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Reviews

A World Out of Key

An Interview with Michel Foucher

by Pauline Peretz & translated by John Zvesper, 16 May

Although today’s world is more interdependent than ever, it is still a jigsaw puzzle of sovereign states. One consequence of globalization is that we have to update our own mental maps, and to (...)

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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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Reviews

From Bombay to Mumbai

About: Gyan Prakash, Mumbai Fables, Harper Collins

by Vanessa Caru, 9 May

Gyan Prakash’s most recent book takes us on a journey through Bombay’s history, focusing on the myths and fables that have shaped how the city is represented. His ambitious project fails, however, (...)

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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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Reviews

Exploiting the Urban Poor

About : Matthew Desmond, « Eviction and the Reproduction of Urban Poverty », American Journal of Sociology ; Alice Goffman, « On the run : Wanted Men in a Philadelphia Ghetto », American Sociological Review

by Nicolas Duvoux & translated by John Zvesper, 18 February

Although urban poverty in the USA is a subject that was largely absent from the 2012 American presidential campaign, it has reached very high levels. For a new generation of ethnographers now (...)

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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

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

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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Reviews

Towards a Paradigm Shift in Economics?

About: André Orléan, L’empire de la valeur. Refonder l’économie, Seuil, 2011

by Franck Bessis, 10 October 2012

A specialist in monetary and financial issues, André Orléan has written a synthesis of his research that is intended as a handbook for the renewal of economic thought. His approach asks us to (...)

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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

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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Reviews

Justice and Otherness

About: Corine Pelluchon, Éléments pour une éthique de la vulnérabilité, Cerf

by Marie Garrau & translated by John Zvesper, 22 June 2012

Replacing the modern liberal concept of the free and sovereign subject with the interdependent, vulnerable and responsible subject, Corine Pelluchon bases politics on an ethical ontology. But (...)

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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

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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Reviews

Promises, Promises

About: Hanoch Sheinman (ed.), Promises and Agreements. Philosophical Essays, Oxford University Press.

by Vincent Boyer & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 8 June 2012

We promise a lot and we are promised a lot. Promises lie at the heart of our social life. They are also the foundation of electoral democracies, in which political programs take the form 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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Reviews

Retracing the Steps of the Poor

About: Jean-François Laé & Numa Murard, Deux générations dans la débine. Enquête dans la pauvreté ouvrière, Bayard

by Michel Kokoreff & translated by Arianne Dorval, 4 June 2012

Sociologists Jean-François Laé and Numa Murard have returned to the field where they previously conducted research on the poor and money. In contrast, their new book sheds light on the impact of (...)

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Reviews

Is It Human Nature to Be Good?

About: Vanessa Nurock, Sommes-nous naturellement moraux ? [Are we naturally moral beings?], PUF.

by Solange Chavel & translated by Victoria Lazar Graham, 30 May 2012

Where does ones moral compass come from, nature or nurture? Successfully avoiding all reductionism, Vanessa Nurock reflects on the natural origins of ethics, using both the history of philosophy (...)

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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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Reviews

Are Asian Economies Converging Towards American Capitalism?

About: Lechevalier, La Grande transformation du capitalisme japonais, Sciences Po, 2011 and Uemura & Isogai, Diversity and Transformations of Asian Capitalisms, Routledge, 2011

by Bernard Thomann & translated by John Zvesper, 23 May 2012

Should East Asia’s economic takeoff and the new hegemony of capitalism in that region be interpreted as parts of a convergence towards a global model based on Anglosphere economic liberalism, or (...)

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Reviews

Dutchmen and Javanese: Connected History

About: Romain Bertrand, L’Histoire à parts égales, Seuil.

by Philippe Minard & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 19 May 2012

By reconstructing the historical circumstances in which the first contacts between the Dutch, the Malays, and the Javanese occurred at the turn of the seventeenth century, Romain Bertrand offers (...)

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Reviews

The Numbers of Crime

About: Ph. Robert et R. Zauberman, Mesurer la délinquance, Presses de Sciences Po

by Bilel Benbouzid & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 8 May 2012

When it comes to delinquency, the press, as well as political discourse, tends to emphasize the “crime angle” over the “sociological angle.” Moreover, when quantitative data is used in public debate, (...)

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Essays

Two cities with School Segregation? 1/2

Chicago

by Marco Oberti & translated by Pascale Torracinta, 26 April 2012

French programs of “positive discrimination” are supposed to help open elite education to socially disadvantaged students. While challenging the idea that diversity is truly promoted in the United (...)

