Position Of France Research Articles

MARGARET E. KOSAL

MARGARET E. KOSAL HAS packed a lot into 31 years. She holds a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she invented a new family of catalytically active organic zeolites. On the way to a postdoc position in France, she made a U-turn: With her research adviser Kenneth S. Suslick and two others, she founded in 2000 a high-tech sensor development company called ChemSensing. At ChemSensing, Kosal worked on sensors to detect chemical and biological agents and explosives, especially landmines. Over time, she says, she more interested in the application of detectors in the real world than in developing them in a laboratory. I've always been interested in politics, and I'm an international treaty junkie, so how detectors were being or could be used became more intriguing to her. Upon returning to ChemSensing from four weeks of trekking in the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal—her ...

Images of women in literature on physical education and sport: Representations of social transformation in France under the third republic, 1870-1939

Writings on 'the female' under the Third Republic in France provide evidence of the profound changes taking place in the social representation of femininity and masculinity during the period. They correspond to dramatic changes in the socio-economic context in parallel with those in the scientific models being used to describe human bodily movement. This paper sets out to demonstrate both the structure of the discussion on femininity and the practice of exercise, and the possible links with changes in women's education and their social position in France. It attempts to go beyond the traditional analysis of the historical relationships between women and exercise in the period under examination (1870-1939). It reviews the debates on these relationships taking place at the time in France and within the state education system during the Third Republic and focuses on three specific aspects: work, school and society.

Les Harkis en France: Carte d'identité française, identité harkie à la carte?

The Harkis constitute a heterogeneous group whose generic name was originally nothing more than an administrative construct during the Algerian War. Some studies have highlighted the absence of an overriding sense of common identity as a group: it is not unusual for the Harkis' offspring to express a feeling of belonging to the Harki, French, Beur and/or Algerian groups. Some studies continue to stress the specificity and uniqueness of their position in France, some insist on their French citizenship, whereas others still underline their specificity while insisting on their French citizenship. This article, after analysing their struggle for identity as well as the role played by the French state through measures adopted since 1962, is primarily concerned with identifying the factors prompting the Harkis' offspring to seek a distinctive Harki identity—namely the 'Other', history, memory and especially the official recognition by France of its betrayal and shameful treatment of the Harkis.

French Interests in the Levant and Their Impact on French Immigrant Policy in West Africa

Prior to the Second World War, the French government had been highhanded in its administration of the Levantine Mandates and severe in the treatment of Levantine immigrants in its West African colonies. This imperious behaviour would change abruptly in 1944. As part of their effort to rebuild French power, General Charles de Gaulle and the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationak (CFLN) sought to maintain France's longstanding position of diplomatic and cultural influence in the Levant, even after promising Lebanese and Syrian independence. With this in mind, French authorities grew more sensitive to the immigrant connection between Damascus and Dakar. In particular, the CFLN began to understand that complaints by Levantine immigrants in Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF) regarding their treatment by colonial officials had immediate repercussions on the French ‘mission’ in Syria and Lebanon. As a result, in the last year of the war – and at the direct instigation of the CFLN's representative in the Levant – sweeping policy changes were instituted to mitigate the treatment of Levantine immigrants in West Africa in order to restore France's prestige and position in the Middle East.

