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CEFRES Review of books – December 2022

The next edition of CEFRES Review of Books will take place on Friday, December 16th, at 2:30 pm, on site and online, (ID on Zoom platform 896 9016 5381).

This informal meeting gathers CEFRES team, the library readers, and professionals from libraries and publishing. The aim of our Review of Books is to make better known the publishing landscape in humanities and social sciences. Each book is presented in French and in no more than 10 minutes, so to stress its originality and stakes.

So far, the following presentations are announced:

  • Emmanuel Alcaraz : Histoire de l’Algérie et de ses mémoires (Karthala 2021) by Clément Steuer
  • Anna Colin Lebedev : Jamais frères ? : Ukraine et Russie : une tragédie postsoviétique (Seuil 2022) by Ronan Hervouet
  • Magali Della-Suda : Les nouvelles femmes de droite (Hors d’atteinte 2022) by Adrien Beauduin
  • Virginie Despentes : King-Kong théorie (Livre de poche, 2007) by Michaela Rumpíková
  • Charles Stepanoff : L’Animal et la mort (La Découverte 2021) by Hana Fořtová

Pierre Bourdieu’s Science of Science: Sources, Arenas, Legacies

Center for Science, Technology, and Society Studies (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences) and CEFRES
are pleased to invite you to the workshop “Pierre Bourdieu’s Science of Science: Sources, Arenas, Legacies.”

When: Thursday 15 December, 2022, 10 am – 6 pm
Where: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1 and online
Convenor & contact: Jan Marsalek marsalek(@)flu.cas.cz

The aim of the workshop is to reflect on Pierre Bourdieu’s conception and practice of sociology of science that he was developing since 1975 onwards. Reputed as neglected for a long time, the sociology of science and scientific knowledge has become, in the second half of the 20th Century, one of the most prominent sociological sub-disciplines, that does not hesitate to intervene into general sociology itself. Pierre Bourdieu, celebrated and influential in a wide range of sociological areas, was curiously standing aside this spectacular development of the sociology of science we commonly situate in the 1970s and 1980s. From his singular point of view, which we shall analyse, he made several intriguing criticisms of the emerging trend in the sociology of scientific knowledge, on which we wish to reflect.

The workshop picks up the threads of the Sociology and Philosophy of Physics seminars organized in 2022 by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, Prague.

Program

10:00 – 12:00 GUEST LECTURE

Pascal Ragouet, University of Bordeaux – Centre Émile Durkheim
“Science as a Field. Bourdieu’s Contribution to the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge”

– See below for the abstract –

14:00 – 18:00 ROUNDTABLE

Confirmed speakers

  • Jan Maršálek, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
    Pascal Ragouet, University of Bordeaux – Centre Émile Durkheim (UMR 5116)
  • Manolis Simos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • Julien Wacquez, CEFRES
  • Lukáš Hadwiger Zámečník, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc
Abstract of the guest lecture

Science as a field. Bourdieu’s contribution to the sociology of scientific knowledge
Pascal Ragouet
Full Professor of sociology – University of Bordeaux – Centre Émile Durkheim (UMR 5116)

In the course of its history, the sociology of science has been traversed by several major debates. The first is the one that T. Shinn and I analysed in the book titled Controversies on Science by proposing to consider Robert K. Merton’s sociology as a form of differentiationism opposed to the anti-differentiationist tendencies of post-Kuhnian programmes of research on science such as the Strong Programme (D. Bloor, B. Barnes), the empirical programme of relativism (H. Collins, T. Pinch), laboratory studies (B. Latour and S. Woolgar, K. Knorr Cetina, M. Lynch) or the network actor theory (M. Callon, J. Law, B. Latour).

The second concerns the question of whether scientific knowledge can be sociologically analysed. With R. Merton, the sociology of science kept its distance from a sociology of scientific knowledge. The break comes with the Strong Programme and the Empirical Programme of relativism. The pendulum swings back the other way with the radical constructivism of network actor theories. Today, sociologists of science and technical innovation seem to be less concerned with scientific knowledge than with the need to think about science in society, when it is called upon by industrialists and politicians, when it feeds expertise, when it is questioned in the context of risk management and reflections on the relationship between science and democracy.

Bourdieu’s contribution to the sociology of science makes it possible to overcome these lines of conflict because it is based on a theoretical framework articulating a theory of social structuring, a theory of practice and a theory of social asymmetries. Based on two personal research projects on biology, the aim is to show the fruitfulness of this approach.

