Nov 25, 2014 | environment, Global Public Goods, Passage au crible (English)
By Weiting Chao
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°119
Source: Wikimedia
On September 21, 2014, hundreds of thousands of people protested in major cities around the world in favor of the fight against global warming. Led primarily by the NGO Avaaz-Le Monde en Action, the gathering was structured around 2,700 events in 158 countries. Moreover, it mobilized numerous politicians, experts and celebrities including the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, the former American Vice President Al Gore, the mayor of New York Bill de Blasio, the anthropologist Jane Goodall, the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, the French Minister of Ecology Ségolène Royal, and the American actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
Discussions on the theme of climate governance began at the end of the 1980s in order to respond to scientific findings on changes of atmospheric composition. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – which aimed to reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) – was signed at the end of the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. Based on the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, and entered into force in February 2005. It was the only global treaty to impose binding obligations on industrialized countries. However, the United States’ 2001 decision to refuse to ratify it proved to be detrimental to its implementation. This is why the signature of a brand-new treaty in the post-Kyoto phase is proving to be just as difficult. According to the future roadmap approved in Bali in 2007, states should have finalized a new treaty in Copenhagen in 2009 (Conference of the Parties, COP 15). Yet, despite expectations and heightened pressures, notably from civil societies, no significant progress was observed during this summit. In December 2012, during the conference held in Doha (COP 18), the Kyoto Protocol was extended until 2020, while the adoption of a new universal treaty was postponed until 2015. During the COP 19 which took place in Warsaw in 2013, environmental NGOs implemented their first boycott of the conference in an effort to denounce the immobility of the process as well as the supremacy of large companies in the course of negotiations.
On September 23, 2014, more than 120 heads of state and of government gathered for the summit of the UN in New York in preparation for revival of the project of a veritable treaty to be in force by 2020. Two days before the summit, protests were organized across the globe in places like London, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Rome, New Delhi, Melbourne and Rio de Janeiro. Thousands of citizens paraded alongside NGOs. In New York, the largest march ever organized assembled more than 300,000 participants, divided into six large groups each making distinct thematic demands. Representatives of the populations most vulnerable and most affected by climate change appeared on the front lines.
Theoretical framework
1. Individual dynamics. It is a question of ordinary, individual networks mobilized by their collective membership. According to James Rosenau, if we examine the individual parameter, we note that the feeling of submission and loyalty of individuals and groups towards state authorities weakens. On the other hand, we observe at the same time that their capacity to be moved and to feel concerned by an international problem grows. Today it should be noted that the inter-state system coexists with a multi-centered operation. We have entered into a period of “global turbulence” where citizens can be pivotal on the world stage. These phenomena illustrate a revolution in the aptitudes of commitment. Accordingly, we are invited to re-evaluate our roles by taking into consideration what Rosenau deemed “micro-macro mixing”.
2. International fame. It refers to people who due to their personal qualities and skills, use their prestige and notoriety to involve themselves in international questions, sometimes to the point of rivaling states. This concept of the “altruistic citizen” is also evoked by Rosenau.
Analysis
Despite difficulties put into place by new measures to treat global warming, the level of awareness has risen considerably since the 1980s. Thanks to the initiative of NGOs, international experts and media, citizens are more engaged in matters of environmental politics. Often during conferences, demonstrations and civic activities have succeeded in accelerating the processes of negotiation. We shall recall that during the COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009, around 3,000 people gathered outside the Bella Center where the meeting was to take place, in order to hold an “Assembly of the people” alongside NGOs and other representatives. Unquestionably, the impact of this individual parameter has been accentuated during recent decades with the Internet. Clearly this technology allows millions of people, who share the same opinions, to unite rapidly to the point of forming a powerful collective dynamic. Thus, Avaaz is not an example of an environmental NGO, but a global platform of individuals presenting the characteristics of a poorly institutionalized movement and with no hierarchical authority. Rather, its strength comes from its potential to unite which allows it to pool and to synergize the fight of numerous NGOs, communities and networked individuals. This collective union is the best guarantee of efficiency in seeking to be heard by states who themselves are condemned more and more often to seek to dialogue with their citizens. This new type of cooperation is treated as a specific strategy aiming to optimize the plans of reduction of CO2 emissions and of adaption to climate change.
