Against a backdrop of skepticism regarding the quality of the school system, government policy in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (Belgium) has introduced new tools for the cognitive regulation of schools: assessment mechanisms, accountability measures, statistical data, and indicators. In light of the pragmatic theory of trust in institutions, we analyze the perceptions and uses of these tools by intermediary agents of control and regulation. To what extent do these tools – particularly the indicators –constitute (or fail to constitute) mechanisms of trust upon which to base their judgment of the quality of schools’ work and performance? In contrast, we document teachers’ perspectives on this regulation of their professional practices. The implementation of managerial and statistical mechanisms appears far from fostering trust and collaboration among the institution’s stakeholders. Instead, they may lead to a loss of faith in the institution’s mission and a temptation toward opportunistic behavior. These issues and questions are addressed through exploratory empirical research involving inspectors and “objective contract delegates”, as well as elementary school teachers.
In a climate of sharp tension between complementary and alternative medicine and biomedicine, this paper examines the interplay of trust, power, and lived experience among Quebec naturopaths. Using Anthony Giddens’ theory of trust as a framework, we analyze how reflexive modernity and power imbalances shape practitioners’ health perspectives, specifically on contentious issues like vaccination. Findings from a qualitative study of 30 naturopaths reveal that their trust in the biomedical system is governed by two intersecting dynamics. First, their views are shaped by the precarious professional standing and power asymmetries they face. Second, they maintain a persistent skepticism toward information – even scientific data. This doubt, functioning as a form of critical inquiry, leads them to challenge established dogmas and evaluate the friction between their empirical expertise and biomedical standards. Ultimately, these dynamics highlight a profound skepticism toward “expert systems” in favor of more tangible, experiential forms of knowledge.
Can the massive expansion of schooling among younger generations, observable on a global scale since the second half of the twentieth century, be read as an expression of trust in educational systems? To address this question, the article draws on the sociology of Niklas Luhmann, and in particular the distinction he draws between two forms of trust: trust (Vertrauen) and confidence (Zuversicht). Building on a socio-historical perspective – drawing on Ariès, Lasch, Prost, Petitat, Tyrell and Vanderstraeten – the authors show that the relationship between the family system and the school system has progressively shifted from a premodern distrust, through a moment of trust, towards a diffuse form of confidence that is quasi-inevitable: less chosen than endured, less decided than imposed by the functional differentiation of modern society. In conclusion, the authors examine the effects of neoliberal policies of school choice, which, by activating the mechanisms of trust, risk eroding confidence – potentially leading to a form of alienation, that of actors who feel captive within a system with which they are dissatisfied, yet from which they cannot conceive of escaping.
In a context where the school system is portrayed as being “in crisis”, and where relationships between schools and families are perceived ambivalently despite a stated desire for closer ties, the concept of trust provides a useful lens through which to examine parents’ relationship to the school system and to explore broader institutional and societal transformations. Drawing on an exploratory study based on in-depth interviews conducted with parents of primary school students in a French primary school, we seek to better understand how parents’ relationship to schools and teachers is situated along a trust-anxiety continuum, taking into account their ideals, expectations, and everyday experiences. We first examine the processual dimension of trust. It begins even before the first child enters school and is tested throughout the course of schooling, involving various actors and modes of interaction. Parents’ initial trust in the school system is an a priori form of trust, appearing suspended upon the actual relationship and put to the test of experience. Early encounters, the child’s school situation, as well as the events and difficulties encountered over time, shape the relationship. We then focus more closely on the direct relationship with the teacher, asking how it shapes parents’ perceptions of teaching. Parental trust, which may be described as a form of clear-eyed trust, remains highly dependent on the individual teacher, but also on parents’ educational expectations and on their perceived capacity to support their child’s schooling.
