Le canon et ses suites : entre concept et figure

II s’agit d’une étude du débat sur l’autorité du canon en études littéraires et religieuses aux États-Unis qui argumente, à partir de la lecture freudienne de la Bible dans Moïse et le monothéisme, en vue d’une approche du canon comme figure de l’état non originaire de la culture plutôt que comme objet déterminé par son contenu intrinsèque ou des contraintes externes

The poverty of journal publishing

The article opens with a critical analysis of the dominant business model of for-profit, academic publishing, arguing that the extraordinarily high profits of the big publishers are dependent upon a double appropriation that exploits both academic labour and universities’ financial resources. Against this model, we outline four possible responses: the further development of open access repositories, a fair trade model of publishing regulation, a renaissance of the university presses, and, finally, a move away from private, for-profit publishing companies toward autonomous journal publishing by editorial boards and academic associations. </jats:p

Epistemic freedom and education

First of all, I define the concept of epistemic freedom in the light of the changing nature of educational practice that prioritise over-prescriptive conceptions of learning. I defend the ‘reality’ of this freedom against possible determinist-related criticisms. I do this by stressing the concept of agency as characterised by ‘becoming’. I also discuss briefly some of the technical literature on the subject. I then move on to discuss Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and Foucault’s idea of ‘productive power’: I argue for the need of a counter-narrative of freedom that takes the form of a genealogy. Finally I discuss in more detail the nature of epistemic freedom and briefly discuss the ethical implications of the concept

Reclaiming heritage: colourization, culture wars and the politics of nostalgia

This article considers the discursive continuities between a specifically liberal defence of cultural patrimony, evident in the debate over film colourization, and the culture war critique associated with neo-conservatism. It examines how a rhetoric of nostalgia, linked to particular ideas of authenticity,canonicity and tradition,has been mobilized by the right and the left in attempts to stabilize the confguration and perceived transmission of American cultural identity. While different in scale, colourization and multiculturalism were seen to create respective (postmodern) barbarisms against which defenders of culture, heritage and good taste could unite. I argue that in its defence of the ‘classic’ work of art, together with principles of aesthetic distinction and the value of cultural inheritance,the anti-colourization lobby helped enrich and legitimize a discourse of tradition that, at the end of the 1980s, was beginning to reverberate powerfully in the conservative challenge to a ‘crisis’ within higher education and the humanities. This article attempts to complicate the contemporary politics of nostalgia, showing how a defence of cultural patrimony has distinguished major and minor culture wars, engaging left and right quite differently but with similar presuppositions

Science and Ideology in Economic, Political, and Social Thought

This paper has two sources: One is my own research in three broad areas: business cycles, economic measurement and social choice. In all of these fields I attempted to apply the basic precepts of the scientific method as it is understood in the natural sciences. I found that my effort at using natural science methods in economics was met with little understanding and often considerable hostility. I found economics to be driven less by common sense and empirical evidence, then by various ideologies that exhibited either a political or a methodological bias, or both. This brings me to the second source: Several books have appeared recently that describe in historical terms the ideological forces that have shaped either the direct areas in which I worked, or a broader background. These books taught me that the ideological forces in the social sciences are even stronger than I imagined on the basis of my own experiences. The scientific method is the antipode to ideology. I feel that the scientific work that I have done on specific, long standing and fundamental problems in economics and political science have given me additional insights into the destructive role of ideology beyond the history of thought orientation of the works I will be discussing

Translatio et littérature comparée : la terreur de l’humanisme européen

Mon objectif ici paraîtra un peu délicat : je voudrais poursuivre la critique du nationalisme dans les études littéraires en me positionnant simultanément contre la forme particulière de supranationalisme européen qui est à la source de cette « quasi-discipline » qu’est la littérature comparée. Pour ce faire, je souhaite montrer que la valeur de celle-ci a toujours résidé en fait dans son échec. Cet échec procède du fait que la littérature comparée a permis d’identifier une forme de « repli »..

CAUGHT IN THE NET. NOTES FROM THE ELECTRONIC UNDERGROUND

Reflections on the epistemological and institutional shifts in scholarly research and publication that are brought about by electronic technology. Particular attention is paid to the potential crisis in current modes of the legitimation of knowledge and scholarly practices.Réflexion sur les changements épistémologiques et institutionels qu’entraîne l’adoption des nouvelles technologies électroniques par la recherche et la publication savantes. L’aueur s’interroge spécifiquement sur les effets critiques de ces transformations récentes sur les modes de légitimation du savoir et sur les pratiques académiques