Introduction: Key Issues in the Sociology of Intellectuals; Simon Susen and Patrick Baert.- Chapter 1: Reflections on Patrick Baert’s The Existentialist Moment: The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual; Simon Susen.- Chapter 2: The Existentialist Moment Defended: A Reply to Simon Susen; Patrick Baert.

This book offers an unprecedented account of recent and future developments in the sociology of intellectuals. It presents a critical exchange between two leading contemporary social theorists, Patrick Baert and Simon Susen, advancing debates at the cutting edge of scholarship on the changing role of intellectuals in the increasingly interconnected societies of the twenty-first century. The discussion centres on Baert’s most recent contribution to this field of inquiry, The Existentialist Moment: The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual (2015), demonstrating that it has opened up hitherto barely explored avenues for the sociological study of intellectuals. The authors also provide an overview of various alternative approaches that are available for understanding the sociology of intellectuals, such as those of Pierre Bourdieu, Randall Collins and Neil Gross. In doing so, they grapple with the question of the extent to which intellectuals can play a positive and empowering rolein shaping the current and future development of society. This insightful book will appeal to students and scholars of the humanities and social sciences, particularly to those interested in social theory and the history of intellectual thought.

“It takes about two full intellectual generations (that is, two-thirds of a century) to establish who has an enduring reputation. Patrick Baert's The Existentialist Moment displays the insight that comes with sufficient distance from the factions of the time and their immediate followers downstream. Jean-Paul Sartre can now be seen as the ‘public intellectual’ par excellence – a concept that did not exist when Sartre broke out of a narrow Parisian circle into world-wide prominence at the end of the Second World War. This high-level debate between Simon Susen and Patrick Baert deepens the significance of social discontinuities in generating public intellectuals and, in addition, casts in perspective the conditions fostering the repudiation of public intellectuals today.” (Randall Collins, Professor of Sociology Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, USA)

“Focused on the theoretical model deployed in Patrick Baert's superb book on Jean-Paul Sartre, this splendid little volume opens up crucial issues for the lively and growing field of the sociology of intellectual production and reception. Together with Baert's very substantial work on intellectual life in the UK, Japan and elsewhere, and Simon Susen's masterly studies of Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Luc Boltanski and postmodernism, it constitutes a major contribution to the field.” (William Outhwaite, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University, UK)

Explores a new set of conceptual and methodological tools for the sociology of intellectuals Assesses how the phenomenon of the public intellectual has altered since the beginning of the twentieth century Examines the extent to which intellectuals can play a constructive role in influencing social and political developments in the modern era Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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