Remembering Pierre Bourdieu 1930-2002

Pierre Bourdieu died in Paris of cancer on January 23, 2002. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Marie-Claire, and their three children Jerome, Emmanuel, and Laurent. Bourdieu was a prolific writer and significant post-war intellectual whose influence on contemporary thought in the social sciences and humanities has been immense. His key concepts of habitus, field, and symbolic capital continue to shape research and theory in many disciplines. The author of over 25 books, his Outline of a Theory of Practice is the best known of his works among American anthropologists.1 Given the wide breadth of his writings, and the uneven timing of translations of his work, knowledge of Bourdieu's many contributions is scattered in the United States according to disciplinary interests, and there are relatively few scholars who are familiar with the total oeuvre. His social activism and political position in France are also not well known among his readers outside of France. During the 1990s, Bourdieu became firmly established, along with Derrida and Foucault, as a major French intellectual presence in American academia. He was at this time, already, one of the leading intellectuals in France, widely known and controversial among the public as well as among scholars. His outspoken criticism of the social class structure provoked a range of critics in France. For English-speaking audiences, Bourdieu's work has been the subject of several book-length treatments2 and edited collections.3 two and one-half hour documentary film on Bourdieu, is a Combat Sport (with the title based on a quote from Bourdieu), was widely shown in France in 2001. Bourdieu felt that much of his work was misunderstood by readers, and he tried to clarify the meaning of his work through several published interviews and essays (In Other Words [1990]; An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology [1992]). Bourdieu was born to a rural family in the region of Bearn, in southwestern France, near the Pyrenees. His family had peasant roots and spoke the regional dialect of Gasgogne as well as French. His father, who never finished high school, was a postal worker. Bourdieu's modest origins made him particularly sensitive to issues of power and prestige in France, shaping his research interests, social activism, and defense of the underprivileged. He was a scholarship boy who attended lycee in the regional city of Pau and then went on to lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris, before eventually entering the Ecole Normale Superieure (one of the elite institutions of higher learning in France.) There he studied with Louis Althusser and received a degree in philosophy. He started his teaching career in 1955 in a high school in Moulins. From there, he took teaching positions in Algiers (1958-60), Paris, and then in the industrial northern French city of Lille. Bourdieu became Director of Studies at EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) in Paris in 1964, where he edited the journal Actes de la Recherches en Sciences Sociales and founded the Center for the Sociology of Education and Culture. In his early years at EHESS, he worked with Raymond Aron. He was elected to the prestigious Chair of Sociology at College de France in 1981. His inaugural lecture at the College de France (reprinted in In Other Words as A Lecture on the Lecture) is now famous for its self-reflexive commentary on the giving of such lectures. Bourdieu gave his last lecture there on March 28, 2001, as he prepared to retire after 20 years. In 1993, Bourdieu received the highest honor from CNRS (the French National Scientific Research Center), the Medaille d'Or (Gold Medal). Bourdieu studied philosophy, anthropology and sociology. He came of age in a French academic climate dominated by Sartre and Levi-Strauss, amid the backdrop of the Algerian war for independence from French colonial rule. Influences on Bourdieu's work include, in addition to those thinkers already cited, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Mauss, Elias, and Goffman. …

A Test Case of Moravcsik's “Liberal Intergovernmentalist” Approach to European Integration

The responses to Andrew Moravcsik's article discuss the main substantive and methodological points raised in it. Although most of the respondents agree that Moravcsik has properly highlighted the importance of commercial concerns for de Gaulle's policy on European integration, they question the validity of his sharp separation between de Gaulle's political and economic goals for France. Several commentators argue that political and commercial concerns (including agricultural concerns) were closely intertwined in de Gaulle's vision of French grandeur.John Keeler brings up another crucial question: Was French agriculture really an obstacle to France's position in Europe? He argues that de Gaulle successfully supported and modernized French agriculture because he was convinced that this would contribute to France's geopolitical position in Europe and the Western world. In two longer commentaries, Jeffrey Vanke and Marc Trachtenberg raise questions about Moravcsik's methodology and use of sources. Both agree that Moravcsik draws on an impressive array of available materials concerning de Gaulle. But they both wonder whether a definitive account of de Gaulle's policies can be written when the documentary record is still incomplete, a point raised by the

A Comment on the Article by Andrew Moravcsik

The responses to Andrew Moravcsik's article discuss the main substantive and methodological points raised in it. Although most of the respondents agree that Moravcsik has properly highlighted the importance of commercial concerns for de Gaulle's policy on European integration, they question the validity of his sharp separation between de Gaulle's political and economic goals for France. Several commentators argue that political and commercial concerns (including agricultural concerns) were closely intertwined in de Gaulle's vision of French grandeur. John Keeler brings up another crucial question: Was French agriculture really an obstacle to France's position in Europe? He argues that de Gaulle successfully supported and modernized French agriculture because he was convinced that this would contribute to France's geopolitical position in Europe and the Western world. In two longer commentaries, Jeffrey Vanke and Marc Trachtenberg raise questions about Moravcsik's methodology and use of sources. Both agree that Moravcsik draws on an impressive array of available materials concerning de Gaulle. But they both wonder whether a definitive account of de Gaulle's policies can be written when the documentary record is still incomplete, a point raised by the