For further information, see:  http://odolnaspolecnost.cz/vedeckagramotnost/

Conservative mobilizations in transnational perspective

Conservative mobilizations in Central Eastern Europe in transnational perspective

International Conference

Date: 8-9 December 2022
Location: CEFRES Library
Organizers:
– CEFRES
– Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
– Research Group (GDR)  “Connaissance de l’Europe médiane”, CNRS,
– The French Ministry of Higher Education and Research – PARCECO Programme
Convenors:  Anemona Constantin (CEFRES / Charles University), Valentin Behr (CNRS, Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique)
Language: English, French

Program

Day 1, 8 December 2022

09:30 : Welcome coffee & snacks
10:00 : Opening remarks, Mateusz Chmurski, Director of CEFRES
10:15 : General introduction, Valentin Behr & Anemona Constantin

10:30–12:00 – Panel 1 – Intellectuals’ engagements and the transnational circulation of ideas
Chair : Ronan Hervouet (CEFRES / Université de Bordeaux)
Discussant: Jakub Franek (IPS, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University)

10:30 : Alihan Mestci (CESSP, Paris I University/CNRS/ EHESS), “Erdoğan regime. The expertise on the issue of the “legitimate culture”

10:50 : Anemona Constantin (CEFRES / IPS, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University), “How the conservative intellectuals do mobilize? Reflections on the emergence of a conservative International”

11:10 Discussion

11: 30 : Q&A

12.00-13.30: Lunch

13:30–15:30 – Panel 2 – Espaces intermédiaires et registres de mobilisation conservatrice
Chair: Michèle Baussant (ISP-CNRS / ICM / CEFRES)
Discussant: Annie Collovald (ISP-CNRS / Paris Nanterre University)

13:30 : Marie-Hélène Sa Vilas-Boas (CREDA, IHEAL / ERMES / Paris 3 University – Côte d’Azur University) “The ‘truth’ as a programm. Production of the political offer and religious references among the Bolsonarists in Rio (online)

13:50 : Aurélie Stern (CETOBaC, EHESS / Galatasaray University), “All descendants of Attila? The Turkish presence at the Macar Turan Kurultayı identity festival in Hungary.”

14:10 : Adrien Nonjon (CREE, INALCO), “Technology as a tool of the conservative renewal in Baltic space? The case of the prometheist new-right wings”

14:30 : Discussion

14:50 : Q&A

15.30-16.00: Coffee break

16:00–18:30 –Panel 3 – Late socialism and illiberal post-communism in perspective
Chair: Valentin Behr (CESSP, Paris I University / CNRS / EHESS) & Anemona Constantin (CEFRES / Charles University)

16:00 : Michal Kopeček (Czech Academy of Sciences): “Compromise in the Rule-of-Law: politics of liberal constitutionalism and the Rule of Law doctrines in East Central Europe after 1989”

16:20 : Laure Neumayer (Picardie University “Jules Verne”): The transformations of Central European anti-Communism after 1989

16:40 : Jérôme Heurtaux ( Paris-Dauphine University) : “When left-wing historians and activists re-read the communist past in Poland” (online)

17:00 : Julian Waller (IERES / George Washington University) (online): “‘Illiberalism’ in the East but ‘postliberalism’ in the West? Conceptualizing and mapping ideological dissent from Eastern Europe to America” (online)

17:20 : Discussion

17:40 : Q&A

18.30: End of Day 1

19:30 : Dinner

Day 2: 9 December 2022

9:00–11.00 – Panel 4 – Civil society and grassroots mobilizations
Chair: Valentin Behr (CESSP, CNRS)
Discussant: Pavel Barša (Faculty of Arts, Charles University)

9:00 : Eve Gianoncelli (Maison francaise d’Oxford) The forms and limitations of metapolitics: the case of the European Conservative (tbc)

9:20 : Marcin Ślarzyński (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences), “From the rituals of rebellion to the rituals of power? Local cultural and political practices of right-wing civil society organizations in Poland before and after taking power in 2015”

9:40 : Adrien Beauduin (CEFRES / Central European University), “Learning from the West? Western sources of the Czech parliamentary far-right”

10:00 : Discussion

10:20 : Q&A

11:00-11:30: Coffee break

11:30–13:30: Panel 5 – Legal order, moral order and illiberal identities within the conservative realm
Chair: Fedora Parkmann (CEFRES / Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
Discussant: Zora Hesová (Faculty of Arts, Charles University)

11: 30 : Natasza Quelvennec (CESSP, Paris I University / CNRS / EHESS), “Gender on trial. A legal think tank at the heart of the conservative international”

11:50 : Victor Hugo Ramirez-Garcia (LIPHA, Paris-Est Créteil University), “European institutions’ response to conservative backlash. The case of transnational justice and gender education”

12:10 : Paul Gradvohl (Paris 1 University), “Moral order, social order and (inter)nationalist circulations during the 20th and 21st centuries”

12:30 : Discussion

12:50 : Q&A

13:30: End of Day 2 

You can find the call for papers here.

