*** MARYVONNE CAILLAUX: Comme des orpailleurs. De la misère à la pauvreté, les relations comme chemins de libération. Editions L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tél.: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - Internet: http://www.editions-harmattan.fr ). 2010, 212 p., 21,50 €. ISBN 978-2-296-11264-3.
No need to wait for the end of 2010, the European Year Against Poverty and Social Exclusion, to read this book, or even 17 October 2010, the "International Day for the Eradication of Poverty" (a United Nations day set up in 1987). The author has been a permanent volunteer for the 'Mouvement International ATD-Quart Monde' movement since 1982, describing herself as an "activist cum researcher" who has learnt from her experience on the ground in France, the United States and Spain, allying theory with social practice among people suffering extreme poverty. The book contains a theoretical section and detailed analysis of two interviews, one with a man and one with a woman, who have lived through what Maryvonne Caillaux describes as a "path of liberation" from abject poverty to poverty.
To define terms, 'abject poverty' and 'poverty' are two indicators based on facts and figures, but 'abject poverty' is above all characterised by social aspects, being an underclass outside normal borders, "a very unusual experience, but which can be approached from the outside as long as one has sufficient respect and patience". The author is clearly referring to the Wresinski Report entitled "Grande pauvreté et précarité économique et sociale," published in February 1987 by the French Economic and Social Council. Maryvonne Caillaux uses the words 'poverty' and 'precariousness' interchangeably as synonyms of lack, need, destitution, privation or, in a more ethical sense, of weakness. The words 'abject poverty' and 'poverty' cover many domains of existence, becoming persistent and compromising chances of getting back to full responsibility and recovering one's rights by oneself in the near or predictable future. This is where the book's title, with the metaphor of '"orpailleur" comes in: someone panning for gold and spending long hours and the correct tools to seek out gold nuggets hidden in mud in places that are very difficult to reach.
The author does not claim to take advantage of her experience and analysis to draw up a full-blown policy of 'social inclusion' (to use the fashionable terminology of national, EU and international institutions), but rather encourages researchers and stakeholders to have the ambitious modesty to attempt to reach the most abjectly poor individuals and families and help them free themselves from their abject poverty. The author says the following steps are required: meeting another individual/other individuals, listening with respect, reconciling the interlocutor with his/her own story, becoming aware that a better life is possible, and all the time realising that "liberation from abject poverty does not mean leading people towards the pursuit of money, but rather the pursuit of a more humane, responsible life that is more connected with other people and the world in general".
At the end of this European Year of Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion, the lessons provided in this book could be useful in making a rigorous assessment of the year's achievements…
Jacques-René Rabier
*** GYÖRGY SZELL, UTE SZELL (Eds.): Quality of Life and Working Life in Comparison. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Labour, Education & Society" series, No. 19. 2009, 404 pp. ISBN 978-3-631-58633-4.
The German-Japanese Social Science Society devoted its tenth symposium in Osnabrück two years ago to comparing and contrasting the quality of life and professional life in Germany and Japan. This book publishes what the editors feel were the twenty-six best contributions to the symposium, looking at the subject in question from the aspect of the various fields of social science - sociology, psychology, economics, politics, architecture and the environment, mixing and matching theoretical, empirical and historical approaches.
(PBo)
*** MARIE-ANGE MOREAU (Ed.): Building A nticipation of Restructuring in Europe. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes/Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Work & Society" series, No. 65. 2009, 431 pp, €49-50. ISBN 978-90-5201-486-9.
Designed with Serafino Negrelli and Philippe Pochet, this book looks at company restructuring in Europe against the backdrop of globalisation. Containing a number of essays submitted at a conference organised by AgirE, the book examines 26 cases of company restructuring in six EU Member States to try and understand the complexity of the changes involved to help predict future changes to be able to adapt to them politically, legally and socially. The authors draw up guidelines for action to be taken at EU level. The first part of the book examines interaction between global and local players and the impact of the broad macroeconomic situation on corporate decision-making. The second section examines decisions made at EU level in this domain and their political, legal and social impact.
(NDu)
*** PERTTI KOISTINEN, LILJA MOSESDOTTIR, AMPARO SERRANO PA2SCUAL (Eds.): Emerging Systems of Work and Welfare. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes/Peter Lang (see above). "Work & Society" series, No. 66. 2009, 321 pp, €45-50. ISBN 978-90-5201-549-1.
The world of work is changing apace and in Europe, economic efficiency no longer coincides the way it used to with relative social stability, and regulations to ensure social stability have been swept aside. In reality, this period is characterised by the rise of flexicurity alongside individual performance ratings and an individualisation of risks that are no longer held in check by a protective state as in days gone by. The authors of this collection of essays are all sociologists or specialists in social policy. They argue that the situation calls for defences to be rebuilt, requiring a holistic approach that takes account of both informal work and work found in the market place, both structural issues underlying behaviour and individual strategies used to try and find one's way in the world. The book is divided into four sections. The first looks at new ideological demands that partially confirm the 'personal regulations' that oppose individuals against the new market demands. The authors then examine the various levels and instructions, from supranational to regions and families, that play a role in the regulation of employment systems. The third section looks at how individual strategies and institutional factors influence individuals' choices and behaviour. Of the various conclusions running through the book, social security and welfare services are of particular interest. The authors argue that although they are under as much pressure as the welfare state itself, they should be extended to prevent the growth of inequality and in order to help develop everyone's abilities. This argument speaks for itself, although it is not fashionable at the moment.
