La résilience comme injonction politique post-Xynthia.

Instrumentalisation étatique ou territorialisation des risques de catastrophe ?

For the past decade, the figure of “natural disaster” has come back with force, mobilizing in return the notion of “territories’ resilience”. In this context, this article aims to analyze the etiological and axiological substructures on which the French central political power relies when referring to these two concepts. In this respect, the dramatic consequences of the storm Xynthia, which hit the French Atlantic littoral in 2010, have revealed a noticeable inflexion of the public policies of flooding/marine submersion [...]

Faut-il faire aimer la ville ?

Martouzet, Denis (dir.). 2014. Ville aimable. Tours : Presses universitaires François-Rabelais.

This multi-authored work gathers various contributions which focus on the “emotional relationship people have with cities”. In an approach that is both poetic and relational, the authors — mainly urban planners and geographers — seek to highlight the mutual influence that takes place between people and the city. Taking stock of their work, they shape the frame of a future research program, mixing theoretical reflections and studies that are more directly built on data. Finally, they question the ideal [...]

Mémoire publique et mémoire collective de l’esclavage.

L’apport de la sociologie pragmatiste.

The aim of this article is to theorise a new version of “memory”, which we will call “public memory”, by using a conceptual framework inspired by pragmatist sociology. This theorisation will be put to the test through an ethnographic study that we have been conducting for several years on associations that originate in the French Antilles and support the cause of remembering slavery. [...]

Deleuze bashing.

Social sciences sometimes quote philosophers in order to provide a basis for their theories. They quote Gilles Deleuze very often, but Deleuze says that he doesn’t care about being coherent. So why should socials science care about philosophy ? [...]

Pragmatique de la mémoire.

In a pragmatic perspective, « memory » is no longer the appropriate object of sociological inquiries — « memoriality » is. By « memoriality », we refer to what actors or instances that are committed to memorial activities deal with : memoriality is what they have to specify and investigate through their own inquiry. They have to make memoriality consistent and sensitive through practical arrangements. In this sense, the contributions that compose this Traversal explore different memoriality regimes, namely [...]

Venir à Ground Zero, se souvenir du 11-Septembre.

This article prolongs Halbwachs’s analysis of the spatial localisation of memories by means of a pragmatist sociology of the experience of places of memory. In other words, it aims to show how the fact that one remembers a past event by visiting the place it is said to have taken place in is dependent on the people whom one encounters and meets, on the devices in place, and on the emotions that are felt. This paper considers the case [...]

Les promesses de mémoire : retour sur les écrits du 9/11.

This paper consists in the analysis of the promises of memory made in New York after the 9/11 attack, such as « We Will Never Forget You », « We Will Always Remember ». As speech acts (Austin) these promises show problems of infelicity, but as written acts they offer many enunciative resources due to their materiality (autographic, signature, public displays), which is well adapted to a situation of disaster. As collective solemn public acts, the promises of memory [...]

Des géographies queers au-delà des genres et des sexualités ?

This article aims to show how queer geographies fit into the history of geography and how francophone geographies can use them. It throws light on the origins (postmodernity and feminisms) and precedents of queer geography (geography of sexualities). In opening to intersectionality (political, racial, social and cultural dimensions), this new geographical field could enable us to go far beyond Gender and Sexualities Studies. [...]

Feminist and Queer Repoliticizations of the Brain.

The historical relationship between biology and feminist politics is one of proximity and distance, tensions and contradictions. This is particularly obvious in the current golden age of neuroscience, when arguments supporting sexism, the inevitability of the sex/gender difference, the equalization of sexuality with heterosexuality and much more are reformulated based on the findings from brain research. In this paper, we examine the specific entanglements of brain science and feminism and identify three main directions which are “destabilizations”, “reconstructions”, and [...]

Comments on Schatzki’s text.

Schatzki’s analysis of social practices relies on a very clear idea, which is expressed at the beginning of the text, as follows : Because the relationship between practices and material arrangements is so intimate, it is the notion of a bundle of practices and arrangements, and not just that of a practice simplicitor, that is fundamental [...]