Contenu du sommaire : Figures de l' « auto-émancipation » sociale (II)

Roland Lew, Social Emancipation : What is Said, and What is Done Any consideration of the problem of social emancipation must focus upon how a goal of autoemancipation was attempted by the organization of those to be emancipated. The big question posed by the nineteenth century for the twentieth century is whether the will and the organization for the emancipation of the socially oppressed expresses a perception of depossession or of nonpossession. The Bolchevik model, which dominated throughout the century, placed the emphasis upon a substitutionist logic which, in fact, prolonged the tendencies already developed in the nineteenth century.

Zellig Harris, Intervening in the Historical Process The eradication of exploitation of man by man requires the collective action of the exploited themselves to achieve direct decision-making power in all social activities. From this point of view, the control of production is central. Political and economic strategy must promote every action which increases this control from the bottom up, while tactics must support any attempt to create an infrastructure corresponding to such efforts.

Serge Latouche, Alternative Strategies of Social Outcasts in the Age of Globalization : SELs and the Informal Economy SELS (systems of local exchange) and neo-clanic economies are forms of dissidence which are also forms of resistance to the globalization of the economy. The central principle of these forms of solidarity is the gift. For most of their participants, the social bond is more important than any material consideration. Social security takes priority over economic gain.

Nestor Capdevila, Utopie or Ideology ? Studying the ambivalent relations between ideology and Utopia in terms of the different definitions of the word « Utopia » enlarges our understanding of Utopian thought. Each usage of the word involves a judgement which articulates the possible, the desirable and the real. The example of Fourier is particularly eloquent in this regard. To conceptualize Utopia is not to determine an essence, but rather to construct a space where conflicting conceptions are encountered.

Nasser Etemadi, Limits and Contemporary Relevance of the Idea of Civil Society The relevance of the idea of civil society is shown in the struggles for « new spaces for liberation ». Contemporary debates about the nature of civil society revolve around critiques made of the contributions made by Hegel and Marx to the modification of social perceptions which in turn contributed to modern principles of civil society. The central idea is that associative relations imply a certain civility without which civil society would not have any emancipatory potential.

Antoine Artous, The Modern State and Theories of the State Contrary to Weber, Marx did not construct a systematic theory of the modern state. However, contemporary sociologists would do well to reread Marx in order to understand how its creation involves the reorganization of society. The modern state is a form of political power which is radically different from precapitalist forms, including the French ancien régime. Nevertheless, the various writings of Marx pertaining to the states must read with discrimination.

François Vatin, Tarde, Coumot and the End of Time This paper proposes a new interpretation of Gabriel Tarde's science fiction novel published in 1896 and titled "A Fragment of Future History" (English translation published in 1905 as Underground Man). Influenced by the philosopher Augustin Cournot, Tarde imagined a world where the extinction of the sun forced a realization that time is finite. This realization of the possibility of collective death evoked in Tarde's novel may have influenced the emergence of sociology at the end of the nineteenth century.

Philippe Corcuff, New Sociologies, Anthropologie and the Ethic of Emancipation : Programatic Paths Through the application of the ideas of Karl Marx, Michel Henry and Emmanuel Lévinas, certain aspects of the constructivist sociology of Peter Berger, Thomas Luckmann, Pierre Bourdieu, Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot and others can be clarified. Analysis, on the one hand, of the norms of social justice used to measure injustices and inegalities and, on the other hand, the level of dissatisfaction relative to them, leads us to a definition of the political philosophy called libertarian social democracy.

Michel Kail, Models of Emancipation and Critiques of Them In presenting certain classic models of emancipation, it is necessary to highlight the inadequacies of how they consider the articulation of the real and the norm, which is at the center of any emancipatory project. The presence of these insufficiences can be attributed to some degree of essentialism.

Alain Brossat, Apology for the Witness In what way can our time be defined as the « age of the witness » ? The witness is situated at the juncture of exceptional historical events and the transmission of their memory. As a survivor, the witness assumes an impossible responsibility : to speak in the name of historical victims. This is an impossible mission, from which he or she cannot escape.