Society of Singularities. Andreas Reckwitz

Introduction: The Proliferation of the Particular

      Wherever we look in today’s society, what has come to be expected is not the general but the particular. Rather than being directed toward anything standardized or regular, the hopes, interests, and efforts of institutions and individuals are pinned on the unique and singular.

      Travelers, for instance, are no longer satisfied with the uniform vacation destinations associated with mass tourism. Instead, it is the uniqueness of a location, the authentic atmosphere of a particular city, an exceptional landscape, or a particular local culture that piques the interest of tourists. And this is only one example among many, for this development has encompassed late modernity’s entire global economy. In the case of both services and material goods, the mass production of uniform products has been replaced by events and objects that are not the same or identical for everyone but are rather intended to be unique – that is, singular. People have thus become passionate about extraordinary occasions such as live concerts and music festivals, sporting events and art shows, but also about lifestyle sports and the imaginary worlds of computer games. The so-called ethical consumer has developed discerning tastes for different types of bread and coffee in a way that had previously, at best, been typical of wine connoisseurs. Instead of buying a new sofa “off the rack” (so to speak), many people prefer to search for a vintage piece, and a brand such as Apple offers not only the latest technology but a whole environment that is attractive and unique, and that the user would be unwilling to trade for any other. Finally, various forms of psychological treatment offer tailored therapeutic or spiritual services.

More and more, the late-modern economy has become oriented toward singular things, services, and events, and the goods that it produces are no longer simply functional. Instead, they also – or even exclusively – have cultural connotations and appeal to the emotions. We no longer live in the age of industrial capitalism but in that of cultural capitalism.¹ This has profound consequences for the professional world as well. Whereas industrial society focused on clearly defined formal qualifications and performance requirements, in today’s knowledge and culture economy the working subject has to develop a “profile” that is out of the ordinary. Now those who achieve, or promise to achieve, something extraordinary – something far above average – are rewarded, while employees who perform routine tasks lose out.

      Without a doubt, the economy sets the pace of society, but by now the shift from the general to the particular has taken place in many other areas as well – for instance, in education.² Unlike 20 years ago, it is no longer enough for schools successfully to teach the curriculum required by the state. Every school has and wants to be different, has and wants to cultivate its own educational profile and provide pupils (and their parents) with the opportunity to forge a unique educational path. And parents, at least those in the educated middle class, regard their individual children as people whose particular talents and characteristics should be fostered and encouraged.

      Another area in which the rise of the singular has been observable for some time is architecture. With its repetitive structures, the International Style seems rather monotonous, and it has largely been neglected since the 1980s in favor of unique designs, so much so that it seems necessary for today’s museums, concert halls, flagship stores, and apartment buildings to be built in an original style (sometimes these styles are striking, sometimes merely odd). Hidden behind all of this lies a fundamental transformation of spatial structures. In globalized and urbanized late modernity, the interchangeable spaces of classical modernity are to be replaced with recognizable individual places, each with a unique atmosphere that can be associated with specific narratives and memories. In the name of so-called cultural regeneration, cities large and small have thus made concerted efforts to develop their own local logic, one that promises a particular quality of life and has its own unique selling points. And the new middle class has flocked to these teeming cities, while other, less attractive, regions (be they in the United States or France, Great Britain or Germany) are in danger of becoming deserted altogether.

It is no surprise, then, that the late-modern subjects who move in these environments seek satisfaction in the particular. The type of subject that predominated in the West up to the 1970s – that is, the average employee with an average family in the suburbs,