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

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