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If witchcraft in Lorraine (France) has been widely studied and commented on by medieval and modern historians thanks to the analysis of the context of the Inquisition, books on demonology, witchcraft trials and ordeals such as torture or the stake, this is because it has long been considered and described as a peasant superstition, even a naive belief, which disappeared decades ago. However, since the second half of the 20th century, ethnologists and social and cultural anthropologists have sought to show that witchcraft remains a living social and cultural phenomenon in many regions of France and Europe. In the same way, this article aims to affirm, with regard to the results of a long-term field survey of unwitchers-healers and their clientele, that 21st century witchcraft still constitutes an explanation of misfortune, the disease, which aims to be coherent and effective in the face of events or symptoms deemed unexplained or strange. The article also proposes implicitly to question the status, place and role of contemporary healers in a region of eastern France. It is therefore a question of enriching the reflection on the plurality of the offer of care which is deployed in French society and comes to question the monopoly of scientific medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Van Rensselaer Potter (1911-2001), the biologist who coined the term "bioethics" in North American scholarship, considers that "real bioethics falls in the context of the ideals of [...] Aldo Leopold", a forester, philosopher and poet who marked the 20th century. Associating Leopold with Potter has the effect of placing bioethics in the family of environmental ethics, which differentiates it from the conventional sense held in medicine and research since the Belmont Report (1979), a declaration that has driven the institutionalization of bioethics in North America. However, dividing bioethics into the "medical" and "environmental" is reductionist. Instead, Potter coins the idea of a global bioethics that addresses issues at their interface, including "land, wildlife, overpopulation, consumption, etc." This article aims to start a new analysis of Potter's thinking, drawing on the legacy of Aldo Leopold in biology. A synthesis of this Potterian vision is proposed to consider his work as a coherent whole that integrates into the great debates that transcend 20th and 21st centuries. This Potterian vision appears as a collective and prospective wisdom in the form of a science of survival and Bioethical creed. Going beyond environmental ethics, this association with Leopold offers a model of complexity that is indistinguishable from the context in which it is embedded, improving the ways in which we intervene in practice in an everchanging world through an adaptive governance and the wisdom of responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A low response rate to European programs and a short English-language bibliometric literature make French education and training sciences (ETS) regarded as little invested in international relationships. However, the creation of a database of researchers and doctoral students during the period of 2014-2018 contradicts this interpretation. Why such distortion? The quantitative study of the base makes it possible to formulate two observations: 1) an important commitment of the teams in multidisciplinary and multicultural approaches answering the requirement of the international institutions and the contemporary stakes in the matter; 2) the absence of support and promotion of national institutions stems from a conception of science activity measurement which does not match the practices of scientific discipline. Scientific and academic, but also socio-political and professional, standpoints differ in the two analyzes; which leads to questioning the relationship that scientific discipline maintains with the international standardization of evaluation. This article questions the hierarchy of disciplines, cultures and forms of research for the benefit of international cooperation in the 21st century with a view to human development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to analyze, from an ethnographic point of view, the local dynamics in an Argentinean microcredit program administered by the national government in the Pampean region during the first decade of the 21st century. The study of interpersonal relationships between promoters and beneficiaries shows that microcredit dynamics develops through practices of both giving-receiving-returning and keeping-rejecting-to-giveback. This is because beneficiaries evaluate the time given to the program as a substitute for the credit they are required to reimburse. I assert that these practices do not make up opposing logics but relational dynamics that motivate a renegotiation of the terms of exchange. The study shows that some cases and events that are considered "failures" from the point of view of the promoters of the program are experienced as mutual aid practices from the point of view of beneficiaries. By contrasting these perspectives regarding solidarity, I intend to show that "failures" in the program are also the expression of a native form of valorization based on the exchange of time for money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city inside the city: on relational density of a public space in Lisbon ♦ The urban space where three public and central Lisbon city squares intersect is seen as an important node of encounters at the metropolitan level. Thus, it is a living space that welcomes the whole dynamic of a social practice in an updated transnational context. Sociability, meetings, and interactions are discussed in this article to describe a relational city in which the diversity of actors tends to disappear behind a common practice. And in a context characterized by a persistent co-presence, attending the public square is shifted into a shared practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the public indebtedness of the Canadian provinces and the US states (including a share of the federal debt) over the 2000–2007 period. It presents rankings of the most indebted subnational jurisdictions based on five public debt concepts. Among the provinces, Quebec (with the lowest average rank) and Alberta (with the highest average rank) display the most stable position across the rankings. All other provinces show important fluctuations in their position in the rankings. Hence, allocating the federal debt to subnational states and the specific debt concept being considered significantly influence the rankings, quite spectacularly in some instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The fight against epizootics is today better organized. The tools, methods and strategies used work well and are constantly being improved, which is necessary since disease epidemiology is evolving extremely fast, dominated by a growing complexity associated to global changes and the emergence of new pathologies. The foundation of the strategy is still based on a permanent epidemiological surveillance and the immediate use of appropriate measures. Among the essential prerequisites there is the existence of effective veterinary services, for which support programmes have been developed, notably by the OIE, which is also responsible for the definition of the norms applicable in animal health. Three examples of control programmes against major epidemics are discussed here: Rinderpest (declared eradicated worldwide in 2011), Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1), and Foot and Mouth Disease. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The debate surrounding CMOs is a recurring one; it is unclear and often conveys the picture of a general brawl. Our article argues that this situation is linked to the crisis context in which we live, a modernity crisis in general and especially a rationality crisis. It tries to put some order in the sphere of debate and to contribute a clarification which avoids drifts and amalgamations that usually blight discussions. We propose to distinguish three levels of debate. The first is a purely scientific and technical debate concerning knowledge, in particular the assessment of risks. The second is political and deals with the merits of decisions to be taken, in particular regarding the application or non application of the precautionary principle. And the last involves a philosophical debate about values, in particular ideas about what "good life" is and about the relationships between man and nature. These distinctions justify that we consider a practical rationality, which we seek to define, alongside with theoretical rationality. Building a relevant practical rationality, not as a replacement but as a complement to theoretical rationality, is the first condition towards "civilizing" debates on CMOs. It is also a necessary step forward in the direction of participatory democracy, an imperative for the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]