Contenu du sommaire : Espaces politiques au féminin

The use of the plural is a precaution to approach the question of gender-differentiated or gender-specific political arenas since in terms of gender, issues are far from being settled. In this paper, we ask what tools are at our disposal to analyse these types of objects and how do we use them. At a time where all sciences seem to converge around identical questions, is the paradigm of male domination heuristic or erroneous? We state here that the theoretical framework of male domination is different from the primary idea, the « mème » of a domination of women by men, essentially nourished by a reduced vision of sexual roles. The political arena will be envisaged in terms of a battlefield where genders are but a tactical positioning in a more global strategy for accessing power. In this perspective, women as well as men have an interest in male domination and its propagation. If the political arena is gender-specific, then it is masculine and intends to remain this way.

The number of women in Lionel Jospin's government was particularly remarkable, in comparison with previous governmental staffs. Does it mean that the governing style was feminized? Is there really a womanly way of governing, as it was said and written by journalists and by the Prime Minister himself? To answer these questions, the functioning of several ministerial cabinets was analysed and some semi-directive interviews were conducted, especially with ministers' speechwriters. The main conclusion that has been reached is that gender is a much less deciding criterion/factor than « androcentered » variables in the political and governmental experience.

Actors' ability to mobilize the gender in politics is variable and dependent on conditions in this domain. The first application of parity in the 2001 municipal elections in France constitutes an interlude within which the feminine virtues are intensely celebrated and embedded in the theme of the local action. Except this inaugural context –localized and depoliticized – gender quickly loses of its value in the political speech. The later conditions, associated to the absorption of the equal reform by the political game-plan, contribute to the disappearance of the operations of communication which are as much constructions of the gender in politics.

The representation of women politicians in the newspapers depends on a group of naturalized principles. The political area, dominated by men, affiliates male features to the figure of the political entrepreneur, and women's representation tends to refer to their traditional role in the domestic universe. Women politicians in France, who still remain scarce on the highest positions, and in the context of the settling of parity law, benefit from the newspapers interest in them. However, women's representation, whatever their investment in the political area is, depends on a large basis on the convocation of gender stereotypes and on the staging of “womanhood”.

In this article, we propose to take seriously the emphasis placed in September 2002 on some would-be new female figures on the political scene, the “wives of…”. Our first point concerns the narrativisation by the media of the three leading ladies of this group (Bernadette Chirac, Cecilia Sarkozy and Sylviane Agacinski). Later, we propose to analyse the social causes which allow these narratives to become possible through positioning the question in the light of its interactions with the context given by the law concerning equal representation in politics (« la parité »). Finally, we will consider some new readings of the political field and of political enterprises which become, as a result of our study, legitimate concerns.

Because she was the elected president of « Maisons des Potes » national federation (december 2000), founder member of movement « Ni putes ni soumises », Fadela Amara takes part in the building of the representation of women's movement in the French public space. Equally, the specific contribution of some politicians and journalists to this construction shows that « Ni putes ni soumises » set one's sights on another space than associatives and behaves now like a political trend.

Gilles Gauthier responds to the reactions generated by his analysis of constructivism in journalism. He will begin by characterizing constructivism by two fundamental theses: the epistemological perspective or cognitive anti-objectivism, which suggests that knowledge is not a matter of suitability to reality, and the meta-ontological perspective or ontological scepticism which calls for a suspended judgment with regard to the existence of reality. The author will then discuss this constructivism's incompatibility with journalism by establishing that: journalism is necessarily linked to reality; journalistic construction depends on a given reality; objective discourse in journalism is possible; journalism follows an ethical standard of reality.

Dedicated to fieldwork and experimental methods, these « Exchanges » give word to five researchers from psychology – for Thierry Meyer – psychosociology – for Robert-Vincent Joule – and from communication and information sciences – Françoise Bernard, Vincent Meyer, Stéphane Olivesi. Stéphane Olivesi places fieldwork on the side of mythology, as for him, its uses and legitimateness are set in academic field. In return, Thierry Meyer exposes his thought on external validity in experimental approaches, pleading for an enlargement of this reflection to other methods, supposed to be less suspected to be far from reality. On their side, Françoise Bernard and Robert-Vincent Joule discuss the interest of integrating a methodology issued from psychosociology in « communication engageante » applied research, and Vincent Meyer presents the possible benefits of the method of the scenarios. These contributions bring into question what experimental methods imply, what kind of obviousness is linked to fieldwork, and what independence – or loss of independence – researchers are faced with in research contracts. For communication and information sciences, these papers enable us to go forward in the reflection on the genealogy of the relation to fieldwork and on experimental methods, genealogy that could lead to enforce their position in social sciences.

This paper intends to question a settled obviousness in the domain of human and social sciences: the field. It will seem to show that this convenient reference conveys a real mythology of which we have to question at the same time the form, the function and the involvement in the ways to conceive and to practice research, but also to impose a certain idea of it. So argumentative strategies based on the practical experience are analysed in order to objectivize their inherent social logics. More generally, this paper tends to question the status of empiricity in the works of research.

This paper relies upon a synthesis about empirical research applied to interest and public concern communication issues. It therefore deals with a double enlarged disciplinary vision of information and communication sciences supported by experimental methodology, on the one hand, and by social psychology and « involving communication » known as the paradigm of « communication engageante », on the other hand.

