Documents found
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352.More information
Research on Law and Justice from the perspective of the social sciences illuminates the very nature of law itself as a method of knowledge production and, in particular, as a way of thinking. Recent publications on the subject reveal an unresolved tension between Justice and fairness. This tension is implicit in the equivocal relationship between judges and researchers. This uneasy relationship is a product of the distinct nature of two separate missions. One is based on the quest for legal truth, the other on the pursuit of an empiric understanding of the world. While Law prefers to impose definitions on an orderly certain world, the social sciences, on the other hand, acknowledge the ambiguity of their definitions of the legal world. Two distinct conflicting knowledge modes are at play here. The quest for certainty is at odds with the uncertainty of academic conjecture. Thus, the activities of judges and those of researchers are two distinct worlds in terms of their epistemology. This also holds true for Justice viewed as a social practice. While the legal reconstruction of the world is a necessity for arbitration, researchers are primarily interested in the concrete workings of the decision-making process. Thus, the need to be reasonable which binds judges is placed in an empirical context. The judge is seen as an actor in a specific semiotic context; the courts are a “bodyˮ; the trial is the site of relationships between specific participants (judges, attorneys, laypersons). An abstract and idealistic vision of Justice is thus opposed to Justice viewed as a social construct. Thus, a mutual separation, required of both judges and researchers, both binds them together and keeps them apart.
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355.More information
SummaryThe concept of wage earner relation (rapport salarial) is original and helpful to understand the models of societies or enterprises. However, it is too comprehensive. It is suggested to distinguish two dimensions in that relation: the organisation (division and coordination of work) and the institution (social compromise), and further to complete the regulation approach by adding a relation of consumption which allows to include the relation between the citizens-users-consumers and the enterprises or state agencies. Lastly, a critical examination of the relation between structure and agents shows that the notions of reproduction and regulation must not be confused.
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359.More information
SummaryIn this issue published on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Department of Sociology of the University of Montreal, we thought it would be interesting to include a document on the history and development of the department. This document has taken the form of a round table in which Jacques Dofny, Hubert Guinden, Norbert Lacoste and Marcel Rioux participated. Reference is made to the various sociological trends that influenced (or did not influence) the first years of the department, to the positions taken by the various actors within the university, to the social and cultural context in Quebec at the end of the 1950's, to the student movements, etc. The document presents both analytical elements and personal accounts of individuals who were closely connected to the Department of Sociology in the first years of its existence. The round table was animated by Robert Sévigny.