Buch, Englisch, 400 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 232 mm, Gewicht: 762 g
ISBN: 978-1-5095-3422-7
Verlag: Polity Press
Our contemporary societies place more and more emphasis on the singular and the unique. The industrial societies of the early 20th century produced standardized products, cities, subjects and organizations which tended to look the same, but in our late-modern societies, we value the exceptional - unique objects, experiences, places, individuals, events and communities which are beyond the ordinary and which claim a certain authenticity. Industrial society’s logic of the general has been replaced by late modernity’s logic of the particular.
In this major new book, Andreas Reckwitz examines the causes, structures and consequences of the society of singularities in which we now live. The transformation from industrial to cultural capitalism, the rise of digital technologies and their ‘culture machine’ and the emergence of an educated, urban new middle class form a powerful engine for the singularization of the social. In late modernity, what is singular is valorized and stirs the emotions, while what is general has to remain in the background, and this has profound social consequences. The society of singularities systematically produces devaluation and inequality: winner-takes-all markets, job polarization, the neglect of rural regions and the alienation of the traditional middle class. The emergence of populism and the rise of aggressive forms of nationalism which emphasize the cultural authenticity of one’s own people thus turn out to be the other side of singularization.
This prize-winning book offers a new perspective on how modern societies have changed in recent decades and it will be of great value to anyone interested in the forces that are shaping our world today.
Fachgebiete
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Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Proliferation of the Particular
I. Modernity Between the Social Logic of the General and the Social Logic of the Particular
1: The Social Logic of the General Modernity and Generality Typifications and Rationalizations Standardization, Formalization, Generalization Objects, Subjects, Spaces, Times, and Collectives in the Social Logic of the General
Industrial Modernity as a Prototype
2: The Social Logic of the Particular
The General-Particular, Idiosyncrasies, Singularities
Objects, Subjects, Spaces, Times, and Collectives in the Social Logic of Singularities
Practices of Singularization I: Observation and Evaluation Practices of Singularization II: Production and Appropriation Performativity as a Mode of Praxis and Automated Singularization
3: Culture and Culturalization
Culture as a Sphere of Valorization and De-Valorization Culturalization Versus Rationalization Qualities of Cultural Praxis: Between Sense and Sensibility
4: The Transformation of the Cultural Sphere Premodern Societies: The Fixation and Repetition of the Singular Bourgeois Modernity: The Romantic Revolution of the Unique Organized Modernity: Mass Culture Late Modernity: Competitive Singularities, Hyperculture, and Polarization
II. The Post-Industrial Economy of Singularities Beyond Industrial Society Unleashing the Creative Economy 1: Unique Goods in Cultural Capitalism The Culturalization of Goods Singular Goods: Originality and Rarity Things as Singular Goods Services, Media Formats, and Events as Singular Goods Features of Singular Goods I: The Performance of Authenticity Features of Singular Goods II: Moment and Duration Features of Singular Goods III: Circulation and Hyperculture 2: Cultural Singularity Markets Attractiveness Markets as Markets of Attention and Valorization The Cultural Economization of the Economy and Society Overproduction and Winner-Take-All Competitions Buzz Effects and the Struggle for Visibility Valorization Techniques and Reputation Singularity Capital Quantifying the Unique
III: The Singularization of the Working World The Cultural Economization of Labor and Its Polarization 1: Practices of Labor and Organization in the Creative Economy Cultural Production as Creative Labor Projects as Heterogeneous Collaborations Organizational Cultures and Networks 2: The Singularization and Self-Singularization of Working Subjects Beyond the Formalization of Labor The Profile Subject: Competencies and Talents The Singularization Techniques of Labor Fields of Tension in Highly Qualified Labor: Between the Artist’s Dilemma and the Superstar Economy
IV: Digitalization as Singularization: The Rise of the Culture Machine From Industrial Technics to Digital Technology 1: The Technology of Culturalization Algorithms, Digitality, and the Internet as Infrastructures The Digital Culture Machine and the Ubiquity of Culture Culture Between Overproduction and Recombination 2: Cultural and Automated Processes of Singularization The Digital Subject: Performative Authenticity and Visibility Compositional Singularity and the Form of the Profile Big Data and the Observation of Profiles The Personalized Internet and Softwarization Digital Neo-Communities and the Sociality of the Internet Fields of Tension in Online Culture: From the Pressure to Create Profiles to Extreme Affect Culture
V: The Singularistic Life: Lifestyles, Classes, Subject Forms The Late-Modern Self Beyond the Levelled Middle-Class Society The Cultural Class Divide and the “Paternoster-Elevator Effect”
1: The Lifestyle of the New Middle Class: Successful Self-Actualization Romanticism and Bourgeois Culture: The New Symbiosis Self-Actualization and the Valorization of Everyday Life Culture as a Resource and Cultural Cosmopolitanism Status Investment and the Prestige of the Unique 2: Elements of the Singular Lifestyle Food Homes Travel Bodies Parenting and Early Education Work-Life Balance, Urbanity, Juvenilization, Degendering,and New Liberalism Fields of Tension in the Lifestyle of the New Middle Class: The Inadequacy of Self- Actualization 3: The Culturalization of Inequality The Underclass’s Way of Life: Muddling Through Cultural Devaluations Singularistic Counter-Strategies of the Underclass The Tableau of Late-Modern Classes and Their Relations
VI: Differential Liberalism and Cultural Essentialism: The Transformation of the Political The Politics of the Particular 1: Apertistic-Differential Liberalism and the Politics of the Local From the Social-Democratic Consensus to New Liberalism The Competition State and Diversity: The Two Sides of New Liberalism The Politics of Cities I: New Urbanism and the Global Attractiveness Competition The Politics of Cities II: Culturally Oriented Governmentality and Singularity Management 2: The Rise of Cultural Essentialism Collective Identities and Particular Neo-Communities Ethnic Communities Between Self-Culturalization and External Culturalization Cultural Nationalism Right-Wing Populism Cultural Conflicts Between Essentialism, Hyperculture, and Liberalism The Politics of Violence: Terrorism and Mass Shootings as Celebrations of the Singular Act
Conclusion: The Crisis of the General?
Bibliography
Index
