Michel Maffesoli (born 14 November 1944) is a French sociologist.
He is a former pupil of Gilbert Durand and Julien Freund, and an emeritus professor at Paris Descartes University. His work touches upon the issue of community links and the prevalence of "the imaginary" in the everyday life of contemporary societies, through which he contributes to the postmodern paradigm.
Maffesoli has been a member of the Institut Universitaire de France since September 2008, following a controversial nomination.
More generally, he has been the subject of several controversies, both scientific and professional, the most widely known of which concerns his supervision of the PhD dissertation of astrologer Élizabeth Teissier.
Maffesoli was born in Graissessac, Hérault.
Professional activities
In 1972, Maffesoli was co-director of the ESU urban sociology research team in Grenoble. He developed a reflection on space which he continued in his work on nomadism (Du Nomadisme, Vagabondages initiatiques, La Table ronde, 1997).
In 1978, Maffesoli became the teaching assistant of Julien Freund, a conservative political theorist and follower of Vilfredo Pareto, while he was lecturing in Strasbourg. Freund offered him to host the Institute of Polemology, which shows in his later works, under the themes of the "founding conflict" (La violence fondatrice, 1978), the "conflictual society" (PhD dissertation, 1981), and the use of the myth of Dionysus as "regenerating disorder" (L’Ombre de Dionysos, 1982).
In 1982, he founded the Centre d'études sur l'actuel et le quotidien (CEAQ) with Georges Balandier. The CEAQ is a humanities and social science research laboratory at Paris Descartes University, where he led a doctoral seminar until his retirement in 2012.
Maffesoli was awarded the Grand Prix des Sciences de l'Académie Française in 1992 for La transfiguration du politique.
Maffesoli is the director of the Cahiers Européens de l'imaginaire and Sociétés journals, as well as a member of the editorial board of Space and Culture and .
Maffesoli supported Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential election of 2012,Le Lab/Europe 1, "18 intellectuels et artistes signent une tribune pour défendre Nicolas Sarkozy ", 4 May 2012 (archived on this blog ). which he later denied.Interview by Emmanuel Tugny , 28 August 2012 (now removed).
Maffesoli is sometimes associated with freemasonry, although there is no way to prove that he ever was a member of it.Fabien Bertrand, Regards croisés sur la franc-maçonnerie : profanes, initiés, représentations et intersubjectivités, PhD dissertation, University of Bordeaux, 2009, p. 15." Le trésor caché de Michel Maffesoli ", Hiram.be. Le blog maçonnique, 13 March 2015.
He has recently appeared on French networks predicting an "age of insurrections."Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:
Reception within the scientific community
Within the scientific community of French sociologists, the scientific nature of Maffesoli's works is often questioned, especially since the furore concerning the thesis of Elizabeth Teissier "created great controversy within the community [of French sociologists and beyond], and has led many sociologists to intervene in order to challenge its legitimacy".Serge Paugam, La pratique de la sociologie, Paris, PUF, 2008, p. 117; cf. Gérald Houdeville, Le métier de sociologue en France depuis 1945. Renaissance d'une discipline, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2007, p. 261-302 (ch. 7, "La sociologie mise en cause"), and Bernard Lahire, "Une astrologue sur la planète des sociologues ou comment devenir docteur en sociologie sans posséder le métier de sociologue ?", in L'esprit sociologique, Paris, La Découverte, 2007, p. 351-387. On this issue, Maffesoli presented arguments on his methods, in particular through a new edition of his epistemological book, La connaissance ordinaire, in 2007. An opposition currently exists between Maffesoli's positions on "sensitive thinking" and supporters of a sociology embedded in the criteria of systematic and transparent scientificity. The conference "Raisons et Sociétés", held at the Sorbonne in 2002 following the Teissier controversy to debate the broader issue of methodologies in human sciences, identified differences between the various sociological traditions relating to this case.
Other controversies have led to challenges to Maffesoli's institutional position: the scientific community protested against his appointment to the board of the CNRS and against his appointment at the Institut Universitaire de France. On the other hand, Maffesoli's theories have been the subject of counter-inquiries, such as a survey by Laurent Tessier on free parties in France and England.L. Tessier, Musiques et fêtes techno : l’exception franco-britannique des free parties", Revue française de sociologie, vol. 44, n°1, pp. 63-91, 2003.
Maffesoli's work has achieved acclaim from authors including Serge Moscovici, Edgar Morin, Patrick Tacussel, Philippe-Joseph Salazar or Patrick Watier who regularly cite him. His influence can also be seen in various foreign journals. It is probably his book The Time of the Tribes (1988, 1991), translated into nine languages, which made his notoriety outside France (see urban tribes). Universities in Brazil, Korea and Italy request him for conferences. He has received a chair that was named after him in Brazil, and a honoris causa doctorate from the university of Bucharest.
