Schnapper, Dominique
Bio: (1934-) French sociologist. Dominique Schnapper is the daughter of the famous sociologist Raymond Aaron. She received her doctorate in sociology from the Sorbonne, and was the director of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. Schnapper examined issues of unemployment and work, epistemological problems of sociology, and is best known for her research on ethnic minorities and their integration into French society. She conducted several field studies of the life of the Italian and Jewish minorities in France. Schnapper is an advocate of the republican model of the nation, as is dominant in France, and in that perspective, she researched the integration of national minorities. The republican vision of the nation best solves several practical issues: it guarantees true equality and political rights to all citizens, regardless of ethnicity; meets economic and social needs through the welfare state; and ensures the recognition of the cultural rights of ethnic minorities. She also conducted historical research on the integration of Jews. From the French Revolution until the beginning of the Second World War, Jews assimilated into the French nation, and after the war, that trend changed. Schnapper singles out three types of post-war behavior of Jews: 1) Jews who respect the strict rules of the Jewish faith, 2) those who express their Jewish affiliation, primarily in the political field, through activism, and 3) Jews who are not religious or politically active, but they retain a sense of belonging to Jewish identity.
Main works
L’Italie Rouge et Noire (1971);
The Sociology of Italy (1974);
Juifs et Israélites (1980);
L'Épreuve du chômage (1981);
La France de l’intégration, sociologie de la nation en 1990 (1991);
L’Europe des immigrés, essai sur les politiques d'immigration (1992);
La Communauté des citoyens, sur l’idée moderne de nation (1994);
Contre la fin du travail (1997);
La Relation à l’Autre: Au cœur de la pensée sociologique (1998);
La Compréhension sociologique (1999);
Qu’est-ce que la citoyenneté ? (2000);
Questionner le racisme (2000);
La Démocratie providentielle (2002);
La compréhension sociologique (2012);
Intellectuels et juifs en France aujourd'hui : De l'enthousiasme des années 60 à la déception des années 2000 (2014);
Où va notre démocratie ? (2014);
L’Esprit démocratique des lois (2015a);
La Disqualification sociale (2015b);
République aux 100 cultures (2016);
Réflexions sur l'antisémitisme (2016);
De la démocratie en France : République, nation, laïcité (2017);
La Citoyenneté à l'épreuve. La Démocratie et les Juifs (2018);
Puissante et fragile, l'entreprise en démocratie (2020);
Temps inquiets. Réflexions sociologiques sur la condition juive (2021).
Works translated into English:
The Democratic Spirit of Law (2016, in French 2015a);
Providential Democracy: An Essay on Contemporary Equality (2017, in French 2002);
Community of Citizens: On the Modern Idea of Nationality (2017, in French 1994).
