Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen

Kultursociologi og kulturstudier placerer sig i mellemrummet mellem samfundsvidenskab og humaniora og beskæftiger sig med kulturelle fænomener af enhver slags: med kunst og subkultur, med æstetik og sociale omgangsformer, med følelsernes kultur, med seksualitetens kultur, med oplevelsen af byens rum og med byudvikling, og i det hele taget med grundlæggende perspektiver på sammenhængen mellem samfund, kultur, magt og politik. Kultursociologien udgør en kernedisciplin i sociologien, og med opblomstringen af humanistiske kulturstudieuddannelser på en række danske universiteter de senere årtier er også store dele af de humanistiske fag orienteret i en kulturteoretisk og sociologisk retning. Denne bog giver en autoritativ indføring i klassiske og nyere tendenser, tænkere og teorier i kultursociologi og kulturteori i tre dele: Ny teori, som for en stor del præsenteres for første gang på dansk Klassiske og nyklassiske teorier, som på forskellige måder tegner fagets tradition Temaer og begreber, der indkredser de vigtigste områder, som kultursociologien og kulturteorien beskæftiger sig med. Bogen vil kunne fungere som en vigtig støtte i arbejdet med kultursociologiske eller kulturteoretiske originaltekster både for undervisere og studerende på de højere læreanstalter. Men den henvender sig også til den ”kulturarbejdende” eller blot kulturinteresserede læser uden for universitetet, som gerne vil have udvidet eller opdateret sin teoretiske horisont.

Ny kulturteori præsenterer samtidens væsentlige kulturteoretiske strømninger. Bogen kan læses som en bredtfavnende introduktion til aktuel kulturteori. Eller den kan læses som en teoretisk opdateret introduktion til temaer, der er vigtige i den aktuelle kultur. Ny kulturteori er en teoretisk grundbog, men teorierne leverer også inspiration, begreber og redskaber til analyse af aktuelle kulturelle fænomener. Alle bogens 25 kapitler supplerer teorierne med konkrete eksempler. Samlet giver de en omfattende, nuanceret og opdateret viden om nye strømninger og aktuelle temaer på det kulturteoretiske felt. Kultur kan ikke betragtes løsrevet fra andre samfundsmæssige fænomener, og kulturteori er afgørende for at forstå politiske, økonomiske og sociale aspekter af vores samtid. "Kulturteori" præsenteres her som teoridannelser, der kan skabe ny indsigt og refleksion i de dele af humaniora og samfundsvidenskaberne, der er optaget af samtidens kulturproduktion, smal eller bred. Alle kapitlerne er skrevet af eksperter, som har stræbt mod at præsentere de aktuelle begreber, tendenser og diskussioner på en nuanceret og tilgængelig måde. Hvert kapitel ledsages af anbefalinger til videre læsning og er også i den forstand en indgang til videre fordybelse og udforskning. Bogen er redigeret af Birgit Eriksson, professor i kulturstudier ved Institut for Kommunikation og Kultur på Aarhus Universitet og af Bjørn Schiermer, professor i sociologi på Institutt for sosiologi og samfunnsgeografi på Oslo Universitet.

The many mass protests that have taken place since 2011 have been characterised by an unmistakable need to challenge, overthrow and destroy the prevailing political representations without proposing new ones. The protests are not concerned with replacing the current government or leader with others, and thus getting a better version of what we already have. Instead, they refuse all leaders, including the most critical opposition leaders: these protests are about dismantling the need for leaders. More and more people are coming to the view that it is not possible to manage the many crises within the framework of the political institutions we have today. The new protests are political acts that are neither class struggle nor the establishment of an opposition to those in power. Rasmussen argues that we should understand these protests as the emergence of a new kind of revolutionary action that is as much an anthropological as a political transformation: it is an attempt to break free from all the traditional notions of how the social context that we call society and the nation-state is organised.

The many mass protests that have taken place since 2011 have been characterised by an unmistakable need to challenge, overthrow and destroy the prevailing political representations without proposing new ones. The protests are not concerned with replacing the current government or leader with others, and thus getting a better version of what we already have. Instead, they refuse all leaders, including the most critical opposition leaders: these protests are about dismantling the need for leaders. More and more people are coming to the view that it is not possible to manage the many crises within the framework of the political institutions we have today. The new protests are political acts that are neither class struggle nor the establishment of an opposition to those in power. Rasmussen argues that we should understand these protests as the emergence of a new kind of revolutionary action that is as much an anthropological as a political transformation: it is an attempt to break free from all the traditional notions of how the social context that we call society and the nation-state is organised.

What if fascism didn't disappear at the end of WW II with the defeat of Hitler and Mussolini? Even more troubling, what if fascism can no longer be confined to political parties or ultra nationalist politicians but has become something much more diffuse that is spread across our societies as cultural expressions and psychological states? This is the disturbing thesis developed by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, who argues that late capitalism has produced hollowed-out and exchangeable subjectivities that provide a breeding ground for a new kind of diffuse, banal fascism. The overt and concentrated fascism of the new fascist parties thrives on the diffuse fascism present in social media and everyday life, where the fear of being left behind and losing out has fuelled resentment towards foreigners and others who are perceived as threats to a national community under siege. Only by confronting both the overt fascism of parties and politicians and the diffuse fascism of everyday life will we be able to combat fascism effectively and prevent the slide into barbarism.

What if fascism didn't disappear at the end of WW II with the defeat of Hitler and Mussolini? Even more troubling, what if fascism can no longer be confined to political parties or ultra nationalist politicians but has become something much more diffuse that is spread across our societies as cultural expressions and psychological states? This is the disturbing thesis developed by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, who argues that late capitalism has produced hollowed-out and exchangeable subjectivities that provide a breeding ground for a new kind of diffuse, banal fascism. The overt and concentrated fascism of the new fascist parties thrives on the diffuse fascism present in social media and everyday life, where the fear of being left behind and losing out has fuelled resentment towards foreigners and others who are perceived as threats to a national community under siege. Only by confronting both the overt fascism of parties and politicians and the diffuse fascism of everyday life will we be able to combat fascism effectively and prevent the slide into barbarism.

In Trump's Counter-Revolution, Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen looks behind the craziness of Donald Trump to decipher the formation of a new kind of fascism, late-capitalist fascism, that is intent on preventing any kind of real social change. Trump projects an image of America as threatened, but capable of re-creating itself as a united, white and patriarchal community: "Make America great again". After forty years of extreme, uneven development in the US, Trump's late-capitalist fascism fuses popular culture and ultra-nationalism in an attempt to renew the old alliance between the white working class and the capitalist class, preventing the coming into being of an anti-capitalist alliance between Occupy and Black Lives Matter. 'A lucid, clear-eyed analysis of the morbid spectacle of Trump's racist counterrevolution. Mikkel Bolt proposes to add to the rubble of the neoliberal order by demolishing the political form of capitalism - democracy itself - as it slides into fascism. Welcome to life in the postcolony.' Iain Boal, co-author of Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War

A Western Marxist reading of contemporary art, focusing on the question of the continued presence (or absence) of the avant-garde’s transgressive impulse. Taking art’s ability to contribute to radical social transformation as its point of departure, Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen's new title from Zero Books analyses the relationship between the current neoliberal hegemony and contemporary art, including relational aesthetics and interventionist art, new institutionalism and post-modern architecture. '...a trenchant critique of neoliberal domination of contemporary art.' Gene Ray, author of Terror and the Sublime in Art and Critical Theory