Richard Sennett: THE ART OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PERFORMANCE - ACTORS, DEMAGOGUES, SELF-PROMOTERS

Robert Misik in conversation with Richard Sennett





THE ART OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PERFORMANCE: ACTORS,
DEMAGOGUES, SELF-PROMOTERS


 


In his new book, world-famous sociologist and author Richard
Sennett dissects the performer – in the German edition called
„Der darstellende Mensch“. Sennett, who was a musician and artist
before his extraordinary academic career, focuses on theatre and
the emancipatory potential of art. But isn’t today’s dominant
social character is also the performing human in a broader sense,
curating his or her life, whether in social media or in the roles
that he or she has to play? And doesn’t the show character of
politics give rise to a certain type of politician? Sennett’s
latest study also provides an opportunity to talk about the big
picture of half a century of research. It has been 53 years since
Sennett’s first legendary work, ‘The Hidden Injuries of Class’,
was published, which reads as relevant today as ever – followed
by ‘The Fall of the Public Man’, ‘The Corrosion of Character’,
‘On Craftsmanship’ and many other works, that deal with the
interactions between individuals, identity and society. Taken
together, they describe the transformation of the subjects
through socialisation, as well as the alienation in
neoliberalism, but at the same time they always open windows onto
the utopian, onto a non-reified, communal existence.





Richard Sennett grew up in the Cabrini Green
housing project in Chicago, attended the Julliard School in New
York and then studied social relations at Harvard. Over the last
five decades, he has written about social life in cities, changes
in labour and social theory. His books include The Hidden
Injuries of Class , The Fall of Public Man , The Corrosion of
Character , The Culture of the New Capitalism , The Craftsman and
Building and Dwelling . Sennett has advised the United Nations on
urban issues for the past thirty years and currently serves as
member of the UN Committee on Urban Initiatives. He is Visiting
Professor of Urban Studies at Harvard. Among other awards, he has
received the Hegel Prize, the Spinoza Prize and the Centennial
Medal from Harvard University.





Robert Misik, Author and Journalist