Abstract EN:

This thesis presents a sociology of the construction of a Utopia in a berbérophone province of Algeria, Bejai'a. The case study in question concerns the revalorisation of a local and national patrimony, undertaken by a group of mathematicians (GEHIMAB, Groupe d'Études sur l'Histoire des Mathématiques à Bejaia au Moyen Age). The analysis attempts to account for the consecration of the group that originated this enterprise, via an understanding of the trajectories of the actors. It locates the project in the objects upon which it works, the personalities in which it is invested, and the strategies which it follows. The approach adopted is sociological, but several disciplines contribute to the argument. The first part of the thesis presents the theoretical approach and sociological method employed. The second presents a sociology of the actors in question. The third part deals with the discovery of a manuscript library and the uses to which it, and its contents, are put, demonstrating both the status of written knowledge and lettered learning, and the symbiosis that existed between the written and the oral. The fourth part of the thesis pertains to the multiple dimensions of the city.