29 May 2024
The London Metropolitan University’s Interdisciplinary Research Forum (IRF) organised a book launch, Social Theory of Displacement: Adventures in the Everyday Life (Austin Macauley, 2024) by Dr Howard Feather.
Howard Feather taught social theory at London Metropolitan University for many years and also taught at the University of East London, City University, and Open University. His previous publications include "Intersubjectivity and Contemporary Social Theory: the Everyday as Critique" (VDM Verlag Dr Muller, 2010). He was a long-time member of the editorial team for the journal Radical Philosophy.
In a conversation with Merilyn Moos, a former lecturer at London Met, and during a Q&A with the audience, Howard shared his thoughts on the role of cognitive displacement and misrecognition in social life.
He explained that feeling disoriented is a big part of living in modern capitalism. The difference between informal and formal practice creates a constant anxiety that makes us always look for reassurance about who we are, both individually and as a group. The gaps and inconsistencies in bureaucratic and market-driven life are accompanied by seemingly clear-cut boundaries and binary identities. People find it hard to deal with the mix and confusion of everyday life.
Even so, people experience mutual recognition, expressed in the concepts of 'collegiality' and 'team'. Formal institutions give us the idea that we can discover and understand ourselves in bureaucratic and corporate settings. But these institutions only pretend to be the real, lived world they've actually moved away from. Modern capitalism takes its cues from the spontaneity, uncertainty, and teamwork of the real world it left behind, while trying to pass itself off as that same reality.
Image credit: Austin Macauley