The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (French: Psychologie des Foules; literally: Psychology of Crowds) is a book authored by Gustave Le Bon that was first published in 1895. In the book, Le Bon claims that there are several characteristics of crowd psychology: "impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgement of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others. Le Bon claimed that "an individual immersed for some length of time in a crowd soon finds himself (...) - either in consequence of magnetic influence given out by the crowd or from some other cause of which we are ignorant - in a special state, which much resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds himself in the hands of the hypnotizer. (shrink)

In The Disavowed Community, Jean-Luc Nancy presents a critique of his seminal 1983 essay “The Inoperative Community.” According to Nancy, his error in attempting to derive a politics from Maurice Blanchot’s concept of unworking lay in conflating politics and ontology. This paper suggests that Nancy’s self-critique is only partially correct. The problem ultimately resides in the theory of unworking itself, I argue, not its misapplication. In pursuing this contention, I trace out the tacit response to the exchange between Nancy and (...) Blanchot developed in Jacques Rancière’s early writings on aesthetics. Rancière’s turn to aesthetics is best understood, I propose, as an intended corrective to Blanchot’s influence on post-Marxist theory. Focusing on Rancière’s critiques of Blanchot in Mallarmé: Politics of the Siren and Mute Speech, I show how Rancière’s rival account of modern art answers the question of non-identitarian left politics that Nancy posed in “The Inoperative Community.”. (shrink)

In this article I argue — drawing on texts of May Sarton and my own research —that old age is often difficult, particularly for women. They have to become dependent and have to survive changes, separation and losses. It can become extremely difficult to maintain a positive sense of self. A network of friends and an image of God in which unconditional love, nearness and togetherness prevail may help older women to live with dignity till the end.

livre I. Les forces qui mènent l'histoire.--livre II. Pendant les batailles.--livre III. La psychologie des peuples.--livre IV. Facteurs matériels de la puissance des nations.--livre V. Facteurs psychologiques de la puissance des peuples.--livre VI. Le gouvernement moderne des peuples.--livre VII. Perspectives d'avenir.--livre VIII. Dans le cycle de la science.

Im Mittelpunkt der neun Beiträge aus Deutschland und Frankreich stehen Modelle von Konstruktionen individueller, personaler und kollektiver Identität im alten Israel, in der griechischen Antike, im frühen Judentum sowie im frühen Christentum. Deutlich wird in dieser Zusammenstellung, dass die einzelnen Identitätskonstruktionen nicht nur von religiös-kulturellen Voraussetzungen geprägt, sondern auch von bestimmten Interessen der hinter den Texten stehenden Autoren bzw. Autorengruppen bestimmt sind. Dies erklärt die Unterschiedlichkeit in zentralen Punkten, beispielsweise wie viel Individualität dem Einzelnen als Mitglied einer Gemeinschaft zugestanden wird, (...) welche Rolle "Fremde" in einer Gesellschaft spielen dürfen, und wie Menschen außerhalb einer Gemeinschaft bewertet werden. Mit Beiträgen von Karin Finsterbusch, Denis Fricker, Daniel Gerber, Norbert Jacoby, Bernd Janowski, Pierre Keith, Thierry Legrand, Nathalie Siffer und François Vinel. (shrink)

Laurent Le Bon, directeur du Centre Pompidou-Metz, dévoile au cours d’un entretien avec Roland Huesca l’histoire, les atours et les enjeux de l’écriture de plusieurs catalogues d’expositions : à l’affiche Dada, Chefs-d’œuvre ?..

How can hope, love and faith stay alive when dementia enters a home? In this article I shall look especially at the spouse or partner who shares an abode with a person with dementia. Most of the authors in this field, also John Swinton who is perhaps the best known author whose books are written from a theological perspective, focus on care in institutions, that means care by professionals. A partner living with a dementia patient has two main roles: as (...) partner and caregiver. Night and day a partner is witness to the ongoing deterioration of her or his beloved partner, without being a professional. This article is founded not only on literature about dementia patients, but also on the experiences of several partners, as well as my own experiences as a partner. The question we all ask is: 'From where does our strength come?' I argue that what is said in the literature on the subject of dementia patients does not help the partners, because it lays a heavy burden on them, who are already suffering from feelings of grief and guilt. I do not agree with John Swinton's idea that God created dementia. Looking for different ways of thinking about God and faith to survive with hope and love, I turn to the exegesis of the creation stories by Ellen van Wolde. These give the opportunity to take the evil of the situation of the deterioration of the personality of a patient with dementia seriously, and at the same time grant the possibility to turn the grief and guilt feelings into strength to fight evil, together with a God whose empathy and love stays with a partner in her or his loneliness and grief. (shrink)

" La guerre européenne représente les débuts d'une ère de bouleversements. Boule­versement de l'existence, bouleversement des sentiments, bouleverse­ment des pen­sées. Nous sommes arrivés peut-être à une de ces périodes de l'histoire où, comme au mo­ment de la Révolution française, les hommes changent leur idéal, leurs principes et aussi leurs élites. Les peuples sont rapidement poussés vers un avenir qu'aucune lueur n'éclaire encore. L'imprévisible les domine. Des conceptions politiques et morales, tenues pour inébranlables, semblent destinées à disparaître. Théories et doctrines s'éva­nouissent (...) tour à tour. Plus de lendemains assurés. Les forces psy­chologiques qui s'entrechoquent dans les combats, commencent à peine leur oeuvre.". (shrink)

This study investigates how managers in firms that have committed fraud strategically use socially responsible activities in coordination with their fraudulent financial reporting practices. Using propensity score matching to select control firms that have a similar probability of fraud in the pre-fraud benchmark period, we find that the corporate social responsibility performance of fraudulent firms in the fraud-committing period is significantly higher compared with the CSR performance of non-fraudulent control firms during this period, and compared with that during their own (...) pre-fraud benchmark periods. This higher CSR performance by fraudulent firms is achieved by means of investing in both stakeholder and third-party CSR categories and by improving in CSR strengths. Furthermore, the increase in CSR performance is more pronounced for fraudulent firms with a weak governance environment, and for firms located in high-religiosity states. Overall, our findings suggest that fraudulent firms strategically adjust their CSR performance to coordinate with their fraudulent financial activities. (shrink)