Negotiations of minority ethnic rugby league players in the Cathar country of France

This article is based on new empirical, qualitative research with minority ethnic rugby league players in the southwest of France. Drawing on similar research on rugby league in the north and the south of England, the article examines how rugby league, traditionally viewed as a white, working-class male game (Collins, 2006; Denham, 2004; Spracklen, 1995, 2001) has had to re-imagine its symbolic boundaries as they are constituted globally and locally to accommodate the needs of players from minority ethnic backgrounds. In particular, the article examines the sense in which experiences of minority ethnic rugby league players in France compare with those of their counterparts in England (Spracklen, 2001, 2007), how rugby league is used in France to construct identity, and in what sense the norms associated with the imaginary community of rugby league are replicated or challenged by the involvement of minority ethnic rugby league players in France. Questions about what it means to be (provincial, national) French (Kumar, 2006) are posed, questions that relate to the role of sport in the construction of Frenchness, and in particular the role of rugby league (and union). © Copyright ISSA and SAGE Publications

Le Survivant de la Shoah face au texte de fiction: Un écran protecteur ou un écran projecteur? L’exemple d’Anna Langfus

La terminologie ‘écriture écran’ est souvent utilisée dans un sens proche de celui que lui donne Annie Ernaux lorsqu’elle écrit que ‘la fiction protège’ en permettant à un auteur de dire tout en gardant le lecteur à distance. Pourtant, de Blanchot à Genette, de nombreux critiques ont souligné que le texte est par essence un espace qui n’existe que dans et par cet échange, le lecteur – surtout dans le cas des textes de fiction – devant s’investir, se projeter dans le texte lu. Le texte de fiction serait-il donc un écran protecteur pour celui qui tient la plume et un écran projecteur pour celui qui tient le livre ? En nous basant principalement sur des textes de la psychanalyste Rachel Rosenblum et de l’auteure et survivante de la Shoah Anna Langfus, nous suggèrerons que, pour l’auteur comme pour le lecteur, le texte de fiction est à la fois un écran protecteur et un écran projecteur, ces deux fonctions étant étroitement liées et nullement contradictoires. Nous montrerons en effet qu’aucun genre n’est a priori protecteur puisque c’est l’acte de lecture ou d’écriture qui peut se transformer en morbide compulsion de répétition quand la mémoire d’un lecteur ou d’un auteur est devenue pathologique

O continente cético: a Europa e os valores da modernidade The sceptical continent: Europe and the values of modernity

As grandes mudanças na Europa contemporânea exigem para a sua compreensão um exame das trajetórias históricas dos seus fundamentos valorativos e do modo como eles se manifestam nas condições atuais. O autor examina, de uma perspectiva "iluminista", os sinais de erosão de certas crenças e de emergência de novas orientações valorativas.<br>The great changes in contemporary Europe must be understood taking into acount the historical paths of its basic values and the way they manifest themselves in the present conditions. The author examines, from an "enlightened" point of view, the signs of erosion of some beliefs as well as of the emergence of new value orientations

Urban violence and public health in Latin America: a sociological explanatory framework Violencia urbana y salud pública en Latinoamérica: un marco sociológico explicativo

Interpersonal violence has become one of the main public health issues in Latin American cities. This article presents a framework for sociological interpretation that operates on three levels, expressed in the factors that originate, foment, or facilitate violence. Macro-social factors include: social inequality due to the increase in wealth versus poverty; the paradox of more schooling with fewer employment opportunities; increasing expectations and the impossibility of meeting them; changes in family structure; and loss of importance of religion in daily life. At the meso-social level the analysis highlights: increased density in poor areas and urban segregation; masculinity cult; and changes in the local drug market. The micro-social level includes: an increase in the number of firearms; alcohol consumption; and difficulties in verbal expression of feelings. The article concludes with an analysis of how violence is leading to the breakdown not only of urban life but also of citizenship as a whole in Latin America.<br>La violencia interpersonal se ha convertido en uno de los principales problemas de salud pública de las ciudades de América Latina. El artículo presenta una interpretación sociológica de la violencia en tres niveles: (a) macro-sociales &shy; la desigualdad social debida al incremento de la riqueza y la pobreza; la paradoja del mayor nivel educativo de las personas, pero las menores oportunidades de empleo, el incremento de las expectativas y de la imposibilidad de satisfacerlas; los cambios en la familia y la pérdida de importancia de la religión en la vida cotidiana de las personas; (b) meso-sociales &shy; el incremento de la densidad en las zonas pobres y la segregación urbana, la cultura de la masculinidad y los cambios en el mercado local de la droga; (c) micro-sociales &shy; el incremento de las armas de fuego, el consumo de alcohol y las dificultades de expresión verbal de los sentimientos por las personas. El artículo concluye con un análisis sobre cómo la violencia está llevando no sólo a la pérdida de las ciudades, sino a la ciudadanía en América Latina