The cities of need: Capitalism and subjectivity in the contemporary metropolis

Abstract

The objective of this article is to reflect upon the articulations between subjectivity and capitalism, the focal analysis on social life in contemporary metropolises. Inspired by Walter Benjamin, among other researchers, the author presents the narrow connection between the urban projects of Western cities and the forms of sensibility and the construction of the feeling of alterity. The article, using current scenes of daily life, underscores the singular characteristics of the production of subjectivities through contemporary capitalism, such as the disposability of social relations, the search for pleasure that is never satiated, the indifference, and the singular individualism of present day cities that predominates in the profusion of images of consumption and velocity.