Margarita Mooney reviews Raphael Liogier’s ‘Legitimate’ Laicite: France and its State Religions (Entrelacs, 2006) in Contemporary Sociology:
Raphaël Liogier’s book is a provocative argument about French discourse and practice regarding laïcité, a term generally translated as secularism. Liogier correctly points out that scholars should interrogate how well actual practices reflect the discourse and common understandings of terms such as secularism and laïcité. Liogier makes a powerful and convincing argument that French laïcité is not what many inside and outside of France believe it to be, the separation of church and state, but rather an organized and hierarchical system of state intervention in religion.
The above excerpt is from Professor Mooney’s blog. Read the full review here (sub. required).
