No. 8 (2011): Catégories politiques. Enjeux éthiques au cœur du pouvoir

Coordinated by Stéphane Baele.

Every political policy relies on categories. This deceptively simple statement is the common ground for all the articles united in this issue of Émulations. Together, these articles explore the dynamics at work in the setting up, crystallization, and disappearance of political categories. Émulations thus bets on resorting on the collective investigation of what should be considered as the most fundamental political process: categorization. From affirmative action to nuclear waste management, the legal recognition of handicaps, the way to measure productivity and wealth, the strategies used by minorities to resist exclusion, categorization show the full strength of its political dimension as a key normative process to organize society. In this issue, empirical studies and theoretical analysis jointly explore the vast complexity of categorizations that often appear to be unavoidable, almost natural. This diversity produces a dialogue with multiple meeting points that underline potential future research developments.