Books & ideas

Capitalist Pandemonium

Éric Monnet — 2023-02-09T06:00:00Z

In a new book, Robert Boyer offers an analysis of the economic and political consequences of the pandemic that counter to irenic claims about the advent of a new world. His geopolitics of capitalisms takes a worried view of the conflicts between states and multinational corporations.

Who Owns the Night?

Catherine Guesde — 2021-05-03T07:00:00Z

The way nightlife has been affected by the recent Covid-19 restrictions invites us to think back on the value and features of the night as we have known it for most of our lives. A pioneer in the burgeoning field of night studies, Will Straw sheds light on the history of the night and the issues related to its loss.

Listen to the Birds

Priscilla Wald — 2020-09-07T07:00:00Z

Once seen as omens, birds continue to point to the future: a few years ago, their change of behavior heralded the beginning of avian flu. Two anthropological studies focus on these avian sentinels. A closer observation of the relationships between species, they argue, would help us better prepare for the pandemics to come.

How China Governs

Editorial Team — 2020-08-03T07:00:00Z

Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer and will be offering weekly selections of reviews and essays published over the last year. This week's selection focuses on China today, its uses of digital technologies to govern, and the political theories developed by its intellectuals.

Facing Bolsonaro's Attack on Science and Social Protection in the Pandemic

Émilie Frenkiel & Alfredo Ramos — 2020-07-09T07:00:00Z

Bolsonaro's policy focuses on the destruction of social protection, science and political pluralismo. A coalition of actors, comprising national and local leaders, has emerged to limit its disastrous results in the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic.

How Fiction Can Help Us Navigate the Pandemic

Chandra Mukerji — 2020-07-02T07:00:00Z

During the Black Plague, Boccaccio's Decameron provided readers ways to laugh through the pandemic. A few centuries later, a new kind of pandemic strikes: with Covid-19, the world as we knew it seems forever changed. Can fiction help us imagine new ways of existing together in times of uncertainty?

Building a Society That Values Care

Kathryn Cai — 2020-06-22T07:00:00Z

With the population aging in the US as in many Western countries, COVID-19 has only revealed an increasingly urgent need for care. But the lack of support for caregiving is an ongoing and increasingly shared struggle. How can we care for the caregivers, and build a society that values care?

A Flu that Left a Hundred Million Dead

Étienne Forestier-Peyrat — 2020-05-28T07:00:00Z

Caught between the great epidemics of the past and the horrors of the world war, the 1918-1919 flu has long struggled to be recognized as a major health disaster. Reactions to the current epidemic testify to the persistence of denial in the face of troubling outbreaks of disease.

Tracing Apps to Fight Covid-19

Marine Al Dahdah & Mohammad Javed Alam — 2020-05-18T07:00:00Z

Tracing apps to prevent the spread of Covid-19 have been implemented in various Asian countries, and Europe is also considering their use. But is the data privacy risk worth taking? This essay proposes an overview of such technologies and questions their efficiency.