The Fall of Public Man

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The thing is ... Sennett probably wouldn't approve of what I just wrote. That is, the above paragraph is part of the problem he thinks he's diagnosed. At this point he took a break from sociology, composing three novels: The Frog who Dared to Croak [1982], An Evening of Brahms [1984] and Palais Royal [1987]. He then returned to urban studies with two books, The Conscience of the Eye, [1990], a work focusing on urban design, and Flesh and Stone [1992], a general historical study of how bodily experience has been shaped by the evolution of cities.

Tracing the changing nature of urban society from the eighteenth century to the world we now live in, and the decline of involvement in political life in recent decades, Richard Sennett discusses the causes of our social withdrawal. His landmark study of the imbalance of modern civilization provides a fascinating perspective on the relationship between public life and the cult of the individual. Dulong R., 1992, « Dire la réputation, accomplir l’espace », Quaderni. Communication, technologies, pouvoir, 18, pp. 109-124. Accès : https://www.persee.fr/doc/quad_0987-1381_1992_num_18_1_974. Plusieurs comptes rendus notent avec ironie que les réflexions de R. Sennett reflètent son propre mode de vie, celui d’un « jet-setter », papillonnant entre trois siècles et trois capitales (Londres, Paris et New York) pour récolter les traces de la déperdition de l’homme public. Chiefly known for his elegant and scholarly writing, Sennett has produced a dozen books, including three novels, since the late 60s, mostly on aspects of the urban experience and the interconnection between authority, modernism and public life. His knowledge spans the disciplines of architecture, design, music, art, literature, history, and political and economic theory, but he adds to all that a rare anthropological hunger for the details of human experience. One of his apparent paradoxes is that while he so fiercely argues for a more disciplined form of public life over any therapeutic-style navel-gazing, he possesses a rare genius for getting into other people's heads and hearts. Public” life once meant that vital part [of] one’s life outside the circle of family and close friends. Connecting with strangers in an emotionally satisfying way and yet remaining aloof from them was seen as the means by which the human animal was transformed into the social – the civilized – being. And the fullest flowering of that public life was realized in the 18th Century in the great capital cities of Europe.Piette A., 2009, L’Acte d’exister. Une phénoménographie de la présence, Marchienne-au-Pont, Socrate Éd. Promarex. C’est bien parce que le champ sémantique du concept de « réseau » est celui de la simple connexion (...)

Pour J. Bonhomme (2012), c’est précisément l’absence d’un dispositif d’ordonnancement impersonnel d (...)

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Even when I had this period of disillusion with the cultural left, I still voted Socialist Worker. I voted for the party not in one of its Trotskyist phases, which I hated, but in one of its Green, multicultural, pluralist phases, which I like." He talks about meeting President Clinton, who said to him"It's always good to meet an intelligent Democrat.""When I told him I voted Socialist Worker the famous Clinton smile froze."