Translated with the support of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme
How can a republic be perpetuated and civic virtue maintained? The historian Dan Edelstein responds to the criticisms posed by Annie Jourdan in her account of his book, The Terror of Natural Right. In particular, he defends the thesis according to which natural right is two-sided, at once liberating and violent.
In The Society of Discontent (La société du malaise), Alain Ehrenberg provides an overview of a sociology of individualisms that is based on a comparison between the social meanings of autonomy in the United States and France. While his approach is interesting, he seems to have conceived of autonomy as independent of the social conditions of possibility.
Environmental concern now seems to be a matter of broad consensus. It is sometimes forgotten that NGOs, long considered marginal, were the first to sound the alarm and lead the movement to protect the planet. We will now look back on thirty years of mobilisation that have changed our perception of these organisations.
Where will the revival of economic theory come from ? From the margins or from the center? In responding to James K. Galbraith’s essay, Cyril Hédoin maintains that the center of economics already possesses innovative approaches that enable understanding of phenomena such as the financial crisis.
Alain Ehrenberg believes that Robert Castel’s review of his book in La Vie des Idées is grounded in a misunderstanding about his approach. As opposed to presenting America as a model, Ehrenberg’s comparative approach attempts to describe the social meanings of autonomy in order to transcend the opposition between liberalist and antiliberalist orientations. His objective is to replace an individualistic sociology with a sociology of individualism.
Although agricultural protectionism is a major obstacle to development in some Southern countries, it cannot be blamed for the food crisis of 2007-2008. Growing trade liberalisation in the agricultural sector had an ambiguous effect: it facilitated the development of countries with a comparative advantage in the sector, but it also led to a rise in agricultural prices and therefore harmed developing countries that are net importers of food products.
Few academics have taken seriously the contents of the talk and tales that found popular anti-Semitism past and present in Poland. In an arresting book, anthropologist Joanna Tokarska-Bakir retraces the phenomenon back to its roots on the strength of a study of the “blood libels” revolving around Host profanations, child kidnapping and ritual murders. An exploration of the Polish catholic subconscious.
In response to the reaction of three researchers in Economic Sciences and Sociology published yesterday in La Vie des Idées, Oliver Godechot and Alexandra Louvet here round out and clarify their position regarding academic inbreeding.
Is academic inbreeding an ethic of loyalty or perverse nepotism? In order to determine the extent of the favouritism shown towards a university’s own ‘inbred’ candidates, Olivier Godechot and Alexandra Louvet established a benchmark based on an original source: the theses that were defended between 1972 and 1996. The results are enlightening.
As Umberto Eco once said, “the language of Europe is translation”. In an essay that strikes a political chord, François Ost rises up in defence of the diversity and invincibility of languages. Translation first takes place within an individual language and must free itself from the myth of the single language.
Already troubled by the recognition of the independence of the Abkhazian and South Ossetian republics, many regional leaders in the Russian Federation are questioning Moscow’s control, and accuse Moscow of managing the economic crisis in an authoritative way. The “power vertical”, the main axis of Putin’s doctrine to maintain control over the Federation since 2000, could be weakened.
Even if India is a caste society, social mobility is not impossible. Many years of positive discrimination policies and struggle have enabled some Dalits—the caste name of the so-called Untouchables—to escape their condition. Jules Naudet bases his work on his study of Dalits who have become senior civil servants, tenured university teachers or senior executives in order to focus on the bonds that connect them to their original background. .
The various dance notation systems invented over the years have never succeeded in becoming part of choregraphic practices. Works are almost completely absorbed by the performance and are only handed down by tradition, more gesturally than orally. In dance, the very notion of a work is therefore problematic. This acknowledgement forms the basis of Frédéric Pouillaude’s excellent aesthetic analysis.
Is it possible, after a conflict or genocide, to deliver justice and build a new political order acceptable to all sides previously set on destroying each other? Christian Nadeau looks at recent conflicts in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia, among others, to lay down the foundations of a theory of transitional justice. In his view a successful transition to democracy has to be based on reparation and deliberation.
Europe is inventing a new form of citizenship founded not in government participation but in the achievement of specifically European rights and in a political debate increasingly geared to European issues, evidencing, Justine Lacroix asserts, if not the existence of a European people, at any rate that of a political Europe.
What can literature teach us about China’s experience of democracy in the twentieth century? In an ambitious work, Sebastian Veg explores the links between fiction and democracy in his search for a critical reflection on the reader-citizen.
Exploring the relationships between the economy and the family through the issue of
financial compensation for the death of a child or decisions relating to food allowance, the
work of Viviana Zelizer shows how the family has been become a sacred object since the
end of the 19th century and is now considered to be shielded from the world of economics.
When explaining European construction the Federal model is often alluded to, whether as a point of reference or as an ultimate goal. However we do have to be clear what this model means. For Olivier Beaud, Federation is a special form of political structure that cannot be grasped without detaching itself from the theory of the State.
Eminem, like millions of Americans, just strolls down to his local pharmacist. Thus at a time when the country is questioning its future state of health, the inspired artist exposes the hidden panacea of American society and throws a glaring spotlight on the issue of drug addiction in America today.
Is society sentenced to endure the law of the market? The publication of a number of essays by economist Karl Polanyi hitherto unpublished in French gives us the opportunity to re-discover democratic socialism as championed by the author of The Great Transformation. His thinking on political power’s capacity to organise economic exchanges still applies.