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This thesis is an ethnographic study of the Uruguayan programme CEIBAL, which aims to promote social inclusion by providing children and teachers with laptop computers. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that it illustrates empirically the complicated work of conceiving, implementing and sustaining policy in practice, both at the macro level and through local instantiations. This was achieved in three inter-related ways. First, by looking at how the national project of development was conceptualised around themes of techno-modernity and consolidated the promise of inclusiveness through claims on the universality of ‘technical needs’. Technology provided the conceptual space in which to resolve a presumed dichotomy between themes of equality, education and paternalistic state and those of economic development, modernisation and innovation. Second, it was analysed by exploring the way in which heterogeneous assemblages of people, values, laptops, and interests, were mobilized to stabilize the programme’s material and conceptual order across a wide range of sites and actors. This was based on the recognition of a ‘natural affinity’ between CEIBAL and Uruguay, which concealed differences, provided coherence and built a strong sense of ‘national consensus’. And finally, as a result of the other two, it was analysed by examining the relationship between ‘the technical’ and ‘the social’ as inscriptions and ‘fudged’ values objectified in the device faced users and their expectations. This implied looking at how CEIBAL officials attempted to make the laptop embody a political and moral project of inclusion, and its infinite promises, so that it could perform them. People in the three localities studied in this thesis (Montevideo, Paysandú and Queguayar) created very tangible strategies for dealing with notions of ‘social inclusion’, expressed different understandings of how technologies created possibilities for them and enacted these beliefs through a wide range of practices. This included the creation of new metaphors of ‘social inclusion’ through the notion of ‘connectivity,’ reconfiguring both social values and definitions of what constitute ‘connections’ as a result: the laptop’s ability to connect children with each ‘wired up the social fabric.’ These negotiations over the possibility of making connections are explored through a new concept that I refer to as ‘geographies of possibilities,’ which describes topographies of power that influence people’s ability to make technology perform. The key to this notion lies in the recognition of several forms of agency that are enacted in strategies to navigate through different geographies: people are not mere recipients of policy but active constituents of its various forms and instantiations in practice.

A Paris, il existe en marge des marchés aux Puces des zones de vente informelle réunissant des personnes en situation de précarité qui font commerce d'articles de récupération et, dans une moindre mesure, d'articles neufs. Face à la répression policière accrue dont elles font l'objet, un mouvement militant s'est constitué pour défendre le droit des vendeurs informels d'articles de récupération, les biffins, à occuper l'espace public. Parallèlement, le phénomène, souvent désigné par l'expression de « marchés de la misère », s'est étendu, gagnant des quartiers moins périphériques. L'approche retenue se situe à l'articulation entre action collective et action publique. La thèse retrace l'évolution des « marchés de la misère » et du mouvement de défense des biffins, tout en rendant compte de l'instauration de plusieurs dispositifs d'encadrement des biffins. Il s'agit de montrer comment le traitement politique de l'informalité donne lieu à une hybridation partielle de l'action publique à travers la controverse sur les biffins et les « marchés de la misère ». Dans ce contexte, le mouvement de défense des biffins est marqué par une fragmentation qui entrave sa montée en généralité. Il est traversé de conflits internes qui découlent du caractère partiel et partial de l'encadrement des biffins, mais qui, réciproquement, l'entretiennent. La redéfinition à la marge de la place des vendeurs de rue et récupérateurs informels que sont les biffins relève alors plus du registre de la régulation que de celui de l'alternative, dans un contexte où le recul des tolérances envers les activités informelles débouche une gestion incrémentale et semi-institutionnalisée au niveau local. / In Paris, there are, on the margins of the flea markets, some areas of informal street trade gathering people in precarious situations selling second-hand items and, to a lesser extent, new items. In face of the harsher repression they endure, a collective movement got formed to defend the right of the informal vendors selling second-hand items, the biffins, to occupypublic space. At the same time, the phenomenon, often qualified as « misery markets », has extended, spreading to less outlying areas. The approach focuses on the link between collective action and public action. The thesis relates the evolution of the « misery markets » and of the biffins' movement. It aims at showing how the political treatment ofinformality causes a partial hybridization of public action through the controversy about the biffins and the « misery markets ». In this context, the biffin's movement is marked by a division hindering its generalization. It is crossed by internal conflicts deriving from the partial and biased nature of the institutionnalization of the biffins' activities, but which, in turn, fuels this. The minor redefinition of the place of this informal street vendors and wastepickers is thus more a matter of regulation than of alternative, in a context where the reduction of police tolerances toward informal activities leads to an incremental and semiinstitutionnalized type of management, at the local level.

Bibliography : leaves 375-403. / vi, 403 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Examines the response to a number of outsiders and marginal social groups, such as Jews, Chinese, and Southern and Eastern Europeans predominantly in England and Australia, and considers the role that public health played in arguments for their exclusion and control. Measures the strength of the public health case, arguing that a health threat was generally not a real issue but, more typically, a badge which labelled the outsider as dangerous to the community. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Community Medicine, 1993

L’objectif principal de cette étude est d’analyser la configuration du pouvoir local dans quatre États mexicains : le Chiapas, le Veracruz, le Yucatan et le District Fédéral, en lien avec la reproduction de la pauvreté et des inégalités, qui persistent en dépit de la mise en œuvre de programmes sociaux destinés aux personnes âgées du pays. Ces quatre États mexicains montrent des similitudes et des différences dans la reproduction du pouvoir par le PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) et par les « grandes familles ». Cette reproduction est à mettre en relation avec le clientélisme politique, qui alimente également la reproduction de la pauvreté et des inégalités. L’étude comparative entre ces quatre États est réalisée dans un contexte de transition sociodémographique et de vieillissement de la population mexicaine. L’étude aborde également les questions de la discrimination du genre, des relations conflictuelles entre classes sociales et du racisme dans les rapports sociaux, en articulation avec la persistance du « colonialisme du pouvoir » mis en œuvre par différents groupes exogènes et endogènes. / The main objective of this study is to analyze the local power configuration in four Mexican states: Chiapas, Veracruz, Yucatan and the Federal District, with regard to reproduction of poverty and inequality that persist despite the implementation of social programs for the elderly in Mexico. These four Mexican states show similarities and differences in the reproduction of power by the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) and by the "big families". This reproduction is related to political clientelism, which also supplies the reproduction of poverty and inequality. The comparative study between four states is carried out within a context of socio-demographic transition and ageing processes of Mexican population. The study also addresses issues of gender discrimination, conflicts between social classes and racism in social relations, in articulation with persistence of the "colonialism of power" implemented by various exogenous and endogenous groups.

Σκοπός της έρευνας είναι η ανάδειξη στοιχείων και όψεων της υποκειμενικότητας των παιδιών πολιτισμικά διαφορετικών ομάδων σε μια χώρα υποδοχής, των κοινωνικών διαμεσολαβήσεων που τη διαμορφώνουν μέσω των υποκειμενοποιήσεων που συνεπάγονται, καθώς και των υποκειμενικών νοηματοδοτήσεων ως προς την εθνική καταγωγή και την προσωπικότητά τους. Επιπρόσθετο σκοπό αποτελεί η σύγκριση σε όλα τα πιο πάνω επίπεδα των αποτελεσμάτων σε δύο χώρες υποδοχής μεταναστών, την Ελλάδα και την Κύπρο. / The aim of the study is to investigate and to define subjectivity aspects of children from culturally different groups in a receiving country. The definition of subjectivity derives from the investigation of social mediations, subjectifications, and children’ s subjective opinions for their national and personal orientation. An additional aim is to compare the results of the study in two immigrant receiving countries, Greece and Cyprus.