Over the last twenty years, some of the social and bio-medical sciences have had to face the impossibility of replicating some of their most famous experiments. Although this situation raises serious concerns, it is an opportunity to fundamentally renew the scientific methodology in these disciplines.
The recent success of books on economic history – at a time when this specialism often seems disregarded in universities – coupled with parallel developments in both history and economics gives hope for new links between the two disciplines.
How should we analyse individual upward social mobility? How should we understand the move from one social class to another? Chantal Jaquet has created concepts that open up a new way for us to study the issue of social reproduction.
What is anthropology, and what type of knowledge does it produce? Gérard Lenclud applies his background in epistemology and questions the future of anthropology in relation to other disciplines as a means of highlighting both the similar challenges they face and the different methodologies they employ.
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.
What do Henry and William James have in common, besides being brothers ? Perhaps to have shared the same vision of pragmatism. David Lapoujade’s book renews the comparison between the work of the writer and the philosopher with a Deleuzian analysis, just as effective as biographical approaches.
