Luc Boltanski Research Articles

AT THE BORDER OF TWO WORLDS Role options of the “distantiated spectator” in Vadoma by Anna Vörös

The debut volume of Anna Vörös is a unique and solitary voice in contemporary Hungarian literature referring to the representation of refugees. The author is actively practicing psychology and worked as a volunteer in hot zones of the migrant crisis, so she had the chance to learn about different aspects of the crisis from the inside. By collecting experiences, she built out a literary universe with an authentic voice. Her narrative can be defined as close to the triple structure of distant suffering theory by Luc Boltanski. The model of Boltanski features three categories of which the third is the “distantiated spectator”: who instead of playing the role of furious and delivering justice, rather interprets and experiences mediatized suffering in its historical context and process. The cycle of prose featuring the Syrian heroine in its metaphors and symbols avoids the traps of topoi and common places of storytelling based on “contentless pathos” and “colonizing, colonial and postcolonial point of view”. Anna Vörös in a revealing and documentarist tone approaches the arrival experience of masses coming to Europe – this experience may be described by sociological, cultural anthropological, and spatial theories while using various topics and situations. In her model motifs like the moment of spotting the sea or land, crossing them, and winning the battle over physical barriers, are melted into contemporary European refugee literature as well as tendencies in film, fine art, as well as media representations of the topic. The paper is an attempt to discover this question in its complexity.

Literary Sites of Institutional Confirmation and Critique: Howells in the Study, Cather in the Office

Abstract: Against the backdrop of the current interest in the institutions of literature, the essay deploys Luc Boltanski's social theory of institutional confirmation and critique for a comparative analysis of two key writers in the emergent field of US literature around 1900: Wiliam Dean Howells and Willa Cather. Visiting Howells in the editor's study at Harper's New Monthly Magazine and Cather in the corporate office at McClure's Magazine , the essay traces how each publishing institution not only informs their criticism and correspondence but also seeps into their fiction. Framed by editorial columns and archival materials, Howells's story "The Critical Bookstore" (1913) as well as Cather's early short fiction and her debut novel Alexander's Bridge (1912) can be seen to engage what Boltanski calls the "semantic security" of institutions. Building on sociologically inflected readings of these texts, the essay considers Boltanski's claim that critique is an inherent effect of institutionalization.

Powered by Secrecy: Contesting Imaginaries of Migration Governance in Turkey

ABSTRACT In light of a growing body of literature on migration and border governance engaging with the legal and institutional production of heterogenous forms of non-knowledge, this article aims to contribute to this scholarship by attending to the role of secrecy through the case of Turkey. This paper turns the spotlight on the migration governance in Turkey by investigating the ways in which secrecy is perceived, contested, and reconfigured by civil society actors. The article argues that the extensive use of secrecy engenders perceptions that vacillate between two opposing imaginaries: the central migration authority as an incompetent entity and as a security agency with an aura of omnipotence. By drawing on and subverting Luc Boltanski’s notion of domination as a reality-stabilising function, we propose that the undecidable nature of the migration governance enables a form of domination hinging on the destabilisation of reality in the eyes of subjects that are paralysed, disarmed, and disabled to cope with the policies in practice.

Westernization or internationalization? Academic expectations and challenges faced by international postgraduates in China

ABSTRACT China has become a main host country for international students, but its international programmes for higher education still need improvement. This study aimed to examine the academic challenges that international postgraduates in China face based on Luc Boltanski’s idea of ordinary critique. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and data were collected from 18 international students in two universities in China through semi structured interviews. The ordinary critique of academic difficulties by international postgraduates suggests that Westernized learning content is not sufficiently present in curricula, teachers do not have strong academic recognition from Western journals, the value of diplomas is questioned, and English is not regarded in local institutions as a mark of internationalization.Thus, they equate higher education internationalization with Westernization. These findings are analysed in light of common standards for the internationalization of higher education and offer possible implications for higher education internationalization in the future.

