Les atmosphères de la politique. Dialogue pour un monde commun

(sous la direction de, avec Bruno Latour). Paris: Les Empêcheurs de penser en rond / Le Seuil, 2006.

[Spanish version: Las atmósferas de la politica. Dialogo sobre la democracia, Bruno Latour y Pasquale Gagliardi (dirs.). Madrid: Editorial Complutense, 2008]

 

In 2004 the Giorgio Cini Foundation promoted a new cultural initiative called 'I Dialoghi di San Giorgio', with the aim of encouraging dialogue and exchanges of views between experts from various disciplines and cultural traditions on issues of crucialimportance to contemporary society. The first edition of the Dialoghi brought together a small group of internationally renowned philosophers, historians, anthropologists and writers to reflect on and discuss the theme of Atmospheres for freedom. Towards an ecology of good government. The choice of subject for this book the “atmospheres of politics” arose from the conviction that for some time now when discussing the conditions required for the effective working of democracy, politicians, philosophers and academics mainly focus on laws, constitutions, and electoral methods in short the “procedures”. Less attention, however, has been given to the analysis of the “ecosystem” making visible the institutional forms of democracy, i.e. that “atmosphere” so admirably portrayed, for example, by Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Publico, Siena, in which good or bad government influences, and at the same time is influenced by, every element in the social landscape: from household economics to agriculture, trade and the forms of social life. This meeting gave rise to a book entitled Les atmosphères de la politique. Dialogue pour un monde commun, edited by Pasquale Gagliardi and Bruno Latour. Intended for abroad French-speaking market, the book does not simply contain the proceeds of the seminar but, by making creative use of the material from it, presents the ideas expressed in a “dramatic” form.