Aestheticising and beautifying: Benjamin and/versus Rancière

Aestheticising and beautifying: Benjamin and/versus Rancière

Does Ranciere's conception of the politics of aesthetics really have 'nothinig to do with Benjamin's discussion … that is specific to the "age of the masses"'? In this presentation I explore a distinction between aestheticisation and beautification: while the former disrupts dominant ways of the ways in which the commodified city is sensed and made sense of, the latter consolidates existing social and economic arrangements and opens up additional profit-making terrains in the city.

Date

10-11 June 2019

Language

English

Author

Günter Gassner

Keywords

Critical Theory

Benjamin

Skyline

Aesthetics

Spatial practices

© 2026 Günter Gassner
© 2026 Günter Gassner