A Response to Andrew Moravcsik

The responses to Andrew Moravcsik's article discuss the main substantive and methodological points raised in it. Although most of the respondents agree that Moravcsik has properly highlighted the importance of commercial concerns for de Gaulle's policy on European integration, they question the validity of his sharp separation between de Gaulle's political and economic goals for France. Several commentators argue that political and commercial concerns (including agricultural concerns) were closely intertwined in de Gaulle'bs vision of French grandeur. John Keeler brings up another crucial question: Was French agriculture really an obstacle to France's position in Europe? He argues that de Gaulle successfully supported and modernized French agriculture because he was convinced that this would contribute to France's geopolitical position in Europe and the Western world. In two longer commentaries, Jeffrey Vanke and Marc Trachtenberg raise questions about Moravcsik's methodology and use of sources. Both agree that Moravcsik draws on an impressive array of available materials concerning de Gaulle. But they both wonder whether a definitive account of de Gaulle's policies can be written when the documentary record is still incomplete, a point raised by the

Comment on Moravcsik

The responses to Andrew Moravcsik's article discuss the main substantive and methodological points raised in it. Although most of the respondents agree that Moravcsik has properly highlighted the importance of commercial concerns for de Gaulle's policy on European integration, they question the validity of his sharp separation between de Gaulle's political and economic goals for France. Several commentators argue that political and commercial concerns (including agricultural concerns) were closely intertwined in de Gaulle's vision of French grandeur. John Keeler brings up another crucial question: Was French agriculture really an obstacle to France's position in Europe? He argues thatde Gaulle successfully supported and modernized French agriculture because he was convinced that this would contribute to France's geopolitical position in Europe and the Western world. In two longer commentaries, Jeffrey Vanke and Marc Trachtenberg raise questions about Moravcsik's methodology and use of sources. Both agree that Moravcsik draws on an impressive array of available materials concerning de Gaulle. But they both wonder whether a definitive account of de Gaulle's policies can be written when the documentary record is still incomplete, a point raised by the

De Gaulle, Moravcsik, and Europe

The responses to Andrew Moravcsik's article discuss the main substantive and methodological points raised in it. Although most of the respondents agree that Moravcsik has properly highlighted the importance of commercial concerns for de Gaulle's policy on European integration, they question the validity of his sharp separation between de Gaulle's political and economic goals for France. Several commentators argue that political and commercial concerns (including agricultural concerns) were closely intertwined in de Gaulle's vision of French grandeur. John Keeler brings up another crucial question: Was French agriculture really an obstacle to France's position in Europe? He argues that de Gaulle successfully supported and modernized French agriculture because he was convinced that this would contribute to France's geopolitical position in Europe and the Western world. In two longer commentaries, Jeffrey Vanke and Marc Trachtenberg raise questions about Moravcsik's methodology and use of sources. Both agree that Moravcsik draws on an impressive array of available materials concerning de Gaulle. But they both wonder whether a definitive account of de Gaulle's policies can be written when the documentary record is still incomplete, a point raised by the

Reconstructing De Gaulle

The responses to Andrew Moravcsik's article discuss the main substantive and methodological points raised in it. Although most of the respondents agree that Moravcsik has properly highlighted the importance of commercial concerns for de Gaulle's policy on European integration, they question the validity of his sharp separation between de Gaulle's political and economic goals for France. Several commentators argue that political and commercial concerns (including agricultural concerns) were closely intertwined in de Gaulle's vision of French grandeur. John Keeler brings up another crucial question: Was French agriculture really an obstacle to France's position in Europe? He argues that de Gaulle successfully supported and modernized French agriculture because he was convinced that this would contribute to France's geopolitical position in Europe and the Western world. In two longer commentaries, Jeffrey Vanke and Marc Trachtenberg raise questions about Moravcsik's methodology and use of sources. Both agree that Moravcsik draws on an impressive array of available materials concerning de Gaulle. But they both wonder whether a definitive account of de Gaulle's policies can be written when the documentary record is still incomplete, a point raised by the

A Twilight Zone. Identity Crisis in French Geopolitics

The paper initially describes some of the most important historical processes that have conditioned France's geopolitical position in the contemporary world. It discusses the current changes in France's geopolitics as a changing reality of international relations and as a changing discourse of scholars and experts, that reflects those real world changes. The paper focuses on French politics in Africa and on France's policy in Europe after the end of the Cold War. In Africa the French post-colonial empire with its close ties between domestic regimes, French business interests and the French state becomes unsustainable after the bipolar rivalry has been suspended. In Europe French policy can no longer be presented as either an independent view among a series of others (Europe des patries) nor as a successful effort to press French views by way of a larger European entity. The paper presents an overview of geopolitical literature written in France as a reflection of these conditions.

