The Art of Positive Fatalism

How do people live when life leaves them very little room for manoeuvre? What Lukas Pairon calls 'positive fatalism' cannot be understood through despair or optimism, but through the subtle art of living with uncertainty. Drawing on his long-standing involvement with musicians and music-based social projects in Kinshasa, he explores how individuals and groups learn to live with constraints without sacrificing their dignity, their capacity for action or the quality of their presence in the world. Oscillating between ethnographic portraits, conceptual reflection and critical dialogue, The Art of Positive Fatalism offers a tool for examining, identifying and appreciating the myriad ways in which humans find ways to keep going.Lukas Pairon, a Belgian academic and practitioner, combines music creation, social practice and research. He founded Ictus, the Music Fund and SIMM, and established the Jonet Chair at Ghent University.Foreword by Hartmut Rosa & Olivier Hamant Postscripts by Philémon Mukendi & Manda Tchebwa