[ISEA2017] General Event: Michel Wieviorka — Nuevos límites de la democracia

General Event statement

Until the mid-1980s, democracy did not seem to concern philosophical reflection in the field of political sociology. It was enough to think of it as the regime opposed to communism and dictatorship. Since then, critical thinking has developed in several ways, giving the impression of some discomfort when it comes to thinking about the solution to the great contemporary challenges, for example: social difficulties, injustice, inequalities, crisis of political and party representation, institutional deficiencies and the treatment of culturally or religious orders, violence, etc.

  • Michel Wieviorka was born in Paris, France, on August 23, 1946. He is one of the most important sociologists at the international level. His research values both global thinking and the utility of taking into account the individual subjectivity of social actors. His specific lines of research include issues of conflict, violence, terrorism, racism, anti-semitism, democracy, multiculturalism and phenomena of cultural difference, construction of individuality. Doctor of Arts and Humanities, Wieviorka is the author of more than thirty books translated into Spanish, English, Japanese, German, Polish, Portuguese, among
    other languages. Among the highlights are: Society and terrorism (Paris, 1988), which won the Amalfi European Jury Special Prize in 1989, The Space of Racism (Paris, 1991), Against Terrorism (Paris, 1995), La Diferencia – (Paris, 2004), Antisemitism (Paris, 2005), Nine Lessons in Sociology (Paris, 2008), The digital imperative – book on the challenge of TICE in The construction and diffusion of knowledge (Paris, 2013). Return to the Sense: to end the decline, Paris, 2015). Jews, Muslims and the Republic in collaboration with Farhad Khosrokhavar (Paris, 2017). He directed the Center for Sociological Analysis and Intervention (CADIS) from 1993 to 2009, a research center founded in 1981 by Alain Touraine at the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS). Since 2009, Wieviorka has been managing the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (www.fmsh-paris.fr), founded in 1963 by Fernand Braudel. Between 2006 and 2010, Wieviorka was President of the International Association of Sociology. Doctor Honoris Causa of the Pontifical Catholic
    University of Peru. He is founder and director of the International magazine SOCIO published by the publisher FMSH. The first issue (Paris, 2013) launches a Manifesto co-signed with the American sociologist Craig Calhoun, director of the London School of Economics, in which it is argued that if social scientists of all countries should unite leaving one Side their innumerable differences, what would be the meaning of such a commitment? What cause would merit that they take that risk? The social sciences are now
    “global” and in many countries, researchers propose new approaches and give rise to new challenges, new objects. This Manifesto is part of a tradition in which the social sciences contribute to progress and emancipation, to the project of increasing the capacity for analysis and action.