Professions au Maghreb et au Proche-Orient

Michel Grenon

Description

La connaissance est devenue une composante essentielle du travail et des métiers contemporains. Savoir, travail et Société a pour but de faire connître à l'échelle internationale les recherches portant sur les formes de production et d'usage du savoir dans le monde professionnel. Ce numéro présente des contributions de spécialistes de la sociologie des professions, relatives au Liban, à l'Algérie, au Maroc, à l'Egypte et la Palestine.

Sujets

• Maroc
• Sociologie
• Algérie
• Algeria

Informations

• Publié par: L'Harmattan
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• EAN13: 9782296211216
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Professions au Maghreb
et au Proche-Orient

/

Professions in the Middle East
and North Africa

Couverture : Photo © Charles Gadea

Knowledge, Work & Society

/

Savoir, Travail et Société

Editor in ChiefDirecteur de la publication
Charles Gadea, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Laboratoire
Printemps, 47, Bd Vauban 78047 Guyancourt Cedex, E-mail : [e-mail],
(Contributions in French)

Associate EditorsDirecteurs adjoints
Julia Evetts, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham,
University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK. E-mail: [e-mail]
Mike Saks, Vice Chancellor’s Office, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln,
LN6 7TS, UK.E-mail: [e-mail](Contributions in English)

Book Review EditorResponsable des comptes rendus
Mike Saks, Vice Chancellor’s Office, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln,
LN6 7TS, UK.E-mail: [e-mail]

Editorial AssistantSecrétaire de la rédaction
Sophie Divay, Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, Equipe Matisse, 106-112 Bd de
l’Hôpital, 75013 Paris, E-mail : [e-mail]

Editorial BoardComité éditorial
Steven Brint,University of California, USA ;Lise Demailly, Université de Lille,
France ;Claude Dubar, Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France ;
Mirella Giannini,;University of Napoli, ItalyAndré Grelon, Ecole des Hautes
Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France; Ellen Kuhlmann,University of Bremen ;
Valery Mansurov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia ;Vittorio Olgiati,
University of Urbino, Italy ;Elianne Riska, Äbo Akademi University, Finland ;
Arnaud Sales, Université de Montréal, Canada ;Rita Schepers, Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, Belgium ;Lennart Svensson,Göteborg University, Sweden ;
Evan Willis, La Trobe University, Australia

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Knowledge, Work & Society/ Savoir,Travail et Société
Vol 5, n°1, 2008

Professions au Maghreb et au Proche-Orient
/
Professions in the Middle East and North Africa

Thematic issue edited by / Dossier thématique coordonné par
Elisabeth Longuenesse & Hocine Khelfaoui

Introduction
Elisabeth Longuenesse and Hocine Khelfaoui

State development policy and specialised engineers. The case of
urban planners in post-war Lebanon
Eric Verdeil

« Ingénieurs de recherche » en Algérie. Affirmation, professionnalité,
identité
Hocine Khelfaoui

Mutations du champ socioprofessionnel des ingénieurs marocains
Grazia Scarfo’ Ghellab

The Egyptian Judiciary: a profession unveiled by politics
Bernard Botiveau

p. 7

p. 27

p. 53

p. 81

p. 105

The Employability of Palestinian Professionals in Lebanon. Constraints
and Transgression
Sari Hanafi and Åge A. Tiltnesp. 127

Biographical notes / Notices biographiques

Book reviews / Comptes rendus d’ouvrages

p. 151

p. 155

Knowledge, Work & Society
Vol 5, n°1, 2008

Savoir, Travail et Société

INTRODUCTION

7

Engineers, doctors and lawyers inArab countries, have been central
actors in social changes, as they were associated with development,
reconstruction and modernization projects. And yet, though they offer an
essential opening to understandingArab societies, we know little about
these professions and about the transformations that have affected them in
the last half-century. Some forerunning researches in English, published
in the 1970s and 1980s, mostly by historians and political scientists (Reid,
1981 andMoore 1980, arethe most well knownwhere Egyptis
concerned)were followed,starting inthe 1990s, byaseriesofresearches
in French (Longuenesse, 1990;Hanafi, 1997;Chiffoleau, 1997;
Khelfaoui,2000a;Gobe,2004). Itis striking however that the greatest
numberofstudiespertains to engineersand doctors. Onthe contrary,
exceptfora fewforerunningresearchesin Algeria (Colonna, 1975;
Bouzida, 1976;Haddab, 1979), otherintermediaryprofessions usually
considered lessprestigious(e.g. in education and inthe paramedical,
technical or social fields), areseldomstudied and insome casesare
ignored completely. Of course it would be necessary totake into account
workspublished in Arabicwhich areunfortunatelylittle known outside
theirown country(forEgypt, Al-Sayyid, 1983;Abu-l-As’ad, 1993;
Qandil, 1996).

