Visual Modernities – serie

Methods of visualising modernity and capitalism have been central to classical social science. Those methods of seeing, specifically in the work of Marx, were attempts to capture visually the fragmenting edifice of capital in its death throes and were part of a project to hasten its demise - yet capitalism persisted and perpetuated itself in new forms, such that its demise now looks less likely than it did 150 years ago. This book argues for a new way of understanding Marx and a new way of approaching both capitalist modernity and Marx’s Capital by rethinking the nature of vision. Through studies of visualisation in relation to machines and the monstrous, memory, mirrors and optics, and the invisible, Visualising the Empire of Capital offers a new way of thinking about what capital is and its future. A new reading of - and against - Marx, this volume argues for new forms of sensual utopia while initiating antagonism to the empire of capital itself. As such, it will appeal to social theorists, social anthropologists and sociologists with interests in critical theory, visual culture and aesthetics.

With a focus on I Am Legend and Day of the Dead—two series of film remakes of popular science fiction stories—this book addresses the social origins of the recent surge in authoritarian and populist social movements. Exploring the ways in which the themes of tribalism, confidence in medical science, and confidence in military violence changed over the years in the process of re-telling these stories in popular culture, the author identifies the shift towards a narrowing of moral scope, an embrace of military violence and a distrust of medical science with three elements of authoritarian populism: tribalism, distrust of rational elites and their institutions, and willingness for violent coercion. An engaging study of popular culture that sheds light on contemporary political attitudes, Pandemics, Authoritarian Populism, and Science Fiction will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, and cultural studies with interests in critical theory, film studies, and science fiction.

This book offers a re-examination of art production in terms that understand the process of learning as the production of art itself. Drawing on the thought of Ranciere, Freire, Gramsci and Mouffe, it provides an account of the politics of art production and a theoretical understanding of hegemonic power, while developing a view of method in critical pedagogy founded on the process of ‘making adversaries’. Through a re-evaluation of the relationships between process, arts production and pedagogy within accelerated developments of neoliberalism, the author uncovers ways of forming a more co-operative and less conflictual approach to democratic politics. An investigation of ways in which art practice can be used to engage with critical pedagogy in relation to a commodity driven neoliberal agenda, Art, Critical Pedagogy and Capitalism constitutes a radical rethinking of art making, and an attempt to address the paradox between the proliferation of the commodity of learning and the perceived crisis of arts education. As such, it will appeal to scholars of education, pedagogy and the arts with interests in social and critical theory.

Tracing the associations between artists, planners and engineers with and within the materials of our environment, this book introduces the relational theory of ‘art worlding’ as a way of coming to know our organic continuity. Through a series of ‘sculptural’ ethnographies of the making and doing of art in urban and rural contexts, the author re-orientates the art-planning relationship in recognition of art practice as a mode of inquiry and way of knowing. Methodologically innovative, the book traces public art as practice and integrates artistic practice within planning research. Inspired by the classical pragmatism of John Dewey the fieldwork illuminates the opportunity afforded by the art-planning relationship in understanding relational continuity at differing scales. It introduces a new paradigm for the field of public art and for art and planning practice more broadly. Art Worlding: Planning Relations will appeal to sociologists and social anthropologists with interests in art, as well as artists and art scholars, and those working in the fields of urban and rural planning, urban regeneration, art and ecology, curating, public art, and cultural management.

Tracing the associations between artists, planners and engineers with and within the materials of our environment, this book introduces the relational theory of ‘art worlding’ as a way of coming to know our organic continuity. Through a series of ‘sculptural’ ethnographies of the making and doing of art in urban and rural contexts, the author re-orientates the art-planning relationship in recognition of art practice as a mode of inquiry and way of knowing. Methodologically innovative, the book traces public art as practice and integrates artistic practice within planning research. Inspired by the classical pragmatism of John Dewey the fieldwork illuminates the opportunity afforded by the art-planning relationship in understanding relational continuity at differing scales. It introduces a new paradigm for the field of public art and for art and planning practice more broadly. Art Worlding: Planning Relations will appeal to sociologists and social anthropologists with interests in art, as well as artists and art scholars, and those working in the fields of urban and rural planning, urban regeneration, art and ecology, curating, public art, and cultural management.

