L'Observatoire de la cyberconsommation (Cyberconso), créé en septembre 2003 par le Forum des droits sur l'Internet, publie son premier rapport sur les pratiques des consommateurs et des professionnels de la vente à distance au regard du cadre juridique applicable. De septembre 2003 à mars 2004, l'Observatoire a collecté les témoignages de près de 400 internautes et procédé à l'audition de nombreux acteurs du commerce électronique : marchands, comparateurs de prix, intermédiaires techniques et représentants des consommateurs. La ...

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Jean-Jacques Salomon presents here the main arguments in the discussion of human cloning launched in the pages of this month's issue of the journal. A long-time observer of scientific progress and, more generally, the relationship between science and society, he provides the background to genetic modification and its significance for human identity. Jean-Jacques Salomon outlines the viewpoints of Grégory Bénichou and Michel Neyraut, whose articles appear later in the issue, and alerts readers to the growing risk that fiction will be overtaken by reality and the "brave new world" Aldous Huxley imagined in the 1930s might become our own ... not necessarily for the best.

Le dispositif TREND (Tendances récentes et nouvelles drogues) vise à fournir de façon précoce des informations sur les usages et les usagers de drogues illicites, et sur les phénomènes émergents qui leur sont liés. Il s'appuie sur un réseau national de 12 sites d'observation, un dispositif d'observation des drogues de synthèse et des partenariats avec des organismes publics. Ce cinquième rapport est le fruit des observations de terrain recueillies par plus de 500 professionnels et citoyens au ...

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À quoi ressemblera la vie quotidienne en Europe dans 20 ans ? Quelles technologies seront devenues nécessaires ? Quels seront les choix de société ? Pour répondre à ces questions, Siemens a commandé à TNS Infratest une étude sur les changements susceptibles d'affecter les domaines politique, économique, sociétal, environnemental et technologique ces 15 prochaines années. Dans la première étape du projet « Horizons2020 », 200 variables descriptibles (quantitatives et qualitatives) ont été choisies sur l'ensemble de ces cinq domaines. Une centaine d'experts ...

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Le rapport décrit un projet de recherche sur le lien entre les technologies de l'information et la communication (TIC) et le capital social. Partant de trois documents de travail traitant de différents aspects de cette relation, des experts se sont réunis à Séville en novembre 2003. Ce rapport rassemble ces documents et une synthèse de la discussion. Le premier document, ICTs, Civil Society and Global / Local Trends in Civic Participation, traite des aspects de la cohésion sociale et de ...

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As France prepares to mark the centenary of the separation of Church and State in 2005, the current concerns about the presence of religious symbols in state schools (above all, headscarves worn by Muslim girls) show that the debate is far from over. Above and beyond the issue of religion in schools, the question touches the more general problem of attitudes to Islam in French society. How can we prevent secularism, which is a core value of the French education system, from leading to the exclusion of some pupils? And what can be done so that the French version of Islam distinguishes the temporal from the spiritual?
In this debate it is hard to find more relevant reading matter than A Letter Concerning Toleration published by John Locke in 1689. Although there are plenty of texts about tolerance dating from the 17th century (Spinoza, Bayle), Locke's Letter has become the best known reference, because it is so clear and concise. Starting from a conception of the freedom of judgement essential for all human beings, Locke defines the strict limits on the rights of the two institutions (Church and State), the one concerned with man and his worldly goods, the other with matters of faith and the eternal salvation of his soul.
According to Locke, the right to toleration has nothing to do with religious convictions; instead, it is essentially a practical political issue relating to the conduct of social relations. He makes a radical distinction between politics and religion: anyone who confuses two spheres that are so different in their origins, their ends and their concerns is muddling two things that are diametrical opposites, Heaven and Earth. Tolerance in Locke's view nevertheless involves restrictions, above all with regard to convictions that seek to impinge upon the State's sphere: Roman Catholicism because it is ruled from abroad, atheism because he sees it as basically unsuited to maintaining the moral ties essential to political life. Having had some experience himself of the business of the State, Locke was totally uncompromising about the boundary between public law and divine law: his obsession as a champion of liberalism (in the sense of respect for individual liberties) was with the social disorders arising from arbitrary actions by magistrates or from religious fanaticism or, worse still, the combination of the two.

