The Rise of Lifestyle Activism

By: Nikos Sotirakopoulos

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Synopsis: This book explores changesin the values and ideas of a large part of the political Left in recentdecades. The author identifies that a questioning of the merits of economicgrowth; an ideal of environmental sustainability overriding the old radicalvisions of material abundance; a critique of instrumental reason; asuspiciousness towards universalist claims; and an attachment to subjective andpluralistic identities, have been dominant in the narratives of the Leftistmilieu and of social movements. Yet the author suggests that such changes, known as 'lifestyle activism', could beunderstood in a different way, one characterised by suspiciousness towards the belief that human action guided by reason can lead society towards a future that will be better and more affluent. Using a range of case studies from the 1960's to the present day anti-austerity movement, Sotirakopoulos argues that the New Left and its ideological heirs could beunderstood not so much as a continuation, but as an inversion from the Old Leftand, most importantly, from humanistic visions of modernity. The book will therefore be ideal reading for students and researchers of political sociology, radical politics, modern political ideologies, contentious politics and political theory and to scholars of new social movements and the New Left.