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Global markets expand, societies fragment, and democracy risks hollowing out. It is within this tension—already central to Jürgen Habermas’s early reflections on mass media and the gradual “refeudalization” of the public sphere—that his legacy acquires renewed urgency. This dossier traces that trajectory, bringing together an obituary by Giancarlo Bosetti, an interview with Seyla Benhabib, and a selection of Habermas’s own writings from the Reset DOC and Reset’s archives. Across these contributions, a coherent thread emerges: that of a thinker who broke with both the illusions of Marxist statism and the lingering shadows of nazi totalitarianism, and who instead insisted on the fragile yet demanding foundations of democratic life grounded in communication among free and equal citizens.

Philosophy
The narrative voice of the liquid society disappears with Bauman’s death

Zygmunt Bauman died yesterday at the age of 91. His death marks the loss of one of the most distinguished European intellectuals. Bauman gained widespread acclaim for his capacity to give a voice and language to contemporary social configurations. The end of Fordism – the main theme of Bauman’s work in the last few decades – as well as the transition to a “liquid society” have dominated his reflections and, due to his work, now appear to us as common sense. His last essay for Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations was about Trump: “The strongmen and the anxious class”.
Philosophy
Al-Azm: the awakening of critique from within Muslim theology

Sadiq Jalal al-Azm was born in Damasus in 1934 and died in Berlin on December 11th 2016 following a battle will illness. He was one of the most prominent and influential Muslim philosophers and thinkers of the last century. His books, articles and essays inspired a whole generation of liberal scholars, “good liberals”, as defined by Mohammed Hashas, that are not blind to external hegemony and internal state oppression. He has lived in changing societies and he continued to critically analyse them till the end, Reset Doc have had the honor to publish some of his thoughts and to host him as a speaker at the Istanbul Seminars in 2010. In this dossier we present both new analysis and testimonies from our archive of his work.