His reception outside France is ambivalent. In a 1997 article in the Sociological Review, sociologist David Evans concluded that Maffesoli's theories were not a positive sociological paradigm, criticising his work as "incoherent" and "biased".David Evans, "Michel Maffesoli's Sociology of Modernity and Postmodernity: An Introduction and Critical Assessment", Sociological Review, vol. 45, n°2, pp. 220-243, 1997. The accounts of books written by foreign sociologists were less forthright, but sometimes stressed that Maffesoli's approach was subjective and had a lack of reflexivity. One sociologist even stated that Maffesoli's sociology was a "sociology of club".Account by Jason Ryan MacLean in the journal Critical Sociology, vol. 26, n°12, p. 166-170 : "Maffesoli attempts to hide behind a thin veneer of scholarly objectivity, but his own political predilections shine through nonetheless. But more problematic than this patent inconsistency is Maffesoli's failure to be self-reflexive in a manner that might have helped him better understand how his own social and political position informs his reading of the "signs of the times" (…) Of course, the idea that one can, from the lofty perch afforded by the Sorbonne, capture and capitulate our "epoch" is on its face absurd. (Armchair sociology is not an unfair characterization of MaVesoli's approach to social analysis.)".
Controversies
Élizabeth Teissier controversy
Maffesoli came to the attention of the general public in April 2001 when he defended the thesis of Élizabeth Teissier about the ambivalence of the social reception of astrology, highly contentious theory that he directed and whose jury was chaired by Serge Moscovici at the Paris Descartes University.For the full history, see Daniel Filâtre, "Affaire Teissier : historique", Lettre de l'ASES, 30 December 2001.
The attribution of a doctorate to Teissier "created great controversy in the [scientific] community, and led many sociologists to intervene to challenge the legitimacy". The thesis immediately aroused criticism in the field of French sociology, particularly that published by Le Monde by Christian Baudelot and Roger Establet on 17 April 2001,Christian Baudelot, Roger Establet, "La sociologie sous une mauvaise étoile", Le Monde, 17 April 2001. and the petition of 30 April 2001 for the President of the Paris V University, and signed by 300 social scientists.Text, "Liste des signatures de la pétition", and Daniel Filâtre, "Affaire Teissier : historique", op. cit.. Many critical comments were published in the national daily press,Alain Bourdin, "La sociologie, l'antithèse de Teissier", Libération, 19 April 2001; Articles published by the AFIS : part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. along with less radical comments.Alain Touraine, "De quoi Élizabeth Teissier est-elle coupable ?", Le Monde, 22 May 2001. Beyond sociology, four French Nobel Prize winners (Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Jean-Marie Lehn, Jean Dausset and Pierre-Gilles de Gennes) also protested against the title of "doctor" awarded to Élizabeth Teissier in a protest letter addressed to the then Minister of Education, Jack Lang.Hervé Morin, "La thèse d'Elizabeth Teissier ravive la fracture au sein de la sociologie", Le Monde, 4 May 2001.
The scientific, philosophical and sociological aspects of Teissier's thesis were studied by a group of scientists from several disciplines,Bernard Lahire, Philippe Cibois, Dominique Desjeux, Jean Audouze, Henri Broch, Jean-Paul Krivine, Jean-Claude Pecker and Jacques Bouveresse, "Analyse de la thèse de Madame Elizabeth Teissier", April 2001. Retrieved 2008-01-06. including members of the Collège de France. The thesis was analyzed in detail by a group of astrophysicists and astronomers (Jean-Claude Pecker, Jean Audouze, Denis Savoie), a group of sociologists (Bernard Lahire, Philippe Cibois and Dominique Desjeux), a philosopher (Jacques Bouveresse), and by specialists of pseudo-science (Henri Broch and Jean-Paul Krivine).Analysis by Henri Broch, 2001; "Analyse de la thèse de Madame Elizabeth Teissier", 6 August 2001. From this analysis, it appeared that the thesis was not valid from any viewpoint (sociological, astrophysical, or epistemological).
In an email of 23 April 2001 addressed to many sociologists, Maffesoli acknowledged that the thesis included some "slippages". His email minimized the importance of these errors and denounced a fierceness against Élizabeth Teissier and him.Bernard Lahire, "Comment devenir docteur en sociologie sans posséder le métier de sociologue ? ", Revue Européenne de Sciences Sociales, vol. XL, n°122, pp.42-65, 2002 : "En toute honnêteté, lequel d'entre nous, directeur de thèse n'a pas laissé passer de tels "dérapages" ? (…) Il ne faudrait pas que cette thèse serve de prétexte à un nouveau règlement de compte contre une des diverses manières d'envisager la sociologie. (…) Est ce que cette thèse n'est pas un simple prétexte pour marginaliser un courant sociologique, et disons le crûment, pour faire une chasse à l'homme, en la matière contre moi-même ?"
After this controversy, two symposia were held to discuss the thesis's content and validity : A discussion-meeting entitled "La thèse de sociologie, questions épistémologiques et usages après l'affaire Teissier" was held at the Sorbonne on 12 May 2001 by the Association des sociologues enseignants du supérieur (ASES).Hervé Morin, "La sociologie au miroir de la thèse d'Elizabeth Teissier", Le Monde, 15 mai 2001. Maffesoli was present at this meeting and attended the accounts by Christian Baudelot and Lucien Karpik.D. Filâtre, "Affaire Teissier : historique", op. cit.. A symposium entitled "Raisons et Sociétés" was organized at the Sorbonne on 18 December 2002 to discuss and propose a theoretical answer to criticism. Several intellectuals and scientists participated in the meeting to bring the debate on scientific issues raised by the controversy. Edgar Morin, physicist Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond, Mary Douglas, Paolo Fabbri, Franco Ferrarotti among others were present at this meeting.