Identification and development of potential for management and executive positions in France

Reviews French particularities in the field of high potential managers development. Stresses some mechanisms in the building of the managerial élite. After a presentation of the main ways of gaining access to the top (through a historical perspective) suggests new trends that will affect top management development for the next decade.

France's defence procurement strategy: Looking to the future

Following the publication of a White Paper in 1994, detailing the foundations of France's defence policy, French defence procurement policy underwent a drastic change Fuelled by the new ‘Programme Law’ Henri Conze, Délegué Général pour L'Armement, here outlines the changes that have been put in train. These basically take two forms firstly, changes within the country itself and secondly, in its relations with European and Alliance partners. After examining the framework of change, the author concludes with an acknowledgement of France's position within Europe and the potential to use their defence base for the good of all Europe.

Foreign Policy in the Italian Democracy

There are various reasons why foreign policy has played and still continues to play such an important and in some cases dominant part in Italian democracy. It is bound up with Italy's history. Unification was only achieved a hundred and thirty years ago, after the country had been split up for more than four centuries into many separate States, some of which were of European importance: Rome, Milan, Turin, Venice, Florence, Mantua, Ferrara and Modena, and Naples and Sicily. Although comparatively small states, they nevertheless enjoyed diplomatic relations with one another and with the leading states of Europe, even during the period of foreign domination over the peninsula. Modern, stable diplomacy is Italian in origin, and with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, it spread throughout the whole of Europe, thanks to two cardinals, Giulio Mazarino and Giulio Alberoni, who held leading positions in France and Spain, respectively. Two other Italians were also the mediators of the Peace of Westphalia itself: the Papal Nuncio Fabio Chigi, the future Pope Alexander VII, and the Venetian Ambassador Alvise Contarini. It was they who introduced Italy's diplomatic customs regarding neutrality, precedence, privileges, immunities, the diplomatic pouch, and diplomatic couriers, etc. into the six-

Scientific Information in Occupied France, 1940-1944

The occupation of France by National Socialist Germany from 1940 to 1944 drastically altered France's position as one of the world's most scientifically advanced nations. French scientific resources, including scientists, laboratories, library collections, and documentation, became subject to the policies of the Third Reich. A variety of geopolitical and cultural factors prevented German policies toward French science and culture from being as harsh as German policies in eastern Europe. A Subgroup for Library Protection was established by the occupying forces to protect French library resources and make possible the Germans' maximum access to them. Two French-run indexing services to scientific literature flourished under the occupation: one, approved by the Germans and run by Jean Gérard, director of the Maison de la Chimie; and the other, published illegally by Jean Wyart, of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). Wyart's Bulletin analytique depended on a network in Vichy France that supplied Allied journals as well as paper. Begun in 1940, it was the prototype for the CNRS's current abstract series, Bulletin signalétique (1956--).

Concepts, models and anti‐racist strategies in Britain and France1

Abstract European integration brings with it the aspiration that anti‐racist strategies will be co‐ordinated throughout the twelve member states. However, definitions of the problems to be addressed vary widely. This article compares the position in France and Britain, pointing out that for many French people the pursuit of equality is much more important than the recognition of minorities. This difference is rooted in historical experience. The article argues, however, that despite variations in concepts, models and definitions there is much to be learnt from developing a dialogue on ways to combat racism.

