Can the Arts Be Used to Change the Fundamentally Unsustainable, Socio-Economic Structures that Dominate the Modern World?

Abstract

It would be typical for social scientists to conclude a book like this with a framework that brings together all of the insights of the various chapters. But, as we think the book makes clear, regular social science—even with clear conceptual models based on empirical data—is not enough. As Renza, Andersen, and Fielser (Chap. 4) suggest, the social sciences are “constrained by a neoliberal paternalism that does not allow for creative expression” (p. XX). Instead, we will try to take our own advice and offer a more arts-based form—a story, if you will. Here is the story we want to tell.