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Death seizes the living The minute one starts talking about words designating institutions or collectivities, such as State, Management, Church, Family and so on - teleologically self-defining subjects, one is reducing history to a confrontation between social forces which are at once mechanical and anthropormorphic (as we talk about the concept of an 'Apparatus'). It is this selfsame historical outlook which disposes a good many historians to conceive of historical research as a seeking-out of origins and responsibilities. As a frequent result, they transform the ultimate aims of history into the definable ends of historical actions. In order to offset this machiavellian view and this teleological illusion, it is necessary to recall that the essential purpose of institutions and of their effects on society does not reside in the 'will' of separate individuals or groups but in conflicting or complementary force-fields. Historical effect is the end-product of the clash between two different states of history ; objectivized history (in the form of machines, monuments, books, theories, customs and so on), and embodied history (as attitudes). It is equally possible to apprehend this dialectic between socially-inspired attitudes and social positions in that ill-defined sector of the social structure where professions are being constantly renewed, as it is in that far more regulated and rigid sector that is bureaucracy. Since everything that has been (i.e. history) is inscribed within things and within bodies, with every day of a power-that-be's active influence there increases that factor of irreversibility with which would-be revolutionaries must contend ; a phenomenon corroborated by what we find in post-revolutionary situations, where reified, embodied history acts as a barrier against the implementation of revolutionary aims. The fact of recognizing this heaviness of reified history does not automatically mean that one is submitting to it. Freedom does not lie in trying to conjure away these patterns of dependence but in being aware of them in order to be able to act in the light of a full knowledge of the facts.

The social history of specialized education. This study analyses the social and academic profiles of those specialized teachers who joined the profession between the years 1965-1975. The spread of socially-oriented professions is to a large extent linked to the emergence of new vocational aspirations concerning the choice of profession. These new aspirations originated from the upheavals in the 1950's within the educational System and, as a corollary to this, the changes in the relation between academic qualifications and professional outlets. However, in order to better understand the reasons which prompted many young people, mostly from the middle classes, to embark on a specialized teaching profession, we must take into account the relevance to this development of the specifics of that area of teaching concerned with maladjusted children. This «digression» is essential if we are to account for the lines of opposition which still constitute the basis of its organisation and to explain its dynamic nature as an institution in its own right. Equally noteworthy are its propensity to produce and implement fresh concepts, in notable opposition to the State Education System which, by contrast, appears an 'inert' System. It is this meeting point between new Systems of aspiration -linked, in the main, to a fresh way of defining oneself in relation to the legacy of inherited social positions- and the rationale behind the development of the old institutions for the 'underprivileged classes' which is at the basis of the myriad changes of course which transmute, and have transmuted, a static and inert background of institutionalised philanthropy into material for educational experimentation.

The social upbringing of a novelist : the case of Eugene Sue. In this study on Les Mystères de Paris by Eugène Sue, we attempt to determine the reciprocal effect of the social image produced by one work of litterature on the overall literary output of its author. A serialised novel written on a day-to-day basis and published over more than a year, Les Mystères de Paris bear the stamp of its readership. The many letters received by the writer as his serial was brought out were, in a manner of speaking, integrated into the very fabric of the novel by the author, through the comments and factual hints these letters contained. The fact that Sue took into account this feedback from his readers brought about a shift in the writer's political stance ; a Legitimist* Dandy turned «socialist intellectual» through having accepted the role of spokesman. assigned him by the petty and middle bourgeoisie. Along with this came changes in the work itself which, starting off as a picturesque novel exploring the seedier side of Parisian life, changes into a programmatical catalogue expounding social reforms. So here we have an invaluable document relating to the philanthropical vision of society in the nineteenth century, and one which illustrates the shift from a notion of 'Old Regime'** -style social assistance to a more modem one and «scientific» one. * Legitimiste : one who adhered politically to the elder branch of the Bourbon family. ** A translation of the French l'Ancien Regime, the system of government prevailing in France prior to 1789.

Moral education within families. Infant care specialists* are marked by a great diversity of social origin and social and academic backgrounds, although the majority of them are women belonging to socially up-and-coming families and, more often than not, church-going Catholics. They make up a professional group, still low on professionalisation and often ill-distinguished from related social professions. The nature of their activities, still bearing a heavy imprint of their charitable origins, is not subject to a great degree of regulation. The miscellaneous quality of their recruitment is to a large extent a root cause and an effect of the conflicting claims of two sectors ; care (hospitalization) and prevention (maternity welfare and child welfare). These two sectors are composed of agents who are in conflict not only by social class origin but also by their 'world outlook' and the way they conceive their calling. Among these agents we find, on the one hand, members of the traditionnalist fractions of Catholicism - the daughters of a declining middle-class or the daughters of the lower middle-class peasantry. Politically, socially and professionnally conservative, they mean to limit the scope of their professional activities to the exercise of paramedical care and take their cue from the principles of the most traditional version of Christian charity. On the other hand, we also corne across members of the modernist fractions of Catholicism ; trade-union affiliated and more politically conscious, they are the daughters of the mainstream middle-class which has made its way through Personal merit and promotion. Although relatively under-qualified, they attempt to lay down an alternative definition of their profession as Infant care specialists - one centred on psychology and aimed at exerting some positive educational influence on the families themselves. * Not to be confused with 'Child Welfare Workers', who are government-paid agents of the public health authority.

Industrial accidents : a note for future research Most studies deal with industrial accidents as a datum for which they seek the causes, these causes being more often than not immediate data relating to the actual working situation or to the properties of the victim. But, as legal history reminds us, the very definition of the industrial accident is an economic and ideological crux in the context of the class struggle. Therefore, a study in this particular field would start off by focussing on the ways and means whereby industrial accident legislation was established as a social factor, and would then look at the way in which «industrial accidents» are constituted and accounted for as far as statistics and the Law are concerned.

Hostels for the homeless. The way in which immigrants are housed is a sad reflection of our attitudes to the immigrant condition and reveals dertain basic facts about the immigrant, or rather certain basic facts about the immigrant such as we have made him. The 'immigrant worker hostels' chief characteristic is that they are a form of emergency accomodation, built on a temporary basis for men who have corne over in urgent circumstances ; men who will remain temporary residents and who are without their families. This institution is without any specific legal provisions ; it is effectively neither a hotel, nor a form of furnished lodging. It sets itself up as a community whereas it is merely a grouping-together of individuals or groups of individuals eut off from one another by major differences in their paths of previous experience, the way they got where they are, and by the social background to the trends of national emigration of which they are part. A hostel which is populated according to the dictates of an administrative machine which takes into account only the individuals as separate entities stands in the same relationship to those furnished appartments or rooms taking people of established acquaintance, coming from a same area, often linked by ties of kinship, as does the H.L.M.* type of housing, a place for collective accomodation-, to the shanty town - a true community environment. The hostel sets apart the residents from one another within its very confines, and isolates them from the rest of the immigrant population rather than helping to bring them closer and unite them. In addition, it imposes the adoption of a life-style which is not al way s accessible to all its residents. * H.L.M. Habitation a loyer modere : high-rise low-rent accomodation, a rough equivalent of the British Council Estate.

The relation between language, the body and politics. Observations carried out in Guadeloupe of Adult Literacy classes in Creole clearly show the close links between language and body. The predominance of French, the written and spoken language of the colonizers, over Creole is also passed on in its influence on the body, as demonstrated by the gradual shift in the pupils' relationship with their own bodies on learning written Creole. This language apprenticeship is also, for the natives of Guadeloupe, a means of recovering their social identity.