The Dawn of Everything - I

Is anarchy¹ a realistic social organization? Based on its absence in the modern world one would be tempted to answer in the negative, at least for communities above the size of indigenous tribe (a few thousands, say.) Showing that complex and large-scale societies can function (or, even better, that they have already functioned) without a strong state and its inherent dangers would be a powerful argument in favor of attempting such a decentralized system in our time. This is exactly the argument that David Graeber and David Wengrow are trying to make in The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Unfortunately, they are trying too hard. Below the fold, I'll give a synopsis of the first part of the book (chapters 1 to 6). A second post will summarize chapters 7-12 and a third one will conclude the review.

CNRS positions - the 2022 campaign

The 2022 campaign for permanent research positions at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) is open (see the submission site). The deadline is January 11th 2022 (13:00 Paris time). There are 238 open positions at the CR level, 260 for DR2 and 2 for DR1. The official texts are here: CRCN, DR2, DR1 and the evolution of these numbers over the last twenty years is shown in the graph below:

Two changes are worth mentioning this year:

• The significant increase in DR2 positions (13 in 2022, up from 3 over the last few years!) for section 50, "research management". This section's purpose is to promote (no external hire possible) CNRS researchers who undertake heavy administration tasks, such as directing a large organization (e.g. a laboratory or a large facility)¹.
  
• The emphasis on "big data" and AI, with the creation of the new interdisciplinary section 55 (5 DR2 and 5 CRCN positions), but also with targeted positions in other sections (e.g. 15, 17, 51, 53).
  

Good luck to all the candidates!

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1. This is probably part of the larger tendency of reducing the count of staff blocked at the "junior" CRCN level, by promotion to the DR rank and by the creation of the "hors-classe" CR rank in 2017. A similar strategy is announced for the universities, with more promotions from associate professor "maître de conférences" (MdCf) to full professor and to "MdCf hors classe".^↩