States of the Body

For this Rendez-vous of imagination on the "states of the body," Michel Maffesoli has invited Bernard Andrieu, who has authored several books on the human body, Georges Vigarello, a specialist of the history of bodily practices and representations of the body, and Olivier Sirost, the author of Le corps extrême dans les sociétés occidentales.

The discussion will take as a starting point the assessment that has been made of the pronounced presence of a form of hedonism in everyday life - a presence both irrepressible and powerful that subtends and supports any social life. Marginalized and reduced to a subordinate role during "modernity," hedonism seems to be pivotal again today. It might even constitute a factor of unity in our current social life.