Bourgeoisie | EPFL Graph Search

The bourgeoisie (ˌbʊərʒwɑːˈziː , buʁʒwazi) is a class of business owners and merchants which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted with the proletariat by their wealth, political power, and education, as well as their access to and control of cultural, social and financial capital. They are sometimes divided into a petty (petite), middle (moyenne), large (grande), upper (haute), and ancient (ancienne) bourgeoisie and collectively designated as "the bourgeoisie". The bourgeoisie in its original sense is intimately linked to the political ideology of liberalism and its existence within cities, recognized as such by their urban charters (e.g., municipal charters, town privileges, German town law), so there was no bourgeoisie apart from the citizenry of the cities. Rural peasants came under a different legal system. In Communist philosophy, the bourgeoisie is the social class that came to own

The invention of the Swiss house: engineers, ethnographers and artists to the discovery of the Alpine vernacular construction / L’invenzione della casa svizzera: ingegneri, etnografi e artisti alla scoperta della costruzione vernacolare alpina

Nicola Braghieri

At the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, Switzerland presented itself to the world by exhibiting an imaginary synthetic village, making the conflicting features of the various Cantons – which for a few decades gathered under the flag of the Confederation – the founding elements of its national identity. These features were based on the cultural core of the “idem Alpine feeling” defined by the primitive cantons of Alemannic language, Catholic religion, and mountain economy. Not being able to express an authentic image by drawing on the nation’s historicized heritage, the focus is on popular architecture. The Alpine House has built and nurtured a resilient narrated “myth” which, in its architectural form of “chalet” typical of the Bernese Oberland, has helped feed a generalist image of considerable pro-motional and commercial success for Switzerland and its industry. In the twentieth century, during the industrial growth of the nation, campaigns of survey and inventory of the rural and bourgeois “heritage” tried to scientifically systematize the heterogeneous disciplinary approaches that had undertaken the interpretation of the Alpine house in the previous century. Social, economic, and cultural functions are the raison d’être of the vernacular construction and are expressed in the lexicon of typological, constructive, and decorative elements. The specific linguistic and cultural affiliations translate not only into different materials, techniques, and forms of construction but also into different settlement models in the territory. An unwavering mythology has been built and, paradoxically, the national identity has been modelled on the assumption that Germans are “assemblers” of logs, and Latins are “builders” who use stone.

2021

Sols et paysages. Types de sols, fonctions et usages en Europe moyenne

Jean-Michel Gobat, Claire Guenat

Le paysage est immédiatement visible, le sol, généralement non! Cet ouvrage débute dès lors par ce que l’on aperçoit: le paysage. S’échelonnant de la plaine agricole plus ou moins urbanisée aux marges glaciaires de l’étage alpin, douze paysages sont présentés ici. Au fil de sa caractérisation, chacun d’entre eux révèle peu à peu les sols qu’il abrite. Ce livre s’attache ensuite au portrait de plus de cinquante types de sols, observés en Suisse occidentale et typiques de l’Europe moyenne. À partir de descriptions de terrain et d’analyses de laboratoire, la formation du sol et ses interactions avec la végétation sont exposées en détail. Les fonctions d’habitat, de régulation, de production, de support, de source de matières premières et d’archive sont discutées, tout comme les questions relatives aux atteintes au sol et aux mesures de conservation à adopter. De brèves synthèses sur la diversité pédologique, ainsi que sur les facteurs et les processus qui contrôlent la formation des sols sont également proposées. Enfin, cet ouvrage accorde une large place aux usages du sol, qu’ils soient forestiers, agricoles, viticoles ou urbains. Cinq annexes thématiques, dont une clé amovible de détermination des types de sols et des formes d’humus, complètent l’ensemble. L’organisation en quatre parties autonomes offre au lecteur la possibilité de cheminer selon son intérêt ou sa motivation, pour comprendre un paysage, un type de sol ou un usage. Ce livre, sans précédent, richement illustré et accompagné d’un glossaire, s’adresse en premier lieu aux étudiants et aux praticiens dans le domaine de l’environnement nature ou construit (pédologues, biologistes, géologues, géographes, agronomes, forestiers, gestionnaires du territoire), mais il passionnera également tous les amateurs de nature désireux de percer les secrets d’un paysage ou les mystères d’un sol.

PPUR2019

Nicola Braghieri

2021

Sols et paysages. Types de sols, fonctions et usages en Europe moyenne

Jean-Michel Gobat, Claire Guenat

PPUR2019