Conversations and Transformations: Toward a New Ethics of Self and Society(Global Encounters: Studies in Comparative Political Theory)

In this intriguing new book, Indian social theorist Ananta Kumar Giri issues a stirring call for scholars of contemporary social theory and practice to grapple with late modernity's most pressing social and political issues. Giri counterposes Western thought with Indian social theory in a work that ranges across an array of Indian texts and ideas, hitherto ignored by Western scholarship. Included, along with the mainstays of Indian intellectual thought like Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, are lesser known Indian social theorists, economists, sociologists, and essayists who argue for transcendence of self-interest, social responsibility, and political renewal. Thoughtfully argued and lucidly written, this work offers the reader a genuine 'transdisciplinary' learning experience, going beyond European ethnocentrism to make social theory a truly global conversation.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Social Criticism, Cultural Creativity, and the Contemporary Dialectics of Transformations Chapter 2 Moral Commitments and the Transformation of Politics: Kant, Gandhi, and Beyond Chapter 3 Gandhi, Tagore, and a New Ethics of Argumentation Chapter 4 Literature and the Tapashya of Transformation Chapter 5 Socrates and the Pig Chapter 6 Universities and the Horizons of the Future Chapter 7 Audited Accountability and the Imperatives of Responsibility: Beyond the Primacy of the Political Chapter 8 Transcending Disciplinary Boundaries: Creative Experiments and the Critiques of Modernity Chapter 9 Gender and the Overcoming of Ego Chapter 10 Exclusion and Integration: The Moral Struggles Chapter 11 Rethinking the Imperatives of Responsibility: Development Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Challenge of Poverty Chapter 12 Rethinking Human Well-Being: A Dialogue with Amartya Sen Chapter 13 Well-Being of Institutions: Problematic Justice and the Challenge of Transformation Chapter 14 Rethinking Systems as Frames of Coordination: Dialogical Intersubjectivity and the Creativity of Action Chapter 15 Rethinking Civil Society Chapter 16 Civil Society and the Limits of Identity Politics Chapter 17 The Calling of an Ethics of Servanthood

About the Author :
Ananta Kumar Giri is Associate Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies. He is the author of Global Transformations: Postmodernity and Beyond (1998).

Review :
With his far-ranging inquiries and probing insights, Giri belongs to a group of innovative Indian social theorists who offer a welcome counterpoint to ivory-tower academicism. . . .Conversations and Transformations issues a stirring call for contemporary social theory as well as social practice. Although dealing with a multiplicity of distinct issues, the book's chapters coaleasce into a crucial overall theme: the need for personal self-transcendence as well as social and political renewal. These essays show how an Indian thinker creatively responds to problems and challenges from the East as well as the West. They testify to a brilliant mind which is not deterred by the post-modernist onslaught on unity and identity and headlong challenges the glorification of power which many thinkers undertake today. It is a highly inspiring and ennobling work.