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Technological innovations contribute to developments in the technical culture of sports. The current field of competitive sailing provides an opportunity to study the development of a technical culture linked to the spread of an innovation in equipment -- that of "hydrofoils", which allow sailboats to "fly" over the water. The objectives of this study were to investigate: (i) the nature and structure of the knowledge of "pioneering" hydrofoil sailors, in relation to the question of flight stability management and control, and (ii) the development of a technical culture specific to hydrofoil sailing. We conducted "experience sharing" interviews with 12 participants recognized for their involvement in the practice or teaching of hydrofoil sailing. The analysis consisted in identifying typical experiences related to flight stability recognition and control, and in the categorization and inter-linking of explanatory elements on flight stability states, from the point of view of the participants' knowledge. These two sides of the analysis helped to apprehend the emergence of a shared culture within the group of participants. Our results suggest the development of a technical culture of hydrofoil sailing that integrates to a greater extent the emotional dimension of this practice, and highlight the crew's incorporation into a boat that presents the characteristics of an autonomous system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes recent transformations in French secularism, observed from the standpoint of the changes in the hierarchization of various secular norms. After reviewing the legal and historical context of French secularism and the interpretation of it as "ambiguous liberalism" (Jean-Pierre Machelon), the essay focuses on the special relationship that this secularism has to Islam. The second part of the essay concentrates on the period 2002-2012, focusing, in particular, on the policies of former Minister of the Interior and, later, President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy. Three stages in this transformation are reconstructed here: they lead from "New Secularism" through so-called "Positive Secularism" to "Falsified Secularism". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the individual and societal explanations for the persistence of the hijab as a conservative cultural norm in persistently religious and culturally conservative communities. Analyzing data from 300 hijab-wearing women in Egypt and 198 hijab-wearing women in Kuwait, our findings confirm the importance of considering societal as well as individual-level factors in the persistence of conservative cultural norms. We find that low salience of the hijab is associated with beliefs that others misuse the hijab. High salience of the hijab is correlated with beliefs that the hijab brings its wearer greater social mobility. Exposure to non-hijab-wearers was associated with both high and low salience of the hijab, and demonstrates the influence that exposure to norm breakers has on reinforcing the salience of conservative social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the historical interaction between colonizer and colonized influenced gender inequality in the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan. The study demonstrates that the interaction had cultural and structural components that contributed to the establishment of gender conservatism as a national virtue. After the failure of other initiatives in the region, the Soviets launched a massive unveiling ritual in Uzbekistan that led to widespread resistance, including a wave of murders of unveiled women. At the same time, the Soviets left in place local patriarchal networks that reinforced this gender conservatism. To underscore the critical nature of these interactions and their variability, the study includes evidence from neighboring Kazakhstan, a nomadic society where women did not veil and where local networks were disrupted through Soviet-led collectivization and sedentarization. The study argues that these two societies interacted differently with the Soviet modernizing project, with implications for present-day disparities in gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze the role that gender issues play in the public discourse on Muslims and Islam of several Swiss French-speaking Swiss media. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the corpus of our research we show that gender issues go across the themes addressed in the public debate about the compatibility or incompatibility of Muslim culture with the one prevailing in Switzerland. This leads us to interpret these results in the perspective of the political use of gender and the political constitution of the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author aims to analyze the experience of wearing the veil in the sporting space in Tunisia. This experience articulates, in effect, two contradictory social practices: the practice of religion that respects Islamic values and the practice of sport characterized by specific ways of presenting the body in a space dominated by men. The qualitative analysis of a corpus of semi-structured interviews reveals a logic of negotiation adopted by veiled women engaging in sport. It can be identified in the way they adjust their movements when engaging in sport and the way they cope with mixed sporting activities. The practices thereby identified reflect the shifting religious attitudes in Tunisia and the plurality of modes of being a veiled woman in Islamic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What is the meaning of wearing a veil? Is it respect for a legal religious instruction? Is it the result of a specific interpretation? How was the veil adopted for endogamous reasons by city aristocracy before becoming associated with the popular classes? How is it moving beyond social class significance to cultural significance, and towards becoming a sign of cultural identity? Is it the symbol of women's subordination or the indicator of a different and specific feminism? How does the veil waver between islamism and sufism, between being a weapon of cultural warfare and a tool of an anti-materialistic spiritual quest for the truth? Wearing the veil can suggest all these meanings, successively and sometimes simultaneously, hence the theoretical necessity to deal with the veil in terms of plural and above all antinomic meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To describe and to compare the internal and external shoulder rotators torque in high-level sailors and in matched control subject. Methods: Two populations of 18 male and right-hand were age, weight and high-matched. The internal and external shoulder rotators isokinetic parameters were compared at the angular speed of 60 and 120°/s and with a test of 50 repetitions at 300°/s angular speed. This last evaluation was chosen to get closer the efforts to line a sail. Results: Internal and external rotators peak torque and work of shoulder is significantly in favour the sailors. The internal rotators peak torque is significantly higher on the dominating side only in sailors. The team members, who line sails, develop a torque and a work more important than skippers and tacticians. Conclusions: High-level sailors present a lot of torque of shoulder rotators especially at the dominant side. These isokinetic results could serve as reference parameters for the recruitment of team members according to the place of navigation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction. – Assess the energetic cost during small craft competition.Methods. – Height healthy sailors have been tested during three regattas. Heart rate, vertical jump, glycemia, cortisol and testosterone have been recorded.Results and discussion. – Regattas did not show significant difference for hormones. However, a significant 10% decrease of glycemia was presented. Heart rate increased during competition, but it was different according to the wind velocity and wind direction. The oxygen cost of sailing is relatively light. However, this cost could be increase with bad conditions of sailing. It seems that aerobic capacity is important regarding performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]