La mise en oeuvre et les mutations d'un problème public : les violences faites aux femmes dans le canton de Genève

Violence against women (VAW) has become an issue for public action and a subject of controversy and debate in the public arena. The occurrences of VAW are - at least in part - reported by public authorities and public policies are designed to combat it, by means of prevention campaigns, setting up of shelters or counselling services. All these measures bring together a range of institutional and non-institutional actors. VAW is furthermore the focus of specific laws, but we know little about the emergence of the regulation of VAW in Switzerland. In this article, we will present preliminary results of the developpment of policies adressing domestic violence in the canton of Geneva, focusing on the political arena and analysing the definitional work done by two associations. These case studies show that the concept of gender violence has been marginalized and replaced by a new understanding of the phenomenon of gender violence, which is presented most often in a symmetrical, psychological and racialized way. Les violences faites aux femmes font l'objet de débats et de controverses et sont désormais un problème public qui réunit une pluralité d'acteurs institutionnels et non institutionnels. Outre diverses législations en la matière, de multiples actions et politiques publiques ont été élaborées dans des contextes variés, sous forme de campagnes de prévention, de création de refuges et de centres de conseils. Dans ce contexte, on ne sait que peu de choses de l'émergence de la régulation de ces violences en Suisse et des diverses formes qu'elle a prises. Cet article présente des résultats provisoires concernant la prise en charge des violences domestiques dans le canton de Genève, en se centrant sur la scène politique et en analysant le travail définitionnel effectué par deux associations hégémoniques dans le domaine. Ces études de cas permettent d'affirmer que le concept de violence de genre a été marginalisé et remplacé par une nouvelle compréhension du phénomène, présentée le plus souvent de façon symétrique, psychologique et racialisée.

Literature report : a review of policy learning in five strands of political science research

This paper reviews the policy learning literature in political science. In recent years, the number of publications on learning in the political realm increased dramatically. Researchers have focused on how policymakers and administrators adapt policies based on learning processes or experiences. Thereby, learning has been discussed in very different ways. Authors have referred to learning in the context of ideas, understood as deeply held beliefs, and, as change and adaptation of policy instruments. Two other strands of literature have taken into consideration learning, namely the diffusion literature and research on transfer, which put forward learning to understand who learns from whom and what. Opposed to these views, political learning emphasizes the adaptation of new strategies by policymakers over the transfer of knowledge or broad ideas. In this approach, learning occurs due to the failure of existing policies, increasing problem pressure, scientific innovations, or a combination of these elements.

Les artistes visuels au Yémen, du soutien à la contestation de l'ordre politique

Cette thèse appréhende les rapports au politique des artistes visuels yéménites dans un contexte de domination, recouvrant trois États (les deux républiques qui précédent l'unification du Yémen et la république actuelle créée en 1990, jusqu'en 2015). En étudiant la domination en acte à travers une démarche ethnographique, ce travail interroge les conditions de production et d'action des artistes en soutien ou en contestation au régime, comme au cours du moment révolutionnaire de 2011. On observe ainsi le processus de politisation des mondes de l'art au Yémen contemporain, processus compris en tant qu'acquisition d'une signification politique par la pratique artistique et par les réseaux de relations entretenus par les artistes visuels. Ces requalifications de leur travail ou de leurs actions se font dans un contexte traversé par des luttes concurrentielles pour la répartition du pouvoir, aussi bien internes et propres à leurs mondes d'activité, qu'externes et en relation à l'espace politique institutionnel. La politisation des mondes de l'art apparaît dès lors moins comme un instrument d'accès à cet espace qu'une voie pour accéder à plus de visibilité, à la reconnaissance, et à un meilleur positionnement dans les rapports agonistiques qui configurent ces mondes. -- This thesis focuses on the study of Yemeni visual artists' relation to politics in a context of domination, covering three States (the two republics that precede Yemen's unification and the current republic established in 1990, until 2015). Studying domination in action througli an ethnographic approach, this work questions artists' conditions of production and of action in support to or in contestation of the regime- as in the case of the revolutionary period of 2011. It observes the politicization of art worlds in contemporary Yemen, a process understood as the acquisition of a political significance as observed in the artistic practice and in the dynamic networks that artists maintain. The requalification and reclassification of their work and their actions that results from the politicization of art worlds, takes place in a context of competitive struggles over distribution and access to sites of power. Such conflict over power occurs within their own worlds of activity as well as outside them and in relation to the domain of institutional politics. This thesis contends that the politicization of art worlds is more of a means to access visibility and recognition than a resource to participate in the political field. Through the politicization of art, artists are able to better position themselves within the agonistic relations that exist within art worlds.

Peatlands and plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia : Complex realities for resource governance, rural development and climate change mitigation

Peatlands play a crucial role in Indonesia's economic development, and in its stated goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Improved peatland management - including a national moratorium on the granting of any new conversion licenses - forms a cornerstone of Indonesia's climate change mitigation commitment. At the same time, rapid expansion of the plantation sector is driving wide-scale drainage and conversion of peat swamp ecosystems. The province of Riau, in central Sumatra, finds itself at the crossroads of these conflicting agendas. This essay presents a case study of three islands on Riau's east coast affected by industrial timber plantation concessions. It examines the divergent experiences, perceptions and responses of communities on the islands. A mix of dramatic protests, localised everyday actions and constructive dialogue has succeeded in delaying or perhaps halting one of the concessions, while negotiations and contestation with the other two continue. With the support of regional and national non-governmental organisations and local government, communities are pursuing alternative development strategies, including the cultivation of sago, which requires no peat drainage. While a powerful political economy of state and corporate actors shapes the contours of socio-environmental change, local social movements can alter trajectories of change, promoting incremental improvements and alternative pathways.

Le rôle des associations de patients face au don d'organes en Suisse romande [Organ donation and the role of patients' associations in Western Switzerland].

In the context of lay mobilization in health-related areas, this article addresses the role and activities of patients' associations in connection with organ donation, on the basis of interviews carried out with thirty members of transplant patients' associations in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. First, we describe the three main categories of activities conducted by these associations. While self-help and public awareness activities are predominant, policy-oriented actions are marginal. Then, we examine the factors likely to explain why these associations have a limited capacity to be active, especially in the public sphere. Such a lack of social visibility is all the more important in the current political context, characterized by the implementation of a national action plan designed to improve organ donation.

Enhancing actions of peptides derived from the γ-chain of fetal human hemoglobin on the immunostimulant activities of monophosphoryl lipid A.

Hemoglobin and its structures have been described since the 1990s to enhance a variety of biological activities of endotoxins (LPS) in a dose-dependent manner. To investigate the interaction processes in more detail, the system was extended by studying the interactions of newly designed peptides from the γ-chain of human hemoglobin with the adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA), a partial structure of lipid A lacking its 1-phosphate. It was found that some selected Hbg peptides, in particular two synthetic substructures designated Hbg32 and Hbg35, considerably increased the bioactivity of MPLA, which alone was only a weak activator of immune cells. These findings hold true for human mononuclar cells, monocytes and T lymphocytes. To understand the mechanisms of action in more detail, biophysical techniques were applied. These showed a peptide-induced change of the MPLA aggregate structure from multilamellar into a non-lamellar, probably inverted, cubic structure. Concomitantly, the peptides incorporated into the tightly packed MPLA aggregates into smaller units down to monomers. The fragmentation of the aggregates was an endothermic process, differing from a complex formation but rather typical for a catalytic reaction.