Toward a sociology of intellectuals: an urgent debate

Abstract

The review discusses the edited volume Intellectuals in the Plural: Reconfigurations of the Sociology of Intellectuals, organized by Carlos Benedito Martins and Felipe Maia, which brings together 13 chapters divided into three parts. It argues that the renewed urgency of the sociology of intellectuals stems from a context of eroding democratic consensus that is, to some extent, analogous to that faced by Karl Mannheim during the Weimar Republic. The volume highlights a transition from a classical sociology of intellectuals, associated with Gramsci and Mannheim and centered on the question of allegiance to social groups, to contemporary approaches focused on performance and public intervention, in which Bourdieu and Foucault serve as points of departure to be reworked rather than definitive frameworks. The review also examines the place of this perspective in relation to actor-network theory and its relevance for understanding the defense of democracy in the face of the rise of the far right. Drawing on chapters by authors such as Zelinsky, Perlatto, Eyal and Buchholz, Collins, Baert and Morgan, Alexander, Geroulanos, and Sapiro, as well as case studies on Flora Tristan and Nísia Floresta, Du Bois, Derrida, Bourdieu, Habermas, and the contemporary far right, the review argues that the volume provides an important inventory for rethinking the role of intellectuals as agents of public intervention, engaging with the challenges that post-truth and digital communication pose to the defense of democracy.