A critical investigation of the public/private distinction as it has been conceived in Anglo-American political thinking in the second half of the 20th century. A broadly held consensus has developed amongst many theorists that public/private does not refer to any single determinate distinction or relationship but rather to an often ambiguous range of related but analytically distinct conceptual oppositions. The argument of this thesis is that if we approach public/private in the search for analytic or conceptual clarity then this consensus is correct. Against this I propose that a number of the most dominant invocations of the distinction can be understood to express public/private as an irreducibly political dialectic that mediates the relationship between the subjective and objective side of social and political life. By locating these conceptually diverse invocations within a broader and more determinate framework of the historical development and contestation of the boundaries which establish the conditions for subjectivity, as the assertion of political agency, on the one hand, and which demarcate, police and defend these particular boundaries, as part of the objectively given character of social life and institutional organisation, on the other hand, then a more determinate character to public/private can be recognized. I then seek to explore the capacity of this model to capture and explain the peculiar post-war problematisation of public/private amongst a number of new left thinkers in Britain and America.

This thesis analyses processes of discursive European identity formation in three cultural journals: Esprit, from France, the British New Left Review and the German Merkur during the time periods 1989-92, and, a decade later, during 2003-06. The theoretical framework which the thesis brings to bear on this analysis is that of the European Public Sphere. This model builds on Jürgen Habermas’s original model of a “public sphere”, and alleges that a sphere of common debate about issues of European concern can lead to a more defined and integrated sense of a European identity which is widely perceived as vague and inchoate. The relevancy of the public sphere model and its connection to the larger debate about European identity, especially since 1989, are discussed in the first part of the thesis. The second part provides a comparative analysis of the main European debates in the journals during the respective time periods. It outlines the mechanisms by which identity is expressed and assesses when, and to what extent, shared notions of European identity emerge. The analysis finds that identity formation does not occur through a developmental, gradual convergence of views as the European public sphere model envisages. Rather, it is brought about in much more haphazard back-and-forth movements. Moreover, shared notions of European identity between all the journals only arise in moments of perceived crises. Such crises are identified as the most salient factor which galvanizes expressions of a common, shared sense of European identity across national boundaries and ideological cleavages. The thesis concludes that the model of the EPS is too dependent on a partial view of how identity formation occurs and should thus adopt a more nuanced understanding about the complex factors that are at play in these processes. For the principled attempt to circumscribe identity formation as the outcome of communicative processes alone is likely to be thwarted by external events.

Le présent travail, en analysant la trajectoire biographique du réalisateur japonais Sômai Shinji de son passage dans les mouvements de contestation de la Nouvelle gauche à ses premiers films tournés dans les années quatre-vingt, se veut une étude critique sur le sens généralement accordé à l’utilisation de la technique dite du « plan-séquence » dans le contexte du cinéma japonais. Le plan-séquence est une méthode de mise en scène que différents auteurs occidentaux, de Noël Burch à Donald Richie, ont régulièrement qualifié d’ « essentiellement » japonaise tant elle semble selon eux présenter une utilisation de l’espace qui la rapproche des arts de représentation traditionnels comme le théâtre kabuki ou la peinture de Heian. En mettant en évidence les fonctions de contestation et de résistance que cette technique joue dans l’esthétique des films de Sômai Shinji, activiste de la Quatrième internationale japonaise de 1967 à 1971, nous démontrons que le jugement selon lequel le plan-séquence découlerait d’une sensibilité propre au peuple japonais－en effet, d’une « japonité »－est pour le moins à revoir. Sômai, de par son passé politique, est un réalisateur qui est constamment en lutte avec les valeurs de ce que nous appelons l’ « idéologie dominante », si bien que sa trajectoire ne peut se comprendre qu’en tenant compte des notions de conflits et de contradictions, bien loin de l’image lisse et homogène du peuple japonais dont nous abreuve un certain discours. Au-delà de la relecture du sens accordé à l’usage de la technique du plan-séquence－à laquelle nous associons rapidement des cinéastes comme Mizoguchi Kenji ou Sone Chûsei－, cette thèse soulève donc certaines interrogations sur la perception que nous avons, à travers les médias audiovisuels, de la nation comme entité homogène et fixée dans le temps. / The present work, while examining the biographical trajectory of Japanese filmmaker Sômai Shinji from his past in the Japanese New Left to his first movies made in the 80s, is aimed at being a critical study of the significance regarding the use of the technique called “one scene-one shot” generally admitted in the context of Japanese cinema. The one scene-one shot is a method of mise-en-scène considered by several non-Japanese authors, like Noël Burch or Donald Richie, to be “essentially” Japanese because of what they think to be similarities with methods of representation usually found in kabuki theatre and Heian paintings. While we enhance the functions of protest and resistance this technique plays in the aesthetic of Sômai Shinji－who was an activist of the Japanese Fourth International from 1967 to 1971－films, we assess that the argument regarding the one scene-one shot as a method of filming particular to the Japanese sensibility－indeed, an expression of “Japaneseness”－is at best to be reconsidered. Sômai, because of his political past, was a filmmaker constantly struggling with the values of what we call the “dominant ideology”. His work cannot properly be understood unless we put the notions of conflicts and contradictions at the core of our analysis, departing from the traditionally peaceful and homogenous image that certain discourses usually express regarding the Japanese people. Beyond a reexamination of the significance traditionally given to the use of the one scene-one shot in the context of Japanese cinema－to which we associate filmmakers such as Mizoguchi Kenji and Sone Chûsei－, this dissertation questions the images of the nation, expressed through audiovisual means, as a homogenous and fixed community.

