Luc Boltanski
Encyclopedia
Luc Boltanski is the leading figure in the new "pragmatic" school of French sociology
. He is a professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales
, Paris
, and the founder of the Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale.
He contributed to the start of the "political and moral sociology" framework. Political and moral sociology has gradually developed as a research programmein the sense proposed by Imre Lakatos
around a conceptual nucleus looking to construct a theory of action based on Émile Durkheim
's theory of moral fact, revising the inheritance of ‘methodological structuralism
’ from the point of view of dynamics and processes. The research program stresses how, in many conflicts, the characteristics of the disputants change during the course of the conflict.
His work has significantly influenced sociology, political economy
and social
and economic history
.
He is the brother of artist Christian Boltanski
.
, On Justification: The Economies of Worth, 2006 (French original: 1991), argues that modern societies are not a single social order but an interweaving of multiple orders. Boltanski and Thévenot identify six "orders of worth" or "economies of worth," systematic and coherent principles of evaluation. These multiple orders (civic, market, inspired, fame, industrial, and domestic) are not associated with particular social domains but coexist in the same social space—as Boltanski and Thévenot persuasively demonstrate through a content analysis of texts used in managerial training in contemporary French corporations.
Central to On Justification is the notion of "test" to indicate forms of conflict among the actors, with a variable degree of legitimacy (chap. 5). If the experiences following one another in conflict processes are legitimate, they firmly bind actors to claim the universality of their reasoning in accord with the order of worth they refer to. If, however, the agents in conflict refer to different order of worth (e.g. to that of the civic polity and to that of the industrial polity), legitimate tests are not available. But if the agents are nevertheless oriented towards a notion of the common good (which belongs to neither of the conflicting polities), an (albeit fragile) "compromise" may evolve to settle the dispute (chap. 10). The notion of workers' rights is an example of such a compromise between the industrial and the civic orders (p. 325). These compromises are always fragile because attempts to define the common good, on which the compromise rests, are bound to re-ignite the conflict (p. 278).
Théâtre
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
. He is a professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
The École des hautes études en sciences sociales is a leading French institution for research and higher education, a Grand Établissement. Its mission is research and research training in the social sciences, including the relationship these latter maintain with the natural and life sciences...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and the founder of the Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale.
He contributed to the start of the "political and moral sociology" framework. Political and moral sociology has gradually developed as a research programmein the sense proposed by Imre Lakatos
Imre Lakatos
Imre Lakatos was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its 'methodology of proofs and refutations' in its pre-axiomatic stages of development, and also for introducing the concept of the 'research programme' in his...
around a conceptual nucleus looking to construct a theory of action based on Émile Durkheim
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain...
's theory of moral fact, revising the inheritance of ‘methodological structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
’ from the point of view of dynamics and processes. The research program stresses how, in many conflicts, the characteristics of the disputants change during the course of the conflict.
His work has significantly influenced sociology, political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
and social
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
and economic history
Economic history
Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...
.
He is the brother of artist Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski is French sculptor, photographer, painter and film maker.-Life and work:Having no formal art education, he began painting in 1958. Nevertheless, he first came to public attention in 1960 with few short films and publication of several notebooks...
.
On Justification
A book co-authored with Laurent ThévenotLaurent Thévenot
Professor Laurent Thévenot is Directeur d'études at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris , and Senior researcher at the Centre d'Etudes de l'Emploi.He co-authored, with Luc Boltanski, of "On Justification...
, On Justification: The Economies of Worth, 2006 (French original: 1991), argues that modern societies are not a single social order but an interweaving of multiple orders. Boltanski and Thévenot identify six "orders of worth" or "economies of worth," systematic and coherent principles of evaluation. These multiple orders (civic, market, inspired, fame, industrial, and domestic) are not associated with particular social domains but coexist in the same social space—as Boltanski and Thévenot persuasively demonstrate through a content analysis of texts used in managerial training in contemporary French corporations.
Central to On Justification is the notion of "test" to indicate forms of conflict among the actors, with a variable degree of legitimacy (chap. 5). If the experiences following one another in conflict processes are legitimate, they firmly bind actors to claim the universality of their reasoning in accord with the order of worth they refer to. If, however, the agents in conflict refer to different order of worth (e.g. to that of the civic polity and to that of the industrial polity), legitimate tests are not available. But if the agents are nevertheless oriented towards a notion of the common good (which belongs to neither of the conflicting polities), an (albeit fragile) "compromise" may evolve to settle the dispute (chap. 10). The notion of workers' rights is an example of such a compromise between the industrial and the civic orders (p. 325). These compromises are always fragile because attempts to define the common good, on which the compromise rests, are bound to re-ignite the conflict (p. 278).
