You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
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 ...
Globalization is an extraordinary phenomenon affecting virtually everything in our lives. And it is imperative that we understand the operation of economic power in a globalized world if we are to address the most challenging issues our world is facing today, from climate change to world hunger and poverty. This revolutionary work rethinks globalization as a power system feeding from, and in competition with, the state system. Cutting across disciplines of law, politics and economics, it explores how multinational enterprises morphed into world political organisations with global reach and power, but without the corresponding responsibilities. In illuminating how the concentration of property rights within corporations has led to the rejection of democracy as an ineffective system of government and to the rise in inequality, Robé offers a clear pathway to a fairer and more sustainable power system.
Lorsqu’un patron donne un ordre à un salarié, comment celui-ci doit-il l’exécuter ? Avec quel engagement ? Avec quelle intensité ? D’une façon générale, sur quelles bases s’établit la confiance réciproque entre employés et employeurs ? Dans une société où toutes les relations entre les hommes sont soumises à des règles contractuelles, comment l’économie y échapperait-elle ? Les rapports économiques ne seraient-ils qu’une question de prix ? Dans ce livre, Bénédicte Reynaud montre, au plus près de la réalité vécue par les partenaires économiques, qu’il n’en est rien. Son analyse, menée au plan macroéconomique sur l’exemple de la désindexation des salaires en 1983 et au plan microéconomique sur l’introduction d’une prime de rendement à la RATP entre 1993 et 2001, nous montre quel type de règles suit le jeu de l’économie. Elle nous restitue ainsi, dans toute son humanité, la vie économique. Bénédicte Reynaud Bénédicte Reynaud, économiste, est directrice de recherche au CNRS.
In a fully digitized world and hyper-connected society, artificial intelligence (AI) is developing more and more each day. In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems appropriate to examine the real or imagined progress of AI in terms of human health. Like artificial intelligence, health is a field that involves a wide range of research disciplines. In order to better define and understand these social and technical developments, Al, Healthcare and Law brings together the thoughts and analyses of doctors, lawyers, economists and computer scientists. Through a wide range of original overviews of the issues involved, the book addresses questions such as the development of telemedicine, the use of medical data, the increased human perspective or medical ethics, and takes a multi-disciplinary and accessible approach to questioning the relationship between humans and computers, between the intimate and the machine.
This book provides a comprehensive history of the COVID-19 pandemic. At first glance, the pandemic struck as a natural disaster, with the sudden emergence of a virus as a major threat from outside. However, the pandemic has a history. SARS-COV-2 arrived in a world that was already very much focused on viruses, health, and longevity, and in which the fear of epidemics had already led to the mobilization of knowledge, technology, and a wide range of institutions to prepare us. The book develops the argument that these pre-existing structures and sensitivities have to a large extent determined the political and other reactions to the SARS-COV-2 virus and how the debates on the measures to halt its circulation have unfolded.
This book introduces a new theoretical framework that examines Iran in relation to the theological concept of Anfal, a confiscatory regime seen in Iran since 1979 where public assets belong to the leader of Iran. Through analysing the economic impacts of Anfal, the effects of political capitalism and destructive coordination and how they lead to the economics of hoarding and the flight of capital and labour are highlighted. The economics of predation, ecological disaster, and cooperative coordination are also discussed. This book aims to highlight the economic consequences of Anfal and its role in sustaining destructive condition and shaping the Islamic political capitalism. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in the political economy, Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.
Cundill Prize Finalist A Financial Times Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year A Five Books Book of the Year The Mongols are known for one thing: conquest. But in this first comprehensive history of the Horde, the western portion of the Mongol empire that arose after the death of Chinggis Khan, Marie Favereau takes us inside one of the most powerful engines of economic integration in world history to show that their accomplishments extended far beyond the battlefield. Central to the extraordinary commercial boom that brought distant civilizations in contact for the first time, the Horde had a unique political regime—a complex power-sharing arrangement between the khan and nobilityâ...
In contemporary society it would seem self-evident that people allow the market to determine the values of products and services. For everything from a loaf of bread to a work of art to a simple haircut, value is expressed in monetary terms and seen as determined primarily by the 'objective' interplay between supply and demand. Yet this 'price-mechanism' is itself embedded in conventions and frames of reference which differed according to time, place and product type. Moreover, the dominance of the conventions of utility maximising and calculative homo economicus is a relatively new phenomenon, and one which directly correlates to the steady advent of capitalism in early modern Europe. This ...
This handbook provides a comprehensive and critical overview of the gamut of contemporary issues around health and healthcare from a political economy perspective. Its contributions present a unique challenge to prevailing economic accounts of health and healthcare, which narrowly focus on individual behaviour and market processes. Instead, the capacity of the human body to reach its full potential and the ability of society to prevent disease and cure illness are demonstrated to be shaped by a broader array of political economic processes. The material conditions in which societies produce, distribute, exchange, consume, and reproduce – and the operation of power relations therein – inf...
This volume uses historical epistemology in order to address several topics in the history of economic thought, with special emphasis on ecological economics, environmental metaphors of scarcity, and mathematical ecology. Using the field of ecological economics as an anchor point, the author reflects on the styles of reasoning in economics with a view towards understanding the nature of disagreement that stems from a failure of communication between rival approaches in economics. A thorough inquiry into issues related to identity, coherence, pluralism, and reception, this volume will appeal to researchers and students interested in history of economic thought, ecological economics, and philosophy of the sciences.