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SummaryRecent studies conducted in France and the USA lead us to question whether it is possible, from the apparently indisputable social stratification of statistically observed cultural practices, to deduce the existence of a social stratification of tastes, as well stabilized and hierarchically ranked as that proposed by Bourdieu in La Distinction. This time based on qualitative data, the article offers a critical re-examination of the theory of cultural legitimacy and its contemporary variants. Thus, three portraits of art-lovers, members of the new upper-middle classes in Quebec, show that the eclecticism of cultural repertoires in fact conceals contrasting and often discriminant usages of taste. Moreover, the juxtaposition of several classification systems, each generating distinctions/differences, makes the relation to the repertories even more complicated. Directly addressing the apparent rise of ‘omnivorism' and ‘fashionable eclecticism' noted in the respective studies of R.A. Peterson and O. Donnat, the article argues that the question of usages of cultural repertoires, largely overlooked in the statistics on cultural practices, must be taken into account in order to reconsider the relationship between taste and social status.

AbstractThis paper reviews the principal studies relating visual perception and cognition. Following a description of research reports of eye movement analysis, the author stresses the importance of visual scanning studies as an indicator of the sequential organization of attention. According to the author, the development of measurement stages in psycho-physiology would permit a better understanding of the possibilities for students to adapt to the diverse categories of stimuli to which they are presently subjected.

The paper deals with the Saint Lawrence River and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence whose specific name was given by J. Cartier in August 1535. By derivation, « laurentian » (originally, a geologic term) and « Laurentides » (first, a shield region in Québec) have been coined. Since 1935, several authors (Marie-Victorin) have tried to regionalize the water body, almost the Estuary section whose external limits are still a matter of discussions. If among many facets, an estuary is that part of a river in which the fluvial current meets the sea's tide, the St. Lawrence Estuary must start East of Québec city (lake Saint-Pierre). On the other hand, the majority of maps do not include Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence itself and many climatic isopleths cross the island. So, the Estuary may be short or long, that means a difference of 300 miles in length. Any-way, suitable wording has been suggested to name the 13 laurentian sections : 2 sectors above Lake Saint-Pierre ; 4 for the estuary ; 7 in the Gulf. In writings, we use « Moyen estuaire » (Middle Estuary) since 1955; the expression, as some others, was picked up. Along the shores and in the islands, the « choronymy » shows a multicultural strata complex with a dominance of sound franconyms.The author discuss also aspects of the Saint Lawrence Lowlands that are pertinent to his hydrographic subject ; these themes concern geologic evolution, climatic and bio-geographic characters, floating ice or « glaciel » situation, human and economic elements. On the methodological stand point, this paper may belong to what is called global geography.

The present article introduces an analysis of diversity management practices and perceptions within major Japanese companies. Since the mid 1990's, important changes in the socio-economic context have forced major Japanese companies to face the necessity of incorporating greater diversity into their labour force. In the present article, we will analyse the practices undertaken by such companies regarding diversity management. We will show how diversity management first began with measures aiming at the advancement of working women within companies and have subsequently been used, with a similar logic, to manage foreign workers.

Keywords: Japon, diversité, travail, femmes, culture, Japan, diversity, work, women, culture

The first part of the article examines the context of the renewal of the study of travel literature, which started in the mid 1970s, in order to better understand its intellectual objectives and critical parameters. The context of decolonization thus created certain parallels between the criticism of colonialism and the literary criticism of travel literature. The need for assessing the legacy of colonialism also motivates the study of its advent in Early Modern texts. The insistence placed upon origins, and upon first contact, in turn, is one of the many places where the study of travel narratives interacts with the discipline of anthropology. The second part of the article is about the ambivalence involving, on one hand, the advent of research on travel literature, and on the other, its difficulties in precisely defining its object, or its refusal to do so. The definition of the object appears to be less crucial than its rehabilitation or its historicization. The third part of the article presents a selection of critical discourses, questionings, and stakes, linked to travel literature: (1) poetics, (2) historical approaches, from new historicism to the history of the book, (3) alterity and its phenomenological or anthropological study, (4) text and image, (5) the reception of travel narratives, such as its reprocessing by philosophical discourse, (6) colonial discourse and postcolonial theories, (6) world history.

Keywords: littérature de voyage, récit de voyage, bilan de recherche, décolonisation, anthropologie, genre, réhabilitation, poétique, histoire, altérité, texte et image, réception, philosophie, discours colonial, théorie postcoloniales, histoire connectée, travel literature, travel narratives, research evaluation, decolonization, anthropology, gender studies, rehabilitation, poetics, history, alterity, text and image, reception, philosophy, colonial discourse, postcolonial theories, world history