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AbstractABSTRACTThe Development of Practices in Médical Genetics and thé Construction of Bioethical NormsThis multi-site ethnographie study of medical genetics development in the Province of Quebec demonstrates that certain influential mechanisms used to demarcate human genetics stem directly from cultural and social representations characteristic of Western society. To comprehend the influence of these mechanisms in such technoscientific sector, it is necessary to understand that introducing genetics to the social sphere not only allows us to modify the medical destiny of man, but also to change rules which define his identity, control his reproduction and determine his rights. Consequently, it provokes effective and powerful collective representations. Effective, because it generates fears or hopes, powerful, because it is normative. In this light, the study reveals the existence of two major representational fields, the first one, dealing with progress in the field of genetics, and the second one, dealing with its applications. We will also see how these representational fields have induced two dictinct but consequent ethical functions : one discursive and the other normative.

On the basis of two historical works, one on mental illness in Quebec and the other on an epidemic of smallpox in Montreal, the author raises the question of institutions. Over and above the conceptual vagueness that surrounds social control, and if so, then what type of behaviour do they seek to control ? A distinction between control and the regulation of behaviours is introduced, in the framework of the emergence of a concept of normality.

Using the results of an intervention conducted from an activity clinic perspective with occupational health physicians, this study explored the links between mime on the one hand and, on the other, physicians' adaptation of emotions and development of their capacity to act on their environment. The intervention was used to confront professionals with their own work activity and that of their peers, and thereby to generate a discussion that allowed them to go over arguments for and against specific procedures. We concluded that although the physicians were initially affected, embarrassed, and taken aback by the analysis of their work activity, this destabilization was productive in that it led them to discuss the goals of their actions and to reflect upon the relationships between the goals and motives of their work activity. We saw these as the conditions needed to adapt their emotions and develop the capacity to act on their environment.

Keywords: activité, affect, sentiment, pouvoir d'agir, mime, work activity, affect, emotions, capacity to act, mime, actividad, afecto, sentimiento, poder de actuar, mímica.

SummaryProfessions may be considered as belonging to the much broader category of the highly qualified labor force. They are particular however because of their capacity to act as organized groups upon various mechanisms which serve to define the nature and degree of qualification. To the barrier of specialized knowledge, they add other barriers by influencing the conditions by which this knowledge is transformed into qualification and the conditions in which this qualification is used in the providing of services. They set themselves off from the rest of the highly qualified work force by a greater degree of social closure. These distinctive characteristics of professions become evident through the study of various aspects of technological change in health.

AbstractThe reform of perinatal care in France, implanted in the late '90s, is based on a classification of obstetrical risk (low, medium, high). According to her estimated risk level, the pregnant woman will be referred to a I, II or III-level maternity unit. Based on a survey carried out by means of observations and interviews with obstetricians and midwives, the paper sets out to show that the definition of these risk categories is an issue in itself. Indeed, the contestation or acceptance of this classification reveals two very different concepts : the first introduces an accentuation of the hypermedicalization of delivery, the second tends towards its « de-technicalizing » and the opening of Birthing Homes, still at the project stage in France.

Therapeutic efficacy is at the heart of medical anthropology interested in diverse healing practices across the world. We here take up this debate once again based on fieldwork conducted within jamu practices in Yogyakarta (Jogja) in Java, Indonesia. The daily preparation and consumption of beverages made with fresh plants, rhizomes, spices, barks that we roll, press, mash and liquefy evokes a therapeutic efficacy situated in lived experience. We borrow from merleau-pontian phenomenology of perception, deleuzo-guattarian rhizomatic thought and Javanese philosophy of the body to understand therapeutic efficacy as a line of flight or of deterritorialization. Doing so, we recall that that therapeutic efficacy reduced to infra-phenomenal causal correlations, as in the current scientific standard of the randomized clinical trial (RCT), does not exhaust the human experience of the therapeutic process.

Keywords: Laplante, Sacrini, efficacité thérapeutique, ligne de fuite, anthropologie, phénoménologie, médecine jamu, Java, Laplante, Sacrini, Therapeutic Efficacy, Line of Flight, Anthropology, Phenomenology, Jamu Medicine, Java, Laplante, Sacrini, eficacia terapéutica, línea de escape, antropología, fenomenología, medicina jamu, Java

In this article we describe the main features of professional over-qualification in Canada, its scale and frequency and its impacts on workers' remuneration. Over-qualification of workers is a subject that has been widely discussed in the literature, which shows its significance as a phenomenon both for policy makers and for individuals. Data from the National Household Survey (NHS) of 2011 show that the percentage of workers in Canada who were over-qualified for their job was 26 % in 2011, almost the same rate as recorded in 2006. This overall rate varies significantly depending on the level of education (40 % among those with a bachelor's degree, and 18.3 % among those with a secondary school diploma) and on the area of study (49 % for history and 27 % for library science). In terms of incomes, over-qualified workers earn less than colleagues who have the same level of education but with jobs corresponding to their educational qualification level. At the same time, compared with workers who have the level of educational qualification normally required for their jobs, those with higher levels (in other words those who are over-qualified) earn more.

Keywords: Éducation, niveau de compétence, surqualification, rémunération, Canada

Man's solitude is part of his everyday existence. It reveals itself especially in his work, his sadness and in his suffering as pointed out by the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Can we hope that one day science and technology will eliminate pain, suffering and even death? This is the question raised by this article. In it, we try to distinguish between pain and suffering; to consider the purpose and the effects of pain; to ask whether or not a person has the right to be treated for pain with everything that is available and to make proposals on the ethics of compassion.

Keywords: douleur, souffrance, alliance thérapeutique, compassion, pain, suffering, therapeutic alliance, compassion

The authors reject an approach in terms of deviance and normality in favour of an approach based on the needs of the working class. Using the work done by A. Heller on the theory of need and the problems she discusses, the article describes the effect that this author has had in Italy. The concept of need is essential if one is to be able to understand the new characteristics of the working class.The contribution of the Italian "movimiento" has also been important for struggles in factories as well as in the community. If Italy constitutes in some ways an exception, it is because it is the only European country where one can speak of working class autonomy in relation to state and private management. Furthermore, no prevention policy has been adopted largely because working class autonomy has reduced manoeuvering room for the state. In this sense, the authors argue that prevention policy can be seen as a kind of anticipation of power rather than as an expression of the needs of the working class.It is in this context that the struggles for health and the experience of the Center for Social Medicine of Guigliano (near Naples) are discussed.