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Some sociologists contributing to the foundations of relational sociology on the international stage have been recently remarking a kind of affinity between both notions of social relation and social life: they particularly refer to the pioneering views of Georg Simmel, who is largely mentioned and concerned in the following paper. The interaction among social subjects generates unexpected and emergent forms which sociologist must detect and inquiry: the interactive feature of any relation refers to the "content" of the social relation itself. Form and content stand for social life. This paper aims at addressing and deepening relational perspective, as regarded by Pierpaolo Donati, towards a Lebenssoziologie: in short, it hints to concern sensu strictissimo social relations as forms of social life. This lucky locution (i.e. Lebenssoziologie), adopted by Scott Lash more than ten years ago into a new interpretation of Simmel's social theory, concerns social life in terms of stream which fits with analysis on such themes as media and ICT. In this contribution, Donati's relational sociology is challenged and thematised in relation of a critical and relational Lebenssoziologie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay intends to highlight the role and value that the theme of the Leben ("life") takes on in the sociology of culture and in the philosophy of values of Georg Simmel. The aim of the paper is also to test the relevance and validity of the Simmelian perspective, starting from the established fact of Simmel's unavoidability, up to the possible use of the program of his Lebenssoziologie, term indicating, faithfully to the teachings of the Berlin sociologist, the science that investigates the "vital social forms". The characteristic feature of modern society is the progressive proliferation of catalyst semantic centers, for which the "hidden king" of our age seems lost. The extreme paradox that we live is given by the coexistence on the one hand of a very refined rationality and technology making the other ever closer (in a social, political, anthropological, biological, astronomical, etc. sense), and on the other hand, of an inability to "represent", "imagine" this other. The "tragic" dialectic of the social structuring, and therefore of the cultural production, indicated and studied masterfully by Simmel, is the fulcrum of the Lebenssoziologie that underpins his last works and which still shows all its freshness, its argumentative vigor and its relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aspect of our imaginary is the variety and the quantity of phenomenon that characterizes our everyday life. This fragmentary scenario makes it tough to consider every element as a part of a unique imaginary. However, we can take into account some classic works in order to consider different phenomenon manifestations of a unique generative principle. The aim of this paper is to examine the works of Goethe, Simmel, and Benjamin, considering that they have in common the capacity to assemble multitude in a single image of thought. In fact, although they start from different field of research, they examine the empirical world as an expression of a unique generative principle. Therefore, for Goethe leaf is the "original form" of the botanical world. While, in Simmel's work life is the "central idea" of the modern daily life. Finally, Parisian Arcades are for Benjamin the origin of the modern capitalism. Thus, the leaf, the life, and the Arcades, are meaningful examples to focus our attention on the opportunity to discover a synthetic image of our imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Digital Hidden King. Media Among Mediatized Construction of Reality and Radical Mediation. The paper intends to explore Georg Simmel’s concept of “hidden king”, as central concept of a given era. Therefore, we analyze the concepts of “mediated construction of reality” (Couldry, Hepp 2016) and “radical mediation” (Grusin 2017), which, in our opinion, can be conceived as the “hidden king” of contemporary digital society. The massive digitization of contemporary society and culture has led to deep mediatization (Hepp, Hasebrink 2018). Therefore, digital media have helped to redefine the forms of knowledge, time and spaces of social life. In this context, Couldry and Hepp rethought the constructionism of Berger and Luckmann and the figurative sociology of Norbert Elias, in a new theoretical framework based on the centrality of the media in the construction of social symbols and collective interactions. Starting from similar bases, Richard Grusin (2015) elaborates the concept of radical mediation. Overcoming the separation between subject and object, Grusin defines mediation “as the process, action, or event that generates or provides the conditions for the emergence of subjects and objects, for the individuation of entities within the world”. Furthermore, mediation operates not by neutrally reproducing meaning or information, but “by actively transforming human and nonhuman actants, as well as their conceptual and affective states”. Mediation is thus conceived as the constitutive dimension of every relationship or contact between human and non-human actants, objects and subjects, technical media and forms of biological life. In the last part of the paper, we try to highlight the vitality of Simmel’s sociology, able to dialogue with the mediological theories of Grusin and Couldry and Hepp.

Due to the recent pandemic, the sociology of emotions gained renewed relevance. The state of exception through which we have passed has uncovered some fundamental structures of our societies and allows to ask what is the 'normality' of the relationship between emotionality and social rationality in our time. The article shows how the pandemic (unlike the similar events of 1918-20 and 1969) became a social object, generating a 'social field of health' at a global level. In this field a dual emotionalisation of the pandemic experience (entry and exit) took place as well as attempts to rationalise and circumscribe its consequences. The analysis thus turns to the question of the decline of face-to-face social relationships (and thus of emotional character), the delimitation of which has not, however, prevented societies from continuing to function in the phase of exception. This finding indicates how even under 'normal' conditions post-emotional social relationships with anonymous third parties take over social interaction and confronts the sociology of emotions with the question of their (residual) role in complex societies. The article devotes itself to this analysis by mobilising the resources of sociological theory, in particular Simmel and Weber. The result is a reconstruction of the role of emotions for the persistence of modern social reality, beyond any preconceived thesis on its alleged 'de-emotionalization' (Entemotionalisierung) with an ascetic-protestant matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Images of Thought: the Leaf, the Life and the Arcades. For a Research of the Generative Principle of Imaginary. The main aspect of our imaginary is the variety and the quantity of phenomenon that characterizes our everyday life. This fragmentary scenario makes it tough to consider every element as a part of a unique imaginary. However, we can take into account some classic works in order to consider different phenomenon manifestations of a unique generative principle. The aim of this paper is to examine the works of Goethe, Simmel, and Benjamin, considering that they have in common the capacity to assemble multitude in a single image of thought. In fact, although they start from different field of research, they examine the empirical world as an expression of a unique generative principle. Therefore, for Goethe leaf is the “original form” of the botanical world. While, in Simmel’s work life is the “central idea” of the modern daily life. Finally, Parisian Arcades are for Benjamin the origin of the modern capitalism. Thus, the leaf, the life, and the Arcades, are meaningful examples to focus our attention on the opportunity to discover a synthetic image of our imaginary.

The (social) life "double warp sewn" with the conflict: Georg Simmel's Lebenssoziologie program. The essay intends to highlight the role and value that the theme of the Leben ("life") takes on in the sociology of culture and in the philosophy of values of Georg Simmel. The aim of the paper is also to test the relevance and validity of the Simmelian perspective, starting from the established fact of Simmel's unavoidability, up to the possible use of the program of his Lebenssoziologie, term indicating, faithfully to the teachings of the Berlin sociologist, the science that investigates the "vital social forms". The characteristic feature of modern society is the progressive proliferation of catalyst semantic centers, for which the "hidden king" of our age seems lost. The extreme paradox that we live is given by the coexistence on the one hand of a very refined rationality and technology making the other ever closer (in a social, political, anthropological, biological, astronomical, etc. sense), and on the other hand, of an inability to "represent", "imagine" this other. The "tragic" dialectic of the social structuring, and therefore of the cultural production, indicated and studied masterfully by Simmel, is the fulcrum of the Lebenssoziologie that underpins his last works and which still shows all its freshness, its argumentative vigor and its relevance.