Florence Gould Foundation

Michael Brown’s death and the Ferguson unrest signal a change in the condition of Black people in American society since 2000. This new condition is marked by the culmination of the penal state’s power over Black people’s lives, and an increase in socio-economic inequalities between races.

Environmental economics, the economics of natural resources, sustainable development, green economics, sustainability science, bioeconomics, ecodevelopment: the disciplines and concepts situated at the crossroads of environmentalism and economics are many. This article examines “ecological economics,” a field that has achieved academic recognition and launched numerous debates.

Originally conceived to help physicians make enlightened decisions, evidence-based medicine in North America and elsewhere has become a risk management method fostering the standardization of medical practice and the dehumanization of relations between doctors and patients.

What if social mix was not always the best way to promote equality and social justice? Éric Charmes argues in favour of a pragmatic approach to diversity, and is not afraid of challenging some of our most deep-seated ideas about education, housing or urban policy. But how can we live together if public spaces are being increasingly restricted? Let the debate begin.

The patient’s access to information is viewed today as a fundamental principle in the ethics of health care. However, this essay shows that in the case of presymptomatic diagnosis, exercising one’s right to know can in fact be working against the patient’s liberty.

What are the challenges and limitations of postcolonial theory? The historian Jacques Pouchepadass reminds us that postcolonial studies do not constitute an academic discipline, but rather a critical school of thought, that calls on historians to stop celebrating the odyssey of Western modernity throughout the world.

With the accession of Napoléon III, French republicans encountered an undiscovered people: rural peasants. Because these country dwellers were satisfied with the Bonapartist regime, they constituted both a theoretical and a practical challenge for the republicans. How to explain that satisfaction with such a despotic regime and how to attract this people so indifferent to republican ideals: by catering to their interests, or by educating them in republican virtues?

Elijah Anderson focuses on the black ghetto as a major source of racial stereotypes and discrimination, and explains how it operates within the framework of changing race relations.

Lucien Bianco is a historian of Chinese peasantry and the author of Origins of the Chinese Revolution, 1915-1949. In this interview for Books&Ideas, he draws a mixed portrait of the changes undergone by China for a couple of decades, and mentions the ‘de-Maoization process’, the single child policy, the ‘new socialist countryside’, as well as the elitiste discourse of Chinese intellectuals.

It was throughout the 15^th century that most of the different regions of the world became connected to each other. Rather than recount this history from the perspective of a triumphant Europe, a collective work, edited by Patrick Boucheron in 2010, suggests that we shift our point of view by following the traces of other possible globalisations.

During the first decade of the 2000s, urban policy in France and Great Britain was granted unprecedented budgetary and political support, exceeding, at last, the token sums it had previously received. At present, it is possible to compare the results of the policies pursued in both countries.

Has Russia, amidst rising social discontent and pervasive economic crisis, rediscovered collective mobilization? In this essay, Carine Clément emphasizes the potential for self-organization evident in mobilization “from below,” which is rapidly expanding in daily life.

Almost twenty years ago, Christian de Portzamparc was the first French architect to receive the Pritzker Prize. Today his Atelier, located in Paris, is more dynamic than ever, with ambitious projects like the Cidade das Artes in Rio, or the participation in the Grand Paris project. The following interview shows an architect urbanist whose work is geared towards the city and music.

When we think about revolutions, don’t economic interests tend to be left out of the equation? For the last two decades political and cultural questions have made social justice appear a secondary concern. According to historian Charles Walton, the problem of redistribution, already apparent in 18^th century revolutions, is also central to Egyptian revolutionaries.

As Italy celebrated the 150^th anniversary of its unification, revisionist historians radically challenged the standard history of unification and its consequences. This offensive, backed by certain politicians, spared none of the important moments of Italian history. Might this be the sign of a more far-reaching crisis in the national narrative?