Subjectivity Transformed

Thomas Vesting is Professor of Law at Goethe University Frankfurt.

• List of FiguresPreface§ 1 Introduction§ 2 Instituting Power§ 3 Culture as an Orientation-Forming Symbol SystemI. The Universalist Heritage of Cultural TheoryII. The Dual Character of Modern CultureIII. The Challenge of Information Technology § 4 Creative Freedom as a Source of Cultural DynamicsI.  Transsubjective Conditions of SubjectivityII. Imagination as Poetic MimesisIII. On the Event Character of the New§ 5 Bourgeois CultureI.  The Gentleman as a Personality IdealII. The Technical Attitude to the World1. The Early Modern Era as a Foundational Phase of Disruption2. Fulfillment through Tireless Effort?III. The Social Body and the Body PoliticIV. Formation of the Subject – In the Mirror of SocietyV. Legal Subjectivity and the Practices of Liberty Instituted in SocietyVI. The Alien Claim and Disciplining Subjectification§ 6  The Anglo-American Variant: The GentlemanI. Experimental Thinking and Useful KnowledgeII. Sociability and Other VirtuesIII. The Mirror of Society Becomes Better EndowedIV. Inclusive Institutions and Instituting Power§ 7 The Continental Variant: Honnête homme and BildungsbürgerI. The Sophisticated World of the Paris SalonsII. The German BildungsromanIII. Subjectification as Subjugation and Empowerment1. Invocation and Subjugation2. Empowerment by Means of the State§ 8 Managerial CultureI. The Rise of Large-Scale EnterprisesII. The Research and Development LaboratoryIII. Trust between Strangers1. The Legacy of Spontaneous Sociability2. From the Inner-Directed to the Other-Directed Individual?IV. Managers in America and Germany1. The American Manager2. Senior Executives in GermanyV.   Annex: Images of Corporate Bodies§ 9  The Culture of Information TechnologyI.   Homo Digitalis and the Theory of the Network SocietyII.  The Regional High-Tech ClusterIII. The Organization of Economic Production1. Dissolution of Conventional Corporate Boundaries2. Collective Learning through Informal Institutions3. Continuous Experimentation: New Contract ModelsIV. On the Environmentalization of Legal Subjectivity1. Paradigms of the Development of Technology2. On the Intelligibility of IT Milieus3. The Ecotechnological DimensionV. The Relevance of Instituting Power§ 10 Epilogue ReferencesNotesIndex

“In this highly original work the author sets out several ideal types of modern individuals and shows how each responds to a world of social and technological change. This thought-provoking analysis will be vital for academics and policy-makers alike.”Lawrence Rosen, Princeton University"This is a grand narrative, impressive in many ways, and a highly interesting contribution to socio-legal scholarship in both its social and legal capacities."Journal of Law and Society