Cet ouvrage est destiné aux chercheurs comme aux professionnels. Il propose à la fois un bilan synthétique de la recherche en sciences sociales sur le médico-social, une réflexion d’ensemble sur ses transformations contemporaines et un éclairage sur les grandes questions qui le traversent aujourd’hui. L’ouvrage expose et éclaire de façon pédagogique les débats théoriques et conceptuels en sciences sociales autour d’une série d’enjeux clefs, de l’organisation du travail d’accompagnement à la problématique du care, des transformations des professionnalités aux questions de régulation, de normalisation ou de quantification.

L’ampleur des enjeux humains, économiques et sociaux posés par la question des solidarités entre générations a conduit l’International society of Family Law (ISFL) à choisir ce thème pour son XVe congrès mondial. Plus de 200 intervenants, venus de 50 pays, ont abordé ces questions sous l’angle juridique, mais aussi philosophique, économique et anthropologique. Cet ouvrage présente une partie de ces communications organisées autour de deux grands thèmes : l’enfant au cœur des solidarités familiales et la prise en charge des aînés par la famille. Des phénomènes tels que l’allongement de la durée de la vie, l’urbanisation des populations, la difficulté d’entrée sur le marché du travail ou encore l’éclatement des modèles familiaux traditionnels marquent notre monde contemporain et impliquent la disparition d’anciennes solidarités et l’apparition de nouvelles solidarités redessinant les relations entre générations, posant alors le problème du sort des personnes les plus fragiles : les enfants, les malades, les handicapés et, surtout, les personnes âgées. – Quel est alors le rôle de la famille et des collectivités dans la protection de ces personnes ? – Quels rapports entre solidarités publiques et solidarités privées ? – Quels sont les droits et libertés reconnus aux personnes que l’âge, la maladie ou le handicap, placent en situation de dépendances ? Telles sont les questions au cœur de cet ouvrage. The importance of the human, economic and social issues caused by the question of generations’ solidarities led the International Society of Family Law to choose this theme for its XVIth World Congress (Lyon, July 19-23rd 2011). More than 200 speakers from 50 countries studied these questions from the legal angle, but also philosophic, economic and anthropological. This work collects a part of these papers about two great issues: the child, as the center of family solidarities; and the support for elders by family. Phenomena such as increasing life expectancy, population urbanization, labor-market entry barriers, decline of traditional family patterns, mark in depth our contemporary world and involve old solidarity disappearance and new solidarity emergence, reshaping relations between generations while bringing up the problem of the fate of the most vulnerable: children, the sick, disabled, and especially elderly people. – What then is the role of families and communities in protecting these people? – What is the relationship between public and private solidarity? – What are the rights and freedoms of people placed by age, illness or disability in a dependence situation? These are the issues addressed by the authors of this book.

Contemporary theatre is one of the best ways for ethno-cultural minorities to express themselves, whether they be of indigenous origin or immigrants. It is often used to denounce social injustice and discrimination and, more generally, it helps to air questions debated in the wider community. It may also express itself thanks to the staging of collective memory, for it constitutes a privileged space for the exploration of the trauma of the past (colonial, for example), as well as providing a means of effecting the reconfiguration of a new identity, or of articulating an uneasiness about that identity. Should minority theatre increase its visibility in relation to the mainstream, or, on the contrary, remain on the margins and assert its specificity? This question is at the centre of French-Canadian experience, for example, but also applies to other postcolonial societies, in Europe and elsewhere. In order to maintain its cultural authenticity, should this type of theatre distinguish itself from a multiculturalism that runs the risk of political and social recuperation? If it is unable to resist the model proposed by globalization and widespread cultural dissemination, will it lose its legitimacy? Can, and should there be, a form of popular art at the service of the community? The term “minority” raises questions that will be examined by the articles collected in this volume. What is the definition of a minority? Does this term refer to experimental and avant-garde art forms as well as to ethno-cultural drama? Contemporary theatre is characterized by an aesthetics of hybridity—in what measure is this the case for theatre outside the mainstream? The exploration of this kind of theatre necessitates an examination of the very concept of theatre per se. Since the development of the electronic media as the privileged vector of culture, has not the theatrical genre itself become a minority art form? These are some of the pressing questions that this volume will try to address, thanks to a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary approach that aims to reveal the rich diversity of the field under study.

Essays adapted from a conference held in 1979 at the University of British Columbia.

Drogue et Civilisation