Contenu du sommaire

(UN)CONFIRMED RACIST OFFENCES. A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE JUDICIAL TREATMENT OF RACIST HATE CRIMES IN THREE CRIMINAL COURTS. This article examines the judicial treatment of offences of racial aggression and the phenomenon of attrition, through an investigation based on the case files of 500 racial hate crimes processed between 2006 and 2015 in three criminal courts in France. It shows that a combination of factors produce a high rate of case dismissal for unconfirmed racist offences, based on a hierarchy of infractions and types of racism, the differential treatment of victims and defendants (according to age, sex, social class, ethnicity, etc.), and the paradoxical over-representation of minorities among the suspects. Despite the legal and institutional differences between France and the United States, both countries draw on relatively similar forms of administrative and social comprehension.

THE POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION OF ENGINGEERS AT WORK. TECHNOSCIENTIFIC WORLDVIEWS, PROFESSIONAL CAREERS AND FAMILY LIFE. This paper examines how work has impacted the political opinions of a small group of nano-technology engineers. It analyses how political worldviews are developed by members of the upper-middle classes, in this case technological professionals, and focuses on the linkages established at key moments of their process of political socialization. While the engineers interviewed expressed first being socialized to politics in their families (which were mostly right-wing leaning), they then distanced themselves from this heritage by acquiring a « technoscientific » worldview during their professional training which gradually influenced their understanding of politics. The careers of technological professionals can then take either a collective or individualistic turn, whether they orient themselves towards greater technical professionalism or aim for more managerial goals. These two career paths may subsequently nudge the political leanings of engineers to the left or to the right. Such orientations may be further confirmed or on the contrary challenged by the configuration and evolution of interpersonal networks, particularly on account of their professional or extra-professional components. Thus family life and friends can counterbalance or reinforce the political socialization that takes place at work.

THE MISSING « ISLAMITY » OF ISLAMIC FINANCE AS ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. OR, REDEFINING RELIGIOUS REFERENTS. At its core, Islamic finance ostensibly draws on a number of specific religious referents. This article shall nonetheless endeavour to show that since the early 2000s, this form of finance has counterintuitively been able to thrive in the United Kingdom – in large part because its « Islamic » nature was overlooked as it was institutionalised in the region. This shift was not in response to demands by British Muslims, though it ultimately targets them. Nor did it form part of the UK government's contemporary policy of « financial inclusion » ; British Islamic banks had no impact on secular laws, despite claiming to respect Shariah law. In reality, this transformation of Islamic finance corresponded to a desire for normalisation on the part of its advocates, who championed the universalist dimensions of Islamic ethics rather than a religious identity. As a result, a new form of « Islamity » was proposed.

FRONDE 2.0. FRENCH LEGISLATORS ON TWITTER. In this research note, we investigate the recent increase in individualism amongst French elected legislators, which we define as the mobilization, by parliamentarians, of personal political capital and their embracing of dissident stances, even when this runs afoul of the party line. We examine the rise of parliamentary individuation through the use of voting records from the 14th French legislature with a view to assessing party discipline. Moreover, we investigate the ideological positions of legislators by looking at the tweets they published on Twitter during the 2017 political campaign. Contrary to what recent studies have argued, we find that the individuation of legislators remains minimal and that most forms of dissidence can be interpreted as the consequence of shifting party lines. We therefore conclude that despite shifting partisan allegiances, most French legislators continue to espouse the positions of their party.