Par un terrain qualitatif d’onze entrevues semi-dirigées auprès des stratèges ayant travaillé sur la campagne présidentielle du mouvement naissant de Jean-Luc Mélenchon, la France Insoumise, ce mémoire tente de dresser un portrait des pratiques en matière de marketing politique pour ce candidat. Nous nous sommes concentrés sur les pratiques visant à séduire les jeunes électeurs, afin de pouvoir valider ou réfuter l’hypothèse selon laquelle la FI a volontairement ciblé les 18-24 ans en adaptant les concepts et cheminement du processus marketing à leur comportement politique. Nous pensons que ce choix pourrait peut-être contribuer à expliquer en partie le bon résultat du candidat d’extrême-gauche, qui était, avant cela, perçu comme étant en marge du jeu électoral. Loin d’émettre un jugement moral sur ces pratiques qui sont employées quasi-systématiquement pour la plupart des partis occidentaux, les résultats révèlent plusieurs démarches de ciblage efficace et une nette professionnalisation de la campagne dans un pays culturellement sensible à la question du marketing ou du traitement des données personnelles. / Through a qualitative survey consisting of eleven semi-structured interviews with strategists who worked on French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s incipient movement, the France Insoumise, this dissertation aims to further the understanding of the political marketing practices used throughout his campaign. We focus on the practices devised to attract young voters so as to validate or refute the hypothesis that the FI purposely targeted the 18-24 years old age group, through the use of marketing inspired concepts and strategies so as to influence their political behavior. We posit that this strategy partly explains the good results of the far-left candidate who before stood on the fringes of the political ecosystem. Far from passing a moral judgement on the aforementioned use of marketing practices, which have been used in an almost systematic manner as of late in western parties; the studies’ results show the effectiveness certain targeting tactics. They also show a clear professionalization of the political marketing field in a country where the use of marketing and personal data is still a sensitive topic.

Notre thèse d’analyse des idées politiques retrace l’histoire intellectuelle de larevue de pensée critique étasunienne Telos de 1968 à 2001. A travers notre travail denarration critique, nous cherchons à comprendre, au sens wébérien, l’évolution idéologiquesignificative de la publication-organisation, qui est passée en moins de trente ans d’unpositionnement néo-marxiste affilié à la Nouvelle gauche américaine à un populisme prochede la Nouvelle droite européenne. Notre hypothèse de travail est que le rapport que Telosentretient avec la Théorie critique de l’Ecole de Francfort est déterminant pour comprendreson évolution et écrire son histoire. Nous défendons ici la thèse que Telos constitue unorgane dissident de « théorie critique nord-américaine » (Mooney, Calhoun) qui s’exprimesous la forme d’un « traditionalisme critique » qui tient lieu de synthèse entre différentesbranches de théorie critique contemporaine. En tant que synthèse, la théorie telosiennedépasse l'héritage de la vieille Théorie critique francfortoise, dans un double rapportd’intégration et de négation. In fine, Telos produit sa propre critique, une autre théoriecritique. / Our doctoral dissertation traces the intellectual history of the American criticalthought journal Telos from 1968 to 2001. Through our critical narrative, we intend tounderstand, in the weberian sense, the significant ideological evolution of the publicationorganization,which, in less than thirty years, moved from a neo-Marxist position affiliatedwith the American New Left to a populism related to the European New Right. Our workinghypothesis is that the link between Telos and the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School isdecisive to understand its evolution and write its history. Our thesis is that Telos is adissenting organ of “North-American Critical Theory” (Mooney, Calhoun) expressed as a“critical traditionalism” that acts as a synthesis between various trends of contemporarycritical theory. As a synthesis, the telosian theory overcomes the legacy of the old Criticaltheory in a dual relationship of integration and negation. Ultimately, Telos produces its owncriticism, another critical theory.