Since 1981 in French, now in english
MAUSS INTERNATIONAL
Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities Journal
The Mouvement anti-utilitariste dans les sciences sociales welcomes you !
This journal aims to bring MAUSS-branded scholarship to a truly international audience. MAUSS wagers on the possibility of renewing and extending the main innovation of The Gift by Marcel Mauss in the context of “the gift-paradigm,” and using it as a basis for a general social theory.
Our Recent Publications
Volume 1, Opening Gift
Opening gift. Under what better auspices could we proceed to launch this first issue of the MAUSS International ?
Divi Builder
Varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes. Varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes.
Bloom
Varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes. Varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes.
About this Journal
For four decades now, the MAUSS (Mouvement anti-utilitariste en sciences sociales) has been at the heart of the debates in so-cial sciences in France and in French-speaking countries. While this landmass of works has found resonance and relays in Latin countries such as Italy as well as across South America, it has barely percolated across the language and cultural barrier into English – and therefore international – scholarship. For those of us who do, within the MAUSS, publish in English, how often have we been obliged to dis-appoint interest in this perspective because of the unfortunate una-vailability of core MAUSS texts? This is the aim of the MAUSS In-ternational journal: To bring MAUSS-branded scholarship to a truly international audience and thereby partake more forcefully in the important debates in social sciences today.
Editorial Board
Founding Director: Alain Caillé
Publication Director: Philippe Chanial
Editors-in-Chief: François Gauthier, Ilana F. Silber, Frédéric Vandenberghe
Editorial Advisory Board: Archer Margaret, Arnason Johann, Alexander Jeffrey, Arnsperger Christian, Bruni Luigino, Craig Calhoun, Clemens Elisabeth, Coleswothy Rebecca, Collins Randall, Colliot-Thélène Catherine, Connel Raewyn, Delanty Gerard, Donati Pierpaolo, Dubet François, Ezzine Abdelfattah, Fraser Nancy, Gorski Phil, Hanafi Sari, Hudson Michael, Illouz Eva, JI Zhe, Joas Hans, Keen Steve, Khosrokavar Farhad, Le Breton David, Massiah Gus, Morin Edgar, Parry Jonathan, Puett Michael, Pyyhtinen Olli, QU Jingdong, Rawls Ann, Sayer Andrew, Richard Sennet, Slater Don, Spickard James V., Tavory Iddo, Wagner Peter, Wang Mingming, Wittrock Björn, Zelizer Viviana
Friends of the MAUSS: Adloff Frank, Anspach Mark, Arvanitis Rigas, Azam Geneviève, Benarrosh Yolande, Berthoud Gérald, Daniel Cefaï, Carvalho de França Filho Genauto, Dufoix Stéphane, Godbout Jacques T., Fistetti Francesco, Hamayon Roberte, Hart Keith, Humbert Marc, Ahmet Insel, Kauffman Laurence, Laval Christian, Laville Jean-Louis, Lazzeri Christian, Martins Paulo Henrique, Mouffe Chantal, Scubla Lucien, Servet Jean-Michel, Vatin François
In Memoriam: Mary Douglas, Michel Freitag, David Graeber, Marcel Hénaff, Albert O. Hirschmann, Elena Pulcini, Marshall Sahlins
Mission Statement
For four decades now, the MAUSS (Mouvement anti-utilitariste en sciences sociales) has been at the heart of the debates in social sciences in France and in French-speaking countries. While this landmass of works has found resonance and relays in Latin countries such as Italy as well as across South America, it has barely percolated across the language and cultural barrier into English – and therefore international – scholarship. For those of us who do, within the MAUSS, publish in English, how often have we been obliged to disappoint interest in this perspective because of the unfortunate unavailability of core MAUSS texts? This is the aim of the MAUSS International journal: To bring MAUSS-branded scholarship to a truly international audience and thereby partake more forcefully in the important debates in social sciences today.
Greeted early on by scholars such as Mary Douglas, Albert O. Hirschman, Marshall Sahlins, and Annette Weiner, the MAUSS was founded in 1981 by Alain Caillé and collaborators to resist the growing encroachment of neo-classical economics and other utilitarian approaches in the social sciences. It is interesting how what is often called “French theory” continues to be at the heart of social sciences and philosophy today in English language scholarship. Yet what is intriguing from a French perspective is how this felicitous reception has excluded the critiques and debates that have occurred over the last decades within French scholarship, creating what are sometimes serious problems of interpretation and application of these theories…
Code of Ethics
The Code of Ethics applicable to drafting committees and editorial boards of academic journals offered on Cairn.info, including Mauss international, is available on this page.