Policy Review Section

In this Policy Review Section, Ian Holliday and Roger Vickerman of the University of Kent examine the regional impact of the Channel Tunnel in the context of the different political and administrative systems prevailing within Britain and France. Eurotunnel, the company which is licensed by the French and British governments to build and operate the Tunnel, has no government finance or guarantees and hence the public authorities have no direct control over its commercial development. However, in both countries central and local government has, to varying degrees, sought to influence the short and longer term regional consequences. In terms of the former, the £4 billion construction project is seen as an opportunity in France to concentrate the benefits in the immediate hinterland of the Tunnel in Nord-Pas de Calais through public and private sector partnership schemes whereas in Britain public policy has sought to diffuse the benefits across the economy as a whole and particularly to industry in more depressed regions, mainly through publicizing contract opportunities. The evidence suggests that the dispersal strategy, particularly in the context of a less interventionist policy framework in the UK, has proved more difficult to achieve. Turning to the longer term implications, Holliday and Vickerman argue that the institution of a Single European Market allied with the Channel Tunnel, the development of a north-European high speed train network and new motorway connections will reinforce the dominance of the so-called ‘golden triangle’ bounded by London, Köln/Frankfurt and Paris. Cities within this zone such as Lille which will be connected to the high speed train network and will have associated commercial and infrastructure investments are forecast to benefit considerably, whilst the cities which may experience negative economic consequences are seen as being mainly in Britain outside South East England. Such areas face a double disadvantage: they are increasingly peripheral to the north-west European economy; and there are no clear plans in the UK to link them properly to the new transport systems which will structure that economy. In regard to public policy, Holliday and Vickerman contrast the position in France where most infrastructure investment has been agreed and the main questions concern ways of deriving maximum benefit from it, whereas in Britain the debate remains about whether additional investment is required and, if so, how it should be financed. They conclude that public policy in Britain requires far more imagination than is the case in France because of the more difficult regional problems posed by the Tunnel and that the absence of such a strategic approach to guide public and private investment is likely to reinforce the North-South divide.

FRENCH ATTITUDES TO EMPIRE AND THE ALGERIAN WAR

THIS ARTICLE has two aims, one general and one specific. The first is to throw some more light on French attitudes to Empire, and the second is to examine the proposition that it was the peculiar 'consensus' of such attitudes that more than anything else was responsible for the traumas of decolonization in the 1950s in Indo-China, Morocco, Tunisia but above all in Algeria. French attitudes to Empire during the IIIrd Republic (1871-1940) have been analysed in some detail by Brunschwig, Girardet and Ageron who have presented a clear picture of a strong and disproportionally powerful 'Parti Colonial' exploiting French self-doubts, economic anxieties and the Napoleonic tradition of the 'civilising mission' to create a mood of chauvinistic expansionism which was the dynamic force behind the creation of the French Empire in Africa and Asia. However, the attitudes of the 'Parti Colonial' were by no means representative of the whole of France, leaving some Frenchmen indignant and an even greater number indifferent.' Vichy France, the mauvaise conscience of the twentieth century French experience, has only recently started seriously to emerge from the polite cloud of humbug that denied that it existed at all except as a background to the Resistance. Thus whilst much is known about the role played by the colonies as the only concrete reality of 'Free France' much less is known about the colonies as an expression of Vichy France.2 That the humiliation of 1940 cast a long shadow over the IVth Republic (1946-58) and that the colonies, now constituted as the Union frangaise offered a chink of light in an otherwise sombre view of France's position in the world is difficult to doubt. Yet by 1960 almost all the colonies were either independent or well on their way to becoming so. What then was the nature of the colonial commitment of these years? It was above all the Algerian question that put France's commitment to her colonies to the test. Although severely shaken by the war in Indo-China and the troubles in Morocco and Tunisia, faith in the need to maintain 'Algerie frangaise' was widely shared in 1954. Algeria, after all was the jewel of France's empire. Invaded by the French in 1830, by 1954 its population included over a million settlers of European origin and represented France's

Public access to government information: The position in France

here has in our time been considerable progress in the matter of public access to government information. Originally conceived as a means of acquainting citizens with the laws by which they are bound, it has developed into a method of monitoring government activities and even of participating in them. Information for the public may work by the traditional means, such as the sale or distribution of publications, or by making these available in libraries and by consultation of government archives. Other methods of access are now being developed, such as the creation of information centres, access to official computer systems, and, more recently, the right to consult documents that have been withheld by the authorities and even, in certain instances, to be present at working meetings of official bodies. Development of the right of access to information should, however, be conditional on respect for privacy and the necessity for the smooth running of the administrative departments.