Georges Balandier

ESSAI D'IDENTIFICATION DU QUOTIDIEN

SUMMARY The sociology of everyday life must still define its objectives and approaches. In this article the author suggests criteria whereby the everyday can be identified and also proposes that research should center itself on the spaces and temporalities of the everyday. He also calls for a differential and critical sociology of everyday life.

Politique et contestation en Afrique

Les donnees politiques africaines sont des donn6es a trois dimensions : traditionnelle (ou qualifi6e comme telle par commodit6), coloniale et post-coloniale. Sans cette triple r6f6rence on ne peut saisir ni le sens des faits actuels, ni le dynamisme propre aux systemes politiques. On ne saurait le faire davantage si on n6gligeait de consid6rer le r6le que la contestation a jou6 et joue dans les soci6t6s africaines, comme dans toutes les soci6t6s.

La sociologie aujourd'hui

Sociology how strangely deceptive! The diffusion of sociological works in all (or almost all) societies, the « fragmentation * of the discipline into specialised branches, and its inevitable inter-relation with other disciplines (above all anthropology) stemming from the need to comprehend the extreme diversity of collective experience all these are factors conducive to the need for a pluralism of sociologies.