We live in a complex world. Disciplinary boundaries need to be broken and unusual alliances formed to shift attitudes for change.
The world is in escalating crisis. We need an interdisciplinary effort to understand its underlying problems and inspire change.
My thirst for theory has always been driven by a desire to see more, and with more than my own eyes: multiple perspectives, complex interconnections, and revolutionary possibilities.
Creating social knowledge often involves taking sides on philosophical questions concerning the nature of responsibility, freedom and morality. Experts should bear this in mind when advising decision makers.
The actual importance of a topic often appears more clearly when it is not shown in full light, but illuminated from the side or from oblique angles. This is what I try to do in my writing.
Everyday critique can be seen as an attempt to regain a sense of order in an otherwise uncertain or irritating social reality. Understanding critique thus means uncovering the shared images of a normative social order that form its basis.
Expertise is under increasing scrutiny. This scrutiny needs to be embraced and understood if we are to resolve this age of disinformation.
‘Giving Voice to Digital Democracies’ has an extremely timely, indeed necessary, role to play in bringing the traditional values and expertise of the humanities to bear to resolve the human dilemmas the modern information age has created.
As a political economist, I find in the humanities the intellectual and moral tools necessary to study social change in a world increasingly in thrall to market forces.
The humanities help us understand and explore the potentialities of the human form of life. How can we transform human societies such that the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all?
