Abstract
This article analyzes the reception of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the twenty-first century” from September 2013 to June 2015 in France, where it was first released, and in the United States, by academics who come from a variety of disciplines. We discuss the “spontaneous sociology” offered by some of the actors of this reception and analyze, using their remarks as a starting point, the major predictors of the content of an academic review of Piketty. Our results highlight the strong effect of passing time on the content of the reviews – three clear phases can be identified in the reception of the book showing a “proteus effect” pattern. They also emphasize the importance of understanding how academic disciplines structure the debate – much more so than the country of residence. In fact, most of the opinions academics express on Piketty’s book are tied to their departmental affiliations. We look at how this link articulates the intellectual structures of the disciplines with field theory. Our results suggest a strong autonomy of the social scientific field from more general public concerns.
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Notes
It is notable that while most US authors comment the book’s success in English three-quarters of Capital’s sales are in non-English languages, according to an interview with Piketty (Richford 2016).
See « Piketty: Entre 2009 et 2014, la Grèce est. le pays qui a le plus réduit son déficit », Marianne (url:http://www.marianne.net/piketty-entre-2009-2014-grece-est-pays-qui-plus-reduit-son-deficit-100235110.html) or « Le tout sécuritaire ne suffira pas », Le Monde. (url: http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2015/11/21/le-tout-securitaire-ne-suffira-pas_4814707_3232.html?xtmc=piketty&xtcr=11)
In our readings we note that several other dimensions of Piketty reviews are interesting and would warrant a further study for our understanding of Academia, most notably the way reviews of Piketty are generally a point of entry into a discussion of the state of contemporary U.S. economics departments.
The French references in our database are Allegre 2014; Bourguignon 2014; Allègre and Timbeau 2014; Barreyre 2015; Baverez 2013; Establet and Baudelot2013; Beguin 2015; Bibeau 2014; Bichon 2014; Boyer 2013; Cameron 2014; Cossé 2013; Daniel 2013; Delsol 2014; Delalande 2015; Dumenil & Levy 2015; Eribon 2014; Establet and Baudelot 2014; Fontanet 2014; Grenier 2015; Gaffard 2014; Grubbel 2014; Husson 2014; Jacoby 2014a; Jardat 2015b; Lagasnerie 2013; Lordon 2015; Lepage, 2014; Levy and Dumenil 2015; Margairaz and Mouré 2013; Madaule 2014; Matthieu 2014; Monnet 2015; Naim 2014; Rogoff 2014; Rodrik 2014; Schméder 2014; Sehimi 2014; Stanziani 2015; Schweitzer 2014; Spire 2015; Tanner 2014; Thevenot 2015; Todd 2013; Wasmer et al. 2014. The U.S. references in our database are Acemoglu and Robinson 2015; Agger and Luke 2015; Auerbach and Hassett 2015; Bankman and Shaviro 2015; Boucoyannis 2014; Caron 2015; Clark and Cummins 2015; Colander 2014; Condie et al. 2014; Cowen 2014; Dahms 2015; DeLong 2014; Despain 2014; Edsall 2014; Foster and Yates 2014; Galbraith 2014a, b; Grewal 2014; Guyer 2015; Hacker and Pierson 2014; Harvey 2014; Ho 2015; Howard 2015; Hsu 2015; Hubbard 2015; Jacoby 2014b; Johnston 2014; Jones 2014, Jones, C.I. 2015; Kenneth 2014; Kilman 2014; Kopczuk 2015; Krier and Amindon 2014; Krugman 2014b; Krusell and Smith 2014; Lindhert 2014; Lotz 2014; Madrick 2014; Magness and Murphy 2015; Mankiw 2015; Mayor 2015; McCloskey 2014; Mettler 2015; Milanovic 2014; Moseley 2014; Moyn 2014; Muendler 2014; Murphy 2015; Palma 2014; Peet 2015; Posner and Weyl 2014; Purdy 2014; Ralph 2015; Rodrik 2014; Smith 2014; Solow 2014; Soskice 2014; Stiglitz 2015; Summers 2014; Sutch 2015; Taylor 2014; Varoufakis 2014; Weil 2015; Widerquist 2015; Yanagisako 2015; Zimmer 2015; and Žižek 2014. Initial and alternative coding can be obtained on demand to the corresponding author.
The French higher education system is divided between Universités, which for the most part do not get to select their students and have low fees and Ecoles which can be either private or public, can have high fees and always select their students. Grandes écoles (such as Ecole Normale Supérieure) are highly prestigious and generally require a national competitive exam to enroll.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the following people for their help and advice: Bernard Harcourt, Wojciech Kopczuk, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Todd, Sage Gerson. We would also like to thank Scott Morton from Nielson Book Research for his help in obtaining sales data. A special thanks goes to Mia Ruyter for suggesting this research avenue two years ago.
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Raoult, S., Leonard, B. & Derbey, A. A Prophet in his Hometown? the Academic Reception of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” Across Disciplines in France and in the United States. Am Soc 48, 453–475 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-017-9338-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-017-9338-0