This book was written transnationally. I started to write my first thoughts on it in the early months of the pandemic, shortly after the racist murder of George Floyd and motivated by such a cruel act of injustice. However, I certainly started to write some parts many years earlier, while working on numerous different topics on social (in)justice and participating in several corresponding networks. These all became key experiential, theoretical, and empirical foundations for this book. In all these writing phases, I met and was supported by countless friends, family members, and colleagues, along with multiple organizations, so many in fact that I am not able to thank them all here.
However, I would like to express my gratitude to at least some of those organizations and all the people who have supported me, although my appreciation is extended to so many others, which I am expressing here implicitly – but will do so in person or virtually.
In Chile, I am very grateful to that country’s National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (fondecyt), which part-funded one of my initial research projects that became relevant for this work. Also, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to my colleagues and friends from the Women’s Studies Center (Centro de Estudios de la Mujer – cem). This has been such a fruitful collaboration with every one of you over the years. A special thanks also to Claudio Llanos, Humboldt alumnus and Professor of History at Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (pucv), who in the early stages of my work on the (in)visibilization society invited me to give a virtual talk on this topic.
In Latin America, my warmest thanks to Alberto Bialakowsky and Ricardo Antunes, with whom I have shared so many sociological spaces since we jointly led the Committee of the Sociology of Labor Section of the Latin American Sociological Association (alas).
I also wish to extend my appreciation to the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (clacso, Argentina) that has supported our transnational working groups on Critical Theories and Emancipatory Methodologies over the years. In this context, my deepest gratitude goes to all my colleagues with whom I have shared these working groups as well as to Patricia Botero, Alicia Palermo, Nora Garita, Alicia Naveda, and Patricia Noguera with whom I am also part of the scientific committee and professor at the international postdoctoral program “Trans(in)disciplinarities, theoric-political decolonizations, and transformations with communities, land and life territories.” This postdoc program forms part of the academic curriculum of Universidad de la Tierra (University of the Earth, Unitierra) located in Manizales (Colombia) and the Ph.D. program in
I’d also like to extend my gratitude to my colleagues in Germany at Kassel University, the Ludwig-Maximilians University (Munich), the Institute for Social Research in Munich (isf), the Sine Institute, and the Institute for Social Research (IfS) at Goethe University Frankfurt. I am especially thankful to Stephan Lessenich, director of IfS, as well as to my colleagues at IfS. Also, my gratitude to all my colleagues with whom we co-founded the Future Earth Working Group “Sustainable Work – Socio-ecological Transformations of the Working Society.”
This book would have not have been possible without the support of Andrew Arato – Humboldt alumnus and D. Hirshon Professor in Political and Social Theory -, who invited me to visit the Sociology Department of the New School in 2019 and 2021. Thank you Andrew as well as to Terry Williams, Sociology Professor at the Department. From the beginning, both of you supported my ideas and work on the (in)visibilization society. I am also especially grateful to Rachel Sherman, Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology and former Chair of the Department. And my deepest thanks to Carolina Bank Muñoz and her family as well as to Joel Stillerman, Veronica Mankow, and last but not least, Ignacia and Karl Eschelbach. You all made nyc a place where I immediately felt at home, one that deeply inspired me in my research and writing process.
An important part of my research for this book has been made possible thanks to the financial support of the Humboldt Foundation. I very much appreciate all its support.
To all the students I have had the honor to teach, thank you for your inspiring questions and so many interesting conversations on today’s societies.
Last but not least, my deepest gratitude to David Fasenfest, editor of the Studies in Critical Social Sciences book series, as well as to Brill’s team. Also, a big thank you to David McDonald and Piotr Kozak who – in different writing phases of this book – not only edited my manuscript but also gave me helpful empirical feedback on my ideas. It has been an honor to cooperate with each one of you. Needless to say, I fully assume total responsibility for the complete formulation of this text as well as of every word chosen here.
I dedicate this book to my son Liam, as well to all the people of this world, with the heartfelt hope that we can (urgently) find a way to coexist together in livable, sustainable and just societies.
Thank you to you all.