During the demonstrations, people identifying themselves by their reputation and their knowledge do not comprise a group of specialists on climate change, but an international elite benefitting from high media visibility. To the point that in certain cases, they even exert an authority more powerful than that of many rulers. These individuals – such as the Secretary General of the United Nations, the mayor of New York or else any given Hollywood star – are capable of mobilizing their symbolic capital on the international scene. They draw their legitimacy not only from themselves, but also from the institutions that they incarnate. Their engagement to the international movement Avaaz testifies to their ability to act in favor of the fight against climate change. Thus, the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, designated a “messenger of peace“, has been given a symbolic and institutional credit allowing him to call these issues to the minds of the general public. In the same way, marching with citizens struck by the vagaries of weather, these celebrities spread an urgent message to the world to act in the face of this planetary menace.
This recent and unprecedented mobilization of civil societies aims to remind heads of state that they must address climate change in a more significant way. From now on, millions of individuals capable of combining their actions exert effects, sometimes major, on more and more challenged and weakened states. During the meeting which will be held in Lima in 2014, the first draft of a global treaty will be developed to be approved in Paris by all countries at the 2015 summit.
References
Rosenau James, Turbulence in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1990.
Ford Lucy, « Challenging Global Environmental Governance: Social Movement Agency and Global Civil Society », Global Environmental Politics, 3 (2), 2003, pp.120-134.
Weiting Chao, « Le triomphe dommageable des passagers clandestins. La conférence de Doha », in: Josepha Laroche (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2012, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2013, pp. 111-115.
Chao Weiting, « Le boycott des ONG, une diplomatie offensive. La conférence de Varsovie sur le réchauffement climatique », in: Josepha Laroche (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2013, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2014, pp. 143-147.
Le Monde, « New York fait ville pleine contre le réchauffement climatique », 22 Sept. 2014.
Laroche Josepha, Politique Internationale, 2e éd.,Paris, L.G.D.J Montchrestien, 2000, pp.176-201.
Nov 16, 2014 | Africa, Global Public Health, Passage au crible (English)
By Clément Paule
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°118
Source : Wikipedia
The first Ebola virus contamination outside the African continent was confirmed on October 6, 2014: a Spanish nurse’s aid supposedly contracted the illness in Madrid while treating a repatriated missionary. We shall note that this announcement comes a few days after the diagnosis of another case, in the United States, in this instance a Liberian who arrived in Dallas from Monrovia. Subsequently, the epidemic, especially ravaging in three countries – Guinea-Conakry, Liberia and Sierra Leone –, represents an immediate threat apt to be exported to the rest of the world; especially as malfunctions are identified during screenings and in care procedures in Spain as well as in Texas. So much so, that the international media is evoking a growing psychosis of populations faced with an infection characterized by dramatic bleeding symptoms and a high mortality rate. On November 2, 2014, the figures published by the WHO (World Health Organization) reported 4,951 deaths for 13,567 cases identified essentially in western Africa. It should be noted that the management of this health crisis is becoming a leading political issue, even in states that are not directly affected by the disease.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
Identified in 1976 during two waves which appeared simultaneously in ex-Zaire – 280 deaths for 318 documented cases – and in Sudan, the Ebola virus belongs to the family of filoviruses and breaks down into five different types, including the Zaire strain at the origin of the 2014 epidemic. If the mechanisms of transmission of this zoonosis – the natural reservoir is allegedly made up of fruit bats – to humans are not completely understood, several massive contaminations took place during the last two decades. We shall mention twenty crises that occurred in Gabon, in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), in South Africa and Uganda which claimed hundreds of victims. The illness – whose incubation period can last from two days to three weeks – typically consists of an acute hemorrhagic fever disturbing the hemostasis and provoking serious immunosuppression, which ultimately leads to a terminal shock and multiorgan failure resulting in death. With no approved treatment or vaccine, care should minimize the risk of contagion by direct contact with bodily fluids and organic tissues of infected individuals.
According to epidemiological investigations, the health crisis currently afflicting West Africa allegedly began in December 2013: the patient zero supposedly being a two year old child who died in a village in southeast Guinea-Conakry located not far from the borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone. Although the disease was already spreading throughout Liberia, it was not recognized until March 2014. After a brief lull at the end of the month of April, contaminations began again with force and in May extended to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. On August 8, 2014, the WHO declared a state of “global public health emergency” and called for large-scale international mobilization in the face of the growing number of victims and the powerlessness of local authorities.
