Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy

Description

Why are we so obsessed by the pursuit of happiness? With new ways to measure contentment we are told that we have a right to individual joy. But at what cost? In an age of increasing individualism, we have never been more alone and miserable. But what if the true nature of happiness can only be found in others? In Radical Happiness, leading feminist thinker Lynne Segal believes that we have lost the art of radical happiness- the art of transformative, collective joy. She shows that only in the revolutionary potential of coming together it is that we can come to understand the powers of flourishing. Radical Happiness is a passionate call for the re-discovery of the political and emotional joy that emerge when we learn to share our lives together.

Lynne Segal is Anniversary Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College. Her books include Is the Future Female? Troubled Thoughts on Contemporary Feminism; Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men; and Straight Sex: Rethinking the Politics of Pleasure and the highly acclaimed Out of Time. She co-wrote Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism with Sheila Rowbotham and Hilary Wainwright.

An expansive and contemplative exploration of love, joy, desire, and the concepts surrounding Utopias, all of which find the author navigating human psychology, sociology, societal mores, and the economics of happiness. A calm, refreshing breath of fresh air in a dangerously uncertain moment in human history. * Kirkus Reviews * The socialist feminist we need to listen to right now. Her book is an important one because we need "a politics of hope" like never before. -- Emma Rees * Times Higher Education * A unique capacity for clarity and wit, along with her courage of intellect. -- Sheila Rowbotham (Praise for Out of Time) Wide ranging in its analyses of feminist, political and social theory -- Margaret Drabble