This book provides a powerful new theoretical framework for understanding cross-national cultural differences. Researchers from France and America present eight comparative case studies to demonstrate how the people of these two different cultures mobilize national "repertoires of evaluation" to make judgments about politics, economics, morals and aesthetics. This approach goes beyond essentialist models of national character to compare varying attitudes on topics ranging from racism and sexual harrassment to identity politics, publishing, journalism, the arts and the environment. The book will appeal to sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists alike.
Contents
1. Introduction: toward a renewed comparative cultural sociology Michèle Lamont and Laurent Thévenot; Part I. Race, Gender, and Multiculturalism: 2. The rhetorics of racism and anti-racism in France and the United States Michèle Lamont; 3. Sexual harassment in France and the United States: activists and public figures defend their definitions Abigail Cope Saguy; 4. Assessing the literary; intellectual boundaries in French and American literary studies Jason Duell; Part II. The Cultural Sphere: Publishing, Journalism, and the Arts: 5. Culture or commerce? Symbolic boundaries in French and American book publishing Daniel Weber; 6. Involvement and detachment among French and American journalists: to be or not to be a 'real' professional Cyril Lemieux and John Schmalzbauer; 7. From rejection of contemporary art to culture war Nathalie Heinich; Part III. Political Cultures and Practices; 8. Community and civic culture: the Rotary Club in France and the United States Agnès Camus-Vigué; 9. Political practice and culture in French and American environmental disputes: 9a. French and American disputes: an introduction Claudette Lafaye, Michael Moody and Laurent Thévenot; 9b. Forms of valuing nature: arguments and modes of justification in French and American environmental disputes Laurent Thévenot, Michael Moody and Claudette Lafaye; 9c. Comparing models of strategy, interests, and the public good in French and American environmental disputes Michael Moody and Laurent Thévenot; 10. Conclusion: Exploring the French and the American polity Laurent Thèvenot and Michèle Lamont.
Review
"Rethinking Comparative Cultural Sociology is the product of an unprecedented multiyear collaboration between 11 French and American researchers...[it is] an extraordinary contribution to the field of comparative cultural sociology." American Journal of Sociology
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