This article is about the process of globalisation supported by cryptocurrencies. It discusses the influence of cryptocurrencies on three major aspects: the political, economic and social spheres. The section on the political sphere highlights the way the authorities of some countries react towards cryptocurrencies. The evolving legal status of cryptocurrency in different regions is described. The section on the economic sphere enumerates examples of cryptocurrencies used on the financial markets. It shows how cryptocurrency might be used by the business sector. The social sphere section illustrates the major kinds of internet societies which are created around cryptocurrencies and what tools are facilitating cryptocurrency transfers. Many examples of important cryptocurrencies are used. The analysis of statistical data and literature have been used in order to evaluate the topic. The study provides additional evidence proving that cryptocurrencies have a significant impact on the process of globalisation.
This special report on the theme of interculturality brings together a number of contributions by researchers from different specialisations (information and communications sciences, history, sociology, literature, cinema, etc) and different parts of the world (Germany, Spain, United States, France, Greece, Poland). In terms of research and university teaching in Europe and elsewhere in the western world, there has been considerable development in this field since 1980 within the multitude of disciplines of which it is, in part, a result. As Jacques Demorgon states, although interculturality has "always formed part of the human condition, it has only been placed in perspective [] [so] recently" that it offers a large number of definitions and consequently a large body of authors, work and publications, as the object being studied -culture -is still just as wideranging. Thus interculturality may be compared to a vast building site where work is constantly in progress, to which anyone -whether a scientist or not -may contribute. An illustration of this is provided by a recent issue of Communication et Organisation (2002) on this topic, in which a number of authors each broach, in turn, the complexity and diversity of the field. While Dominique Desjeux (2002: 88; 95) notes in it that "culture is both a structure and a dynamic [] which makes its analysis and observation [] difficult, [] and that it may be just as much a key to functioning better with other people as a means of avoiding them", we shall emphasis that culture is an integral part of the human being and of the affiliations to which he/she is linked, whether deliberately or not (family unit and history; educational, professional, militant, associational circles; places for living and geographical, historical, political places, etc). Further proof of what is as stake in this topic is provided by the publication of the quarterly review En Temps Rel (2003), which