The Books heading gathers critical reviews of selected social-sciences books.
By the originality of the theme and the approach, the work covering the period 1755-1900, is indeed that of Alain Corbin. Passing the discussions on the notion of ignorance, it opens up to both fundamental and contemporary questions on human interrelationships as well as the predictability of the world. [...]
Our lifestyles and the urban spaces in which we operate are the theater for the development of multiple and increasing forms of saturation. The texts gathered in this book search to identify, describe and analyze these phenomena, both spatial and temporal or social. Broadly, the challenge of this book is to make saturations a new field of research in social sciences. The challenge has been taken in the sense that, despite the own limits of the book, it shows [...]
The eighth volume of Castoriadis’ political writings sheds light on the relationship between economy and imaginary. By carrying out an accurate editorial work, Enrique Escobar, Myrto Gondicas and Pascal Vernay extracted comments, notes and texts from the archives of Castoriadis that help the reader to understand better Castoriadis’ views on the economy of capitalism and on Marx’ theses in the Capital. The second part of the volume brings together the geopolitical analyzes of Castoriadis on global capitalism. [...]
Ces deux volumes sont le fruit de quatre ateliers tenus entre 2015 et 2017 à Ouidah (Benin), à Ota (Nigeria), à Ouagadougou (Burkina-Faso) et à Niamey (Niger), à l’initiative principale du LASDEL (Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherches sur les Dynamiques sociales et le Développement local), dont les travaux africanistes font autorité depuis sa fondation en 2001 dans ses implantations du Benin et du Niger. [...]
Guillaume Drevon's book addresses the issue of daily mobility. This question allows him to experiment with some methodological approaches, in particular those based on the study of rhythms, « rhythmology ». [...]
Etienne Anheim’s book is the published version of the synthesis thesis constituting his authorization to direct research, supported in 2015. By questioning the historian’s profession in the continuity of Marc Bloch’s work, the author skilfully raises the question of the professional practice of history, the conditions of its teaching and its influence beyond the spheres of research. [...]
What is consumption ? How to write its history ? Who consumes what in France ? In what way ? Can we speak of a vast democratization movement ? La révolution matérielle. Une histoire de la consommation deals with all these questions. Jean-Claude Daumas gives us an epic account covering three centuries of national, economic, social and also material history. Distinguishing five periods, he evokes the evolution of the "world of goods" and their consumption from the middle of [...]
En quête d’Afrique(s). The difference highlighted by the alternative naming of the African continent as "Africa" or "Africas" – singular or plural – announces the depth of the dispute between our two authors : the philosopher and the anthropologist, the Black and the White, the African and the « Jew »… and sheds light on the extent to which universalism needs to be reinvented. In a sort of a gigantomachy around the matter of universalism, SBD and JLA dialogue [...]
A major factor in the current turbulence of global society, the power of weakness would undermine the realistic reading of international relations. The failure of the Westphalian model would give way to the emergence of new forms of self-assertion and conflictualism by the South. However, it seems that the reinvention of the international system advocated by Badie still requires a closer contextualization of the South, in order to better support the notion of the power of weakness. [...]
The environmental and societal problems that humanity faces seem to emphasize always more emphatically the contradictory character of property as an act of exclusion and domination, if one is to respond to challenges of equity and mutual aid. On the contrary, it is important to try to make property coherent with a spirit of cohabitation. Posséder la nature adopts this aim. It offers a selection of articles or chapters unpublished in French, chosen on the basis of their stance [...]