(PBo)
*** CHRISTIAN BEAUCOUP: La croissance économique mondiale par la santé. Pour un New Deal de l'accès aux soins dans le monde. Editions L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel. (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - email: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.librairieharmattan.com ). 2009, 171 pp, €16-50. ISBN 978-2-296-10145-6.
Because he believes that "keeping quiet when one should be protesting is an act of cowardice," a former director of big pharmaceutical companies has written this book as a clarion call for common-sense. His time living in various countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa enabled him to look reality in the face and although healthcare has become a right in the European Union and the West at large, more than 80% of the rest of the world's population do not have access to the most elementary forms of healthcare due to the pathetic level of infrastructure and hospitals, lack of properly qualified staff, shortages of medicine and so on. As an expat, he explains he got used to this state of affairs and carried out his professional responsibilities as if this were an unavoidable fact of life that is difficult to reverse in the short-term, persuaded that lack of access to healthcare was due to lack of economic development and that the situation would improve in the medium-term as economic growth and social development picked up. Upon his return to France, the author now admits that he was wrong and investment in healthcare is in fact a necessary prerequisite for economic and social development. Hence this book, in which he refuses to give way to over-simplistic ideas that world healthcare penury is simply due to patents that prevent the use of products developped from research by pharmaceutical multinationals, arguing forcefully that the West, starting with the EU, must invest as a matter of priority in healthcare in developping countries. The author explains that this would also be an intelligent way of preventing unsustainable floods of new immigrants arriving in the future.
(PBo)
*** JEROME LAMBERT, DIDIER QUENTIN: Transplantation d'organes: un cadre européen commun pour sécurité partagée. Commission des Affaires européennes de l'Assemblée nationale (Boutique de l'Assemblée nationale, 7 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40630033 - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Rapport d'information", No. 2548. 2010, 39 pp, €3-50. ISBN 2-11-128266-7.
In this brief newsletter on organ transplants, two French parliamentarians defend the draft EU directive on quality and safety standards for human transplant organs, commenting that it is a useful adjunct to universal international rules and national rules - which is no mean feat given the huge differences in approach in the EU Member States. They point out, however, that the aim of increasing the availability of organs for transplant will be difficult to achieve.
(PBo)
*** JEAN GAUBERT, ROBERT LECOU: Biocides: maintenir la variété des produits pour une sécurité sanitaire durable. Commission des Affaires européennes de l'Assemblée nationale (see above). "Rapport d'information", No. 2497. 2010, 64 pp, €1-50. ISBN 978-2-11-125919-5.
This newsletter looks at the draft EU regulation on the marketing and use of biocides. The authors point out that the regulation could lead to a reduction in the number of products available (and the number of manufacturers as well) and they view this as a health risk as well as an economic risk because a large range of products cuts the risk of resistance.
(PBo)
*** Confrontations Europe (227 bld. Saint-Germain, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 43173283 - Fax: 45561886 - email: confrontations@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.confrontations.org ). July-September 2010, No. 91, 48 pp, €7.
This issue of the review so dear to former MEP Philippe Herzog has a detailed report on understanding the European Energy Community, in which Commissioner Oettinger sets out the Commission's priorities, namely an internal energy market, security of supply, energy efficiency, diversification of the energy mix (including nuclear energy) and infrastructure. The review also examines Jacques Delors' latest idea, backed by the President of the European Parliament, before looking at the role of gas in EU energy policy and how eastern European countries view their security of supply. Jean-Marie Chevalier, Professor of Economics at 'Université Paris-Dauphine' where he is the head of the Energy and Raw Materials Geopolitics Centre, urges for the oil taboo to be lifted in Europe before a fourth oil crisis arrives. This issue includes a special report in which Philippe Herzog discerns the basis of new growth in the big European market as long as Europeans and socio-economic stakeholders are motivated.
(MT)
*** FRANS JÜRGEN SÄCKER (Ed.): Russisches Energierecht - Gesetzessammlung, Peter Lang, (see above). "Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für deutsches und europäisches Wirtschafts -, Wettbewerbs - und Regulierungsrecht der Freien Universität Berlin" series, No. 13 2009, 520 pp, €79-30. ISBN 978-3-631-58796-6.
Relations with Russia are seen as crucial for the European Union for a diverse range of reasons, one of which is certainly Russia's importance for the supply of oil and gas to the EU. Over recent years, particularly due to Moscow's reforms of the energy, Russia has passed new energy laws. In this book, Frans Jürgen Säcker translates the new laws into German for the first time. The book is in two sections. The first gives the Russian energy law in the original Russian, while the second provides a translation of it into German. The first section is divided into four chapters - legal principles of Russian law, mining law, the electricity economy and environmental law. Various authors, all Russian, then explain aspects of the various legal and economic domains in question. Naturally a book for specialists.
(JD)