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Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Inquiries: Reflections on the Power of Superstition, Suspicion, and Scrutiny

Simon Susen
TLDR
This article provided a critical analysis of Luc Boltanski's account of the multifaceted relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries in modern societies, focusing on the valuable insights his work offers into the relationship between conspiracies and inquiries.
Abstract: 
The main purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of Luc Boltanski’s account of the multifaceted relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries in modern societies. It is striking that, although this important aspect of Boltanski’s oeuvre has been commented on by several scholars, his principal contributions to this area of investigation have been largely overlooked and received hardly any serious attention by researchers in the humanities and social sciences. This paper is an attempt to fill this noticeable gap in the literature. Thus, rather than covering the entire breadth and depth of Boltanski’s writings, the paper will focus on the valuable insights his work offers into the relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries. To this end, the analysis is divided into two parts. The first part comprises an overview of Boltanski’s central theoretical contributions to our understanding of mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries. The second part offers some critical reflections on important issues arising from Boltanski’s examination of the relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries – especially with regard to its limitations and shortcomings.

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Citations
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DOI

Between forms of life and immanent criticism: towards a new critical theory?

Simon Susen
- 04 May 2022 - 
TL;DR: In this article , the authors examine Rahel Jaeggi's critical theory of forms of life, and suggest that it represents a major contribution to contemporary social philosophy and that critical theory will continue to serve as a reservoir of conceptual tools for the study of power relations.
References
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Book

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Erving Goffman
TL;DR: For instance, in the case of an individual in the presence of others, it can be seen as a form of involuntary expressive behavior as discussed by the authors, where the individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.
Book

The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism

Gøsta Esping-Andersen
TL;DR: In this paper, Esping-Andersen distinguishes three major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different Western countries, and argues that current economic processes such as those moving toward a post-industrial order are shaped not by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences.
Journal ArticleDOI

Outline of a Theory of Practice.

Arthur W. Frank, +1 more
- 01 Mar 1980 - 
Book

The logic of practice

Pierre Bourdieu
TL;DR: In this article, the Imaginary Anthropology of Subjectivism is described as an "imaginary anthropology of subjectivism" and the social uses of kinship are discussed. And the work of time is discussed.
Book

Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory

Bruno Latour
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the difficulty of being an ANT and the difficulties of tracing the social networks of a social network and how to re-trace the social network.