In the midst of the "war against terrorism" launched by the US government, the editor of Foreign Policy rightly reminds us that there are other "wars", not waged by one state against another; these are sometimes even more destructive and governments have great difficulty in gaining the upper hand. These wars are made much worse by certain new features of globalisation and, according to Moisés Naím, they are likely to be long-lasting and to become even more serious if governments do not realize that these problems call for major strategic reforms.
The wars in question are against drug-trafficking, the illegal arms trade, breaches of intellectual property, trafficking of human beings and money-laundering.
These problems have no regard for geography or sovereignty, and they bring governments into conflict with networks based solely on market forces. In many ways, Naím argues, these struggles are structuring the world as much as the tensions between nation-states did in the past. In addition, they raise questions about the dominant ideas and institutions of nation-states and they highlight the damaging side-effects of untrammelled market forces.

Dominique Anxo undertakes here a comparative study of the sexual distribution of time use (professional, domestic, parental) in France and Sweden. He argues that, even if there have been some changes in recent years, in both countries the division of tasks still has a strong sexual bias, with women still spending more time than men on domestic activities and parenting.
Nevertheless, Swedish couples turn out to be more egalitarian in the allocation of tasks than their French counterparts. Among the critical factors responsible for this, Anxo identifies the Swedish employment policy, which allows for a "negotiated flexibility" throughout the life cycle, as well as childcare arrangements for infants which he argues are key, since the presence of pre-school children (i.e. under 3 years old) plays a major role in determining how women organize their time, in both the home and their jobs. Lastly, this (slight) advantage of Sweden over France (and many other countries) as regards the sexual division of activities is also linked to the high level of education and salaries of women in Sweden: total household income and wide differentials in pay scales between men and women heighten the inequalities in this area.
As well as a vivid analysis of male/female disparities, Dominique Anxo therefore suggests some ways of reducing the highly unequal division of labour between the sexes.

Après avoir sondé les maires de communes rurales sur le phénomène des citadins actifs qui viennent s'installer à la campagne, Ipsos a mené une enquête "miroir" auprès des néo-ruraux afin d'avoir leur propre ressenti : opinions et attitudes des "néo-ruraux".

Gilbert Cette and Pavel Diev offer here a short survey of the various studies devoted to the impact of the reduction in working hours (RWH) on the way the French spend their time, as well as the main conclusions.
Overall, these studies show that the time released by the RWH is shared among the activities people usually engage in outside working hours, depending on characteristics such as gender, income, whether or not they have children... Women, for example, mostly spend this extra time on household tasks and personal care, whereas men tend to spend it on gardening and DIY. If they have children, those in paid employment spend more time on domestic tasks and/or leisure activities. The level of education appears to determine whether this extra time is spent on domestic chores rather than leisure or social activities.
Finally, the authors provide some interesting insights into the variables most likely to influence how this extra free time is spent by those who have gained it (by age, family situation, income, length of service in the firm, travel-to-work time, the manner of RWH, etc.).

Basing his analysis on surveys of time-use in France, Alain Chenu discusses the main trends in the use of time by people aged between 18 and 64 and living in urban areas over the period 1974-1999.
In essence, he shows that while half the day is spent on satisfying physiological needs, the other half is devoted to work (either in jobs or in education) -where the amount of time has fallen sharply, especially between 1974 and 1986- and to leisure, which has tended to increase. Chenu points out, however, that there is a clear difference between the sexes, although that is diminishing: in 1974, women spent three times longer on domestic tasks than men, whereas in 1998 they spent just under twice as much time; in 1974, men were responsible for 80 % more of paid work than women, but by 1998 this had fallen to around 50 %.
Chenu then examines the data broken down into more detailed categories and finds that some major changes have been observed: a fall in the time spent sewing, washing and dressing, cooking and looking after children, etc. By contrast, more time is spent on do-it-yourself tasks in the home, gardening and shopping, with (once again) obvious differences between men and women.
Lastly, Chenu notes how the way French people spend their time varies depending on their level of education and their income. This analysis reveals a quite sharp distinction between highly qualified people who are working harder and harder and the unskilled, who enjoy more leisure time but spend it in mostly passive ways, such as watching television.