{"product_id":"a-society-adrift-interviews-and-debates-1974-1997-paperback-softback-9780823230945","title":"A Society Adrift; Interviews and Debates, 1974-1997 (Paperback \/ softback) 9780823230945","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eA Society Adrift\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eInterviews and Debates, 1974-1997\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eCornelius Castoriadis (Author), Helen Arnold (Translated by), Enrique Escobar (Edited by), Myrto Gondicas (Author), Pascal Vernay (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780823230945\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 4 January 2010\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e240 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.414 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis posthumous collection of interviews and occasional papers given by Castoriadis between 1974 and 1997 is a lively, direct introduction to the thinking of a writer who never abandoned his radically critical stance. It provides a clear, handy résumé of his political ideas, in advance of their times and profoundly relevant to today's world.\u003cbr\u003e For this political thinker and longtime militant (co-founder with Claude Lefort of the revolutionary group \"Socialisme ou Barbarie\"), economist, psychoanalyst, and philosopher, two endless interrogations—how to understand the world and life in society—were intertwined with his own life and combats.\u003cbr\u003e An important chapter discusses the history of \"Socialisme ou Barbarie\" (1949—1967); in it, Castoriadis presents the views he defended, in that group, on a number of subjects: a critique of Marxism and of the Soviet Union, the bureaucratization of society and of the workers' movement, and the primacy of individual and collective autonomy. Another chapter presents the concept, central to his thinking, of \"imaginary significations\" as what make a society \"cohere.\"\u003cbr\u003e Castoriadis constantly returns to the question of democracy as the never-finished, deliberate creation by the people of societal institutions, analyzing its past and its future in the Western world. He scathingly criticizes \"representative\" democracy and develops a conception of direct democracy extending to all spheres of social life.\u003cbr\u003e He wonders about the chances of achieving freedom and autonomy—those requisites of true democracy—in a world of endless, meaningless accumulation of material goods, where the mechanisms for governing society have disintegrated, the relationship with nature is reduced to one of destructive domination, and, above all, the population has withdrawn from the public sphere: a world dominated by hobbies and lobbies—\"a society adrift.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52681242411288,"sku":"9780823230945","price":27.88,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/a-society-adrift-interviews-and-debates-1974-1997-paperback-softback-9780823230945","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}