A pocas semanas de empezar vacaciones os presentamos las lecturas que formarán parte de nuestras sesiones de El Atizador para el próximo curso académico.

Como viene siendo habitual nuestro menú para el próximo año va a pasearnos por diferentes disciplinas: la ecología, la historia y la filosofía política. Dos son textos clásicos, aunque uno de ellos apenas fue publicado en 2017.
Así pues, este próximo curso 2023-24 trataremos de responder las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cómo hablar de los límites planetarios con propiedad? (Raworth); ¿Cómo se fabrica la narrativa histórica? (Schiffman); y ¿Cómo se sostiene una democracia en medio de la aceleración social y el cambio tecnológico? (Dewey).

Apuntad las fechas (provisionales) para nuestras sesiones:

• 21 de diciembre 2023, con Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist. Chelsea Green Publishing.

• 22 de marzo 2024, con Schiffman, Z. S. (2011). The birth of the past. JHU Press.

• 27 junio 2024, con Dewey, J. (2016 orig.1927). The Public and Its Problems: An Essay in Political Inquiry. Ohio University Press

Nos encontramos en el horario habitual de 15:30-17:00 siempre presencialmente (sala por determinar) o vía Zoom a través del siguiente enlace: https://esade.zoom.us/j/81567936856

Si quieres participar, manda una confirmación a nuria.fenero@esade.edu

A continuación, para abrir boca y por si queréis empezar a preparar las sesiones, bajo la sombra de una palmera, una breve reseña de las obras:

Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist. Chelsea Green Publishing.

Economics is broken. It has failed to predict, let alone prevent, financial crises that have shaken the foundations of our societies. Its outdated theories have permitted a world in which extreme poverty persists while the wealth of the super-rich grows year on year. And its blind spots have led to policies that are degrading the living world on a scale that threatens all our futures.

Can it be fixed? In Doughnut Economics, Oxford academic Kate Raworth identifies seven critical ways in which mainstream economics has led us astray, and sets out a roadmap for bringing humanity into a sweet spot that meets the needs of all within the means of the planet. En route, she deconstructs the character of ‘rational economic man’ and explains what really makes us tick. She highlights the dangers of ignoring the role of energy and nature’s resources – and the far-reaching implications for economic growth when we take them into account. And in the process, she creates a new, cutting-edge economic model that is fit for the 21st century – one in which a doughnut-shaped compass points the way to human progress.

Schiffman, Z. S. (2011). The birth of the past. JHU Press.

Myth and history were indistinguishable for large parts of human history. How did humans develop an idea about the past and how did this idea unfold its power over the present and the future? In The Birth of the Past, Schiffman explores these questions in his sweeping survey of historical thinking in the Western world. Today we automatically distinguish between past and present, labeling things that appear out of place as “anachronisms.” Schiffman shows how this tendency did not always exist and how the past as such was born of a perceived difference between past and present.

Schiffman takes readers on a grand tour of historical thinking from antiquity to modernity. He shows how ancient historians could not distinguish between past and present because they conceived of multiple pasts. Christian theologians coalesced these multiple pasts into a single temporal space where past merged with present and future. Renaissance humanists began to disentangle these temporal states in their desire to resurrect classical culture, creating a “living past.” French enlighteners killed off this living past when they engendered a form of social scientific thinking that measured the relations between historical entities, thus sustaining the distance between past and present and relegating each culture to its own distinctive context. Featuring a foreword by the eminent historian Anthony Grafton, this fascinating book draws upon a diverse range of sources―ancient histories, medieval theology, Renaissance art, literature, legal thought, and early modern mathematics and social science―to uncover the meaning of the past and its relationship to the present.

APA Dewey, J. (2016 orig.1927). The Public and Its Problems: An Essay in Political Inquiry. Ohio University Press

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in the USA.

A classic in social and political philosophy. In his characteristic and provocative dialectic style, in this book John Dewey clarifies the meaning and implications of such concepts as “the public,” “the state,” “government,” and “political democracy”. As in his other writings, Dewey exhibits his strong faith in the potential of human intelligence to solve the public’s problems.