ABSTRACT
The chapters in this book present a much more nuanced picture of our societies than the sketch that opens the introduction to this book. Still, they show how and to what extent autonomy has become a central reference in much of the discourse and many of the practices in liberal individualistic societies. The exploration of the three areas of parenting, education, and mental health care on which some individuals, often stirred by policies or by moral entrepreneurs, claim to build the autonomy of other individuals on proved to be very informative about the tensions and contradictions at the core of societies in which autonomy is expected of every person because everyone has a potential to develop.
