Society of Singularities

Andreas Reckwitz is Professor of Cultural Sociology at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt an der Oder.

“Everywhere we see how culture is giving rise to new conflicts and classes. A sociologist offers a clever general theory of our time.”Die Zeit “Reckwitz has written a special book, an original take on our contemporary world.”Literatur Spiegel“Anyone who wishes to understand our times should definitely read Andreas Reckwitz.”Deutschlandfunk Kultur“Only a few books fundamentally alter the way you look at the world. Reckwitz’s The Society of Singularities ranks among them by offering an unfamiliar lens that makes visible the hidden dynamics of singularization that shape today’s economy, technology, and culture. Reading this profound book will help you to create meaning out of seemingly unrelated phenomena, whether you're puzzled by the latest lifestyle trends, crises on social media, or the identity struggles of youth, to name just a few.” Urs Gasser, Harvard University “The search for particularity and distinctiveness is a basic feature of contemporary culture. It exists both on the basis of and in tension with continued rationalization and large-scale economic integration and material infrastructure. To understand what has changed and where the continuities lie, Andreas Reckwitz draws on a broad range of social and cultural theory and develops a comprehensive view that repays thoughtful attention.”Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University“Magisterial… the most interesting book of its kind that I have read since Fred Jameson’s Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), for here culture and economy come together.”Thesis Eleven

• 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 GeneralModernity and GeneralityTypifications and RationalizationsStandardization, Formalization, GeneralizationObjects, Subjects, Spaces, Times, and Collectives in the Social Logic of the GeneralIndustrial Modernity as a Prototype 2: The Social Logic of the ParticularThe General-Particular, Idiosyncrasies, SingularitiesObjects, Subjects, Spaces, Times, and Collectives in the Social Logic of SingularitiesPractices of Singularization I: Observation and EvaluationPractices of Singularization II: Production and AppropriationPerformativity as a Mode of Praxis and Automated Singularization 3: Culture and CulturalizationCulture as a Sphere of Valorization and De-ValorizationCulturalization Versus RationalizationQualities of Cultural Praxis: Between Sense and Sensibility 4: The Transformation of the Cultural SpherePremodern Societies: The Fixation and Repetition of the SingularBourgeois Modernity: The Romantic Revolution of the UniqueOrganized Modernity: Mass CultureLate Modernity: Competitive Singularities, Hyperculture, and Polarization II. The Post-Industrial Economy of Singularities Beyond Industrial SocietyUnleashing the Creative Economy 1: Unique Goods in Cultural CapitalismThe Culturalization of GoodsSingular Goods: Originality and RarityThings as Singular GoodsServices, Media Formats, and Events as Singular GoodsFeatures of Singular Goods I: The Performance of AuthenticityFeatures of Singular Goods II: Moment and DurationFeatures of Singular Goods III: Circulation and Hyperculture 2: Cultural Singularity MarketsAttractiveness Markets as Markets of Attention and ValorizationThe Cultural Economization of the Economy and SocietyOverproduction and Winner-Take-All CompetitionsBuzz Effects and the Struggle for VisibilityValorization Techniques and ReputationSingularity CapitalQuantifying 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 EconomyCultural Production as Creative LaborProjects as Heterogeneous CollaborationsOrganizational Cultures and Networks 2: The Singularization and Self-Singularization of Working SubjectsBeyond the Formalization of LaborThe Profile Subject: Competencies and TalentsThe Singularization Techniques of LaborFields 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 CulturalizationAlgorithms, Digitality, and the Internet as InfrastructuresThe Digital Culture Machine and the Ubiquity of CultureCulture Between Overproduction and Recombination 2: Cultural and Automated Processes of SingularizationThe Digital Subject: Performative Authenticity and VisibilityCompositional Singularity and the Form of the ProfileBig Data and the Observation of ProfilesThe Personalized Internet and SoftwarizationDigital Neo-Communities and the Sociality of the InternetFields 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 SocietyThe Cultural Class Divide and the “Paternoster-Elevator Effect” 1: The Lifestyle of the New Middle Class: Successful Self-ActualizationRomanticism and Bourgeois Culture: The New SymbiosisSelf-Actualization and the Valorization of Everyday LifeCulture as a Resource and Cultural CosmopolitanismStatus Investment and the Prestige of the Unique      2: Elements of the Singular LifestyleFoodHomesTravelBodiesParenting and Early EducationWork-Life Balance, Urbanity, Juvenilization, Degendering,and New LiberalismFields of Tension in the Lifestyle of the New Middle Class: The Inadequacy of Self-        Actualization 3: The Culturalization of InequalityThe Underclass’s Way of Life: Muddling ThroughCultural DevaluationsSingularistic Counter-Strategies of the UnderclassThe 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 LocalFrom the Social-Democratic Consensus to New LiberalismThe Competition State and Diversity: The Two Sides of New LiberalismThe Politics of Cities I: New Urbanism and the Global Attractiveness CompetitionThe Politics of Cities II: Culturally Oriented Governmentality and Singularity                Management 2: The Rise of Cultural EssentialismCollective Identities and Particular Neo-CommunitiesEthnic Communities Between Self-Culturalization and External CulturalizationCultural NationalismRight-Wing PopulismCultural Conflicts Between Essentialism, Hyperculture, and LiberalismThe Politics of Violence: Terrorism and Mass Shootings as Celebrations of the             Singular Act Conclusion: The Crisis of the General? Bibliography Index