ABSTRACT

This chapter is a call for greater awareness of the theoretical frameworks we use to understand the world and what to do about it. It stems from the realization that there is always a tight connection between social reality, the theoretical framework we use to interpret it, and the sense of politics and hope that emerges from such an understanding. This connection is often overlooked. It can be said without much exaggeration that our hope and politics are largely the result of a given framework. It is particularly important that we reflect on this fact in times of profound transformations, such as today. This chapter is less intended as a critique of established frameworks (say, Marxism and liberalism), than as a presentation of the elements of a way of looking at social reality, seemingly on the rise, that can at least provisionally be said to be apt to explain some of the social dynamics we are witnessing today, and to do so in a novel way. The implications for politics should be apparent.