Sociétés contemporaines 77, janvier-mars 2010

Table of contents

Social trajectories and professional strategies in sports: the case of martial arts teachers
Samuel Julhe, Nadine Hoschar-Noé

Long term changes in primary school teachers' social background: back to a controversial question
Frédéric Charles, Philippe Cibois

Guild apprenticeship today: between resistance to the classic school model and the transmission of trade skills
Ugo Palheto

Precarious care: Changes in the management of absenteeism in a local hospital
Sophie Divay

The symbolic dimension of social capital: upper-class men's clubs and Rotary clubs in Milan
Bruno Cousin, Sébaslien Chauvin

Female genital mutilation and reconstruction: a surgical procedure between individual experience and familial dynamics
Armelle Andro, Marie Lesclingand, Dolores Pourette

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SAMUEL JULIIE, NADINE HASCHAR-NOÉ
Social trajectories and professional strategies in sports: the case of martial arts teachers
Since the 1960s, the development of mass leisure has been followed by an increase in the professionalization of cultural and sports activity organizers. Nevertheless, becoming a professional does not come naturally in a field heavily influenced by the ideology of voluntary help. We need to examine the social conditions of entry into this kind of occupation, the economic strategies implemented, as well as the changes in the "passion" for the activity. This paper discusses the case of professional sports educators specialized in martial arts. It tries to understand the connection between the initial investment in a serious leisure and the access to an occupation perceived as a vocation. Two major models of professionalization are analyzed. The first one refers to trajectories of social mobility leading to favor non-salaried occupation. The second one is defined as trajectories of professional reconversion from a former salaried job. Finally, the analysis of trajectories of semi-professionals moderates this initial categorization and gives complementary light on the social resources mobilized during the professionalization process.

FREDERIC CHARLES, PHILIPPE CIBOIS
Long term changes in primary school teachers' social background: back to a controversial question
This article compares two approaches to the study of the evolution of the social origins of primary school teachers over a long period (1964-1997 and 1955-2001). The first approach, as used by L.A. Vallet and A. Degenne (2000), uses Insee survey data (FQP/Emploi) and attempts to demonstrate a close parallel during this period between the evolution of the teachers' social origins and that of the active population. The second approach analyses specific surveys to characterize the same social changes, coming to very different conclusions. Discussing these contradictor)' results we explain why the first method is inappropriate to grasp the size of the evolution in the social recruitment of primary school teachers over the past decades, and to understand its consequences in terms of changes in the teaching processes, among which those oriented towards working class children.

UGO PALHETA
Guild apprenticeship today: between resistance to the classic school model and the transmission of trade skills
The persistence of a traditional guild form of apprenticeship is largely unknown, and it is highly tempting to reduce it to a mere survival of an obsolete mode of production. On the contrary, this article aims at disclosing its conditions of persistence and its proper logics. Guild apprenticeship bends in the first place on the persistence of small-sized production in France, especially in the construction industry. This form of apprenticeship also appears to be a kind of resistance to the domination of the school educational model over the transmission of knowledge and to the domination of the figure of the technician over the production of professional identities. Finally, guild apprenticeship represents, for young people breaking away from the school system, a strategy that enables them to face not only the contradictions of "school democratization", but also the growing precariousness on the labour market.

SOPHIE DIVAY

Precarious care: Changes in the management of absenteeism in a local hospital
The shortage of health personnel is one of the major challenges that French public hospitals are facing. The modes of temporary replacement that are implemented are largely unknown due to the lack of global figures. Our ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a local hospital produces two main results: first, it reveals the causes of the increase of absences and the emergence of the issue of absenteeism; secondly, it shows the impact of resorting to casual wor¬kers on team work organization in care units.

BRUNO COUSIN, SÉBASTIEN CHAUV1N
The symbolic dimension of social capital: upper-class men's clubs and Rotary clubs in Milan
Upper-class social clubs in the European metropolis have mostly been described through isolated monographies. The case of Milan allows us to add a more relational analysis: in this city, institutions dedicated to the collective management of the social capital of the ruling class form a relatively autonomous and coherent space of differentiation. Oppositions concern historical origins, social composition, organizational features, and modalities for mem¬bership. But they also pertain to the particular criteria used by each institution in organizing, mobilizing, describing, and legitimating the links connecting its members with each other, as well as in distinguishing itself from its competitors. We show that the representation of social capital contributes to its reality, and that part of its efficiency stems from the distinctive form under which it presents itself, and from the symbolic categories framing and accompanying its uses. Finally, we suggest that the sociological debate over social capital should take into account these distinction games that define its objects, and of which it itself partakes.

ARMELLE ANDRO, MARIE LESCLINGAND, DOLORES POURETTE
Female genital mutilation and reconstruction: a surgical procedure between individual experience and familial dynamics
Since reconstructive surgery of excision has been developed in France, more and more mutilated women are moving towards this operation. This is a complex personal process, involving matters of sexuality, and family and cultural transmission, in a context of strong social stigma. This initially personal move constitutes an important lever to verbalize this issue within the family. Such explicit discourse ultimately contributes to the process of reparation, understood in a very global sense. The analysis of the trajectories of young women who used this operation or intended to do so highlights the multidimensional nature of this social experience.