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<br /> Acknowledgements<br /> <br /> Introduction: The Proliferation of the Particular<br /> <br /> I. Modernity Between the Social Logic of the General <br />      and the Social Logic of the Particular<br /> <br /> 1: The Social Logic of the General<br />            Modernity and Generality<br />            Typifications and Rationalizations<br />            Standardization, Formalization, Generalization<br />            Objects, Subjects, Spaces, Times, and Collectives in the Social Logic of the General<br /> Industrial Modernity as a Prototype<br /> <br /> 2: The Social Logic of the Particular<br /> The General-Particular, Idiosyncrasies, Singularities<br /> Objects, Subjects, Spaces, Times, and Collectives in the Social Logic of Singularities<br /> Practices of Singularization I: Observation and Evaluation<br />      Practices of Singularization II: Production and Appropriation<br />      Performativity as a Mode of Praxis and Automated Singularization<br /> <br /> 3: Culture and Culturalization<br /> Culture as a Sphere of Valorization and De-Valorization<br />      Culturalization Versus Rationalization<br />      Qualities of Cultural Praxis: Between Sense and Sensibility<br /> <br /> 4: The Transformation of the Cultural Sphere<br />      Premodern Societies: The Fixation and Repetition of the Singular<br />      Bourgeois Modernity: The Romantic Revolution of the Unique<br />      Organized Modernity: Mass Culture<br />      Late Modernity: Competitive Singularities, Hyperculture, and Polarization<br /> <br /> II. The Post-Industrial Economy of Singularities<br /> <br />      Beyond Industrial Society<br />      Unleashing the Creative Economy<br /> <br />      1: Unique Goods in Cultural Capitalism<br />            The Culturalization of Goods<br />            Singular Goods: Originality and Rarity<br />            Things as Singular Goods<br />            Services, Media Formats, and Events as Singular Goods<br />            Features of Singular Goods I: The Performance of Authenticity<br />            Features of Singular Goods II: Moment and Duration<br />            Features of Singular Goods III: Circulation and Hyperculture<br /> <br />      2: Cultural Singularity Markets<br />            Attractiveness Markets as Markets of Attention and Valorization<br />            The Cultural Economization of the Economy and Society<br />            Overproduction and Winner-Take-All Competitions<br />            Buzz Effects and the Struggle for Visibility<br />            Valorization Techniques and Reputation<br />            Singularity Capital<br />            Quantifying the Unique<br /> <br /> III: The Singularization of the Working World<br /> <br />            The Cultural Economization of Labor and Its Polarization<br /> <br />      1: Practices of Labor and Organization in the Creative Economy<br />            Cultural Production as Creative Labor<br />            Projects as Heterogeneous Collaborations<br />            Organizational Cultures and Networks<br /> <br />      2: The Singularization and Self-Singularization of Working Subjects<br />            Beyond the Formalization of Labor<br />            The Profile Subject: Competencies and Talents<br />            The Singularization Techniques of Labor<br />            Fields of Tension in Highly Qualified Labor:<br />            Between the Artist’s Dilemma and the Superstar Economy<br /> <br /> IV: Digitalization as Singularization: The Rise of the Culture Machine<br /> <br />            From Industrial Technics to Digital Technology<br /> <br />      1: The Technology of Culturalization<br />            Algorithms, Digitality, and the Internet as Infrastructures<br />            The Digital Culture Machine and the Ubiquity of Culture<br />            Culture Between Overproduction and Recombination<br /> <br />      2: Cultural and Automated Processes of Singularization<br />            The Digital Subject: Performative Authenticity and Visibility<br />            Compositional Singularity and the Form of the Profile<br />            Big Data and the Observation of Profiles<br />            The Personalized Internet and Softwarization<br />            Digital Neo-Communities and the Sociality of the Internet<br />            Fields of Tension in Online Culture:<br />            From the Pressure to Create Profiles to Extreme Affect Culture<br /> <br /> V: The Singularistic Life: Lifestyles, Classes, Subject Forms<br /> <br />            The Late-Modern Self Beyond the Levelled Middle-Class Society<br />            The Cultural Class Divide and the “Paternoster-Elevator Effect”<br /> <br /> 1: The Lifestyle of the New Middle Class: Successful Self-Actualization<br />            Romanticism and Bourgeois Culture: The New Symbiosis<br />            Self-Actualization and the Valorization of Everyday Life<br />            Culture as a Resource and Cultural Cosmopolitanism<br />            Status Investment and the Prestige of the Unique<br />      <br />      2: Elements of the Singular Lifestyle<br />            Food<br />            Homes<br />            Travel<br />            Bodies<br />            Parenting and Early Education<br />            Work-Life Balance, Urbanity, Juvenilization, Degendering,and New Liberalism<br />            Fields of Tension in the Lifestyle of the New Middle Class: The Inadequacy of Self-        Actualization<br /> <br />      3: The Culturalization of Inequality<br />            The Underclass’s Way of Life: Muddling Through<br />            Cultural Devaluations<br />            Singularistic Counter-Strategies of the Underclass<br />            The Tableau of Late-Modern Classes and Their Relations<br /> <br /> VI: Differential Liberalism and Cultural Essentialism: The Transformation of the Political<br /> <br />            The Politics of the Particular<br /> <br />      1: Apertistic-Differential Liberalism and the Politics of the Local<br />            From the Social-Democratic Consensus to New Liberalism<br />            The Competition State and Diversity: The Two Sides of New Liberalism<br />            The Politics of Cities I: New Urbanism and the Global Attractiveness Competition<br />            The Politics of Cities II: Culturally Oriented Governmentality and Singularity                Management<br /> <br />      2: The Rise of Cultural Essentialism<br />            Collective Identities and Particular Neo-Communities<br />            Ethnic Communities Between Self-Culturalization and External Culturalization<br />            Cultural Nationalism<br />            Right-Wing Populism<br />            Cultural Conflicts Between Essentialism, Hyperculture, and Liberalism<br />            The Politics of Violence: Terrorism and Mass Shootings as Celebrations of the             Singular Act<br /> <br /> Conclusion: The Crisis of the General?<br /> <br /> Bibliography<br /> <br /> Index

“Everywhere we see how culture is giving rise to new conflicts and classes. A sociologist offers a clever general theory of our time.”<br /> <b><i>Die Zeit</i></b> <p>“Reckwitz has written a special book, an original take on our contemporary world.”<br /> <b><i>Literatur Spiegel</i></b></p> <p>“Anyone who wishes to understand our times should definitely read Andreas Reckwitz.”<br /> <b><i>Deutschlandfunk Kultur</i></b></p> <p>“Only a few books fundamentally alter the way you look at the world. Reckwitz’s <i>The Society of Singularities</i> 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.” <br /><b>Urs Gasser, Harvard University </b><br /><br />“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.”<br /><b> Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University<br /></b></p> <p>“Magisterial… the most interesting book of its kind that I have read since Fred Jameson’s <i>Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism</i> (1991), for here culture and economy come together.”<br /><b><i>Thesis Eleven</i></b></p>

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

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