ABSTRACT
The concept of conviviality comes from nineteenth-century France. Convivialite is quite common in French today and has also established itself in English as common foreign word and more recently as a technical term in discussions about communal life in immigrant societies. The Convivialist Manifesto, by a group of French-speaking intellectuals associated with the sociologist Alain Caille, goes beyond the previous usages by creating an 'ism' from conviviality. On a theoretical level, convivialism strives with high aspirations towards a synthesis of different political ideologies: liberalism, socialism, communism, and anarchism. The goal is a policy of moderation and of cultural change, because the manifesto does not simply advocate a technocratic project of change towards better 'future technologies': invoking the 'Green Economy' or 'Ecomodernism' is out of the question from convivialist perspective technocratic projects are part of the problem and not the solution.
