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 the defense of human rights be reconciled with guerilla warfare? David Copello offers an in-depth reinterpretation of the history of these complex struggles that have shaken Argentine society to its core.
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?
At a time when Chinese capitalism is in search of an ethic, entrepreneurs are reinventing the old Confucian merchant.
What effects have economic rationalization had on public services? Nadège Vezinat presents a nuanced picture of how institutional dynamics weaken the welfare state’s bureaucracy, agents, and the rights of beneficiaries.
About: Arnaud Orain, Le Monde confisqué. Essai sur le capitalisme de la finitude, Flammarion
About: Anne Ibos-Augé, Les femmes et la musique au Moyen Âge, éditions du Cerf
About: Éric Dacheux et Daniel Goujon, Théorie délibérative des valeurs, Presses universitaires de Provence
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 and will resume its publication schedule on August 26. In the meantime, we present to you a weekly selection of articles published over the last year.
In this virtual roundtable published in partnership with Public Books, four participants from France, Germany and the US re-visit the inequalities debate sparked by Thomas Piketty’s Capital, comparing perceptions of income, economic equality and political economy.
During the Christmas season, Books and Ideas offers a selection of reviews and essays that tackle the subject of cities and the issues they raise as complex centers of urban life: how could we live better in them? How to reduce the inequalities they create? Can they become more sustainable? The following texts cast a new light on all of these questions.
From the margins to which he was confined, Georges Devereux (1908-1985) formulated some of the most original scientific work of his century. In the wake of Freud, whose legacy he firmly defended, Devereux initiated the transcultural practice of psychiatry. François Laplantine, one of his former disciples, reconsiders the legacy of ethnopsychoanalysis’ founder.
Kenzaburō Ōe, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is a controversial figure in Japan. And rightly so, for there are a great many contradictions in both his fictional and theoretical work. He is a fierce opponent of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, and yet continues to celebrate the heroism of the soldier who finds glory through sacrifice.
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, has been based on a single ambition: comparison, for the sake of more accurately locating European history within Eurasian and world history.
Nous sommes de plus en plus attachés à nos forêts, que nous n’entretenons pourtant pas suffisamment. Comment dans ces conditions lutter contre les incendies qui nous menacent lors des étés caniculaires ?
Longtemps marquée par le franquisme, l’histoire de la guerre d’Espagne se renouvelle aujourd’hui, nourrie par les expériences vécues. En mettant en évidence les dynamiques de fascisation et d’internationalisation, peut-on déplacer le regard vers un nouveau récit du conflit ?
Comment le passage d’une classe à l’autre, longtemps pensé comme une aventure individuelle, peut-il devenir un levier d’émancipation collective ? C. Jaquet reprend, à partir de Marx et de Spinoza, la question de l’abolition des classes.
À propos de : Stefan C. Aykut et Amy Dahan, La mutation climatique, Presses de Sciences Po
À propos de : Zoé Grumberg, Militer en minorité ? Le « secteur juif » du Parti communiste français après la Libération, PUR
À propos de : Gabrielle Radica, La famille des classiques, ENS Éditions