This book examines the social production of our world, of the worlds of the past and of the worlds of the future, considering the ways in which worlds are created in both actuality and imagination. Bringing together central concepts of classical sociology, including social change, transformation, individuation, collectivisation and human imagination and practice, it draws lessons from the collapse of Graeco-Roman antiquity for our own world of virus and ecological disasters, considers the genesis of capitalism and intimates its ending. Rooted in classical sociology yet challenging its traditions and objects of study, Visualising Worlds: World-Making and Social Theory adopts new ways of thinking about visuality, aesthetics and how we ‘see’ social worlds, and how we then begin to build them. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in social theory, historical sociology, cultural studies, critical theory, archaeology, and the emergence, change and collapse of civilisations.

This book examines the social production of our world, of the worlds of the past and of the worlds of the future, considering the ways in which worlds are created in both actuality and imagination. Bringing together central concepts of classical sociology, including social change, transformation, individuation, collectivisation and human imagination and practice, it draws lessons from the collapse of Graeco-Roman antiquity for our own world of virus and ecological disasters, considers the genesis of capitalism and intimates its ending. Rooted in classical sociology yet challenging its traditions and objects of study, Visualising Worlds: World-Making and Social Theory adopts new ways of thinking about visuality, aesthetics and how we ‘see’ social worlds, and how we then begin to build them. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in social theory, historical sociology, cultural studies, critical theory, archaeology, and the emergence, change and collapse of civilisations.

This book offers a re-examination of art production in terms that understand the process of learning as the production of art itself. Drawing on the thought of Ranciere, Freire, Gramsci and Mouffe, it provides an account of the politics of art production and a theoretical understanding of hegemonic power, while developing a view of method in critical pedagogy founded on the process of ‘making adversaries’. Through a re-evaluation of the relationships between process, arts production and pedagogy within accelerated developments of neoliberalism, the author uncovers ways of forming a more co-operative and less conflictual approach to democratic politics. An investigation of ways in which art practice can be used to engage with critical pedagogy in relation to a commodity driven neoliberal agenda, Art, Critical Pedagogy and Capitalism constitutes a radical rethinking of art making, and an attempt to address the paradox between the proliferation of the commodity of learning and the perceived crisis of arts education. As such, it will appeal to scholars of education, pedagogy and the arts with interests in social and critical theory.

With a focus on I Am Legend and Day of the Dead—two series of film remakes of popular science fiction stories—this book addresses the social origins of the recent surge in authoritarian and populist social movements. Exploring the ways in which the themes of tribalism, confidence in medical science, and confidence in military violence changed over the years in the process of re-telling these stories in popular culture, the author identifies the shift towards a narrowing of moral scope, an embrace of military violence and a distrust of medical science with three elements of authoritarian populism: tribalism, distrust of rational elites and their institutions, and willingness for violent coercion. An engaging study of popular culture that sheds light on contemporary political attitudes, Pandemics, Authoritarian Populism, and Science Fiction will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, and cultural studies with interests in critical theory, film studies, and science fiction.

Methods of visualising modernity and capitalism have been central to classical social science. Those methods of seeing, specifically in the work of Marx, were attempts to capture visually the fragmenting edifice of capital in its death throes and were part of a project to hasten its demise - yet capitalism persisted and perpetuated itself in new forms, such that its demise now looks less likely than it did 150 years ago. This book argues for a new way of understanding Marx and a new way of approaching both capitalist modernity and Marx’s Capital by rethinking the nature of vision. Through studies of visualisation in relation to machines and the monstrous, memory, mirrors and optics, and the invisible, Visualising the Empire of Capital offers a new way of thinking about what capital is and its future. A new reading of - and against - Marx, this volume argues for new forms of sensual utopia while initiating antagonism to the empire of capital itself. As such, it will appeal to social theorists, social anthropologists and sociologists with interests in critical theory, visual culture and aesthetics.

