Video Interviews

The “California dream” does not date back to the Gold Rush of the 19^th century, but only to the 20^th, and is more a matter of criticism than enthusiasm. Louis Warren invites us to put this myth into perspective, and to be wary of the tendency to see California as the laboratory of the United States.

Quotas in India contribute to the emancipation of lower castes while producing perverse effects that are difficult to control. Rohini Somanathan questions the right balance between targeted positive discrimination policies and public policies with a universal vocation.

How did African-Americans attempt to overturn the relations of racial domination in the United States? From the post-war period onwards, by creating cultural and educational institutions specific to their community, which are still useful today in the fight against discrimination.

What traces have colonial enterprises left behind? By confronting the public history of colonialism in the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe with that of his own family, Simukai Chigudu reveals the repressed part of the colonial legacy and how it continues to fuel the cycle of violence.

At the Vincennes Cartridge Factory, as part of the Paris Autumn Festival, the Théâtre du Soleil company plays Our Life in Art, a new play by American playwright Richard Nelson.

Whether at work, at school, or in personal relationships, implicit gender biases are still very much alive and well. What is more, despite numerous attempts to prevent stereotypes and their effects, they continue to affect people’s performance, preferences, and opinions.

Laurence Ralph’s ethnography explores the various systems of punishment that injure black and brown Americans’ bodies and that contribute to maintain social hierarchies that rely on the vestiges of slavery. These injuries call for healing and overcoming trauma, and also for reparative justice.

Hakeem Jefferson argues that the United States is experiencing a democratic backsliding. He calls for deep institutional reforms that aim at better reflecting the American public, such as expanding the number of judges in the Supreme Court or having a US Senate apportionment based on state population.

Despite the rise of far-right parties and the adaptation of dictatorships to international pressures, political scientists Helen Milner and Daniel Treisman are confident in the future of Democracy, the only political model suited to accommodate the fast-paced innovations that are driving capitalism.

Fernand de Magellan’s “circumnavigation of the globe” in 1519-1522 conceals a whole fascinating and little-known universe: crews, kings, peoples, plants, peaceful or bloody encounters, hopes and fears. But, come to think of it: did Magellan really circumnavigate the globe?

With China’s regained power on the world stage, making accessible and studying the way intellectuals reflect on their country and contribute to the global conversation has become indispensable.

What’s more ordinary than a bridge? However, a bridge is a living structure that has to be designed, built and maintained. Here is our interview with a legendary bridge designer, who is also a man skilled in the art.

More and more things are being commodified, from body parts to personal data. This raises not only ethical questions, but also legal and economic problems. What are the limits of commodification? And what are alternatives when we nonetheless need to transfer some of these things?

The havoc wreaked last year by Hurricane Harvey was yet another example of the devastating effects of climate change. Many ignored the role of the ocean in fueling the tropical cyclone. Yet acknowledging its importance in climate change is vital if we want to save our planet.

A prominent sociologist of social class in contemporary Europe and co-director of the LSE’s international inequalities institute, Mike Savage evokes his researches on social class in the UK. Outlining the importance of class-based inequalities and their new forms, from both a material and symbolic standpoint, he discusses why they are so critical to understand the Brexit and Donald Trump’s election.

What role can scientists play in the earthquake risk reduction? Eric Calais discusses the paramount importance of establishing a dialogue between scientists, public authorities and humanitarian help in risky areas. One of the major challenges remains the difficulty of converting scientific knowledge into effective and safe public action.

Linsey McGoey discusses philanthropic organizations such as the Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Addressing the problematic aspects of “philanthrocapitalism”, she draws attention to the growing lack of transparency and accountability of those foundations.

Can fresh air come from young democracies like Taiwan and civic-minded hacktivists like Audrey Tang? This interview shows that both help renew democratic practices in providing sophisticated collaborative, participatory and deliberative tools.

