Critique of Aesthetic Capitalism

This is the expanded edition of the famous essay Atmosphären, the most brilliant book about Aesthetics of the recent years.

Aesthetic Economy is a theory of the recent development of capitalism in our national economies. Basic needs are easily satisfied and, as a result, most commodities are no longer intended for consumption, but for the staging of our lives. That is, they are used to produce atmospheres. Applications of the theory are found wherever staging is performed: in commodity aesthetics in marketing, as well as in the sphere of production. As to technology we find a turn from useful to joyful technology. And the technology of entertainment has become a huge part of the general economy. Similarly, a further horizon of Aesthetic Economy is to be seen in the aestheticization of politics, the staging of sporting events and the management of culture.

From the author of Invasive Technification: Critical Essays in the Philosophy of Technology (Bloomsbury Academy), Ethics in Context: The Art of Dealing with Serious Questions (Polity), The Knowledge Society: The Growing Impact of Scientific Knowledge on Social Relations (Springer) , this book of Gernot Böhme inaugurates the new exciting book series Atmospheric Spaces with the most influential contemporary philosophers.