Urban revolts and the destructuring of the working class (France 2005)

Taking as a starting point the urban revolts that exploded in France in October-November 2005, the authors call attention to a new aspect distinguishing these events from other forms of civil protest in France during the last few decades: the involvement of 'ordinary' youths, often well placed within the educational system and integrated in the work market, but almost always in precarious and unstable situations, without chances to evolve socially. Providing primary evidence of a profound deterioration in working conditions over recent years, the authors describe a social setting that combines unemployment, precarious work and the closure of future prospects, failures in schooling and the worsening of urban segregation, alongside open forms of racism that directly affect the young children of immigrant families, in large part residents of housing estates. The question proposed by the authors is the need to locate these events within the broader setting of the destructuring of the French working class. The key question to be understood is the working condition "after the working class." The authors resume discussions found in their book Retour sur la condition ouvrière (1999), analyzing the worsening of working conditions in more recent years and noting that the signs of racism in the working class environment are both a symptom and an effect.Tomando como ponto de partida a rebelião urbana ocorrida na França em outubro-novembro de 2005, os autores chamam a atenção para o que consideram novidade em relação às outras ocorridas na França nas últimas décadas: a participação de jovens "ordinários", por vezes bem situados no sistema de ensino e integrados no mercado de trabalho, porém quase sempre em situações precárias e instáveis, sem chances de evoluir socialmente. Evidência primeira de uma profunda degradação das condições de trabalho nos últimos anos, os autores tecem um quadro social em que se articulam desemprego, trabalho precário e fechamento de horizontes de futuro, situações de fracasso escolar e agravamento da segregação urbana, junto com formas abertas de racismo que atingem diretamente os jovens filhos de famílias imigrantes, em boa parte moradores dos conjuntos habitacionais. A questão proposta pelos autores é a necessidade de inscrever esses acontecimentos no quadro mais amplo da desestruturação das classes populares francesas, ou seja: a questão importante a ser compreendida é a condição operária "após a classe operária". Os autores retomam discussões de seu livro Retour sur la condition ouvrière (1999), com o agravamento da condição operária nos anos mais recentes, da qual os sinais de racismo no meio operário são ao mesmo tempo sintoma e efeito

A link between eumelanism and calcium physiology in the barn owl

In many animals, melanin-based coloration is strongly heritable and is largely insensitive to the environment and body condition. According to the handicap principle, such a trait may not reveal individual quality because the production of different melanin-based colorations often entails similar costs. However, a recent study showed that the production of eumelanin pigments requires relatively large amounts of calcium, potentially implying that melanin-based coloration is associated with physiological processes requiring calcium. If this is the case, eumelanism may be traded-off against other metabolic processes that require the same elements. We used a correlative approach to examine, for the first time, this proposition in the barn owl, a species in which individuals vary in the amount, size, and blackness of eumelanic spots. For this purpose, we measured calcium concentration in the left humerus of 85 dead owls. Results showed that the humeri of heavily spotted individuals had a higher concentration of calcium. This suggests either that plumage spottiness signals the ability to absorb calcium from the diet for both eumelanin production and storage in bones, or that lightly spotted individuals use more calcium for metabolic processes at the expense of calcium storage in bones. Our study supports the idea that eumelanin-based coloration is associated with a number of physiological processes requiring calciu

Three (Potential) Pillars of Transnational Economic Justice: The Bretton Woods Institutions as Guarantors of Global Equal Treatment and Market Completion

This essay aims to bring two important lines of inquiry and criticism together. It first lays out an institutionally enriched account of what a just world economic order will look like. That account prescribes, via the requisites to that mechanism which most directly instantiate the account, three realms of equal treatment and market completion - the global products, services, and labor markets; the global investment/financial markets; and the global preparticipation opportunity allocation. The essay then suggests how, with minimal if any departure from familiar canons of traditional international legal mandate interpretation, each of the Bretton Woods institutions - particularly the GATT/WTO and the IMF - can be viewed at least in part as charged with the task of fostering equal treatment and ultimate market completion within one of those three realms. The piece then argues that one of the institutions in particular - the World Bank - has, for reasons of at best negligent and at worst willful injustice on the part of influential state actors in the world community, fallen farthest short in pursuit of what should be viewed as its proper mandate. The article accordingly concludes that a fuller empowerment of the Bank to effect its ideal mission will press the Bretton Woods system more nearly into ethical balance, and with it the world into justice; and that full empowerment of the GATT/WTO and IMF should be partly conditioned upon the fuller empowerment of the Bank

Face à la croissance mortifère, quel développement durable ?

Beaud Michel. Face à la croissance mortifère, quel développement durable ?. In: Tiers-Monde, tome 35, n°137, 1994. Après le Sommet de la Terre : Débats sur le développement durable, sous la direction de Jean Masini. pp. 131-149

Maury (René) - L'Economie politique.

Beaud Michel. Maury (René) - L'Economie politique.. In: Revue économique, volume 19, n°1, 1968. p. 186

Nugent (Jeffrey B.) - Programming the optimal development of the Greek economy (1954-1961).

Beaud Michel. Nugent (Jeffrey B.) - Programming the optimal development of the Greek economy (1954-1961).. In: Revue économique, volume 19, n°3, 1968. pp. 524-525

O.C.D.E - Les groupes à revenus modestes et les moyens de traiter leurs problèmes.

Beaud Michel. O.C.D.E - Les groupes à revenus modestes et les moyens de traiter leurs problèmes.. In: Revue économique, volume 21, n°5, 1970. pp. 872-873