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Optimism of the Will. Antonio Gramsci Takes in Max Weber

Author

Listed:
  • Doris Sommer

    (Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, Boylston Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

  • Pier Luigi Sacco

    (FBK-IRVAPP, 38122 Trento, Italy
    Department of Humanities, IULM University, 20143 Milan, Italy
    metaLAB (at) Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

Abstract

Responding to Max Weber’s dour predictions, we enlist Antonio Gramsci’s optimism to suggest how culture can spike development. Weber’s sociological focus took culture to mean shared beliefs and practices. As a culture that derives from the Protestant Ethic, capitalism waged a “war on pleasure.” Weber warned that this unfeeling rationality would generate an “iron cage” to trap our humanity, but his book has been read, paradoxically, as a manual for the lock down. Gramsci, on the contrary, understood culture in its humanistic sense, as a field of aesthetic pleasure, innovation, and debate. For him, a precondition for transformational social change was the broad engagement of masses as empowered collectives (Weber favored charismatic leaders); and pleasure in idiosyncratic forms of artistic as well as rooted expression was the fuel for participating in personal and shared advances. This pleasure in art and collective interpretation contrasts with the exclusionary rituals of commodified pleasure typical of capitalist consumerism. Gramsci’s confidence in the transformational role of creative culture provides a framework for understanding a new wave of inclusive artistic practices that originate in the Global South and that revive the arts as vehicles for active citizenship. Participatory art can re-enchant today’s sorely disenchanted socio-cultural world of mature capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Doris Sommer & Pier Luigi Sacco, 2019. "Optimism of the Will. Antonio Gramsci Takes in Max Weber," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-31, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:3:p:688-:d:201474
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Acerbi, Alberto & Sacco, Pier Luigi, 2022. "The self-control vs. self-indulgence dilemma: A culturomic analysis of 20th century trends," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    3. Sandro Serpa & Maria José Sá, 2019. "Sociology of Education for a Sustainable Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-5, March.

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