Телеграм канал «Политическая теория и философия (Political theory and philosophy)»

Alan P. Kirman - Whom or What Does the Representative Individual Represent?

A modern economy presents a picture of millions of people, either as individuals or organized into groups and firms, each pursuing their own disparate interests in a rather limited part of the environment. Somehow, these varied individual activities are more or less coordinated and some relative order emerges. Economists commonly explain that this is due to Adam Smith's "invisible hand," and that despite the conflicting interests of individuals, the result of the pursuit of their selfish ends is socially satisfactory. The market provides the mechanism which links and coordinates all the activities being pursued by individuals.

Paradoxically, the sort of macroeconomic models which claim to give a picture of economic reality (albeit a simplified picture) have almost no activity which needs such coordination. This is because typically they assume that the choices of all the diverse agents in one sector consumers for example can be considered as the choices of one "representative" standard utility maximizing individual whose choices coincide with the aggregate choices of the heterogeneous individuals.

Л. Томин - Рабочий класс в постсоветской России: между автономией и кооптацией

Рецензия на книгу М. Кулаева «Профсоюзы, рабочие движения и гегемония в современной России» (М.: Издательство Института Гайдара, 2023)

Steven Loyal - Bourdieu's Theory of the State: A Critical Introduction

This book critically examines Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the state by assessing its theoretical and empirical value. Steven Loyal expertly situates Bourdieu's work within the context of both classical and modern theories of the state, providing a comprehensive frame of reference. Finally, Loyal discusses Bourdieu's theoretical limitations and projects how his theory of the state might be utilized in the future.

Will Atkinson - Beyond Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu is arguably the most influential sociologist of the twentieth century, especially since the once common criticisms of his determinism and reproductionism have receded. Now, however, his intellectual enterprise faces a new set of challenges unearthed by decades of sympathetic research: how to conceive the relationship between society and place, particularly in an increasingly global world; how to recognize the individual as a product of multiple forces and pressures; how to make sense of family relations and gender domination; and, ultimately, how to grasp how we each come to be the unique beings we are.

This book tackles these challenges head on, starting from the philosophical core of Bourdieu's sociology and taking in hints and suggestions across his corpus, to propose a range of novel concepts and arguments. In the process it outlines a new way of looking at the world to complement Bourdieu's own – one in which the focus is on the multiple social structures shaping individuals' everyday lives, not the multiple individuals comprising a single social structure.