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In spite of their centrality for the study of collective bargaining, the treatment of puissance and pouvoir (power as a capacity and as its actualization) in the field of Industrial Relations has been unsatisfactory to date. This state of affairs can be explained partly by the absence of theoretical common ground allowing for a structured accumulation of empirical findings, and partly by the fact that the balance between labour and management in contemporary collective bargaining regimes has been taken for granted by most mainstream academics. After three decades of « transformation » of industrial relations, considering that industrial conflict is still at the very heart of labour-management relations, the study of power must get back on the agenda if we are to ascertain the capacity of the actors to agree on reasonable terms of employment.Based on a synthesis of the relevant literature in the field of Industrial Relations and of some major contributions in Political Sociology, the article offers some conceptual basis for a critical, interactionist study of puissance and pouvoir in collective bargaining. The treatment of these two notions takes into account the dependence of the parties as well as their resources and strategic capacity. In the spirit of the threefold mission of Industrial Relations since J. R. Commons (teaching, research and intervention), the proposal contained in this article should contribute to a better understanding of the strategies and of the delicate balance between labour and management in collective bargaining.

Keywords: rapports collectifs du travail, employeur, syndicat, dépendance, ressources, biais institutionnels, labour-management relations, employer, union, dependence, resources, institutional bias, Relaciones colectivas de trabajo, empleador, sindicato, dependencia, recursos, sesgo institucional

The aim of this article is to identify the nature and effects of educational partnerships. Partnership in education organizes a meeting place where logical systems, codes, and symbolic figures clash, and where projects are articulated in such a way that individual and collective interests are confounded. Three operative concepts are examined in the article: those of openness, the contract, and difference. The aim is to show how these concepts are paradoxically responsible for the coherence and links established between various strata of the contract and the cohesion of the actors articulating their projects.

How do stakeholders use their judgment, forge their opinions in public debates concerning socio-ecological issues? What kind of possibilities, but also what pitfalls may arise when resorting to outside expertise? Is there sufficient space provided for the confrontation of values, given that they will necessarily guide collective projects? Analyzing the public debate surrounding the reconstruction of Montreal's Turcot interchange, but also theoretical and philosophical contributions – among others Hannah Arendt's concepts of responsibility and judgment – we discuss ethical and political issues raised by those questions. In a creative perspective, and looking towards the development of a learning society, we suggest that expertise should be mobilized in a broader, shared, critical and reflexive exercise.

Keywords: débat public, enjeux environnementaux, expertise, responsabilité politique, jugement, valeurs, réflexivité, public debate, environmental issues, expertise, political responsibility, judgment, values, reflexivity

This article on a research project concerning a multi-ethnic community in a city housing project shows how the community is structured by a host of social relations—between age groups, social classes and ethnic groups. The traditional approaches which emphasize the strategies of various classes and actors have proven to be unable to explain the complexity of a local community when the importance of the specific context tends to obscure the more general social causes underlying the situation. The architecture, the physical installations and the way they are used, the environment, the history of the tenants who have lived there and their relations with the city all tend to make each situation unique and need to be understood both in their own right and in a more general theoretical framework. This research seeks to investigate the process of creation of a "community".The specifity of the object of research necessitates a specific research strategy. In addition to the more traditional modes of analysis which break down reality into analytical categories, the approach here involves action which seeks to modify this reality. The sociologists have become involved in opening lines of communication amongst the residents and between them and the local authorities. Results have included the creation of a Residents' Council and a youth organization seeking recreational as well as housing facilities.

A group of actors formed a kind of ad hoc committee, or “confab,” with the goal of renewing the public consultation space and, at the same time, introducing a completely original mode of participation, based on interactions between people kept at the margins of institutionalized consultation systems. Confab is used here to mean a small group of people (unaffiliated residents along with well-known actors in the consultation system), limited in time and space, that focuses on a precise target, leading to widespread airing of the issues raised. To get a good idea of how such a confab works, we followed a recent case in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood, the conversion of Très-Saint-Nom-de-Jésus church, which was at once a community and social project, urban design project and cultural project, particularly with regard to the restoration of an exceptional Casavant organ.