The theme of the Vienna Humanities Festival 2025 is “On Edge/Unbehagen.” Life-changing technological innovation is advancing at an often unpredictable pace. Liberalism is under sustained attack, as is faith in basic scientific principles. Compassion is increasingly displaced by brutal transactional values. Can humanity remain human under such strenuous circumstances? This year's Humanities Festival will contribute to the discussion of these impediments and the questions they give rise to, by inviting the public to reflect with intellectuals, scientists, writers, and artists.
Renowned French sociologist and author Didier Eribon returns to the questions at the heart of his book The Life, Old Age, and Death of a Working- Class Woman (Semiotext(e), 2025), published in German as Eine Arbeiterin: Leben, Alter und Sterben by Surkamp Verlag in 2024. Invoking the condition of elderly individuals who have lost their physical autonomy, and with it the capacity to participate in political mobilization, Eribon explores the broader issue of political voice and visibility: what conditions determine who is able to speak out politically?
After the talk, Eribon will be in conversation with Ivan Krastev, IWM Albert Hirschman Permanent Fellow.
Didier Eribon is a French philosopher and sociologist known for his work on identity, class, and sexuality. A committed and renowned intellectual, his most prominent publications include a major biography of Michel Foucault (Michel Foucault, Flammarion, 1989), Réflexions sur la question gay (Flammarion, 1999), and his acclaimed memoir Retour à Reims (Fayard, 2009), a key text on the rise of right-wing populism which gained him enormous recognition in German-speaking countries. He received the Prix de l’Académie de Berlin in 2024.
