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66 (Melucci 1989, 13)
(Melucci 1989, 13)
...in complex societies fundamental aspects of human experience are presently undergoing profound changes, and that new needs, together with new powers and new risks, are being born; all of which affect the experience of time and space, birth and death, health and sickness, and the meaning of individual and collective existence.
One way of looking at these changes is merely to register what is already known and familiar. But this fails to reveal the novelties of our situation. For this purpose, another way of seeing - the kind of ’eye’ developed in this book - is required. This unusual point of view is preoccupied with the unfamiliar. It resembles a journey into the unfamiliar territory between individual experience and collective action - an uneasy and uncertain adventure, since it lacks the sense of security produced by undivided belonging. Although often accompanied by a feeling of ’homelessness’, it provides unique views of the social landscape, at times uncovering landmarks which are impossible to see from deep within the heartland.
The exploration of unfamiliar territory necessitates the special methods of presentation evident in this book. The confident and purposeful stride of one who walks the open road is ill-suited to unmapped terrain. Exploration requires bricolage, the gathering and piecing together of clues, the following of tracks that lead back to the starting point, the recognition of signs that are instantly recognizable, and the discovery of other signs that were missed the first time round. This results neither in confusion nor in the simple accumulation of knowledge. The journey into unfamiliar territory leads to the discovery that identical things can be given different names, and that each name conveys a different meaning. [Melucci, Alberto. 1989. Nomads of the Present. London: Hutchinson Radius.]
