Contenu du sommaire : Les faits économiques

Jean Cuisenier : About economic action. Does economic action become intelligible, if one applies to the operations actually conducted, a single paradigm offered by a general theory ? This is the question which presents itself from the start, when one decides to build up a sociology of economic facts. According to Talcott Parsons method, one is able to integrate economic knowledge into a more general science, but one fails to account for specific economic processes. To provide for a better application of analyses, the plan of a sociology of economic facts has to be resumed in a new perspective, and attach itself by priority, to the study of operations which lend themselves to a double reading, depending on whether the orientation towards non- economic purposes predominates or not.

Pierre Kende : The optimum use of resources in a planned economy. After a rapid bird's eye view of documents and positions taken concerning the problem of optimum production in a socialist economy, the author decides to study the basic concepts implicit in every solution. This analysis takes into account the framework of an actual planned economy (Part I). In this type of economy, two determining factors weigh on production : the options of the central planner and the choice of the consumers. The former cannot determine any « optimum » ; the best level of production can only spring up in relation to a socialized process of « micro-choice ». It is this process that makes evident a « value » in the economic sense of the term (Part II) . The originality of the problem of « optimum » in a planned economy consists in the fact that the planner does not have a list of criteria at his disponal, for the making of decisions ; he «secretes» them himself. Optimum production is defined in reference to a group of objectives, of power and welfare (Part III). Netherveless there is a great obstacle to the right choice between the different means of production : the absence of significant prices. These prices do not correspond to the socially necessary costs, nor do they have the possibility of orienting the calculations of enterprises. It follows that « productivity » can only be compared within a given production unit while it escapes appreciation in comparison with one sector and another. However, it is the division of resources between sectors which decides the over-all productivity of an economy. Without solid criteria, the planner, faced with the choice of structural occurences, is forced to resort to expedients (Part IV).

Jacques Lautman : Speculation, factor of economic order or disorder ? What forms does speculation take ? What are the relationships between these forms ? Are entrepreneurs speculators and ? on the contrary ? can one say that speculators can be considered as entrepreneurs ? Has the improvement of economic information considerably modified the issue ? What is the particular place of real estate speculation which seems a riskless operation as long as the demand is both forseeable and wide ? What is the result, in this connection of the speculator's individual calculation ? Such are the questions asked in an article which, starting from general statistical data and hard to find published material, attempts to clarify the use of certain notions : speculation, uncertainty, industrial power conflict, urban planification. The first part deals with speculation on the stock market, the second part with real estate speculation .The conclusions are convergent and resume on a large scale those of Halbwachs which affirm how, contrary to a spontaneous sociology ? widely accepted even in administrative reports ? speculation is an essential element of economic action in our society.

Annie Jacob-Ory : Forms of employers organizations and the limitation of competition. Industrial competition is always defined conventionally ? or by rules which separate the authorized from the forbidden and determine the possible forms of struggle on the market. Economists ? are showing more and more interest in actual practices of competition. The first part of the study deals with the sociological contribution to this literature. In the second part, on the basis of a survey of 57 company unions, with a coded interview, the author tries to establish some ties between the economic conjuncture of the branch, the type of power the union has, and the specific contributions to the determination of competition which the union can make. Contrary to certain current ideas, the professional union has more power in the branches with a good economic situation than in those experiencing a recession. The homogeneous size of the firms is also associated positively with union power. In conclusion it seems that professional organizations play a limited role, but not a negligible one in competition practices.

Françoise Loux : The Economic behavior of workers in a rural setting. This article aims at showing the logical sequence of economic practices and attitudes, through material gathered in a representative sample of metal workers in a poorly industrialized rural area. The following items are studied successively : 1) how a low economic level brings about a limitation of the range of possible behavior in consumer habits and pushes the workers towards « traditional » behavior ; 2) in what measure an organizational change in the firm throws them back towards an individual attitude of refusing every change ; 3) how, even though being conscious of the national level on which their demands are based, the workers are nevertheless discouraged by « politics » on which they have no control. In this way economic professional and political behavior reinforce one another and linked with the low economic level, induces the worker to overvalue the past.

Christine Delphy : Patrimony or the double circulation of goods in economic space and family time. What is patrimony ? The institutions which use this concept, the economic and juridic arts and sciences, give a definition which is similar to the economic notion of « total possession ». In doing this, they integrate patrimony in the domain of exchange, while a sociological analysis of patrimony reveals that because of its specific nature it is excluded ? by definition ? from the « marketplace », and represents a means of circulation of goods which is outside of and opposed to the « marketplace ». What are the non-chronic factors ? requiring an historical study ? and above all the synchronie factors ? requiring a direct survey on family and economic behavior and attitudes in correlation with the local definitions of patrimony ? which may clarify this difference ?

Raymonde Moulin : Art and Industrial Society. The One and the Multiple. Multiple design implies the utilization of industrial techniques for creation, not just for reproduction. It also implies, the disappearance of the original, given the theoretically unlimited possibility of manufacture in series, of identical and interchangeable objects. Radically new in relation to the multiplication of forms used previously in the artistic field (reproduction of single works of art or of series products of pre-industrial techniques), multiple design modifies the social and economic status of the work of art (by reducing its rareness) . Nevertheless, even if the artistic object in series presents technical characteristics, it involves, as does the single work of art, the originality of not serving any other purpose than being what it is.

Françoise Fichet-Poitrey : Glory and money ? architects and contractors of the XVIIth century. The concept of glory in the 17th century, in as much as it constitutes an avowed motivation, demanded or sollicited by consumers, is situated between ostentatious consumption, munificence, and imitation. Glory determines the entrance of the different actors in the game : contractors or architects. However, on the level of the client's decision, the quest for glory comes into competition with other demands (profit or financial limits) . The different clients : the Royal house, nobility, clergy, municipalities, individuals, have their own logic. In order to understand how the relationships between architects and contractors are linked, one must understand how the cost of glory is achieved, what is the part of one or the other in the possible anticipation of expenses how can they weigh on the increase of glory. The statute for academician architects came out of the necessity to create a body of experts capable of judging excessive estimates. The contractor seems to be tied to a complex economic sub-group, the world of buildings, ruled by strictly sanctioned practices, the use of which permits certain connected commercial interest to infiltrate the milieu.

Benjamin Matalon et Agnès Pitrou : The utilization of attitudes in socio-economic research. This article tries to make more explicit the concept of attitude, by showing that one can give an operational definition ofit and that, under certain conditions, taking attitudes into consideration permits a better description or a better explanation of economic phenomena. Using attitudes, in this way, does not necessarily mean that one ignores or minimizes the role of sociological factors, but helps in interpreting their influence. This consideration leads to set the problem of the significance of the expression « group attitude » which has many possible interpretations.