Introduction

The idea of social generativity emerges within the context of a critical reading of contemporary capitalism and consumerist culture. The severe financial downturn we have been enduring in the West since the crisis of 2008 has affected not only economic and social spheres, but also our political systems. We remain in the midst of a transition the final outcomes of which are still unknown. In this context, the search for an anthropological characteristic that is comparable, in its depth and breadth, to consumption, is essential to re-balance the excesses of consumerism as well as to make space for new, broader conceptions of freedom and self-realization. Our initial hypothesis was that ‘generating’ – viewed as an act of ‘ex-corporation’, that is, ‘giving life to’ or ‘initiating’ – anthropologically is as elemental as consuming. The act of generating is not something that has to be learned; it is, rather, an act innate to human beings.At the beginning of our theoretical journey, we assumed social generativity to be a promising concept but we were unable to fully spell out its meaning, let alone to ground it theoretically.This book is an account of the circular relationship between three different threads of inquiry: the stimulating convergence of a number of 20th century thinkers in their specific way of accounting for social change; the evidence collected from the field on the relevance of taking initiative and ‘bringing things into the world’; and the social and theoretical lines of thought that can help us find a positive way out of the enduring crisis.