mediAzioni

Préface

Sylvie Chraïbi — 2024-03-27

This special issue, co-edited by Sylvie Chraïbi and Michele Pordeus Ribeiro, builds on the previous one, Discours des pauvretés, published in 2019 (mediAzioni 24) and edited by Sylvie Chraïbi and Licia Reggiani. It also results from research carried out by the research group Analyse du Discours et Culture (laboratoire CLESTHIA, axe Sens et Discours, université Sorbonne Nouvelle). We wished to delve deeper into our study, which we began in 2017, of the specific features of discourse on and around poverty according to the enunciating bodies, the textual genres, and the languages, through an interpretative analysis of cultures.

De la pobreza a la recuperación de residuos. La recolección informal en Buenos Aires, Argentina (2002-2015)

Mariano D. Perelman — 2024-03-27

In Argentina, after the economic, social, and institutional 2001 crisis, there was a substantial rise in the number of people informally collecting and selling recyclable waste. This activity had been ongoing for a long time, but the significant increase brought attention to an activity previously regarded as unlawful and illicit. From then on, even with discontinuities and drifts, a clear trend was consolidated towards the incorporation of informal collectors (colloquially called cartoneros/as) in public solid waste management systems, which implies, among other factors, a significant improvement in their working conditions. This article examines the establishment of the waste collection circuit over time and how its various regulations have impacted the work processes of cartoneros. It also explores the political and social organizations developed by the collectors, enabling them to negotiate and dispute the terms of this implementation. From our analysis, we suggest that a progression from poverty to recovery occurred, despite poverty remaining a fundamental aspect of the activity.

Pauvre de nous ! La pauvreté entre exclusion, privation et dépossession

Patrick Dieuaide — 2024-03-27

This article takes a multidisciplinary approach, highlighting the diversity of approaches to the phenomenon of poverty. A first review discusses the interest and limits of approaches to poverty based on the figure of the marginalized, with a focus on income thresholds. A second group of studies takes a closer look at the living conditions of people in precarious situations, emphasizing the importance of the notions of “reste à vivre” and “permanent social insecurity”. A third, and more recent, reading emphasizes the emergence in the Anthropocene era of a new form of poverty, based on the notion of vulnerability and symbolized by the figure of the “migrant” or “climate refugee”.

Poverty in three cities: a comparative discourse analysis of the interpretation of the term “gentrification” in public conversations transmitted by media in English, Portuguese and Russian

Maria Glushkova — 2024-03-27

This paper presents the findings of a comparative discourse analysis of the linguistic representation of the phenomenon of ‘gentrification’ in three cities: London, São Paulo and Moscow. Gentrification is generally understood (see Chris Hamnett, 2003) as the social and spatial transition to a post-industrial economy, usually associated with displacement of lower income groups from the gentrified area. The study observes how discussions of the topic are linguistically shaped in different languages over the same period (pre-Covid, 2015-2018). The material was selected from open sources, following hashtags and keywords in three languages, limiting the material to the genre of public conversation transmitted by the media about the phenomenon under study. The study compares the circulation of the term ‘gentrification’ in selected discourses and shows a conceptual discrepancy between them. This is exemplified through the use of synonyms, substitution for the term, description and interpretation of the notion. This analysis covers the representation of the concepts of ‘community’, ‘collectiveness’ and, in contrast, ‘ghettoization’ for London, São Paulo and Moscow. The different ‘winners’ and ‘victims’ of gentrification for the three cities studied are revealed. The results show that gentrification is openly discussed in London, where changes are considered positive, whereas the Russian discourse on gentrification questions the validity of the term and the process itself in Russian cities. Brazilian urbanists agree that similar processes to gentrification are taking place in São Paulo, emphasizing the role of the Brazilian state and the so-called hidden unofficial powers within informal territories.

Pauvre(s) dans le discours de la Banque mondiale. Proposition d’analyse sémantico-discursive

Michele Pordeus Ribeiro — 2024-03-27

This article examines the use of the word pauvre(s) (poor(s)) in a corpus of World Bank reports dedicated to the theme of poverty through its functioning in co-text. The data analysis showed that the form pauvre(s) appears mainly in plural definite noun phrases (les pauvres/the poor), which leads to the conclusion that the individuals referred to by this word are apprehended in a homogenised category. Used in this classificatory dimension, the word presents three main semantic traits: the poor, defined by their state of deprivation and difficulties, require help and protection from institutional entities (charitable trait); they are apprehended through economic reasoning characterized by a specialized vocabulary and the frequent use of numbers (technical trait); and finally, they are caught up in a rhetoric that aims to promote development through the sharing of prosperity worldwide (the consensual trait).

