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.
Alexis Fontbonne sets out to study the Middle Ages as a sociologist, laying the foundations for a stimulating critical approach that invites us to reconsider not only historical practice, but also the tools of sociology.
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.
How can we move beyond abstract architecture, where buildings are constructed without their audiences? Peter Ferretto’s method is based on observation, engagement, and the osmosis between teaching, practice, research, and social impact.
What role did the Holy Roman Empire play in the first colonial conquests of the early modern period? What was the role of its princes, institutions, diplomacy, sailors, and merchants?
The longest river in Europe bears the imprint of Soviet history. From dams to fishing by way of industrialization, it lies at the heart of the continental upheaval that is unfolding before us.
About: Philippe Colin, Lissell Quiroz, Pensées décoloniales. Une introduction aux théories critiques d’Amérique latine, Zones
About: Sarah Gensburger, Qui pose les questions mémorielles ?, CNRS Éditions
À propos de : Pierre Guenancia, L’homme sans moi. Essai sur l’identité, Puf
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.
Michel Crozier’s work was shaped by the conviction that organizational phenomena create society. He helped pioneer the tools for analyzing groups established to carry out a common project according to a specific system of action and rules of the game.
The EU aims for net climate neutrality by 2050, utilizing the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) as its main tool. But the climate crisis demands more than market mechanisms. It requires comprehensive planning and legal frameworks that prioritize public over private interests.
How can we define democracy today? What role does or should the people play in the democratic process ? Through its summer selection, Books&Ideas offers to rediscover a group of four interviews and reviews, published in 2015 and 2016, which have tackled these questions through the prism of history, philosophy and political sciences.
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 presents a second summer selection, in which contemporary historians tell us about the future of history as a discipline, about how they research and write history, and the way history affects their bodies and minds.
From the margins to which he was confined, Georges Devereux (1908-1985) formulated some of the most original scientific work of his century. In the wake of Freud, whose legacy he firmly defended, Devereux initiated the transcultural practice of psychiatry. François Laplantine, one of his former disciples, reconsiders the legacy of ethnopsychoanalysis’ founder.
Jane Mansbridge has made a major contribution to political theory. She has spent her life combining empirical research with a theoretical approach, and has played a vital role in developing the critique of rational choice and the study of democracy as a permanent process continually in flux.
On assiste sur le web à un retour de l’imagerie des Croisades, mêlant racisme, masculinisme et développement personnel. Comment comprendre cet usage de l’Histoire ?
Faut-il voir en Uber une nouvelle ouverture du marché du travail et de l’entreprenariat permettant à tout un chacun de trouver une activité professionnelle en un clic, ou un nouveau mode de gouvernance qui intensifie la précarité des travailleurs et approfondit les inégalités sociales ?
Dans les années 1950, l’afflux de publications consacrées à une exploration sous-marine en plein renouveau, grâce à des innovations comme le scaphandre et le bathyscaphe, a donné naissance à un riche imaginaire.
À propos de : Yoann Demoli & Laurent Willemez. Sociologie de la magistrature. Genèse, morphologie sociale et conditions de travail d’un corps, Armand Colin
À propos de : Jason Read, A Double Shift : Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work, Verso Books
À propos de : Dimitri Tilloi d’Ambrosi, Le Régime romain, Puf