Theoretical framework
1. The brutal exposure of the crisis. Despite several poorly publicized warnings on the degradation of the health situation in western Africa, the first reported exported triggered overexposure by the media, which led certain decision-makers to hurriedly improvise little adapted measures.
2. The risky instrumentalization of a moral panic. The sociologist Stanley Cohen identified this concept when a condition, an event, a person or a group is designated as a threat for the values and interests of a society. In the case at hand, this notion allows us to understand a host of disproportionate or even discriminatory reactions, in the face of the epidemic.
Analysis
If we must underline the novelty of this outbreak in West Africa and moreover in an urban setting – while the preceding episodes were relegated to relatively isolated forest areas in central Africa –, we can attribute the late response to inertia on the part of the WHO as well as to an underestimation of the threat. The recurrent alerts issued by MSF (Doctors Without Borders) led us to believe in the foreseeable collapse of fragile health systems, in the case of Liberia and Sierra Leone, due to several years of civil war and extreme violence. Besides the deficit avowed by professionals – Liberia counted around fifty doctors for 4.3 million inhabitants in 2014 – aggravated by nosocomial infections, affected states have been confronted by the mistrust of their own populations. In Guinea, health workers have reported multiple accounts of people fleeing once they see approaching medical teams who themselves are accused of spreading the virus: eight people engaged in medical outreach in the southeastern part of the country were killed in mid-September 2014 in the context of their work. Otherwise, measures improvised in haste by the governments of Liberia and Sierra Leone – militarization of curfew and imposed quarantines of entire neighborhoods, obligatory cremation of all deceased persons, closing borders – have given rise to riots in shanty towns. Refusing to allow the presence of the illness, armed demonstrators attacked a treatment center in Monrovia in August, provoking the diaspora of patients and the flight of potentially contaminated materials. These attitudes of rejection fall in line with recent history of societies divided by intense conflicts that have discredited central authorities; moreover, these authorities struggle to communicate rationally about the risk and to justify the necessary control of movement.
As evidenced, these indispensable yet not easily accepted models are likely to feed the perverse effects of an epidemic whose economic impact could be counted in the hundreds of millions of dollars. If fiscal imbalances – brutal augmentation of public and health spending and declining tax revenues – and the fall in productivity are already being felt, the consequences could especially be indirect according to a study by the World Bank which underlines the social dynamics generated by the fear factor, or the anxiety of possible contagion. We shall cite the suspension of transportation and the closing of workplaces, the slowing of the mining industry – principal engine of growth – and of the agricultural sector – in a context where food insecurity remains chronic – leading to shortages and price inflation. These disturbances are worsened by suspensions of airline connections in the affected countries, decided by most companies – including Brussels Airlines, Arik Air or British Airways – despite requests by the United Nations, which complicate the routing of aid. In this logic, it is important to consider the effectiveness of border closings – reputed to be quite porous – decreed by the states in the region and likely to stimulate clandestine networks capable of escaping all control.
By its sudden and alarmist character, putting the health crisis on the agenda late in the game maintains an ensemble of practices and discourses founded on fear. Particularly as the Ebola virus has inspired disaster movies – as with the films Outbreak (1995) or 28 Days Later (2002) – and also literary works such as The Hot Zone, a best seller by Richard Preston published in 1994. The West African epidemic therefore finds a particular resonance in the imagination of numerous societies, which can go against a comprehensive process of action mechanisms and transmission of the illness. Beyond the expected emergence of conspiracy theories, the difficulty lies especially in the instrumentalization of a potential moral panic by political actors in order to justify discriminatory measures. The crisis has thus become an issue relative to the midterm elections in the United States; following the Dallas incident, a number of Republican candidates are demanding the closure of borders and systematic quarantine, an issue facing the Obama administration. Moreover, the successive decisions of the Australian and Canadian governments – which have not, however, recorded any cases on their territory – to suspend the deliverance of entry visas for all citizens of countries affected starting at the end of October, also participates in the isolationist temptation. This gesture has been denounced within the Commonwealth by the government of Sierra Leone to the extent that these stigmatizing models overshadow the fact that the fight against this global plague is first of all being played out in western Africa, whose confinement appears utopic and counterproductive. Faced with this viral threat, officials must now divest themselves from the idea that a physical containment of the scourge is still possible in light of the unprecedented intensification of international flows of goods and people.
