The economy of creativity and the inhabitant

Abstract

Much of the contemporary economy is legitimized by invoking concepts whose recent genealogy is to be found in 20th-century arts and aesthetics. “Creativity” plays a prominent role: a dispositif producing a society of singularities search- ing for the ever-new (Reckwitz), or a Web 2.0 “vector” to lead them toward and beyond Kunstkommunismus (Kaufmann), in a “post-capitalist” transition (Mason).
The paper criticizes some effects of this “aestheticization” (Benjamin) on the economy, on habits (“perfectionism”) and on certain arts, and suggests the need to deeply rethink creativity. Inhabiting is the key notion here. While shar- ing many aspects of Reckwitz’s analysis, the paper criticizes his identification of aesthetics and aestheticization, his use of the genealogical method and his conclusion about the irreversibility of this individualistic singularity. The paper indicates a different genealogy of singularity and the existence of Western forms of life, as well as aesthetic experiences and artistic “creativities”, in which singularity implies shared inhabiting.