French Post-War Social Theory
International Knowledge Transfer
- Derek Robbins - University of East London, UK
- Dr Simon Susen, City University London
Detailed, timely and original this book explores the trans-cultural transmission of social theory. Derek Robbins presents us with a chronological commentary on the intellectual production of five French social thinkers (Aron, Althusser, Foucault, Lyotard, Bourdieu) and on the English reception of their texts. The book:
- Sets up a Bourdieusian investigation of the habitus of the five thinkers and, comparatively, of the national sub-fields of intellectual discourse.
- Enables an inter-active generation of enquiry based on the primacy of individual experience.
- Challenges the social sciences to abandon their grand narratives and to advance the cause of social democratic inclusion.
- Reconciles the legacies of the work of Bourdieu and Lyotard in order to advance practically a socio-analytic recognition of dissensus or différence.
By representing modern classics of French social thought in socio-political context, this in-depth study encourages all social researchers to reflect on their use of social theories in their practice.