Afterword: What Good Life, and Why Now? Available to Purchase

Since attending and speaking at the conference titled “The Good Life in Late-Socialist Asia: Aspirations, Politics, and Possibilities” at Bielefeld University in Germany in September 2019, I continue to ponder several unanswered questions. Why do we seem to be obsessed with the notion of the good life? And why at this particular historical moment in late-socialist societies? What is particular about the pursuit of the good life in these places where socialism, capitalism, and globalization intersect? Are there any better alternatives to desire while living in a time of heightened precarity, anxiety, contingency, and impasse? Today, as we face a serious global pandemic brought about by a novel coronavirus, these questions become even more pressing. Indeed, as COVID-19 rages across the world bringing the global economy to a near halt and causing massive loss of life, widespread human suffering, and profound uncertainty about the future, we cannot help but ask...