Contamination du lac Saint-Pierre (fleuve Saint-Laurent) par certains polluants organiques et inorganiques

L'étude s'inscrit dans le cadre d'un programme de surveillance de la dispersion des substances toxiques dans le fleuve Saint-Laurent. Elle vise à identifier la nature et le cheminement des substances toxiques dans différents compartiments du lac Saint-Pierre. D'une superficie totale de plus de 400 km2, ce lac est un élargissement du fleuve et son bassin de drainage inclut la région métropolitaine de Montréal et la région inter-nationale des Grands lacs. L'échantillonnage a porté sur l'eau, les matières en suspension, les sédiments de fond, les poissons adultes (entiers, chairs, foie, oeufs et gonades) et les poissons juvéniles (âge 0+). Des analyses chimiques ont été effectuées pour les métaux, les pesticides organochlorés, les biphényles polychlorés (PCB), les hydrocarbures aromatiques polycycliques (PAH) et les chlorobenzènes. Les résultats indiquent que la contamination du milieu aquatique par les substances toxiques est très significative. Les contaminants majeurs retrouvés dans les divers compartiments sont l'arsenic, le mercure, le plomb, les biphényles polychlorés (PCB) et les différentes formes de DDT. Les concentrations excèdent fréquemment les critères de qualité pour le mercure dans les chairs de poissons, le plomb dans l'eau et les sédiments et les PCB dans plusieurs compartiments analysés. Plusieurs pesticides organochlorés ont été détectés dans l'eau, grâce à la technique d'échantillonnage à grand volume. Cette technique permet d'estimer 1a concentration de fond et le bilan massique annuel d'un polluant. Les poissons entiers et le foie de lottes constituent par ailleurs des indicateurs de choix de la présence et de l'étendue de la contamination par les substances toxiques bioaccumulables, alors que les sédiments de fond et les poissons juvéniles permettent d'étudier leur répartition spatiale. Sauf pour le mercure, les concentrations dans les chairs sont un mauvais indicateur de la contamination du milieu; la moyenne et la variabilité des teneurs en PCB et pesticides organochlorés y sont très faibles.As part of a monitoring program on pollutants dispersion in the St. Lawrence river, a study was conducted in 1986 on the fate and pathways of toxic substances in Lake St. Pierre. This enlargement of the St. Lawrence drains the Montreal metropolitan area and the international great lakes region. Water, sediments and fish were collected and analyzed. Water was sampled following the conventional method (1 l) or passed through an XAD-2 resin column (70 l of centrifuged water). Suspended sediments were collected by centrifuging 2000 l of water. Bottom sediments were collected by retaining the top layer of a grab sample taken using an Eckman dredge. Young-of-the-year forage fishes (Spottail Shiner and Yellow Perch) were captured using a seine whereas adult fishes (Northern Pike, Walleye, Brown Bullhead, Yellow Perch, White Sucker, Bowfin and Burbot) were captured using hoop-nets and gill-nets. All samples were analyzed for metals, organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, PAHs and chlorobenzenes. Fishes were analyzed as homogenate of whole individuals (young-of-the-year and adult) and as homogenate of fish flesh. Results indicate that the level of contamination by toxic chemicals is highly significant. The major contaminants found in the different media are arsenic, mercury, iron, PCBs and various derivatives of DDT. The concentration frequently exceeds the guidelines suggested for mercury in fish flesh, iron in water and sediments and PCBs in most compartments analysed. Several organochlorine pesticides have been detected in water using Large Volume Sampling technique. This technique allows estimation of background concentration and annual mass balance for specific pollutants. Whole fishes and Burbot's livers are good indicators of the presence and concentration range of bioaccumulating toxic substances. Bottom sediments and juvenile fishes are good indicators of spatial distribution of toxic chemicals in the lake. PCB's highest concentrations are found in adult whole fish samples (mean of 1030 µg/kg). Bottom sediments concentrations show a higher mean (112 µg/kg) than for Lake St. Louis, located upstream of Montreal. Some PAHs and chlorobenzenes are occasionally detected in various compartments

Posthumanist Education

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Mapping migrant territories as topological deformations of space

Our research uses the concept of “territories” to describe the production of migrant space. The article describes a project based in London where the everyday practice of walking is used to map migrant territories, which are conceptualized as dispersed and overlapping, causing topological deformations to the actual lived space. We interrogate these deformations through focusing on the micro-scale and the everyday, mapping them as “scapes” and “spheres.” Using specific computational techniques, we transform the original walks into an architectural tool for investigating the fluctuations and flows of the contemporary city. In doing so, we approach territories from two distinct angles: from the geopolitical perspective of territories seen as the product of the interplay of politics, power, and space and from the biological perspective of territories seen as the primal need of all animals, including humans, for space and a certain distinction from their environment and from others

