Description:
In this wide-ranging and multidisciplinary volume, leading scholars, activists, journalists, and public figures deliberate about the creative and critical potential of public imagination in an era paradoxically marked by intensifying globalization and resurgent nationalism.
Review Quotes:
"Richard Falk, Victor Faessel and Michael Curtin have brought together a diverse set of authors for an in-depth examination of the importance of public imagination. This is a much needed angle into the larger debate about the decay of liberal democracy." -- Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, author of Expulsions
"Confronting today's public challenges demands reason and benefits from a sense of history - but neither is a substitute for imagination. We need imagination both to understand what is going on and to decide how to respond. Without imagination our public debates are inanimate and our politics mere power struggles. This book brings 30 exciting perspectives on how to renew public imagination." -- Craig Calhoun, University Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University
"Facing mounting global problems ranging from climate change to widening social inequality, our 21st-century world is in desperate need of collective action based on a pluralistic public imagination. This highly readable anthology presents the concise and innovative views of dozens of influential intellectuals on the critical role of an ethical imagination that cut across political, economic, and cultural divides. Highly recommended!" -- Manfred B. Steger, Professor of Sociology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and Global Professorial Fellow, Western Sydney University