France's last sociologist

Abstract

The publication of Michael Grenfell's Pierre Bourdieu: Agent Provocateur provides an ideal opportunity for a career retrospective of the academic sociologist who, in recent times, has taken most seriously his role as a public intellectual, indeed, one who gradually warmed to the status of ‘universal intellectual’ with increasing postmodernist disapproval. The French context of Bourdieu's development and reception is highlighted.     

The Relationship Between Anxiety Disorders and Substance Use Among Adolescents in the Community: Specificity and Gender Differences

Using a sample of 781 adolescents (ages 13–17, 52.8% male) from a community survey, this study examined gender differences in the co-occurrence of specific anxiety disorders with substance use in adolescents. The associations between anxiety disorders and substance use differed according to the particular anxiety disorders and forms of substance use being examined, as well as by gender. Social phobia was associated with cigarette smoking among boys only. For girls, social phobia appeared to be negatively associated with drug use. For the other anxiety disorders, the associations with substance use tended to be stronger among girls. These findings highlight the need to improve clinical recognition of the anxiety disorders and to improve treatment access for afflicted adolescents. Future studies based on longitudinal data could further elucidate the relationships among anxiety disorders, gender, and substance use.     

The forensic pathologist and the determination of driver versus passenger in motor vehicle collisions. The need to examine injury mechanisms, occupant kinematics, vehicle dynamics, and trace evidence

Five cases of vehicular homicide are presented in which the determination of an occupant's role in a motor vehicle collision was an important medicolegal question. The identification of the occupant's role in a motor vehicle collision can be determined by the forensic pathologist. The investigation that coordinates an examination of injury mechanisms, occupant kinematics, vehicle dynamics, and trace evidence will facilitate such a determination. This determination protects the innocent passenger, when faced with criminal or civil charges, from being falsely prosecuted as the driver. The examination of the above-mentioned components in a multi-occupant collision takes on particular forensic importance when a surviving driver claims to be a passenger: the victim rather than the assailant.     

Precautionary and Proactionary as the New Right and the New Left of the Twenty-First Century Ideological Spectrum

Despite its specific origin in the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly after the revolution of 1789, the right–left divide of the ideological spectrum has proved remarkably resilient in anchoring public intellectual life for over two centuries. In this article, I argue that we are witnessing a 90° rotation of this ideological axis, resulting in a new set of poles, each of which combines elements of the old right–left divide. The ‘precautionary’ pole brings together the conservationist side of the right and the communitarian side of the left, whereas the ‘proactionary’ pole unites the libertarian side of the right and the technocratic side of the left. I prepare the ground for discussing these new alternatives with a consideration of the political theology of the old right–left divide, which ultimately turns on alternative visions of how the past determines the future. This ‘left’ basically holds that what is possible significantly exceeds what is probable, with liberals adopting an ‘antirealist’ and socialists a ‘realist’ stance towards the prospect of an optimal social order. Both the precautionary and proactionary poles of the new ideological spectrum are fixated on our attitude towards a future in which the ontological constitution of the polity (i.e. its ‘humanity’) is among the issue under contestation. In this emerging ideological conflict, more of which is transpiring in video than in print, the precautionaries are marked as more ‘risk-averse’ and the proactionaries more ‘risk-seeking’ than had been presumed to be the normal attitude in the modern welfare state.     

Privacy law as price control

The median Internet user is concerned about digital advertisers collecting personal information. To address these fears, the European Union passed the Privacy Directive to regulate the common business practice of information collection. This paper investigates the potential effects of this regulation, finding that the law is likely to generate several unintended consequences. Economists and legal scholars acknowledge that personal data serves as the “price” for accessing many digital platforms. I extend this logic to argue that if a regulation enables consumers to stop supplying this information, while continuing to consume the site’s content, it is equivalent to a price control. Next, I discuss unintended consequences that this price control may generate: tie-in sales, investment flight, and altered exchange characteristics. Lastly, I conclude that, just as with traditional price controls, the privacy price control may be a way for government officials to enhance their popularity with the citizenry. In short, my analysis suggests that one of the most well-researched policy interests of economics—the theory of price controls—can shed light on one of economists’ newest interests: digital privacy.