Préface à la révolution. C.L.R. James, lecteur de Melville

In 1953, C.L.R. James, the Trinidadian historian and Marxist intellectual, publishes a book on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. This paper shows that this book takes its roots in James’s wider project of a study of « American Civilization ». James conceives of captain Achab as a prefiguration of the « totalitarian type » and argues that, in Moby Dick, resistance does not come from Ismaël, the « intellectual », but rather from the ship’s crew composed of « mariners, renegades and castaways » coming from all over the world. A century later, according to James, the crucial task of putting an end to totalitarism falls to the working and colonized masses.En 1953, l'historien et théoricien marxiste trinidadien C.L.R. James publie un ouvrage sur le roman d'Her-man Melville Moby Dick. Le présent article resitue la genèse de ce livre dans le cadre du projet jamesien d'une étude de la « civilisation américaine ». Faisant du capi-taine Achab une préfiguration du « type totalitaire », James affirme que, dans Moby Dick, la résistance ne vient pas de l'« intellectuel » Ismaël, mais de l' équipage du navire, ces « marins, renégats et autres parias » venus du monde entier. Un siècle plus tard, c' est aux masses ouvrières et colonisées que revient selon James la tâche de mettre fin au totalitarisme

Le web matrimonial des migrants:L'économie du profilage au service d'une nouvelle forme de commerce ethnique

Cet article se propose d'engager une réflexion sur le web matrimonial des migrants (WMM) en tant que forme inédite de commerce ethnique posant l'égalité « faire du commerce » = « faire du réseau » (et non plus s'appuyer sur des réseaux ethniques préexistants). Le WMM est fondée sur une économie du profilage singulière puisque dépendante d'une ethnicisation des profils (et donc des utilisateurs): « faire du réseau » = « ethniciser ». Enfin, le WMM implique mobilité et migrations (avec des différences capitales en terme de genre): « faire du réseau » = « naviguer, bouger, migrer ».This article analyses the 'migrants' matrimonial Web'? as an original form of ethnic business that equates 'doing business'? to 'networking'? (i.e. creating new networks rather than relying on existing ethnic ones). The authors show that it is based on an unusual profiling economy in which profiles (and therefore users) are ethnicized: 'networking'? = 'ethnicizing'?. As the matrimonial Web implies mobility and migration (with significant gender differences), 'networking'? also means 'surfing, moving, and migrating'?

Criticizing the Lucas Critique: Macroeconometricians’ Response to Robert Lucas

The standard history of macroeconomics considers Lucas (1976)– “the Lucas Critique”–as a path-breaking innovation for the discipline. According to this view Lucas’s article dismissed the traditional macroeconometric practice calling for new ways of conceiving the quantitative evaluation of economic policies. The Lucas Critique is considered, nowadays, as a fundamental principle of macroeconomic modeling (Woodford, 2003). The interpretation and the application of the Critique, however, represent still unsolved issues in economics (Chari et al., 2008). Even if the influence of Lucas’s contribution cannot be neglected, something seems to be missing in the narrative: the reactions of the economists that were directly targeted by the Critique. Modeling practices of economic policy evaluation were not overthrown immediately after Lucas (1976), creating a divide between theoretical and applied macroeconomics (Brayton et al., 1997). In the first section we propose a careful account of Lucas’s argument and of some of the previous works anticipating the substantial outline of the Critique (like Frisch’s notion of autonomy). Second, we bring our own interpretation of Lucas (1976). We find two points of view in Lucas's paper: a prescriptive one that tell how to build a good macroeconometric model (it is the standard interpretation of the article); a positive one that relies on the fact that the Lucas critique could be seen as an attempt to explain a real-world phenomenon: stagflation. Third, we classify the reactions of the Keynesian macroeconometricians following this line of interpretation. On the prescriptive side, the Keynesians protested against the New Classical solution to the Lucas critique (the use of the rational expectation hypothesis among other things). Klein, for instance, proposed an alternative microfoundational program to empirically study the formation of expectations. On the positive side, the Keynesians put into question the relevance of the Lucas Critique to explain the rise of both unemployment and inflation in the 1970s. They tried to test the impact of policy regime changes and of shifts in agents' behavior. We argue that the explanation of the stagflation was elsewhere. The purpose of this paper is to study the reactions of the macroeconometricians criticized by Lucas. We focus especially on those macroeconometricians who worked on policy evaluation and who held an expertise position in governmental institutions. We categorize the different reactions to the Critique, in order to enrich the understanding of the evolution of modeling and expertise practices through the analysis of the debates–which have not yet been completely solved

