Politisations différentielles et acculturations mutuelles en contexte autoritaire : ethnographie d'une inversion du cens électoral

Français L'observation ethnographique des politisations différentielles pendant une campagne électorale en contexte autoritaire changeant est un analyseur privilégié de plusieurs processus. Sur un plan empirique, elle donne à voir les modalités diversifiées d'appropriation du moment électoral par les acteurs, les tentatives d'ajustement d'une partie de la gauche marocaine à la perte de son électorat de granit et aux transformations du marché électoral, mais également un mouvement de fond : celui de l'inversion ponctuelle du principe censitaire, en lien avec la désertion des urnes par les plus dotés culturellement et matériellement et avec la mutation du vote urbain populaire. Sur un plan théorique, l'examen des tâtonnements en oeuvre - avant leur naturalisation - permet de poursuivre le dialogue entre les travaux sur le clientélisme politique et sur la politisation, au croisement des approches socio-historiques et de sociologie politique, en contextes autoritaires et démocratiques. Il montre l'intérêt de dépasser les oppositions entre conceptions restrictives et extensives de la politisation, pour se saisir processuellement et in situ des politisations différentielles des acteurs, des registres et des pratiques. English Differential Forms of Politicization and Mutual Acculturation in an Authoritarian ContextThe ethnographic observation of differential forms of politicization during an electoral campaign in a changing authoritarian context is an ideal means of analyzing a number of processes. Empirically, it enables us to observe the actors' diverse ways of appropriating the electoral moment, a Moroccan leftist party's attempts to adjust to the loss of its electoral base and the transformations of the electoral market. It also enables us to observe a one-time reversal of the symbolic voting restrictions, in correlation with the desertion of the polls by the those best equipped to participate, both culturally and materially, and with the transformation of the urban popular vote. In theoretical terms, examination of such ongoing processes - before their stabilization - allows us to follow the interplay between the work on political clientelism and on politicization, at the intersection of sociohistorical and political sociological approaches, in authoritarian and democratic contexts. It demonstrates the value of moving beyond the opposition between restrictive and extensive conceptions of politicization, to grasp the process in situ of differential forms of the politicization of actors, registers and practices.

Dictyostelium discoideum as an expression host for the circumsporozoite protein of Plasmodium falciparum.

We have used the cellular slime mold, Dictyostelium discoideum (Dd), to express the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CS), a potential component of a subunit vaccine against malaria. This was accomplished via an expression vector based on the discoidin I-encoding gene promoter, in which we linked a sequence coding for a Dd leader peptide to the almost complete CS coding region (pEDII-CS). CS production at both the mRNA and protein levels is induced by starving cells in a simple phosphate buffer. Variation in pH or cell density does not seem to influence CS synthesis. CS-producing cells can be grown either on their normal substrate, bacteria, or on a semi-synthetic media, without affecting CS accumulation level. The CS produced in Dd seems similar to the natural parasite protein as judged by its size and epitope recognition by a panel of monoclonal antibodies. We constructed a second expression vector in which the CS is under the control of a Dd ras promoter. CS accumulation can then be induced by external addition of cAMP. Such a tightly regulated promoter may allow expression of proteins potentially toxic to the cell. Thus, Dd could be a useful eukaryotic system to produce recombinant proteins, in particular from human or animal parasites like P. falciparum.