the public face of french social theorists
I’m finishing a visit to France where I attended an Organization Studies workshop and then spent several days sightseeing. I’ll write more later about the workshop, although if you’re interested you can find out more here. What I wanted to write about now, as I spend my last night in Paris, is how delighted I am by French society. In addition to the great bread and other food, awe-inspiring museums, amazing castles, and quiet idyllic countrysides, one thing that really struck me is how alive French intellectual life is. People read, everywhere. Bookstores abound. Even the magazine stands and tobacco stores are intellectually vibrant. Today I passed by a magazine with a picture of Derrida on the cover. I don’t know what the article was about but I gathered it had something to do with Derrida’s legacy. Derrida isn’t the only French theorist whose face I’ve seen on books or magazines since I arrived. Philosophers seem to have a special place here. Apparently Bourdieu was a rock star (or at least a combat sports star) in France.
So what is it about the French that make them so interested in philosophers and theorists? Why is Derrida a household name in France? Why isn’t he know in the U.S.? If any of you Francophiles have any good answers, I’d love to hear them.
Wait, Derrida, unknown in the US? He’s got more readership on your side of the Atlantic than on ours!
Culture gets enormous subsidies from the central state and from regional authorities. What you have observed in magazine stands, for instance, is a result of state protection. You cannot sell just ten or twenty titles in your shop–you have to buy packages of 50+ titles. Consequently, many small magazines get a chance to be distributed everywhere (some friends of mine launched a magazine with a bunch of writers and free software; two years later, I can buy their stuff at any train station).
Books have been protected too since 1981 by a one-price-only law. Many of them cost very little: beer in Paris is around 4 euros, Chinese takeaway is around 5 euros, and a 500+ pages history of England by P. Chassaigne is around 8 euros. Compare with the UK, where newspapers are cheap but the rest of horrendously expensive.
Just a few ideas to get the ball rolling.
Fr.
May 31, 2010 at 9:41 pm
I’ll grab the low-hanging fruit here, and refer you to:
How to Become a Dominant French Philosopher: The Case of Jacques Derrida
Michele Lamont
The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 93, No. 3. (Nov., 1987), pp. 584-622.
Jenn Lena
May 31, 2010 at 11:15 pm
You can have Derrida. I have my own preferences.
Second, the bestselling edition of Atlas Shrugged is the mass-market paperback, which is of course the cheapest. That’s the edition whose sales are tracked in the chart. But the bestselling edition on Amazon is the more expensive trade paperback, which is the one whose sales the Economist analyzes. Why? Are Amazon customers older and more affluent, so that they prefer the larger book even at a higher cost? Do many local bookstores carry only the mass-market edition?
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/05/18/what-caused-atlas-shrugged-sales-to-soar/
Michael E. Marotta
June 1, 2010 at 1:25 am
Every student taking “le bac” at the end of lycée will be examined on philosophy, even those bound for universités and grandes écoles in engineering, science, economics, and management. Would Americans pay attention to philosophy if it was a shared course of study/social experience in high school or college?
I’d propose that Derrida is popular because his “projet” creates ample opportunity for long, impassioned discourse — the French national sport.
REW
June 1, 2010 at 2:29 am
Why is Derrida popular in France, but not in the United States? – My first thought is French Nationalism. I’m guessing Paul Krugman and Milton Friedman are relatively unknown in France, but sometimes appear on magazine covers here. I imagine both are more influential academics than Derrida. The French celebrate a philospher because he’s one of the more relavent French academics. …Why there aren’t many famous French economists is a different question.
Joe
June 1, 2010 at 4:31 am
I wonder if it is because, historically, France has been the “pivotal voter” on so many key issues in European history. Throughout its history, France has been in the observer’s role; the occupied power, the triumphant and defeated empire several times over, the first (probably) successful democratic revolution in Industrial Europe… it has been a military state and a subjugated power, the defining global economic power and the pivotal player in Europolitik that created the United States and sent the Continent to war many times. Its people have a uniquely advantageous history of being in a place to, well, contemplate the actions of others.
Okay, test.
(Some metric of ‘great philosophers’)=a+x1(number of declared wars as defender and aggressor in last 1000 years)+x2(some smoothed measure of trade/GDP ratio)+x3(number of international agreements signed)
John
June 1, 2010 at 4:35 am
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June 1, 2010 at 11:42 am
Joe: “Why is Derrida popular in France, but not in the United States? – My first thought is French Nationalism. I’m guessing Paul Krugman and Milton Friedman are relatively unknown in France… The French celebrate a philos[o]pher because he’s one of the more rel[e]vent French academics. …Why there aren’t many famous French economists is a different question.”