The New Spirit of Capitalism
The New Spirit of Capitalism, 2005 (French original: 1999), co-authored with Ève Chiapello, explores a seventh "projective city" (organized around the concept of flexible networks now prominent in the conception of "the project"). While On Justification was based on an analysis of major texts of political philosophy, this book is based on a systematic analysis of managerial literature from the 1960s and 1990s and aims "to describe the 'residue', which cannot be interpreted in the language of the six existing cities" (p. 24).Most important works in English
- Boltanski, L., Thévenot, L.Laurent ThévenotProfessor Laurent Thévenot is Directeur d'études at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris , and Senior researcher at the Centre d'Etudes de l'Emploi.He co-authored, with Luc Boltanski, of "On Justification...
1983, Finding One's Way in Social Space : A Study based on Games, Social Science Information, 22 (4-5), 1983, p. 631-680 - Boltanski, L., The Making of a Class. Cadres in French Society, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- Boltanski, L., Distant Suffering: Morality, Media and Politics, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- Boltanski, L., Thévenot, L.Laurent ThévenotProfessor Laurent Thévenot is Directeur d'études at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris , and Senior researcher at the Centre d'Etudes de l'Emploi.He co-authored, with Luc Boltanski, of "On Justification...
1999, The Sociology of Critical Capacity, European Journal of Social Theory, vol. 2, n° 3, August 1999, p. 359-378. - Boltanski, L., The Legitimacy of Humanitarian Actions and their Media Representation : the Case of France, Ethical Perspectives, vol.7, n° 1, 2000, p. 3-16.
- Boltanski, L., Thévenot, L.Laurent ThévenotProfessor Laurent Thévenot is Directeur d'études at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris , and Senior researcher at the Centre d'Etudes de l'Emploi.He co-authored, with Luc Boltanski, of "On Justification...
2000, The reality of moral expectations: a sociology of situated judgment, Philosophical Explorations, vol. III, n° 1, 2000. - Boltanski, L., Chiapello È., Ross G., Piore M. J., Reid D., Kogut B., Forum: Le Nouvel Esprit du capitalisme, in French Politics, Culture & Society, vol. 18, n° 3, Fall 2000.
- Boltanski, L. 2002, The Left after May 1968 and the Longing for Total Revolution, in Thesis Eleven, 69: 1–20.
- Boltanski, L., Chiapello (Ève), The New Spirit of Capitalism, London-New York, Verso, 2005
- Boltanski, L., Chiapello (Ève), The role of criticism in the dynamics of capitalism in: Worlds of capitalism: Institutions, Economics, Performance and Governance in the Era of Globalisation, Max Miller (Ed), Routledge, London, 2005
- Boltanski, L., Thévenot, L.Laurent ThévenotProfessor Laurent Thévenot is Directeur d'études at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris , and Senior researcher at the Centre d'Etudes de l'Emploi.He co-authored, with Luc Boltanski, of "On Justification...
2006, On Justification. The Economies of Worth, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Other Works
- Boltanski (Luc), Le bonheur suisse, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1966.
- Boltanski (Luc), Prime éducation et morale de classe, Paris, EHESS, 1969.
- Boltanski (Luc), Taxinomies populaires, taxinomies savantes: les objets de consommation et leur classement, Revue française de sociologie, 11(1), 1970, p. 34-44.
- Boltanski (Luc), Maldidier (P.), Carrière scientifique, morale scientifique et vulgarisation , Information sur les sciences sociales, 9(3), 1970, p. 99-118.
- Boltanski (Luc), Les usages sociaux du corps, Annales. Économies, sociétés, civilisations, 26(1), 1971, p. 205-233.
- Boltanski (Luc), P. Bourdieu e P. Maldidier, La défense du corps, in Social Science Information, vol. 10, n° 4, pp. 45–86, 1971
- Boltanski (Luc), Puericultura e morale di classe, Firenze, Guaraldi, 1972.
- Boltanski (Luc), La missione civilizzatrice della scuola: l' acculturazione dei barbari, in M. Barbagli, Scuola, potere e ideologia, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1972.
