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.
Part celebration, part demonstration, the activist carnival has emerged as a form that blends festive traditions and subversive politics. As a strategy for mobilization as well as transgression, carnival blurs the boundary between revolt and theater.
Jeanne Tsai and Batja Mesquita show how emotions are shaped by cultural logics that orient our relationships and judgments. Their conversation raises a broader question: what does it mean to understand others in culturally plural societies?
Despite being confined to diplomacy’s backstage, ambassadors’ wives were the invisible architects of France’s prestige abroad. From social receptions to soft power, Isabelle Dasque examines two centuries of feminine influence.
Active in the fight against poverty since the 1950s, the ATD Fourth World movement has successfully combined grassroots action, research and advocacy, exerting a lasting influence on social policies in France and internationally.
About: Sacha Lévy-Bruhl, Le grand renversement de l’État social, Presses universitaires de France
About: Fatma Çingi Kocadost, La promesse qu’on nous a faite, Éditions de l’EHESS
About: Silyane Larcher et Félix Germain (dir.), Marianne est aussi noire. Luttes occultées pour l’égalité, Seuil
The female silhouette – understood as the body’s visible form and socially perceived appearance – has long been shaped by social norms. In the age of social media, these norms are intensifying, prompting, in response, the rise of so-called “body-positive” movements.
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.
Protectionism, a solution? Really? The economic crisis may not have turned the tide against liberalization, but we certainly cannot look at protectionism the same as we used to.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer and will be back at the end of August. In the meantime, here is a selection of interviews, reviews and essays on popular music published over the past year.
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.
Though poorly known in France, the work of the anthropologist Mary Douglas is nonetheless essential for understanding the elementary forms of social organization and daily life. By shedding light on her academic career and personal life, this portrait rehabilitates the thought of a major intellectual.
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.
André Gorz’s multiform thought is entirely centred on liberation: from work, which prevents individuals from thriving; from consumption, which grows ever higher; and from the social system, which reduces individuals to mere pawns in a “megamachine”.
Jeanne Tsai et Batja Mesquita montrent que les émotions sont façonnées par des logiques culturelles qui orientent nos relations et nos jugements. Elles interrogent ainsi ce que signifie comprendre autrui dans des sociétés culturellement plurielles.
En dressant une biographie sociologique du nouveau sélectionneur de l’équipe de France, Stéphane Beaud rappelle l’alchimie complexe des conditions sociales qui mènent à la réussite.
Issus du trafic d’antiquités et parfois qualifiés de « Guéniza Afghane », les Bamyan Papers sont un des rares corpus permettant de contribuer à une histoire économique et sociale par le bas de l’Islam médiéval. Ils sont également une fenêtre vers l’histoire délaissée de l’Afghanistan prémoderne.
À propos de : Anton Brender, Géopolitique de la dette. Où va l’épargne du monde ?, Odile Jacob
À propos de : Charles-François Mathis et Steve Hagimont (dir.), La Terre perdue. Une histoire de l’Occident et de la nature XVIIIe-XXIe siècle, Tallandier
À propos de : Bruno Quélennec, Salima Naït Ahmed (dir.), Penser l’antisémitisme contemporain. Anthologie critique, Éditions de l’Aube
