Books & ideas

Love as a rebellious discourse

Christophe Giraud — 2025-11-27T07:30:00Z

Based on a collective survey, Christine Détrez intends to deconstruct the term ‘crush' and explores the social meanings underlying the many ways young people aged between 12 and 25 form relationships and learn about love.

Urban vendettas

Mickaël Chelal — 2025-09-02T06:30:00Z

What are the reasons, a sociologist wonders, that gangs of young people get in “trouble”—that is, engage in rivalries that often lead to death?

Becoming respectable

Béatrice Bouillon — 2024-01-02T08:00:00Z

How do working-class and lower middle-class women experience their youth in rural environments? Based on a study of several rural and exurban spaces, Yaelle Amsellem-Mainguy revisits the question of women's social trajectories.

Halal Cool

Leyla Arslan — 2018-07-12T07:00:00Z

How to live one's Muslim faith in a context of growing Islamophobia? John O'Brien explores the multiple ways in which young American Muslims manage to reconcile their beliefs with their national belonging.

Home and Away: Studying in Europe

Léonore Moncond'huy — 2015-04-16T05:30:00Z

Valérie Erlich's analysis of academic mobility across Europe identifies higher education as a vehicle for greater European integration and indirectly sheds light on the relations amongst European states and between Europe and the rest of the world.

Youths of Two Continents

Thomas Grillot — 2012-08-07T15:32:54Z

Whether in Britain, the U.S., Quebec, France, or elsewhere, youths tend to make the news only when they riot. But what is the true meaning of this overused and overextend category—“youth”? A transitory condition affected by segregation, unemployment, subpar housing or the rising cost of getting an education, a moment in one's lifetime when friends matter more than parents, teachers... or the police, it is also a test of our political will to change our societies.

The Age of Youth

Thomas Grillot — 2012-07-10T15:31:30Z

Youth has all the trappings of the universal, eternal value—one that is especially mobilized when there is a need for change. Looking at its history is delving into the construction of a category, and the ubiquituous use and abuse of the people it covers. Historian Ludivine Bantigny sheds light for us on this very political notion.

Reconstructing Citizenship for the Twenty-first Century

Thomas Grillot & Jean-Claude Monod — 2012-03-05T07:35:19Z

A world-famous legal scholar, Bruce Ackerman wants to reinvigorate citizenship in today's democracies. Here, he reexamines the intellectual foundations of his work, and some of the pragmatic applications he designed with others. His principle is to always consider how the state intervenes in the autobiography of every man.

Teenagers and their sexuality

Ivan Jablonka — 2008-07-31T07:30:00Z

In this interview, Peter Bearman shows how the youth's life is shaped by sexual networks, circuits of disease transmission, and informal rules (such as virginity pledges and dates) that codify juvenile sex.

Coming of age in Europe

Christian Baudelot — 2008-04-08T09:05:38Z

Through a comparison between the paths taken by young people to reach adult life in a range of European countries, Cécile Van de Velde gives the sociology of youth a thorough makeover.