TEHRAN (IBNA) -- A
social-philosophical book ‘Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation’ (2012) by distinguished American sociologist Richard Sennett which describes the skill of creating solid human relations has been recently published into Persian.
A provocative and disturbing look at the ways new economic facts are shaping our personal and social values, the book has been translated into Persian by Komail Sohani. Tehran-based Afkar Publishing has released ‘Together’ in 420 pages.
Living with people who differ- racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically- is one of the most difficult challenges facing us today. Though our society is becoming ever more complicated materially, we tend to avoid engaging with people unlike ourselves.
Modern politics emphasizes unity and similarity, encouraging the politics of the tribe rather than of complexity. ‘Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation’ explores why this has happened and what might be done about it.
Sennett argues that living with people unlike ourselves requires more than goodwill: it requires skill. The foundations for skillful co-operation lie in learning to listen well and to discuss rather than debate. People who develop these capacities earn a reward: they can take pleasure in the company of others.
‘Together’ traces the evolution of cooperative rituals in medieval churches and guilds, Renaissance workshops and courts, early modern laboratories and diplomatic embassies.
In our lives today, it explains the trials and prospects of cooperation online, face-to-face in ethnic conflicts, among financial workers and community organizers. Exploring the nature of cooperation, why it has become weak, and how it could be strengthened, this visionary book offers a new way of seeing how humans can live together.
Richard Sennett is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and former University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. He is currently a Senior Fellow of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University. Sennett has studied social ties in cities, and the effects of urban living on individuals in the modern world.
He has received many awards and accolades such as the Hegel Prize awarded by the German city of Stuttgart; the Gerda Henkel Prize, worth 100,000 Euros, by the Gerda Henkel Foundation of Düsseldorf, Germany; the Prix Européen de l’Essai awarded by the Charles Veillon Foundation in Lausanne; appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to design in the 2018 New Year Honours; elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2018.