Books & ideas

The World on a Plateau

Raphaël Morera — 2023-11-30T07:00:00Z

The Larzac plateau is famous and paradoxical: as the scene of an emblematic struggle against the state, but also because its economy is a model of integration within global capitalism. Philippe Artières retraces its history.

Life and Survival in Wuhan

Simeng Wang — 2020-12-28T08:00:00Z

This article presents a portrait of the city of Wuhan, which has been at the center of the news since the appearance of Covid-19, and discusses the experience of lockdown as recounted by its ordinary inhabitants, mixing suffering, despair, indignation and spirit of solidarity.

The Globalisation of Lockdowns

Éric Charmes & Max Rousseau — 2020-06-01T07:00:00Z

If Covid-19 has spread so rapidly, it is namely because urbanisation is now planetary and connects a wide range of territories to each other, through an international flows of goods and people.

Regulating Globalisation

Sylvain Maechler — 2020-04-23T07:00:00Z

The excesses of globalisation, including labour exploitation and environmental degradation in global industries, are often seen as the result of a lack of rules. Tim Bartley shows that these rules exist and overlap—they are just failing because they ignore the context in which they operate.

Covid-19: Chronicle of an Outbreak Foretold

Philippe Sansonetti — 2020-03-30T07:00:00Z

What are Covid-19 and the coronavirus? What are the parameters, causes and effects of this disease? What are the short and long-term prospects? Infectious disease specialist Philippe Sansonetti explains why the fate of the epidemic is in our hands.

Scotland: Nation, Enlightenment and Empire

Clarisse Godard Desmarest — 2018-09-13T07:00:00Z

A new exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh explores the changes undergone in Scotland in the fields of science, technology and literature over a century (1760-1860). It also offers a nuanced narrative of Scotland's role in the British Empire.

As Fragile as a Matsutake

Clotilde Riotor & Cyprien Tasset — 2018-07-02T07:00:00Z

Can a mushroom help us understand the changes and deadlocks of capitalism? Studying matsutake foraging and commerce, anthropologist Anna Tsing describes a world that has turned its back on progress and where survival depends upon fragile collaborations between humans and the world surrounding them.

Choosing to Pollute

Gwenaëlle Le Goullon — 2018-05-31T07:00:00Z

In an unprecedented global history, François Jarrige and Thomas Le Roux explore the political and scientific origins of pollution, and show that its globalization during the industrial age was in no way inevitable.

Inconspicuous Globalisations

Armelle Choplin & Olivier Pliez — 2016-11-14T08:00:00Z

Multinationals are not the only actors in the globalised world. Globalisation is also apparent in less visible forms of exchange that take place in spaces usually held as marginal. Armelle Choplin and Olivier Pliez focus our attention on this trade in minor mode.

The Importance of Global History

Sébastien Rozeaux — 2016-05-23T07:00:00Z

“What is the use of history?”, Serge Gruzinski answers the question with a plea for global history as an antidote to methodological nationalism and a self-complacent Eurocentrism. Global history offers another perspective on globalisation.