Liberalisation, surveillance and suicide at La Poste

This article examines how the contradictory dynamics of freedom and control that characterise neoliberal capitalism are played out on lived experiences of work in the context of the newly liberalised and restructured French postal services (La Poste). At La Poste, liberalisation was framed as a great emancipatory project that would reinvigorate a moribund state-owned company, remove regulatory constraints, deepen economic freedoms and strip away deadening bureaucracy. Yet, whilst liberalisation freed La Poste of regulatory controls, it was accompanied by an intensified surveillance and control of everyday working life. The new control measures were not limited to external working practices and structures, but sought to capture the individual worker’s personality, communication and values and harness them towards the company’s redefined commercial goals. Drawing on critical scholarship on neoliberal capitalism and labour, the article shows that when capitalist rationality extends beyond working activity and encroaches on complex, intimate and vulnerable dimensions of the person, this can have dangerous human consequences. At La Poste, liberalisation triggered a profound crisis across the company, transforming it into an ‘entreprise en souffrance’ characterised by escalating levels of psychological distress, chronic stress and a series of employee suicides

Towards the Construction of a Collocational Database for Translation Students

Cet article présente une expérience effectuée au cours d'un projet d'élaboration d'une base de données bilingue (anglais-français) de collocations à l'Université de Liège. Cette base de données offrira aux utilisateurs plusieurs points d'accès ainsi que des informations lexico-sémantiques. On tentera de démontrer que ces particularités sont présentement absentes dans le domaine des dictionnaires de collocations et que cette base de données réussira à combler ce manque

Le périmètre irrigué de Mashushu, province du Limpopo, Afrique du Sud

Introduction L’Afrique du Sud est considérée comme un pays avec de faibles ressources en eau, avec de faibles précipitations annuelles (moins de 500mm) et à l’inégale répartition des eaux de surface et souterraines (à cause du climat et de la géographie). L’eau d’irrigation représente un aspect important de toutes les problématiques agricoles. Cependant, Hamann et O’Riordan (2000) ont mis en évidence que ce manque d’eau était bien souvent un concept socialement construit. En effet, pendant l’..

Impacts of environmental factors and shellfish practices on the Mont-St-Michel Bay ecosystem (France). A modelling study involving scientists, stakeholders and users of the bay

The macro-benthic communities of Mont-Saint-Michel Bay, located in the Norman-Breton Gulf (English Channel) along the French coast, are mainly dominated by filter-feeders which include cultivated species (oysters and mussels). The decline in shellfish farms production and the significant spreading of the invasive slipper-limpet Crepidula fornicata have conducted scientists and stakeholders to undertake a reflexion on the trophic balance between cultivated and wild (native or invasive non-native) filterfeeders. An ecological model of the bay was developed, coupling a 2D hydro-sedimentary model along with biological models for primary production and filter-feeder growth. The objectives of the project were first to provide indicators to stakeholders on the future evolution of the trophic resource taking in account environmental modifications and human pressure, and establish with them the scenarios to be developed by the model. To accomplish these objectives different focus groups were organised between scientists and stakeholders. Based on these exchanges scenarios on shellfish practices, watershed runoffs and Crepidula fornicata spreading, were investigated through numerical modeling tools. Then results of the models were presented to 6 stakeholders' focus groups and a social scientist has analysed first the interaction between scientists and stakeholders, second the perception of the models by the stakeholders and the ideas of stakeholders concerning the environmental problems face within the Bay