References
Cohen Stanley, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers, Londres, MacGibbon & Kee, 1972.
Website of the UNMEER (United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response) : http://www.un.org/ebolaresponse/mission.shtml
[20 October 2014].
World Bank, The Economic Impact of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic: Short and Medium Term Estimates for West Africa, Washington D.C., World Bank Group, 7 October 2014, consulted on the website of the World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org [22 October 2014].
Nov 15, 2014 | Africa, Diplomacy, Passage au crible (English), Security
By Philippe Hugon
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°117
Source: Wikimedia
At the end of October 2014, in Burkina Faso, youth movements led to the departure of the president for life Blaise Compaoré, in power since 1987. With nearly 500,000 people in the streets on October 28th, the population of Ouagadougou was significantly mobilized against the attempt to modify the constitution aiming to maintain the president in power. This attempt clearly appeared to be of the same order as constitutional manipulations already committed in Algeria (2008), Angola (2010), the Cameroon (2008), Djibouti (2010), Gabon (2003), Uganda (2005), Chad (2009), Togo (2002) and envisioned in Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, Congo and Rwanda.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
Upper Volta, which became Burkina Faso in 1984, experienced an alternation of presidential elections and coups d’État after its independence had been stabilized for some time. Following the assassination of President Thomas Sankara in 1987, the young captain Blaise Compaoré accessed power. Since that time he established a semi-authoritarian regime in the context of two 7-year mandates and two others each lasting four years. Burkina Faso, “country of honest men”, until that time was perceived as politically stable and economically well managed. One of the poorest countries on the planet despite its gold mining resources (80% of exports and 20% of the budget) and its cotton production, this landlocked State demonstrated economic growth on the order of 7% per year, all the while respecting financial balancing (low inflation, budget deficit and reduced external debt).
In the last few years, Burkina Faso had diversified its partners, creating for example personal links with Taiwan, all the while knowing how to benefit from the United States’ support and to perpetuate its historical ties to Paris, otherwise with Françafrique. A diplomatic power in the region, it had recently become an important piece in the French military operation Burkhane at the heart of regional cooperation against Jihadism. Until now, it had shown civic actions in a political game neither based on ethnicity nor on religious references. Blaise Compaoré’s regime relied on a party that was certainly dominant, but nonetheless allowed for debate. As for the army, it had remained republican until this point, despite the mutiny in 2011. Coexisting with traditional powers, notably those of Mogho Naba, king of the Mossi and authorities legitimated by vote. However, this positive façade hid less presentable characteristics. We can indeed recall the assassination of Thomas Sankara in 1987, the links maintained by Blaise Compaoré with Charles Taylor in Liberia and in Sierra Leone, or else with the Unita in Angola. We shall also mention the control of arms and diamond trafficking. Besides that, we shall underscore its role in the rebellion in the North of the Ivory Coast, its opaque relationship with Gadhafi and finally the responsibility in the unsolved disappearance of the journalist Norbert Zongo.
This president was obliged to leave power because he wanted to modify the constitution, an operation that would have permitted him to aspire to a new mandate during the presidential election planned for November 2015. The political and economic oligarchy that he supported risked losing its advantage. Therefore, the Parliament’s meeting on Thursday, October 30th proved to be a decisive one. For the opposition, it was a matter of countering what it labeled a “constitutional coup d’État”. On a judicial level, the revision of article 37 that limited the number of mandates to two remained possible in two ways. The first assumed a majority vote of ¾ (or 96 votes for) of the Parliament, the institution should have given its judgment on Thursday, October 30th; the second implied a referendum. Blaise Compaoré had discretely organized the vote. Mathematically, his CDP party (Congress for Democracy and Progress) had 70 out of 127 parliamentary votes at its disposal. Moreover, it was linked to small parties representing 11 votes. Therefore, he needed no more than 15 votes, which he had haggled from the ADF (Alliance for Democracy and Federation) and the RDA (African Democratic Assembly). In other words, he indeed had the 96 necessary votes. But the social mobilization and the opposition brushed aside any chances the project had. Violent confrontations between demonstrators and security forces firing live bullets left at least one person dead and triggered a popular uprising that the cancelation of the vote has, however, not stopped.
Theoretical framework
1. The political demands of African youth. Today African youth are claiming their place in the political and socio-economic field. Without perspective or social model, they are opposed to political racketeering and political patronage. In Burkina, they refer to heroes such as Thomas Sankara. Kept up to date by social networks, they denounce African “presidents for life”. In other words, in Africa the political and economic game largely presents itself as a struggle of age classes.
