Crisis of Agency, or Living through the Times of Interregnum I Prof. Zygmunt Bauman
Wednesday ,20 February, 2013
Chair:
Prof. Gabriel Motzkin
lecturer: Prof. Zygmunt Bauman
The wedding between power and politics that was signed in Westphalia has been annulled. While politics (the ability to decide which things ought to be done) is confined to the level of the nation-state, power (the ability to get things done) has shifted to a supra-national level. This has resulted in a crisis of agency: States are entangled in international networks and lose their sovereignty, while global markets are cut off from any guidance and supervision. Closing the gap between the scope of interdependence and the reach of institutions called to service it is the most important challenge of our time.