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.
Can mysticism be a philosophical tool? Yes, provided one understands it philosophically as an experience that leads to morality and universal love.
Sandra Ristovska examines how images shape judicial reasoning and the new uncertainties introduced by AI and deepfakes. These technologies amplify longstanding problems of evidence, interpretation, and inequality before the law.
The French government’s approach to religious pluralism cannot be easily summarized, given its diversity and complexity, as well as its dependence on the contingencies of politics.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in East Asia, a nuanced assessment of the American occupation of Japan (1945–1952) and its lasting impact on contemporary Japanese society is now available in French for the first time.
About: Dominique Lagorgette, Pute. Histoire d’un mot et d’un stigmate, La Découverte
About: Pierre Serna, La Révolution oubliée. Orléans, 1789-1820, CNRS Éditions
About: David Copello, Les droits humains armés. Guérillas, dictatures et démocratie en Argentine, Presses universitaires de Rennes
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.
The Paris Agreement on Climate Change is three years old this week but is already under attack. In support of further necessary action to address the changing climate, Public Books & La Vie des Idées offer a collaborative series of articles examining the intersection of climate change and capitalism.
Is it really the case, as is often alleged, that money decides everything about elections? As the US presidential election is looming, La Vie des idées/Books & Ideas and Public Books team up to examine the influence of money in today’s electoral democracies.
Books&Ideas presents a second summer selection, in which contemporary historians tell us about the future of history as a discipline, about how they research and write history, and the way history affects their bodies and minds.
Fred Block & Margaret Somers, two key members of an international network of scholars appealing to Karl Polanyi’s masterpiece of 1944, forcefully argue that it constitutes a critical resource for understanding not only the nature and origins of the market economy but also its recurrent crises, including the current one.
Michel Crozier’s work was shaped by the conviction that organizational phenomena create society. He helped pioneer the tools for analyzing groups established to carry out a common project according to a specific system of action and rules of the game.
Leading 19th century statesman, political economist, architect of the 1860 commercial treaty between France and the United Kingdom, and campaigner for peace between European nations, Michel Chevalier had also been a dominant voice in the Romantic socialism of Saint-Simonianism: the eclectic nature of his thought would lend itself to a particular vision of Europe, forerunner of today’s European Union.
Depuis 1871, le prix du pétrole a connu des envolées multiples : l’histoire de ces fluctuations des cours met en lumière les fragilités additionnées d’une dépendance ordinaire.
L’essayiste Joseph Andras propose de “relever” l’idéal socialiste, mis à terre par les dérives révolutionnaires, en s’appuyant sur les grandes figures qui l’ont élaboré et défendu contre les abus du fanatisme.
Contraintes par des budgets de plus en plus austères, l’action écologique locale des pouvoirs publiques n’est souvent que faux-semblant. Ce sont pourtant les communes qui sont, en la matière, en première ligne.
À propos de : Alex Blanchette, Porkopolis : La vie standardisée à l’ère des fermes-usines, Editions Amsterdam
À propos de : Elara Bertho, Conakry, une utopie panafricaine. Récits et contre-récits 1958-1984, CNRS Éditions
À propos de : Laure Bereni, Managing Corporate Virtue. The Politics of Workplace Diversity in New York and Paris, Oxford University Press
