Claude Vautier
«Relational Modeling of Societal Configurations Linked to Emergence Phenomena: An Example of Research in Contemporary Morocco» (p. 11-82)
Abstract: Social sciences, such as economics, sociology, history, anthropology as well as other disciplines, have attempted for centuries to explain how human societies live and develop (or collapse). Many theories have thus emerged through numerous controversies and many disappointments. For the purpose of this article, I divide these theories into two categories: economic development theories and sociological theories. The former tend to explain why certain human groups manage to generate growth and development, the latter attempt to show how societies live and change. This division is of course debatable but allows us to look at the two major objectives of the text, namely, on the one hand, to understand how human groups in contemporary Morocco have succeeded in developing and improving their levels and modes of life, on the other hand, to show that models different from those commonly practiced in the social sciences (based on the explanatory preeminence of individuals or structures) are possible and provide angles of view that allow us to understand more deeply and more effectively the social systems on which we want to intervene. The modeling described here is “relational” and was carried out using an analytical model constructed by the author, whose name RISE is the acronym for “Relation, Individual, System and Event”. This modeling made it possible to decipher the situation of three societal sites initially considered as emerging in contemporary Morocco.
Key-words: relational approach; configuration; development; emergence; event; individual; analytical model; development model; relation; system
Ines Bouguerra
«Essay of Trialectic Modelization of Religious Conversion» (p. 83-108)
Abstract: Religious conversion is seen as a form of the return of religion in the secular societies. To understand this metamorphosis of the religious landscape, several disciplines have become interested in studying the causes of religious conversion. Equipped with its conceptual and theoretical apparatus, each discipline has contributed elements of knowledge which have contributed to the understanding of the causes of religious conversion. However, this monodisciplinary knowledge led to the explosion of the research object. This article is an attempt to reconcile the various readings of religious conversion. First, we emphasize the dissemination of knowledge which deals with the causes of religious conversion. Then, we prepare the ground for an interdisciplinary reading by adopting relational theory. Finally, we set the stage for a trialectical modelization of the causal links of religious conversion. We are presenting a theoretical apparatus that has been empirically tested as part of a doctoral project.
Key-words: religious conversion; complexity; interdisciplinarity; relational theory; trialectic model; causality link
Sophie Del Fa
«What Being Anti-Capitalist Means: A Constitutive Approach» (p. 109-143)
Abstract: This article shows how the constitutive approach of communication (CCO) allows to study an anticapitalistic organization. More precisely, the aim is to understand how the constitutive paradigm enables to grab anticapitalism through the meticulous observation of the relation between various actors (human and non-human). The article shows that anticapitalism is being worked from the inside, meaning that it is done, but also undone through communication practices. The CCO approach is operationalized to understand what being anticapitalistic means through the close ethnographic study of a free school (UPop Montreal). The article wishes to answer the following question: “what does it mean to be anticapitalistic?” The main answer is that anticapitalism is moved by processes of differentiations which modify how the organization relates to its ideological positioning. The article proposes a novel and original perspective to seize the intricacies of anticapitalism through the close study of interactions.
Key-words: communicative constitution of organization approach; CCO; anticapitalism; organizational ethnography; processes
Myriam Richard et Roxane Caron
«(In)visible Realities and Ambivalent Vulnerabilities: Autoethnographic Dialogue around a Field of Research with Women Refugees in Lebanon» (p. 145-179)
Abstract: This article presents a reflection inspired by the autoethnographic method which is based on a dialogue between its two authors around fieldwork they conducted with Syrian refugee women in Lebanon. It aims at answering the following question: what is the relevance of doing research with refugees if it doesn’t come with a commitment to transform the situations of vulnerability and violence they face? In order to do so, the authors each share a personal story revealing some of their intrinsic motivations for engaging in the practice of field research in Lebanon. They then explore three topics that came out of their discussion – namely a reflection on: 1) the challenges of doing fieldwork with refugees who are still vividly experiencing displacement and state of emergency on a daily basis; b) the necessity of reconsidering the notion of vulnerability in social work; c) the importance of doing research located at the intersection of knowledge production, intervention and advocacy. The article finally calls for a renewed commitment to research practices that aim at producing robust knowledge as well as bringing forward social change around the issues faced by refugees.
Key-words: autoethnography; refugee women; Lebanon; vulnerability; engaged research
Christophe Providence
«Development Aid in Haiti: Paradoxical Responses to Territorial Imbalances» (p. 181-217)
Abstract: This study seeks to explain the local externalities generated by the territorial development aid system in Haiti. By taking into account the territorial levels in which the projects are carried out, it questions the distribution methods of financial and human flows in relation to the development needs expressed by the local populations. Two phenomena therefore attract attention: local actors interacting with other external actors (1) and local externalities from the introduction of local projects in the territories (2). In this paper, we propose an exploratory analysis of geo-referenced data which consists of a set of techniques allowing to describe and visualize the spatial distributions of local projects. Taking into account the socioeconomic externalities released by the development aid system refers to the phenomenon of spatial heterogeneity which characterizes local projects. The results of the analysis show the paradoxical response of development aid, which only increases the dependence of local actors on imported experts and reinforces territorial disparities.
Key-words: development aid; territorial development; local externalities; local actors; local projects; Haiti
Acheton Altenor
«The Economic and Socio-Political Causes of the Transition from Regionalization to Departmentalization in Haiti» (p. 217-248)
Abstract: The 1970s marked the beginning of concerns about spatial disparities and the rational organization of space in Haiti. The various studies that were conducted during the 1970s and early 1980s highlighted the need for a regional approach to combat spatial disparities through a centralized regional planning policy. However, about six years after the elaboration of the country’s first national regional planning scheme, the regional approach was abandoned in favor of departmentalization following the vote of the constitution of March 29, 1987, which advocates territorial decentralization. This article aims to explain the economic and socio-political causes of the transition from regionalization to departmentalization in Haiti. More specifically, the author argues that a series of events in the global economic and socio-political context of the 1970s and 1980s, combined with an internal economic and socio-political situation, made it impossible to maintain the regional approach as conceived and experienced in Haiti.
Key-words: Haiti; spatial disparities; regional approach; regional planning; regionalization; departmentalization; territorial decentralization