Books & Ideas is the English-language mirror website of La Vie des Idées, a free online journal which has gained a large readership and established itself in France as a major place for intellectual debate since 2007.
When dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, the political and banking authorities seemed to shrug off budgetary concerns. But now that the pandemic’s restrictions have eased, debt-related concerns are returning to the spotlight.
The decolonial movement is diverse and often highly fragmented. Nevertheless, it remains a major theoretical force, one concerned with tracking down all forms of Eurocentrism and showing how knowledge is always necessarily situated.
How can we explain the variations between judicial decisions in criminal matters? Using the method of natural experiment, economist Arnaud Philippe sets out to identify the factors that influence decisions and determine criminal sanctions. At the risk of forgetting sociology?
About: Christian Bessy, L’expropriation par le droit : propriété intellectuelle, valeur et travail, EHESS
About: Alain Trannoy & Etienne Wasmer, Le grand retour de la terre dans les patrimoines, Odile Jacob
About: Hugues Draelants & Sonia Revaz, L’évidence des faits. La politique des preuves en éducation, Puf
Jane Mansbridge has made a major contribution to political theory. She has spent her life combining empirical research with a theoretical approach, and has played a vital role in developing the critique of rational choice and the study of democracy as a permanent process continually in flux.
Rorty made conversation a philosophical genre in its own right, which led him to reject any distinctions he considered futile: between analytic and continental philosophy, between the Enlightenment and postmodernity, between philosophy and literature.
In 1947, Princess Elizabeth promised to serve ‘the great imperial family’, as part of the attempt to remake post-war Britain as a global power. The British Empire collapsed; but this language of service and Commonwealth allowed the Queen to take up the postcolonial concerns of the 21st century.
Is there still room for hope at the White House?
Twenty years after the publication of Viviana Zelizer’s “The Social Meaning of Money”, this special issue brings together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to examine the genesis of the book, its impact in shaping the analysis of economic value, and its enduring intellectual influence on both sides of the Atlantic.
The June protests which shook Brazil in 2013 stunned the world. This dossier, published by Books&Ideas, discusses the main issues at the core of these protests, analyzing them in the light of previous mobilizations and explaining why they are essential to the understanding of contemporary Brazil.
Rediscovering an activist thinker who was at the origins of eco-feminism, but remains unknown. Her work inspired an extremely heterogeneous movement, but has her ambition to concretely transform the social, economic and political organisation of society been pursued?
From the margins to which he was confined, Georges Devereux (1908-1985) formulated some of the most original scientific work of his century. In the wake of Freud, whose legacy he firmly defended, Devereux initiated the transcultural practice of psychiatry. François Laplantine, one of his former disciples, reconsiders the legacy of ethnopsychoanalysis’ founder.
By asserting that structuralism is a fruitful approach to kinship relations or the difference between the sexes, Françoise Héritier radically renewed anthropological methodology. Her life’s work has also shown us that scientific commitment goes hand-in-hand with societal involvement.
Plus grand événement planétaire en termes d’audience, les Jeux olympiques portent une certaine conception de la compétition sportive. Pourtant, des alternatives en actes existent, comme l’illustre l’exemple des manifestations sportives internationales ouvrières dans l’Entre-deux-guerres.
Entre ressources naturelles spécifiques, ouverture vers le large et développement d’une société hiérarchisée, la période qui précède l’âge viking fait partie des plus méconnues de l’histoire de la Scandinavie et doit être relue dans la perspective complète du premier millénaire de notre ère.
La laïcité scolaire a changé de nature : conçue comme un principe permettant de régler les rapports entre les Églises et l’État, elle est devenue un ensemble de valeurs associé à l’idéal républicain. Mais est-ce justifié ?
À propos de : Charles Serfaty, Histoire économique de la France, Passés composés
À propos de : David Christoffel, Les petits malins de la grande musique, Puf
À propos de : Michaël Pouteyo, Fernand Deligny, enfant et institution. Pour une histoire de l’enfance en marge, ENS Éditions