- Boltanski (Luc), L'espace positionnel : multiplicité des positions institutionnelles et habitus de classe, in Revue Française de Sociologie, vol. 14, n° 1, pp. 3–20, 1973.
- Boltanski (Luc), Bourdieu (Pierre), Castel (Robert), Un art moyen : essai sur les usages sociaux de la photographie, paris, Minuit, 1974.
- Boltanski (Luc), Bourdieu (Pierre), Castel (Robert), La fotografia. Usi e funzioni sociali di un'arte media, Rimini, Guaraldi, 1976 (II ed: 2004).
- Boltanski (Luc), Les banques de données dans le système statistique public, Actes de la Recherche en sciences sociales, janvier n°1, 1975.
- Boltanski (Luc), La constitution du champ de la bande dessinée , Actes de la Recherches en sciences Sociales, 1, 1975, p. 37-59 .
- Boltanski (Luc), Les usages sociaux de l'automobile: concurrence pour l'espace et accidents, Actes de la Recherches en sciences sociales, 2, 1975, p. 25-49.
- Boltanski (Luc), Pouvoir et impuissance: projet intellectuel et sexualité dans le Journal d'Amiel, Actes de la Recherches en Sciences Sociales, 5-6, 1975, p. 80-108 .
- Boltanski (Luc), Note sur les échanges philosophiques internationaux, Actes de la Recherches en Sciences Sociales, 5-6, 1975, p. 191-199.
- Boltanski (Luc), Bourdieu (Pierre), Le titre et le poste: rapports entre le système de production et le système de reproduction, Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, 2, 1975, p. 95-107.
- Bourdieu (Pierre), Boltanski (Luc), Le fétichisme de la langue, Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, 4, 1975, p. 2-32.
- Boltanski (Luc), L'encombrement et la maîtrise des "biens sans maître" , Actes de la Recherches en Sciences Sociales, 1, 1976, p. 102-109.
- Bourdieu (Pierre), Boltanski (Luc), Les professeurs de l'Institut d'études politiques , Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 2-3, 1976, p. 66-69.
- Bourdieu (Pierre), Boltanski (Luc), Un jeu chinois : notes pour une critique sociale du jugement , Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 4, 1976, p. 91-101.
- Bourdieu (Pierre), Boltanski (Luc), La production de l'idéologie dominante , Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 2-3, 1976, p. 4-73.
- Boltanski (Luc), Les cadres autodidactes, Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, 22, 1978, p. 3-23.
- Boltanski (Luc), Taxinomies sociales et luttes de classes. La mobilisation de "la classe moyenne" et l'invention des "cadres" , Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, 29, 1979, p. 75-105.
- Boltanski (Luc), L'université, les entreprises et la multiplication des salariés bourgeois (1960–1975), Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, 34, 1980, p. 17-44.
- Boltanski (Luc), America, America... Le plan Marshall et l'importation du management , Actes de la Recherches en Sciences Sociales, 38, 1981, p. 19-41.
- Boltanski, Les cadres. La formation d'un groupe social, Paris, Minuit, 1982
- Boltanski (Luc), Darré (Yann), Schiltz (Marie-Ange),La dénonciation, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, n°51, mars 1984.
- Boltanski (Luc), Bezichtigung und Selbstdarstellung: Die Kunst, ein normales Opfer zu sein, in Selbstthematisierung und Selbstzeugnis: Bekenntnis und Geständnis, Alois Hahn und Volker Kapp (Herausgegeben von), Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1987, S.149-169.
- Boltanski (Luc), Thévenot (Laurent), Dir., Justesse et justice dans le travail, Cahiers Du Centre d'etudes de l'emploi, Paris, PUF, 33, 1989.
- Boltanski (Luc), L'amour et la justice comme compétences. Trois essais de sociologie de l'action, Paris, Métaillé, 1990.
- Boltanski (Luc), Sociologie critique et sociologie de la critique , Politix, 10-11, 1990.
- Boltanski (Luc), Thévenot (Laurent), De la justification. Les économies de la grandeur, Paris, Gallimard, 1991.
- Boltanski (Luc), La souffrance à distance. Morale humanitaire, médias et politique, Paris, Métailié, 1993.
- Boltanski (Luc), Dissémination ou abandon : la dispute entre amour et justice. L'hypothèse d'une pluralité de régimes d'action , in Ladrière, *P., Pharo, P., Queré, L., La théorie de l'action. Le sujet pratique en débat, Editions du CNRS, Paris,1993, p. 235-259.
