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AbstractAnthropological Methods and Petty Commodity Production Activities in AfricaUsing a study of thé informai sector in Dakar, thé author examines thé difficulties linked to thé use, in an urban setting, of anthropological methods developed in thé study of villages. He argues that a structural analysis is indispensable, and must begin with a theoretical framework. Examples taken from thé author's expérience illustrate some of thé possibilities, as well as some of thé problems, which arise from this method of research. The argument is built on a critique of thé generalized use of questionnaires in research carried out on behalf of international organizations, and thé resulting descriptive studies. This argument goes beyond thé limits of a purely methodological debate, showing thé theoretical, cultural and political dimensions which affect thé design of a scientific study of petty commodity production activities in urban Africa.

AbstractGender, Class and Socioeconomic Mobility Among the Baulé (Ivory Coast)Precolonial Baulé society was characterized by a high degree of socioeconomic mobility on the part of both sexes. Prosperity attracted dependents and the latter, in their turn, contributed to prosperity. It is thus that a senior man or woman could accede to the status of ancestor. The models and values of the past still govern the strategies used to attain success by female city dwellers of rural background. However, the effects of class relations and the current process of social reproduction as gender relationships tend, paradoxically, to promote the very conditions of inequality that these women wish to escape. At the same time the social networks linking the urban and the rural milieux that serve as the bare for a certain integration of Baulé society within the state context are now being threatened.

AbstractThe Big Disorder. AIDS and the RulesIn this article we explore the social and legal disorder raised by the AIDS plague. By following the evolution of the facts, the social representations and the reactions of public health authorities in the fields of prevention and treatment in Canada, we indicate the limited array of possible responses to fear, both individual and collective. In this fuzzy space of behaviour and deregulation, political, social, legal, and economic forces compete to reassure those who are alive, exploiting or combating prejudice. Imperceptibly a new order emerges.

AbstractThe Empire 's Old Clothes Fashioning the Colonial SubjectThis essay explores the role of dress in the making of colonial subjects and " ethnie " communities. It asks why nineteenth-century British missions in Southern Africa, striving to reform African hearts and minds, devoted so much time to clothing black bodies. Clothing, for the Christians, was the " fabric of civilization "; ils appropriate consumption was seen as a major means of shaping new forms of selfhood, desire, and labor. While European dress (both new and second-hand) did effect transformations, it touched off a complex politics of dress, playing into the making of new ethnie and class identifies, but also encouraging a novel cross-breeding with indigenous styles. If Africans remade their traditions with colonial materials, they often asserted local modes of appropriation, playing in unforseen ways on the possibilities of commodity culture.

AbstractIn Canada, various actors have been requesting supervised injection facility of illicit drugs, since the late ‘90s, for different reasons, the principal being socio-sanitary. Even though these premises constitute a strategy of harm reduction attractive to the politician, drug users are largely absent from the debate on their eventual implementation, at least in Montreal. This is the case considered by the authors in this article. Of course, users are consulted, through questionnaires, but these are interrogative practices quite different from a comprehensive approach. We present here a qualitative and inductive research on the significance, for marginalized consumers, of the eventual availability of such premises in Montreal. Also, the research allows us to know which type of resources they would wish, should the case arise. Their discourse permits us to understand that the principal target, for the services that are meant to better their well-being, is their life-style, living on the fringe of society and the social control they put up with due to the socio-judicial status of the substances they use. We observe also an important distinction between, on the first hand, the meaning that these designated premises hold for the users in Montreal and, on the other hand, the legitimating principles used by the actors demanding the establishment of such premises.

This article is about interpersonal physical violence. The description of the course of violent crimes in Quebec, based on official statistics and surveys, shows an increase in these crimes and in gang fighting, but the level is equivalent to that we had already known. There are a number of factors responsible for this situation — recent immigration, the reappearance of adolescent gangs and certain social changes. An analysis of interpersonal violence by means of a longitudinal study of individuals shows that it is an activity of the youth, not often repeated and of short duration, which is preceded by other criminal activities. It has been established that there is a strong continuity between agressive acts in early childhood, fighting during adolescence and violent crimes during adulthood. It has also been shown that the appearance of this type of conduct can be predicted under certain conditions. The results call for several preventive measures: the integration of young immigrants, the development of mechanisms for adolescent conviviality, support during the transition from school to the workplace and energetic control of adolescent gangs. Concerning action with regard to individuals, we discuss early discovery of persons at risk and specific types of intervention.

AbstractOver the past 15 years, the high prevalence of the comorbidity of “substance use disorders/post-traumatic stress disorder” has brought a growing number of researchers to look at the consequences of this dual diagnosis on treatment. The empirical data from these studies demonstrates that the clinical profile of persons who consult for alcoholism and drug addiction is more deteriorated when the substance use disorder is combined with a post-traumatic stress disorder. Moreover, these persons usually derive less benefit from the addiction treatment.Integrated treatment programs seem promising in treating both disorders but do not appear to rule out the dropout problem. Even though no study has been specifically designed to identify the factors involved in the process, a review of the literature reveals many cues which suggest three hypotheses : self-medication, the weakness of the therapeutic alliance and lack of social support not to mention the potential contribution of practical obstacles such as the lack of transportation and financial constraints. These hypotheses should orient future research in order to determine the essential elements in designing treatment programs that are better adapted to the reality of trauma survivors.

Keywords: troubles liés à l'utilisation d'une substance, état de stress post-traumatique, co-morbidité, persévérance en traitement, toxicomanie, addiction, substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, comorbidity, perseverance in treatment, addiction, problemas relacionados con el consumo de una sustancia, estado de estrés postraumático, comorbididad, perseverancia en el tratamiento, toxicomanía, adicción