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.
How do children construct their racial identity? Based on a groundbreaking study of children from so-called “mixed” couples, Solène Brun explores the processes of racialization within family structures.
In their recent research about Israeli politics, Noam Gidron and his coauthors explore the country’s affective polarization, the support for the judicial overhaul, Likud’s populism, and the relations between them.
In a stimulating and well-informed essay, Sandra Hoibian refutes the idea that French society is becoming fragmented and suggests ways to measure a vague concept: social cohesion.
In this collection of essays, Jean-Claude Schmitt continues his examination of medieval images. Considering the topic from a semantic, historical, and artistic perspective, he explores how the medieval West thought about images and, at times, through images.
About: Bertrand Cochard, Vide à la demande. Critique des séries, L’Échappée
About: Pascal Marichalar, La Montagne aux étoiles, La Découverte
About: Justine Lacroix, Les valeurs de l’Europe. Un enjeu démocratique, Collège de France éditions
A rumour is circulating in some African countries: the French state is organising penis thefts to offset declining fertility. The rumour, spread by Russian propaganda, has become fake news.
The American sociologist Harrison White made a vital contribution to the development of social network analysis. Besides his work in this field, his theoretical synthesis and his understanding of social formations have influenced a variety of fields such as the sociology of art and economic sociology.
Ukraine’s water networks have been mobilized since the start of the war in 2014. Infrastructure workers are some of the last to leave settlements attacked by the Russian army. Water systems and people are resisting but are reaching the limits of their capacity to adapt to violence and disruptions.
Over the past few months, Books and Ideas has been running a series of interviews with leading contemporary scholars, who took the time to discuss their particular topics of research with us. For the Christmas season, we have put together a selection of seven discussions with intellectuals across the humanities and sciences: sociology, history, comparative literature, neuro-biology, anthropology and political science.
In this virtual roundtable published in partnership with Public Books, six contributors from France, Russia and the US address the issue of contemporary Russia and its often tense relations with the West.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer. In the meantime, here is a selection of essays, reviews and interviews published over the past year, exploring the relationship between music and politics.
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.
Leading 19th century statesman, political economist, architect of the 1860 commercial treaty between France and the United Kingdom, and campaigner for peace between European nations, Michel Chevalier had also been a dominant voice in the Romantic socialism of Saint-Simonianism: the eclectic nature of his thought would lend itself to a particular vision of Europe, forerunner of today’s European Union.
Le rejet de la croissance économique est-il nécessaire à la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique ? Guillaume Delafosse propose une alternative post-croissante au « croissantisme » et au « décroissantisme » autour de quelques exemples de politiques publiques.
Les voyages à Tahiti ont donné lieu, au XVIIIe siècle, à une littérature abondante, souvent idéalisante ou affabulatrice. Entre Européens et Polynésiens, le dialogue ne pouvait avoir lieu, tant les relations entre eux étaient asymétriques.
Regroupant des études sur des sources longtemps peu mobilisées (images, objets, vestiges) dans le cadre de l’histoire de l’esclavage, paraît la première publication du comité scientifique du programme « Routes des personnes mises en esclavage. Résistance, Liberté et Héritage » de l’UNESCO.
À propos de : Fabrice Argounès, Méridiens. Mesurer, partager, dominer le monde, CNRS Éditions
À propos de : Quentin Skinner, Liberty as Independence. The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal, Cambridge University Press
Abbès Zouache, La croisade. Une histoire partagée, Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale
