----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- I understood the word "valorize" in academic discourse frequently to mean the assigning of greater value to a group, an ideology or even an argument, often due to the power held by the proponent. I think it may also have a connotation of appropriation of such value. And as Roy Weintraub's post states, it can also have a neutral or positive meaning. The Encarta World Dictionary on its web site defines to "valorize" as to fix a commodity price: to set and maintain the price of a commodity at an artificially high level through government action. I can see the connection between such overvaluation by the power of the state and by that held by other powerful entities. A small aside: my first name is Sumitra. The anomaly in the email address is due to the system in use at my university. I wanted to claim ethnic prejudice (not realizing that not all names are easily recognizable!), but decided to hold of on my protest. Thank you. Sumitra ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]