Societal issues All books

Gérard Chaliand, Sophie Mousset
2000 Years of Christianities A Historical Guide
Two thousand years of Christian thought are reviewed here through some key texts of the Christian tradition...

Jean-Baptiste de Foucauld
The 3 Cultures of Human Development Resistance, Regulation, Utopia
Today, economic growth has taken off again, creating jobs and making full employment a feasible goal. And yet, at a time when we seem to be at the brink of a new recession, nothing seems to have really changed. Modernisation may exclude fewer members of our society than had been previously feared, but, if we are not careful, their exclusion will be all the greater. It is no longer possible to retain a soft procedural approach to democracy. Democracy needs to return to its origins; it must be given a goal, based on a strong vision of humanity and of humanity as part of society. It is necessary to construct human development along the lines of three political and spiritual cultures which represent our common heritage : resistance, regulation and utopia. Jean-Baptiste de Foucauld is a senior official in the French Treasury. Until 1995 he was a commissioner of Frances economic plan. He is active in numerous think-tanks and associations that struggle against social exclusion and unemployment.

Laurence Caron-Verschave, Yves Ferroul
A Century Ago Marrying for Love Was a Novelty A New History of the Western Couple
The history of male-female relations, from earliest times to the present

Catherine Bonnet
A Gesture of Love Giving birth anonymously
Why do some women give birth anonymously so that their child is instantly adopted? A pedopsychoanalyst, Catherine Bonnet recounts the heart-breaking testimonies of these suffering women whose single gesture of love is to protect their child from the violence within themselves. A fresh look at the foundations of maternity and of filiation. Catherine Bonnet is a pedopsychoanalyst.

André Brahic
A Manifesto for Science
Because science fascinates and awakens the mind, it should be given pride of place in society and education

Barbara Polla
A Woman First
A unique, personal and passionate approach to a fundamental question: the position of the two sexes, face to face and in the world.

Jean-Michel Fourgous
Academic Success in the Digital Era
Parents and teachers can help children achieve personal and academic success. This book shows them how.

Jacques Perriault
Access to Online Knowledge
It is now possible to research and organise information and study online, through the Internet and with the help of satellites. However, the euphoric claims made for e-learning in the past, and the posturing strategies of telecommunications operators, were followed by a profound feeling of disillusion. What is the digital future ? What role can it play in education ? What measures need to be put in place in order to ensure long-lasting development ? Jacques Perriault teaches media and communications studies at the University of Paris-X-Nanterre.

Bruno Humbeeck
Against Harassment at School, at Work, and On the Net
Concrete solutions for an individual to escape the violent situation he or she is enduring, but also in the form of guidelines for prevention in the professional or educational realm.

Alain Bentolila
All about scholl
This is a brilliant, clearly argued demonstration of how the inability of the school system to evolve and develop a critical spirit may lead to the general failure of our entire society.

Florence Burgat
The Animal, My Relation
On one hand, men exploit, manipulate and slaughter animals. On the other hand, they let animals interfere with their lives, pollute them, and sometimes dominate them. Since the classical Age, Man has sought to define himself in his opposition to animals. Claiming for himself the most noble faculties - consciousness, thought, esthetic sense, morality - he represses his own animal side, notably his sexuality. But Florence Burgat goes beyond this negative statement. She walks in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's steps, claiming that men, like animals are sensitive beings, liable to suffer. On this basis, she proposes a new morality. Florence Burgat is a philosopher, and works at the Laboratory of Social Anthropology of the College of France.

Nathalie Blanc
Animals in an Urban Environment
Those of you who live in an urban centre, do you think the rightful place of the animal is in the countryside ? Do you think that dogs are simply kept at the whim of lonely citizens ? That cats should not be allowed to roam the streets ? That there should be no more cockroaches to invade homes ? Yet, do you really want a city without nature ? Without green areas, but also without animals ? A sterilised city in other words.. Nathalie Blanc analyses here the role of the animal, and thus the living, in our urban societies. Nathalie Blanc is a researcher specialising in urban geography, at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

José Moraïs
The Art of Reading
José Moraïs analyzes the different methods with which we learn to read and presents the various therapeutic possibilities offered to those who do not master the art of reading .

Dominique Schnapper
As Time Goes By A Chronical of 2001-2002
From a mythical meeting in the year 2000, to From our almost mythical appointment with the year 2000, to the presidential upheavals in 2003, this book presents the first expansive record of our entry into a new century. Through insightfully chronicling the passage of time, with both emotion and analysis, the author is able to present us with a picture of our contemporary world. Dominique Schnapper is a director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Jean-Louis André
At the Heart of Urbanity
What should be done about neglected suburbs, the bedroom towns, dehumanized, and deregulated ? When we are faced with buildings in ruins, with wasteland and concrete deserts ? The answer is to stop trying to fix the obvious defects of these surburbs and instead concentrate on the heart of the town, in the common space, which must take on the changes made and symbolise an identity. Jean-Louis André, graduate of the Ecole normale supérieure, is a journalist. He has notably published with Ricardo Bofill, The Spaces of A Life.

Serge Lebovici
The Baby, the Psychoanalyst and the Metaphor Presented by Bernard Golse
This exceptional document, the last work of Serge Lebovici, traces the history of metaphor as a concept for philosophers, linguists,and psychoanalysts. It particularly shows why this notion constitutes the keystone of psychic ontogenesis and of all therapeutic activity. A psychoanalyst, and professor of child and adolescent psychology, Serge Lebovici was the president of the International Psychoanalytical Society.

Sylvie Cadolle
Being a Step-parent The Recomposition of the Family
More than one million children in France live permanently or occasionally with a step-parent. What place does a step-parent hold in the family of a child whose parents are divorced or separated? What role does he or she play? Is it sufficient to know how to love in order to succeed in reconstructing a family? This is the first French investigation into the relations between step-parents and step-children that allows both the adults and the children to freely express themselves. Sylvie Cadolle teaches philosophy and educational sociology.