Books & ideas

Studying Social Class: Legacy & Renewal

Cristelle Terroni — 2016-07-18T09:00:00Z

A selection of five essays and reviews recently published in Books&Ideas discusses the legacy and renewal of social class studies in France, Great-Britain and India.

Home and Away: Studying in Europe

Léonore Moncond'huy — 2015-04-16T05:30:00Z

Valérie Erlich's analysis of academic mobility across Europe identifies higher education as a vehicle for greater European integration and indirectly sheds light on the relations amongst European states and between Europe and the rest of the world.

Comparing Success

Dominique Merllié — 2014-07-17T07:30:00Z

Through a comparative study of France, India and the United States, Jules Naudet's book shows how certain “instituted ideologies” specific to each country are either a barrier or a resource when it comes to moving from a dominated social situation to a dominant occupational position.

Neighborhood as a social fact

Roberta Garner — 2012-09-26T07:27:44Z

Robert Sampson's new book reiterates the importance of place-level characteristics as determinants of social conditions. While social patterns are not reducible to individual phenomena, the persistence of barriers faced by African American communities (segregation, isolation, incarceration) prevent social mobility.

The Mayawati Factor

Nicolas Jaoul — 2011-11-01T19:29:53Z

The first biography of Mayawati, the contemporary dalit leader, breaks the silence of the Indian elites on a political phenomenon of unusual magnitude. Unfortunately this book's account of the developments that this politician represents has many biases.

Castes, untouchability and social success in India

Jules Naudet — 2010-03-18T16:40:51Z

Even if India is a caste society, social mobility is not impossible. Many years of positive discrimination policies and struggle have enabled some Dalits—the caste name of the so-called Untouchables—to escape their condition. Jules Naudet bases his work on his study of Dalits who have become senior civil servants, tenured university teachers or senior executives in order to focus on the bonds that connect them to their original background. .