13. The limits of social structures and personal relationships

Social Sciences Space / University of Valencia

We live in a time and a world in which a keen awareness of limits shapes our thoughts, our affections and our actions. Also our pathologies. On the one hand, the limits of the planet as a habitat and home of life and, especially, human life; on the other, the personal limits that are revealed in a panoply of mental and vital discomforts of the subjects; and of course, the limits of social structures with their peculiar dynamics: persistence and increase in inequalities, demographic maturation and dependency, political polarization and rise of authoritarianism, technological transformation, etc. In this context, questions of freedom, creativity and human agency take on special relevance. In this session we will deal with the tensions that arise from them.

• Juan Arnau, philosopher and writer, author of Materia que respira luz (Galaxia Gutenberg, 2023)
• Antonio Ariño, sociologist, professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Valencia, National Prize for Research with La ciudad ritual (Anthropos, 1992)