2. A system of transnational neopatrimonialism undermined. The resources mobilized in the context of political alliances and various trafficking with regional actors has permitted Compaoré to finance his internal policy while the requirements of his international partners were changing registers.
Analysis
This African or Black Spring that recalls the Arab Spring, refers to intergenerational conflicts. We shall recall that 60% of the West African population was not yet born when Blaise Compaoré took power. However, these youths want to assert themselves in the political game. In order to do so, they are opposing the power of notable figures and the political gerontocracy treated as “parlementeurs ”. The slogan “clear out Blaise” heard in the place de la revolution testifies to this movement. We have, however, noted certain confusion around this semi coup d’État and observed tensions amongst the principal forces present: protesters, political leaders and the military. The youth are opposing the power near Compaoré and the military, refusing to see their revolution be confiscated. As for the military, they remain divided between the Regiment of Presidential Security, 600 to 800 well-equipped and armed men strong – who besides that make up part of the current strongman, the lieutenant colonel Zida –high ranking officials (generals Traoré army chief of staff and Kouamé Lougué, coauthor along with Compaoré of the coup d’État against Sankara) and the base. In this way, each of the chiefs has proclaimed himself head of State by asserting the necessity to ensure order against what they have qualified as an insurrectional movement. For its part, the opposition appears divided between 74 parties. The CDP (Congress for Democracy and Progress) as well as its allies represent around ¾ of parliamentarians. The principal parties opposed who left the CDP at the beginning of the year (Kaboré, Diallo, Compaoré) have for example, founded the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP). The other main opponents are Sankara from the Sankarist party and Diabré. The presidency of the national assembly, which according to the constitution should have ensured the interim after the resignation of the head of State, ultimately preferred to leave the country with him.
Presently the inter or transnational balances of power have been radically modified. We notice for example that the African authorities of the African Union or of the ECOWAS are threatening the army with sanctions if they do not return power to civilians in the next two weeks. Besides that, financial backers are able to exert pressure on a country where aid represents more than 10% of GDP. For his part, Barack Obama also spoke out so that new generations can rapidly access responsibilities, no matter the qualities of “presidents for life” currently in office. According to the same logic, the European Union equally affirmed on October 28th “its attachment to the respect of the constitutional provisions in place as well as the principles defined by the African Union and the ECOWAS on constitutional changes”.
At first glance such a reversal and collapse of international support from which Compaoré’s neopatrimonialism was benefitting can be surprising. In fact, this radical change of agenda can first of all be explained by the new global deal. The situation in Burkina Faso has indeed become imminently strategic due to its border with North Mali where special French and American forces are stationed. Yet, these forces are facing Islamist forces whose capacity to do transnational harm is confirmed on a daily basis to the point that certain state actors – such as the United States and France – are henceforth upsetting the order of their diplomatic and strategic priorities.
References
Philippe Hugon, Géopolitique de l’Afrique, Paris, SEDES 2013, 3e ed.
Pierre Jacquemot, « Les trois paradoxes du Burkina Faso, lettre de l’IRIS, 2 novembre 2014.
Frédéric Lejeal, Le Burkina Faso, Paris, Karthala, 2002.
Oct 28, 2014 | Digital Industry, Passage au crible (English), Publications (English), Symbolic politics
By Justin Chiu
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°116
Source: Flickr
On September 9, 2014, high-tech journalists from around the globe as well as the general press gathered at the Flint Center in Cupertino to attend the presentation of the iPhone 6. Led by Apple’s general manager, Tim Cook, and broadcast on the Internet, this great event was acclaimed by numerous celebrities, such as Gwen Stefani and Dr. Dre, who arrived in a private jet, and Coco Lee, a singer popular in Asia, whose arrival was even announced on the band’s official website. Lacking significant innovations, the iPhone 6 was, nonetheless, warmly welcomed by the public at the Flint Center.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
It was in the same mythic room in 1984 that Steve Jobs had presented the very first Mac computer. With a subtle mixture of humor and superlatives, the founder of Apple excited the shareholders participating in the event. Incited by the original soundtrack of the film Chariots of Fire, the audience roared and applauded at the end of the presentation. Since then, the Cupertino Company has not only provided an insanely great product – the formula for the presentation – but also an extraordinary experience. In this sense, users of Apple products always expect a unique experience and are willing to spend more in order to get it.
