Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

In the second half of the 18th century, the Stockholm retail trades started to organise themselves in legal corporations, called trade societies. In this, they were frequently opposed by the State. Swedish society was still basically a corporatist society, based on privileged bodies, with defined functions and rights. Corporations on a concrete level, claiming legal status as intermediaries between the Individual and the public did, however, not fit into the plans of the State anymore. This dissertation deals with the following problems concerning this late addition to the corporate world of early-modern Sweden: What were the driving forces behind this corporate formation? And what were its consequences, for the relations between corporation and individual on the one hand, and between the corporations and the public on the other? The theoretical framework includes a discussion concerning conflicting conceptions of property. I will argue that the corporate ideals presuppose an 'embedded' notion of property, whereas 'new' ideas of property as a purely material commodity were starting to make their way into 18th century Swedish society. The second theoretical assumption is, that the action of the trade societies may be seen from a petite bourgeoisie perspective, where both the preconditions for their business and social status, as well as their collective action, show great affinity with that of advocates of petty property and small-scale business in the late 19th and early 20th century. I will argue that the combined phenomena of perceived relative deprivation and subsequent real economic hardship proved conducive to the decision of the retail trades to start forming proper corporations, meaning legally recognised (and protected) occupational associations. This process included a shift of strategy, as the trade societies turned inward: A closer adherence to the question of a moral economy, and claims to mutuality and surveillance within the society, were combined with strengthened claims concerning the question of credentials and professional skill. In their relations to individuals, the trade societies were obvious exponents of the patriarchal society. Young men within the retail trades, although closely supervised, faced reasonably fair chances of one day becoming tradesmen, burgesses and members of the corporation. Where conformity was lacking, however, both corporations and individuals were prone to litigation. The strengthened legal position of the trade societies proved to be conducive also to strengthened position vis-à-vis individuals. During the latter part of the century, the municipal courts showed greater adherence to the arguments and statutes of the corporations. The patriarchal system did also contain the relations between men and women. Here is introduced the concept of the corporate gender-order, for describing the trade societies' relations to women within and in the periphery of the corporation. Independent women, working outside any patriarchal control, was seen as a serious threat to the identity of these trades as exclusive, and as 'professions'. As a conclusion the retailers show a certain affinity with the petite bourgeoisie, in their individual as well as their collective behaviour.

Depuis 1842 et la signature du traité de Nankin concédant des parts du territoire chinois aux puissances étrangères, Shanghai a trouvé son destin intimement lies à l'Occident. Dès cette période émerge un style de vie occidentalisé dans une bourgeoisie d'affaires aux commandes d'une économie en plein essor. Touché par le communisme, cette classe sociale va disparaitre et son style de vie va faire l'objet de critiques les plus acerbes. Il faudra attendre 1990 et la réouverture économique de Shanghai pour que apparaisse à nouveau une Shanghai profondément tournée vers l'Occident. Nouvel élan économique engendrant l'apparition d'une nouvelle population, l'ouverture pose aussi des questions identitaires. Les différences entre les générations deviennent de plus en plus significatives et Shanghai voit de nouveau émerger une « petite bourgeoisie nouvelle » dont les caractéristiques ne sont plus forcément économique mais deviennent plus personnelles plus identitaire. Au croisement de la globalisation et de l'affirmation de la puissance chinoise, un groupe social original s'affirme, il regroupe des individus dont la quête personnelle du bonheur passe avant l'intérêt supérieur de la patrie. Entre occidentalisation et sinisation, ce travail se propose de décrypter le mode de vie de la nouvelle petite bourgeoisie shanghaienne en retraçant l'historique de Shanghai, la redéfinition des classes sociales et en analysant les pratiques quotidiennes de ce groupe social à l'aide de données essentiellement issues d'ouvrage de sociologie chinoise et d'enquêtes de terrain, questionnaires et interviews ainsi que d'études de statistiques officielles. / Since 1842 and the signing of the Treatment of Nanking granting part of Chinese territory to foreign countries, Shanghai is closely linked to the West. From this emerged period ,a Westernized lifestyle in a business class at the controls of a booming economy. Affected by communism, this class will disappear and lifestyle will be the most scathing criticism. It was not until 1990 and the reopening of Shanghai Economic appears again for a deeply Shanghai tour to the West. Generating new economic boost the appearance of a new population, openness also raises questions of identity. Differences between generations are becoming increasingly significant and Shanghai sees a new emerging "new middle class" whose characteristics are not necessarily economic, but become more personal. At the intersection of globalization and the assertion of Chinese power, an original social group asserts itself, it brings together individuals whose personal quest for happiness takes precedence over the interests of the homeland. Between Westernization and Sinisation, this work aims to decipher the lifestyle of the new middle class in Shanghai tracing the history of Shanghai, the redefinition of social classes and analyzing the daily practices of social groups using data mainly derived from work of Chinese sociology and field surveys, questionnaires and interviews and studies of official statistics.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This ethno a h explores the mean in s of personhood and agency in Maneberg a township located on the Cape Flats, in Cape Town South Africa. The township was a site of relocation for people who were classified coloured during the apartheid era and who were forcibly removed from newly declared white areas in the city in the 1960s I argue that despite the old apartheid state's attempts to reify the meaning of colouredness through racial legislation,\the residents of Manenberg created their own meanings of personhood, agency and community within the bureaucratic, social and economic interstices of the apartheid systems Yet at the same time they also reinstated the very structural processes at the heart of their racial and gendered subjugation. I indicate how the cohesiveness of the Rio Street community in Manenberg, the survival of its residents and their validation as respectable mothers, tough men and good daughters hinged on and effloresced from a moral economy that articulated with the structural location of coloured women in the apartheid economy and racial bureaucracy. I draw upon the writings of Fortes (1969), Giddens (1984) and Karp (1995) to elaborate upon the concept personhood in Manenberg. I show how the local understandings of personhood provide residents with agency, whilst connecting the latter to township history and apartheid social structure, thereby illustrating its limits. The concept personhood captures the duality of existence of Manenberg residents and maps out their negotiation and contestation about personhood and agency. I use Hobart (1990) and Kratz (2000) to indicate that lagency in Manenberg is complex and is situationally determined~Finally I utilise the theoretical insights of Donham (1999) to indicate that Manenberg's social, economic and historical location in the South African context allows for several notions of personhood to prevail in the township. These notions are grounded in the multiple, interconnected, hierarchically ordered, competing cultural and economic systems of production at the local, national and global levels. This complex location of Manenberg residents generates multiple constructs of inequality, power and agency that impinge upon each other and that are reflected in the contestations about personhood in diverse township spaces.