August 2007
Summary
Réalités industrielles
Employment in industry: what jobs for what industries?
Complete issue
This issue was coordinated
by Michel Matheu
This issue was coordinated
Editorial
By François Valérian
Rédacteur en chef des Annales des Mines
Energy in Europe: The case of electricity or “How to be European?”
By Bruno Lescoeur
Directeur Général Adjoint Relations extérieures internationales, EDF
et Emmanuelle VERGER
Ingénieur des Ponts et Chaussées, en détachement à EDF
After a long period of benign neglect, concern has been re-aroused for questions related to energy. Europe needs to augment its production of electricity, and firms are now drafting strategies on a continental scale. A major piece of the energy puzzle is still missing: the yet to be designed European energy policy.
The 4 November 2006 blackout: An outage of “technical” democracy?
By Jean-Pierre Leteurtrois
Ingénieur général des mines
With its power plants and exportation of electricity to neighboring lands, France imagined that it was sheltered from blackouts. But in the autumn of 2006, five million French households were deprived of electricity due to an error by a German operator. What to think of this? The internationalization of the electricity market, though useful to consumers, should not mean deregulation or the relinquishment of rules and regulations to power companies. Supervision of the grid must be reinforced on behalf of all European users of electricity.
Vattenfall, an energy firm on a European scale
By Gunnar Lundberg
Vice-président pour les questions de régulation, Vattenfall AB
Till the mid-1990s, Vattenfall had a dominant position in Sweden. While lowering its share in the Swedish market, liberalization has provided the company with the opportunity to invest in other European countries. Capitalizing on its experience in its homeland, the firm invested in neighboring Finland, Poland and, above all, Germany. A European operator has been born.
Miscellany
What is macropsychoanalysis?
By Vivien Lévy-Garboua
X-Mines, PhD en économie de Harvard
et Gérard Maarek
X-Ensae, a été Secrétaire général de l'Insee et responsable des études économiques d'une grande banque
Classical economics helps us explain certain phenomena, but it has revealed its limits by overlooking the feelings of the individual person, who is reduced to a utility function. It is tempting to apply to psychoanalysis the very same process of “aggregation” at work in macroeconomics, and to switch from the individual to the group level when studying the stirrings of the soul. In this respect, Freud was a forerunner in several of his writings on anthropology and religion. The psychoanalytical study of major human groups, ranging from companies to a whole society, has not advanced very far. Using psychoanalytical concepts to describe collective emotions and neuroses is a stimulating exercise.
Artists and engineers, obliged to cooperate: The meeting of the Club des Annales des Mines at École des Mines in Paris on 18 January 2007
By François Boisivon
Ecole de Paris du management
Whether for designing an industrial product or a work of architecture, such as the Millau Viaduct, engineers have to play the artist at times in order to be successful. In turn, new technology and new materials are drawing artists nearer to engineers. Apart from occasional interactions, can lasting cooperation develop between these two parties? Can it be facilitated, for example by adapted training programs?
Is there a new economy?
By Alain Bienaymé
Professeur émérite à l'Université Paris Dauphine, Directeur du Bureau Cedimes
If a new economy does exist, the reason is not just Internet and new communications technology. The globalization of exchanges, the increasing complexity of developed economies, the emergence of environmental and ethical issues, all this represents an intellectual challenge for the science of economics. Economists are trying to draw up new explanatory models for taking into account notions such as information, the firm and morale.
Energy: Facts and figures in 2006
Bilan énergétique de l' année 2006 de la France
By Richard Lavergne
Secrétaire général de l'Observatoire de l'énergie,
La facture énergétique de la France en 2006
By Bernard Nanot
Adjoint au secrétaire général de l'Observatoire de l'Energie, DGEMP,
L’électricité
By Sylvie Scherrer
Observatoire de l'Energie, DGEMP,
Le gaz naturel en France : les principaux résultats en 2006
By Véronique Paquel
Observatoire de l'énergie, DGEMP, Ministère de l'Ecologie,
Les combustibles minéraux solides
By Sami Louati
Observatoire de l'Energie, DGEMP, Ministère de l'Ecologie,
Les hydrocarbures
By Bernard Nanot
Adjoint au secrétaire général de l'Observatoire de l'énergie, DGEMP,
Les énergies renouvelables en France : les principaux résultats en 2006
By Hélène Thiénard
Observatoire de l'énergie, DGEMP,