Society of Singularities

Andreas Reckwitz, Valentine A. Pakis

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781509534227
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781509534241
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

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  Industrial society's logic of the general has been replaced by late modernity's logic of the particular.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.

Index

• 3D printers 188, 334n29
• “1968” 74, 208, 209, 270

• abjection 57
• abstention, aversion to 247
• acceptance 73, 192–3
• accessories 231, 355n22
• achievement 313
  • and labor 146, 150, 152–3, 158–60, 344n33
• activism, cultural 215
• actualism, affective 194, 349n42
  • see also self-actualization
• aesthetics/aestheticization 61, 62, 67, 212, 308, 328n19
  • and goods 89, 90–1, 93–4
  • and lifestyle 229–30, 246
  • and middle classes 68, 69, 280
• affect/affectation
  • affect goods 82, 88, 91, 101, 116
  • affect machine 170–2, 173
  • affective actualism 194, 349n42
  • and cultural capitalism 75, 82, 88
  • and culturalization 49, 57–9, 72–3
  • and digitalization 170–2, 173, 191, 194–5, 349n44
  • negative 57, 194–5, 302, 306, 307
• African Americans 291
• aggressiveness 255
• aging 258, 285
• agricultural industry 23, 84
• algorithms 11, 49, 166–8, 176, 183–6
• antiques 95
• appropriation, practices of
  • and everyday life 215–16, 218
  • and generalization 20, 23, 31
  • and religion 297, 366n36
  • and singularization 47–8, 49
• architecture 2, 67, 103, 279
• arrangement 47
• art/arts 68–9, 125, 171
  • and cultural capitalism 84, 85, 91–3, 94, 100
  • and cultural economization 111–12, 119, 337n20
  • and labor 149, 156–7, 158–9
  • and lifestyle 68, 214, 231
  • and marketization 111–12, 156–7, 337n20
• atmosphere 41, 90, 98, 171
• attention
  • and cultural economization 107, 118, 119–23, 338n40
    • atte...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Proliferation of the Particular
• I Modernity Between the Social Logic of the General and the Social Logic of the Particular
• II The Post-Industrial Economy of Singularities
• III The Singularization of the Working World
• IV Digitalization as Singularization: The Rise of the Culture Machine
• V The Singularistic Life: Lifestyles, Classes, Subject Forms
• VI Differential Liberalism and Cultural Essentialism: The Transformation of the Political
• Conclusion: The Crisis of the General?
• Bibliography
• Index
• End User License Agreement