From Le savant et le politique (Weber, int. Aron, 1959) to Le savant et le populaire (Grignon & Passeron, 1989) from an English perspective
Abstract
Aron published as Le savant et le politique (1959) [the scientist and the politician] a long introduction to the first French translations of Weber’s two lectures of 1918 – Wissenschaft als Beruf [Science as vocation] and Politik als Beruf [Politics as vocation]. This article comments on Aron’s introduction. It then looks at the divergent responses to Aron’s work of Jean-Claude Passeron and Pierre Bourdieu, both of whom were ‘mentored’ by Aron. Bourdieu and Passeron developed a sociology of education and culture in the 1960s. Passeron retained the Weberian distinction whereas Bourdieu saw social research as an instrument for political action. I comment on the political implications of the comparable development of Cultural Studies in England in the 1960s and 70s, and I come back to France to consider Passeron’s introduction to the translation of Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy (1959) as La culture du pauvre (1970). I focus next on the situation in 1979 at the year of the publication of Bourdieu’s La distinction and Lyotard’s La condition postmoderne, before discussing Le savant et le populaire [the scientist and the ordinary person] (Grignon & Passeron, 1989) and trying to draw out some conclusions which relate sociology to popular culture and populist politicsDownloads
How to Cite
Robbins, D. (2013). From Le savant et le politique (Weber, int. Aron, 1959) to Le savant et le populaire (Grignon & Passeron, 1989) from an English perspective. Theoria and Praxis: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Thought, 1(1). Retrieved from https://theoriandpraxis.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/theoriandpraxis/article/view/36912
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