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.
The Frankish kingdom that emerged between the sixth and eighth centuries promoted political and religious diversity, before the Carolingians brought this pragmatism to an end. Did an empire exist in Europe between Rome and Charlemagne?
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.
Does Italy have a history before unification? Located at the heart of the Mediterranean, the peninsula gives the impression of being a cultural koiné but is in fact characterized by political, economic, and social diversity.
Basing her anthropological history on a rich body of source material, Régine Le Jan explores interpersonal relationships in the Early Middle Ages, arguing that they constitute one of the socio-political specificities of the Latin West.
About: Alexis Fontbonne, Introduction à la sociologie médiévale, CNRS Éditions
About: Indravati Félicité, Le Saint-Empire face au monde. Contestations et redéfinitions de l’impérialité, XVe-XIXe siècle, CNRS Éditions
About: Pascal Marchand, Volga, l’héritage de la modernité, CNRS Éditions
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.
Over the past few months, Books and Ideas has been running a series of interviews with leading contemporary scholars, who took the time to discuss their particular topics of research with us. For the Christmas season, we have put together a selection of seven discussions with intellectuals across the humanities and sciences: sociology, history, comparative literature, neuro-biology, anthropology and political science.
Historians, sociologists, and social scientists in general have long tried to “think big” and “global.” The rise of Asia in the world economy has stimulated anew this attraction for the macro-level. Books and Ideas proposes to look at some of the most innovative ways this work has been done recently, in the history of ideas, of trade and cultural exchanges, economic convergences and decolonization.
At a time when Europe is equated with sovereign debt and political powerlessness, one should not forget that the foundations for a European citizenship have already been laid. Its potential for democracy needs to be interrogated, as do the cultural resources that it can rely on.
According to Nancy Fraser, the renewal of socialism requires a conflation of activism and political theory; indeed, emancipation can only exist on the basis of equal participation in all spheres of life, and can only be understood in terms of social struggles, which today appear in multiple forms.
Kenzaburō Ōe, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is a controversial figure in Japan. And rightly so, for there are a great many contradictions in both his fictional and theoretical work. He is a fierce opponent of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, and yet continues to celebrate the heroism of the soldier who finds glory through sacrifice.
For more than thirty years, Joan Scott has been informing and transforming both our history and the way we write history, while encouraging us to question categories and change our modes of thinking. From class struggle to sex differentiation, sexual emancipation and race, she proposes a critical analysis of Republican rhetoric to undermine naturalized forms of inequality.
Entre épreuves personnelles, contraintes d’atelier et conquête artistique, Artemisia Gentileschi est une figure singulière de peintre femme au XVIIᵉ siècle. À partir de son parcours, Pierre Curie éclaire les spécificités des trajectoires féminines parmi les artistes de l’Europe baroque.
Alors que le surréalisme célèbre son centenaire, W. Asholt retrace un siècle de débats autour de la révolte des avant-gardes contre l’autonomisation de l’art en régime bourgeois.
Deux enquêtes explorent les trajectoires des diplômés de BTS et de l’apprentissage. Malgré une certaine stabilité professionnelle, celles-ci restent marquées par un sentiment d’incertitude subjective face à leur avenir et une mobilité sociale souvent plafonnée.
À propos de : Isabella Lazzarini, L’Italie des États territoriaux, Éditions de l’EHESS
À propos de : Sophie Bernard, UberUsés : le capitalisme racial de plateforme à Paris, Londres et Montréal, Puf
À propos de : Myriam Marcil-Bergeron, Le Chant des sirènes. Récits d’exploration sous-marine en France (1950-1960), Presses de l’université de Montréal
