List of FiguresIntroduction: The Disillusioned PresentProgress, Dystopia, NostalgiaDisillusionment as an OpportunityFrom Industrial Modernity to the Society of Singularities1.    Cultural Conflict as a Struggle over Culture:Hyperculture and Cultural EssentialismThe Culturalization of the SocialCulturalization I: HypercultureCulturalization II: Cultural EssentialismHyperculture and Cultural Essentialism: Between Coexistence and Conflict“Doing Universality” – The Culture of the General as an Alternative?2.    From the Leveled Middle-Class Society to the Three-Class Society:The New Middle Class, the Old Middle Class, and the Precarious ClassThe Global and Historical ContextUnderlying Conditions: Post-Industrialization, the Expansion of Education, a Shift in Values In the Paternoster Elevator of the Three-Class SocietyThe New Middle Class: Successful Self-Actualization and Urban CosmopolitanismThe Old Middle Class: Sedentariness, Order, and Cultural DefensivenessThe Precarious Class: Muddling Through and Losing StatusThe Upper Class: Distance due to AssetsCross-Sectional Characteristics: Gender, Migration, Regions, MilieusA Trend toward Political Polarization and Future Social Scenarios3.    Beyond Industrial Society:Polarized Post-Industrialism and Cognitive-Cultural CapitalismThe Rise and Fall of Industrial FordismThe Saturation CrisisThe Production Crisis and Polarized Post-IndustrialismGlobalization, Neoliberalism, FinancializationCognitive Capitalism and Immaterial CapitalCultural Goods and Cultural CapitalismWinner-Take-All Markets: The Scalability and Attractiveness of Cognitive and Cultural GoodsExtreme Capitalism: The Economization of the Social4.    The Weariness of Self-Actualization:The Late-Modern Individual and the Paradoxes of Emotional CultureFrom Self-Discipline to Self-ActualizationSuccessful Self-Actualization: An Ambitious Dual StructureThe Culture of Self-Actualization as a Generator of Negative EmotionsWays Out of the Spiral of Disappointment?5.    The Crisis of Liberalism and the Search for the New Political Paradigm:From Apertistic to Regulatory LiberalismPolitical Paradigms and Political ParadoxesProblems and Solutions: Between the Paradigms of Regulation and DynamizationThe Rise of the Social-Corporatist ParadigmThe Crisis of OverregulationThe Rise of the Paradigm of Apertistic LiberalismThe Threefold Crisis of Apertistic LiberalismPopulism as a Symptom“Regulatory Liberalism” as the Paradigm of the Future?Challenges Facing Regulatory LiberalismBibliographyNotesIndex

“This is a fascinating read, truly imaginative and remarkably wide-ranging. Andreas Reckwitz presents a compelling, novel outlook on the global challenges ahead.”Patrick Baert, University of Cambridge “In The End of Illusions, Reckwitz conducts a ‘socio-analysis’ of a patient known as late modernity and reveals the contradictions, paradoxes, and anomalies that characterize contemporary society. The hard work involved in this sobering analysis pays off: while pathways toward a better society are neither obvious nor linear, embracing today's ambiguities opens up spaces to reimagine our shared futures.”Urs Gasser, Harvard University