After The Apocalypse: Finding Hope in Organizing

by Monika Kostera

Our times of crumbling structures and decaying social bonds are often depicted as apocalyptic. This book takes the apocalypse as a metaphor to help us in the search for meaning in our everyday realities. Yes, the apocalypse is when social structures and institutions fall apart and we are terrified and suffocated by the debris raining down upon us. But 'apocalypse' also means 'revelation'. The very collapse reveals what dissipating institutions were constructed where there ought to have been foundational common values, most often there is violence and raw power. Yet the values are there, too, and they can be found. This book is a guide to these values, showing how they can be of help to organizers and organizational dreamers.

248 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2020

Reviews

[Dominika Kieruzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book, I am a slow reader and read it over a good few months, and looking back now, this book has been transformative. Not in a self help way, not in a way that just made me feel better and more joyful (though it did definitely), but because it is so human and because Monika Kostera is genuinely not seduced by "the centre that has grown into a magnificent monolith". She is looking to the margins with imagination and encouragement, looking for values and hope. And this is such a relief from cynicism and this completely pointless paralysis, the fascination and the disgust, the arrested attention. It is the book heading for the beginning, paying attention to what is important, caring for each other and building the world that is meaningful to us. And yet, it has a merit, very rare today - an acknowledgement of the dark side of the human nature: cruelty, the corruption of power, greed. Very highly recommended.