- Boltanski (Luc), La présence des absents, Les cahiers de la Villa Gillet, n° 2, 1995, p. 51-71.
- Boltanski (Luc), Godet (M.-N.), Cartron (D),Messages d'amour sur le Téléphone du dimanche, Politix, n° 31, 1995, p. 30-76.
- Boltanski (Luc), 1996, Endless Disputes from Intimate Injuries to Public Denunciations, WP 96-2 in Networks and Interpretation, Department of Sociology, Cornell University.
- Boltanski (Luc), Poème, Arfuyen, Paris, 1996.
- Boltanski (Luc), 1996, Alertes, affaires et catastrophes , in Boltanski L., Chateauraynaud F., Lemieux C., Torny D. (dir.), Alertes, affaires et catastrophes: logique de l'accusation et pragmatique de la vigilance, Actes de la cinquième séance du Séminaire du Programme risques collectifs et situations de crise, CNRS, Paris.
- Boltanski (Luc), Critique sociale et sens moral. Pour une sociologie du judgement, in, Yamamoto, T., Andrew, E. G., Chartier, R., Rabinow, P., (eds.), Philosophical Designs for a Socio-Cultural Transformation, EHESS, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Tokyo, 1999, p. 248-273.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme, Paris, Gallimard, 1999.
- Boltanski (Luc), Une sociologie sans société?, Le genre humain, 1999–2000 , p. 303-311.
- Boltanski (Luc), La cause de la critique (I), Raisons Politiques, 3, 2000, p. 159-184.
- Boltanski (Luc), La cause de la critique (II), Raisons politiques, 4, 2000, p. 135-159.
- Boltanski (Luc), La philosophie politique à l'âge de la biopolitique. À propos de Politiques de la nature de Bruno Latour, Esprit, juillet 2000.
- Boltanski (Luc), Lo spettacolo del dolore, Milano, Raffaello Cortina, 2000.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), Befreiung vom Kapitalismus ? Befreiung durch Kapitalismus?, Blätter für deutsche und international politik, avril 2000, p. 476-488.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), Comment interpreter les changement du capitalisme. Réponses à quelques critiques, in Sociologie du Travail, 2001.
- Boltanski (Luc), El Amor y La Justicia Como Competencias, Amorrortu Editores, 2001.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), Die Rolle der Kritik in der Dynamik des Kapitalismus und des normative Wandel, Berliner Journal für Soziologie, vol. 11, Issue 4, 2001, pp. 459–477.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), 2002, Esclusione e sfruttamento: il ruolo della mobilità nella produzione delle disuguaglianze sociali, in Borghi (a cura di), Vulnerabilità, inclusione sociale e lavoro, Franco Angeli, Milano.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2002, Nécessité et justification, in Revue économique, 53: 275-90.
- Boltanski (Luc), Una nuova componente dello spirito del capitalismo, in Agalma - Rivista di studi culturali e di estetica, n° 3, 2002.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), 2002, El nuevo espiritu del capitalismo, Ediciones Akal, Madrid.
- Boltanski (Luc), La natura dei feti", in Agalma - Rivista di studi culturali e di estetica, n. 4, 2003.
- Boltanski (Luc), *Boltanski (Christian), A l'instant, Léo Scheer, Paris, 2003.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), Der neue Geist des Kapitalismus, UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, 2003.
- Boltanski (Luc), Usages faibles, usages forts de l'habitus, in P. Encrevé e R.-M. Lagrave, Travailler avec Bourdieu, Paris, Flammarion, 2003.
- Boltanski (Luc), Une sociologie toujours mise à l’épreuve, in Ethnographiques, n° 5, 2004.
- Boltanski (Luc), La condition foetale : Une sociologie de l'avortement et de l'engendrement, Gallimard ; broché ; essai, 2004.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2005, Gli attuali cambiamenti del capitalismo e la cultura del progetto, in Studi di Sociologia, vol. 43, n. 4, pp. 369–388.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2005, Stati di pace. Per una sociologia dell'amore, Milano: Vita e Pensiero.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2005, The Fetus and the Image War in Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art, pages 78–9.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2005, Le mal, vue de gauche, in Revue d)'études théatrales, n. 9/10, pp. 19–30.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), The role of criticism in the dynamics of capitalism in Welten des Kapitalismus- Institutionelle Alternativen in der globalisierten Ökonomie, Campus, Frankfurt/New York, 2005.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2005, Déluge. Opéra parlé, in Le nouveau recueil, n. 77, pp. 12–54.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2006, Déluge. Opéra parlé (suite), in Le nouveau recueil, n. 78, pp. 5–18.
