Les apports de R. E. Park pour une approche sociologique du cosmopolitisme.

Contemporary approaches to cosmopolitanism tend to be situated between two poles: a descriptive one and a normative one, which often draw upon a classical sociological approach to cosmopolitanism. This article reconsiders R. E. Park’s approach to cosmopolitanism. Underestimated today, its characteristic is to consider cosmopolitanism both under an ecological angle and a political one. In its ecological form, cosmopolitanism refers to the distribution of a diversity of groups which come to coexist, to share the same urban territory, to [...]

Être contre, c’est être tout contre.

Being against something is not only about being opposed to something but being closely against. In this paper, I aim to explore the subtle way of « that with which you don’t agree with » because it raises the problem of the foundations (why) and the conditions (how) of disagreement. It raises the question of the subtle balance we have to find between the conceptual legacy on which we need to build on, and the signs in experience which [...]

Pragmatique de la mémoire.

In a pragmatic perspective, « memory » is no longer the appropriate object of sociological inquiries — « memoriality » is. By « memoriality », we refer to what actors or instances that are committed to memorial activities deal with : memoriality is what they have to specify and investigate through their own inquiry. They have to make memoriality consistent and sensitive through practical arrangements. In this sense, the contributions that compose this Traversal explore different memoriality regimes, namely [...]

Pour une ethnographie pragmatique du politique.

Berger, Mathieu, Daniel Cefaï et Carole Gayet-Viaud (dirs.). 2011. Du civil au politique. Ethnographies du vivre-ensemble. Bruxelles : Peter Lang, coll. « Action publique ».

This article analyzes the different ways of conducting ethnographic investigations that are proposed in the book Du civil au politique. Ethnographies du vivre-ensemble by Mathieu Berger, Daniel Cefaï and Carole Gayet-Viaud. Firstly, it examines the authors’ choices : the ethnographic method as well as the relationship between political and civil activities can be found in each article. Secondly, it discusses the commitments and central propositions of the book. It shows how the authors reconcile a pragmatic perspective with an [...]

L’enquêteur deweyen et la fragilité de la vie publique.

Daniel Cefaï, Cédric Terzi (éds.), L’expérience des problèmes publics. Perspectives pragmatistes, coll. « Raisons pratiques », n° 22, Paris, Éditions de l’EHESS, 2012.

In 2012, “Raisons pratiques” published an issue that compiled several case studies showing the relevance of a pragmatist approach of public life. The critical review of this work gives us the opportunity to plead for a rational articulation of classical models of the public, focusing mainly on theories developed by John Dewey and Hannah Arendt. Insofar as violence and lies are considered as dangers for the anthropological principle of publicity, we also call for a sociological and analytical translation [...]