Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T16:01:36.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Enlarging Conceptions of Testing Moments and Critical Theory: Economies of Worth, On Critique, and Sociology of Engagements

from Part IV - Luc Boltanski and Critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2014

Laurent Thévenot
Affiliation:
University of Chicago Press
Amy Jacobs
Affiliation:
None
Get access

Summary

Discussing Luc Boltanski's research is a particularly delicate task for the person who co-authored works and articles with him that have given rise to a new sociological paradigm and led to the creation of the Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale. I could have avoided the difficulty by choosing a masterwork of his that is quite different from the works we wrote together, such as the admirable La condition fœtale (Boltanski, 2004). Yet, I have chosen instead to confront it in the spirit of the long, friendly, and ongoing conversation between us, renewed this past year. I would like to bring to light differences which, though invisible in works that fully integrate our perspectives on a single object of study, may yet be discerned in our respective earlier and later writings. I have chosen to take up the question of enlarging critique, in connection with our respective explorations of critical tests and what they contribute to critical theory.

In the first part, I evoke the before and after of the ‘critical reality test’ concept that Luc and I modelled in Economies of Worth (Boltanski and Thévenot, 1987; hereafter EW; original title Economies de la grandeur) and in On Justification (Boltanski and Thévenot, 2006 [1991]; hereafter OJ). Here, ‘before’ and ‘after’ are to be understood in two ways: what happens before and after the critical test, and what can be contributed by analytical categories related to the test model and developed by each of us in works either preceding or following our collaboration. The second part approaches the language that is appropriate for expressing what is experienced in such trying moments. This leads to an encounter with literary works that brings us back to Boltanski, in this case to his theatrical work.

1. Before and after the ‘Critical Reality Test’

After analysing in detail the various ties between sociology and criticism, Boltanski, in On Critique (hereafter OC), enlarges the model of critical test that we put forward in EW, distinguishing three types of test (Boltanski, 2011 [2009]).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Spirit of Luc Boltanski
Essays on the 'Pragmatic Sociology of Critique'
, pp. 245 - 262
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×