Luc Boltanski: On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation (2009/2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · critical sociology, critical theory, critique, sociology
The relationship between sociology and social critique has haunted the discipline since its origins. Does critique divert sociology from its scientific project? Or is critique the ultimate goal of sociology, without which the latter would be a futile activity disconnected from the concerns of ordinary people? This issue has underpinned two divergent theoretical orientations that can be found in the discipline today: the critical sociology that was developed in its most elaborate form by Pierre Bourdieu, and the pragmatic sociology of critique developed by Luc Boltanski and his associates.
In critical sociology, description in terms of power relations underscores the potency of mechanisms of oppression, the way the oppressed passively endure them, going so far in their alienation as to adopt the values that enslave them. Pragmatic sociology, by contrast, describes the actions of human beings who rebel but who are endowed with reason. It stresses their ability, in certain historical conditions, to rise up against their domination and construct new interpretations of reality in the service of critical activity.
In this major new book Boltanski develops a framework that makes it possible to reconcile these seemingly antagonistic approaches – the one determinist and assigning the leading role to the enlightening science of the sociologist, the other concerned to stick as closely as possible to what people say and do. This labour of unification leads him to rework central notions such as practice, institution, critique and, finally, ‘social reality,’ all with the aim of contributing to a contemporary renewal of practices of emancipation.
First published in French as De la critique, Editions GALLIMARD, Paris, 2009
Translated by Gregory Elliott
Publisher Polity, 2011
ISBN 0745649645, 9780745649641
Length 200 pages
Harold Garfinkel: Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967/2006) [English/Spanish]
Filed under book | Tags: · ethnomethodology, everyday, linguistics, social science, social theory, society, sociology
This is one of the major classics of contemporary sociology. Studies in Ethnomethodology has inspired a wide range of important theoretical and empirical work in the social sciences and linguistics. It is one of the most original and controversial works in modern social science and it remains at the centre of debate about the current trends and tasks of sociology and social theory.
Ethnomethodology – the study of the ways in which ordinary people construct a stable social world through everyday utterances and actions – is now a major component of all sociology and linguistics courses. Garfinkel’s formidable reputation as one of the worlds leading sociologists rest largely on the work contained in this book.
Publisher Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1967, 288 pages
Translated to Spanish by Hugo Antonio Perez Hernaiz, published under the title Estudios en Etnometodologia by Anthropos Editorial, Barcelona, 2006. ISBN 8476587856, 331 pages.
Henri Lefebvre: State, Space, World: Selected Essays (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · capitalism, geography, globalisation, history, neoliberalism, philosophy, political theory, politics, sociology, space, state
“One of the most influential Marxist theorists of the twentieth century, Henri Lefebvre pioneered the study of the modern state in an age of accelerating global economic integration and fragmentation. Shortly after the 1974 publication of his landmark book The Production of Space, Lefebvre embarked on one of the most ambitious projects of his career: a consideration of the history and geographies of the modern state through a monumental study that linked several disciplines, including political science, sociology, geography, and history.
State, Space, World collects a series of Lefebvre’s key writings on the state from this period. Making available in English for the first time the as-yet-unexplored political aspect of Lefebvre’s work, it contains essays on philosophy, political theory, state formation, spatial planning, and globalization, as well as provocative reflections on the possibilities and limits of grassroots democracy under advanced capitalism.
State, Space, World is an essential complement to The Production of Space, The Urban Revolution, and The Critique of Everyday Life. Lefebvre’s original and prescient analyses that emerge in this volume are urgently relevant to contemporary debates on globalization and neoliberal capitalism.”
Edited by Neil Brenner and Stuart Elden
Translated by Gerald Moore, Neil Brenner, and Stuart Elden
Publisher University of Minnesota Press, 2009
ISBN 081665316X, 9780816653164
330 pages
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