L’imperativo dell’autonomia: contraddizioni e insidie

The article questions the meanings attached to the concept of personal autonomy, concluding this can represent a valuable lens to understand contemporary society. The notion has considerable traction within public discourse. In the article several reflections are offered on the implications and declinations of the topic, focusing on its paradoxes and ambivalences. The analysis will start from a specific field of observation—poverty and its contrast—and then develop broader considerations. In its prevalent declinations of independence and self-sufficiency, the concept condenses arguments and reasons that connote contemporary capitalism or the “performance society”. By highlighting the pitfalls of such a conception, the article urges a redefinition of the concept in the meaning of interdependence.