Asan introductiontothis topic,we propose below some avenuesfor
reflection. First,there is the issue ofthe knowledge/workstructure and of
the place givento knowledge in “developing”societies. Wewillthen
broach onthe closelylinked issue ofwork andstatus whichsends usback
to “expertlabour” mobilization andthe conditionsof its
“professionalization”. The issue ofthe connectionwiththe State isalso
thatofrelationshipsbetween professional “elites” on one hand, and
political leadersonthe other, between fusion, collusion,

8

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Savoir, Travail et Société

instrumentalization orconflict. Finally,wewill
impactsof globalization on professional dynamics.

evokethe complex

Knowledge, work and developing project
Thestudyof professionsand of professionalwork isat the crossroad of a
reflection onthe place occupied by work in asocietyand onthestatusof
knowledge. Itquestions the evolution ofthe division ofwork andtheway
“societies structure expertlabour” (Abbott, 1988:323).

In “developing” (orconsidered as such) economies, labourmobilization
(informal ororganized,small-scale orindustrial) isoften allthe more
fragmented and diverse asit stemsfrom different social logics thatare not
wellstructured. Wewould gain bylooking more closelyat thesystemsof
values withrespect towork and employment which have beenstudied by
a fewauthors(El Kenz, 1986;Palmer, Leila, Yassine, 1988).
Leadersof newlyindependentcountriespretendthat theiractionsare
based onscience but, bydoingso,they tendto limit society’sproblems to
their scientific andtechnical dimension, andto equatethe political
process to an objectivesciencethatmaynot therefore be challenged. This
quasi-magicalrepresentation ofsciencereduces scientific practices to a
seriesof abstract rituals thatare disconnected from productive dynamics.
A diploma becomesan end in itself (Khelfaoui,2000b) andthe prestige of
qualified professionalsasheer“deception” (Hanafi, 1997: 86).

Institutionalizing professional knowledge asexpertknowledge isfrom
then onsubjectedtothe State project. Theresult, as was the case in “La
Syrie desingénieurs” [Engineers’ Syria] (Hanafi, 1997) orNasser’sEgypt
(Moore, 1980), is therapid obsolescence of engineers’ knowledge, a
persistingtechnological dependence andtheunendingrecourseto foreign
experts. Khelfaoui (2003) forAlgeria and Siino (2004) forTunisia have
demonstrated how the domination ofthe political field over thescientific
field, combinedwiththe latter’sdependence onthe internationalscientific
field (or thatofthe formercolonial power) precludedthe emergence of an
autonomousnationalscientific field. Itis worth notingthat this
subordination ofscience by the State isparticularly true forengineers’
knowledge butless so inthe case of doctors. Itis remarkablethatan
original medicalresearch existed in colonialtimesandthatitcontinues to
exist todayin a numberof “developing” countries(Waast, 1993;
Chiffoleau, 1997). The issue oftherelationship between knowledge and

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9

political poweriscomplexand itisalsothe nature of professional
practice itselfthatisat stake.

In anycase,subordination of holdersof professional knowledgetothe
State projectalsotranslatesintothe predominance of publicsector
employmentand intotypesof corporatistmobilization, coming at times
underclosestate control.

Graduates and professionals: employment and status
Freidson (2001) defines“professionalism” asone ofthree methodsfor
organizing and controllingwork, i.e. a practice combining knowledge and
skill –thetwo othersbeingthe marketandthe State. Buthis theoretical
model appears to be influenced by the institutionalization ofscholarly
professionsinthe Anglo-Saxonworld. Johnson (1994), onthe contrary,
thinks thatopposition betweenstate intervention and professional
autonomyprecludesa definition ofthe historic