Marina Garcés, Spanish philosopher and essayist, in her books and critical texts (New Radical Enlightenment, Humanitats en Transicio/Humanities in Transition), by referring to the crisis of capitalism resulting in both the deterioration of life conditions and shrinking resources, she points out to the turn towards the past, to the sense of hopelessness blocking any attempt to intervene, the fascination with the apocalypse that became a fundamental political and social narrative, “enlightened ignorance” which determines the way of thinking about politics and governing. She proposes a change, the rejection of conservative, at their core, postulates of protection or salvation of culture, science, nature, etc, and – as Leticia Ybarra writes in an interview for La Grieta, then published in the English edition of Political Critique – “reclaiming the important connection between knowledge and emancipation.” The idea of “humanities in transition” taken from the idea of “cities in transition” and transplanted to the humanities means everyday practice, performing minor interventions, activism at all times.
Marina Garcés – (Barcelona, 1973) is a professor in Arts and Humanities Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia). Her work is mainly concerned with politics, critical thought and the need to build up a philosophical voice that is able to interpellate and commit. In 2002, she was a founder and is still coordinator of the project “Espai en Blanc”, a group initiative in favour of a committed, practical and experimental relationship with philosophical thought. Since 2016, she has been a member of the teaching staff of the Independent Studies Programme of the MACBA. She is author of the books En las prisiones de lo posible (In the Prisons of the Possible, Bellaterra, 2002) and Un mundo común (A Common World, Bellaterra, 2013) and, very recently Filosofía inacabada (Unfinished Philosophy, Galaxia Gutenberg, 2015) and Ciudad Princesa (Galaxia Gutenberg, 2018). She has also written for many periodical and collective publications such as Humanitats en Acció (Raig Verd, 2019).
