Contenu du sommaire

Two hydroelectric dams in France installed on the River Sélune (Manche) are the object of a controversial dismantling project. A set of 515 articles published from 2001 to 2015 in two regional newspapers is explored using text analysis programs. The objective is to stress three dimensions of the public debate by reconstructing the geo-historical trajectory of the conflict. This involves identifying the arguments and action plans chosen by the stakeholders, assessment of the local consequences that the removal of both installations would have on the riverine communities. The results emphasize in particular that procrastination by decision-makers contributed to durable prolongation of the conflict. Negatively affected by any changes in their environment, some people feel a strong sense of dispossession typical for projects that could be interpreted at different scales. Attitudes held by stakeholders towards the project reveal the many different strategies of being in the world that exist and which focus on contrasting values.

Since the 90's, vulnerability indices have emerged as a leading tool to quantify and map the dimensions of hazards vulnerability. However, this quantitative approach is criticized for giving only a rather general overview of the situation, without rendering the complexity of the phenomena involved or the local context, because they are not always adapted to the changes in scale and seem dependent on the initial choice of variables. Moreover, the typical rationale for decisions regarding variable selection, analysis scale or method is based on simplicity or choices made in previous studies, and in many cases, no justification is provided at all. Furthermore, these quantitative approaches are almost never confronted to feedback and historical data for validation. On the other hand, empirical and qualitative approaches are useful for conducting ex post analyses, but it is not easy to make them operational: they seem to condemn us to wait for disasters to happen in order to advance the science. Hence, the literature presents a bifurcation between qualitative and quantitative approaches to vulnerability. This apparent disconnection between the two pictures given ex ante by quantitative approaches and ex post by qualitative approaches is a major scientific challenge. It is a problem when it comes to the definition of target populations and places for the different programs and to guide international action. Mapping and diagnostic tools tend to mobilize the same indicators or criteria beam, by transposing it from one territory to another regardless of the diversity of territories or scale effects. Also, they tend to focus on a likely snapshot, without considering that the most vulnerable individuals, social groups and place are not always the same during the unfolding of the crisis. These issues are discussed in the case of the vulnerability to floods, confronting qualitative, quantitative, French and Anglo approaches in order to enhance the robustness of methods.

The French-speaking population (bilingual, in fact) in the province of Manitoba is a small minority, trying to continue to survive against the process of English language assimilation for more than a century. In this historical and geographical context, each community makes specific changes and developments in order to resist and also develop its economy. Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes is a medium-size village (about 600 inhabitants) located in south-west Manitoba. Despite its size it provides a lot of services in an extensive low-density area, far from Winnipeg, the provincial capital. The local dynamism can be explained by traditionally vigorous activity and residents' demand for progress, linked to their history and collective territorialized representations, which are strong up to now. These are founded within a Francophone culture, providing consciousness and strategy to stay alive culturally. The situation nevertheless remains fragile.

This article traces back the history of "commuting" as a statistical object. The commuting category appeared in the 1930s and therefore experienced a growing importance in urban and transportation studies. This statistical category has existed for nearly one century with no change in its mode of production, but its uses and scope have considerably extended. This paper explains the reasons for this success and the Authors analyse the empirical and theoretical constructions that made it possible. During the 20th Century the commuting flows became the bases for metropolitan area definition and for transportation studies. How has the commuting category come to play such a dominant role in this field while it was never intended for this purpose ?