Global Manifestos for the Twenty-First Century: Rethinking Culture, Common Struggles, and Future Change

Bringing together over forty original short essays, some academic, others more creative in nature, this collection responds to the political, historical, social, and economic situation in which we find ourselves today.

The editors argue that we are living in a repetition that must be stopped – if our goal is that the signifier "humanity" remains in the following centuries, the time has come to work in the present. The objective is not to deliver precise or quick answers, but to gather varied voices from different continents, bringing together different languages, ideas, practices, theories, thoughts, and desires. In the words of Yanis Varoufakis, "urging us to become agents of a future that ends unnecessary mass suffering and inspire humanity to realise its potential for authentic freedom." To leave the concept of a manifesto open, the contradictory aspects of the chapters are a subject of the manifesto itself. This is a manifesto of contradictions that reflects our reality as well as our struggles and our aspirations.

This unique anthology will appeal to students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences interested in critical theory and social change.

Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo is the author of columns, essays, and academic articles, including Žižek: Cómo Pensar con Claridad en un Mundo al Réves? (2023) and Psychoanalysis Between Philosophy and Politics, co-edited with Slavoj Žižek (2023).

Brian Willems is associate professor of literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia. He is most recently the author of Sham Ruins: A User’s Guide (Routledge, 2022).

Slavoj Žižek is director of the International Humanities Centre, Birkbeck College, University of London, and senior research fellow at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana. He is a lecturer at numerous universities in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, and South Korea.