Books & ideas

Promoting green planning

Étienne Goron — 2025-04-08T06:00:00Z

A sociologist and an economist who oppose green industrial policy advocate ecological planning based on democratic foundations.

Mines to the rescue of the planet?

Romain Mainieri — 2025-03-04T06:30:00Z

To achieve energy transition, we will need to extract as much metal in the next 20 years as we have done in the entire history of mankind. This is ‘one of the great paradoxes of our times'.

In the Land of Logistics

Gilles Paché — 2024-05-09T06:25:59Z

By analysing a generalised process of “logistisation”, Mathieu Quet shows that the circulation of people and goods is at the heart of our societies. But has logistics also captured language and the living world?

What Political Economy for Science?

Brice Laurent — 2023-12-26T08:30:00Z

By putting forward an analysis of the historical depths of the bonds connecting science to capitalism, Gabriel Galvez-Behar's book opens up stimulating research perspectives for a critical analysis of the political economy of knowledge.

Climate Solutions: Reflecting in the Heat of the Moment

Jean Bérard — 2023-04-04T09:30:00Z

How can we move away from energy-intensive growth? This question goes back a long way, and a group of historians has identified past attempts, all of which have failed, to create ecological societies. Could this provide a repertoire of ideas for the future?

Rethinking Class

Nicolas Duvoux — 2020-10-05T07:00:00Z

The employment structure has changed since the 1970's. For Daniel Oesch, this means we need new models to describe today's labour markets and new class schemes to move beyond industrial-based categories. We also need to understand the political consequences of the collapse of the industrial working class in Europe.

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.

The Scourge of Counterfeit Medicines

Étienne Nouguez — 2019-11-28T08:00:00Z

Counterfeit medicines are supposed to number in the hundreds of millions and to wreak havoc on people's lives. How to interpret the fact that NGOs, governments and activist movements oppose the fight against this scourge?

Toxic Urban Land

Pascal Marichalar — 2019-06-10T07:00:00Z

Urban soil endures ubiquitous and serious pollution from past industrial activities. This pollution is invisible and undifferentiated, which invites us to amend theories of environmental justice.

Heaven for Hull?

Yann Béliard — 2018-01-25T08:00:00Z

Once celebrated as the third British port behind London and Liverpool, Kingston-upon-Hull descended into disrepute with the 1970s economic crisis and has, more or less every year since then, topped the list of Britain's “crap cities”. The contested choice of Hull as UK City of Culture 2017 has raised high hopes about a possible renaissance. But in the era of austerity and Brexit, there are reasons to question the benefits the City of Culture experience may yield for Hull's common people.