This article works out the main characteristics of `practice theory', a type of social theory which has been sketched by such authors as Bourdieu, Giddens, Taylor, late Foucault and others. Practice theory is presented as a conceptual alternative to other forms of social and cultural theory, above all to culturalist mentalism, textualism and intersubjectivism. The article shows how practice theory and the three other cultural-theoretical vocabularies differ in their localization of the social and in their conceptualization of the body, mind, (...) things, knowledge, discourse, structure/process and the agent. (shrink)

The article summarizes the content of Andreas Reckwitz’s book The Society of Singularities in 10 theses and briefly links it to the author’s overall work. The Society of Singularities applies a practice theory approach in order to outline a theory of Western (late-)modernity which recognizes in it a basic rivalry between two logics of social evaluation: a social logic of the general and a social logic of the particular/ singular. The question arises which historical causes for the surge of the (...) social logic of uniqueness since the 1980s can be discerned, which structural features this type of society unfolds and which social and political consequences it has. (shrink)

In this article, Andreas Reckwitz replies to the four critical commentaries of Patrick Baert, Andreas Pettenkofer, Austin Harrington and Sally Haslanger on his book The Society of Singularities. In this context, he discusses the general position of this book within the landscape of contemporary social theory and the question of what a ‘social logic of the unique’ means. He enters the question in how far his analysis of the new middle class differs from Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of the new petty (...) bourgeoisie, emphasizing the combination of an orientation towards inner experience and social prestige in his account of the new middle class. He discusses the question of whether neoliberalism is responsible for the proneness to disappointment which the late-modern culture of self-actualization implies. Finally, he works out the differences between the type of critical analytics which his book implies and normative critical theory. (shrink)

À rebours de la thèse sur la modernité comme une époque où la rationalisation aurait pris le dessus sur la dimension esthétique et affective, Reckwitz repère les différentes étapes de la construction d’un capitalisme esthétique, où l’inventivité revêt désormais un rôle crucial. Tandis que la créativité était brandie par les avant-gardes artistiques du xix e et du xx e siècle comme un idéal permettant de subvertir les normes sociales, la créativité représente aujourd’hui elle-même une norme incontournable. « Soyez créatifs » (...) : cette injonction paradoxale s’applique désormais à tous les sujets du capitalisme tardif. Extrait de sa grande étude sur L’Invention de la créativité, ce chapitre replace l’enjeu de l’esthétisation au cœur de ce que Reckwitz nomme le « dispositif de la créativité ». (shrink)