La bourgeoisie catholique au Conseil d’État (1879-1914)

Prenant appui sur une prosopographie des membres du Conseil d’État entre 1879 et 1914, l’article se propose de présenter les outils dont dispose l’historien pour apprécier la nature du catholicisme de la bourgeoisie de fonction. Il s’agit de comprendre comment révéler une «foi des tièdes», discrète mais essentielle, à partir d’archives et de témoignages sur un groupe social, mais aussi de discuter des catégories traditionnelles de l’histoire religieuse et de mettre en lumière une partie peu étudiée du peuple des fidèles. Les résultats de l’enquête permettent d’esquisser le tableau d’un monde où la religion est d’abord appréciée comme une pratique sociale. Se révèle alors la nature des liens entre les conventions bourgeoises, la religion catholique et les pratiques juridiques.Based on a prosopography of the members of the Conseil d’État between 1879 and 1914, this article attempts to present the means whereby the historian can analyse the Catholicism of the bourgeoisie in state service. The challenge is to reveal the discreet but crucial ‘faith of the lukewarm’, by using archives and testimony relating to a social group, but also to examine the traditional categories of religious history and to illuminate a rarely studied part of the faithful. The results of the enquiry enable us to portray a world in which religion is primarily valued as a social practice. This in turn reveals the nature of the connections between bourgeois conventions, the Catholic religion and juridical practices.Der Beitrag stützt sich auf eine Prosopografie der Mitglieder des Conseil d’État zwischen 1879 und 1914 und stellt die Instrumentarien dar, über die der Historiker verfügt, um den Charakter des Katholizismus derjenigen Schichten des Bürgertums zu erfassen, die eine höhere Funktion ausübten. Es geht darum zu verstehen, wie sich ein «Glaube der Lauwarmen», der diskret, aber wesentlich ist, auf der Grundlage von Archiven und Zeugnissen über eine soziale Gruppe fassen lässt, aber auch über die traditionellen Kategorien der Religionsgeschichte zu diskutieren und einen nur wenig erforschten Teil der Gläubigen ins Licht zu rücken. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung gestatten es, das Bild einer Welt zu entwerfen, in der die Religion zunächst als soziale Praxis verstanden wird. So kommt die Natur der Bindungen zwischen bürgerlichen Konventionen, der katholischen Religion und rechtlichen Praktiken zum Vorschein

L'historien et le politique:Sortir enfin du dialogue de sourds

L'histoire n'est pas un domaine réservé. Et les politiques ont toute légitimité pour y intervenir. A condition de respecter les règles du métier. La campagne pour l'élection présidentielle de 2017 semble ne pas déroger à une règle assez récente. L'histoire y est convoquée par des candidats qui n'hésitent pas à donner leur opinion sur ce qu'elle fut, sur ce qu'elle devrait être ou encore sur le contenu de son enseignement. Ce qui suscite des polémiques politiques mais aussi historiographiques, les historiens professionnels étant sommés par les médias de donner leur avis ou de trancher pour énoncer ce qui est supposé être la vérité historique. Comment expliquer la récurrence de ces affrontements autour de l'histoire qui forment une certaine singularité française

Compte-rendu de : Marc Feix, Frédéric Rognon, Frédéric Trautmann (dir.), Conflit, Médiation, Alliance, Les nouvelles conditions du vivre-ensemble , Strasbourg, Association Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg (coll. « Chemins d’Éthique »), 2025 ; 24 × 16,5, 228 p., 22 €. ISBN : 978-2-38571-012-5.

International audienc

The Interstitial Ecotones of Migration: Working Towards a Transdisciplinary Approach

Adapted from Thomas Lacroix and Judith Misrahi-Barak "The Interstitial Ecotones of Migration: Three Examples for a Transdisciplinary Approach", a conference paper presented at “Utopia and Migration: Renewing the Imagination of Borders in the 21st Century”, Oxford: Maison Française d’Oxford, April 2021International audienceAn ecotone is a term initially defined to designate an ecological transition zone. It is a contact zone between two ecosystems (sea and land, plain and mountain, forest and savanna...) (Hufkens, Scheunders, and Ceulemans 2009). It is a space of interpenetration, reciprocal adaptation, exchange, production of hybrid species, competition, disruption and relegation. The concept has only recently been introduced in the field of migration studies. Our aim is here to outline what we understand as migratory ecotones. We contend that ecotones can be conceived as heterotopic sites where encounters shape and reshape a plural humanity. These theoretical considerations will be supported by three literary examples: a raft and a construction site as they appear in ‘Children of the Sea’ and ‘Without Inspection’, two short stories by Edwidge Danticat, and a shop which serves as a stage in Shani Mootoo’s short story ‘Out on Main Street’. In the last section, the paper wraps up the argument by relating the concept of migratory ecotone with Foucault’s notion of Heterotopia

Middle powers and the evolution of the outer space regime: an analysis of Latin American contributions in the UN

International audienceThis article provides a historical reassessment of the contribution of middle powers to the evolution of the outer space regime. We argue that the traditional focus by scholarship on superpower competition and on the five founding treaties has led to an underappreciation both of the role of smaller powers and of the normative developments within the regime beyond hard law. Our analysis focuses on Latin American middle powers and reveals that they influenced the regime’s commitment to norms of non-appropriation and openness to all countries irrespective of development levels and have played a constructive role in sustaining multilateralism in the face of great power deadlock. The article is based on a mixed-methods approach, through which we quantitatively identify an original four-phase chronology of the regime’s evolution in the UN and discern consistent Latin American emphases on each period via qualitative analyses of primary sources, interviews and observation of negotiations. It outlines a new chronology of the space regime and detects the contribution of Latin American middle powers to its evolution, given their concern with safeguarding multilateral talks threatened by great power rivalry, along with their pursuit of institutionalisation, de-escalation and influence through managerial positions

