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.
Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty’s economic history of political conflict in France is a defense of bipartition: The Left-Right divide, which is the foundation of our democracy, has enabled social progress. We must therefore work to restore it.
As multilateral cooperation is increasingly under attack, Katerina Linos challenges certain misperceptions about the role of international institutions, particularly the European Union, and emphasizes their capacity for action in times of multiple crises.
In his academic reading of Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty’s book, Michel Offerlé provides a critical analysis of the selected indicators, followed by a comparison with works of electoral sociology and electoral history.
Long the subject of myth, Pius XII’s attitude towards the Holocaust and Jewish persecution can now be evaluated with the help of the archives. Nina Valbousquet makes a convincing case: the issue was not impartiality, but tepidness.
About: François Azouvi, Du héros à la victime : la métamorphose contemporaine du sacré, Gallimard
About: Eric Fabri, Pourquoi la propriété privée (The Whys and Wherefores of Private Property), Le Bord de l’Eau
About: Constance Rimlinger, Féministes des champs. Du retour à la terre à l’écologie queer, Presses universitaires de France
A rumour is circulating in some African countries: the French state is organising penis thefts to offset declining fertility. The rumour, spread by Russian propaganda, has become fake news.
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.
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.
We seem to struggle to take the measure of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its onset was sudden, its effects are uncertain and its long term consequences are still unpredictable. Books & Ideas gathers a selection of texts exploring the various facets of epidemics.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer and will resume its publication schedule on August 26. In the meantime, we present to you a weekly selection of essays and reviews published over the past year.
In this virtual roundtable published in partnership with Public Books, four participants from France, Germany and the US re-visit the inequalities debate sparked by Thomas Piketty’s Capital, comparing perceptions of income, economic equality and political economy.
Among the recipients of the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was Elinor Ostrom, for her analysis of economic governance, especially in relation to the commons. While this choice took many in the profession by surprise, her life-long quest for an understanding of successful common property resource management holds important lessons for our future.
Although now considered a pseudo-science, phrenology was tremendously successful in its Victorian heyday. Tracing the intellectual and scientific journey of George Combe, the ’science’s most prominent promoter in Great Britain, this paper addresses the phrenologists’ little-known contribution to the ’social question’ debate of the day, and the ambiguities of their social gospel.
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.
L’adoption du mode de scrutin proportionnel apparaît aujourd’hui, selon deux politistes, comme une condition nécessaire pour redonner à la démocratie française la capacité de renouer avec des gouvernements représentatifs, stables et opérationnels.
Que nous apprennent les sciences sociales sur ce que sont – et ne sont pas – les guerres civiles ? Fort de décennies d’enquêtes au cœur de la violence, Gilles Dorronsoro propose une théorie générale des guerres civiles et démontre l’utilité sociale de l’enquête de terrain.
Le harem a nourri l’imaginaire occidental jusqu’à aujourd’hui, véhiculant le cliché d’un monde despotique et misogyne. L’imposante documentation réunie par J. Dakhlia offre une vision plus nuancée.
À propos de : Amandine Catala, The Dynamics of Epistemic Injustice. Situating Epistemic Power and Agency, Oxford University Press
À propos de : Fabien Clouette, Des vies océaniques. Quand des animaux et des humains se rencontrent, Seuil
