Social Morphodynamics: Mapping Identity Transformations, Cultural Encounters, and the Evolution of Core Values

Albert Doja (1, 2)

1 Université de Lille
2 CLERSÉ - Centre Lillois d’Études et de Recherches Sociologiques et Économiques - UMR 8019

In this paper given to Harvard CES community in the framework of my appointment as a Visiting Research Scholar, I outline a personal account of a theoretical path toward a specific research project and scientific method, which I believe may figure out what anthropology is or may be heading today. European societies are facing new challenges stemming from cultural encounters and identity transformations. These have revealed the vulnerability of the EU project and cosmopolitan European identity. To address these challenges I propose a new theoretical and methodological approach. My research in progress on European identity transformations draws on structural socio-anthropology and aims to develop some of Lévi-Strauss’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual and theoretical tools. I outline a complex research strategy including the use of Bayesian inference and computer formalism, while comparison of the findings with policy choices and practices will make it possible to assess the effects of European integration policies.

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Science politique; Sociologie

Albert Doja. Social Morphodynamics: Mapping Identity Transformations, Cultural Encounters, and the Evolution of Core Values. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 2018, 7 (1), pp.14-25. ⟨halshs-01691090⟩