The Spirit of Luc Boltanski , livre ebook

An exploration of Luc Boltanski’s ‘pragmatic sociology of critique’ to central issues in contemporary social and political analysis.

The fact that Luc Boltanski is widely regarded as one of the most influential French sociologists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries should be reason enough for putting together a collection of essays concerned with the major intellectual contributions that he has made to the humanities and social sciences. Boltanski has emerged as the most prominent, and also most innovative, French sociologist since the death of Pierre Bourdieu in 2002. It is ironic that, despite both the magnitude and the originality of Boltanski’s oeuvre, one finds only few systematic commentaries, let alone edited books, on his work in the vast industry of contemporary sociological enquiry. The purpose of this volume is to fill this gap in the literature by creating opportunities for debate capable of representing the wide range of discussions that Boltanski’s writings have sparked amongst researchers in the humanities and social sciences over the past decades.

Preface (Simon Susen and Bryan S. Turner); Luc Boltanski: His Life and Work – An Overview (Simon Susen); Three Theories of Justice: Preliminary Reflections (Bryan S. Turner); The Spirit of Luc Boltanski: Chapter Outline (Simon Susen); 1. Figures of Descent from Classical Sociological Theory: Luc Boltanski (Bridget Fowler); 2. Did You Say ‘Pragmatic’? Luc Boltanski’s Sociology from a Pragmatist Perspective (Louis Quéré and Cédric Terzi); 3. Why (Not) Pragmatism? (Tanja Bogusz); 4. The Moral Idealism of Ordinary People as a Sociological Challenge: Reflections on the French Reception of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s ‘On Justification’ (Cyril Lemieux); 5. Is There Such a Thing as a ‘Pragmatic Sociology of Critique’? Reflections on Luc Boltanski’s ‘On Critique’ (Simon Susen); 6. Strengths and Limitations of Luc Boltanski’s ‘On Critique’ (Rob Stones); 7. A Renewal of Social Theory That Remains Necessary: The Sociology of Critical Capacity Twenty Years After (Peter Wagner); 8. Enlarging Conceptions of Testing Moments and Critical Theory: ‘Economies of Worth’, ‘On Critique’, and ‘Sociology of Engagements’ (Laurent Thévenot; Translated by Amy Jacobs); 9. Pierre Bourdieu and the Early Luc Boltanski (1960–1975): Collective Ethos and Individual Difference (Derek Robbins); 10. Beyond Pragmatic Sociology: A Theoretical Compromise between ‘Critical Sociology’ and the ‘Pragmatic Sociology of Critique’ (Mohamed Nachi); 11. Towards a Dialogue Between Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Critical Sociology’ and Luc Boltanski’s ‘Pragmatic Sociology of Critique’ (Simon Susen); 12. The Promise of Pragmatic Sociology, Human Rights, and the State (Kate Nash); 13. ‘The Political’ in the ‘Pragmatic Sociology of Critique’: Reading Boltanski with Lefort and Castoriadis (Paul Blokker); 14. Axel Honneth and Luc Boltanski at the Epicentre of Politics (Mauro Basaure); 15. ‘The Civil Sphere’ and ‘On Justification’: Two Models of Public Culture (Irène Eulriet); 16. Luc Boltanski in Euroland (William Outhwaite and David Spence); 17. Reflections on the Indignation of the Disprivileged and the Underprivileged (Bryan S. Turner); 18. Arranging the Irreversible: The Female Condition and Contradiction (Bruno Karsenti; Translated by Peter Hamilton); 19. Luc Boltanski and the Gift: Beyond Love, beyond Suspicion...? (Ilana F. Silber); 20. The World of Worth in the Transhuman Condition: Prolegomena to a Proactionary Sociology (Steve Fuller); 21. Luc Boltanski and the Problem of Time: Notes towards a Pragmatic Sociology of the Future (Lisa Adkins); 22. An Introduction to ‘“Whatever Works”: Political Philosophy and Sociology – Luc Boltanski in Conversation with Craig Browne’ (Craig Browne); 23. ‘Whatever Works’: Political Philosophy and Sociology – Luc Boltanski in Conversation With Craig Browne (Luc Boltanski and Craig Browne); 24. Sociology of Critique or Critical Theory? Luc Boltanski and Axel Honneth in Conversation with Robin Celikates (Luc Boltanski, Axel Honneth, and Robin Celikates; Translated by Simon Susen); 25. The Fragility of Reality: Luc Boltanski in Conversation with Juliette Rennes and Simon Susen (Luc Boltanski, Juliette Rennes, and Simon Susen; Translated by Simon Susen); 26. Luc Boltanski and His Critics – An Afterword (Simon Susen); Index of Names; Index of Subjects