ABSTRACT
In which ways and why do hyper-modernised societies change the concept and practices of the “good life?” What are the prospects for the next future? Human happiness is being redefined as the possibility of enjoying opportunities that present themselves in contingent situations. It becomes a matter of analysing who offers these opportunities, how they are used, and what effects they produce. The chapter examines three main sources offering opportunities: the lib/lab systems, a global communication matrix of an impersonal nature, and new collective subjects of civil society organised in social networks. The opportunities afforded by these three sources are selected on the basis of a multiplicity of logics (individualistic, systemic, or relational). It is claimed that the good life is a matter of the modalities with which agents and social networks produce relational goods or, vice versa, engender relational evils.
