The English academic whose critique of secular liberal modernity anticipated movements on the Left and the Right that continue to roil the political landscape says he remains hopeful of a more communitarian future

There is a growing consensus that the neo-liberal promise of ever-increasing progress and prosperity has failed us. Market forces that thrive off accelerating productivity, consumption and extraction have depleted both our ecosystems and ourselves.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, speaking alongside Green Party leader Zack Polanski, recently lamented the “loss of sense of community” in contemporary Britain, and stressed that if the Left is to recover its vision of solidarity from the threat of individualism, it needs first and foremost to be “rooted in what goes on in communities”. Danny Kruger MP, meanwhile, said in an interview that the Reform Party he recently joined is all about “community”: “We’re talking about the associations that give us meaning and identity and security and a sense of belonging. I think that’s where the country is now going – away from a doctrine of total liberal individualism.” The common denominator is clear. Amid disillusionment with hyper-individualism, there’s an aching nostalgia for a sense of community.

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