Contenu du sommaire : Faire autorité en religion

The Imam, a Cleric without Clergy or Church : the Repertories of Authority Concealed within Frameworks of Interaction. This article raises the issue of the repertories of authority mobilised by imams in France, who are clerics whose legitimacy is neither based on doctrine nor guaranteed by membership in a centralised, established ecclesiastical hierarchy. It demonstrates in particular how the distinction between insiders and laymen (and the influence of the former over the latter) is nourished in places of Muslim worship in France by the specific religious capital of the imams as well as by the order of interaction that characterises their main repertories of action in situ.

Albert-Marie Besnard, a Master Surpassed by His Disciples. The Mystique of Generating and Subverting Forms of Authority at Le Saulchoir Dominican House of Study (1964-1968)Transformations in ways of imposing the clerical habitus in seminaries have been identified as one of the causes of the crisis that affected the clergy during the 1970s. This article examines the role Albert-Marie Besnard played in these transformations. He adopted a militant empathy for the aspirations of the student brothers in his charge and, at the same time, used a pedagogical approach that empowered and freed them from his authority. In attempting to legitimise the Dominican institution in the eyes of the students, he in fact legitimised their challenges and helped to profoundly redefine spirituality and the Dominican life style.

Intellectuals at the Synagogue
Based on research at non-orthodox synagogues in France in the 2000s, this article looks at religious authority as it is produced through the interaction of faithful. In each synagogue, signs of deference and admiration distinguish a small group of religious experts, whose characteristics vary from one synagogue to the next. The study shows how this expertise is produced by local systems of socialisation and by the critical relationship that the members of these synagogues maintain with Orthodox Judaism.

Changes in the Exercise of Episcopal Authority in the Catholic Church in France in the Light of the Condemnation of Action Française. This article re-examines the changes in the exercise of religious authority in the Catholic Church in France in the light of the condemnation of l'Action Française in 1926. The condemnation took place in the context of a centralising evolution in Church authority in favour of the Roman Curie. The new role played by the pope as well as Rome's explicit expectations of French bishops in charge of applying sanctions left traces of the transformation in the exercise of episcopal religious authority.

Allocation of public funds and the participatory budget of lycées : the rules of the game and deliberative practices. Through a study of the rules and deliberating practices at work in the participatory budget of lycées, this article analyses the processes for legitimising and accepting public expenditures. The observations made in the study emphasise ambiguities in the modes of constructing the general interest that prevails in this type of participatory system : while an abstract general interest is embodied in the process of cooperation to control public spending, changing the rules of budget allocation also leads to widening legitimate interests and therefore to strengthening the decisions to be made.

Internet and Ethnographic Method : the Use of Instant Messaging in Field Surveys
This article begins with fact : social science researchers today can no longer do their work without using the Internet. Yet very little effort has been made to adapt the qualitative method to this medium. By focusing on instant messaging, it aims to show the possibilities for ethnographic fieldwork opened up by this technology and describe a few of its uses.

This article is based on a long-term ethnographic study carried out in the early 1970s in the Californian branch of the Buddhist movement Nichiren Shoshu. It describes the frameworks of interaction and certain interactional strategies that were adopted at « discussion meetings » organised by the movement to promote its philosophy and shows how they were used to encourage individuals initially outside the group to agree to recite their sacred scrolls and register in the movement.

This article is based on a long-term ethnographic study carried out in the early 1970s in the Californian branch of the Buddhist movement Nichiren Shoshu. It describes the frameworks of interaction and certain interactional strategies that were adopted at « discussion meetings » organised by the movement to promote its philosophy and shows how they were used to encourage individuals initially outside the group to agree to recite their sacred scrolls and register in the movement.