Il capitalismo estetico

Georg Simmel believed that the true nature of modern societies could only be grasped if one had a thorough understanding of the social sphere of aesthetics. In other words, the social system could be effectively interpreted by analysing the way in which artistic languages are applied on a daily basis to many different forms of expression (such as fashion, design, advertising and so on). If this was true during the age of Simmel then it is all the more true today, when the immaterial components of the economy and society have undergone more than a century of development. This paper will analyse the social role played by aesthetic dimension. It will put forward the thesis that from this point of view the Seventies were a particularly crucial moment and that this period changed our perception of goods.