Alain Caillé

Alain Caillé, 2008 in Paris

Alain Caillé (* 1944 in Paris ) is a French sociologist . Caillé is Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris-Nanterre . He researches reciprocity and in particular the work of Marcel Mauss . Alluding to its name, Caillé founded the MAUSS movement ( Mouvement Anti-Utilitariste dans les Sciences Sociales ) in 1981 , which criticizes utilitarianism in the social sciences.

Anthropology of the Gift

With his anthropology of the gift, Alain Caillé tries to give the French sociologist and ethnologist Marcel Mauss more weight in today's sociological discourse. Mauss' thinking, according to Caillé, could provide a "third paradigm" for the social sciences and thus overcome the one-sidedness of the other two great paradigms, methodological individualism and holism . The basis of this new paradigm is the essay Die Gabe , in which Mauss, using the example of the exchange of gifts from archaic peoples, explains the threefold obligation of giving, receiving and reciprocating. For Caillé, the genesis of sociality and society can only be understood through the gift.

Fonts (selection)

Critique de la raison utilitaire , 1989
Don, intérêt et désintéressement , 1994
Anthropologie du don , 2000 (in German translation: Anthropologie der Gabe , Campus, Frankfurt am Main: 2008, ISBN 978-3-593-38642-3 ).
Dé-penser l'économique - Contre le fatalisme , 2005
Théorie anti-utilitariste de l'action: Fragments d'une sociologie générale , 2009.

literature

Veronika Hoffmann: Sketches for a theology of the gift: justification - sacrifice - Eucharist - love of God and neighbor . Herder Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-451-30696-9 .
Les Convivialistes: The convivialist manifesto: For a new art of living together . Verlag transcript, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-2898-2 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Caillé, Alain
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH	1944
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris