Modeling mitigation and adaptation policies to predict their effectiveness: The limits of randomized controlled trials

Policies to combat climate change should be supported by evidence regarding their effectiveness. But what kind of evidence is that? And what tools should one use to gather such evidence? Many argue that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard when it comes to evaluating the effects of policies. As a result, there has been a push for climate change policies to be evaluated using RCTs. We argue that this push is misguided. After explaining why RCTs are thought to be the gold standard, we use examples of mitigation and adaptation policies to show that RCTs provide, at best, one piece of the evidential puzzle one needs to assemble for well-supported decisions regarding climate change policies

Contribution à l’histoire de la sociolinguistique : origines et développement de l’école rouennaise

Cet article est un historique de la recherche sociolinguistique en France. Après avoir mis en évidence les prémices de la discipline, l’auteur analyse la manière dont ce domaine de recherche s’est progressivement structuré et autonomisé à partir de la fin des années 1970 et au début des années 1980.This article is a history of sociolinguistic research in France. After highlighting the beginnings of the discipline, the author analyses the way in which this field of research gradually became structured and autonomous from the late 1970s and early 1980s

La sociolinguistique en France aujourd’hui : les tendances et les équipes

En tant que discipline déclarée, la sociolinguistique est née de l’aspect contradictoire de certains postulats de la linguistique : « toutes les langues sont égales en structure », « tous les locuteurs sont égaux en compétence » ; mais en même temps, la linguistique constate l’inégalité de fait des langues, des locuteurs, et diverses sources d’aliénation linguistique. En France on peut discerner deux axes principaux de recherche : une sociolinguistique scolaire, au sens large, qui s’intéresse aux difficultés à l’école, en fonction des diverses composantes de la situation, et une sociolinguistique posant les problèmes des langues régionales, plus exactement, des langues minoritaires.As a declared discipline, sociolinguistics arose from the contradictory aspect of certain postulates of linguistics: « all languages are equal in structure », « all speakers are equal in competence »; but at the same time, linguistics notes the de facto inequality of languages and speakers, and various sources of linguistic alienation. In France, there are two main areas of research: school sociolinguistics, in the broad sense of the term, which looks at the difficulties encountered at school, depending on the various components of the situation, and sociolinguistics which looks at the problems of regional languages, or more precisely, minority languages

Purism, Variation, Change and ‘Authenticity’: Ideological Challenges to Language Revitalisation

This paper is based on recent research into the small, highly endangered language Giernesiei 1 (Guernsey, Channel Islands). 2 Language documentation has found unexpectedly rich variation and change in Giernesiei usage, not all of which can be accounted for by regional and age-related factors. At the same time, our research into language ideologies and efforts to maintain and revitalise Giernesiei has revealed deep-seated purist or ‘traditionalist’ language attitudes that resist and deny language change. This nostalgic view of language and culture can hyper-valorise ‘authentic’ traditions (arguably reinvented 3 ) and can lead to reluctance to share Giernesiei effectively with younger generations who might ‘change the language’, despite an overt desire to maintain it. This mismatch between ideologies and practices can be seen at language festivals, in lessons for children, and in the experiences of adult learners who were interviewed as part of a British Academy-funded project. I present a taxonomy of reactions to variation in Giernesiei, which confirms and extends the findings of Jaffe 4 in Corsica. I also discuss recent revitalisation efforts that try to bring together older and ‘new’ speakers and promote the role of adult learners and ‘re-activate’ semi-speakers. The findings support the view that full evaluation of language vitality should include documenting the processes and ideologies of language revitalisation. 5 ,

Léopold Migeotte, Économie et finances publiques des cités grecques II. Choix d’articles publiés de 2002 à 2014

Il faut saluer les entreprises consistant à rassembler les articles d’un savant dans un ou deux volumes maniables, assortis d’index et de compléments bibliographiques. Ce genre de recueils est très utile, tant aux spécialistes qu’à un public plus large d’étudiants ou de chercheurs non spécialistes. C’est ce à quoi s’est livré Léopold Migeotte, encouragé en cela par ses disciples. Le premier volume, paru en 2010 (CMO ; 44. Série épigraphique et historique ; ..

Exploring contested authenticity among speakers of a contested language: the case of ‘Francoprovençal'

This paper explores the notion of speaker authenticity in the context of obsolescent ‘Francoprovençal’: a highly fragmented grouping of Romance varieties spoken in parts of France, Italy, and Switzerland by less than 1% of the total regional population. While Francoprovençal has long been losing ground to the dominant language(s) with which it is in contact, new speakers have begun to emerge within the context of revitalisation movements and activities geared more favourable language planning policies and increased literacy. The emergence of these new speakers has polarised native-speaker communities, and has blurred the lines associated with the traditional view of sociolinguistic authenticity. Through an analysis of qualitative data collected in 2012, this article argues in particular that it may not be sufficient to simply examine contested authenticities from a native–non-native perspective, but rather it is important to consider how new speakers might themselves form a complex spectrum of speaker types with new sets of tensions as has been argued elsewhere

Picard: a mal aimé among regional languages?

Although often seen as a medieval rival to French, Picard has received far less official recognition and support than more celebrated regional languages such as Breton or Occitan. A shared history and high degree of linguistic similarity with the national language appear to have engendered a perception that it is simply ‘bad French’, but for supporters such Eloy (1997) Picard remains potentiellement une vraie langue, worthy and in need of status enhancement initiatives enjoyed by other regional languages. Promotion of language status for Picard, however, is found to be fraught with practical difficulties, not least of which are a lack of territorial unity and major cultural differences between the north and south of the picardophone area. Equally importantly, the discourse of languagehood fosters notions of linguistic purity which ignore the extensive mixing of local, supralocal and national elements that has always been evident in Picard writing and speech. This in turn engenders linguistic insecurity, notably among urban working-class speakers, whose speech can all too easily be caricatured as both ‘bad French’ and ‘bad patois’, with obvious consequences for intergenerational transmission. The well-intentioned promotion of Picard as a regional language may therefore, perversely, be detrimental to the very varieties it serves

Is race a cause?

Advocates of the counterfactual approach to causal inference argue that race is not a cause, and this despite the fact that it is commonly treated as such by scientists in many disciplines. I object that their argument is unsound because two of its premises are false. I also sketch an argument to the effect that racial discrimination cannot be explained unless one assumes race to be a cause

Les études du lexique : points de vue et perspectives

Marcellesi Jean-Baptiste, Marcellesi Christiane. Les études du lexique : points de vue et perspectives. In: Langue française, n°2, 1969. Le lexique, sous la direction de Louis Guilbert. pp. 104-120