Published eleven years ago, the Vocabulaire européen des philosophies, also known as the Dictionnaire des intraduisibles, was translated into English in 2014. Barbara Cassin discusses the aim of this project, and how the book is being given a new lease of life thanks to translations in various languages.

What is big data ? Who uses it and how ? Pierre-Michel Menger and Simon Paye analyse the economics of these new information flows, which are transforming both marketing and consumption practices, and probably social sciences as well.

What is epigenetics? In this interview Edith Heard explains the specificity of this relatively new discipline which studies the genetic expression of our cells and represents new hope in the field of cancer research.

Antoine Compagnon discusses two recent projects that throw light on the intellectual history of the 20^th century. The controversies surrounding the institutionalisation of sociology or anthropology illustrate how academic subjects have developed in France; a literary anthology situates the literature of the Great War within an international context.

The hyper-specialisation of historical studies is not inevitable. For Harvard Professor David Armitage, intellectual history urgently needs to rediscover its taste for the longue durée. Otherwise, naturalist approaches may end up dominating what we now know as Big History.

Bodies that are excluded, ill, damaged: this is often the first glimpse that a historian gets of men and women in the past. Philippe Artières talks about the physical and emotional experience that this creates: “Their history flows through my body.” The writing of history is influenced by other people’s suffering, but also by our own.

Explaining the genesis of his work, the anthropologist Tim Ingold stresses the contemporary and interdisciplinary dimension of anthropology, as well as the strong relationship this discipline maintains with the art world.

Has love been invented by French women ? In what sense can we say that the breast has a history linked to politics, motherwood and erotica? As a specialist of these subjects, literary scholar Marilyn Yalom offers unexpected answers to these questions while drawing an interesting parallel between the United States and France.

The slave ship was a central institution of slave trade and slavery, as well as a place of extreme violence and suffering. Its ghost still haunts America today through the persistence of racism and inequalities.

What place should there be on Earth for the Moderns? Following the publication of An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: an Anthropology of the Moderns, author Bruno Latour talks to Arnaud Esquerre and Jeanne Lazarus about the birth and set-up of his masterful study, which uses all of his previous works as the basis for an inquiry into fifteen possible modes of existence that would allow the Moderns to rethink their place on Earth.

How do we define ourselves? Should we abolish the concept of gender from the expression of our identity, due to its being a vehicle of inequality and injustice? In this interview, François de Singly explains that what is important is for every individual to be able to define the hierarchy governing the different dimensions of his/her identity.

Is there not a contradiction between the aims of sustainable urban development, which inflates the cost of housing, and the requirements of fairness in access to housing? Analysing the situation in France and comparing it to neighbouring European countries, Vincent Renard provides answers to this question.

2012, Terminator, Blade Runner, Melancholia. There is no shortage of films portraying the end of the world; in fact, they are becoming ever more successful. But what is their real meaning? Are they pure entertainment, allowing us to play with the idea that everything could stop from one day to the next? Peter Szendy believes that we should be taking them very seriously, because they express the fundamental nature of cinema itself – and because they tell us, in their own way, what a world is.

Looking back on several decades of intellectual activity, American sociologist Jack Katz explains his vision of a three-dimensional ethnography, combining human interactions, biographical experiences, and historical processes.

Negotiations between protesters and the governement have failed: the political crisis ignited in Quebec several weeks ago is far from being over. For Professor Christian Nadeau, of Montreal University, much more is at stake here than student tuition fees. As the emergency law passed by Quebec’s provincial government shows, the true object of the conflict is social democracy and the society that goes with it.

Paul Jobin, who has been monitoring workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant, provides an analysis of the Japanese government’s denial of the health implications for these workers and, more broadly, the long-term effects of the disaster. This censorship is, however, being challenged by the social mobilization that has followed, particularly on the Internet.

History cannot be written as if nations had always been around, and as if men had not found countless ways to ignore their frontiers. Historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam invites his peers to make use of the riches that lie in the multilingual archives of humanity to reveal connections that were once relevant to huge areas of the world.