Credit in Society and in Sociology: On “The Bank and Its Customers” (Bourdieu, Boltanski, Chamboredon, 1963)

AbstractIn 1963, a young French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, together with two assistants—Luc Boltanski and Jean-Claude Chamboredon—conducted the first sociological study of the credit practices of a major French bank, entitled “The Bank and Its Customers”. This article discusses the context, the findings and the legacy of this study. First, the article sketches the landscape of the emerging mass credit market in France in the early 1960s. Then, the paper summarizes and analyses the report itself. We also demonstrate how bank-customer interactions and credit continued to be a subject of interest for Bourdieu throughout his subsequent career. Finally, the paper seeks to contribute to comparative research on the varieties of national configurations of private indebtedness in relation to the level of development of the welfare state.

Traduttore, traditore? Gains and losses from the translation of the economies of worth

AbstractThe economies of worth, a theory of moral cognition and coordination by sociologist Luc Boltanski and economist Laurent Thévenot, are increasingly used in organization and management studies. We critically review a broad selection of this literature to assess what has been gained from the interdisciplinary translations of the original theory. We identify in the literature multiple patterns that contribute from different angles to a consistent set of concepts for research at the intersection of organizations, socio‐technological change, and morality. We also indicate theoretical and methodological developments that would further enrich these gains.

Art, Graffiti, and the Deskilled Work of the Novelist: The Forgotten 1970s in Don DeLillo’s Underworld

This article reads Don DeLillo’s Underworld (1997) as scrutinizing the relationship between art and deskilled labor in the period from 1973 through 1997. Examining a relatively understudied set of chapters set in the 1970s, it considers them in the context of theoretical work by Harry Braverman, Kathi Weeks, Luc Boltanski, Eve Chiapello, and John Roberts. Depicting artist Klara Sax’s project as rooted in her 1970s observations of the remnants of skilled labor, and her embrace of what she calls the “graffiti instinct,” DeLillo suggests, pace Roberts, that the vestiges of lost working-class skill appear in the art groups in the novel’s present. Such valorizations of the artist’s labor are offset both by the absorption of the former artist Jesse Detwiler into Nick Shay’s corporate workplace and by the novel’s neglect of gentrification. In turn, with Underworld’s representations of the Bronx in the 1950s, DeLillo scrutinizes his own working-class origins.

The displacement of reality tests. The selection of individuals in the age of machine learning

ABSTRACT This article presents an interpretation of the transformation of selection tests in our societies, such as competitive examinations, recruitment or competitive access to goods or services, based on the opposition between reality and world proposed by Luc Boltanski in On Critique. We would like to explore the change in the format of these selection tests. We argue that this change is made possible by a spectacular enlargement of the space for comparisons between candidates and by the implementation of machine learning techniques. But this shift is not the only and simple consequence of the introduction of the technological innovation brought by massive data and artificial intelligence. It finds justification in the institutions and organizations that order selection tests because this new test format claims to absorb the multiple criticisms that our societies constantly raise against the previous generations of tests. This is why we propose to interpret the attention and the development of these automated procedures as a technocratic response to the development of a critique of the categorical representation of society.

Comparative moral principles: justifications, values, and foundations

The article compares three influential theories used in sociology and psychology to categorize types of morality—Luc Boltanski & Laurent Thévenot’s justification theory, Shalom H. Schwartz’s basic human values theory, and Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundations theory—to simplify the complexity presented by three different categorizations, while retaining necessary nuance, and to translate the concepts of each into the language of the other two. A comparative table is presented to evaluate which categories of the three theories correspond to each other and where do theories make distinctions that are lacking from the other two. This summary framework of Comparative Moral Principles (CMP) consists of eight principles to compare, explain, and interpret practices of moral motivation and meaning-making: Liberty, Inspiration, Safety, Community, Care, Equality, Deservingness, and Competition.

An Interview with Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre on Enrichment: A Critique of Commodities

In this interview, Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre introduce their book Enrichment and core concepts for the analysis of new developments in contemporary capitalism. The study focuses the analysis of the enrichment economy, which is grasped as a new form to explore and exploit ‘the past’ as a source for capitalist profits. The interview presents forms of valuation, which are more general principles of how value and prices can be ascribed to goods. The approach of Boltanski and Esquerre assumes an organized plurality of such forms of valuation. Also, the two sociologists stress the importance of discourses of valuation, which bring these forms of valuation into operation. As the interview makes evident, one major aim is to present a new perspective on the relationship between values, prices, and practices how prices are legitimatized or criticized on the basis of discourses of valuation. The interview situates Enrichment in the context of other contemporary sociological works, which focus on the economic core issue of value and valuation. The book can also be recognized as a proposal to reconcile structuralism and pragmatism in sociology. At the end of the interview, the more recent outcomes of the continuing collaborative work of Boltanski and Esquerre after Enrichment are discussed.