The question of trust in institutions is addressed in the context of ordinary police work through two TV series: the American series The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008) and the French series Engrenages (Canal+, 2005-2020). These series are read in the context of a dialogue between a “language game” (in the sense of Ludwig Wittgenstein), that of TV series, and two “knowledge games” (in the sense, derived from Wittgenstein, formulated by Henri Atlan), those of sociology and philosophy. To provide theoretical support for this analysis, we borrow from two sources: the critical-pragmatic sociology of Luc Boltanski’s De la critique (2009) and the perfectionist philosophy of Stanley Cavell. Boltanski’s reality tests and existential test are then compared with Cavell’s perfectionist perspectives of self-improvement and democratic community improvement. This methodological and theoretical toolkit enables us to grasp how fictional truth can nourish scientific reality, without confusing the two.
This article focuses on the interpretation by French citizens from the middle classes of thirty “offensive experiences” with the police institution (Felstiner et al., 1991). It uses the results of a qualitative survey conducted through interviews with claimants who have referred the matter to the Defender of Rights about the action of the national police or gendarmerie in 2022. Rejecting the prospect of a systemic analysis of the damage suffered, these claimants construct these bad encounters as problems of the reliability of certain access points (Giddens, 1994) to the security and justice system. These citizen demands can thus be analysed as protest strategies (Hirschman, 1995) that aim to reduce the institutional rift with the police rather than widen it. Starting from an analysis of the grammar of interactions experienced as offensive by claimants, the article explores the foundations of their desire to end this dissonance (Champain, 2023) with the police institution.
Despite research highlighting the limitations of numerical grading as a reflection of students’ academic performance, grades remains central in school life, particularly in the construction of teachers’ evaluative judgments. However, studies have shown that grades are not self-sufficient: they are subject to an interpretive process that involves qualifying students in terms of their attitudes and performances. Grades are thus accompanied by prescriptions and comments. This tension between objectification and personalization calls into question the mechanisms of trust in institutions as they have been examined so far. This article analyses the conditions under which grading functions as a trust device capable of producing a credible categorization of students. Drawing on the concepts of trust device (Karpik, 1996) and reliance (Quéré, 2024), we examine grading practices based on two ethnographic studies conducted in French-speaking Belgium. We identify three forms of relationships to grading: (1) reliance on an impersonal device, (2) engaged trust within a personal device, and (3) disengagement from grading. We show that these three forms coexist within the institution depending on the status of the actors (students or teachers), the nature of the grade (particularly its proximity to the average), and actors’ relationship to the institution. Far from being a neutral indicator, the grade emerges as a socially constructed object whose capacity to reduce uncertainty varies across contexts and actors.
Research on the limits of public service modernisation has mainly focused on identifying changes in users’ trust in these services. It has rarely examined civil servants’ trust in the regulation of their own organisations. This is what we propose to do in this article on the effects of the ongoing changes in the regulation of French primary schools on the trust of educational managers in their own organisation. To this end, we draw on an exploratory survey of three new management tools recently implemented in French primary schools: school evaluations, the Rilhac law of December 2021 on the responsibility of school leaders for “educational management” and calls for innovative projects. Based on a cross-analysis of interviews, observations and documents from headteachers and inspectors, it shows that although these professionals are subject to various challenges of professionalism that can undermine their position, they remain strongly committed to implementing these tools. However, this commitment is accompanied by a loyal “mistrust” that can weaken the dynamics of sustainable cooperation in favour of instrumental collaboration.
Based on an online survey (n=539) and interviews (n=57) with performing arts artists and technicians, this article examines the influence of pregnancy and parenthood on artists’ careers. It seeks to understand why working in this field is more complex for women who may have children and for artist mothers. We show that these women are perceived as a risk in an environment where the dominant norm is a body that can be adjusted to needs and devoted to its art. This devotion is primarily seen as a masculine trait, while women are perceived as overly invested in the private sphere. The emphasis on extreme availability and physical, bodily, and mental flexibility has a (self-)excluding effect on women, whether they want children or not.