With the iPod in 2001, Apple launched into the very competitive consumer electronics market. Clearly positioned as a high-end product, Apple’s audio player appeared as an object to be desired, even a symbol of leisure for the middle class. Moreover, the product was intended for use with iTunes installed on a computer. In doing this, the professional use of Mac combines with the more leisurely use of the iPod. According to this logic, costumer fidelity vis-à-vis Apple products grew considerably with a more intensive utilization. Besides that, from year to year the keynote speech, led by Steve Jobs, has become a must for the Apple community.
In 2007, Steven Jobs presented the first generation iPhone, a product that he himself qualified as revolutionary. Since then, ten models have followed. In 2013, Apple became the second most popular smartphone on the planet behind Samsung, delivering 153.4 million devices. Nonetheless, with 15.3% of the market, Apple succeeded in clearing 60% of the profit, in other words, 129 billion dollars (research firm Asymco). Facing market newcomers, Apple has chosen to no longer maintain its low price strategy. On the contrary, the two models, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 plus are proving to be more luxurious than ever; the most costly model, exceeding the symbolic price ceiling of 1,000 euros.
Theoretical framework
1. The global construction of a media event. Since the launching of the first iPhones, Apple’s press conferences have become veritable planetary spectacles. Formerly led by the charismatic Steve Jobs, then by the general manager, Tim Cook, from now on these ceremonies are simultaneously broadcast on the Internet, serving to show the economic and cultural strength of the company as well as its ability to attract journalists and consumers from around the globe. Despite a relaxed atmosphere, these presentations are meticulously prepared. Nothing is left to chance: each image, each gesture is calculated and codified in order to create an extraordinary atmosphere.
2. The intensive diffusion of incremental innovations. Far from being a revolutionary product, the iPhone 6 only offers two major improvements compared to previous versions: a more powerful processor and a larger screen. Nevertheless, the Apple’s strength lies precisely in its talent to constantly produce better terminals and to diversify its activities. Not only do smartphone techniques benefit from improvement, but so do production structure and product services. If above all else the digital revolution is experiencing a “technological acceleration” (Lorenzi), it is therefore necessary to analyze how Apple has built its ecosystem with its line of iPhones.
Analysis
The nature of Apple’s keynote is proving to be deeply different from other events taking place on a global scale. Such events are indeed organized either by the states, like royal weddings, or by inter-state organizations, like the Olympic Games. On the other hand, here a private actor, a company, has designed a show by mobilizing all of its financial and symbolic resources that extend beyond its borders. In thirty years, Apple has succeeded in institutionalizing its press conferences, from now long anticipated appointments. The personality of Steve Jobs contributed much to this end; his charisma and talent for convincing were intimately connected to the reputation of the brand. Journalists and celebrities remain in a state of permanent anticipation that these events will fascinate them, to the point that they are captivated before the conference even begins. In this sense, acquiring an iPhone entails displaying one’s superior social status; exhibiting this object of desire is akin to ostentatiously mobilizing a symbol of power.
Apple product users seek a personal and special experience. They identify with it because among all smartphone manufacturers, only Apple presents itself as a high-end brand. This strategy allows it to assure a considerable margin all the while masterfully securing the loyalty of its buyers. With a system operating exclusively via iTunes and the App Store, one must acquire a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad in order to fully benefit from the optimal functions of its terminals. As a result, fearing the slightest dysfunction or incapability, even dreading exclusion from the Apple community, fans rarely envision abandoning the brand.
Like all capitalistic organizations, Apple innovates in order to garner more profit. However, in the context of the global deregulation of telecommunications, competition has grown with low-cost Chinese firms, like Huawei and Xiaomi. In so doing, the actors in this sector are investing more and more in applied research and favoring short-term projects to the detriment of fundamental research. Bearing this in mind, manufacturers constantly renew their product lines without having made any significant discoveries. Thus, we observe the continued decreasing of a smartphone’s life span, while consumers feel obligated to acquire the latest model. Nonetheless, with the accumulation of small innovations in the last decade, the smartphone has considerably transformed our way of life.
During the presentation of the iPhone 6, the contactless payment service, Apple Pay, was also introduced. Used until now by Samsung and Sony without any great success, this payment technique will finally be generalized with this new model. Since the successive launching of the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, it must be noted that Apple masters not only the diffusion of new techniques, but can also count on the fidelity of its users, ready to live the Apple experience.
