Interview: Lucie Tanguy

Abstract

Ms. Tanguy is a sociologist and research director at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Laboratory 'Work and Mobility' (University Paris X - Nanterre). For more than twenty years she has been studying the relationship between Education and Work, focusing in particular on the analysis of educational policies, teaching institutions, professional groups, qualifications and competencies. At the moment, at the CNRS, she is responsible for the European programme 'Education and Professional Training in Europe'. In Brazil, she has published a series of books and articles and many debates on professional education have used her academic production as reference. In this interview, conducted during Ms. Tanguy's visit to the Polytechnic School in July 2002, the author deals with the essential issues involved in the debates around professional training - including in the area of health - namely, training as a political category, the role of the school in professional training, the notion of competency and the possibilities of it being appropriated by the workers and the recent discussion on professional education in the French context.