Cornelius Castoriadis was an influential Greek philosopher and a founder of the French based radical libertarian socialist group Socialisme ou Barbarie in the post WWII period. Castoriadis' political origins were in Marxism but he later moved towards the Anarchist ideas of Bakunin and Kropotkin via his readings of Rosa Luxembourg. His influence is still felt today, as many of his ideas have influenced modern democratic economic proposals such as Participatory Economics (Parecon) proposed by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel as well as a market-based economic democracy model proposed by David Schweickart (See also this debate posted on Ecodema between Albert and Schweickart) His ideas regarding autonomy and workers' self-management are being put into action in many of the breathtaking changes going on throughout Latin America in the last decade.

Cornelius Castoriadis was born in Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey on March 11, 1922 and passed away in Paris, France on December 26, 1997.

ECODEMA is honoured to link one of his great contributions to democratizing the economy:

WORKERS' COUNCILS AND THE ECONOMICS OF A SELF-MANAGED SOCIETY