‘Enrichment’ as a Pragmatist and Structuralist Contribution to Economic Sociology: Perspectives on the Approach of Economics and Sociology of Conventions

The article discusses main contributions and results of the monograph Enrichment: A Critique of Commodities, written by the French sociologists Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre. Boltanski and Esquerre focus on the strategy to transform ‘the past’ (patrimony, luxury objects, tradition, collections) into new sources of richness. The book focuses on valuation forms and valuation discourses. Enrichment links Boltanski’s work again to the socio-economic movement of the economics and sociology of conventions (in short, EC/SC), which is part of the new French social sciences and regards conventions as logics of valuation and interpretation. This approach of EC/SC is introduced as a frame to evaluate the recombination of pragmatism and structuralism which is proposed by Boltanski and Esquerre. Finally, open questions and desiderata are addressed from the standpoint of EC/SC.

“A picture held us captive…”: Or, on what the pandemic has changed and what it cannot change

The article aims to establish how incisive the changes in social reality triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic are. The first part examines the distinctiveness of the current pandemic in comparison with other epidemics, and investigates responses to it from within the humanities. The second part focuses on defining the viable criteria of social change. Two such criteria are provided: change in the world-picture in terms of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy and change in the concept of the reality of reality as proposed by Luc Boltanski. In the following part, these criteria are applied to analyze the debate on the pandemic unfolding in the humanities and social sciences. In the concluding part, the notion of the apparatus (dispositif) is introduced as a useful tool for exploring and depicting the social consequences of the pandemic. When this notion is juxtaposed with the adopted criteria, the epidemic can be seen to change the operative trajectory and the structure of apparatuses and, consequently, to alter the world-picture and the reality of reality as it progresses. While what durable changes (if any) the pandemic will cause cannot be established with any certainty, it can definitely be expected to enhance the social and political processes which had commenced before its outbreak. In this regard, the epidemic has produced one crucial change; specifically, communitarians are clearly getting the upper hand over liberals in the long-standing dispute between the two.

Towards an Ontology of Contemporary Reality?

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a critical overview of the key contributions made by Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre in Qu’est-ce que l’actualité politique? Événements et opinions aux XXIe siècle. Whereas Enrichment: A Critique of Commodities is essentially a study in economic sociology, Boltanski and Esquerre’s latest book reflects a shift in emphasis towards political sociology. As demonstrated in this paper, their inquiry into the ontologie de l’actualité – that is, the ontology of contemporary reality – contains valuable insights into the relationship between the production, circulation, and consumption of news, on the one hand, and the emergence of processes of politicization, on the other. The first half of this paper comprises a summary of the central arguments developed in Boltanski and Esquerre’s investigation, before moving, in the second half, to an assessment of its most significant limitations.

The new spirit of technoscience: recalibrating symmetrical STS critique

ABSTRACT This article situates Responsible Innovation (RI) as part of a larger shift in science and technology governance demanding a ‘social fix’ for innovation, which we argue amounts to a new spirit of technoscience. Inspired by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello's analysis of the development of a ‘new spirit of capitalism’ from late twentieth century, we observe the rise of a new governance rationality in technoscientific innovation which places society, its needs, and desires at the center of scientific and technological development. This shift has significant implications for the field of science and technology studies, and the modes of critique that STS scholars mobilize in understanding and intervening in the politics of sociotechnical change. The new spirit of technoscience calls for a reassessment of familiar formulas of STS critique, with a renewed symmetrical approach to the prescription and production of democracy for science and technology governance.

