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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]

The global health crisis that marks the start of the 21st century has sparked renewed interest in the research community for the great plague episodes that have marked history. The 'black plague' which raged in the middle of the 14th century and decimated part of the European population deeply marked mentalities. The 'Arts of Dying Well' is one of the most original manifestations of the changes that took place during this period in the way of perceiving death and of preparing for it. This article concerns a draft edition of some of the most representative Latin and French versions of these medieval texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been plenty of discourses about discredit, crisis, and even the death of contemporary French literature and literary studies by professors and experts of literature from the beginning of the twenty-first century. The present study tries to investigate the nature of declinism and its possible objectives in contemporary literature using a descriptive approach and explain these discourses for the reader following a comparative and contrast approach. The texts are distinguished based on three categories of literature threats by Dominique Viart (2011). There is no doubt that the origin of any concerns for the loss of literature independence during cognitive capitalism is a limited and aesthetic cognition that has been rooted in the nineteenth century and the educational system and literary theories have been always supported. Perhaps, now it is time to reach a general and extrovert definition of literature. The definition allows us to study literature about other modern methods and the real world. It is maybe time to listen to Yves Citton’s suggestion and have a new reading in the literature and end the excellence of traditional monologue readings. [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 text presents the project and artistic path of the Molinari Quartet as led by its founder, violinist Olga Ranzenhofer, who is also its artistic director. The author recounts her remarkable encounters with two great Canadian artists, Guido Molinari and R. Murray Schafer, who influenced the quartet and inspired its members to explore contemporary art and create connections with the audience. She describes and explains the events Le Quatuor selon... and Les Dialogues, which allowed the musicians and the audience to explore the string quartet repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries through the presentation of complete quartet cycles by important contemporary composers. Olga Ranzenhofer offers a passionate account of the string quartet musician's long and rewarding process, from choosing repertoire to playing in concert, through numerous hours of work and recording a CD. [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]

