Book Review: On Critique by Luc Boltanski
01 Jan 2012-Vol. 2, Iss: 1, pp 7
TL;DR: Boltanski and Thevenot as discussed by the authors compare two sociological modelsof critique: Bourdieusian critical sociology and the pragmatic sociology of critique developed by Boltanski and his colleagues.
Abstract: Over the past few years, French sociologists Luc Boltanksiand Laurent Thevenot have developed a so-called “prag-matic sociology of critique.” In an e ort to overcome theperceived shortcomings of Bourdieusian “critical sociol-ogy”—namely, the relative neglect of the perspectives ofsocial actors—Boltanksi and Thevenot’s work turns to theways in which individuals justify their actions and legitimizetheir views to others in quite ordinary, everyday situations(see Boltanski and Thevenot, 1999, 2006). In his most recentbook, On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation, Boltanksigoes a step further to argue the interdependence of both crit-ical sociology and a pragmatic sociology of critique.On Critique stems from three talks Boltanski gave as partof the Adorno Lecture series at the Institute for Social Re-search in Frankfurt, Germany in November 2008. Each talkis divided in two, making up the six chapters of the book.Boltanski focuses on the sociology of domination throughoutand in doing so, he attempts to make explicit the relationshipbetween sociology and critique.In part one, Boltanski compares two sociological modelsof critique: Bourdieusian critical sociology and the prag-matic sociology of critique developed by Boltanski and hiscolleagues. Although critical sociology is concerned withthe role of reflexivity in both the discipline of sociology andeveryday life, for Bourdieu, the relationship between criti-cal reflexivity and practical reflexivity remains asymmetrical(see Bourdieu, 2004). The pragmatic sociology of critique,on the other hand, reexamines the distinction between criti-cal sociologist and “ordinary” actor. This pragmatist modelroots the capacity for critique in the situations where “ordi-nary” actors engage evaluation and criticism in their day today activities. Whereas critical sociology requires the criticto assume a privileged position in order to debunk the facadesof social reality (as for example in the traditional critique ofideology); pragmatic sociology of critique involves a plural-ism of critique. The main contribution of pragmatic sociol-ogy of critique, according to Boltanski (pg. 68), has been toshow how everyday moments of dispute have the potentialto shed light on the relationship between reality (that which
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2019
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Cites background from "Book Review: On Critique by Luc Bol..."
...The pragmatic turn introduces that both Boltanski and Thévenot have developed their theory ‘in an effort to overcome the perceived shortcomings of Bourdieusian “critical sociology”— namely, the relative neglect of the perspectives of social actors’ (Stoner 2012, 37)....
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Book•
01 Jan 2005TL;DR: A century after the publication of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism, a major new work examines network-based organization, employee autonomy and post-Fordist horizontal work structures.
Abstract: A century after the publication of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism, a major new work examines network-based organization, employee autonomy and post-Fordist horizontal work structures.
2,892 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the author argues that many situations in social life can be analyzed by their requirement for the justification of action and argues that the human capacity for criticism becomes visible in the daily occurrence of disputes over criteria for justification.
Abstract: This article argues that many situations in social life can be analyzed by their requirement for the justification of action. It is in particular in situations of dispute that a need arises to explicate the grounds on which responsibility for errors is distributed and on which new agreement can be reached. Since a plurality of mutually incompatible modes of justification exists, disputes can be understood as disagreements either about whether the accepted rule of justification has not been violated or about which mode of justification to apply at all. The article develops a grammar of such modes of justification, called orders of worth (grandeur), and argues that the human capacity for criticism becomes visible in the daily occurrence of disputes over criteria for justification. At the same time, it is underlined that not all social situations can be interpreted with the help of such a sense of justice, which resides on a notion of equivalence. Regimes of love, of violence or of familiarity are systematic...
959 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: Bourdieu's "Science of Science and Reflexivity" as mentioned in this paper argues that science is in danger of becoming a handmaiden to biotechnology, medicine, genetic engineering, and military research that it risks falling under the control of industrial corporations that seek to exploit it for monopolies and profit.
Abstract: Over the last four decades, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu produced one of the most imaginative and subtle bodies of social theory of the postwar era. When he died in 2002, he was considered to be a thinker on a par with Foucault, Barthes, and Lacan a public intellectual as influential to his generation as Sartre was to his. "Science of Science and Reflexivity" will be welcomed as a companion volume to Bourdieu's now seminal "An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology." In this posthumous work, Bourdieu declares that science is in danger of becoming a handmaiden to biotechnology, medicine, genetic engineering, and military research that it risks falling under the control of industrial corporations that seek to exploit it for monopolies and profit. Science thus endangered can become detrimental to mankind. The line between pure and applied science, therefore, must be subjected to intense theoretical scrutiny. Bourdieu's goals in "Science of Science and Reflexivity" are to identify the social conditions in which science develops in order to reclaim its objectivity and to rescue it from relativism and the forces that might exploit it. In the grand tradition of scientific reflections on science, Bourdieu provides a sociological analysis of the discipline as something capable of producing transhistorical truths; he presents an incisive critique of the main currents in the study of science throughout the past half century; and he offers a spirited defense of science against encroaching political and economic forces. A masterful summation of the principles underlying Bourdieu's oeuvre and a memoir of his own scientific journey, "Science of Science and Reflexivity" is a capstone to one of the most important and prodigious careers in the field of sociology."
875 citations