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For several years now, labour scarcity has been a concern for managers and business leaders. The current Covid-19 pandemic, that is disrupting the regular course of organizational activities, has exacerbated these concerns and amplified competition between companies for a diverse and mobile workforce. In this context, the importance of human capital, as a strategic asset, forces companies to focus their efforts on developing actions that promote increased employee loyalty. Based on the work experience and life experience of proximity managers, this article focuses on the actions and behaviours that have enabled these managers to adapt and respond to the new realities of telework during the high moments of the Covid-19 pandemic, while maintaining the well-being and the commitment of their employees. This study is based on 18 semi-structured interviews carried out with proximity managers who, in the summer of 2021, had to manage remote teams within a large company in the banking sector. Our results highlight the work and privileged position of these managers to support employees and to recognize and understand their expectations and needs during this period marked by uncertainty and remote management. Our results also lead us to draw conclusions in terms of leadership practices, considering that very few studies have yet focused on leadership and its effectiveness in times of crisis.

Keywords: Fidélisation de la main-d’oeuvre, employees loyalty, rareté de main-d’oeuvre, labour scarcity, proximity managers, gestionnaires de proximité, commitment to work, pandémie de COVID-19, engagement au travail, COVID-19 pandemic

This article analyses the relation between the notions of territory and identity as they present themselves in discourses produced during the Congrès mondiaux acadiens (CMA or World Acadian Congresses). The CMAs, we argue, are emblematic of a process of “alter-territorialization,” territorializing identities other than through formal administrative borders. The territory, as defined by nationalist discourse during the CMA, is perceived primarily as the place where a process of community representation both possible, and constantly revised and remodelled through deliberation, collective action, commemoration, and socio-cultural movements that seek to direct it. In this way, the CMA plays a unique role in crystallizing a representation of Acadie that is both diasporic and situated. In this article, we focus mainly on the 2019 CMA. In addition to ethnographic fieldwork carried out during the various activities the 2019 CMA, we draw on the informational and promotional material produced by the CMA organizing committee. We also use data from a media analysis, a survey (N= 191) and semi-structured interviews (N=30). Territory and identity are central themes in each of these types of sources, to which we apply critical analysis in order to better understand the “Acadian territorial complex”. 

Keywords: Arrighi, Berger, Traisnel, Congrès mondial acadien, Acadie, territoire, identité, discours, festivités, reconnaissance, francophonie, Arrighi, Berger, Traisnel, Congrès mondial acadien (World Acadian Congress), Acadie, territory, identity, festivities, discourse, recognition, francophonie, Arrighi, Berger, Traisnel, congreso mundial acadiense, Acadia, territorio, identidad, discurso, festividades, reconocimiento, francofonía

Since the beginning of the 2000s, the notarial profession is going through a process of modernization, which is today reflected in the digitalization of many activities and services. This article shows how the digitalization of activities has gradually become an opportunity for notaries to assert their added value towards citizens, while strengthening their position in the Belgian judicial system. Based on qualitative research within Belgian notary's offices, we analyze the implementation of two digital applications (eRegistration and Biddit). Such applications modify two important activities of the profession: the registration of authentic acts and the public sales of real estate.  Based on a socio-ergonomic analysis of the activities and discourses of multiple notaries involved in digitalization, we show how such digital applications have contributed to the evolution of the professional identity of notaries. At the institutional level, we discuss the central role played by the notaries' professional federation (Fednot) in the digitalization of the profession. Our results show that the digitalization of the profession reinforces an already existing tension between two roles related to the notarial activity in Belgium: the role of state officer and that of entrepreneur.

Keywords: Notaires, Digitalisation, identité professionnelle, Fédération professionnelle, Notaries, Digitalization, Professional identity, Activities

SummaryThe world of work is undergoing major transformations (teleworking, new technologies, Industry 4.0, social reform in some countries) in which labour relations are likely to play a central role. In this context, our case study presents an alternative approach to local social dialogue: “Social Design.” The specific aim was to mobilize stakeholders to deal with the introduction of digital technology at a large industrial company in France. Within the theoretical and methodological framework of activity-centred ergonomics, we analyzed the process of co-design and the process of design “in use.” We conducted interviews, work activity observations and simulations of future working conditions. We identified “fruitful possibilities” (e.g., more extensive participation by stakeholders and collective discussions about the transformation of work) and “real-life resistance” (e.g., difficulties in finding common agreement). We report on the quality of local social dialogue and provide an epistemology of the action of social dialogue on the theme of the transformation of work. In sum, we describe an original initiative to transform local social dialogue in the context of a changing workplace.AbstractWe present the results of a research-action initiative to strengthen participation by social dialogue stakeholders (union representatives, managers and workers) in companies that are being digitally transformed. For this, we used activity-centred ergonomics. After presenting a co-design process, i.e., “Social Design,” we describe how the initiative was carried out in a large industrial company and how it was re-designed “in use.” We thus helped certain union representatives participate in dialogue on the topical issue of digital transformation, thereby helping define a new organizational structure in the workplace and further developing the “Social Design” approach.

