Full Description
In his classic essay The Gift, Marcel Mauss argued that gifts can never be truly free; rather, they bring about an expectation of reciprocal exchange. For over one hundred years, his ideas on economy, social relations, and exchange have inspired new modes of thought, none more so than what crystallized in the 1980s around an innovative group of French academics. In TheGift Paradigm, Alain Caillé provides the first in-depth, English-language introduction to La Revue du MAUSS—or, "Anti-Utilitarian Movement in the Social Sciences," combining the work of anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, and others. Today, the very idea of a "general social science" seems unthinkable, unless you count the pervasive sway of a utilitarian logic in orthodox economics, or the diffuse influence of neoliberalism. Here, Caillé offers a distinctly different reading of economy and society, inspired by Mauss—as vital now as ever.
Contents
Foreword and Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: WHY THE REVUE DU MAUSS JOURNAL AND WHY ANTI-UTILITARIANISM? Generalized economism A certain vision of sociology On some prerequisites to a general (sociology) social science The question of the nature of utilitarianism CHAPTER 2: THE GIFT PARADIGM On the political A theory of social action The gift in history and today CHAPTER 3: ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES First fights Convivialism CONCLUSION: PATHWAYS OF ANTI-UTILITARIANISM AND CONVIVIALISM
