Contenu du sommaire : Sociologie du «local» et «relocalisation» du social.

Bernard Ganne Industrial Conflict and Change in Local Relationships : Case Study in Annonay. Taking interest in local phenomena is not looking back upon the past ; it is congruent with a new type of relationships, within local communities, between economic and political actors. This is the conclusion drawn by the author from a study of a conflict in a small town : there, the closing of a tannery has led the workers to fight to maintain their jobs ; and by and by, the local actors, who were acting each in his sphere on a regio¬ nal or national level, got involved and began to interact locally. This new team won the following local election. For this study, the author trespassed the established frontiers between urban and industrial sociology. He had to do it, in order to perceive these new local relationships.

Nicole Mercier and Denis Segrestin Workers in their Local Communities. Two Case studies. Two plants, two local communities, two industrial conflicts. None of these factories lives according to the pattern of «industrial culture» or of the marxist class struggle. Yet, they deeply differ. Each one is in a narrow symbiosis with the local community in which it is settled. The deviations from the industrial pattern can be explained by the different kinds of symbiosis. Had the plant or the community been studied separately, this analysis of social relationships could not have been conducted.

Robert Cabanes Identities in a Local Community : Limoux. The author is an anthropologist : he lived for a year or more in this small town in the South of France. Among other things, he inquired about the voluntary associations. Here, in a subtile way, he shows the interplay between the community, acting as a symbolic place, sup¬ porting the social identities of its members, and the voluntary associations, numerous and vivid. Some associations appeal to this symbolic commu¬ nity and get its protection when they are threatened, others go and attest this identity outside. In this constant interplay, the local identity is reinforced. However, the rules of the game are very strict. Any association which does not obey the rules is doomed to failure. These rules tend to limit social segregation and competition for social status in social acti¬ vities ; and so doing, they tend to reduce conflicts. Is this specific local culture unie in France ? It is now threatened not only by external forces, but also by its own success. How will it cope with these ?

Nicole Eizner and Hugues Lamarche Barre-des-Cévennes : The New Start of a Local Community. A deep and repeated observation of social life in a village led the authors to apprehend an unpredicted change. They propose an explanation resting upon the economic crisis, which discourages to find jobs in town, and upon the impact on the village of the 1968 urban ideology. This ideology gives value to the village, as providing a natural, non-corrupted, non-polluted physical and social environment, and an emotional and total social integration. The villagers, adaptating to this ideology after the urbanités, rediscover the value of what they were on the point to give up, and again make plans for their future in the village.

Patrick Prado Intended Spaces, Experienced Spaces : People from here, Authorities from elsewhere : the Kervanenec Housing Estate. For ten years now, the author has been studying this Housing Estate, in a city suburb. He analyses the discrepancies between the authorities views on the life in the Estate (planners, builders, voluntary associations leaders, or town elected staff...) and the social relationships as experienced by the people living there. These discrepancies raise questions regarding social work : its ideology, its adequacy, and the ways the inhabitants may choose to avoid it, escape from it, resist to it...

Ariette Apkarian-Lacout and Pierrette Verges The Irresistible Rising of the New Middle-Class against Communist Hegemony : Martigues. In spite of the growth of the middle class employee categories (foremen, technicians, upper white collars, teachers..), the communist Party, on local polls, keeps and reinforces its power. The new middle class has entered into an alliance with them on a local basis, but keeps voting for other parties (S.P.), on national or regional polls. Through this alliance, the middle class can bend the communist Party actions. In this context, it is the only way for them to build and impose their own social identity.

Pierre Verges Approach of social Classes in Localized Analysis. In the Marxist debate on social classes, theories and observations are out of phase, as much so when one is interested in the middle classes. P. Verges suggests to analyse these classes locally : by a more elaborate study of their position in the production process, and on the other hand, by initiating a survey of their local political alliances. This approach would throw a light on a good many variations of the origins and political behavior of these classes and on many hazy generalizations. The author builds up his proposal from the preceding study on Martigues and from his own study on Manosque.

Jacques Lautman The Deliberate of Unintended Renewal of Local Societies. The challenge of a heavy Research Program on local communities in which he has responsibilities, has led the author to raise questions on this tendancy of French society to rediscover the local communites they had forgotten for more than a century. For the author, this trend does not come from the deliberate action of greatly expanding voluntary associations, but rather is the unintended result of central government decisions in city planning or urban affairs.