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Essays

Essays

The Multiple Meanings of Revolution

Upheaval, crisis and imponderables

by Jean-Clément Martin & translated by Eric Rosencrantz, 13 May

Though the age of historic upheavals and major political crises seemed to be over, the word “revolution” has made a recent comeback in Georgia, in the Ukraine and in the “Arab Springs” of 2011. (...)

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Essays

Filming the End of the World

An Interview with Peter Szendy

by Florent Guénard & translated by Kate McNaughton, 6 May

2012, Terminator, Blade Runner, Melancholia. There is no shortage of films portraying the end of the world; in fact, they are becoming ever more successful. But what is their real meaning? Are (...)

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Essays

Labour markets and the crisis of the European Monetary Union

by Bob Hancké, 29 April

Most observers think of the crisis of the European monetary union primarily as a crisis of failed fiscal discipline in a monetary union. Bob Hancke proposes a very different way of looking at (...)

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Essays

Revolution and Redistribution

Reflections on France and Egypt

by Charles Walton, 23 April

When we think about revolutions, don’t economic interests tend to be left out of the equation? For the last two decades political and cultural questions have made social justice appear a secondary (...)

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Essays

Opening the Nazi archives at Bad Arolsen

by Jean-Marc Dreyfus & translated by Eric Rosencrantz, 11 April

The International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, was set up after the war to trace millions of deported and displaced persons. During the Cold War, its archives – personal files, (...)

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Essays

With or Without the Chinese People?

Intellectual Representations of Social Instability in early 21^st century China

by Emilie Frenkiel, 8 April

How do Chinese intellectuals construe social instability? This essay maps out the debate on democracy in early 21st century China and explains how, despite diverse viewpoints, widespread elitist (...)

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Essays

The Three Dimensions of Ethnography

An Interview with Jack Katz

by Alexandra Bidet & Carole Gayet-Viaud & Erwan Le Méner, 1 April

Looking back on several decades of intellectual activity, American sociologist Jack Katz explains his vision of a three-dimensional ethnography, combining human interactions, biographical (...)

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Essays

Mobile Phones and Politics in China

From Texting to Mobilizing

by Jun Liu, 28 March

The penetration of mobile phones in Chinese daily life has made collective actions easier to organize and challenged government censorship. Highlighting this new form of communication, the (...)

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Essays

Migrant Labour Culture in Post-Mao China

by Eric Florence, 14 March

Against a backdrop of economic growth and growing spate of collective actions, rural migrant workers have developed narratives of migrant labour. This essay studies articles, diaries, poems and (...)

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Essays

Fighting for a Fair Wage

The Changing Demands of the Chinese Working Class

by Chloé Froissart & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 7 March

This essay analyzes the major strike that occurred at the Nanhai Honda factory in Guangdong province in 2010, as well as subsequent strikes that followed its example. It traces the evolution of (...)

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Essays

The Political Economy of Nazism

An Interview With Adam Tooze

by Nicolas Delalande, 28 February

In this interview with Books&Ideas, specialist of German economic history Adam Tooze answers questions on the history of the Third Reich : was there such a thing as a Nazi economic policy ? (...)

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Essays

A Decent and True Understanding of the Past

An interview with Timothy D. Snyder

by Thomas Grillot & Jacques Sémelin, 14 February

Published in 2010, Timothy Snyder’s book Bloodlands is a magisterial rereading of the history of mass murder in Eastern Europe between 1933 and 1945, which has excited interest and controversy in (...)

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Essays

Claiming Indigenousness in India

by Raphael Rousseleau, 7 February

India has created a National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes, the name given to its indigenous populations. Have the Adivasi, the other name for the Scheduled Tribes, really benefited from (...)

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Essays

The Need to Compare

Jack Goody’s Historical Anthropology

by Thomas Grillot & translated by John Zvesper, 4 February

A highly respected figure in African studies, Jack Goody has become a distinctive voice in the torrent of academic critiques of western ethnocentrism. His work, spanning more than sixty years, (...)

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Essays

The Suspension of Meaning

An Interview with Jean Starobinski

by Sarah Al-Matary & translated by Susannah Dale, 28 January

Creating connections has been the aim of Jean Starobinski’s work for more than half a century. His body of work is large and shifting, created in response to life, lying somewhere between the (...)

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Essays

Rebuilding a Monetary Union for Europe

From mutual insurance to fiscal federalism

by Shahin Vallee, 22 January

The crisis has cracked the intellectual and political consensus underpinning the architecture of the monetary union enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty. The mutualisation of economic risks cannot (...)

