Books & ideas

Big Data: The Far West of Information?

Cristelle Terroni — 2015-09-17T08:30:00Z

What is big data ? Who uses it and how ? Pierre-Michel Menger and Simon Paye analyse the economics of these new information flows, which are transforming both marketing and consumption practices, and probably social sciences as well.

The Tumults of the Twentieth Century

Lucie Campos — 2014-09-19T08:00:00Z

Antoine Compagnon discusses two recent projects that throw light on the intellectual history of the 20^th century. The controversies surrounding the institutionalisation of sociology or anthropology illustrate how academic subjects have developed in France; a literary anthology situates the literature of the Great War within an international context.

Astronomy in Expansion

Florent Guénard — 2014-05-22T07:30:00Z

Thanks to new scientific instruments and the globalisation of research, astronomy is currently an expanding science. F. Combes explains the directions she is taking with her research into our Universe, about which we still have so much left to discover.

The Age of Youth

Thomas Grillot — 2012-07-10T15:31:30Z

Youth has all the trappings of the universal, eternal value—one that is especially mobilized when there is a need for change. Looking at its history is delving into the construction of a category, and the ubiquituous use and abuse of the people it covers. Historian Ludivine Bantigny sheds light for us on this very political notion.

Quebec: a Democracy in Crisis

Florent Guénard — 2012-06-25T03:09:49Z

Negotiations between protesters and the governement have failed: the political crisis ignited in Quebec several weeks ago is far from being over. For Professor Christian Nadeau, of Montreal University, much more is at stake here than student tuition fees. As the emergency law passed by Quebec's provincial government shows, the true object of the conflict is social democracy and the society that goes with it.

The Ethnography of Disasters

David Bornstein & Florent Guénard — 2012-06-18T05:36:44Z

For Sandrine Revet, we need to move beyond statistics to see the ethnographic side of disasters. It is a necessary step if we are to understand their effects not only on public policies, but also on the behaviors and beliefs of the populations they affect. In the following interview, she examines the current revival in Disaster Studies and explains how they have come to be structured as a field.

Fukushima: The Unremitting Disaster

David Bornstein & Bernard Thomann — 2012-04-13T13:21:30Z

Paul Jobin, who has been monitoring workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant, provides an analysis of the Japanese government's denial of the health implications for these workers and, more broadly, the long-term effects of the disaster. This censorship is, however, being challenged by the social mobilization that has followed, particularly on the Internet.