This book considers post-19th-century Athens as a unique instance of a secret side of metropolitan capitalism. With a focus on modern antiquity as the hidden element of the dialectic between the past and the present, it suggests that the sociological study of one of the great European capital cities – a city not intended as a modern capital – and its architectural representations may expose part of the veiled processes of the reconstruction of the past, thus shedding light on the abuse of antiquity for the celebration of European capitalist metropolitan modernity. From the "glorious" white-marble cityscape of the 19th century that aimed at "re-enchanting" metropolitan modernity, to the inglorious grey reinforced-concrete 21st-century metropolis, modern Athens exposes the battle between the modern and a modern image of antiquity: a false, socially constructed historiography born of the dialectics between the ancient and the modern, the new and the old, collective memory and collective forgetting. As such, The Building of a Modern Antiquity will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in social and critical theory, urban studies, sociology of architecture, and visual sociology.

This book considers post-19th-century Athens as a unique instance of a secret side of metropolitan capitalism. With a focus on modern antiquity as the hidden element of the dialectic between the past and the present, it suggests that the sociological study of one of the great European capital cities – a city not intended as a modern capital – and its architectural representations may expose part of the veiled processes of the reconstruction of the past, thus shedding light on the abuse of antiquity for the celebration of European capitalist metropolitan modernity. From the "glorious" white-marble cityscape of the 19th century that aimed at "re-enchanting" metropolitan modernity, to the inglorious grey reinforced-concrete 21st-century metropolis, modern Athens exposes the battle between the modern and a modern image of antiquity: a false, socially constructed historiography born of the dialectics between the ancient and the modern, the new and the old, collective memory and collective forgetting. As such, The Building of a Modern Antiquity will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in social and critical theory, urban studies, sociology of architecture, and visual sociology.

This pioneering book offers fresh insights into the photographic work of the American artist Frederick Sommer, whose long career spanned the 20th century. With detailed analyses of individual photographs, Frederick Sommer: A World of Bonds unpacks the ways in which the artist generates ‘other ways of seeing’ while simultaneously facilitating an examination of photography’s modernity and modernism.The authors show how Sommer’s work allows for a deeper exploration of the potential of photography as a medium and, at the same time, demonstrate that it cannot be understood solely in the photographic terms established by his contemporaries. The chapters explore a wide range of themes including violence and death, metamorphosis, landscape, the relationship between alchemy and the creative process, the materiality of photographs, and embodied vision. Though usually discussed in relation to surrealism, Sommer took inspiration from a multitude of sources in art history as well as philosophy, literature, and science among others. Thinking about Sommer’s photographs within a broader framework in this way therefore offers a new understanding of his work as a dialogue with aesthetic ideas that aim to make sense of the world.Engaging with themes of cosmopolitanism, assemblage and visuality, the book will be of interest to scholars of art history, photography, and visual studies with interests in post-war art and modernism.

Social Ghosts and the Dead of World History looks at the global phenomena of the dead in world history, examining the phantasms and spirits of classical social science and philosophy.From Hegel’s ‘World-Spirit’ to Max Weber’s ‘Verstehen’ and Marx’s phantasms, there is a recurring obsession with the ‘spirits’ of modernity. This book explores the relationships and interactions between those spirits and materiality in five broad areas: the nature of the dead in modernity, shape-shifting and mobile souls, the spirit in accounts of prehistory and archaeology, the phenomenology of spirits and the relation to statues and stone, and the nature of spirit as it is manifested in wooden artefacts and folklore. It offers a counter-modernity to that of classical social science and philosophy and new ways of thinking about our crises and catastrophes in social theory and the world and the worlds beyond this world.Building on the author’s previous work on the sociology of haunted houses and landscapes, it examines the body and the individual as the locus of haunting. The book will appeal to academics in philosophy, history, social theory, anthropology and cultural studies in its omni-disciplinarity and in its import for rethinking the histories of social thought.