Our Team
Alain Caillé
Founding Director
Philippe Chanial
Publication Director
François Gauthier
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Professor of Religious Studies at the Social Sciences Department, Université de Fribourg, Switzerland
Ilana Silber
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Frederic Vandenberghe
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Professor of sociology at the Institute of Social and Political Studies, Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil
Our History
M.A.U.S.S.
Mouvement Anti-Utilitariste dans les Sciences Sociales
La Revue du M.A.U.S.S. was launched in 1981 by a handful of French academics working in sociology, economics or anthropology. They resented the path which was being imposed to social sciences at the time, notably their submission to an omnipotent economic model. They disagreed with an exclusively instrumental vision of democracy and social relationships.
The reference to Marcel Mauss and the critics of utilitarianism which fired the École Sociologique in the wake of Émile Durkheim enabled to muster critical energies in a sufficiently clear and explicit manner. Thus, a non-profit organization was created which proceeded at once to publish a review. Since its early and very modest origins, this review was meant as a link and discussion tool, able to withstand the theoretical stakes of the project, but also to welcome non-academics, militants and every person eager to think away from chapel constraints and academic gibbering.
From a fairly amateurish quarterly, Le Bulletin du MAUSS(1982-1988) became La Revue du MAUSS trimestrielle after La Découverte publishing house took over its production process in 1988, and, since 1993, has turned into La Revue du MAUSS semestrielle, a twice-yearly publication
As years went by, the initial handful of followers turned into a wider audience, attracting readers and writers alike from other countries. From its initial critical posture, La Revue du MAUSS contributed to the creation of a wide panel of theories and papers all linked by what came to be known as the gift paradigm. This helped set La Revue du MAUSS as the organ of a new current of thought among social sciences and political philosophy.
A short history
La Revue du M.A.U.S.S. was launched in 1981 by a handful of French academics working in sociology, economics or anthropology. They resented the path which was being imposed to social sciences at the time, notably their submission to an omnipotent economic model. They disagreed with an exclusively instrumental vision of democracy and social relationships.
The reference to Marcel Mauss and the critics of utilitarianism which fired the École Sociologique in the wake of Émile Durkheim enabled to muster critical energies in a sufficiently clear and explicit manner. Thus, a non-profit organization was created which proceeded at once to publish a review. Since its early and very modest origins, this review was meant as a link and discussion tool, able to withstand the theoretical stakes of the project, but also to welcome non-academics, militants and every person eager to think away from chapel constraints and academic gibbering.
From a fairly amateurish quarterly, Le Bulletin du MAUSS (1982-1988) became La Revue du MAUSS trimestrielle after La Découverte publishing house took over its production process in 1988, and, since 1993, has turned into La Revue du MAUSS semestrielle, a twice-yearly publication
As years went by, the initial handful of followers turned into a wider audience, attracting readers and writers alike from other countries. From its initial critical posture, La Revue du MAUSS contributed to the creation of a wide panel of theories and papers all linked by what came to be known as the gift paradigm. This helped set La Revue du MAUSS as the organ of a new current of thought among social sciences and political philosophy.
What is at stake
In the 1960’s , and especially with the Chicago School and the work of Gary Becker (or Hayek in another way), economists began to to believe that their Rational Action (or Choice) Theory (RAT) was likely to explain not only what is going on on the market and through monetary exchanges, but any kind of social behavior : learning, wedding, religious belief, love or crime etc..; And, what is more surprising, other social sciences, starting with sociology, at this time largely agreed with this contention (Let us think for instance of James Coleman and Raymond Boudon. Or, in another way, Pierre Bourdieu). In fact, this enlargement of the traditional scope of economic science has been the intellectual and ideological prelude and the starting point to neo-liberalism which is nowadays triumphing in academic economic science just as in the real world.
What can be opposed on a theoretical level to this overwhelming victory of the economic model ?
Click on this link to download the PDF file (60 K) of the full article by Alain Caillé (9 pages, about 3,500 words)