Politicizations: Socio-Historical Approaches

Atelier-colloque organisé par L’IRHIS, L’Université de Sheffield, la Maison française d’Oxford

8-9-10 juin 2022
Maison française d’Oxford
2-10 NORHAM ROAD, OXFORD, OX2 6SE

What is politics? In ordinary speech, two common tendencies emerge. Either we talk about politics in the narrow sense of the world of public policy, public authority and the state, or we use it a broad sense to denote the struggle for influence in any human grouping. At the same time, we are constantly aware of the slippage between the two, of the way areas which were once thought apolitical become political: the economy, the family, the environment. Areas which were thought technical or natural are seen to involve decisions which advantage some groups or individuals and disadvantage others. Where democracy is a powerful value and inequality is seen as undesirable, the identification of such areas as political is the acknowledgement of a moral necessity.