Contenu du sommaire : Solidarité publique et solidarités privées

Public solidarity – the beginnings, by Léon Bourgeois. The concept of Solidarité emerged among progressive circles during the French Restoration. This article traces the process that resulted in the shift of this concept from the natural and social sciences domain to the political sphere. Léon Bourgeois, a radical Prime Minister under the third Republic, instigated this change in 1896. He formulated a political doctrine (“Solidarism”) based on the irrefutable fact that all individuals were interdependent and therefore subject to mutual obligations. This model, combining socialist and liberal ideas, was a possible challenge to both the unbridled liberalism and emerging collectivist ideas at the time. Today, this liberal-democratic mix has yet to find its place in public solidarity policies at both national and international level.

National solidarity, history and meaning of a legal concept`/titreb
This article will contribute to current debate on both past and present perceptions of national solidarity in the French legal system. The concept of national solidarity emerged at the end of the 19th century but it would appear that its force of conviction has waned over the years. The expression has now become somewhat hackneyed in that it is used to either play down the impact of certain events at national level or to justify unpopular policy. The vaguely defined term of “national solidarity” can no longer serve as a blueprint for action by French legislation. Because of its inaccurate formulation and the political context within which it is adopted, reference to national solidarity in many legislative texts have only limited scope – indeed, they may even be unusable from a legal point of view.

How solidarity is changing – statistics relating to economic and welfare restrictions and the emergence of generational-based justice`/titrebThis article aims at understanding changes to the angle taken by the INSEE publication Données sociales when covering health and social welfare issues. It describes the diversification process of the forms of public solidarity and justice that are used to assess social services. From the 1970s onwards – in this publication – solidarity was viewed as a corrective justice of average income for socio-professional categories (Catégories Socio-Professionnelles – CSP). After 1980, the employment crisis led to the reconfiguration of the statistic angle and there is an increasing tendency to measure the relation between salary restrictions and the financing of social welfare. This same crisis has also produced new forms of social justice based on an assistance or generational-based approach.

Measures against non-take-up – possible resistance expected from the social work sector. At the instigation of the Multi-Annual Poverty and Social Exclusion Programme (Plan pluriannuel contre la pauvreté et pour l'inclusion sociale), organisation of measures against non-take-up is underway. This article draws attention to the fact that these measures may meet with resistance from social workers. A pilot programme implemented at local level by Social Action Community Centres (Centres communaux d'action sociale) showed that this resistance may not only concern the actual conditions of the programme but also – as seen in this example – the rationale behind the proposed measures. Two key questions are raised – the first one being the ineffectiveness of this type of social action. Indeed, measures against non-take-up could be interpreted as yet another escape route for social action, only serving to create even more demands upon social workers – not to mention more objectives to be achieved. The second question concerns a tendency to “customise” policies resulting in an accumulation of criteria and procedures for both professionals and users. This makes it impossible to take the expectations, criticism and right of refusal of individuals into account. This policy issue relating to non-take-up is at odds with how social workers view their profession and their role vis-à-vis their public.`np pagenum="065"/b`np pagenum="066"/b

Predictable failure of the measures against “excessive personal debt” in France ? A form of social assistance – viewed from a sociological angle. Personal financial debt levels of a population provide an indicator of on-going hardship and insecurity. By the end of 2013 in France, commissions set up in 1989 to stabilise the level financial debt had received over a million requests. Despite heavy legislation aiming at maximum deleveraging, a growing number of groups of individuals are still struggling to manage their everyday finances. This article will make a critical assessment of public policy measures introduced to tackle excessive debt in France. It will go on to argue that, the legal and social approach to the issue of personal debt has, in reality, contributed to its failure – from a solidarity point of view at least.

Personal guaranteed microcredit system – a new form of social solidarity to successfully tackle poverty and social inclusion ? Over 44,000 individuals deemed ineligible for a bank loan have already benefited from a microcredit. Although it was introduced at the end of 2005, this system providing loans (capped at 3,000 euros) and personalised support is still in the experimental stage. This original solution – not quite a market commodity and not quite social assistance – involves different stakeholders such as credit institutions, associations and social services and sometimes requires them to operate – and co-operate – in different ways from their usual approach. Public policy has the key role – that of implementing the guarantees provided by the Social Cohesion Fund (Fonds de cohésion sociale) where the principle of solidarity prevails over that of pooling risk among borrowers. Based on the findings of a study (2,000 microcredit-applicants and 350 professionals included) updating the impact of this system on borrowers as well as its limitations – in terms of social support in particular – this study questions future organisational and economic choices regarding the development of this system and their consequences – depending on whether a commodity or solidarity based approach is adopted to this hybrid tool.

