Search results for ""Author Vjeran Katunaric""

With the advent of colonialism and the monetarized market economy, the gift economy, once a widely embedded cultural and economic practice, has become a niche of modern diplomacy, often serving as the means for corruption rather than human connection. In presenting an overview of the history and development of the gift economy, Vjeran Katunarić defines this exchange as a form of communication, similar to language, rather than an exchange that is merely material. By examining different theoretical approaches, including neoclassical, radical feminist, and conservative Christian views, the chapters explore how nonlinear forms of development may contribute to correcting the failures of competitive markets. Katunarić advocates for the gift economy as a means for introducing balance between planning and the market, as well as between the public and private sectors of the economy. In this way, a sense of restoring, and restorative, peace may be spread around the globe, along with a more equitable distribution of financial resources. On the whole, A Sociological Examination of the Gift Economy presents gift-giving as an intuitive path toward a viable economy, society, and culture here on Earth, and even toward an amiable engagement with our cosmic surroundings in the future.

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Although there is widespread belief that some artists attract the attention of muses more than others, this topic has, so far, not been taken up seriously in art history or sociology of culture. In his fascinating book, Vjeran Katunarić starts out by presenting many artworks, from literature and visual arts to performing arts and architecture, as examples that demonstrate the transcendental potential of art. The key concept explaining this capability concerns the crossing of three time frames, i.e. past, present, and future in the historical present.An inspirational source for such an approach is to be found in the aesthetic sociology and philosophy of Georg Simmel and in the philosophical hermeneutics of history by Walter Benjamin.The selected artworks and periods, respectively, span from early Renaissance and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to postmodernity and neoliberalism – with a glimpse to a possible future as the opening of the cosmic era of humanity that is anticipated in early vanguard and some contemporary paintings.

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