Lifeworld Inc. : and what to do about it

Can we detect changes in the way that the world turns up as they turn up? This paper makes such an attempt. The first part of the paper argues that a wide-ranging change is occurring in the ontological preconditions of Euro-American cultures, based in reworking what and how an event is produced. Driven by the security – entertainment complex, the aim is to mass produce phenomenological encounter: Lifeworld Inc as I call it. Swimming in a sea of data, such an aim requires the construction of just enough authenticity over and over again. In the second part of the paper, I go on to argue that this new world requires a different kind of social science, one that is experimental in its orientation—just as Lifeworld Inc is—but with a mission to provoke awareness in untoward ways in order to produce new means of association. Only thus, or so I argue, can social science add to the world we are now beginning to live in

Preparing to work: dramaturgy, cynicism and normative ‘remote’ control in the socialization of graduate recruits in management consulting

online) This paper examines the socialization of graduate recruits into a knowledge intensive labour process and organizational culture. Theoretically the paper draws upon the idea of ‘preparing for work’ to position this early socialization as a crucial moment in the production of subjectivities suited (and booted) for the labour process of management consulting. Empirically the paper reports on a two-day induction session for new graduate recruits joining a global management consultancy and their responses to this training. Particular attention is given to the use of role-play and a dramaturgical workshop used in part of the training process. The paper argues that the utilization of dramaturgy in training is consistent with the overall approach to control developed in the firm in response to the fact that the labour process of consulting is often conducted on client sites, away from any direct supervisory gaze. As such, the consultants were subjected to a form of cultural control that was designed to function independently of direct supervision. This control did not operate directly upon the new employees professed values, however, but at one step removed so that a ‘cynical distance’ from the content of the organization’s culture was accepted so long as a professional ‘ethic of behaviour’ was established. By focusing on an ‘ethic of behaviour’ these young professionals were encouraged to internalize a self-control akin to that of an actor, rather than internalizing the corporate values entirely

Terrain, politics, history

This article is based on the 2019 Dialogues in Human Geography plenary lecture at the Royal Geographical Society. It has four parts. The first discusses my work on territory in relation to recent work by geographers and others on the vertical, the volumetric, the voluminous, and the milieu as ways of thinking space in three-dimensions, of a fluid and dynamic earth. Second, it proposes using the concept of terrain to analyse the political materiality of territory. Third, it adds some cautions to this, through thinking about the history of the concept of terrain in geographical thought, which has tended to associate it with either physical or military geography. Finally, it suggests that this work is a way geographers might begin to respond to the challenge recently made by Bruno Latour, where he suggests that ‘belonging to a territory is the phenomenon most in need of rethinking and careful redescription; learning new ways to inhabit the Earth is our biggest challenge’. Responding to Latour continues this thinking about the relations between territory, Earth, land, and ground, and their limits

Der diskrete Charme der Bourgeoisie - Ein Beitrag zur Soziologie des modernen Wirtschaftsbürgertums

Entgegen der These der Auflösungserscheinungen des Bürgertums stellt der Autor die Annahme auf den Prüfstand, dass wir es nach wie vor mit gesellschaftlichen Fraktionierungen bürgerlicher Lebensweisen zu tun haben. Am Beispiel autobiographischer Schriften von deutschen Topmanagern stellt der Text ein modernes Verständnis des Wirtschaftsbürgertums vor, das organisational (durch die Karrieremechanismen der Organisation) und institutionell (im Feld der Wirtschaft) verankert ist. Die moderne Sozialformation des Wirtschaftsbürgertums ist nur noch auf der Grundlage von Organisationen denkbar. Sie lässt sich, jenseits von Klasse und Stand, als Positionselite beschreiben. Anhand der Autobiographien lässt sich die Reproduktion dieser Elite auf Basis einer engen Verknüpfung zwischen familialer Herkunft, an organisationale Karrieren gebundene Leistungsbereitschaft und hoher formaler Bildung nachzeichnen. Die Abgrenzung in der Statusreproduktion zwischen Bildungs- und Wirtschaftsbürgertum weist der Autor am jeweiligen Verhältnis zur Bildung nach; zwar können beide einen hohen Bildungsgrad in Form von Bildungspatenten nachweisen, doch im Falle des Wirtschaftsbürgertums herrscht ein instrumentelles Verhältnis zur Bildung vor. Der hohe Bildungsgrad folgt hier dem Bedürfnis, den Status mittels formaler Bildung abzusichern und damit die Gefahr der eigenen Austauschbarkeit - als Personal der Organisation - zu kompensieren. Der Text macht außerdem generationale Effekte sichtbar; insbesondere indem er darlegt, inwieweit der "moderne Manager" einerseits in der Betonung seines Status seinen Vorgängern gleicht und sich doch gleichzeitig in der Art der Unternehmensführung abgrenzt - indem er bspw. die Managementkonzepte seiner Zeit aufgreift