The power of social dreaming: Reappraising the lesson of East European dissidents

Abstract

In the article, Thomas More’s vision of citizen education is a starting point for the analysis of the role of East European dissident thought and practice in addressing the present crisis of social agency posed by the legacy of postmodern philosophy and the surge of post-truth politics. The article argues that engaging with the experience of Eastern Europe in the last decades of the twentieth century offers a useful way of approaching the question of political action in relation to social dreaming and an important context to address the postmodern deconstruction of the subject. The way the thought and practice of East European dissidence both resonates with and questions the main principles of postmodern theory makes it particularly relevant for the current historical and political momentum and can be seen as an important contribution to the debates belonging to the ethico-political turn.