Books & ideas

Social sciences in the face of disorder

Marielle Debos — 2022-01-06T13:35:31Z

How can social sciences think through the constitutive disorder of a society? When groups marked by “bad reputation” refuse to be an object of knowledge, how can we write about them? This is the challenge presented to researchers by the Tubu of Chad.

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.

Shifting Perspectives

Editorial Team — 2020-08-17T07:00:00Z

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 ways to shift our intellectual categories.

Learning from Animals

Antoine Doré & Jérôme Michalon — 2020-03-19T08:00:00Z

Neither the social sciences nor the natural sciences are currently invested in studying the cultural relations between humans and animals. If we are to understand them, we must reconsider all our categories, and free ourselves once and for all from the nature-culture divide.

The ‘Animal Cause' and the Social Sciences

Jérôme Michalon — 2019-02-11T06:00:00Z

How do the social sciences and humanities deal with human-animal relationships? Between epistemic and political aims, animals have progressed on either side of the Atlantic as legitimate subjects of study and even as political subjects in their own right.

Our Lives as They are Told

Pauline Peretz — 2017-12-11T08:00:00Z

Media, publishing, photography, theatre and political discourse are now shifting their attention to the lives of ordinary people. Does this move serve the need to better understand contemporary society? Sylvain Bourmeau, an actor and observer of these changes, offers some explanations.

The Return of Economic History?

Guillaume Calafat & Éric Monnet — 2017-01-30T08:00:00Z

The recent success of books on economic history – at a time when this specialism often seems disregarded in universities – coupled with parallel developments in both history and economics gives hope for new links between the two disciplines.

A New Race Paradigm?

Claude-Olivier Doron & Jean-Paul Lallemand-Stempak — 2015-07-13T05:00:00Z

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of studies by jurists, anthropologists and sociologists on the resurgence of the biological concept of race in medical research, the medico-legal field and genealogy. They have shown how DNA data that is seemingly of the utmost neutrality and technicality is in fact bringing into play a whole set of sociopolitical and economic values, choices and relationships.

Let's eat! Food and the social sciences

Thomas Grillot & Nicolas Larchet — 2015-02-09T06:30:00Z

Food is now a conspicuous topic, from culinary blogs to magazines, diet books, TV shows and contests. Yet unbeknownst to many, it often holds an underground, clandestine place in some of social science's major works. This dossier assesses the current importance of such scholarly endeavors, known as “food studies” in the United States.

Comparing Race and Caste?

Roland Lardinois — 2012-05-25T09:30:10Z

The work of anthropologist Louis Dumont, who would have been 100 years old on the 1^st August 2011, remains hotly debated (see a recent analysis of his political thought on this site). The latest example is by American anthropologist Kamala Visweswaran, who reconsiders the notions of culture, race and caste in social sciences and addresses core issues in the sociology of India.