Résumé: Les nations minoritaires dans les États multinationaux évoluent dans un contexte parfois incertain et inhospitalier de leur particularité sociétale, politique et culturelle. Si leur situation minoritaire n'est en rien un frein à leur existence comme nation, elle peut néanmoins s'accompagner d'un certain sentiment de fragilité nationale et même d'une peur de disparaître. Ces nations minoritaires, quand l'État auquel elles appartiennent refuse de reconnaître leur particularisme et de leur permettre de le défendre, peuvent alors rapidement devenir des nations fragiles. Il est l'objet du présent article de définir et de préciser le concept de nation fragile, à l'aide d'une discussion théorique, conceptuelle et normative. Minority nations within multinational States often evolve within a context of great uncertainty when it comes to the protection of their distinctive political and cultural characteristics. While their minority condition in no way limits their existence as nations, it can nevertheless come with a certain feeling of national fragility and even a fear of disappearing. These minority nations, when the State to which they belong refuses to recognize their particularism and to allow them the necessary tools to defend it, can then quickly become fragile nations. In this article, we discuss, define and specify the meaning of the concept of fragile nations, putting the emphasis on its theoretical and normative dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given an ageing population and a persistent low birth rate, several industrialized countries have chosen to attract immigrant labour, as evidenced in a recent report by OECD (2012). However, the integration of immigrants in the labour market poses several challenges. Thus, in Quebec, compared to natives, immigrants participate less often in the labour market and tend to occupy lower quality jobs. This study aims to highlight the last finding by using two databases largely neglected in the analysis of the integration of immigrants: The Labour Force Survey (LFS) and a survey of the conditions of work, employment, health and work security in Quebec (EQCOTESST). In addition to examining the usual indicators such as the participation rate, the employment rate and the unemployment rate, this study is interested in unique dimensions which have never been taken into consideration, such as overqualification, job quality as well as physical and psychological conditions of work. As expected, the results confirm that the economic performance of Quebec immigrants is lower than that of the native-born Quebecers. In addition, there is a greater presence of immigrants in low quality jobs, but a smaller presence in high quality jobs, while the reverse is true for native workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the negative campaigning literature has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years, the precise targets of campaign negativity have not been fully explored, as candidates and their parties are largely treated as the same target. Likewise, although scholars are increasingly writing about the personalization of politics, this literature has not considered whether parties can “personalize” their opponents by focusing their messaging and attacks more on individual leaders than the parties they lead. In an attempt to bridge the gap between these two literatures, we develop the concept of negative personalization. Negative personalization, as we define it, is an emphasis on opposing party leaders in campaign communication more so than on the parties that they lead. Exploring recent election campaigns in Canada's largest province, we document the extent to which parties engage in negative personalization and suggest hypotheses for the factors leading to increased negative personalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws upon data collected from an online voting experiment to test the implications of “going negative” in a multiparty election campaign. Specifically, we investigate two sets of questions: First, does the attention and vote share that candidates receive vary according to the tone (positive/negative) of their election campaign? Second, does the attention and vote share that candidates receive vary according to whether or not all candidates engage in similar (positive/negative) campaigns? While studies of “negative campaigning” have been prominent in the American context, our work builds upon this literature by using an experimental design to test for their effects in a multiparty setting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Quebecois wayside crosses have been described as a tradition attacked on two fronts : by a modernizing postconciliar Catholic church seeking to limit devotionalism and by secularizing officials seeking to create a religiously neutral public sphere. This article explores the often ambivalent interactions between public and private devotions, as well as between Catholicism and "patrimonialisation". It foregrounds questions about the place of preconciliar structures in the built environment of rural Quebec, with the goal of showing how this form of devotionalism is conceived by wayside cross "caretakers" as a new way of living their Catholic faith in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note tests the hypothesis that lobbying activities in Canada are primarily aimed at the members of the executive branch. It uses the data of the Canadian lobbying registry to measure the number of contacts between lobbyists and public office holders between the summer of 2008 and the summer of 2013. The results indicate that the majority of lobbying activities are aimed at the executive branch. However, it appears that the House of Commons is one of the most popular targets of lobbying activities. In fact, empirical evidence shows that numerous lobbying organizations are engaged in integrated strategies that consider both the legislative and executive institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En France, émergent depuis quelques années des groupes de mères entrepreneures appelées « Mompreneurs ». Ce mouvement paraît réduit si on le circonscrit aux seules membres des réseaux estampillés, mais il semble révéler un fait social plus large généré par des femmes qui, une fois devenues mères, revisitent leur engagement dans le travail, et envers leur famille, par un entreprenariat individuel ancré dans la sphère dite féminine. En créant une activité non salariée, ces femmes découvrent un quotidien de travail qui les isole. Cet article examine plus particulièrement la manière dont elles réinvestissent un collectif à travers les réseaux de Mompreneurs pour sortir de leur isolement professionnel et maternel. En présentant les caractéristiques sociales des Mompreneurs et de leurs activités, nous montrerons d'abord dans quelle mesure devenir indépendante peut les conduire à un isolement jusqu'alors jamais éprouvé. Nous évoquerons dans un deuxième temps les apports du collectif pour combler cet isolement, qu'ils soient sociaux, identitaires ou professionnels. La dernière partie soulignera ainsi les ambivalences de ce collectif, en insistant d'une part sur sa portée politique limitée, mais aussi ses potentialités économiques, mettant ainsi en question le caractère réellement « indépendant » de leur statut d'indépendante. In France, groups of entrepreneurial mothers, also known as 'Mompreneurs', emerged during the 2000s. This phenomenon might seem minor if we only consider the 'official' networks; yet it reveals a wider social trend whereby some women, once they become mothers, reconsider their work–life balance through self-entrepreneurial ventures firmly anchored in the so-called female sphere. However, through the creation of an unwaged activity, these women tend to end up in an isolated work environment. This article focuses on the way they manage to re-integrate a group through the Mompreneurs networks in order to escape their professional and maternal isolation. By exploring the social characteristics of these Mompreneurs and of their activities, the author first shows how becoming self-employed can drive these women towards a new and unknown type of isolation. She then explores the role played by the group in alleviating their isolation, in terms of their socio-professional life and personal identity. The last section underlines the ambivalence of this network by insisting on its limited political impact but also on its financial potentials, hence questioning the 'independence' the women enjoy by being self-employed. [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]

