Como cada verano, antes de irnos de vacaciones, os hacemos llegar la lista de títulos que vamos a leer el próximo curso por si os animáis a bajar con los libros a la playa, o subirlos a la montaña. Este próximo año, por cierto, celebramos diez años en El Atizador, el club de lectura de ESADE desde donde hemos ido leyendo y comentando textos que nos ayudan a tener una mejor comprensión de las organizaciones y la sociedad en la que (y para la que) se desenvuelven. Como es costumbre, tendremos tres sesiones construidas sobre tres ejes diferentes.

La primera será sobre la empresa como organización: su naturaleza y estructura en tanto que institución social con responsabilidades éticas. El texto de Singer The form of the firm: A normative political theory of the corporation es central para entender el papel de las corporaciones en nuestra sociedad y su impacto en el sistema democrático. El segundo libro, Who’s afraid of gender?, se centra en cuestiones de género y polarización política. Judith Butler, una de las expertas más influyentes, nos habla sobre la identidad de género y las resistencias que enfrenta en la sociedad actual: miedos, prejuicios, dinámicas de poder y de lucha por la igualdad que se construyen a su alrededor. Un texto fundamental para entender y dar respuesta a las llamadas ‘batallas culturales’ que pueblan el discurso político contemporáneo.

Finalmente, un último libro sobre sociología y tecnología. En este, el sociólogo alemán Hartmut Rosa nos presenta su teoría sobre la aceleración social y sus efectos. En Social acceleration: A new theory of modernity analiza cómo la velocidad creciente en diversos aspectos de la vida contemporánea transforma nuestras experiencias, relaciones y estructuras sociales y como ésta nos obliga a reconsiderar nuestra relación con el tiempo. Un texto central para personas interesadas en el desarrollo tecnológico pero menos habituadas a observar como esta aceleración también desafía nuestra vida en sociedad.

Fechas de las sesiones:

• 19 de diciembre de 2025, Singer, A. A. (2019). The form of the firm: A normative political theory of the corporation. Oxford University Press, USA.
• 20 de marzo de 2025, Butler, J. (2024). Who’s afraid of gender?. Penguin.
• 26 junio de 2025, Rosa, H. (2013). Social acceleration: A new theory of modernity. Columbia University Press.

Nos encontramos en el horario habitual de 15:30 – 17:00 h presencialmente en la Sala 4M1E (Campus Esade Sant Cugat) o vía Zoom a través del siguiente enlace: https://esade.zoom.us/j/85799765731

Como siempre, si queréis participar, podéis hacer dos cosas. Apuntar el calendario en vuestra agenda… y empezar a leer los libros. Debajo tenéis un breve resumen de cada texto.

Feliz verano.

Atizador(es).

Singer, A. A. (2019). The form of the firm: A normative political theory of the corporation. Oxford University Press, USA.

Contemporary discussions of the corporation tend to divide into one of two camps: On one side are scholars who treat the firm as a purely economic and contractual entity, while another set of scholars look at corporations in purely political terms. Therefore, the corporation is not merely an economic endeavor; it is a political institution and must therefore serve social ends and not merely profit.

In The Form of the Firm, Abraham Singer contends that both of these approaches overstate their cases dramatically, resulting in two wrongheaded, influential accounts of the corporation. He offers a third way that sees the corporation as being both economic and political. Corporations are not natural outgrowths of the free market, but institutions that we have developed to correct market inefficiencies through mechanisms normally associated with politics. Corporations use social power, norms, and state-sanctioned authority to establish economic cooperation in ways that markets cannot. But, Singer argues that they also have an obligation to uphold the norms of liberal democracy that enable their existence and smooth-running in the first place.

Butler, J. (2024). Who’s afraid of gender?. Penguin.

Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, the “anti-gender ideology movement” has sought to nullify reproductive justice, undermine protections against sexual and gender violence, and strip trans and queer people of their right to pursue a life without fear of violence. Here, Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker on gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on “gender” that have become central to right-wing movements today. In this book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways in which this phantasm of gender collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction, resulting in a movement that demonizes struggles for equality, fuels aggressive nationalism, and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation.

An essential intervention into one of the most fraught issues of our moment, Who’s Afraid of Gender? is a bold call to refuse the alliance with authoritarian movements and to make a broad coalition with all those who fight against injustice. Imagining new possibilities for freedom and solidarity, Butler offers us a hopeful work of social and political analysis that is both timely and timeless—a book whose verve and rigor only they could deliver.

Rosa, H. (2013). Social acceleration: A new theory of modernity. Columbia University Press.

Hartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies three categories of change in the tempo of modern social life: technological acceleration, evident in transportation, communication, and production; the acceleration of social change, reflected in cultural knowledge, social institutions, and personal relationships; and acceleration in the pace of life, which happens despite the expectation that technological change should increase an individual’s free time.

According to Rosa, both the structural and cultural aspects of our institutions and practices are marked by the “shrinking of the present,” a decreasing time period during which expectations based on past experience reliably match the future. When this phenomenon combines with technological acceleration and the increasing pace of life, time seems to flow ever faster, making our relationships to each other and the world fluid and problematic. It is as if we are standing on “slipping slopes,” a steep social terrain that is itself in motion and in turn demands faster lives and technology. As Rosa deftly shows, this self-reinforcing feedback loop fundamentally determines the character of modern life.