Books & ideas

The Poor of the Ancien Régime

Jean-François Laé — 2024-11-07T08:52:00Z

Under the Ancien Régime, salaries were not enough to live on. Many people had to combine activities to make ends meet. Laurence Fontaine paints a vivid picture of this reality.

The antithesis of indifference

Natacha Borgeaud-Garciandía — 2023-10-24T16:41:15Z

Care, which refers both to a kind of work and a social relationship, covers a wide range of realities and often precarious activities. Helena Hirata subjects this polysemic term to piercing and uncompromising sociological scrutiny.

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.

Brazil's “Winter of Discontent”

Edesio Fernandes — 2014-06-23T07:30:00Z

Recent social movements in Brazil, characterized by diffuse claims and a diversity of actors, should not be solely interpreted as reactions to the overwhelming cost of organizing the 2014 World Cup. This article emphasizes the elitist nature and the inefficiency of recent urban policy.

Analytics of Power

Claire Pagès & Mathieu Trachman — 2012-11-29T08:00:00Z

After the publication of her last book, Parting Ways. Jewishness and the Critique of zionism, Judith Butler discusses her most recent work in an interview, proposing a new analytics of power. She discusses how the most recent evolution of capitalism exposes populations to greater precarity, and defends the idea of a life that would be completely democratic, taking into account the multiplicity of power relations.

The French Social Welfare Model, as Seen from the Polders

Antoine Bevort — 2011-01-26T09:22:49Z

For the Dutch, the French social model seems particularly generous. However, no real comparison is possible if the facts are taken out of context. The understanding of the Dutch proverb ‘To live like God in France' changes somewhat when we consider Antoine Bevort's investigation of the differences between social relations in France and in the Netherlands.

The Precariousness Syndrome

Nicolas Duvoux — 2011-01-17T08:57:19Z

While sociological and philosophical studies of social suffering are proliferating, the psychiatrist Jean Furtos casts a clinical eye on the relations between mental health and precariousness. He presents the syndrome of self-exclusion as a pathology of precariousness, consisting of a radical reduction in psychic functioning. This lesson is not limited to psychiatry or to the study of insecurity.

The Collateral Victims of the RSA

Hélène Périvier — 2011-01-12T07:31:44Z

The RSA (Active Solidarity Income) is supposed to reduce poverty by one third between now and 2012. It is based on the observation that work doesn't pay enough to keep some people out of poverty. But the reform is based on certain implicit assumptions. According to Hélène Périvier, the problem is not so much inadequate pay as lack of jobs, underemployment, and the numerous problems faced by people without jobs.