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  Industrial society’s logic of the general has been replaced by late modernity’s logic of the particular.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

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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