Contenu du sommaire : Souffrances paysannes

When explaining suicide among farmers, the media tend to focus exclusively on economic factors. This paper argues that adopting a more comprehensive approach to the issue highlights other conditions of production of what might be termed “social suffering”. It is suggested that the structural imbalance between the prescribed and actual organization of work causes mental pain among farmers. The paper argues that amid increasing pressure to demonstrate greater autonomy and self-realization, farmers may not have the same social resources for developing a positive self-image. Research shows that an unequal distribution of economic and cultural capital and capital of autochtony leads to increased suicidal thoughts.

The effect of work on mental health has been a matter of much debate since the wave of suicides at France Télécom in 2008 and 2009. Surprisingly, however, the case of farming is rarely discussed despite the prevalence of work-related suicide among farmers. The purpose of this paper is to explore this paradox by examining psychosocial risks (PSR), the prevailing category in current attempts to assess work-related mental ill health. As a measurement concept, PSR rejects any notion of agricultural activity as anxiety-provoking, explaining suicide among farmers by reference to non-work-related causes. The paper examines the implicit assumptions of a quantitative approach ill adapted to agricultural work, arguing that the approach implicitly defines farming in terms of what distinguishes it from industrial (or even Taylorian) work. The paper shows that focusing on farmers provides an insight into the link between “work” and “mental health” – a link overly generalized in current discussions. At least in this respect, the farming profession is thus returned to its rightful place in current debates.

Drawing on a comparative study conducted between 2009 and 2011 aimed at understanding the impact of agricultural policies on the mental and social health of milk producers in France, Switzerland and Quebec, this paper proposes a new hypothesis to explain suicide among livestock farmers in Franche-Comté, France. Using a qualitative and interpretive approach, and based on data collected among three families recently affected by suicide, the study found a correlation between the relationship to knowledge among farmers and attempted suicide. Though rarely used among French sociologists with an interest in suicide, the method proposed in this study highlights unexpected variables that add to the knowledge provided by quantitative research, thus opening new avenues for research.

This paper examines the results of a field study designed to understand the impact of the implementation of the second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy in France. The findings highlight a close relationship between the new types of business entities in farming and the changing status of women within the profession. Having long been confined to the status of “farmers' wives”, women today have become “farmers” in their own right. A study based on interviews performed in six rural areas reflecting current national trends and issues shows that the development of new farming entities (GAEC, EARL, CUMA) has increased the visibility of the work of women within the profession. However, it is argued that the various types of business entities that have emerged in recent years provide only partial social protection to women farmers who contribute to the family business alongside their husband. In short, despite playing a major role in changing the face of the profession, women are not always viewed in the same way as their male counterparts.

The premise of this paper is that learned societies seek both to sustain specific modes of sociability and to produce erudite work. The study focuses on the Comité flamand de France, a learned society founded in 1853. The interest of the society is that between 1890 and 1910, its sedentary work meetings gradually morphed into itinerant study sessions – a shift bridging the fields of the regional intellectual community and rural elected officials. Research indicates that the excursions of the learned into political strongholds resulted in incursions of politicians into the world of erudition, a process that led neither to the politicization of the learned society or to the submission of decision-makers to experts. Their symbiotic relationship enabled the learned and elected officials to maintain their symbolic domination over rural populations at the time of the cultural Frenchification of French Flanders.

The Songhai Empire in the Western Bilad al-Sudan reached its territorial, economic and political apogee in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Despite low rainfall linked to an arid tropical climate, agriculture in the region benefited from a key environmental factor: the Niger River. The flood plains of the Niger provided land well suited for grain farming – hence the diversity and abundance of crops conducive to trade, a major source of wealth. This explains why successive emperors – who were also the largest landowners – paid particular attention to agriculture and used slaves to cultivate their land. The resulting income was sufficient to sustain their main sources of support – the army and the Muslim intelligentsia.

The Grassfields of Western Cameroon are an open frontier promoting the mobility of people and factors conducive to the emergence and constant recomposition of sacred kingdoms. Each kingdom has its own ancient and totalizing currency issued by the monarch. A variety of forms of currency are in circulation in the regional space of the Grassfields and subcontinental areas, proceeding from a common relationship to the regional ecumene. Based on the approach developed by Jean-Michel Servet, the example of the Grassfields provides a basis for addressing various theoretical issues related to the monetary institutions of local societies and regional society as a whole, open totalization, and the relationship between debt, trust and sovereignty.