This article deals with the controversy that arose in 2002–2005 over faith-based arbitration tribunals held in Ontario. It seeks to contribute to the existing literature on the question by looking at new empirical sources. The analysis focuses specifically on the public discourse of social actors who opposed the establishment of arbitration tribunals. The majority of those who opposed arbitration tribunals did not formulate their position in terms of an opposition between religion and feminist values. Rather, they focused their arguments on the supposed danger of Islam, which they perceived as an oppressive and alien religion. The controversy over religious arbitration becomes a way to claim a Western, “Canadian” identity that is also secular and Judeo-Christian. From this perspective, the Ontarian controversy can be related to European debates on Islam that emerged during the last decade (such as the cartoon controversy in Denmark, the debate on minarets in Switzerland, and the burqa prohibition in Belgium). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several parties throughout the world are democratizing their internal processes. The most notable tools for achieving this aim are the primary elections through which electoral candidates and party leaders are selected. This article seek to analyze these 'selections' by using survey data relating to primary elections held in October 2011 by the French Socialist Party. In particular, we make use of survey data to describe extensively some social and political characteristics of the voters and to connect them with the electoral performances of the candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this critical commentary on the political uses of memory in contemporary Canada, the author examines the conscription of the Canadian past by the Harper government since it came to power in 2006. He shows how the conservatives' reconstruction of the nation's past serves their broader project of reconstructing the nation tout court. Moreover, he presents the various strategies they have deployed to remake Canada's history in their own image: the increased emphasis on military history and on the ties that bind Canadians to the monarchy; the endeavour to cast the War of 1812 and the First World War as foundational events in the making of modern Canada; the creation of the Canadian Museum of History. The author also discusses the dismantling of Library and Archives Canada, the main repository of the nation's memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyze the evaluation function within the Quebec public administration during the 2000s as an organized action system (values, environment, resources and procedures, practice, impacts) with its consistencies and inconsistencies. Three findings emerge: the support that central agencies give to the evaluation practice is almost non-existent; the transparency of the evaluation process for the citizens is barely noticeable; and the undertaking and use of the strategic use of evaluations seem rare. This article brings the attention to some consistencies/inconsistencies of the management function, and suggests a direct and systematic way to highlight what needs to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé: La question ű qu’est-ce que le politique ? Ƈ, posée non pas depuis une tradition philosophique particulière, mais depuis notre expérience commune d’Européens de ce début de xxi e siècle, nous conduit à reconnaître dans le politique un mode d’existence spécifique, distinct de l’exister naturel, mais aussi des multiples enracinements auxquels on assimile communément la réalité politique. Ce mode d’existence, qu’il faut distinguer de la politique, revendique de plus en plus clairement son statut d’abstraction et d’universalisation. Il faudra se demander s’il s’agit d’une évolution moderne, contingente et peut-être risquée, ou d’un trait depuis toujours inhérent à la conscience politique, porté seulement à une intensité nouvelle. De la réponse à cette question dépendra l’estimation d’une éventuelle ű sursollicitation Ƈ de la conscience humaine par le politique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author proposes several prerequisite conditions to consider before encountering a new culture, provides information on training programs offered at the Mariannhill Missionary Center, and shares his intercultural experiences as a missionary in countries governed by dictators. He discusses his missions in countries including South Africa (RSA), the Philippines, and Mexico as well as in Rome (Italy), being a former sponsor for refugees, and his role in the Diocese of Sherbrooke, Québec.

This paper intends to conduct an investigation on political modernisation in Romania at the beginning of the XXth century, in order to fred explanations for the „,doctrinaire slippage” of Romanian democracy, regarding the ideas of Democracy, Nation and Revolution. My purpose is to analise the way a historical debate on issues so closed to western values degenerated, and finally allowed the establishment of an authoritarian regime, just before the World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses quantitative and qualitative instruments to present an innovative content analysis of the English-language briefs presented by interest groups to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada during the 2007 consultations for the Growing Forward policy framework. Our analysis shows a proliferation in the number of actors interested in agricultural public policy as well as a diversification of their discussions, which are no longer structured solely around the idea of agricultural protectionism. Our results indicate that stakeholders' objectives in agriculture are highly fragmented, with some groups promoting an increased liberalization and other stakeholders strongly defending the recognition of the multifunctionality of agriculture. Considering these disparate pressures, the lexicographic analysis of the Canadian policy framework indicates that the Canadian government takes a balanced position between these contrasted interests while, nevertheless, putting forward arguments that are clearly in favour of greater agricultural liberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are we to explain U.S. foreign policy, particularly policymaking on national security and homeland security, under the first administration of G. W. Bush? Who were the actors and what were the factors that produced what were, to say the least, controversial results? Looking beyond the speeches, statements and institutions, the security decisions can be seen as the work of “policy entrepreneurs.” This article considers who those entrepreneurs were and how they achieved their goal of transforming U.S. security policy. Three decisions are discussed: the pre-emptive war in Iraq, the legal redefinition of torture by the Bush administration, and the institutionalization of homeland security, in particular the Patriot Act. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: If bereavement is a crossroad phenomenon involving both collective belonging and private attachment, the cultural part in the loss of a kin has progressively been erased since the beginning of the 20th century in France. What remains is the affective dimension. There is a kind of reversal of grief expression in our western societies. One hundred years ago, the social expression of mourning was predominant whereas the intimate expression of grief was hidden behind. But with the two world wars, the disorganization of rituals and the loss of faith in a protective God, the affects came to the forefront. Once collective, bereavement is now solipsist (referred to the self). Faced with a lack of social treatment, bereaved people turn to medicine and try to “cure” their grief. They acclaim “advances” in Medicine and appreciate the individualization in the medicalization of emotional states. On one hand, there is the most frequent bereavement in our societies, which is the loss of their old companions by lonely spouses. But this ordinary loss is cautious and quiet. On the other hand, media are exaggerating exceptional bereavements. But instead of being shared in collective ceremonies, these catastrophic deaths are provoking numbness, even in therapeutic groups and are now included in psychiatry manuals. By 2050, the number of dead people will have increased by 38 % in France. Prospective studies are planning 750,000 dead people in the year of 2050. Bereavement will not be exceptional then. A real demand for psychosocial support will certainly develop in the future, far beyond family propositions and community support. Associations with medical expertise are today centered on complicated grieves and propose special follow up in sanitary institutions (where about 70 % of persons die in France). Although bereaved people have a subjective feeling of a too long and uncertain temporality of grief, unusual bereavements draw outpour of grief in blogs or are searched for on Facebook. But grief is frequently lived alone. It seems that common bereavement is a kind of incongruity that many would like to bypass with a hastened death, a discreet and sober disappearing. Restoring social bonds around the mortality and fragility of existence would give back grief its social place in existence as generating human collective solidarity. Mourning would find again its affective role as a driving force behind individual experience and would find again its legitimate place within family lives, passing down from generation to generation the modalities of attachment and of identification to a lineage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