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Essays

Giving Gifts

Debate between Anne Bory, Nicolas Guilhot, Sabine Rozier and Olivier Zunz

by Pauline Peretz & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 20 April 2012

There is a long-standing tradition of contrasting the French and American models of philanthropy. According to four scholars invited to discuss the matter for Books and Ideas, this contrast, (...)

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Reviews

French Economic Optimism

About: K. Berger et Valérie Rabault, Les Trente Glorieuses sont devant nous, Rue Fromentin Editions.

by Antoine Terrien & translated by John Zvesper, 22 March 2012

Karine Berger and Valérie Rabault don’t go along with the usual rhetoric of commentators on current economic developments. Instead of catching our attention with an alarming vision, they present (...)

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Essays

The Three Ages of Conflict in Voluntary Associations

by Axelle Brodiez-Dolino & translated by John Zvesper, 8 March 2012

The history of Emmaüs, a major movement against homelessness made famous by its charismatic leader, Abbot Pierre, is representative of postwar voluntary solidarity associations in France. By (...)

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Essays

J14 in Tel-Aviv

A Different Kind of Protest Movement?

by Sylvaine Bulle & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 28 February 2012

Are the demands of indignados of all countries fundamentally the same, or does each movement have its distinctive style? For Sylvaine Bulle, Israel’s J14 movement must be understood as a critique (...)

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Reviews

Political Ecology in France

About: M. Bess, La France vert clair. Ecologie et modernité technologique, 1960-2000, Champ Vallon.

by François Jarrige & translated by Susannah Dale, 23 February 2012

According to the American historian Michael Bess, political ecology in France does not have the dark-green hue of ‘deep ecology’, but instead is a light-green colour that combines organic produce (...)

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Essays

Pluralism, Values, and the European Judge

by Pierre Brunet & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 21 February 2012

Far from being natural, the compatibility between the legal orders of the European Union and member states is the result of arrangements and decisions through which judges ensure the preeminence (...)

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Reviews

Liberty, Security, Flexibility

About: Bénédicte Zimmermann, Ce que travailler veut dire, Economica.

by Elodie Béthoux & translated by Susannah Dale, 16 February 2012

Sociologist Bénédicte Zimmerman’s empirical studies of employer groups and participative management reveals how the tension that exists between the individual and the collective is being reshaped in (...)

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Essays

The Empirical Sociology of Critique

An Interview with Luc Boltanski

by Nicolas Duvoux & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 14 February 2012

Sociologist Luc Boltanski situates his most recent publications and their main concepts within his broader intellectual trajectory, examining critical sociology and the sociology of critique, and (...)

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Reviews

Minimal Ethics

About: R. Ogien, L’influence de l’odeur des croissants chauds sur la bonté humaine, Grasset.

by Marc-Antoine Dilhac & translated by Susannah Dale, 7 February 2012

Simply by analysing the moral problems of each and every one of us, Ruwen Ogien takes the stance of ‘minimal ethics’. His book reads like a good mystery novel in which the detective proves against (...)

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Reviews

Gangs of Paris or Thereabout

About: Marwan Mohammed, La formation des bandes, PUF.

by Michel Kokoreff & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 31 January 2012

Youth gangs are often discussed but rarely investigated. In an ethnographic study that examines families, schools, and the street, sociologist Marwan Mohammed reconstructs the principles (...)

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Reviews

Poverty Experts in the United States

About: Romain Huret, La fin de la pauvreté?, Éditions de l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

by Jacques Rodriguez & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 26 January 2012

Is expertise about poverty possible in a country where the phenomenon itself is deemed morally perverse? In a recent book, Romain Huret analyzes the intellectual network that crystallized around (...)

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Essays

Tax Havens: A Guided Tour

An Interview with Gabriel Zucman

by Thomas Vendryes & translated by Susannah Dale, 24 January 2012

What sums of money are hidden in tax havens? By whom? And how? Using original methodology and data that has not yet been fully utilized, Gabriel Zucman sheds new light on these questions, in the (...)

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Essays

Protectionism as Internationalist Liberalism

Birth and Spread, 1789-1914

by David Todd & translated by John Zvesper, 17 January 2012

Protectionism does not date from the 1930s; in fact it was invented in the nineteenth century by German, French and American theorists wary of British commercial power. The historian David Todd (...)

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Reviews

Participating Is Not Enough

About: Nina Eliasoph, Making Volunteers. Civic Life after Welfare’s End, 2011

by Julien Talpin & translated by Michael C. Behrent, 5 January 2012

In the United States, empowerment strategies emphasizing commitments that are brief, informal, and fun have proved tone deaf to the political importance of associations. If civic engagement is to (...)

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