"I define the Neutral as that which outplays the paradigm, or rather I call Neutral everything that baffles paradigm." With these words, Roland Barthes describes a concept that profoundly shaped his work and was the subject of a landmark series of lectures delivered in 1978 at the Collège de France, just two years before his death. Not published in France until 2002, and appearing in English for the first time, these creative and engaging lectures deepen our understanding of Roland Barthes's (...) intellectual itinerary and reveal his distinctive style as thinker and teacher. The Neutral (_le neutre_), as Barthes describes it, escapes or undoes the paradigmatic binary oppositions that structure and produce meaning in Western thought and discourse. These binaries are found in all aspects of human society ranging from language to sexuality to politics. For Barthes, the attempt to deconstruct or escape from these binaries has profound ethical, philosophical, and linguistic implications. _The Neutral_ is comprised of the prewritten texts from which Barthes lectured and centers around 23 "figures," also referred to as "traits" or "twinklings," that are possible embodiments of the Neutral (sleep, silence, tact, etc.) or of the anti-Neutral (anger, arrogance, conflict, etc.). His lectures draw on a diverse set of authors and intellectual traditions, including Lao-tzu, Tolstoy, German mysticism, classical philosophy, Rousseau, Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, and John Cage. Barthes's idiosyncratic approach to his subjects gives the lectures a playful, personal, and even joyous quality that enhances his rich insights. In addition to his reflections on a variety of literary and scholarly works, Barthes's personal convictions and the events of his life shaped the course and content of the lectures. Most prominently, as Barthes admits, the recent death of his mother and the idea of mourning shape several of his lectures. (shrink)

La statue, monumentale, en marbre de Caïus Ofellius Férus n'avait pu être érigée et présentée depuis sa découverte en 1880 à l'Agora des Italiens à Délos. Sa restauration a été réalisée en septembre-octobre 87. Son principe : restituer à la sculpture ses aplombs d'origine, son maintien par un système léger rendant à l'œuvre sa lisibilité. Pour cela, deux barres en acier inox marine furent introduites dans le marbre, sur une longueur suffisante pour atteindre le centre de gravité placé très haut. (...) Malgré l'extrême difficulté de l'opération le forage fut réalisé sans risque pour l'œuvre au moyen d'une fore,use à outil tubulaire diamanté. Les barres ont été collées avec une résine époxyde et scellées dans un bloc de béton. L'Éphore des Cyclades Mme Zaphiropoulou a déterminé les proportions de ce socle. (shrink)

La 4e de couv. porte : "Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989) a été considéré de son vivant comme un philosophe de la technique original mais difficile. Il s'impose aujourd’hui comme l’artisan d’un « nouvel encyclopédisme » qui veut unifier les sciences au sein d’une philosophie de la nature et renouveler l’humanisme. Pour l’« ontologie génétique » de Simondon, toute chose tient sa réalité de la genèse où elle«s’individue ». Celle-ci est un processus ininterrompu auquel l’inerte, le vivant, le technique, le social, mais (...) aussi le savoir et la pensée eux-mêmes appartiennent. On expose ici la question de « l’individuation » dans ses trois dimensions essentielles – la différence entre le physique et le biologique, le « transindividuel », l’objet technique – pour montrer ensuite comment le génétisme de Simondon dépasse les oppositions classiques entre matière et forme ou sujet et objet, mais aussi les antagonismes (par exemple entre technicisme et humanisme) qui se disputent la conception de la nature et de l’homme. On développe enfin l’enjeu politique et social d’une philosophie pour laquelle une véritable « culture technique » pourrait supprimer une des principales causes de l’aliénation humaine et donner aux hommes les moyens de comprendre leur monde.". (shrink)

Location Based Services (LBS) are information services that can be\naccessed with mobile phones. They rely on the system's knowledge of the\ngeographical position and the identifier of the phone being used, and\ntherefore on collecting data on an identified or identifiable user. In\nthis respect, the French data protection act stipulates that users agree\nto be supplied with an LBS service on a fully transparent basis and that\ntheir location data must be erased or made anonymous once the service\nhas been provided. In some cases, location-based (...) services are provided\non the user's own request, but in other cases, the individual concerned\nis unaware of the fact that third parties know where s/he is. This\ncreates potential for surveillance and misuse on the part of both police\nand businesses. What is at stake here is not only the right of\nindividuals to freedom of movement and to privacy but also, and more\nperniciously, citizens' autonomy with regard to information and\ndecision-making. (shrink)