The economic crisis and the transfer of family wealth to young adults – the “discreet charm” of distributive injustice. Assistance or solidarity within families is emerging today as a solution to the “unsustainability” of public spending and to the consequences of the economic crisis. The current crisis has an overall impact on family transfers, which have reached a peak in countries known for their “familist” systems. The SHARE Survey, which compiled data on dix European countries in 2007 and 2011, was used to measure the impact of the economic crisis on the transfer of tangible assets (money and cohabitation) from parents to their young adult children as well as the inequalities that these transfers maintain among the younger generations. In the countries most affected by the crisis, family assistance has intensified in the first ten years of adult life, thereby widening the gap among European countries. The extent to which households are affected by the crisis varies as do the resources they possess to face these circumstances. As a result, inter-family wealth transfers are contributing to the creation of substantial inequality among young adults. In other words, this solution amounts to relying on inherited wealth to get a good start in life.

Philanthropy and its role in the fight against urban poverty. Overview of a case study in Boston. This article will examine a private initiative to combat poverty in a poor neigh-bourhood in Boston. The full significance of the study will be shown using a comparative framework, followed by a description of the measures taken by the philanthropic foundation involved. The cornerstone of “community organizing” is the involvement of its community members whereas this “third-party” initiative came from outside the district. The case study describes how the foundation operates and its mission statement. The article then goes on to analyse how the inhabitants – who participate on a voluntary basis – reacted to this particular anti-poverty programme.

Is there any point in training general practitioners ? A learning model and a professional model in difficulty. This article will review changes introduced into training for general practitioners in France. It will examine how these changes affected the creation of a “general medicine” specialisation on one hand, and the renewal of the health care service on the other. The article will rely on two main sources : the findings of a long-term ethnographic survey of general medicine teaching staff and the monitoring of a cohort of former interns now working as general practitioners. The first part of this article will focus on the design of this specific general medicine-training programme, which spearheads the pedagogical aspect. The second part will examine young doctors' reaction to this programme at the beginning of their careers – during and after their internships. The article also describes how the training establishments concerned dealt with difficulties stabilising these pedagogical methods and also providing a definition of general medicine in line with societal changes and the medical work market.

Self-employed workers with cancer – a threat to the survival of their businesses. When self-employed workers fall ill, their businesses may be in danger. The authors of this article wished to measure this risk in order to justify measures to provide financial support to self-employed individuals in this situation. To this end, they followed a historical cohort of 103,394 (self-employed) subjects over a period of eight years using the database provided by Régime Social des Indépendants (The social security scheme for liberal professionals – RSI). They calculated the risk of business closure for subjects suffering with cancer – regardless of the number of years they had worked and regardless of the pathology concerned. Self-employed workers suffering from cancer had a 22% risk of losing their business. But no increase was recorded for certain forms of cancer and in certain professions. For cancers lasting five years and more, no increase was recorded. Personalised medical care – taking professional obligations into account – is key. Inter-company work health departments, support services for disabled employee retention (SAMETH), the medical and social services of the RSI and the AERAS convention (Insurance and Loans with an Increased Health Risk) need to pool their resources to further improve the disparity of risk mentioned in this article. The challenge here is to obtain a clear picture of a self-employed worker suffering from illness.

Young disabled students and their access to working life – what statistical data can be used to measure this ? What conclusions can be drawn from currently available statistical data on the entry into working life of young disabled graduates ? The Génération 2004 Survey (Céreq, 2007, 2009) shows relatively different academic backgrounds and professional activities for these individuals. These findings, however, are limited in scope. Samples used illustrate the problems defining and approaching this category of disabled ex-students from a statistical point of view. In addition, the analysis of identified trends is hampered by the absence of certain indicators providing clearer understanding of handicap and social interaction experienced during third-level education and the subsequent period of transition to working life. This article will therefore present the results of a statistical analysis on both the professional future of young disabled graduates and the difficulty assessing this category using existing statistical apparatus.

Religious issues – infant educators put to the test. Based on the results of a national survey on the profession of infant educators, this article will examine how infant educators deal with the question of religion in the exercise of their profession. It will show in particular how the pervasion of religious practices in childcare and educational facilities for young children is handled by educators, as well as reservations expressed by these same educators when identity-based requests come from within the profession itself.