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Essays

The Creation of Defence in China

Revisiting the Trial of the Gang of Four

by Judith Bout & translated by Susannah Dale, 17 December 2012

The trial of the Gang of Four, which included Mao Zedong’s wife, took place after the end of the Cultural Revolution, during the winter of 1980-81. In the West, it is usually seen as a show trial; (...)

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Essays

Artistic Beauty as a Political Weapon

Contemporary Art from 1960 to 2010

by Vanina Géré & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 6 December 2012

Can art have an impact on sociopolitical reality? What matters most? Political content or aesthetic qualities? These questions have haunted contemporary art since the late sixties. Yet some (...)

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Essays

Analytics of Power

An Interview with Judith Butler

by Claire Pagès & Mathieu Trachman, 29 November 2012

After the publication of her last book, Parting Ways. Jewishness and the Critique of zionism, Judith Butler discusses her most recent work in an interview, proposing a new analytics of power. She (...)

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Essays

Citizen Balibar

An Interview with Étienne Balibar

by Nicolas Duvoux & Pascal Sévérac & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 26 November 2012

Who comes after the subject? According to Étienne Balibar, it is the citizen—grasped not in her isolated sovereignty, but as a member of an emerging community. Yet the equality of rights that (...)

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Essays

Mapping the Chinese NGO Sector

by Jianyu He, 19 November 2012

Mainland China has been experiencing a striking upsurge of non-governmental associational activities in the past thirty years, especially since the mid-1990s. However, because of the high (...)

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Essays

Analytic Marxism and Real Utopias

An interview with Erik Olin Wright

by Nicolas Duvoux, 16 November 2012

Erik Olin Wright is a prominent American sociologist and the last president of the American Sociological Association. In this interview, E. O. Wright explains the nature of "analytic Marxism”, (...)

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Essays

The Creative Class to the Rescue of Cities?

by Denis Eckert & Michel Grossetti & Hélène Martin-Brelot, 9 November 2012

The notion of a creative class has been used to shape public policies promoting urban growth by building infrastructures and developing amenities that are likely to attract the ”creative workers”. (...)

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Essays

The Internet and its Democratic Virtues

by Dominique Cardon & translated by John Zvesper, 8 November 2012

What are the political characteristics of the internet revolution? Plunging into “internet democracy,” Dominique Cardon explores the tensions running through this vast network of networks, (...)

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Essays

The Making of the Republican Candidate

Looking Back on Primaries

by Christine Zumello, 30 October 2012

For the Republicans, the 2012 presidential primary race was expected to lay bare the fabric of the Republican party. How to deal with the surge of the Tea Party and the voter realignment (...)

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Essays

Human Rights and Politics

1980-2012

by Justine Lacroix & translated by John Zvesper, 24 October 2012

Are human rights a cornerstone of democracy, or a threat to social ties? Are they a precondition for the existence of a public space, or a triumph of individualism? Political thinkers have (...)

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Essays

The “War on Women”

by Jennifer Merchant, 22 October 2012

The expression the “war on women” has been circulating among political discourse and mainstream media on both sides of the political spectrum for almost two years now, ever since the 2010 midterm (...)

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Essays

The Day Income Gaps Were Finally Capped

by Jean Gadrey & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 15 October 2012

As we enter the twenty-second century, the need for capping income gaps to guarantee social cohesion and preserve the environment is no longer challenged. Yet only a century ago, this idea seemed (...)

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Essays

Labor Migration and Social Rights

Interview with Chloé Froissart and Paul-André Rosental

by Nicolas Delalande & Ivan Jablonka & translated by Arianne Dorval, 13 October 2012

Whilst Europe takes a hard line on the question of immigration, in China millions of internal migrant workers are demanding recognition of their social rights. As was the case in Europe at the (...)

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Essays

Thinking in Tongues

An interview with John A. Lucy

by Caroline Rossi, 8 October 2012

How does the language we speak affect the way we think? John A. Lucy’s unique answers to this question derive from his finding a middle ground between the opposing nativist universalist point of (...)

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Essays

Emergency Cinema

An Interview with Syrian Collective Abounaddara

by Cécile Boëx & translated by Susannah Dale, 5 October 2012

Since April 2011, a collective of Syrian filmmakers has been working on behalf of a people fighting for its freedom. Their short films invent a new cinematographic language adapted to the urgency (...)

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Essays

Gated Communities: Ghettos for the Rich?

by Éric Charmes & translated by Arianne Dorval, 1 October 2012

Gated communities are usually portrayed as ghettos in which the rich choose to seclude themselves out of fear of others and an exacerbated desire for security. According to Eric Charmes, this (...)

