Les politiques de l'autocontrainte

Abstract

This paper offers a sociological reading of the shifts in state intervention in the field of education and training. Two policies typical of these transformations are examined from different perspectives - the parcours d'insertion and the décretmission. They were both presented as a new way of tackling persistent inequalities in education and on the labour market. However they both tend to dissolve equal opportunities into the topic of social inclusion. Individualisation, conditionalisation, and territorialisation are the three main themes of this contradictory movement that seems to transform the balance between the "we" and the "I" identities and restructure the relations of interdependence between the state, individuals, and the markets. This paper based on Elias' theoretical contributions aims to relate the sociogenetic phenomenon of going beyond national monopolies to the psychogenetic phenomenon of shifting the constraint of external mechanisms to individuals' interiority.