Books & Ideas is the English-language mirror website of La Vie des Idées, a free online journal which has gained a large readership and established itself in France as a major place for intellectual debate since 2007.
Jeanne Tsai and Batja Mesquita show how emotions are shaped by cultural logics that orient our relationships and judgments. Their conversation raises a broader question: what does it mean to understand others in culturally plural societies?
Active in the fight against poverty since the 1950s, the ATD Fourth World movement has successfully combined grassroots action, research and advocacy, exerting a lasting influence on social policies in France and internationally.
Amid the never-ending crisis of the welfare state and the waning of the principle of solidarity, Sacha Lévy-Bruhl proposes a new interpretation. Starting from the idea of collective responsibility, he pursues an important goal: rethinking social protection in the twenty-first century.
About: Fatma Çingi Kocadost, La promesse qu’on nous a faite, Éditions de l’EHESS
About: Silyane Larcher et Félix Germain (dir.), Marianne est aussi noire. Luttes occultées pour l’égalité, Seuil
About: Alexandra Féret, Abdiquer la souveraineté. Politique et théologie chez Simone Weil, Vrin
The female silhouette – understood as the body’s visible form and socially perceived appearance – has long been shaped by social norms. In the age of social media, these norms are intensifying, prompting, in response, the rise of so-called “body-positive” movements.
A rumour is circulating in some African countries: the French state is organising penis thefts to offset declining fertility. The rumour, spread by Russian propaganda, has become fake news.
The American sociologist Harrison White made a vital contribution to the development of social network analysis. Besides his work in this field, his theoretical synthesis and his understanding of social formations have influenced a variety of fields such as the sociology of art and economic sociology.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer. In the meantime, here is our weekly selection of reviews published over the past year.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer and will be offering weekly selections of reviews and essays published over the last year. This week’s selection focuses on digital tools, their relationship to political power and capitalism.
Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer and will resume its publication schedule on August 26. In the meantime, we present to you a weekly selection of essays and reviews published over the past year.
André Gorz’s multiform thought is entirely centred on liberation: from work, which prevents individuals from thriving; from consumption, which grows ever higher; and from the social system, which reduces individuals to mere pawns in a “megamachine”.
Richard Hoggart (1918-2014), a poor child who went onto become a university professor, was the epitome of a successful scholarship student. The trajectory of this “exemplary counter-example” sheds light on the mechanisms of social reproduction when they prove inoperative and the distance that can be traveled from one’s native milieu.
“Do we have the right to make bets on the future of mankind?” Forty-one years after being the first ecologist candidate in a presidential campaign and publishing his manifesto book, René Dumont’s intuitions and warnings have lost little of their relevance.
Jeanne Tsai et Batja Mesquita montrent que les émotions sont façonnées par des logiques culturelles qui orientent nos relations et nos jugements. Elles interrogent ainsi ce que signifie comprendre autrui dans des sociétés culturellement plurielles.
L’Empire austro-hongrois voulait imposer la sédentarité à ses sujets, mais la pauvreté qui régnait dans certaines régions a engendré de nombreuses migrations, qui échappaient souvent au contrôle policier.
L’Amazonie, un terrain vierge avant l’arrivée des colonisateurs ? L’archéologie montre qu’il n’en est rien et que les peuples autochtones l’ont aménagée depuis des millénaires.
À propos de : Fabien Lacouture, Federer, Les Pérégrines
À propos de : Claire Pagès, Dormir. Essai de philosophie sociale, Vrin
À propos de : Jérôme Baschet, Laurent Jeanpierre, Mondes postcapitalistes, La Découverte