L'offre de services de géolocalisation via un téléphone mobile implique de connaître la localisation et l'identifiant du téléphone, donc de collecter des données relatives à un utilisateur identifié ou identifiable. À ce titre, la loi Informatique et Libertés exige que l'utilisateur consente en toute transparence à bénéficier d'un service géolocalisant et que ses données de localisation soient détruites ou anonymisées une fois la prestation fournie. Si, dans certains cas, l'utilisateur aspire à être localisé, dans d'autres cas, la personne concernée ignore (...) que sa position géographique est connue de tiers. Cette traçabilité subie laisse entrevoir de redoutables perspectives de contrôle ou d'abus tant de la part des services répressifs que des entreprises. L'enjeu ne porte pas uniquement sur les risques d'atteinte à la liberté d'aller et venir, et au respect de la vie privée. De façon plus pernicieuse, l'autonomie informationnelle et décisionnelle du citoyen peut être remise en cause.Location Based Services are information services that can be accessed with mobile phones. They rely on the system s knowledge of the geographical position and the identifier of the phone being used, and therefore on collecting data on an identified or identifiable user. In this respect, the French data protection act stipulates that users agree to be supplied with an LBS service on a fully transparent basis and that their location data must be erased or made anonymous once the service has been provided. In some cases, locationbased services are provided on the user s own request, but in other cases, the individual concerned is unaware of the fact that third parties know where s/he is. This creates potentialfor surveillance and misuse on the part of both police and businesses. What is at stake here is not only the right of individuals to freedom of movement and to privacy but also, and more perniciously, citizens autonomy with regard to information and decision-making. (shrink)

It is not uncommon that nurses are unable to meet the normative expectations of chronically ill patients. The purpose of this article is to describe and illustrate Walker’s expressive-collaborative view of morality to interpret the normative expectations of two women with multiple sclerosis. Both women present themselves as autonomous persons who make their own choices, but who also have to rely on others for many aspects of their lives, for example, to find a new balance between work and social contacts (...) or to find work. We show that their narratives of identity, relationship and value differ from the narratives that others use to understand and identify them. Since identities, relationships and values give rise to normative expectations, in both cases there is a conflict between what the women expect of their caregivers and vice-versa. The narratives also show that two similar persons with multiple sclerosis may need very different care. This implies that nurses caring for such persons should listen carefully to their stories and reflect on their own perceptions of self. (shrink)

This book brings together the great majority of Barthes's interviews that originally appeared in French in _Le Figaro Littéraire, Cahiers du Cinéma, France-Observateur, L'Express_, and elsewhere. Barthes replied to questions—on the cinema, on his own works, on fashion, writing, and criticism—in his unique voice; here we have Barthes in conversation, speaking directly, with all his individuality. These interviews provide an insight into the rich, probing intelligence of one of the great and influential minds of our time.

In Dutch healthcare policy patients are seen as informed, autonomous experts and active decision makers with control over their illness and care. Healthcare professionals are expected to operate as providers of information. The purpose of this article is to argue that the consumerist approach of the patient–professional relationship is not a productive way to envision the patient–professional relationship. We argue that an interpretive/deliberative model is a more productive way to envision this relationship, especially in the care for people with a (...) chronic illness. This is illustrated with a case study. It concerns a study of the experiences of a Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patient and healthcare professionals involved in her care. The presented stories show that the participants did not act in line with the roles and responsibilities embodied in the consumerism rhetoric in Dutch healthcare policy. Expectations of patients and healthcare professionals are better met when care is redefined as mutual endeavour in which the caring abilities of healthcare professionals and the vulnerability of chronically ill patients are taken into account. (shrink)

Roland Barthes, the French critic and semiotician, was one of the most important critics and essayists of this century. His work continues to influence contemporary literary theory and cultural studies. Image-Music-Text collects Barthes's best writings on photography and the cinema, as well as fascinating articles on the relationship between images and sound. Two of Barthes's most important essays, "Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative" and "The Death of the Author" are also included in this fine anthology, an excellent introduction (...) to his thought. These essays, as selected and translated by Stephen Heath, are among the finest writings Barthes ever published on film and photography, and on the phenomena of sound and image. The classic pieces "Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative" and "The Death of the Author" are also included. (shrink)

