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.
Lawyer, feminist activist and a prominent figure of the Syrian opposition, Dima Moussa advocates for an inclusive political transition, the establishment of genuine democratic institutions, and the necessity of a national debate open to all components of Syrian society.
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.
In this recent interview, Walzer reflects on his life of political commitment. From the creation of Dissent to the publication of the acclaimed Spheres of Justice, here is the journey of one of the most influential political theorists of the XXth century.
In ancient times, mythological and historical criminals were not always inhuman. They show us that there is nothing universal about our self-evident truths, particularly when they concern such fundamental concepts as good and evil.
While public authorities currently seem to prefer to use incentives rather than constraints to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, economists are developing increasingly effective tools to measure the effectiveness of these policies.
About: Laurent Warlouzet, Europe contre Europe. Entre liberté, solidarité et puissance depuis 1945, CNRS Éditions
About: Francis Wolff, Le temps du monde, Fayard
About: Maxence Brischoux, Géopolitique des mers, Puf
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.
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.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer and will be offering weekly selections of reviews and essays published over the last year. This week’s selection focuses on ways to shift our intellectual categories.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer and will be offering weekly selections of reviews and essays published over the last year. This week’s selection focuses on China today, its uses of digital technologies to govern, and the political theories developed by its intellectuals.
Five leading scholars of Big Tech studies share their views on the hopes and dangers of the on-going Digital Revolution. Their answers reveal the pressing need for more political, social and economic theorizing of these dynamics.
Leading 19th century statesman, political economist, architect of the 1860 commercial treaty between France and the United Kingdom, and campaigner for peace between European nations, Michel Chevalier had also been a dominant voice in the Romantic socialism of Saint-Simonianism: the eclectic nature of his thought would lend itself to a particular vision of Europe, forerunner of today’s European Union.
What distinguishes a blank canvas from an empty frame? A simple object from a readymade? What is this mysterious gap that art digs as it separates from life? Such are the questions posed by Arthur Danto, a major figure of contemporary art theory.
A great historian of the English working class, a major intellectual figure in debates surrounding Marxism in the years 1960-1970, and an anti-nuclear activist who initiated an environmentalist critique of capitalism—such were the many faces of Edward Palmer Thompson, whose work deeply permeates the different social sciences to this day.
Avocate, militante féministe et figure de l’opposition syrienne, Dima Moussa plaide pour une transition politique inclusive, l’instauration de véritables institutions démocratiques et la nécessité d’un débat national ouvert à toutes les composantes de la société syrienne.
Bernard Manin voyait en Montesquieu un philosophe politique attentif à la pluralité des formes politiques et à la manière dont celles-ci peuvent, dans les régimes modérés, empêcher les abus de pouvoir. C’est bien pour cela qu’il fallait, expliquait-il, continuer à lire ce philosophe des Lumières.
Entre distance et proximité, l’État (colonial ou national) a toujours su maintenir une relation complexe et ambiguë avec la religion en pays musulman, comme le montre l’enquête approfondie de M. Zeghal.
À propos de : Guillaume Durieux, Faut-il en finir avec l’école ? Autonomie & justice scolaire, Éditions Eliott
À propos de : Stéphane Lacroix, Le Crépuscule des saints. Histoire et politique du salafisme en Égypte, CNRS Éditions
À propos de : Sandra Hoibian, La mosaïque française. Comment (re)faire société aujourd’hui ?, Flammarion