In this article, the true impact of the students management of the Covid-19 in university restaurant will be analyzed. The socio anthropologic study is entirely based on semi-directive and participatory observation interviews. About 39 people were questioned based on the principle of emperical saturation: 20 students ,13 restaurant workers, 4 controlling and sensitizing agents and 2 agents in charge of the control of tickets, quality and hygiene. The students have been randomly chosen and the others on a purpose sampling. The datas that have been processed on the basis of content analysis of the themes, reveal that the anchoring of the students identity has Impacted the Covid-19 management in the university restaurant as indicated by the severity of non-compliance with devices of the pandemic management. They also indicate that the anchoring of students identity and the failure to respect the health recommandations revolves around perceptions and representations of the Covid-19 and also the measures to manage the covid 19 took into account their limitations. The chosen restaurant was an “observatory” of the non-respect of barrier mesures and an acting “laboratory”.
Starting from a sociological research conducted on the basis of technical, scientific and political corpus between 1990 and 2005, this article explores the contexts and modalities of manufacturing the new reference curves for the growth of infants and young children of WHO. It underlines the extent to which this project, initially thought in expert arenas, induces a fundamental paradigmatic shift: from the measurement of the average growth of children from disadvantaged social environments to the search of optimal physiological growth, sought in children from privileged groups close to WHO nutritional recommendations. It calls, more broadly, for the recompositions of the biopolitics of populations in the field of international public health to be questioned around four dimensions: a globalization based on the quest for universalizable biological invariants, a hardening of the boundary between biological and social determinants in the vision of child growth, a subordination of the social to the biological (the former is manipulated to reveal a physiological potential for optimal growth) and a concern for optimizing the bodies of which the nursing maternal bodies constitute a central mean of action.
This article aims to examine how collaborative and contributive dynamics – key drivers in the production of fan writings such as online fanfiction – are concretely expressed in the activity of their authors. The analysis focuses on the mechanisms that facilitate connections between authors and their readership, in order to identify an underlying form of relational economy. Drawing on the concept of authoriality (Neeman, 2012), the article moves beyond questions of authority and ownership to explore other dynamics at play. The study of personal networks reveals how these dynamics emerge within interpersonal relationships. It relies on data collected from 71 participants through semi-structured interviews, as well as systematic gathering of reader comments, to refine the understanding of audience contribution. The purpose is to grasp the key factors shaping the production of these specific contents, such as fanfiction, while exploring whether the role of digital technologies leads to the disappearance of the author or the creation of a hybrid figure.
Community security is perceived as a fundamental objective in response to the phenomenon of gangsterization that profoundly affects certain communities in Haiti. The proliferation of armed gangs in urban neighborhoods has led to significant human and material losses, as well as massive population displacements to makeshift shelters, which are often precarious and unsafe, or to the homes of relatives. This article highlights the escalating insecurity in Port-au-Prince by analyzing the interactions between youth, the presence of armed gangs, and the challenges of community security, with a specific focus on two popular neighborhoods: Martissant and La Saline. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted within a qualitative research framework, the article examines the social, economic, and political dynamics shaping these territories. It sheds light on key issues related to youth involvement in crime and the role of community security mechanisms in the Haitian context. The study’s findings reveal that many young people are actively engaged in violent acts, largely due to their socio-economic vulnerability and the absence of effective social protection mechanisms. This situation is primarily attributable to the failure of the Haitian government, whose primary mission includes ensuring the well-being, security, and protection of its citizens.