References
Chiu Justin, « L’anarchie mondiale dans la téléphonie mobile », in : Josepha Laroche (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2012, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2013, pp. 117-122.
Dayan Daniel, Katz Elihu, La Télévision cérémonielle : anthropologie et histoire en direct, trad., Paris, PUF, 1996.
Le Monde, « La grande et les petites révolutions d’Apple », 11 sept. 2014.
Lorenzi Jean-Hervé et Villemeur Alain (Éds.), L’Innovation au cœur de la nouvelle croissance, Paris, Economica, 2009.
Strange Susan, Mad Money, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1998.
Strange Susan, States and Markets: An Introduction to International Political Economy, Londres, Pinter, 2e éd, 1994.
Veblen Thorstein, The Theory of the Leisure Class, [1899], New York, Dover Publications, 1994.
Oct 26, 2014 | Culture en, Non-state diplomacy, Passage au crible (English), Symbolic politics
By Josepha Laroche
Translation: Lawrence Myers
Passage au crible n°115
Source: Wikipedia
On October 10, 2014, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to the French writer Patrick Modiano. After J.M.G. Le Clézio, who obtained the award in 2008, this author allows France to boast of a 15th trophy and to remain to this day – ahead of the United States – the State with the most awards in this discipline, with 13.5% of the recipients.
> Historical background
> Theoretical framework
> Analysis
> References
Historical background
In his will recorded on November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel developed a resolutely cosmopolitan, pacifist and humanist project. This essential document details the financial decisions and the criterion, which after his death would govern the creation of an international prize system, suitable for organizing the globe. However, his two testamentary executors had to face the tycoon’s family who found themselves disinherited by his express will. Refusing to lose one of the largest global fortunes of the era (31 million Swedish kroners equivalent to 1.5 billion euros), his family then entered into a long contentious procedure at the end of which they earned 1.3 million Swedish kroners. In return, they recognized the validity of the models put forth by the Swedish industrialist and therefore permanently renounced its financial ambitions. Henceforth the Nobel Foundation was then able to take shape and to forge the powerful tool in favor of knowledge and peace that the industrialist had called for in his last will and testimony. In 1901, a system of five prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology-medicine, peace and literature) was finally put into place. In 1968, to celebrate the three hundredth birthday of the bank of Sweden, it decided to finance an economic prize “in memory of Alfred Nobel” awarded on the same basis as the others. It is this global framework which today remains in vigor.
No matter the specialty being honored, each prize must reward those who “will have given the most benefits to humanity” (will). Concerning the Nobel Prize for Literature, throughout the years, the institution has enacted the “variants of dominant taste” in the international scene. Actually, for more than a century, its humanist orthodoxy has not ceased to oscillate between two opposing yet complimentary lines of force: 1) The discovery of an author; this process primary aims to encourage innovation and/or to promote forms of expression which for too long have been ignored. The committee sought to reveal artists who are little known outside of their linguistic or cultural domain, and to which few people had access until that point. Using this logic, let us mention as an illustration Saint-John Perse, (France, 1960), Seamus Heaney (Ireland, 1995), Wisława Szymborska (Poland, 1996), or else Mo Yan (China, 2012). 2) The consecration of a notoriety and of confirmed values, already known the world over recognized by a large readership, as for example Thomas Mann (Germany, 1929), Albert Camus (France, 1957), and Jean-Paul Sartre (France, 1964). In this situation, the jury is constantly forced to fill the two apparently contradictory objectives based on one doctrinal line. As Lars Gyllensten1 said it well; “The prize must not crown the achievements of the past […] it must constitute a stake or else a wager on the future […] which can encourage the laureate”. In other words, the Nobel Prize in Literature aims to “allow a writer who is both original and innovate to pursue his work; a literary genius, neglected until then but prolific, to emerge from obscurity and to receive help, a cultural or linguistic area insufficiently noticed, or for other attempts and human struggles to be supported by the attribution of the prize.”
Theoretical framework
1. A normative Dissonance. Each year, the attribution of this distinction gives way to interminable controversies – even violent debates – which center around the pertinence of the selected choice. It is indeed often reproached for not having designated the “best writer of the moment” to borrow Lars Gyllensten’s expression which, rightly so, saw in such an idea, “an impossible task”. Besides that, not only has this injunction appeared utopic, but also it does not correspond to the directives explicitly formulated by Alfred Nobel. More modest, these directives are less on the literary map and more so in the ethical register.