¿Puede haber una filosofía decolonial de la historia?

This article is an attempt to articulate a series of scattered reflections on the relations between historical thought and criticism of Eurocentrism; or to put it another way, by paraphrasing the title of an essay by Santiago Castro-Gómez, it aims at introducing a set of "open questions" concerning the possibility, or impossibility, of making a decolonial philosophy of history.Este artículo intenta articular una serie de reflexiones dispersas sobre las relaciones entre el pensamiento de la historia y la crítica del eurocentrismo; o para decirlo de otra manera, y parafraseando el título de un ensayo de Santiago Castro-Gómez, se trata de proponer un conjunto de preguntas o “cuestiones abiertas” relativas a la posibilidad o imposibilidad de hacer una filosofía decolonial de la historia

Increased mortality in hematological malignancy patients with acute respiratory failure from undetermined etiology : a Groupe de Recherche en Réanimation Respiratoire en Onco-Hématologique (Grrr-OH) study

Background: Acute respiratory failure (ARF) is the most frequent complication in patients with hematological malignancies and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. ARF etiologies are numerous, and despite extensive diagnostic workflow, some patients remain with undetermined ARF etiology. Methods: This is a post-hoc study of a prospective multicenter cohort performed on 1011 critically ill hematological patients. Relationship between ARF etiology and hospital mortality was assessed using a multivariable regression model adjusting for confounders. Results: This study included 604 patients with ARF. All patients underwent noninvasive diagnostic tests, and a bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed in 155 (25.6%). Definite diagnoses were classified into four exclusive etiological categories: pneumonia (44.4%), non-infectious diagnoses (32.6%), opportunistic infection (10.1%) and undetermined (12.9%), with corresponding hospital mortality rates of 40, 35, 55 and 59%, respectively. Overall hospital mortality was 42%. By multivariable analysis, factors associated with hospital mortality were invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (OR 7.57 (95% CI 3.06-21.62); p 7 (OR 3.32 (95% CI 2.15-5.15); p < 0.005) and an undetermined ARF etiology (OR 2.92 (95% CI 1.71-5.07); p < 0.005). Conclusions: In patients with hematological malignancies and ARF, up to 13% remain with undetermined ARF etiology despite comprehensive diagnostic workup. Undetermined ARF etiology is independently associated with hospital mortality. Studies to guide second-line diagnostic strategies are warranted

Behavioral and metabolic effects of sublethal doses of two insecticides, chlorpyrifos and methomyl, in the Egyptian cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

International audienceInsecticides have long been used as the main method in limiting agricultural pests, but their widespread use has resulted in environmental pollution, development of resistances, and biodiversity reduction. The effects of insecticides at low residual doses on both the targeted crop pest species and beneficial insects have become a major concern. In particular, these low doses can induce unexpected positive (hormetic) effects on pest insects, such as surges in population growth exceeding what would have been observed without pesticide application. Methomyl and chlorpyrifos are two insecticides commonly used to control the population levels of the cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis, a major pest moth. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of sublethal doses of these two pesticides, known to present a residual activity and persistence in the environment, on the moth physiology. Using a metabolomic approach, we showed that sublethal doses of methomyl and chlorpyrifos have a systemic effect on the treated insects. We also demonstrated a behavioral disruption of S. littoralis larvae exposed to sublethal doses of methomyl, whereas no effects were observed for the same doses of chlorpyrifos. Interestingly, we highlighted that sublethal doses of both pesticides did not induce a change in acetylcholinesterase activity in head of exposed larva