L’article de Frédérique Giraud analyse la transmission du capital culturel en famille à travers l’usage des jeux et livres Montessori, montrant que cette transmission ne s’opère ni automatiquement ni par simple héritage, mais exige un investissement parental continu et une action intentionnelle. Contrairement à la vision d’un « bain culturel » diffus, il s’agit d’un processus volontaire où des jeux, des objets et des apprentissages quotidiens deviennent supports de socialisation, bien au-delà des seules pratiques culturelles légitimes. L’enquête qualitative menée auprès de 65 familles révèle que les milieux populaires utilisent les jeux Montessori pour pallier des difficultés scolaires et favoriser l’autonomie, tandis que les familles moyennes et supérieures les mobilisent pour renforcer l’avance scolaire et développer des compétences distinctives, investissant leur espace domestique comme environnement d’apprentissage. L’article démontre ainsi que les différences de capital culturel ne tiennent pas seulement à la possession d’objets ou de compétences, mais aussi aux manières de les utiliser et de les valoriser, remettant en cause l’idée d’une transmission passive et soulignant le rôle central du travail éducatif parental.
En lien avec la réédition de Capital culturel et inégalités sociales. Morales de classes et destinées sociales (Liénard/Servais, 2023), cet article présente, 50 ans plus tard, un regard distancié sur cet ouvrage. La première partie situe, fin des années 1960 et début des années 1970, le contexte des relations entre divers acteurs sociaux (politiques, psychopédagogiques et sociologiques) en ce qui concerne les causes des échecs et des redoublements scolaires dans l’enseignement maternel et primaire. Il existait, à l’époque en Belgique francophone, des débats à propos du handicap culturel, de la démocratisation scolaire et culturelle, de l’égalité des chances et des inégalités socio-culturelles. De ces débats est résulté une convergence plaidant en faveur de la reconnaissance des inégalités culturelles. Dans la seconde partie, on aborde trois contributions de cet ouvrage : le processus de recherche en binôme, l’utilité du traitement graphique des données et grâce à ce traitement, la structuration des pratiques culturelles. Ensuite, sur base d’une critique constructive, deux questions sont discutées. Est-il pertinent d’analyser les moyens d’action de diverses classes sociales à partir du seul concept de dépossession ou de privation de capital culturel ? La situation et la position socio-économiques objectives sont-elles déterminantes de la position et des significations symboliques à partir desquelles les personnes ressentent et agissent ? En conclusion, on souligne que, malgré des réformes positives, en lien avec les positions culturelles, sociales, économiques et symboliques dans la structure de la société, les inégalités culturelles se maintiennent, en particulier dans les domaines de l’apprentissage de la lecture et de la compréhension des textes.
Cet article interroge la pertinence du modèle bourdieusien de La Reproduction pour appréhender la spécificité des inégalités scolaires expérimentées par les enfants issus de l’immigration. À distance d’une thèse courante posant que les inégalités liées à l’origine migratoire et/ou ethnoculturelles seraient « solubles » dans les inégalités sociales, l’article revisite un corpus de travaux (quantitatifs et qualitatifs) disponibles en Belgique francophone, alimentant l’hypothèse d’une vulnérabilité spécifique à ce public. L’examen attentif des analyses statistiques menées sur les données PISA met d’abord en évidence un certain nombre d’effets systémiques (effet de parcours et de composition), qui renvoient aux mécanismes par lesquels les capitaux initiaux sont traités au sein des structures scolaires et convertis en hiérarchies scolaires. La seconde partie mobilise la littérature internationale et montre comment l’expérience migratoire (transnationale) s’accompagne de dynamiques de requalification et de création de capitaux, susceptibles d’être plus ou moins convertis et reconnus au sein du champ scolaire. La troisième partie mobilise une approche « intersectionnelle intégrée » (Bilge, 2010) pour dépasser une analyse en termes de combinaison de facteurs (classe, ethnicité, genre) et appréhender la manière dont ces variables s’imbriquent et s’encastrent au sein des structures éducatives méso et micro (marchés scolaires locaux et de micropolitique des établissements). Les propositions analytiques qui se dégagent de l’article entendent ainsi rester fidèles aux dimensions relationnelles et systémiques du modèle de la Reproduction, tout en l’élargissant aux dynamiques migratoires globales et intersectionnelles locales.
