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This chapter proposes an account of collective consciousness based on individuals' capacity to (together) form a collective subject. Three essential features of collective subjectivity are delineated: plurality, awareness, and collectivity. Edmund Husserl's account of social subjectivities and Alfred Schutz's criticisms of Husserl's view are discussed. The author agrees with Schutz that Husserl fails to explain how such subjectivities are constituted by the conscious acts of individuals. By focusing on our recognized capacities for social intentionality — empathy, inter-subjectivity, and co-subjectivity — we have some of the tools to provide such an explanation. A further tool is needed, and the idea that we have a capacity to take the ‘first-person plural’ perspective is introduced. By internally simulating the consciousness of the collective that they form, individuals may form a collective subject that has the three essential features delineated above.

This chapter discusses Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the metamorphoses of form. Goethe's biological and literary writings of the 1790s radicalize Kant's insights. On the one hand, he emphasizes the “metamorphic” fluidity of both natural forms and human cognition; on the other, he stresses the erotic and social dimension of subjectivity. For Goethe, human life is singularly precarious because it is subject to libidinal investments and the unruliness of the imagination. To develop properly, human life must therefore be regularized by social forms that (re)direct its innate vitality — it must assume a second-order, socialized naturalness. Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship associates the creation of this second nature with liberal forms of governing, depicting liberalism's normative force as a necessary, if at times violent, supplement to human life. With Goethe, vitalism opens itself to biopower.

This chapter argues that the global literature on community learning needs a complete reworking. Notwithstanding the limits of theory, practical application through learning centers has become one of the dominant means of addressing informal educational programs across the globe. International organizations including United Nations bodies have taken up various community learning approaches with positive dedication. The chapter assesses the relevance of the community learning and community learning centers or networks to Papua New Guinea. The country’s learning projects tend to be based on the experiences of urban settings and on modern social subjectivities that self-consciously emphasize the accumulation of more and more information.

This chapter focuses on the history of story papers in the United States and their critical reception, with particular emphasis on their significance for working women and the latter’s place as characters within this literature. Citing Louisa May Alcott’s work of fiction Little Women, it considers the moral aspects of ‘bad books’ and the danger they posed to young women. It also examines the professional opportunities that story papers afforded women writers such as Alcott and Laura Jean Libbey, along with the importance of story papers for working-class female readers. The chapter concludes by discussing story papers within the contexts of social subjectivity and modern urban life.