The Society of Singularities

Introduction

Andreas Reckwitz, a cultural sociologist then at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), published the book in 2017; it won the Bavarian Book Prize for non-fiction. He describes a shift from the social logic of generality that governed industrial modernity – standardisation, rationalisation, formal equality – to a social logic of particularity, in which goods, places, experiences and even persons gain value by appearing unique and authentic. Digital media and the cultural economy drive this shift. The new, highly educated middle class lives by it, while the old middle class and the new service class lose status. Reckwitz uses this polarisation to explain cultural conflicts and the rise of populism.