Contenu du sommaire

Gérard Lemaine and Benjamin Matalon : The struggle for life in the scientific city. The authors call « scientific city » the closed world of research. They show that this city is based on competition and a system of rewards ; it compels its members (the « actors ») to make themselves acknowledged by their peers. They must become « visible », which is only possible through divergent or original behavior. The concern for being visible, leads to differentiation, ranging from institutional and cognitive schisms, and the construction of a new paradigm, to a superficial originality bearing on limited points. As a matter of fact, the multiplicity of facets in the system of rewards makes possible different types of survival, in the given social system. For the authors, the scientific city is fundamentally conflictual and the actors are rational enough to calculate their chances of success as well from the cognitive point of view as from the social point of view (priority). On the other hand, the sharpness of the conflict, leads to a conduct which certain sociologists call deviant and which is nothing more than the normal product of certain constraints in the system. The functioning of the city, interesting in itself, has permitted the elaboration of a diagram of social originality, in which the notions of competition, limited resources, personal commitment and self-perceived handicap, play a decisive role.

Diana Crane-Hervé : The diffusion of innovation in science : a case study. In order to find out if the factors affecting the diffusion of innovations in science are similar to those which have been found in studies of other types of innovations, variables contained in all publications appearing during a twenty-five year period in a research problem area in sociology were analyzed. It was found that about a third of the innovations in the area were developed in the early stages of activity in the field when only 5 percent of the authors had published in it. The most widely used innovations appeared to have been transmitted by personal influence creating a steadily expanding network of adopters. In order to produce such a network of adopters, an innovation had to be associated with scientists who were highly visible in the area. There was some evidence that resistance to new ideas increased over time since both the production and acceptance of innovations declined during the last decade of activity in the area. These findings suggest that the growth of science can be interpreted as a process of diffusion in which innovations spread by means of expanding networks of adopters. Such a process could explain why the growth of scientific publications and of authors takes the form of a logistic curve.

A. Memmi, W. Ackermann, N. Zoberman, S. Zoberman : The Characteristic and feeling of difference felt by Jews. This partial report on a study of « Jewishness » in France shows the connection between the « feeling of difference » and certain variables such as religious practice, socio-cultural characteristics and the participation in Jewish groups or institutions. It was observed that there is, little relationship between the feeling of difference and religious practice, although this feeling is more frequent when there are religious practice. There is also a slight correlation between the feeling of difference and socio-professional category ; there is, however indication of a more positive correlation in the « well-off » category belonging to a religious community. This correlation shows the existence of a conflict of cultural norms. This conflict is also present when the feeling of difference is correlated with the attitude towards Jewish institutions. In this sense the feeling of being different is not a good indicator of the feeling of being Jewish. It should be pointed out that the affirmation of self plays a more important role in the feeling of difference than reference to the perceptions of others.

Jean G. Padioleau : Note on simulations in political sociology. A review Anglo-Saxon literature on the subject.