In psychology, experimental research is currently mistrusted about the generalization of results and models (external validity). Classical criteria of external validity are reviewed. External validity is either focused on experimental context itself or on process based models. External validity is discussed as a necessary step toward a dialogue between disciplines and methodologies within the field of communication.

The journal Questions de communication has already devoted a few pages to the origin and description of the analytical procedure which has been used in different research works about the method of the scenarios. According to the expression which is now sanctioned by use, this method is presented as a projective and participative methodology which is applied to sample surveys performed in the domain of human and social sciences. In the present work we intend to examine this definition thoroughly by questioning the projective logic guiding the elaboration of the scenarios, given that it sometimes connects the situations suggested by the researcher with simulation methods. In this way, we hope to prompt the debate about a possible experimental nature of this recent technique for carrying out sample surveys.

During the last third of the 19th century, the news in brief column takes its final shape. This section is the most read and the best memorized. It opens up new horizons on the way small and big disruptions in people's lives are understood and interpreted. In its way, this column shows people's state of conscience and sensibility. The short news items are inhabited by a double objective: on the one hand to spread information and to give a ruling on behaviours'normality, to soften attitudes. As an informative literature, it establishes the principles of the narration in the media, i.e. a show of the world. There is no difference as regards the very nature of tiny stories which fill up the popular press of the Third Republic, nowadays scandals and reality shows. However, just because it helps people forming an opinion, because it fuels up dreamed or real exchanges between the man in the street, the press, the French institutions, it works as a means of social production. Around 1900, the figures of modernity – uncontrollable mechanics, dehumanized cities, new types of crimes embodied not only by gangs and hooligans but also by figures of female criminals and child murderers –, these figures of modernity take more and more space in the panorama of anxiety and aspirations. In so doing, the news in brief column highlights a certain number of questions linked with a social upheaval: an increasing presence of foreigners, a change of relationships between people of both sexes, new behaviours of the youth and the role of the machine. It also aims to normalize social attitudes.

It seems that sports are everywhere today in advertisements on billboards and television in France. This communicational and social acceptance is particularly interesting when social relations with bodies are analysed. Here, the example of dirtiness receives particular attention using a broad corpus (N= 500 billboard ads, 70 TV ads). Careful distancing of any dirtiness characterises advertising messages when sports are involved. This distancing is analysed using the theories of Norbert Elias, Erving Goffman and David Le Breton. Sports advertising appears spotless and odourless.

Most of organizations (firms, associations, institutions, lobbies…) are today convinced of the necessity of communication. The case of the « Assemblée des Départements de France », which defends the interests of the French departments, exemplifies this fact, but also attenuates its pertinence. In fact, the ADF communicates « more » and « better » than several years ago, but the mediatic output of this strategy is very feeble (the visibility and the image of the departments remain very poor). However, the institutional position of the departments is (for the moment) preserved. It seems that it is not always efficient, and not always useful, to communicate in a massive and professional way towards the media.

Our aim is to put together, as a first approach, what the ICS and contemporary neo-institutional economics provide as tools to help decipher deliberative experiences in a small group. Section 1 (« Communication and Deliberation ») examines the dynamics of deliberation, the role of culture, signs and reason as tools, and the production of meaning. Given that deliberation is a process of exchanges, section 2 (« The Economics of Deliberation ») calls for neo-institutional schools to analyze the relationships among institutions, culture, cost of transaction, information and the emergence of exchange. A deliberative group possesses a culture which, as it is the case for the social group, both elicits and comes from exchanges. To communicate is to share and to live communally, which implies that a deliberation is more productive of meaning when the group is culturally locally circumscribed, since transaction costs are lower.

This paper results from a qualitative study conducted in March 2004 in Japanese universities and questions the disciplinary recognition of Media and Communication studies in Japan. It encourages our Western mind to look further and measure Asian patterns of thought and communication. It also points at the Japanese tendency to acculturate sciences.

Many commentators (journalists and social scientists) are convinced that expertise in political communication in France has an « inventor », Michael Bongrand and a « founding moment » the 1965 presidential campaign. The majority of communicators are nevertheless far from agreeing on this and the few indicators which are available forty years later are a long way from corroborating this with certainty. Definitively, the assertion must be considered an act of categorisation or even as an act of institution, certainly still under discussion, but one which allows a professional group to inscribe itself in its history and its modernity.

This text is a review of literature published during the last decade about Silvio Berlusconi's political career. It explicits obstacles of social sciences in front of what has been called « Berlusconi phenomenon ». First of all it is not easy to identify a clear border line between scientific and journalistic productions. Moreover disciplinary approaches have difficulties to include the various dimensions of it: politics, society, media, communication, economy. This structural complexity is a major epistemological problem for disciplines separated from each others which tend to artificially cut out the reality. This analysis logically leads to an exhortation in favor of an interdisciplinary approach. Refuting the common sense (Berlusconi's success is mainly due to his media control) is a great benefit of this strategic choice.

Based on Pierre Bourdieu's general field theory, this study shows that marabout power is able to relativize or even to challenge the mediatic and politic autonomy, particularly in Senegal. The outline of Senegalese situation is drawn based on the « strength » of marabout power, its consequences on social actors'behavior and the rule that it is imposing on the mediatic field (journalistic self censorship), although the attitude of medias starts to change.