For its second thematic issue, the review “Sociétés Plurielles” looks at the epistemologies of the plural, which vary from one discipline to another. Six articles have been selected, written by a range of sociologists, including a specialist in philosophy. More abstract social scientists have offered their reflections on the conditions for knowledge of a plural reality from a broad perspective, while a specialist in information and communication sciences deals with the rhetoric of diversity in the business world. A sociologist specialising in migration also makes a contribution focusing on the use of the notion of “diversity” in academic and political circles. Other sociologists examine the ways in which plurality is experienced in the context of globalisation. And other articles show that thinking about the plural can lead us to examine other concepts, such as “type” or “race”, and to reflect on a principle that was once considered intangible – that of the duality of the sexes – a norm that is now being called into question in favour of a more complex vision of the reality of gender. It is clear from these contributions that thinking about the concepts of plural or plurality requires an almost obligatory reflection on their antonym(s). The multiplicity of terms related or correlated either to the notion of plural or to that of its opposite, the singular, leads us to broaden the field of analysis.
For its second thematic Issue, the Review Sociétés plurielles has chosen to deal about the Epistemologies of the Plural, which can be different according to the different Branches of Learning. Six Articles, dealing with various Topics, have been selected, appealing to Sociology, Philosophy, Anthropology, visual Arts, and Sciences of Information and Communication. The Authors are questioning the Duality Singular/Plural or Similar/Different at the University, in the Enterprise or in the rural World, in the Objects of cultural Consumption as well as in the Field of contemporary Photography, or in the Typology developed in early XXth Century Anthropology. All of them deal with the Question of the Plural in our Societies with their own Tools and Problematics.
The purpose of this article is to report the way in which the plural understandings of reality are inherent to the process of knowledge production. It alsoaims to show what it means that actors’ point of view are socially and materially situated. Relying on J.-P. Darré’s approach, Putnam’s pragmatism, as well as on linguists’ and psychologists’ works, it highlights how the relationship between reality and knowledge may be understood. It underlines that truth depends on the adequacy of knowledge to reality and emphasizes the interactional features of things. Then, it focuses on the social nature of understanding and discusses the social characterization of points of view, drawing on A. Schütz’s works.
Focusing at its starting point at the emergence of the concept of (super-) diversity in policy and academia, the article challenges the alleged theoretical and epistemic changes introduced by this new paradigm (Vertovec 2007) in the studies of race and ethnicity, pluralistic democracies, and even « multiculture » (Back 1994 ; Hall 1999). First we critically examine the main innovations claimed by the model, replacing them in a broader context of a posited « return of assimilation » (Brubaker 2001). Second we examine other sources of criticism, based for instance on empirical scrutiny and evidence from public policies analysis. We consider in conclusion the hypothesis of « whitening » (Bilge 2013) diversity and question thepossibility to invest the concept not normatively but critically, namely through athorough articulation to the principle of nondiscrimination
This article aims to report on the way «diversity’s contemporary rhetoric» is considering the issue of social plurality and, doing so, reconfiguresthe ins and outs. Its recurrent uses in different sorts of public discourses (the one about «corporate social and environmental responsibility») allows us to examine «diversity» in terms of what that concept intends to focus on. Our analysis is a political one and is situated within the field of information and communication sciences insofar as it aims to approach the mediations of «diversity» as a social concept.Thus, our intention is to seize the contemporary social sayings about «diversity» and to characterize the concept within its discursive and visual existence. Conveyed by several institutional discourses via expressions such as «promote», «respect» or even «include diversity», this formulation seems ambiguous. It appears as a desire to gather the plurality of all «differences» and it aims to represent the plurality ofsociety while trying not to separate different members who compose it. It includes several themes which are, moreover, equivocal: it is used in heterogeneous contexts to talk about anti-discrimination, tolerance, parity, anti-homophobia, or anti-sexism, anti-racism, disability, secularism, etc. Nevertheless, all these evocations crystallize the idea of variety, plurality, dissimilarities, and non-identity between all. We willquestion discourses which aim to reflect an enchanted «diversity» […]
This article focuses on the concept of « type » in Franz Boas’ work. Based on a close examination of his main anthropometrical texts, it sheds light onthe way Boas used statistical methods in order to criticize the taxonomic approach of physical anthropology. Instead, he developed a perspective where relations between types are put forward and emphasized the importance of variability and correlation phenomena. By using the plural “types”, Boas was able to consider human plasticity as a scene for borrowing and intermixture.
This article associates discourses on the subject, the sociology of photography and Nan Goldin’s work, and argues that the photographer questions gender paradigms leading to the definition of « abject » identities. As she reinvests the snapshot aesthetic and family photography, Goldin reveals the plurality of gender identities. Her photography documents the dismantling of the heterosexual couple and claims the social viability of homosexuals, transgender people and drag queens, thus rising to the status of subaltern knowledge and counter-discourse on humanity.
Cosmopolitanism has a long and cyclic history. Often referred to as ‘neo cosmopolitanism», its use in the current context raises a number of difficulties, both conceptual and methodological. However, by rephrasing ancient philosophical frames in sociological terms, this perspective offers a new evaluation grid for specific globalization processes, that avoids mere economistic views, providing insights regarding changes in the political, ethical, cultural and aesthetical dimensions of the link to otherness in a global world. Taking part in the «cosmopolitan turn» – which supposes new concepts and methodological tools – we propose a theoretical frame based on three scales of analysis: the dynamics of cosmopolitan culture, the institutions ofcosmopolitan governance, the processes of cosmopolitan socialization.