Cet article analyse, en les mettant en relation, les dynamiques de mobilisation mises en œuvre par les syndicats français, à l'occasion des deux grandes séquences de grèves et de manifestations interprofessionnelles qui ont eu lieu en 2009 et en 2010. Il revient sur l'inscription de ces mobilisations sociales dans un ordre juridique en pleine mutation pour les syndicats sous l'effet des nouvelles règles de représentativité et de dialogue social. Il s'agit également de comparer la situation française aux autres mobilisations européennes où de multiples acteurs sociaux, et non exclusivement syndicaux, se sont saisi de l'enjeu de la crise. Cette mise en perspective permet de mettre en question certains lieux communs sur le syndicalisme français, tels sa 'faiblesse structurelle' et sa 'culture protestataire'. Les faiblesses en termes d'effectifs et d'implantation, qui sous-tendent le diagnostic de crise du syndicalisme, ne doivent pas dissimuler la puissance maintenue des syndicats sur le plan de l'action collective. Quant à la radicalité du mouvement syndical français, elle doit être relativisée au regard d'une tendance lourde à la rétraction de son horizon de pensée et d'action que symbolisent bien les usages courants de la notion de 'démocratie sociale'. Working comparatively, this article analyses the strategies employed by French trade unions at the time of two major sequences of inter-professional strikes and demonstrations that took place in 2009 and 2010. It analyses how these social mobilisations took place in a juridical context that had been fundamentally changed by new rules governing representativeness and social dialogue. It also compares what happened in France with mobilisations elsewhere in Europe where multiple social actors, not only unions, grappled with the impact of the crisis. This comparative perspective allows us to question certain commonplace understandings regarding French trade unionism, such as its 'structural weakness' and its 'culture of protest'. French trade unions' weakness both numerically and in terms of workplace coverage, factors which underpin the diagnosis of a crisis in trade unionism, should not be allowed to hide the continued strength of the unions in the field of collective action. The radicalism of the French trade union movement needs to be seen as relative when placed in the context of a dominant tendency for a shrinking of its horizon of thought and of action within conventional framings of the notion of 'social democracy'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ARUC Work History Project in New-Brunswick (LHTNB) aims to show that the labour experience is an important and essential part of New Brunswick's provincial heritage. Through partnerships with different community organizations, the research team organized public activities and participated in collaboration projects in many regions of the province. The aim of this essay is two-fold: first the author evaluates the nature and the efficiency of the partnerships developed in Madawaska, an Acadian region of New Brunswick. Did the research team succeed in developing genuine partnerships in Madawaska? Was there a real sense of "sharing authority" between the research team and its community partners in that region? What has been public's role since the project began? Second, the author analyzes the effect of public activities and collaboration projects on the Madawaska community and attempts to draw conclusions from what the research team has learned from these experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

A conclusion to the special issue on violence is presented in which the author discusses the different aspects of violence in France in the 21st century and the way they are explored in several articles within the issue.

Am introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including poor governance structure of Canada, sources of governance failures in Canada, and the Canadian blood tragedy in 1980s.