical study of the Left Union ruling coalition of the French city of Calais from 1971 to 2008.

The Building-Up of a Legalistic Front in a Repressive Context. The Anti-Colonialist Communist Activities During the Algerian Conflict. This article analyzes the ways in with part of the French communist party leaders gradually built a legalist façade during the Algerian War between 1954 and 1956. These leaders did so in order to avoid the repression, to join the political arena, and even to protect an electorate pro “Algérie française”. The process of adopting this legalist facade has been progressive, and imposed to the party members, in particular to those who wanted to contest the Algerian conflict in a more radical way.

The Convent as a Regime of Truth. Orthopraxy and Orthodoxy in the Dominicain Order in France After World-War II. This article sets out to analyze the Dominican convent as a particular regime of truth, in which knowledge and power are inseparable. This choice allows to measure all the implications of the convent in the reproduction and the control of the Dominican Order. The convent is a space where a particular kind of monk who can tell the religious truth can be created. As such, the convent is the instrument for the perpetuation of orthopraxy and orthodoxy. In the context of post-war characterized by many contestations of the priests lifestyle, the religious standards of the conventual life have been mobilized to assess and exclude religious deviants.

A “Good” Mayor. The Making of the Mayoral Façade in a Big City. Journalists of local newspapers picture mayors as relentless municipal officials, both men or women with a field experience and a technical ability to study projects. This idealization results from the constraint of electoral mobilization and may be analyzed as the making of a façade according to which the mayor is active, efficient, and serving the inhabitants. This façade is made of frames that define positively the municipal reality and are adjusted to the mayor's electoral interests. It emerges from the public performances of the mayor and his or her auxiliaries, that allows positive journalistic comments, and requires control over the members of the municipal majority and the administration.

So Close, and Yet So Far”. Upward Mobility, Social Distance and Links to the Group of Origin in France, in the United States and in India. This article discusses the way in which people who experience upward social mobility attempt to preserve links with their group of origin. The analysis draws on 150 interviews conducted in France, in India and in the United States among people from modest backgrounds who have achieved prestigious occupational positions. After discussing how difficult it is to define the “links” with the group of origin, we outline a typology which shows that the nature of the links with the group of origin can vary widely. One major observation stands out : upwardly mobile Indians claim to conserve concrete links more frequently than French and Americans do. The links Americans and French claim to preserve are indeed far more often based on their narrative identities or on what can be called “memorial practices”. They put great efforts in convincing themselves of an “inner continuity”, while Indians are more concerned with being physically present among their group of origin, and thus demonstrating their loyalty to the members of their former group.