- Boltanski (Luc), Vitale (Tommaso) , 2006, Una sociologia politica e morale delle contraddizioni, in Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, n° 1, pp. 91–116.
- Boltanski (Luc), *Boltanski (Christian), 2006, Les Limbes, Editions M. F. Paris.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2006, Vivere secondo progetti: il trionfo della labilità, in Vita e pensiero, n. 2.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2006, Response, in Gardey D. (sous la direction de), Autour du livre de Luc Boltanski La condition fœtale, numéro à dossier de Travail, genre, société, n. 15.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2007, La condizione fetale, Feltrinelli, Milano (prefazione di Tommaso Vitale, traduzione di Lucia Cornalba.
- Boltanski (Luc), Claverie (Élisabeth), 2007,"Du monde social en tant que scène d'un procès", in Luc Boltanski, Élisabeth Claverie, Nicolas Offenstadt e Stéphane Van Damme (eds) Affaires, scandales et grandes causes. De Socrate à Pinochet, pp. 395–452. Stock, Paris.
- Boltanski (Luc), Claverie (Élisabeth), Offenstadt (Nicolas), Van Damme (Stéphane) (eds), 2007, Affaires, scandales et grandes causes. De Socrate à Pinochet, Stock, Paris.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2007, La souffrance à distance (II edition with a new post face and the new chapter: "La Presence Des Absents") Gallimard Folio essais, Paris.
- Boltanski (Luc), Chiapello (Ève), Vitale (Tommaso) , 2007, “La sociologia contro il fatalismo”, in Itinerari d’impresa, n. 11, pp. 231–237.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2008, "Autour de De la justification. Un parcours dans le domaine de la sociologie morale", in Breviglieri, M., Lafaye, C., Trom, D. (dir.), Sens critique, sens de la justice, Paris, Economica.
- Boltanski (Luc), Pierre Bourdieu, 2008, La Production de l'idéologie dominante, Paris, DEMOPOLIS.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2008, Rendre la réalité inacceptable, Paris, DEMOPOLIS.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2008, Nuits, Paris, ENS
- Boltanski (Luc), 2008, Lieder, Paris, MF.
- Boltanski (Luc), 2009, De la critique. Précis de sociologie de l'émancipation, Paris, Gallimard.
Théâtre
- Boltanski (Luc), 2008, Nuits, Lyon, ENS Editions. Note du metteur en scène, Guillaume Pfister. Première création française : avril-mai 2008 au Théâtre Kantor (Lyon) - l'Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines.
Works about Boltanski
- T. Bénatouil, A Tale of Two Sociologies: The Critical and Pragmatic Stance in Contemporary French Sociology, in European Journal of Social Theory, n° 2, pp. 279–396, 1999;
- Silber I., Pragmatic Sociology as Cultural Sociology: Beyond Repertoire Theory?, in European Journal of Social Theory, n° 6, pp. 427–49, 2003.
- Boltanski L., Vitale,T. 2006, Una sociologia politica e morale delle contraddizioni, in Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, n° 1, pp. 91–116.
- Wagner P., 1994, “Dispute, Uncertainty and Institution in Recent French Debates”, Journal of Political Philosophy, n° 2, pp. 270–289.
- Wagner P., 1999, “After Justification. Registers of Evaluation and the Sociology of Modernity”, European Journal of Social Theory, vol. 2, n° 3, pp. 341–57.
- Borghi V., Vitale T., 2007, "Convenzioni, economia morale e ricerca sociologica", in Borghi, Vando e Vitale (a cura di), Le convenzioni del lavoro, il lavoro delle convenzioni, numero monografico di Sociologia del Lavoro, n. 104, Franco Angeli, Milano.
- Molinatto P., 2008, "Boltanski e le aporie antropologiche del liberalismo", in Materiali per una storia della cultura giuridica, n°1, 2008, pp. 143–174.
- Dromi, S. M., Illouz, E., 2010, "Recovering Morality: Pragmatic Sociology and Literary Studies", New Literary History, n° 42(2), pp. 351-369.