Since Antiquity, Luxury has been an object of reflection and controversy. Luxury bears the mark of excess and expense ; it is not reduced to pure market value. It arouses fascination, but also criticism, even condemnation. Associated with the elite and the wealthy, it nevertheless constitutes a powerful sector of the contemporary economy. Today, the trade in luxury is one which generates the most spectacular profits, and it has been exponentially growing over the past two decades. The globalization of Luxury, with the opening of world trade to major countries such as China, has sparked new empirical research in the social sciences and raises important theoretical questions related to the diversity of approaches to this phenomenon. Luxury is not only good to consume, it is also good to think.

The objective of this workshop is first of all epistemological. By bringing together researchers from different disciplines who have tackled the question of Luxury from specific perspectives, the aim is to develop a reflection on the issues and concepts that enable us to think about Luxury, by taking into account the most recent contributions in the field. It is an opportunity to establish a fruitful dialogue beyond disciplinary boundaries. The workshop will focus on the following questions : - Luxury as a theoretical, ethical and political issue - the phenomenology of luxury, experience and subjectivity - Beyond the value: excess, disproportion, transgression - The trade of Luxury and globalized history - Luxury, the same and the other : alterity and nationalisms - Luxury, branding and contemporary art - New geographies, new scenographies of luxury in a globalized world.

Programme 

Jeudi 15 juin 2017

9h45 Ouverture et mot de bienvenue

Introduction : Marc Abélès (Collège d’études mondiales de la FMSH, EHESS, CNRS)

10h30 – 13h : The Circulation of Luxury

• Pierre Schneider (Université d’Artois) – Ex oriente luxuria : a « cultural revolution » in Imperial Rome
• Lynda Dematteo (CNRS) – The National Luxury: The Political Imaginary of Italian Fashion

14h30-17h30 : Luxury, Capitalism, Excessiveness, Utopy

• Tania Toffanin (Université de Padova) – Sociology and Luxury: a problematic liaison
• Kristin Ross (New York University) – The Seventh Wonder of the Zad
• Olivier Assouly (Institut Français de la Mode) – La question de la mesure du luxe

Vendredi 16 juin 2017

10h-13h : Worlds and Experience of Luxury

• George Marcus (University of California Irvine) – Of Bubbles, the Design of  Luxury Enclosures  As Far As the  Elite Unaided  Eye Can See, and  the  Affordances of  Contemporary Immersive Environments
• John Armitage (Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton) – Luxury Brands, Contemporary Art, and Everyday Life
• Lambert Wiesing (Université d’Iena) – Luxury: The Dadaism of Possession

14h30-17h30 : Luxury Trade and Urban Scenographies

• Viviane Riegel (Université de Sao Polo, Brésil) – The reproduction of luxury in global cities: analysis of São Paulo´s spaces, and its project of a cosmopolitan city
• Máximo Badaró (UNSAM, Buenos Aires) – Alterity and value: a political anthropology of the marketing of luxury in China.

Conclusions