Freedom

Most academic discussions of freedom approach freedom either as a philosophical concept or as a doctrine of political ideology. However, in this book, freedom is analyzed not as an idea or proposition but as a social relationship. Seen this way, freedom reveals its relative nature: throughout history, freedom is a privilege experienced in the face of either superior or weaker powers. Ultimately, sociology itself has developed as a science of modern society, that is, of society that "individuates" free agents whose members are expected to act on their own impulses and are held accountable for their actions. Therefore, sociology tends to approach the free and voluntary nature of human actions as an assumption rather than a subject of research. The book deviates from this trend and explores the social production of "free agents" and the intimate relationship between this process, integration into the system, and issues of social control. The central proposition of the book is that in the contemporary consumer phase of modern society, "seduction" has replaced "repression" as the method of social control for the majority of society's members. However, consumer freedom moves into the place occupied by labor in an earlier stage: it becomes a focal point between systemic reproduction, social integration and individual action. In societies similar to ours, the problems and battlefields of freedom shift from the field of production to the field of consumption; Individual freedom consists, above all, of the freedom of the consumer. It is tied to the existence of an effective market and in turn provides the conditions for the existence of this market.
(From the Promotional Bulletin)



Number of Pages: 144

Year of Printing: 2015


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Details Publications

First Print Year: 2015

Number of Pages: 144

Language Turkish