2. A Hierarchization of States. Only individuals or institutions can receive a Nobel Prize. This fact has not, however, prevented states from considering this distinction as an international device of measurement for gauging their scientific level, their cultural reach and their political stature. They recognize the symbolic power to evaluate their intellectual potential and to attribute them a more or a less prestigious rank: in short, to hierarchize them. Having therefore become a constitutive element of their power, this title of nobility currently acts as a sanction of their research policy, cultural production and respect of the common good. We are therefore indeed in the presence of a non-state diplomacy which influences the interstate game.
Analysis
Since the creation of the prizes in 1901, the prestige attached to this international system of gratification has not ceased to expand to the point that the laureates have become, throughout the years, synonyms of global excellence, exemplary intellect and citizenry. Defined as eminent personalities, they constitute a transnational elite bearing exceptional qualities, simultaneously social, moral and intellectual, to the point that they are sometimes given a quasi thaumaturgic power.
As for the Nobel Prize in Literature, it is perceived as an ambassador of the literary richness of a country, the best indicator of the cultural balance of power opposing nations much more than the recipients. However, the misunderstanding erupts quite quickly, as soon as it is time to acknowledge one’s preference for this or that personality. According this award to whosoever “will have produced the most remarkable work of literature in the sense of idealism” – as Alfred Nobel said it himself – does not imply gratifying any particular literary qualities. The writers Sully Prudhomme (France, 1901) or else Pearl Buck (United States, 1938), to only mention two examples, illustrate well this humanist logic, not very demanding concerning contributions withheld. Of course, such logic does prohibit the jury from favoring an innovative style, a precursor, and a pioneering enterprise, even an esoteric one. Quite the opposite, each year the jury endeavors to reconcile the esthetic and humanist orthodoxy. Assuredly, it works as much as possible to fill every lacuna between these two dimensions, as attributing the prize to Hermann Hesse (Switzerland, 1946), William Faulkner (USA, 1949), Ernest Hemingway (USA, 1954), Samuel Beckett (Ireland, 1969), Harold Pinter (UK, 2007) and so many others.
As for Patrick Modiano, the Committee clearly dedicated its development for a long time recognized and benefitting from a broad public just as faithful from year to year. Child prodigy of French literature in the 1970s, he quickly accumulated honors. Beginning in 1968, when he was only 23 years old, he received the Roger-Nimier and Fénéon Prizes for his first book La Place de l’Étoile. In 1972, he became the youngest beneficiary of the Grand Prix du roman by the Académie Française, for his third work, Les Boulevards de ceinture. Then in 1976, he was given the Goncourt for Rue des boutiques obscures. Then, the distinctions multiplied nationally as well as internationally. His melancholy universe centered entirely on the Paris of the Second World War, comes under memorial duty. He testifies to the frenzied refusal of seeing the smallest trace of anonymous beings wiped away forever, crushed by the war or simply by the hurly-burly of life. Indefatigably, he says of the urgent need to explore a painful pain to better calm the injuries of an absence and an uncertain identity. The Royal Swedish Academy, saluted this archaeological work led hard by Modiano “the art of the memory with which he evoked the most elusive human destinies and unveils the world of the Occupation”. In other words, the Academy took cared to underscore mezza voce the conformity of his work to the humanist project of the industrialist, all the while succeeding in crowning a writer with unquestionable talent.
This Nobel laureate honors a fictional world, a solitary and in many ways atypical journey. At the same time, it also allows the French State to benefit. In so doing, France appropriates the fame of a man, capitalizes it and converts its into a political resource for itself in order to maintain its rank in the global competition where all state actors are condemned to compete.
References
Laroche Josepha, Les Prix Nobel, sociologie d’une élite transnationale, Montréal, Liber, 2012.
Laroche Josepha, (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2009-2010, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2010, pp. 19-22 ; pp. 41-45.
Laroche Josepha, (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2011, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2012, pp. 35-38.
Laroche Josepha, (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2012, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2013, pp. 47-52.
Laroche Josepha, (Éd.), Passage au crible, l’actualité internationale 2013, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2014, pp. 119-123.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/
1 Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy in office in the nineteen sixties
