Justice in reality: overcoming moral relativism in Luc Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology of critique

The Spirit of Luc Boltanski: Chapter Outline, in The Spirit of Luc Boltanski: Essays on the ‘Pragmatic Sociology of Critique’

Abstract: This Introduction contains a brief summary of the key themes, issues, and controversies covered in each of the following chapters.

New Technologies Supporting the Shift to User-Led Approaches in Social Services: A Study of the Implementation of Baromètre

Abstract: User-led approaches are increasingly common in the field of social services and call for significant change in social service culture and practices. This research1 aims to study the implementation ...

Meaningful Moments at Work : Frames Evoked by In-House and Consultancy Designers

Abstract: Design is increasingly recognized as a competitive advantage for companies, but we know relatively little of the activities and perceptions of designers in different organizational contexts...

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

Abstract: Hannah Arendt's portrayal of the terrible consequences of blind obedience, "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" contains an introduction by Amos Elon in "Penguin Classics". Sparking a flurry of heated debate, Hannah Arendt's authoritative and stunning report on the trial of German Nazi SS leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in "The New Yorker" in 1963. This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript commenting on the controversy that arose over her book. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, "Eichmann in Jerusalem" is as shocking as it is informative - a meticulous and unflinching look at one of the most unsettling (and unsettled) issues of the twentieth century. Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was for many years University Professor of Political Philosophy in the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research and a Visiting Fellow of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. She is also the author of "Eichmann in Jerusalem", "On Revolution", and "Between Past and Future". If you enjoyed "Eichmann in Jerusalem", you might like Elie Wiesel's "Night", available in "Penguin Modern Classics". "Deals with the greatest problem of our time ...the problem of the human being within a modern totalitarian system". (Bruno Bettelheim, "The New Republic"). "A profound and documented analysis...Bound to stir our minds and trouble our consciences". ("Chicago Tribune").

The New Spirit of Capitalism

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.

Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality

Abstract: that a plurality of the American Catholic bishops endorse a nuclear freeze (p. 4), saying that they are thus "taking their stance with Moscow,55 which is for a freeze, and not with the Vatican, which "is still in favor of disarmament?not a freeze.55 To make any sense at all, Mr. Lawler must mean that being for the freeze means that one is not for disarmament? hardly a rational position. One recalls here the arguments, during the 19305s and 19405s, that being for racial justice in the United States was suspect if not immoral, in the eyes of some, because the communists also favored it.

The Sociology of Critical Capacity

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...

On Justification: Economies of Worth

Abstract: On Justification: Economies of Worth. By Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot. Translated by Catherine Porter. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 400p. 39.50 paper.Those interested in any of a variety of fields—reasoning about justice, the foundations and mechanics of social interaction, rational action, value formation, norm change, or conflict—will find rich potential in this ambitious and challenging book by sociologist Luc Boltanski and economist/statistician Laurent Thevenot, which does not fit into any single research paradigm. Published in France more than 15 years ago, the book is available in this English translation and ought to have a significant impact on social theory generally.