Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper is a dialogue with Alain Caillè, founder and animator of the Anti-utilitarian Movement in the Social
Sciences on the topic of gift, love and anti-utilitarian actions. The interview is divided in three parts: the first one is about
Convivialism, as common denominator of promoting the art of living together; The second part is about the commitment of
social sciences; the third part is aimed to clarify the existing links among the concepts of gift, recognition and agape.

The authors aim to introduce two sensitive concepts in sociology: gift and agapic love. Starting from a clarification of the semantic areas of the two terms, their history, their connections and their opacity, the paper aim to release gift and love only from the private sphere and to give them a public dimension, recognising a strong critical and reflective charge.

The starting point of the paper is that social interaction is anchored in the world of practical logic (Bourdieu 2003). On this base, authors aim to demonstrate that love, before being an interpretative category, is a “practical knowledge” that can be observed in daily life of social actors. Two case studies support the analysis.