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The Spirit of Luc Boltanski: Chapter Outline, in The Spirit of Luc Boltanski: Essays on the ‘Pragmatic Sociology of Critique’
TL;DR: A brief summary of the key themes, issues, and controversies covered in each of the following chapters is provided in this paper, along with a discussion of the main issues and controversies.
Abstract: This Introduction contains a brief summary of the key themes, issues, and controversies covered in each of the following chapters.
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16 Jul 2018
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use the pragmatic sociology of critique to study interactional settings where BIAs engage in normative and morally-laden discussions about urban revitalization, focusing on the Downtown London BIA's involvement in the revitalization of a four-block downtown street called Dundas Place.
Abstract: BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT AREAS AND THE JUSTIFICATION OF URBAN REVITALIZATION: USING THE PRAGMATIC SOCIOLOGY OF CRITIQUE TO UNDERSTAND NEOLIBERAL URBAN GOVERNANCE Daniel Kudla University of Guelph, 2019 Co-Advisors: Dr. Patrick Parnaby Dr. Mervyn Horgan Business Improvement Areas (hereafter BIAs) have become a central feature of urban revitalization across North America, Australia, Western Europe, and South Africa. Urban scholars describe BIAs as a neoliberal form of urban governance insofar as these quasi-state organizations use private sector strategies to make changes to public spaces. Despite growing literature highlighting BIAs’ neoliberal form of power, there is little understanding of the influence these organizations have during urban revitalization decision-making processes. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and document analysis from two BIAs in London, Ontario, I use the pragmatic sociology of critique to study interactional settings where BIAs engage in normative and morally-laden discussions about urban revitalization. I specifically focus on the Downtown London BIA’s involvement in the revitalization of a four-block downtown street called Dundas Place as well as the Old East Village BIA’s involvement in the neighbourhood’s residential development planning process. I argue that the production of BIA spaces is contingent on interactional settings where social actors engage in dialogue, debate, and negotiation. This is not to discount BIAs’ political and economic forms of power; rather, I argue these forms of power cannot be separated from socio-cultural forms of power enacted during interactional decisionmaking processes. In addition to showing the justificatory strategies used by BIAs, I show how BIArelated decision-making processes are influenced by their organizational interests and limited by certain institutional arrangements. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to the family, mentors, and friends who have supported me over the last six years. First and foremost, I would like to thank my wonderful wife Jacqueline for all her encouragement and support throughout my academic career. We have certainly experienced all the highs and lows that came along the way and I could not have done this without her (and our little dachshund Violet) by my side. I look forward to the future that lies ahead for us. To my parents, sister, and cousins, I would have never been able to attain a doctoral degree at a Canadian university without your courage to leave Poland to begin a new life in Canada when I was just 5 years old. For that I am truly grateful. There are many people who have made a direct impact on the academic I am today. First, my doctoral studies would not have been as enjoyable without the mentorship and advice from my dedicated supervisors Dr. Patrick Parnaby and Dr. Mervyn Horgan. Patrick taught me invaluable writing, research, teaching, and grading skills throughout my six years at the University of Guelph. Because he treated me as a co-researcher and not an assistant, I was able to experience for the first time what it is like to produce and publish original sociological research. Mervyn has been instrumental in helping me guide the theoretical framework in my dissertation. It was his Advanced Topics in Sociology PhD course that taught me the importance of connecting theory to practice. Many of the ideas contained in the following chapters would not have been as clear and developed without their timely and helpful comments. A special thanks to my advisory committee member Dr. Bill O’Grady whose important work on homelessness as well as his criminological approach has certainly shaped my doctoral work. I would also like to thank Dr. Joe Michalski who has been my academic role model from the beginning of my university career. Joe has played a major role helping me navigate the academic world, starting from an undergraduate student to a part-time faculty member at Kings University College at Western University. I have also benefited from frequent discussions with my fellow graduate students and colleagues, including Michael Courey, Gregg Cullen, Brittany Etmanski, Timothy Kang, Ryan Lafleur, Laura MacDiarmid, and Crystal Weston. In particular, my frequent chats with Michael Courey about community development in London as well as broader discussions about urban sociology and social theory have helped me shape and make it through my doctoral work. His passion has certainly made an impact on my work.
