professor at the Free University of Brussels in Sociology, Communication and Management, Alain ERALY is a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. In this book, he takes as its starting point what he sees as a ‘crisis of authority’, a crisis that affects the foundations of modern society, both its institutions and its forms of life. By authority, ERALY means ‘the personal legitimacy which a staff member derives as a result of occupying...