Issue 177, August 2023 – Reflections on the Pandemic

This special issue revisits the Thesis Eleven online project: Living and Thinking Crisis. The original project published close to fifty contributions; a multimedia presentation that included postcards, words, poems and music responding to the pandemic in the real-time of its making. This issue of the journal brings a selection of these to publication and reflects on this moment of global upheaval and transformation.

Article: Beautiful Detritus

by Georgia Lockie

Once abundant and collective, utopian dreams had, by the turn of the millennium, largely receded from the social world, leaving a void to be increasingly filled by new dystopias—climate destabilisation; resurgent right-wing authoritarianism; technological domination; plague—the future becoming a prospect less of collective hope or aspiration than dread.

Homage to Touraine

by Francois Dubet and Michel Wieviorka

Alain Touraine died in Paris 9 June 2023. Thesis Eleven is proud to honour his memory with this homage co-authored by Francois Dubet and Michel Wieviorka. The essay was originally published in La Vie des idées and translated into English for Thesis Eleven by David Roberts