Neoliberalismo e envelhecimento ativo: O papel dos programas empresariais de preparação para aposentadoria

ABSTRACT Purpose: To analyze the relationship between the rise of the retirement preparation programs (RPP) and the transformations in the ideological environment of organizations associated with the advent of the spirit of neoliberal capitalism. Originality/value: Few studies of Brazilian literature have addressed the dissemination of RPP from critical perspectives and, especially, in the business environment. Most of the research has addressed public institutions. Concerning international literature, the article innovates by associating the rise of the idea of active aging with the thesis of the new spirit of capitalism, developed by Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello. Unlike existing international studies, the analysis focuses on RPP as instruments for disseminating the dominant order in the organizational sphere. Design/methodology/approach: To meet the proposed objectives, qualitative research was carried out. Data were collected from nine informants from five consultancies that work in the structuring of corporate RPP and two companies that have recently structured their programs. A thematic content analysis was performed. Findings: The results reveal that the developed RPP promote conceptions of active aging in line with the new spirit of capitalism and changes in the forms of work organization driven by neoliberalism, which made it possible to conceptualize RPP as an object that incorporates and facilitates the diffusion of active aging and constructing an active retirement. The study advances in the understanding of the implications of new discourses on old age for organizations and stimulates a more critical comprehensionof RPP in public and private organizations.

디지털 시민성과 21세기 공적 영역

This essay investigates the characteristics of the contemporary public sphere and offers suggestions for enhancing digital citizenship in today’s platform society. It underscores the irony that, despite the vast expansion of the public domain, democracy has declined in most contemporary democracies. This paper suggests that the current public sphere is distinguished by four features, including democratic openness, fragmentation, homogenization, and mediatization, and provides explanations for each. It also explains how fragmentation, homogenization, and mediatization contribute to anti-democratic tendencies in the online public sphere. This paper then investigates the concept of digital citizenship and proposes methods for democratizing the online public sphere by utilizing individuals’ digital citizenship. In addition, strategies for promoting digital citizenship in education are discussed. It emphasizes the necessity to create and bolster the forces of de-automatization in order to combat the pernicious effects of computational capitalism and the pervasive influence of online platforms by fostering digital citizenship. The paper emphasizes the significance of exposing students to carefully designed democratic interactions using online platforms in alternative ways within the context of educational settings. The paper employs Bernard Stigeler''s philosophy of technology and Luc Boltanski''s pragmatic sociology for discussion.

Henrik Ibsen and Conspiracy Thinking: The Case of Peer Gynt

Henrik Ibsen and Conspiracy Thinking: The Case of <i>Peer Gynt</i>

Resilience as the policing of critique: A pragmatist way forward

AbstractThis article offers a critical review of the main conceptual readings of resilience as a prominent policy paradigm in international development, security, and disaster management. Focusing on neoliberal, biopolitical, cybernetic, and postliberal understandings, it probes the possibilities for engaging in a socially transformative critique of resilience. In particular, the article asks how the resilience discourse polices critique in a way that includes certain forms of knowledge, such as indigenous, local, and everyday knowledge, while excluding abstract theorising. What is considered authoritative knowledge in the resilience discourse? And what are the possibilities for opposing resilience if it ‘metabolizes critique into its internal dynamic’, as Jeremy Walker and Melinda Cooper famously argued? How does critique turn from a tool to undermine dominant knowledge-power regimes into a motor of governance? The article demonstrates that the more seriously we engage with the underlying ontology of resilience, the more difficult it becomes to formulate a critique that is not incorporated into governance. As a possible way forward, the article discusses Luc Boltanski's pragmatist sociology of critique.

NFTs and Value

NFTs and Value

Learning for life: ESD, ecopedagogy and the new spirit of capitalism

More than a decade ago, critical ecopedagogue Richard Kahn expressed his fears and hopes regarding Education for sustainable development (ESD). He feared that ESD would be short lived and marginalized and would develop an instrumental pedagogy of one-sided transmission of knowledge, yet hoped for ESD to encompass three types of “ecoliteracies”: technical/functional, cultural and critical. After an assessment of current ESD, as reported by UNESCO, this paper concludes that his two first fears were unfounded, while his hopes regarding ESD’s pedagogical content were largely not met. To better understand the result, Luc Boltanski’s and Éve Chiapello’s analysis of “the new spirit of capitalism” is mobilized. According to it, current capitalism integrates “artistic critique” on e.g., lack of autonomy and creativity with greater ease than “social critique” with respect to e.g., poverty and inequality. This might explain what ecoliteracies that are integrated into ESD.