No, Derrida is not famous because of nationalism. French nationalists revere very different figures, most of them being writers. There is a bias in the current thread towards philosophy, but in France, the national sport is not philosophy, it’s classical literature (check any book on French intellectuels for an explanation; I guess Perry Anderson has some views on this).
France has a few ‘famous’ economists if you define ‘famous’ as ‘known within the national borders.’ National newspaper runs a weekly (?) column by Thomas Piketty. Extreme-left satyrical newspaper has its own economics op-ed too. Esther Duflo is currently in the headlines. And the French economic blogosphere is a very vibrant one. The current debate on pension reform is also an opportunity for newspapers to publish interviews with lots of economists. Sociologists and political scientists also make it to the news columns on a regular basis.
Fr.
June 1, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Short and uncultured response: philosophy and sociology are very prestigious careers in France. Professionals are expected be intellectuals and to engage in public debates. In the US they are not as well regarded.
Guillermo
June 1, 2010 at 3:34 pm
France has a few ‘famous’ economists if you define ‘famous’ as ‘known within the national borders.’
And they have opened this school of economics in Paris which is meant to compete with the best in the world.
Guillermo
June 1, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Guillermo: philosophy and sociology are among the least prestigious and least rewarding (in terms of jobs) choices for university students. If you become an accomplished philosopher, yes, you might become high-profile with the help of media attention, but sociologist, not that much (short answer).
The Paris School of Economics is run by Thomas Piketty, IIRC.
Fr.
June 1, 2010 at 3:44 pm
“Guillermo: philosophy and sociology are among the least prestigious and least rewarding (in terms of jobs) choices for university students. If you become an accomplished philosopher, yes, you might become high-profile with the help of media attention, but sociologist, not that much (short answer).”
Qualifications:
I memorized this tasteless joke I read on an Internet forum, made by Americans who were angry at Diego Gambetta’s article on engineers and terrorism:
“The engineering major asks: how does this work?
The (natural) science major asks: why does it work like that?
The sociology major says: do you want fries with that?”
Which pretty much sums up the attitude in many countries towards studying sociology. Contrast with the attitude in France, where sociologists like Bourdieu, Aron, Crozier, Boudon were highly regarded. In the US, on the contrary, there is no institutional obligation for the sociologist to be an intellectual: knowing research methods and middle-range theories is usually enough. The French intellectual sphere, on the contrary, is quite vibrant and interdisciplinary, with sociologists, historians, economists, philosophers, etc., rubbing shoulders to engage in the issues of the day. There is no need for labels like “public sociology” over there.
Guillermo
June 1, 2010 at 3:55 pm
You are right, and this is why I said “not so much”:
- Bourdieu, Boudon et al. all come from a precise historical period at the exception of Bourdieu, whose fame lived on.
- But otherwise, French students with a degree in sociology obtained in the last 20 years are serving fries today.
Make a list of the 10 more prestigious venues to so social research in France, I would be surprised to see a sociologist at their head (ENS: M. Canto-Sperber is a philosopher, Sciences Po: B. Latour is some sort of an anthropologist, EHESS: ? probably a historian, PSE is economists, etc.).
(Was Aron a sociologist? I believe he was considered a historian or a philosopher.)
Fr.
June 1, 2010 at 5:48 pm
The French celebrate a philospher because he’s one of the more relavent French academics. …Why there aren’t many famous French economists is a different question
Free Jar Games
June 1, 2010 at 6:48 pm
“But otherwise, French students with a degree in sociology obtained in the last 20 years are serving fries today.”
I don’t doubt that. Certainly the profession has seen a downward shift in recent years, France included. However the original post question I was getting at was:
“So what is it about the French that make them so interested in philosophers and theorists?”
I’m arguing that the institutionalization and public appeal of philosophy and sociology in France is quite different from what has happened in the USA. I’m assuming that Brayden, being an American, is used to a certain ostracism being imposed on sociologists (were viewers of Bowling for Columbine aware that Barry Glassner, who was interviewed for like 30 seconds in that film, is a sociologist?).
“Was Aron a sociologist? I believe he was considered a historian or a philosopher.”
He was a historian, sociologist, and historian of sociology.
Guillermo
June 2, 2010 at 1:50 am
“Why there aren’t many famous French economists is a different question”
I’m making a very wild guess here, based solely on what I’ve read, so flame at will.
I suppose it’s because for a long time French economics was colonized by other social sciences. In the US, the Mecca of economics, the opposite happened.
Guillermo
June 2, 2010 at 11:47 am
Reading takes longer and over a time horizon, cheaper than other forms of entertainment. This is the case with conversation. There are other places the French have to spend money on, such as great food and travel. There is likely a path-dependent effect on the gene pool (book readers have children that are book readers).
Pani
June 2, 2010 at 10:02 pm
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