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L'article s'attache au renouveau des conflits sociaux que l'on observe en France à partir des années 1990, dont l'épisode le plus marquant sera les grèves de novembre-décembre 1995 qui, parce qu'elles se terminent a priori sur un succès (le retrait de la réforme des fonds spéciaux de retraite), contribue à ré-enchanter l'engagement et à réorganiser l'espace des mouvements sociaux. Centré sur la question sociale portée par les mouvements de 'sans' (sans emploi, sans logis, sans papiers) et de jeunes syndicats radicalisés (les SUD et la Confédération paysanne), le retour de la critique débouche à la charnière du siècle sur la nouvelle cause de l'altermondialisme. Contre l'interprétation d'une radicale nouveauté de ces mouvements, l'article montre combien ils se caractérisent par l'hybridation des cultures militantes, en raison notamment de l'importance en leur sein des militants multipositionnés et des contraintes d'échelles auxquelles ils font face. Il nuance également le caractère 'global' des mobilisations altermondialistes en relevant les conditions de possibilité mais aussi d'épuisement du passage au registre transnational. The article focuses on the renewal of social conflict seen in France since the 1990s, the most notable episode of which is surely the strikes of November–December 1995 which, because they ended on what can be taken for a success (the withdrawal of the reform of public pensions), helped to reinvigorate commitment and reorganise the social movement landscape. Centring on the social questioning posed by the movements of the 'sans' (those without a job, a home or residence papers) and by young, radicalised trade unionists (of the SUD unions and the Confédération paysanne), the renewed criticism opens, at the turn of the century, onto the new cause of counter-globalisation. Disagreeing with those who argue for the radical newness of these movements, the article shows how much they are characterised by the hybridisation of militant cultures, notably because so many of their activists belong to multiple organisations and because of the constraints of scale that they face. The article also questions the extent of the 'global' character of counter-globalisation movements by examining the conditions that enable the move to a transnational register or render it no longer effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main argument of this paper is that the Web is well suited for the role of a streetwise informant for protest events. Using special software, we plot the network of Web sites of organisations related to the meat and anti-globalization protests in Milau, France, in June of 2000, and compare our findings about the nature of the actors with the reports in the mass media. Not only do the findings deepen mass media accounts but they also point to a new web-sociological means to re-open the question of the real. Putting on display the institutional dimension of the protest, the Web network simultaneously undermines and enriches the mass media accounts of the protests. The Web may provide a reality check on existing accounts of the protest and document encounters between opposing definitions of reality. Our analysis also suggests the Web can be harnessed to complicate the definition of real social action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]