{"id":56614,"date":"2019-02-12T16:31:22","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T15:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiig.de\/?p=56614"},"modified":"2019-02-12T16:31:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T15:31:22","slug":"digital-singularisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiig.de\/en\/digital-singularisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Singularisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Andreas Reckwitz<\/strong>, we are living in a time of fundamental social change \u2014 our society is becoming a society of singularisation. Digitisation is playing a pivotal role in this process. But what exactly does singularisation mean? And what consequences \u00a0will it have for the constitution of our society? Marc Pirogan<\/strong> takes a look back at his lecture.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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At the closing event of the lecture series <\/span>Making Sense of the Digital Society<\/span><\/a> for 2018, Andreas Reckwitz gave a lecture on the society of singularisation and its connection to digitisation. At the beginning of his lecture, Reckwitz noted he adopts a societal theory perspective that depicts a historical change in which digitisation is only one of several relevant factors. This should in no way represent a kind of technological determinism. Technology offers affordances that have a pre-forming effect, but also opens up different possibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The historical trend towards singularisation<\/h3>\n

According to Reckwitz, modern society, beginning from 1800 onwards, is characterised by a double structure. On the one hand, it promotes a logic of the general and standardisable. Following this logic, people, places and things are aligned according to general standards, think of the assembly line or role attributions in the public sphere. At the same time, a counter-trend, the promise of the special and unique \u2013 singularisation \u2013 has always been inherent to modernity. This counter-trend was evident early on, with romanticism. Whereas at the time a romantic concept of individuality was prevalent, today, objects, places, events, and communities are also presented as something special, \u201csingular\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the transition from industrial modernity to late modernity in the past 30 to 40 years, the significance of singularisation has gained enormous importance. It has been transformed \u00a0from a niche and elite phenomenon to a mass phenomenon. The logic of the general continues to be present, for example, as a technical infrastructure, but has lost its relevance. Examples of singularisation can be found in our lifestyles and diets, our consumption habits in general, or traveling to “special” and \u201cunique\u201d places.<\/span><\/p>\n

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