27 citations
09 Oct 2020
TL;DR: Pragmatic Inquiry as discussed by the authors is a collection of essays from a group of researchers who met on a regular basis over four years to explore together novel analytical tools to make sense and account for social reality.
Abstract: Pragmatic Inquiry brings together a remarkably creative transcontinental and interdisciplinary group of researchers who met on a regular basis over four years to explore together novel analytical tools to make sense and account for social reality. It will give the reader a renewed sense of possibilities for capturing social complexity. Each chapter zooms in on a different conceptual device that aims to illuminate relatively unexplored aspects of reality. The authors draw on the work of influential scholars – for instance, Foucault’s notion of “dispositif” – but they go beyond them by digging in greater depth, extending and transposing such concepts to new objects.
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TL;DR: Even if there is more openness to religion, many rel... as mentioned in this paper argued that there is no evidence that more openness would necessarily lead to more acceptance of religion in social and political life.
Abstract: Habermas coined the term post-secularism to reflect a time period in which religions are given a more central part in social and political life. Even if there is more openness to religion, many rel...
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TL;DR: In this article, a theoretical investigation about the notion of skills within a geographical approach is presented, where the challenge is less about understanding what individuals' skills are and more about understanding how they are learned.
Abstract: This paper offers a theoretical investigation about the notion of “skills“ within a geographical approach. For spatial practices, the challenge is probably less about understanding what individuals...
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explain how forms of consent-driven domination are produced over actors with critical capacity to question the processes of domination to which they are subjected, and explain how these forms of domination are exploited over actors.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to explain how forms of consent-driven domination are produced over actors with critical capacity to question the processes of domination to which they are subjected. Dra...
9 citations
Dissertation•
01 Sep 2018
7 citations
21 Jan 2021
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the profiles of the political-moral approach, of the so-called pragmatic sociology, which in France was co-founded by Boltanski, and highlight five aspects of continuity between these perspectives: i) the problem of defining a situated action, ii) the influence of the ordinary nature of the actions, iii) compliance with practical rules, iv) the incorporation of the moral problem in a practical sense, and v) an articulation between coherence of language and consistency with a material world.
Abstract: espanolEste articulo busca definir los perfiles del enfoque politico-moral, de la llamada sociologia pragmatica, que en Francia co-fundo Boltanski. Articularemos sus principales argumentos con algunas tradiciones pragmaticas de las que resulta heredera. La hipotesis del articulo es que este enfoque siguio el dictatum de un giro pragmatico del lenguaje, que tuvo efectos sobre el interaccionismo simbolico, la etnometodologia y hasta sobre la teoria de la accion comunicativa. En este sentido, el articulo destaca cincos aspectos de continuidad entre dichas perspectivas: i) el problema de la definicion de una accion situada, ii) la influencia del caracter ordinario de las acciones, iii) el cumplimiento de reglas practicas, iv) la incorporacion del problema moral en un sentido practico, y v) una articulacion entre coherencia del lenguaje y consistencia con un mundo material. EnglishThis article seeks to define the profiles of the political-moral approach, of the so-called pragmatic sociology, which in France was co-founded by Boltanski. We will articulate its main arguments with some pragmatics traditions of which it is heir. The article's hypothesis is that this approach followed the dictatum of a pragmatic turn of language, which had effects on symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and even on the theory of communicative action. In this sense, the article highlights five aspects of continuity between these perspectives: i) the problem of defining a situated action, ii) the influence of the ordinary nature of the actions, iii) the compliance with practical rules, iv) the incorporation of the moral problem in a practical sense, and v) an articulation between coherence of language and consistency with a material world.
7 citations