You can find the abstract of each presentation here.

You can download the programme here.

You can find the list of participants here.

Foto: Petr Sís, Člověk a víra.

Bourdieu’s Legacy in Literary Studies

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Bourdieu’s death, CEFRES in collaboration with the Department of Czech and Comparative Literature of the Charles University in Prague organizes a round table on the development of the Bourdieu’s central concepts during last two decades. 

Bourdieu’s Legacy in Literary Studies: Expanding Territories, Changing Concepts

When: Friday, December 2, 2022, 4.30-6.30pm
Where: CEFRES library, Prague and online:
To register, please contact cefres[@]cefres.cz
Language: English
Organizers: CEFRES & Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Participants:
Anna SCHUBERTOVÁ (Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
Csaba SZALÓ (Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University)
Jan VÁŇA (Institute of Czech literature, Czech Academy of Sciences)
Eva VOLDŘICHOVÁ-BERÁNKOVÁ (Department of Romance Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
Moderated by: Josef ŠEBEK (Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University)

As in many other branches of research, Bourdieu’s contribution in literary studies is unquestionable. The theory of the literary field, which had been in the making since the end of the 1960s and found its most comprehensive and developed shape in The Rules of Art (1992), has a lasting impact both in literary theory and literary history. Other Bourdieu’s works inspire literary research as well, from the early article “Intellectual Field and Creative Project” (1966) to Pascalian Meditations (1997). His lectures at Collège de France whose transcripts are still being published also offer an abundance of impulses for literary scholarship. Yet equally substantial is the production of his collaborators and successors that maintain this living body of work, transpose it to different theoretical and methodological contexts and provide its operationalization and critical analysis. In the framework of the series of events PIERRE BOURDIEU 2022 we want to address some of the nodal points of these developments in the past two decades, focusing on the expanded territory of research – intellectual field, translation studies, study of literature and politics, world literature, ethnography of authors, the study of self-presentation of authors in current media environment, etc. – and concepts ranging from new perspectives on the literary field to ethos and author’s posture. We want to trace these developments and assess Bourdieu’s magisterial contribution in the context of current research.

“Grand Entretien” with Ghassan Hage: Bourdieu and the Politics of Viability

On the occasion of the publication, in Czech language, of Pierre Bourdieu’s Pascalian Meditations (Karolinum Press; translated by  Jan Petříček) and within a series of workshops dedicated to Pierre Bourdieu’s legacy organized by CEFRES, Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences, Professor Ghassan HAGE will give a “Grand Entretien” at the French Institute in Prague.

Date: Thursday 1 December 2022, 17:00
Location: French Institute in Prague, Štěpánská 35, Prague 1
Organizers: CEFRES in partnership with the French Institute in Prague
Language: English
Moderation : Yasar Abu Ghosh (Faculty of Humanities, Charles Universities)

Ghassan Hage is a Lebanese-Australian anthropologist, professor at the University of Melbourne and currently visiting professor at Max Planck Institute in Halle. After graduating at Macquarie University and the University of Nice, he collaborated with Pierre Bourdieu at EHESS.

Specialized in comparative studies on nationalism, racism and multiculturalism, he devoted his fieldwork to Libanese diaspora, Middle East and Australia, and is renowned for his analyses of the construction of white populations’ social and cultural identity.
His conceptual work on the political dimension of critical sociology draws on Bourdieu’s oeuvre.

Among his publications:

  • The Diasporic Condition, University of Chicago Press, 2021.
  • Decay, Duke University Press, 2021.
  • Is Racism an Environmental Threat?, Polity Press, 2017.
  • Alter-Politics: Critical Anthropology and the Radical Imagination. Melbourne University Press,  2015.
  • White Nation: fantasies of White supremacy in a multicultural society, Routledge, 1998.

Memory of the Past and Politics of the Present

International conference

Date: 28 & 29 November 2022
Venue: Goethe-Institut, Masarykovo nábřeží 32, Prague 1
Organizer: Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences within the Strategy AV21
Partners: Centre français de recherche en sciences sociales, Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau, European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten Continue reading Memory of the Past and Politics of the Present →