Sylvain Lazarus

Sylvain Lazarus (born 1943) is a French sociologist, anthropologist and political theorist. He is known for his contributions to French Marxist and Maoist politics, particularly with philosopher Alain Badiou, his book The Anthropology of the Name, and the study of banlieues. He has also written under the pseudonym Paul Sandevince. Lazarus was a professor at the Paris 8 University.

Life and work

Lazarus was born in 1943.[1]

Lazarus worked out a theory of the social function of political categorizations (cf. Anthropology of the Name, 1996), exploring in the anthropological field what his Lacanian colleagues Alain Badiou (Being and Event, 1988) and Jean-Claude Milner (The Indistinct Names, 1983) worked out in the fields of philosophy (Badiou) and of linguistics and of psychoanalytic theory (Milner).

Lazarus's 1996 book 'Anthropologie du nom' (Anthropology of the Name) was translated into English by Gila Walker for publication in 2015.[2] Previously, it was discussed at length by Alain Badiou in his Abrégé de Métapolitique (1998), which was translated into English as Metapolitics (2005).[3]

L'Organisation Politique

Following the student uprisings of May 1968 in France, Lazarus was a founding member of the Union des communistes de France marxiste-léniniste (UCFml). Badiou, another founding member, said that the UCFml was "the Maoist organization established in late 1969 by Natacha Michel, Sylvain Lazarus, myself and a fair number of young people".[4]

Fifteen years later, in 1984, Lazarus was a founding member (along with Badiou and Michel) of the militant French political organisation Organisation politique[5][6] which called itself a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues including immigration, labor, and housing.[7] It published a journal, La Distance politique, for several years.[8] In addition to writings and interventions since the 1980s, L'Organisation Politique stressed the importance of developing political prescriptions concerning undocumented migrants (in France referred to as les sans papiers) and stressed that they must be conceived primarily as workers and not immigrants.[6][8]

International Observatory on Suburbs and Outskirts

Beginning in the 1990s, Lazarus focused much of his activism on the French suburbs (the banlieues). In 2008, with fellow French anthropologist Alain Bertho, he founded l'Observatoire international des banlieues et des périphéries (OIBP), which has produced studies in France, Brazil and Senegal.

Bibliography

  • Author:
    • (French) 'Althusser, la politique et l’histoire'. In S. Lazarus (ed.) Politique et philosophie dans l’oeuvre de Louis Althusser. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1993.
    • (French) Anthropologie du nom. Paris: Seuil, 1996.
      • (English translation) Anthropology of the Name. Translated by Gila Walker. Seagull Books, 2015. ISBN 978-0-85742230-9
    • (French) "Anthropologie ouvrière et enquêtes d’usine; état des lieux et problématique". In Revue Ethnologie Française, numéro 3, 2001.
    • (French) Introduction to Ethnologie française n°III/2001 consacré à l'anthropologie ouvrière[9]
    • (French) Desir de Revolution. In Lignes n°04 : (février 2002)
    • (English) "Lenin and the Party, 1902 – November 1917". In Lenin Reloaded: Toward a Politics of Truth, edited by Sebastian Budgen, Stathis Kouvelakis, and Slavoj Žižek. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8223-3929-8 doi:10.2307/jj.33610712.16
  • Co-author, editor:
    • (French) L'art dégénéré – Actes d'une exposition, Aix-en-Provence, juin 1998: Jean-Paul Curnier, Sylvain Lazarus, Jean-Pierre Faye, Alain Badiou – Editeur: Al Dante (Editions) (1998)
    • (French) Politique et philosophie dans l'oeuvre de Louis Althusser – Pratiques théoriques éditeur : Presses Universitaires France (1993)
  • Conference Director:
    • Chercher ailleurs et autrement. Sur la doctrine des lieux, l’économie, l’effondrement du socialisme Conférence du Perroquet – 1992

Using the pseudonym Paul Sandevince

  • all articles in French:
    • various articles in the Maoist journal of the Union des communistes de France marxiste-léniniste.[10]
    • Qu'est-ce qu'une Politique Marxiste. Éditions Potemkine – January 1978.
    • Notes de travail sur le post-léninisme. Éditions Potemkine – 1981.

References

  1. ^ "Notice de personne: Lazarus, Sylvain (1943-....)". Bibliothèque Nationale de France (in French). 6 December 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2026.
  2. ^ "Anthropology of the Name". The Seminary Co-op. Retrieved 31 January 2026.
  3. ^ Doniger, Brian (2021). "The Enthusiasm of Political Sequences: Notes on Sylvain Lazarus's Anthropology of the Name". Krisis. 41 (2): 19–34. doi:10.21827/krisis.41.2.36966.
  4. ^ Badiou, Alain (2010). "Part I: "We Are Still the Contemporaries of May '68"". The Communist Hypothesis (pbk). Translated by David Macey; Steve Corcoran. Verso. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-84467-600-2.
  5. ^ The following was the organisation's website at "L'Organisation Politique". Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
  6. ^ a b Garrett, Paul Michael (2013). "Reactivating the 'communist hypothesis': Alain Badiou and social work". European Journal of Social Work. 16 (4): 551–566. doi:10.1080/13691457.2012.724389.
  7. ^ Badiou, Alain (2003). "Beyond formalisation: an interview". Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities. 8 (2): 111–136. doi:10.1080/0969725032000162611.
  8. ^ a b Badiou, Alain; Hallward, Peter (1998). "Politics and philosophy: an interview with Alain Badiou". Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities. 3 (3): 113–133. doi:10.1080/09697259808572002.
  9. ^ Texte
  10. ^ Les Editions Prolétariennes

Further reading

  • Alain Badiou:
    • (2005) Metapolitics
    • (2009) Logics of Worlds: 'Being and Event', Volume 2. Here, Badiou discusses the ongoing importance for him of Lazarus's work and political interventions. See in particular the extensive endnotes in the back section of this volume. The index points to other references to Lazarus in this volume.
  • Michael Neocosmos (2009), The Political Conditions of Social Thought and the Politics of Emancipation: An Introduction to the work of Sylvain Lazarus
  • Bryan Doniger (2021), "The Enthusiasm of Political Sequences: Notes on Sylvain Lazarus's Anthropology of the Name" Krisis 41(2): 19–34; "The scarcity of available resources for understanding Lazarus has led to a problem in the secondary literature. Namely, most of the interpretations of Lazarus published in English are heavily reliant upon Alain Badiou’s understanding of his project."
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