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Given the great uncertainty in “creative” industries, how do cultural producers make decisions ? We approach this question through a study of a particular case, the selection of models by fashion houses for their shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris. The data employed are both qualitative (ethnographic interviews) and quantitative (analysis of social networks). While the producers present the selection of models as a question of “taste,” or personal preferences, we show that their decisions are, in fact, defined by mechanisms of information-sharing in social networks, notably through “optional” mechanisms. Our data analysis reveals that cultural producers' decisional processes are a question of strategic choices based on status, even if their rhetoric refers to personal taste.

Keywords: industries de la création, mannequinat, mode, statut social, creative industries, models, modelling, fashion, social status, industrias creativas, modelaje, moda, estatus social

This article explores the social representations which public transit users and bus drivers have of users with or without disabilities, the environment and, ultimately, the territory. The analysis of rich and complex material drawn from interviews reveals what these concepts mean for participants, and also shows the way in which attitudes vary among different subgroups. These research results allow us to identify important issues related to the development of inclusive public transit in the Quebec Metropolitan Community.

Keywords: handicap, représentations sociales, transport collectif, territorialité, différences fonctionnelles, disability, social representations, public transport, territoriality, functional differences

For some years, theatre studies in Québec have been the locus of multiple tensions and debates, partly resulting from their specific geographical and cultural location between Europe and North America. This study is intended to define the discipline's epistemological landscape in Québec by examining a corpus of writings from three academic communities on the issue of modernity. Having considered the treatment of this question by scholars from Québec, Canada, and the United States, we attempt to describe how theatre studies have evolved as a research area since they were established in the 1980s, and to identify the challenges they face in a context of disappearing boundaries between disciplines and erosion of the theatre as a shared reference in Québec culture.

SummaryThe issue of links between schools and families is addressed in an analysis of the ways schools account for languages learned at home. A language socialization perspective is adopted as a theoretical lens to examine ethnographic data documenting the experiences of two students from immigrant families who were observed over seven years and were enrolled in a French Immersion program in the Vancouver area. Data gathered at school and in the family setting are compared to illustrate how multilingual students' language resources might be validated or not at all recognized by schools.

Keywords: immigration, immersion, école, famille, plurilinguisme, immigration, immersion, school, family, multilingualism, inmigración, inmersión, escuela, familia, plurilingüismo

SummaryThis article proposes an analysis of the teaching-learning processes presented in three textbooks published in accordance with the new Quebec social sciences program. The results are compared to the teaching-learning-processes conveyed by the preceding program in order to bring to light elements of both continuity and change. The results show that the passage from a program based on objectives to a program based on the competency approach has generated little change. The textbooks remain attached to a model of presentation and transmission of knowledge, offering little for the student to develop a system for interpreting different realities and their socio-spatial dynamics.

Keywords: manuel scolaire, sciences humaines, enseignement primaire, démarche d'enseignement-apprentissage, approche par compétences, textbooks, social sciences, teaching-learning process, competency approach, primary education, libro de texto, ciencias humanas, educación primaria, proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, enfoque por competencias

The Mouvement des caisses populaires acadiennes will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2011. During its history, the organization has evolved to encompass a current membership of close to 200,000, accumulated assets worth 2.5 billion dollars and an organizational structure set up to support the Caisses' services. Forever changing, the concept of vitality helps communities in minority situations to achieve a greater understanding of what they need to survive and thrive in distinct and active ways. Analyzing an organization's contribution to vitality is a seldom-used research approach. The analysis results emphasize that the Mouvement contributes to the vitality of New Brunswick's Francophone and Acadian communities by its results, assets, cooperative values and socio-economic implication.

Keywords: communauté en milieu minoritaire, complétude institutionnelle, contribution à la vitalité, coopérative, Mouvement des caisses populaires acadiennes, vitalité, commununities in minority situation, contribution to vitality, cooperatives, institutional completeness, Mouvement des caisses populaires acadiennes, vitality

Western sociological literature on contemporary intimacies and dominating love ideals can be divided in three main approaches: the first defines detraditionalization and individualization as emancipation, the second regards the dissolution of traditional references as a source of disengagement, the third highlights the coexistence between modernity and tradition in intimate practices and discourses. By drawing on the results of a case study on the Quebec TV show La Galère (2007-2013), this paper presents a fourth approach, one which is able to overcome the theoretical and empirical limits of the three above mentioned stances. Our approach champions the idea of an “integrated semantics” in order to describe semantic elements circulating in Western contemporary cultural productions, as well as the terms and the features of the coexistence between traditional and modern semantic themes. In addition, our approach provides the conceptual tools to support hypotheses regarding the link between observed semantic elements and contemporary social transformations impacting the intimate sphere.

Keywords: Sémantique intégrée, intimité, amour, couple, inégalités de genre, téléséries, Integrated semantics, intimacy, love, couple, gender inequalities, TV shows, Semántica integrada, intimidad, amor, pareja, desigualdades de género, teleseries

The article examines the various instances at which Simmel's work confronts the necessity to reformulate the liberal conception of obligation. If — as the emergence of social rights suggests — responsibility for action is no longer imputable to individuals alone and if the rationality of the law is not determinable through positive law or the abstractions of natural law, a sociological revision of the modern conception of freedom is indispensable. Beyond the naturalist, positivist, and historicist framework of the 19th century, this revision must necessarily include a critical analysis of the close link that the Moderns posited between universalism and legal-economic formalism. In this perspective, Simmel's thought at once represents an acceptance of the historical dimension of this phenomenon, but also seeks to transcend it through an ethico-political reflection that allows for the emergence of a new type of universalism, which is immanent in modern formalism.

Keywords: obligation, libéralisme, individualisme, liberté, loi, autonomie, universalisme, obligation, liberalism, individualism, freedom, universalism, law, autonomy, obligación, liberalismo, individualismo, libertad, ley, autonomía, universalismo

In his work Daniel Simeoni gave prominence to the practice of the translator. Taking this as my point of departure, I analyze the practices of Louis-Mathieu Langlès, curator of Oriental manuscripts at the National Library in Paris from 1792 to 1824, and founder in 1795 of the École spéciale des langues orientales vivantes, where he was the administrator and professor of Persian until his death in 1824. Langlès held a central position in French Orientalism as it was developing in Paris at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. In his numerous publications, which included many reviews, biographical notices, editions and translations, Langlès systematically engages with the authors whose work he is translating or presenting, reacting to and supplementing their texts with copious notes, notices, discourses, memoirs, and other forms of paratextual materials. Far from adopting a subservient position, Langlès positions himself as an equal. His publications received both high praise and strong criticism from critics and reviewers, an indication of the changes taking place within the discipline, and the personal tensions these at times involved, as Orientalism evolved towards a more scientific, and eventually a more philological, approach.

Keywords: Louis-Mathieu Langlès, orientalisme, pratiques de traduction, l'Inde, publics, Louis-Mathieu Langlès, Orientalism, forms of translational practice, India, readerships

The author analyzed 700 lawsuits heard by the Superior Court in the judicial district of Three-Rivers during the 1880s. A dozen years after the enactment of the Civil Code of Lower Canada (1866), industrial capitalism and market relations were transforming the economic and social fabric of Quebec. Two broad questions form the basis of this analysis : What do the judicial files of the Superior Court reveal about the social and legal stakes in a local society in transition ? Do they portray a particular stage in the history of legalization and litigious nature of social relations in Quebec ?