Critical Hedonism(s): Revolutionising Good Taste

​Our tastes in things are a serious thing. While they may feel very personal to us, the cultural theorist Pierre Bourdieu argues, taste is actually a social practice that we are taught in order to classify ourselves and classify others--with profound political implications. In his framing, taste is particularly used by social classes to signal belonging and to legitimate their privileges--forming the basis of "cultural capital" and exclusionary forms of "distinction." Can taste only serve as the basis of this kind of "symbolic violence," or can we imagine a kind of transformative tastemaking that emphasizes active engagement and cultivation of desires that are pro-social and in-line with progressive political change and sustainability goals?

​CFITICAL HEDONISM(S) is a free and open-to-the-public discussion space for exploring and interrogating topics, prompts, and questions pertaining to the politics of desire. The starting point of Critical Hedonism(s) is the realization that an essential part of changing the world is changing what we want, aspire for, and take pleasure in. Monthly discussions like this one offer a crucial method for understanding how desire is organized in our culture, and how it might be organized differently. We explore the injustices of desire, the ways in which it is used to manipulate, motivate and stratify, and how it is shaped by institutions. We also explore the inherent challenges of hedonism, and consider what kinds of frameworks could be used to mediate our relationship with it. For more about Critical Hedonism(s), see https://www.criticalhedonisms.com