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.
We talk about the Earth without truly understanding it. An overview of recent knowledge about the “Earth system” and its concerning state invites us to promote a new way of looking at the environment and the political approaches required.
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.
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.
According to Frédéric Monferrand, Marx considers capitalism as a vast effort to put nature to work. This includes human bodies, as well as non-human environments. Monferrand outlines a “historical naturalism,” demonstrating its political and ecological relevance.
Charles Serfaty presents an economic history of France that is both accessible to as many readers as possible and incorporates the contributions of recent academic research.
About: Paulin Ismard, Le Miroir d’Œdipe. Penser l’esclavage, Seuil
About : Emmanuel Renault, Abolir l’exploitation, La Découverte
About: Jérémie Foa, Survivre. Une histoire des guerres de Religion, Seuil
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.
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.
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.
In order to better grasp protests and social movements in China, whose number has impressively swollen in recent years, Books&Ideas presents a dossier on the evolution of social mobilization and on the representation of social instability in this country.
A selection of four essays recently published on Books & Ideas offers new perspectives on the definition, historiography and potential applications of environmental theory.
Now a well-known Chinese lawyer of the democratic dissidence in China, Zhang Sizhi was once a young nationalist, a high-ranking official in the court of Beijing and a victim of anti-rightist repression. In his memoirs, he provides a detailed and fascinating description of the profession and China in the second half of the 20th century.
Though poorly known in France, the work of the anthropologist Mary Douglas is nonetheless essential for understanding the elementary forms of social organization and daily life. By shedding light on her academic career and personal life, this portrait rehabilitates the thought of a major intellectual.
Fred Block & Margaret Somers, two key members of an international network of scholars appealing to Karl Polanyi’s masterpiece of 1944, forcefully argue that it constitutes a critical resource for understanding not only the nature and origins of the market economy but also its recurrent crises, including the current one.
Que reste-t-il du multilatéralisme si l’un des principaux architectes décide de s’en aller ? L’annonce par les États-Unis de leur retrait de l’OMS et du CDH révèle les fractures de la gouvernance mondiale et fragilise l’avenir des organisations internationales.
Investi depuis les années 1950 contre la misère, le mouvement ATD Quart Monde a su conjuguer action de terrain, recherche et plaidoyer, jusqu’à influencer durablement les politiques sociales en France et à l’échelle internationale.
Notre définition de la nature ne correspond pas à celle des Grecs et des Romains. Du « mois du bœuf » à « dame Forêt », les Anciens ne songeaient pas à séparer les hommes de leur environnement animal ou végétal.
À propos de : Corinne Grenouillet (dir.), L’Instant critique du contemporain, Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2024, 240 p., 25 €
À propos de : Richard Schittly, Les Oubliés d’Action directe. De l’ultra-gauche au terrorisme, La Manufacture des livres
À propos de : Manon Garcia, Vivre avec les hommes. Réflexions sur le procès Pelicot, Flammarion
