Description
Plasticity into Power works out, through historical examples, a major theme of Unger's work-the relation between institutional and organizational flexibility and the development of our collective ability to produce or to destroy. The message of the book is that the practical success of a society depends on its capacity for permanent innovation. Certain practices and institutions-the history and content of which Unger explores-can nurture this capacity.
Unger pursues this topic through wide-ranging historical inquiries into the European escape from the recurring crises that foreclosed political and economic breakthroughs in the great empires of the past; the invention of revolutionary approaches to the governmental protection of wealth; and the social conditions of military success, viewed as sources of insight into the social foundations of economic growth. Throughout, Plasticity into Power exemplifies a conception of the relation between theory and history that remains faithful to the surprising, open-ended quality of lived experience.
Volume 3 of Politics, a work in constructive social theory
About the Author
Roberto Mangabeira Unger is one of the leading philosophers and political thinkers in the world today. He is also active in Brazilian public life and has served twice as Brazil's Minister of Strategic Affairs, charged with developing initiatives that signal a direction for the country. Verso has published much of his work: in philosophy (The Religion of the Future), in social theory (False Necessity, Social Theory: Its Situation and Its Task, and Plasticity into Power), in political economy (The Knowledge Economy), and in legal theory (What Should Legal Analysis Become?).
Reviews
[Unger] does not make moves in any game we know how to play ... [His] book may someday make possible a new national romance ... [It] will help the literate ... citizens of some country to see vistas where before they saw only dangers-see a hitherto undreamt-of national future ... -- Richard Rorty
A philosophical mind out of the Third World turning the tables, to become a synoptist and seer of the First. -- Perry Anderson
Book Information
ISBN 9781844675166
Author Roberto Mangabeira Unger
Format Paperback
Page Count 232
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 342g
Dimensions(mm) 221mm * 137mm * 18mm
Unger pursues this topic through wide-ranging historical inquiries into the European escape from the recurring crises that foreclosed political and economic breakthroughs in the great empires of the past; the invention of revolutionary approaches to the governmental protection of wealth; and the social conditions of military success, viewed as sources of insight into the social foundations of economic growth. Throughout, Plasticity into Power exemplifies a conception of the relation between theory and history that remains faithful to the surprising, open-ended quality of lived experience.
Volume 3 of Politics, a work in constructive social theory
About the Author
Roberto Mangabeira Unger is one of the leading philosophers and political thinkers in the world today. He is also active in Brazilian public life and has served twice as Brazil's Minister of Strategic Affairs, charged with developing initiatives that signal a direction for the country. Verso has published much of his work: in philosophy (The Religion of the Future), in social theory (False Necessity, Social Theory: Its Situation and Its Task, and Plasticity into Power), in political economy (The Knowledge Economy), and in legal theory (What Should Legal Analysis Become?).
Reviews
[Unger] does not make moves in any game we know how to play ... [His] book may someday make possible a new national romance ... [It] will help the literate ... citizens of some country to see vistas where before they saw only dangers-see a hitherto undreamt-of national future ... -- Richard Rorty
A philosophical mind out of the Third World turning the tables, to become a synoptist and seer of the First. -- Perry Anderson
Book Information
ISBN 9781844675166
Author Roberto Mangabeira Unger
Format Paperback
Page Count 232
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 342g
Dimensions(mm) 221mm * 137mm * 18mm
