Contenu du sommaire : Critique de la famille

Parenthood : A question of life or a question of survival ? The article looks at the varying forms taken by parenthood in different societies, past and present. It examines how it belatedly came to be defined by Lewis Morgan, in the context of our modern societies, in terms of an aristocratic and genetic conception, thus establishing a model which Lévi-Strauss unintentionally took to an aporia. Against such a schematic conceptualisation of parenthood, the article posits the material and sentimental links which grow from the responsibilities assumed for the material and educational needs of minors by « parents » devoid of any genetic link to those who are dependent on their care.

Family Forms in Modes of Production. Marxists expand the mode of production concept to make room for family forms, situating them in the daily and generational production of labour power. Family forms are active elements in the constitution and development of modes of production, above all because they are central to the production of people and their capacities for work, compliance and resistance. Our focus is on the turnover phase of the cycle when offspring reach adulthood, marry, join or form households, and begin to procreate, while their parents retire and die.

Some remarks on the genealogy of family morality. The article addresses the general problematic which is at the heart of the Genealogy of Family Morality. It seeks to give a precise answer to two very general questions : how did the family come to be the lynchpin of the overall system of the instruments of reproduction of the social structure ? Is it possible for us to address the « family » conceptually, outside the categories which would seem to predetermine both its ordinary and the academic representations, and which impregnate all aspects of the social order ?

Men in the family : conceptual categories and real practices. The article examines some of the conceptual categories currently prevalent both in contemporary French society and in the sociology of the family, relative to the changes in gender relations. It seeks to evaluate the gap between the hypothesis which forms the basis of such conceptualisations – the supposed change in masculine practices – and the actual reality of social reproduction, as evident in the gendered division of labour within the family. The article draws on the evidence about the domestic and parental work carried out by men to be found in national surveys of time-allocation carried out in France and Holland.

Equal parents ? Resistances of men... and reticences of women. Till the 1960s, social practices matched more or less the legal frame, staging a hierchical family with the complementary roles of the breadwinner and the housewife. Dramatic demographic and political changes have lead to a redefinition of parent roles. But this redifinition has remained largely confined to representations and symbols. The shift from a vision of gender complementarity – in the representations of parenthood – to a vision of gender equality seems to come to a halt in front of the deep belief in the « incommensurable » difference between genders.

How « the Father » became the cause of the pathologies affecting the family. When, in the 1960s, fathers lost their control over procreation and their control over women and children, some cracks started to appear in the edifice of patriarchal domination. There followed a reaction in which all the disorders today troubling the order of the family came to be traced back to this eclipse of the father figure. From this there emerged a veritable « State psychological apparatus » whose aim was the sanctification of the traditional domestic functions : the father as the figure of authority, the mother as carer. Indifferent to its social and historical dimensions, Oedipus assumed the status of a, presumably universal, « symbolic order », dominated by the father and master. MT here calls into question the entire conceptual order of Lévi-Strauss and Lacan : the idea that the foundation of power and reason is naturally a masculine prerogative. Above all else, the article calls into question the interpretation put forward by Pierre Legendre, which assigns to a (patriarchal) juridical order the task of structuring the psyche.

Marx and the accomplishment of philosophy. The goal which Hegel set for philosophy was the comprehension of the life of the universal Mind, till a point was reached where the real would itself be comprehended as the rational. This ambiguous goal was to result in the scattering of his philosophical heirs, some of them becoming idealists and others realists. The latter adapted the following singular programme : to cause philosophy to descend from heaven to earth. PM here recapitulates the story of this lineage, starting with the figure of Cieskowski, tracing it through the figures of Hess and then Feuerbach. Marx's decision to take the actual development of social relations, as the object of his philosophy, resulted in the programme which he named as « historical materialism » and led to Capital.

Late Marx and Capital. Thanks to the work on the second MEGA, we have now a clearer idea of what Marx actually did between 1867 and his death in 1883. He studied and wrote a lot, not only notes and extracts but also n a series of new manuscripts for what should become volume II and III of Capital. These manuscripts show us Marx becoming aware of the still unsettled problems of his critique of political economy – like the problems involved in his theory of money and in his theory of agricultural rent. They also show us the very modern combination of a sophisticated theoretical mind and an empirical and historical researcher that Marx actually was.

Dictatorship, a form of government. In that they generalise overriding procedures, measures against terrorism actually put fundamental liberties on hold. Emergency measures are given legal status. Such shift leads to a new kind of regime in which the executive power takes on the attributes of legal power, dictatorship. This turns out to be the most appropriate form of government in an imperial structure, with the US executive setting up emergency measures and inscribing them into the Law.

War and the future of the international order. For the members of the Bush administration, the clash between the USA and the UN over war in Iraq would appear to have weakened or irrevocably discredited the UN. Luigi Ferrajoli argues that, on the contrary, the conflict actually signals a revival of the UN, after a period characterised by its servile submission to imperialism. Thanks to the current international situation, and secure in the knowledge that world opinion supports its stance, the UN, by its refusal to countenance the invasion, has for the first time demonstrated its capacity to comply with the pacifist stipulations of the United Nations, giving them the force of international law. While the author does not draw conclusions which are entirely optimistic, he does however consider that the outcome of the invasion has modified the relative strength of the two opposing parties : the US and the movement of resistance which has gained expression worldwide.