Books & ideas

A World Out of Key

2013-05-16T07:30:00Z

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 understand other people's. In this interview, the diplomat and geographer Michel Foucher explains the world's new geography.

- Reviews / international relations, state, géographie, international comparisons

From Bombay to Mumbai

2013-05-09T07:00:00Z

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, to explain Bombay's transition from a cosmopolitan city to one torn apart by ethnic conflict.

- Reviews / city, urbanisme

The Fascination for India

2013-03-11T09:00:00Z

Since the 18th century, India has been portrayed in contradictory ways. While scholarly knowledge is based on the philological study of texts, literary Orientalism expresses its fascination for a society well-known to preserve the values of order and hierarchy. For Roland Lardinois the anthropology of Louis Dumont illustrates the ambiguity of these discourses.

- Reviews / discourse, sociology, literature, postcolonial studies

Who Will Write Our History?

2012-10-03T10:44:35Z

Until now, the Warsaw Ghetto archives were known to only a few specialists. The American historian Samuel Kassow presents them in a new light—as the work of a team whose mission was to describe the daily life of a community as it was being exterminated.

- Reviews / Shoah, judaism

National Conferences in Brazil

2012-09-28T09:21:00Z

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 issues mobilized them most and how influential this new pattern of participation has been.

- Essays / Brésil

Energy, a Lens on World Politics

2012-09-14T09:14:31Z

An ambitious and encyclopedic book sheds new light on post-Cold War history. To Daniel Yergin, the rise of energy, economic and financial nationalisms throughout the world has been a grave threat to the globalized, liberal markets that guarantee the world's prosperity.

- Reviews / international relations, nationalism, energy

In the Land of Voluntarism

2012-04-19T16:46:21Z

In Made in America, sociologist Claude S. Fischer develops the idea that voluntarism, not individualism, is the key feature to describe social ties in America and that this notion of voluntarism best helps us understand what makes America exceptional among other Western societies.

- Essays / individualism, modernity, solidarity, community

Fukushima: The Unremitting Disaster

2012-04-13T13:21:30Z

Paul Jobin, who has been monitoring workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant, provides an analysis of the Japanese government's denial of the health implications for these workers and, more broadly, the long-term effects of the disaster. This censorship is, however, being challenged by the social mobilization that has followed, particularly on the Internet.

- Essays / health, ethics, safety, nuclear policy

Cities' Collective Mentalities

2012-03-23T12:38:20Z

In the context of the developing regionalist current warning against the destructive effects of mindless globalization ‘flattening' the world, Bell and de-Shalit adopt a non-positivist method. Their stories tackling the complexity and holistic “spirit” of cities like Montreal, Paris, Jerusalem, Beijing or Singapore are reminiscent of earlier “strolling” literature.

- Reviews / city, political philosophy

Comparing Urban Ethoses

2012-03-23T12:37:46Z

Responding to Alexander Tzonis' review of Spirit of the Cities, the book on urban ethoses he wrote with Avner de-Shalit, Daniel A. Bell defends their way of doing political theory and some of their unconventional qualitative methods of exploring the experience of urban life.

- Essays / city, political philosophy