Critique of Aesthetic Capitalism

In concerning himself with the ideology of growth, with the soundscape in shopping malls and the connection between performance ideology and consumption, he makes an important contribution to a reconstruction and extension of the theory of the culture industry to the sphere of economic life.. The stage-setting of products and lifestyles is a central feature of aesthetic capitalism, the manifestations of which Böhme tracks down here. This shows that what matters today is not only the use value of a commodity (that one can make phone calls or surf the Internet with such a device), but also what Gernot Böhme calls its “staging value”. When a new smartphone comes on the market, queues start forming in the early hours outside the

As a research scientist, he worked,at the Max-Planck-Institute with, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and, Jürgen Habermas. Gernot Böhme (born 1937), studied mathematics, physics,,and philosophy at Göttingen and,Hamburg, and completed a PhD,in 1965 at Hamburg University. Today, he is Director,of the Institute for Practicing Philosophy, IPPh, and Chair of the, Goethe-Association/Darmstadt. . From 1

About the Author Gernot Böhme (born 1937), studied mathematics, physics,,and philosophy at Göttingen and,Hamburg, and completed a PhD,in 1965 at Hamburg University. . As a research scientist, he worked,at the Max-Planck-Institute with, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and, Jürgen Habermas. Today, he is Director,of the Institute for Practicing Philosophy, IPPh, and Chair of the, Goethe-Association/Darmstadt. From 1977 to,2002, he was Professor of Philosophy, at Technical University of Darmstadt and from 1997 to 2001 he was Speak