Keywords: labour relations, activity-centred ergonomics, method design, industry 4.0, relations professionnelles, ergonomie de l'activité, conception de méthode, industrie 4.0

AbstractSpatial and Temporal Dimensions of Legal PluralismLegal pluralism as a field of inquiry has consistently posed scholars with interesting problems of definition and conceptualization, in part because it brings to the foreground unresolved comparative problems in the anthropology of law. This essay suggests that conventional formulations of legal pluralism are structured and limited by Western conceptualizations of law, and proposes that comparative approaches might be renewed by examining the multiple conceptualizations of social difference and legal pluralism that the world offers. The essay juxtaposes configurations of sociolegal difference organized around temporality, space, and other dimensions of experience.

Drug regulatory bodies aim to ensure that patients have access to safe and effective drugs; however, no matter the quality of pre-licensure studies, uncertainty will remain regarding the safety and effectiveness of newly approved drugs until a large and diverse population uses those drugs. Recent analyses of Canada's post-market drug surveillance (PMDS) system have found that Canada's PMDS system requires strengthening and that efforts must be improved to monitor and address the safety and effectiveness of approved drugs among vulnerable populations. Given the uncertainty that exists when drugs enter the market, some have suggested that the precautionary principle is relevant to guiding decision-making in this context. This paper responds to recommendations that the Canadian PMDS system should be responsive to the health needs of vulnerable populations by assessing the utility of deploying the precautionary principle to guide a post-market strategy for vulnerable populations.

Keywords: precautionary principle, uncertainty, vulnerable populations, postmarket drug surveillance, pharmaceutical regulation, principe de précaution, incertitude, populations vulnérables, surveillance des médicaments après leur mise sur le marché, réglementation pharmaceutique

This paper examines the spatial concentration of corporate power in Canada and measures the regional imbalances that are presently so noticeable. Furthermore, since corporate power in many instances is becoming ever more synonomous with foreign control the research notes not only the spatial concentration of this control but the sectors of the economy that are effectively under foreign domination.The paper intimates that those areas that house the headquarters of the giant multinational corporation are the net beneficiaries of the monetary strength, political leverage and technical expertise that these establishments have available to bring to bear in a wide variety of economic and political situations. It follows that if an area benefits from the presence of large corporations, and these same corporations are concentrated into particular regions then the possibility arises that certain "have-not" regions will have cause to feel left out of the mainstream of decision making that characterizes the economic and political well being of the entire nation. It appears that this joint problem of spatial concentration and sectoral domination by domestic as well as foreign corporations may be one of the many catalysts fostering both present-day Canadian nationalism and overt provincial sectionalism.

Keywords: Sièges sociaux, contrôle étranger, concentration spatiale, grandes corporations, inégalités régionales, Head Offices, foreign control, spatial concentration, corporate power, regional inequality

Far from being a semantic question, the concept of addiction is a major psychosocial benchmark to the extent that the conception and the definition of a condition have a direct impact on the comprehension of the phenomenon in question and on the types of needed services and treatments. Based on a review of the literature, this article focuses on the social trend towards medicalization in the field of addictions. To that end, three aspects will be highlighted: (1) an overview of the medicalization process as a modality of social control ; (2) an illustration on how the psychosocial perspective of Stanton Peele covers a rich corpus that allows us to better understand an impressive variety of human activities and behaviors in a context of addiction ; (3) an attempt to demonstrate how the Peele approach contributes to “de pathologize” and to empower the addicted persons. In conclusion, some avenues for bringing together the medical and the social are suggested.

Keywords: dépendance, médicalisation, contrôle social, liens sociaux, intervention, addiction, medicalization, social control, social ties, intervention, dependencia, medicalización, control social, lazos sociales, intervención

In the 1960s, the International Nickel Company of Canada (INCO) sought to preserve its dominance of the global nickel industry by securing access to New Caledonia's abundant reserves of nickel ore. In attempting to do so, however, INCO became embroiled in an acrimonious political dispute between New Caledonian autonomists, who wanted to diversify the territory's economic activities and secure greater self-government from French rule, and the government of France, which considered INCO a threat to French sovereignty over New Caledonia and France's interests in the Pacific. In obstructing INCO's ability to operate in New Caledonia throughout the 1960s, however, the French government inadvertently galvanized the territory's nationalists and increased their demands for autonomy from France.