Our contemporary societies place more and more emphasis on the singular and the unique. The industrial societies of the early 20th century produced standardized products, cities, subjects and organizations which tended to look the same, but in our late-modern societies, we value the exceptional - unique objects, experiences, places, individuals, events and communities which are beyond the ordinary and which claim a certain authenticity. Industrial society’s logic of the general has been replaced by late modernity’s logic of the particular. In this major new book, Andreas Reckwitz examines the causes, structures and consequences of the society of singularities in which we now live. The transformation from industrial to cultural capitalism, the rise of digital technologies and their ‘culture machine’ and the emergence of an educated, urban new middle class form a powerful engine for the singularization of the social. In late modernity, what is singular is valorized and stirs the emotions, while what is general has to remain in the background, and this has profound social consequences. The society of singularities systematically produces devaluation and inequality: winner-takes-all markets, job polarization, the neglect of rural regions and the alienation of the traditional middle class. The emergence of populism and the rise of aggressive forms of nationalism which emphasize the cultural authenticity of one’s own people thus turn out to be the other side of singularization. This prize-winning book offers a new perspective on how modern societies have changed in recent decades and it will be of great value to anyone interested in the forces that are shaping our world today.

Die Reihe widmet sich zentralen neueren Konzepten und Methoden im Feld der kulturwissenschaftlichen Grundlagenforschung und inhaltlichen Fragestellungen. Sie zielt darauf, die gegenwärtige Diskussion in den Kulturwissenschaften weiter zu profilieren und sie zugleich für die Arbeit in den Disziplinen fruchtbar zu machen: durch die Ausarbeitung interdisziplinärer Schlüsselkonzepte und die Entwicklung einer transkulturellen study of culture. Die Bände gehen überwiegend aus den Literatur-, Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften hervor, aber auch aus der Politikwissenschaft, der Soziologie und den Medienwissenschaften.

We live in a time of great uncertainty about the future. Those heady days of the late twentieth century, when the end of the Cold War seemed to be ushering in a new and more optimistic age, now seem like a distant memory. During the last couple of decades, we’ve been battered by one crisis after another and the idea that humanity is on a progressive path to a better future seems like an illusion. It is only now that we can see clearly the real scope and structure of the profound shifts that Western societies have undergone over the last 30 years. Classical industrial society has been transformed into a late-modern society that is molded by polarization and paradoxes. The pervasive singularization of the social, the orientation toward the unique and exceptional, generates systematic asymmetries and disparities, and hence progress and unease go hand in hand. Reckwitz examines this dual structure of singularization and polarization as it plays itself out in the different sectors of our societies and, in so doing, he outlines the central structural features of the present: the new class society, the characteristics of a postindustrial economy, the conflict about culture and identity, the exhaustion of the self resulting from the imperative to seek authentic fulfillment, and the political crisis of liberalism. Building on his path-breaking work The Society of Singularities, this new book will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, politics, and the social sciences generally, and to anyone concerned with the great social and political issues of our time.

Contemporary society has seen an unprecedented rise in both the demand and the desire to be creative, to bring something new into the world. Once the reserve of artistic subcultures, creativity has now become a universal model for culture and an imperative in many parts of society. In this new book, cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz investigates how the ideal of creativity has grown into a major social force, from the art of the avant-garde and postmodernism to the ‘creative industries’ and the innovation economy, the psychology of creativity and self-growth, the media representation of creative stars, and the urban design of ‘creative cities’. Where creativity is often assumed to be a force for good, Reckwitz looks critically at how this imperative has developed from the 1970s to the present day. Though we may well perceive creativity as the realization of some natural and innate potential within us, it has rather to be understood within the structures of a very specific culture of the new in late modern society. The Invention of Creativity is a bold and refreshing counter to conventional wisdom that shows how our age is defined by radical and restrictive processes of social aestheticization. It will be of great interest to those working in a variety of disciplines, from cultural and social theory to art history and aesthetics.

An elementary introduction to the geometrical methods and notions used in special and general relativity. Emphasizes the ideas concerned with structure of space-time that play a role in Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems.

The notion of singularity is basic to mathematics. In algebraic geometry, the resolution of singularities by simple algebraic mappings is truly a fundamental problem. It has a complete solution in characteristic zero and partial solutions in arbitrary characteristic. The resolution of singularities in characteristic zero is a key result used in many subjects besides algebraic geometry, such as differential equations, dynamical systems, number theory, the theory of $\mathcal{D}$-modules, topology, and mathematical physics. This book is a rigorous, but instructional, look at resolutions. A simplified proof, based on canonical resolutions, is given for characteristic zero. There are several proofs given for resolution of curves and surfaces in characteristic zero and arbitrary characteristic. Besides explaining the tools needed for understanding resolutions, Cutkosky explains the history and ideas, providing valuable insight and intuition for the novice (or expert). There are many examples and exercises throughout the text. The book is suitable for a second course on an exciting topic in algebraic geometry. A core course on resolutions is contained in Chapters 2 through 6. Additional topics are covered in the final chapters. The prerequisite is a course covering the basic notions of schemes and sheaves.

'This novel is essence of Banville ... a career summation' Daily Telegraph Felix Mordaunt, recently released from prison, steps from a flashy red sports car onto the estate of his youth. But there is a new family living in the drafty old house: descendants of the late, world-famous scientist Adam Godley. Felix must now vie with the idiosyncratic Godley family, with their harried housekeeper who becomes his landlady, with the recently commissioned biographer of Godley Sr., and with a wealthy and beautiful woman from his past who comes bearing an unusual request...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Celebrated futurist Ray Kurzweil, hailed by Bill Gates as “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence,” presents an “elaborate, smart, and persuasive” (The Boston Globe) view of the future course of human development. “Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.”—Los Angeles Times “Startling in scope and bravado.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “An important book.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, The Singularity Is Near presents a radical and optimistic view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.

An authoritative reference and the first comprehensive treatment of the singularities of the minimal model program.

The book provides an introduction to the theory of functions of several complex variables and their singularities, with special emphasis on topological aspects. The topics include Riemann surfaces, holomorphic functions of several variables, classification and deformation of singularities, fundamentals of differential topology, and the topology of singularities. The aim of the book is to guide the reader from the fundamentals to more advanced topics of recent research. All the necessary prerequisites are specified and carefully explained. The general theory is illustrated by various examples and applications.