Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty’s economic history of political conflict in France is a defense of bipartition: The Left-Right divide, which is the foundation of our democracy, has enabled social progress. We must therefore work to restore it.
In his academic reading of Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty’s book, Michel Offerlé provides a critical analysis of the selected indicators, followed by a comparison with works of electoral sociology and electoral history.
Long the subject of myth, Pius XII’s attitude towards the Holocaust and Jewish persecution can now be evaluated with the help of the archives. Nina Valbousquet makes a convincing case: the issue was not impartiality, but tepidness.
Since the two World Wars, the victim has been raised to the status of a sacred and predominant figure in historical memory. The victim has become the new figure of the hero, thus setting a new and controversial example.
Why do we believe that our societies are freer, more prosperous or more democratic thanks to the institution of private property rather than in spite of it?
By shedding light on alternative ways of life that have hitherto been kept in the shadows, Constance Rimlinger shows that ecofeminist utopias are a reality that seeks emancipation from capitalism and patriarchy.
Based on a collective survey, Christine Détrez intends to deconstruct the term ‘crush’ and explores the social meanings underlying the many ways young people aged between 12 and 25 form relationships and learn about love.
“Who extends the life of objects, nowadays?” Julie Madon’s sociological study on “longeviters” shows the diversity of their profiles and motivations, as well as the specific practices of sustainability and the controversies they give rise to.
Condensing the history of migration into the space of five buildings in the industrial suburb of Saint-Denis, Fabrice Langrognet gives voice to unexpected archives. These tell us much about the coexistence of multiple and diverse foreigners united by precarity and uncertainty.
The “ardor of pillagers” refers to the momentum driving the depletion of life, which is outlined by Hicham-Stéphane Afeissa in his new book, drawing on the entire field of ecological thought.
Ecological politics have struggled to ward off environmental disaster. To impose itself as a transformative force, Jean-Baptiste Comby shows that ecological politics must become the strategic tool and compass of a genuine class struggle.
Though they are presented as egalitarian, public health policies make extensive use of patient selection. As Maud Gelly demonstrates in an illuminating new book, this practice contributes significantly to health-related social inequality.
Under the old regime, abortion did not exist as a distinct legal category. Yet it was practiced and criminalized when associated with sexual transgressions. How does one write the history of an unimagined concept and a hidden practice?
At a time of increasing appeals for moderation and lifestyles more respectful of nature, a new book proposes an original approach: to use the concept of asceticism to grasp practices of voluntary renunciation as a kind of spiritual experience.
How is sociology produced today? Drawing on their intersecting career paths, three sociologists reflect on their working conditions and how these affect their scientific output.
What social meaning can be given to the romantic relationships of adolescents? A comparative study examines perceptions of love and conjugality among young people from different backgrounds, paying particular attention to the question of gender in adolescence.
Drawing on the resources of ethno-accounting, Geneviève Pruvost conducts a fascinating investigation into “alternative” lifestyles in rural areas.
The separation of church and state is a principle that is often difficult to apply. In some cases, a delicate balance must be struck between religious freedom and equality.
A five-year investigation reveals how the most militant blue-collar workers in Sochaux are growing older but continuing to stand up for their beliefs even after their retirement.
Are we responsible for our own health? Yes, according to advocates of liberal public policy. Yet this position fails to acknowledge social inequality’s serious pathogenic effects.
By following inmates who were not initially religious but who later found God in prison, Thibault Ducloux rethinks our understanding of the social conditions that produce and preserve faith.
How can we reconcile the working classes with ecology? By reminding ecologists of the need to address together production and consumption. Doing so would lead to the constitution of “biocommunism,” the fundamental concepts of which are outlined by Paul Guillibert.
Drawing on textual sources and the history of language, Jean-Louis Roch highlights the ambivalence of charity in the Middle Ages and traces the desacralization of the figure of the poor at the dawn of modernity.
Laurent Coumel has written a wonderful essay on the social history of the late Soviet Union. He shows how Soviet society was subject to the same dynamics as western European society: the rise of individualism, leisure, and the desire for comfort.
At the beginning of World War II, Americans were convinced that German geopolitical thinking was behind the stunning military successes of the Nazis. They sought to turn this thinking against their enemies, before using it as a weapon against the USSR during the Cold War.
Architects are making the earth uninhabitable. Rather than reusing materials that already exist, they push for greater resource extraction and produce waste that cannot be recycled.
Marginal and maladjusted childhood (which includes orphans, vagabonds, and delinquents) has a history. While the concept has been condemned, it has also been studied extensively and resulted in institutions designed to deal with it.
Mickaëlle Provost seeks to understand oppression through lived experience, in all its uniqueness. She also shows how shared awareness of this suffering and the ways in which it is erased can create solidarity and pave the way for collective resistance.
In a study initiated by Fondation Abbé Pierre, sociologist Denis Merklen explores activism in working-class neighborhoods. The book illuminates both the social logics at work and the forms of activist creativity, but tends to overemphasize the role of institutional actors.
What are the reasons, a sociologist wonders, that gangs of young people get in “trouble”—that is, engage in rivalries that often lead to death?
We need to rebuild universalism, not as an overarching model to be applied to all regions of the world, but on the basis of their own singularity—laterally, not from above.
The mass slaughters of dogs carried out in Mexico and Europe in the 19th century seem to have been a rehearsal for the human holocausts of the 20th century.
This fascinating political sociology study looks at the lifestyles and subjective perceptions of average National Rally voters in the South of France. It sheds light on the racist motivations behind people’s support for the party.
How did French Jews view Nazism? Beginning in 1933, they organized and prepared for war with a lucid yet often resigned outlook on Hitler’s Germany.
French liberalism, which first emerged during the Restoration, focused not only on individual rights: it also shaped the history of the mass as a subjugated political entity.
The colonial period was eager to classify races according to their biological and cultural dispositions for war. The prejudice would persist through the wars of decolonization.
We talk about the Earth without truly understanding it. An overview of recent knowledge about the “Earth system” and its concerning state invites us to promote a new way of looking at the environment and the political approaches required.
According to Frédéric Monferrand, Marx considers capitalism as a vast effort to put nature to work. This includes human bodies, as well as non-human environments. Monferrand outlines a “historical naturalism,” demonstrating its political and ecological relevance.
Few ancient authors had a discourse on slavery. Even so, many spoke about it, often indirectly or between the lines, either to criticize or justify it.
It is hard to do without the concept of exploitation when describing the many forms of injustice created by capitalism. Marx remains very much our contemporary.
