Having extensively studied the issue of "risk" (technological, cultural, societal) for twenty years, Denis Duclos has devoted his recent work to establish the concept of "plurality". This essentially means (in the context of a global society in which all phenomena are emerging severally, as today, the universal propagation of the economic crisis) finding a strategy of diversifying risk. To put it in popular terms : how can humankind avoid "putting all its eggs in one basket"? This theme recalls the traditional division of powers sought by philosophers (as Montesquieu), but it is now question to understand how human culture "contains" the possibility of an anthropological division (and not just a technical one). Although this concern seems to be without any immediate output (in a time dedicated to large maneuvers to control the global financial disorder), we are here taking the bet that quest for plurality,and for its own symmetries and balances , is probably one of the most promising ways to prevent disasters, always associated with a "common mode", that is to say a principle of a "general sweeping".
One will not find in this site any "miracle solution" to the follies of growth or those of credit, but one will be invited to reflect on methods to build a society able, on the deeper and longer term,to withstand and civilize the wild synergies of desires, not by bureaucratic or repressive means, but preferably by the way of a "conversation between passions".

The reader, O greatly welcome !, is first invited to navigate within the left column, that reveals the titles of the themes and topics of the work of Denis Duclos. By clicking on the names of subjects, the titles and content of texts in each subject appear (on the right hand column). These may be whole books (some of them being available to free download ), or articles.

Readers are strongly invited to participate in the forum, beginning with leaving a free comment at the end of each text. If the comment is accepted by the moderator (excluding insults or outrageously biased talking), it appears both under the text and in the "Forum" menu at the top of the homepage.

One must bear in mind that the author has chosen to work on this site a bit like a "street artist". He is building his proposals in "real time" ( except for work requiring very long empirical formulas, or data collection problems). This kind of "work in progress" is specific to Internet, and it is also to be interrupted by the normal process of "external" publications. Publishers and committees are therefore invited to find out if a text is of interest, leading then to its removal from this on-line laboratory .

Site de Denis Duclos, sociologue/anthropologue, directeur de recherche au CNRS