Corps à corps: Frantz Fanon's Erotics of National Liberation

In this short essay, I will endeavour to show that Frantz Fanon's well-known conception of struggles for national liberation is intimately linked to an erotics of liberation. This one takes its roots in a shift, or better a reversal, of theories of racism. As Etienne Balibar argues, "racism," as a category, appears at mid 19th century, especially under the aegis of the UNESCO, as a break with the conceptions of "race," considered to be a pure "myth" or "prejudice." A better example of such an epistemological rupture is probably Sartre's Antisemite and Jew and its motto: "the Jew is a man whom other men consider a Jew…it is the anti-Semite who makes the Jew." In other words, race is nothing but the product of racism. The biological arguments that underlie the theories of race are "false" arguments inasmuch as they depend on ideological and/or psychological premises

Festival culturel panafricain d’Alger (7-8 juillet 2009)

La Bibliothèque nationale d’Algérie a accueilli les mardi 7 et mercredi 8 juillet un colloque dédié à Frantz Fanon, acteur éminent de la lutte de libération nationale algérienne, théoricien du colonialisme et des décolonisations, penseur de la libération et du panafricanisme ainsi que le mettait en avant l’argumentaire du colloque. Ce dernier, organisé par le Centre national de recherches préhistoriques, anthropologiques et historiques (CNRPAH) s’inscrivait dans le cadre du 2e Festival cultur..

TIC et parrainage dans les mouvements militants de défense des sans-papiers en France

Cet article a pour objet les usages d’internet – et tout particulièrement des listes de discussion – dans le Réseau Éducation sans frontières, réseau de soutien aux sans-papiers. Ces usages sont étroitement liés à la forme de militantisme à l’œuvre dans RESF, un militantisme de solidarité fondé sur le parrainage et rendant possible une intégration par le bas des sans-papiers. Cette prévalence du soutien pose enfin la question des relations entre TIC et politiques de représentation.This article deals with uses of the Internet – in particular discussion lists – in the Education Without Borders Network (Réseau Éducation sans Frontières, RESF), a network dedicated to supporting illegal migrants (« sans-papiers »). These uses are closely connected to the kind of activism at work within RESF, a solidarity activism based on sponsorship and which enables a bottom-up integration of the « sans-papiers ». Finally, this prevalence of support raises the issue of the relation between ICT and politics of representation.El presente artículo tiene por objeto los usos de Internet, y, en especial, de las listas de discusión en la Red Educación sin Fronteras (RESF), red de apoyo a los sin papeles. Estos usos están estrechamente ligados al militantismo que caracteriza a dicha red – militantismo de solidaridad – basado en el apadrinamiento y que permite una integración por lo bajo de los sin papeles. Este tipo de apoyo suscita la cuestión sobre las relaciones entre las TIC y las políticas de representación

Reacting to the Lucas critique: The Keynesians’ replies

In 1976, Robert Lucas explicitly criticized Keynesian macroeconometric models for their inability to correctly predict the effects of alternative economic policies. Today, most contemporary macroeconomists and some historians of economics consider that Lucas’s critique led forcefully to animmediate disqualification of the Keynesian macroeconometric approach. This narrative is based on the interpretation of the Lucas critique as a fundamental principle for economic reasoning that was (and still is) logically unquestionable. We consider that this narrative is problematic both in terms of historiography and the effects that it can have in the field as a way of assigning importance and credit to particular macroeconomists. Indeed, the point of view of the Keynesian economists is missing despite the fact that they were the target of Lucas’s paper and that throughout the 1970s and 1980s they produced a fierce reaction against it. In this article we analyze the reactions by a broad set of authors (which we label “Keynesians”) that disputed the relevance of the critique. In spite of their diversity in methodological, theoretical, and policy issues, these reactions were characterized by their common questioning of the empirical and practical relevance of the Lucas critique