This article presents and uses the notion of configuration of activity, which extends the Norbert Elias's original concept of social configuration based on the study and analysis of individual and collective activity. Although this concept embraces all types of social activities, in the present study the authors used it to describe and analyse…

This paper is an interpretation by researchers of oral and written accounts of ten development agents who have participated in various seminars and discussions since 2001, organized by researchers of INRA and of the University of Toulouse. According to the transcripts of lectures, discussions and articles written by development agents, it seems…

Discusses improvements to preschool education in rural France as a result of a 1992 ruling by the Minister of Education. Considers strategies adopted, including peripatetic/itinerant teachers, occasional groupings of very small classes for joint project work, and bringing children together in one setting from three smaller ones. (JPB)