Course of lectures: „Sociology as it is written. From Bourdieu to Latour” – prof. Jean-Louis Fabiani

Instytut Filozofii oraz Interdyscyplinarny Zespół Współpracy UW-EHESS
Reccomend a course
by prof. Jean-Louis Fabiani
(EHESS PARIS, visiting professor at UW)
Sociology as it is written. From Bourdieu to Latour
[21th-29th of May, 2015]

[Course description – extract]

How has sociology taken the various turns that have affected the social sciences in the last quarter of a century? Drawing on the close reading of a series of important books, from Pierre Bourdieu’s Pascalian Meditations to Bruno Latour’s An Inquiry into the Modes of Existence, the lectures propose a coherent narrative of the recent history. The development of the historical sciences within the university context of the 20th century has made more difficult the emergence of very general assertions about the totality of human history. If something as an epistemological program can be proposed, it must be based on the analysis of the modes of construction of our typifying, stylizing and comparing practices. Generalization cannot be separated from the demonstration of regularities and from their handling through stabilized procedures. The political and intellectual history of generalization in our disciplines is thus to a large extent identical to the development of the formatting of objects. The reflexive turn towards the politico-epistemological genesis of such a tool kit is a necessary stage on the road to the reassessment of the generalizing potentialities of our knowledge, which cannot be broken away from the moment they are produced and from their political goals.

[The course is particularly addressed to students and young researches interested in multidisciplinary approach]

Course code in USOS: 3501-SOCWRIT-S

Course’s Timetable

Jean-Louis Fabiani is Professor of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the Central European University in Budapest and directeur d’études à l’Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. Born in 1951 in Algiers (Algeria), he studied at the Ecole normale supérieure and at the Sorbonne and received his Phd in 1980 from the EHESS, (Pierre Bourdieu was the supervisor). From 1980 to 1988 he was agrégé-répétiteur then maître-assistant at the Department of Social Sciences at the Ecole normale supérieure. In 1988 he moved to the administration of culture, being appointed as Director of Cultural Affairs in Corsica. He went back to the academic world in 1991 when he joined the EHESS, first in Marseilles, then in Paris in 2002. He started with CEU in September 2008. Besides, J.L. Fabiani has hold visiting positions in the University of California at San Diego, the University of Chicago, l’Université de Montréal, Humboldt Universitaet in Berlin and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. During the academic year 2005-2006 he was a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. He is the author of nine personal books, among them Les Philosophes de la République (1988), Lire en prison (1995), Beautés du Sud (2005) l’Education populaire et le théâtre. Le festival d’Avignon en action (2008) and Qu’est-ce qu’un philosophe francais ? (2010). He has edited four other books, among them La Société vulnérable (1987) and le Goût de l’enquête (2001).

Additional information or assistance. Dr Michal Kozlowski michalkozlowski@uw.edu.pl