In _The Preparation of the Novel_, a collection of lectures delivered at a defining moment in Roland Barthes's career (and completed just weeks before his death), the critic spoke of his struggle to discover a different way of writing and a new approach to life. _The Neutral_ preceded this work, containing Barthes's challenge to the classic oppositions of Western thought and his effort to establish new pathways of meaning. _How to Live Together_ predates both of these achievements, a series of (...) lectures exploring solitude and the degree of contact necessary for individuals to exist and create at their own pace. A distinct project that sets the tone for his subsequent lectures, _How to Live Together_ is a key introduction to Barthes's pedagogical methods and critical worldview. In this work, Barthes focuses on the concept of "idiorrhythmy," a productive form of living together in which one recognizes and respects the individual rhythms of the other. He explores this phenomenon through five texts that represent different living spaces and their associated ways of life: Émile Zola's _Pot-Bouille_, set in a Parisian apartment building; Thomas Mann's _The Magic Mountain_, which takes place in a sanatorium; André Gide's _La Séquestrée de Poitiers_, based on the true story of a woman confined to her bedroom; Daniel Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_, about a castaway on a remote island; and Pallidius's _Lausiac History_, detailing the ascetic lives of the desert fathers. As with his previous lecture books, _How to Live Together_ exemplifies Barthes's singular approach to teaching, in which he invites his audience to investigate with him--or for him--and wholly incorporates his listeners into his discoveries. Rich with playful observations and suggestive prose, _How to Live Together_ orients English-speaking readers to the full power of Barthes's intellectual adventures. (shrink)

01. Leçon inaugurale/Inaugural lecture - janvier/January 7, 1977 « Comment vivre ensemble – Sur l'idiorrythmie » Leçons au Collège de France – 1977 02. Comment vivre ensemble 01 - janvier/January 12, 1977 03. Comment vivre ensemble 02 - janvier/January 19, 1977 04. Comment vivre ensemble 03 - janvier/January 26, 1977 05. Comment vivre ensemble 04 - février/February 2, 1977 06. Comment vivre ensemble 05 - février/February 9, 1977 07. Comment vivre ensemble 06 - février/February 16, (...) - Comment penser le (...) pouvoir dans le monde contemporain ? – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Le regain progressif d'intérêt dont a bénéficié depuis 1990 la pensée de Gilbert Simondon s'est encore renforcé, depuis 2006, par la publication de textes inédits du philosophe français, ainsi que par celle, enfin unifiée, du grand œuvre de Simondon, jusque-là publié en deux parties : sa thèse principale pour le doctorat d'État, intitulée L'individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d'information. La présente étude se propose de revenir sur ce texte fondateur, origine de L'individu et sa genèse physico-biologique (...) comme ensuite de L'individuation psychique et collective, pour en dégager à la fois l'originalité et l'actualité, mais aussi pour mieux comprendre finalement le classique de l'auteur, sa thèse complémentaire : Du mode d'existence des objets techniques. On découvrira la portée du " nouvel encyclopédisme " dont Simondon se voulait l'initiateur. Il apparaîtra alors que dans le sillage de son directeur de thèse, Georges Canguilhem, avec d'autres modalités et insistances que lui, Simondon ne rejette le " facile humanisme " que par exigence d'un humanisme difficile qui sache d'une part faire dériver l'homme du vivant, d'autre part intégrer la technique à la culture. [Source : d'après la 4e de couverture]. (shrink)

Roland Barthes, whose centenary falls in 2015, was a restless, protean thinker. A constant innovator, often as a daring smuggler of ideas from one discipline to another, he first gained an audience with his pithy essays on mass culture and then went on to produce some of the most suggestive and stimulating cultural criticism of the late twentieth century, including Empire of Signs, The Pleasure of the Text, and Camera Lucida. In 1976, this one time structuralist outsider was elected to (...) a chair at France's preeminent College de France, where he chose to style himself as professor of literary semiology until his death in 1980. The greater part of Barthes's published writings have been available to a French audience since 2002, but here, translator Chris Turner presents a collection of essays, interviews, prefaces, book reviews, and other journalistic material for the first time in English. Divided into five themed volumes, readers are presented in volume one, 'A Very Fine Gift' and Other Writings on Theory, with Barthes's attempts to frame his lifelong curiosities in theoretical form, from his early musings on the sociology of literature through his high period of structuralism to his later reflections on Derrida. (shrink)

Roland Barthes' renowned and never before translated lectures pursue a central theme in his work, namely the quest for the neutral.