Laurent Thévenot gives lecture on the occasion of his appointment as an honorary doctor
Roskilde Universitet will award an Honorary Doctorate to the renowned French sociologist Laurent Thévenot at this year’s edition of the university's annual celebration (?rsfesten). On this occasion Laurent Thévenot will give an inaugural lecture.
Everyone is welcome.
About Laurent Thévenot
Thévenot is internationally recognised for developing French pragmatic sociology and the theory of regimes of engagement. His work has significantly influenced research and teaching at Roskilde University and is widely used across disciplines. He has maintained close collaboration with researchers for many years through workshops, PhD courses, and the current INDIGMA project at Department of Department of Social Sciences and Business and Department of People and Technology. His theories are now a core part of the Social Science tt备用网址 programme and central to Roskilde University’s social science profile.
Abstract of the inaugural lecture
Representation in all its forms is currently under attack. The political representations required by democratic processes are disavowed and political representatives are vilified, paving the way for authoritarian figures who claim to be directly in touch with the people. Collective representations of the social sciences are under fire because they are said to disregard the uniqueness of the individual, who should be the only one allowed to represent him or herself. Even cognitive representations and fact-finding procedures are under suspicion, and the door to fake news is wide open.
The distance of representation is a source of distrust, favoring ways of (re)presenting oneself or figuring in public that are closer to living, sentient bodies. This results in major tensions that affect the governance of communities as political bodies and the governance of personalities as personal bodies. These tensions are accentuated by a ‘great decentering’, sharpened by the ecological and climate crisis, which calls for a necessary renewal of the figurations of humanity in its fundamental interdependence with the other-than-human environment