Books & ideas

Forcing Vaccine Progress

Oumy Thiongane — 2018-11-08T07:00:00Z

A recent dengue vaccine has provoked serious reservations among the scientific community. In 2016, its implementation in the Philippines seems to respond to public health issues while serving diplomatic and commercial interests. More fuel to the fire of distrust in vaccines?

Towards a critical approach to social mix

Éric Charmes — 2014-03-17T08:00:00Z

What if social mix was not always the best way to promote equality and social justice? Éric Charmes argues in favour of a pragmatic approach to diversity, and is not afraid of challenging some of our most deep-seated ideas about education, housing or urban policy. But how can we live together if public spaces are being increasingly restricted? Let the debate begin.

Why Financial Crises Give Birth to Legends

Nathan Marcus — 2012-08-31T07:18:00Z

In our haste to explain away the 2008 crisis, we have tended to put all the blame on bankers and regulators. This simplification, while soothing, might be just as misguided as Germans' or Austrians' tendency in the 1920s and 1930s to put the blame on France and Britain for their economic difficulties, or later for World War Two. Crises are the stuff of legend, but we should find other ways to cope with them.

French Economic Optimism

Antoine Terrien — 2012-03-22T17:09:04Z

Karine Berger and Valérie Rabault don't go along with the usual rhetoric of commentators on current economic developments. Instead of catching our attention with an alarming vision, they present their book as a piece of optimism. However, although their book does suggest an action plan for the future, it is based on a strong critique of recent economic policies.

When Trust is Lost

Ben Bradford & Jonathan Jackson — 2011-11-08T14:00:00Z

Are rioters different from the rest of the British people when it comes to their relationship with the police? Public debates have answered in the affirmative, and demanded more aggressive policing styles. But Bradford and Jackson argue that trust in the police might be as important in explaining rioting as it is in explaining compliance.

A Very Lively Desert

Alden Young — 2011-10-19T12:43:23Z

Ghislaine Lydon's study of the Sahara uncovers the dynamic commercial and trade networks that have always dominated the desert. It offers vivid portraits of the evolution of social and economic institutions, which should put to rest once and for all any ideas that the pre-colonial societies of Africa, north, within or south of the Sahara have ever been stagnant.

Get Yourself Into Debt!

Nicolas Delalande — 2011-10-04T15:55:24Z

The crisis currently affecting the United States is all the more serious when we consider how deep its roots go. The historian Louis Hyman shows how debt lodged itself at the heart of American capitalism during the 20^th century. More than just an economic system, it is a genuine social model that has collapsed along with subprime loans.

Is a History of Trust Possible?

Nicolas Delalande — 2011-04-13T07:27:00Z

How can historians measure and analyse the fluctuations of trust and civic feeling? In spite of the remarkable success enjoyed by Yann Algan and Pierre Cahuc's La société de défiance, the book's argument is based on a very fragile opposition between the Third Republic, seen as the golden age of trust, and bureaucratic state intervention established at the end of the Second World War. In this article, Nicolas Delalande shows how slight and ideologically biased the authors' historical arguments are.

A Sociologist in the Ghetto

Jules Naudet — 2011-04-11T09:02:00Z

After several years of field work in a Chicago black ghetto, sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh gives a lively and thorough analysis of the survival strategies of its inhabitants. Halfway between solidarity and predation, the underground economy of the ghetto relies as much on money as on networks built on trust and exchange.

Why Britons Trust their Police

Ben Bradford & Jonathan Jackson — 2011-03-02T07:38:19Z

Where does the high level of trust and legitimacy the British bobby enjoys come from? In this outstanding synthesis, two sociologists show that the police's capacity to be trusted signals both their acceptance and their efficiency. On the contrary, when the police is feared, they are deprived of citizen's involvement in the production of social order.