GANIL-SPIRAL2 : a new era

International audienceGANIL presently offers unique opportunities in nuclear physics and many other fields that arise from not only the provision of low-energy stable beams, fragmentation beams and re-accelerated radioactive species, but also from the availability of a wide range of state-of-the-art spectrometers and instrumentation. An overview of the physics with secondary beams carried out at GANIL is presented. Selected examples of recent experiments using fragmentation of high energy intense stable heavy ions beams and reaccelerated SPIRAL1 "exotic" beams and the associated instruments are used to illustrate the ongoing physics program. With the construction of SPIRAL2 over the next few years, GANIL is in a good position to retain its world-leading capability. As selected by the ESFRI committee, the next generation of ISOL facility in Europe is represented by the SPIRAL2 project to be built at GANIL (Caen, France). The future prospects of the accelerator complex GANIL-SPIRAL1 and the path towards SPIRAL2 is also briefly introduced

SPIRAL2 at GANIL: A world leading ISOL facility at the dawn of the next decade

International audienceTo pursue the investigation of a new territory of nuclei with extreme N/Z, called "terra incognita", several projects, all aiming at the increase by several orders of magnitude of RIB intensities are now under discussion worldwide. In Europe, two major new projects have been approved recently: FAIR@GSI, using the so-called "in-flight" method, and SPIRAL2@GANIL, based on the ISOL method. The main goal of SPIRAL2 is clearly to extend our knowledge of the limit of existence and the structure of nuclei deeply in the medium and heavy mass region (A=60-140), which is today an almost unexplored continent. SPIRAL2 is based on a high power, CW, superconducting driver LINAC, delivering 5 mA of deuteron beams at 40 MeV (200 kW) directed on a C converter+ Uranium target and producing therefore more than 1013 fissions/s. The expected radioactive beam intensities for exotic species in the mass range from A=60 to A=140, of the order of 106-1010 pps will surpass by two order of magnitude any existing facility in the world. These unstable atoms will be available at energies between a few keV/n to 15 MeV/n. The same driver will accelerate high intensity (100 μA to 1 mA), heavier ions up to Ar at 14 MeV/n producing also proton rich exotic nuclei. In applied areas SPIRAL2 is considered as a powerful variable energy neutron source, a must for studying the impact of nuclear fission and fusion on materials. The intensities of these unstable species are excellent opportunities for new tracers and diagnostics either for solid state, material or for radiobiological science and medicine. The technical design has reached the point where SPIRAL2 is ready for construction. Project status and foreseen schedules will be presented. Scientific and technical R&D programs in collaboration with EU and International partners for the facility as well as for the associated innovative new instruments will be discussed

Comments on ‘Democratic governance’

The article provides a discussion of Mark Bevir's important book on ‘Democratic governance’. It first discusses the conceptual part and in particular the categorisation in terms of ‘modern social science’. It disputes the analysis of neo institutionalism. Second, it stresses the UK case, which is the base of Bevir's analysis and suggests that the author relies far too much on policy networks. Hierarchies are still very strong at the same time in the United Kingdom, a factor that limits the claims of the book

Governing the large metropolis. A research agenda

Our starting point is to challenge the often-made assumption that large cities are so complex that they have become ungovernable or that globalization pressures make political and policy choices irrelevant. By going beyond rational or positivist views of governance, it argues that the process of governing a city is never fully complete, nor linear. The paper refers to a systematic review of the academic literature. Urban societies are more or less governed and that may change from one city to the next, from one period to the next. Processes of government and governance are always work in progress, but make crucial differences over time. Case studies show that modes of governance have long-term consequences for their inhabitants and governing failures may have severe negative effects (e.g. housing shortages, low levels of educational attainment, crime, low productivity, health). The systematic analysis of the literature shows the need to describe and document at the same time (1) how processes of governance operate in relation to major urban development projects, the implementation of public policies and (2) the implications of such practices for inequalities; so to say articulating an analysis of the governance processes and their outcomes. The paper suggests that the link between metropolitan governance and inequalities allow considering inequalities not only as the outcomes of policy choices, but also as part of the way in which metropolitan policies are implemented

Pas d'action publique autonome sans instruments propres:Analyse comparée et longitudinale des politiques environnementales et urbaines de l'Union européenne

