Contenu du sommaire

Georges Friedmann : The Kibbutz adventure and the challenge of the century. Consideration on Israel must deal directly with its pioneer institutions, the kibbutzim, agricultural production coorporations which were in the beginning strictly communalist and now number 220 divided into three principal federations. This bold experience finds itself today confronted with various difficulties, among which : indifference or hostility towards collectivist ideology of a society in full economic growth, pervaded with «occidental models» ; the moral isolation of the kibbutzim inside this « other society » which makes it necessary to recourse to salaried workers to insure a rentable exploitation of collective farms and their joint industries ; the « crises of moral values » of youths wary of all ideologies. The kibbutz mouvement is still strong but will only survive in the long run if it is adapted to economical and technical imperatives while maintaining its enthusiasm and remaining a living and formative Utopia.

Vittorio Capecchi : A method of classification based on enthropy. The author analyses the various solutions biologists have found to the problem of the classification of individuals characterised by a series of answers to dichotomic questions, and points out their value for the sociologist. He examines successively the methods of classifications based on the similarity of types of answers, on the differential selectivity of the questions and on the two criteria considered simultaneously. The proposed measure of selectivity employs technics derived from the information theory. The author gives numerical examples illustrating the last method, and compares the classification obtained with that resulting from the analysis of latent structures.

Carmel Camilleri : The representation of familial status and roles in groups of young Tunisian working women. In order to analyse the influence of professional activity on the traditional image of woman in the Moslem family, 79 lower-class Tunisian girls and women from 15 to 30, in Tunis, were asked to choose between 10 sketches, opposing modern and traditional representations. Typical answers were distributed between extreme traditionalism and extreme modernism, revealing two sets of representations, independent in the minds of the subjects : a modernist set concerning the moderate emancipation of the wife, the other, traditionalist, concerned with the mistress of the home and the mother. The level of the average attitude score of working women corresponds to the level of their professional categories. Work and education, significantly increase modernism but strongly influence only the first set of representations. Work is considered as degrading and as something that should be given up if it comes in conflict with the home. Birth-control and the recruitment of female workers both desired by the government, are connected with the second set of representations; hence the necessity of direct action upon the latter, work and education affecting it only in the long run.