Retrouver la résilience en arabe dans le rapport annuel 2019 de la Banque mondiale « Ending poverty, Investing in opportunity »

Sylvie Chraïbi — 2024-03-27

Since the 2000s, the development programs of international organizations, and in particular the World Bank, have been encouraging rulers and ruled to adopt a “resilient” attitude in the face of disasters - natural, economic, industrial... A concept borrowed from physics and then psychology, mostly translated into Arabic in the annual reports of the financial institution by the predicative noun صمود (ṣumūd). However, we observe that in the Arabic version of the 2019 report, other translational choices have been proposed, as if to fill a semantic void. Indeed, certain aspects of resilience, such as adaptation and restoration efforts, are absent from the صمود (ṣumūd) Sememe. On the other hand, the connotative charge of this word in the context of the modern history of the Arab world in general, and Palestine in particular, gives rise to connections on the ideological level that weaken its capacities to refer to resilience. We will show in this article that the two concepts, resilience and صمود (ṣumūd) are partially convergent central notions of two distinct fields - international development and Arab management of the Palestinian question - that have been integrated into distinct founding discourses, bearers of shared values of different orders. In this context, the “narrative” of resilience according to the World Bank reported in the multilingual 2019 report could become ambiguous in the Arabic version, so much so does the word صمود (ṣumūd) circulate in discourses committed to an issue that engages, politically, Arab institutions.

Une représentation littéraire de la pauvreté au féminin : Call Your Daughter Home et sa traduction en français

Virginie Buhl — 2024-03-27

This study is dedicated to the textual representation of female poverty in a contemporary work of fiction, Call Your Daughter Home, a debut novel by American author Deb Spera, and in its French translation, Le Chant de nos filles. The literary strategy adopted by the author relies mainly on characterization and narration; it reinvents some commonplace stereotypes and long-held assumptions about the 1920s’ rural poverty in the United States to portray a different socioeconomic reality based on cross-community female solidarity. The heterogeneous mind styles embedded in the narrative highlight the diversity of languages, cultures and worldviews peculiar to impoverished White farmers (often called Poor white trash), to Black American servants and to the White upper class. Translating such a novel into French involved a careful cultural and linguistic negotiation designed to recreate plausible sociolects in French for both lower-class communities.

Iqbal et les autres. La représentation en littérature des enfants travailleurs

Elisabetta Sibilio — 2024-03-27

The issue of child labor began to be taken into consideration in Europe in the 19th century. The massive influx of people from the countryside to industrialized cities created a new social class, the sub-proletariat. Among them were large numbers of children, working to survive. Art and literature seized on the theme of poor working children in order to bring out the hidden face of progress (Hugo, Malot, Dickens, Trollope, Andersen…). From the 20th century onwards, this theme became commonplace in children’s literature, and major works often feature in school curricula. The aim was to promote children’s education as a way out of poverty (Aymé, Baffert, Ben Jelloun...). On the other hand, in the 2000s, a documentary literature developed on the subject, based on situations of misery in the contemporary world and illustrating the inequalities between the countries of the North and those of the South (Hélary, Poix).

Approches sociologiques et indicateurs de la pauvreté : le cas français

Claire Auzuret — 2024-03-27

This afterword presents a complementary point of view on the questions addressed in this issue of the journal on the theme of poverty. It revisits the etymology of the term poverty and the multiple representations of this phenomenon. It shows that poverty, which a priori appears to be a simple concept to understand, is more complex than one might think, in particular because of its evolving contours. For this reason, it is apprehended / studied by researchers using multiple indicators (monetary, administrative, living conditions and subjective) which are complementary. This article also focuses on the way in which “poor” categories of the population are treated, over time, by the public authorities. Finally, this afterword highlights the social determinants of exits from poverty and presents different hypotheses about the existence of a “halo” of poverty.