Reducing educational inequalities through metacognition? Evidence from a classroom intervention in kindergarten

International audienceSome studies have evidenced that metacognitive interventions have the potential to enhance academic achievement and reduce educational inequalities among primary and secondary school students. However, no intervention to date has investigated whether improving metacognition in preschoolers could reduce these inequalities. This is particularly critical, as previous studies reported that the effect of family socioeconomic status (SES) on academic abilities is mediated by metacognitive abilities. In the present study, we tested the effect of a classroom intervention aiming at fostering metacognition on educational inequalities in kindergarteners. We collected data from 344 children aged 5 to 6 on their family SES, and metacognition, language and mathematics abilities at pre-test, immediate post-test, and a three-month follow-up. Consistent with a previous study, we found that metacognition mediated the relation between family SES and academic abilities in language and mathematics. Moreover, the intervention improved metacognitive knowledge and arithmetical operations of the kindergarteners of the experimental group (n = 172), as compared to those in the passive control group (n = 172). Importantly, the results suggest that low-SES children benefited more from the intervention at the follow-up when considering grammar abilities. This study is the first to demonstrate delayed post-test effects, transfers to academic learning, and potential SES-differentiated effects of a metacognitive intervention in this age group. These findings highlight the potential of metacognitive interventions to address early educational inequalities and emphasize the need for further research and policy initiatives, particularly in the area of teacher training

Changing norms in EU return policy? A longitudinal analysis of commission documents on return

International audienceReturning migrants without an authorisation to stay has become a central concern of the EU’s migration policy since the 2015/2016 ‘migration crisis’ fostering the perception that return increasingly dominates both internal governance and external relations. Existing scholarship, however, largely relies on case studies of specific instruments or partner countries, leaving the broader trajectory of EU return policy underexplored. This article provides the first longitudinal and comprehensive assessment of the evolution of return-related norms in EU migration policy. We analyse a novel corpus of about 700 Commission policy documents and press releases issued between 1985 and 2020, using descriptive methods and topic models. We find that the prominence of return overall has not consistently increased over time. We also do not find a linear increase in the external dimension and cooperation with non-EU countries, but rather a change in focus from development funding to connecting return to visa facilitation and back to questions of development. Moreover, border control has gained prominence within return- related documents over time. The findings shed light on our understanding of the EU’s return policy and of the norms the Commission highlights both in policy and in public communication

Visible expressions of Islam in public space affect Muslim immigrants’ place integration

International audienceWestern societies are divided over whether public expressions of Islam should be permitted in urban spaces. Some argue such displays prompt withdrawal among Muslim immigrants and undermine their sense of belonging, yet rigorous empirical testing remains limited. Given this empirical gap, this study provides a causal test of the effect of in situ exposure to embedded Islamic symbols on Muslim immigrants’ place-based integration. We conceptualize place integration as a proximal, cue-driven person–environment process, reflected in approach-oriented behavior and attitudinal–perceptual attachment to place. We then evaluate the effect of public Islam using naturalistic field experiments and original surveys with Muslim immigrants in Paris and London. Using a purpose-built augmented reality mobile app, our experiments tracked participants’ movement along identical urban routes, randomly assigning exposure to either Islamic symbols (treatment) or non-religious cues (control) (NParis = 151, NLondon = 147). GPS-based behavioral data comprising walking pace, acceleration and brief remaining near the location, show that exposure to Islamic symbols increased approach-oriented behavior (dParis = 0.51, dLondon = 0.63, P < 0.05), accompanied by a parallel increase in self-reported place attachment. Corroborating survey evidence (NParis = 403, NLondon = 400) further indicates that everyday visibility of Islamic symbols in one’s neighborhood is positively associated with place attachment. The patterns hold in both Paris and London, despite their contrasting approaches to religious visibility, indicating that the effect extends beyond a single policy context. These findings have implications for the governance of religious diversity in urban public spaces in the context of immigration

Les futurs élargissements face au défi des opinions publiques dans les États membres de l’Union européenne

Décryptage - Institut Jacques DelorsAprès une période de « fatigue », l’invasion militaire de l’Ukraine par la Russie, en février 2022, a relancé l’élargissement de l’Union européenne (UE). En près de quatre ans, le processus a avancé davantage que lors des quinze années précédentes. Une série de décisions des chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement de l’UE a permis de redynamiser la relation avec les « anciens » candidats des Balkans occidentaux (Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro et Serbie ) et d’étendre le processus à deux pays d’Europe orientale (Moldavie et Ukraine). Dans le cas du Monténégro et de l’Albanie, les négociations sont avancées, au point d’envisager la possibilité d’une adhésion à la fin de la décennie. Mais entrer dans l’Union européenne ne se résume pas à finaliser des chapitres de négociation en vue d’un traité d’adhésion. Ce traité doit ensuite être approuvé par le Parlement européen, ratifié par l’Etat candidat et par les 27 Etats membres de l’UE, soit par la voie parlementaire, soit par celle d’un référendum. Le soutien des opinions publiques dans chaque Etat membre est donc un sujet aussi fondamental que la finalisation des négociations