Dans quelle mesure l'analyse des formes d'instrumentation, c'est-à-dire du choix et de la combinaison d'instruments, explique- t-elle l'émergence et le développement d'une action publique autonome ? L'entrée par les instruments apporte-elle un éclairage fécond sur l'évolution des formes de pilotage de l'action publique privilégiées au sein de l'Union européenne ? À partir d'une analyse comparée et systématique des instruments des politiques européennes environnementales et urbaines entre 1972 et 2006, cet article s'interroge sur la relation entre les formes d'instrumentation de l'action publique européenne et la gouvernance de l'Union européenne. À travers l'analyse de deux cas contrastés, cet article montre dans quelle mesure, à travers quels mécanismes et avec quels effets, les instruments ont structuré les transformations de l'action publique européenne sur la moyenne durée.This article explores the link between policy instrumentation and policy change at the EU level. It is based on a comparative analysis of policy instruments and their development in European urban and environmental policies. The analysis is based on an original dataset, retracing the evolution of European policy instruments in both areas over the past three decades, and asks how and by whom they were chosen and combined. Challenging the existing literature on new policy instruments and new forms of EU governance, our approach is a good way to track changes in public action, as well as in regimes and political styles. It also conduces to grasping the tangible nature of public action. Understanding instrumentation is a way of comprehending changes in the state by focusing on its practices and reconfigurations, particularly in the ongoing tension between incentives and constraints.Programme de recherche européen NEWGOV (6ème PCRD

La restructuration des PMI à Saint-Étienne après la crise : traces du passé et limites de l’intégration horizontale

Ce texte s'appuie sur une enquête menée à Saint-Étienne dans le cadre d'un projet européen comparatif sur les modes de gouvernance des économies locales prenant en compte le niveau des PMI ainsi que celui meso du territoire. L'article part d'une problématique en termes de biens et de services locaux de concurrence pour les PMI, c'est-à-dire des biens et des services qui leur permettent d'être compétitives par rapport à des groupes ou des grandes entreprises. À Saint-Étienne, des sucres lents du territoire développés pour la machine-outil, la mécanique, le travail de métaux, développement il y a deux décennies sont désormais des ressources significatives pour les PMI. La dynamique observée dans un petit nombre de secteurs peut conduire à une spécialisation accrue et une intégration horizontale plus porteuses de dynamiques de croissance, plus concurrentielles. Reste à savoir si la dynamique aperçue est davantage que le résultat de vivaces traces du passé mobilisées temporairement ou si elle est la preuve d'une dynamique collective porteuse d'une développement économique renouvelé.On the basis of a survey conducted in Saint-Étienne, France, as part of a comparative European project on “modes of governance” in local economies (which, thus, takes into account the level of small and medium-sized industry and the middle level of the territory), questions are raised about the goods and services that enable these industries to be competitive with big firms or holdings. For these industries, solutions developed two decades ago for the machine tool industry, mechanics and metal-working are still significant resources. The momentum detected in a small number of fields can lead to an increasing specialization and horizontal integration that favor a more competitive growth. How to know whether this momentum results from still (temporarily) active remnants of the past or whether it is evidence of a collective impetus that can stimulate new economic growth

La métropole rennaise s’est développée de manière dynamique en améliorant constamment les conditions de vie des habitants

Rennes Métropole affiche avec raison un bilan remarquable. Elle est depuis quatre décennies à l'avant-garde des transformations urbaines et des dynamiques collectives des villes françaises. Ce qui est frappant, c'est sans doute cette montée en puissance progressive mais systématique et innovante : des nouveaux projets de développement urbain, des mécanismes de solidarité budgétaire, des manières d'associer les communes de la périphérie rennaise à la dynamique métropolitaine y compris en termes de responsabilité dans l'intercommunalité, la mobilisation pour le développement économique, la gouvernance active du foncier pour les entreprises, les transports et la réflexion sur le logement à l'échelle de la métropole, puis le développement durable. Des politiques fortes qui produisent des effets à long terme. La métropole rennaise est devenue le symbole de la montée en puissance des capitales régionales françaises (...)

La question de la ville est restée pendant la campagne présidentielle

Patrick Le Galès est sociologue et politiste, directeur de recherche au CEVIPOF, le centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po. Il dirige notamment les programmes de master « politique publique » et « Stratégies et Politiques urbaines » à Sciences Po Paris. Il travaille sur les villes européennes, les politiques publiques, et les questions de gouvernance. Voilà bien des raisons pour recueillir son analyse sur la présence, ou l’absence, des questions urbaines au cours de la campagne présidentielle. Cet entretien a été réalisé au début du mois d’avril, alors que la campagne du premier tour battait encore son plein

States in Europe: Uncaging societies and the limits to infrastructural power

For more than a century now, states have intervened strongly to alleviate the social and economic consequences of crises in capitalism.New models of regulation, such as Keynesianism, have been invented to deal with capitalist contradictions: to socialize the huge losses booked by banks and large firms, change policy instruments,correct market failures, support regions in decline, transform labor market regulations or createnew markets whilst supporting creative destruction. Crises inspire us to think in new ways about periods and varieties of capitalism, about regulation crises and dynamics and about the role, functions and characteristics of the state. At the same time, crises are a great source of tension, pushing political debates to the extreme, sparking waves of protest, and generating political pressures or antidemocratic trends that call into question the very legitimacy of the state. [Premier paragraphe