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Essays

National Conferences in Brazil

A New Participatory Political Model

by Leonardo Avritzer, 28 September 2012

During Lula’s presidential mandates, national conferences dedicated to women issues, human rights or social assistance galvanized thousands of Brazilians. This article details who they were, which (...)

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Essays

Why We Abolished Marriage

A Private “Eutopia”

by François de Singly & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 24 September 2012

Approved in 2048, the abolition of marriage turned upside down not only the sexual organization of society but also the idea of lineage. This historical transformation was carried forth by a (...)

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Essays

Syria: Anatomy of a Revolution

by Leïla Vignal & translated by Arianne Dorval, 21 September 2012

The attention given today to the armed uprising in Syria must not conceal the fact that there also exists a peaceful revolutionary dynamic, which is deeply rooted in society. The new generations, (...)

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Essays

Choosing Confucianism: Departing from the Liberal Framework

An Interview with Daniel A. Bell

by Emilie Frenkiel, 10 September 2012

Recounting his itinerary from research on Communitarianism to the adoption of Confucian values, political philosopher Daniel A. Bell advocates thinking of cities as representing different social (...)

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Essays

Why Financial Crises Give Birth to Legends

by Nathan Marcus, 31 August 2012

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 (...)

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Essays

The Significance of Choice

An Interview with Tim Scanlon

by Yascha Mounk, 11 July 2012

T. M. Scanlon is one of the most highly regarded moral philosophers working today. The prime architect of contemporary contractualism in ethics, he has, besides his masterwork, What We Owe to (...)

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Essays

The Politics of Justice

The Aftermath of the Financial Collapse in Iceland

by Valur Ingimundarson, 27 June 2012

The Icelandic crisis was far more than a typical banking crisis. Historian Ingimundarson sees it also as a transitional justice case with features of truth-telling and demands for government (...)

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Essays

Quebec: a Democracy in Crisis

An Interview with Christian Nadeau

by Florent Guénard & translated by John Zvesper, 25 June 2012

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 (...)

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Essays

Post-colonial Governance on a French Island

The 101^st Department

by Nicolas Roinsard & translated by Arthur Goldhammer, 20 June 2012

Mayotte joined the ranks of French departments in 2011. Although it passed almost unnoticed, the event reflects an integration that began in the 1970s but that is likely to continue for many (...)

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Essays

The Ethnography of Disasters

An Interview with Sandrine Revet

by David Bornstein & Florent Guénard & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 18 June 2012

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 (...)

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Essays

A New Indigenous Question in France’s Overseas Territories?

by Benoît Trépied & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 13 June 2012

Whether they live in French Guyana, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, or Polynesia, indigenous peoples have been largely forgotten during France’s 2011 celebration of its “Year of the (...)

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Essays

The Slow Triumph of the Majority

by Olivier Christin & translated by John Zvesper, 11 June 2012

How do you renounce unanimity to embrace the majority principle? How do you ward off the dissastisfaction of a minority defeated by vote? Those problems haunted the Middle Ages, the system of (...)

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Essays

Could Random Selection and Deliberative Democracy Revitalize Politics in the 21^st Century?

by Yves Sintomer & translated by John Zvesper, 6 June 2012

The practice of using representative samples in decision making in contemporary political regimes creates an opening for re-establishing sortition (making decisions or filling offices by drawing (...)

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Essays

Italy: The Temptation of Revisionism

by Fabrice Jesné & Simon Sarlin & translated by Arthur Goldhammer, 2 June 2012

As Italy celebrated the 150th anniversary of its unification, revisionist historians radically challenged the standard history of unification and its consequences. This offensive, backed by (...)

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Essays

Is the Middle Class a Victim of Taxation?

by Antoine Bozio & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 28 May 2012

What do we really know about the costs and benefits of redistribution for the middle class? Two recent studies demonstrate that while it is certainly heavily taxed, so is the vast majority of the (...)

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Essays

Chicago: A City on the Brink

by Andrew J. Diamond, 15 May 2012

Originally scheduled to host the next G8 summit, Chicago has been bypassed in favor of Camp David. No wonder: the “the city that works” works no more. With a terrible youth unemployment rate and (...)

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Essays

Is There a Dictatorship in the E.U.?

by Andrew Arato, 11 May 2012

The Orban government has enacted sweeping changes that have raised the specter of autocracy in Hungary: is the European Union about to have a dictatorship among its member states? For Andrew (...)

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Essays

Novel Spatial Formats For Urban Inclusion

Megaregions and Global Cities

by Saskia Sassen, 3 May 2012

Focusing on the two cases of megaregions and global cities, sociologist Saskia Sassen explores how a more equitable distribution of benefits can be reached at the level of great urban (...)

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