Urban culture and visualities in Georg Simmel’s sociology

Abstract

This article proposes an in-depth analysis of Georg Simmel’s theory on visuality as a central element in the constitution of modern sociability. Departing from the thesis that vision, especially through the notion of mutual gaze, constitutes a form of pure reciprocity, the study articulates the author’s contributions to a sociology of sensory forms. Based on a formalist-phenomenological approach, Simmel examines urban aesthetics and the city as a work of art, the face as a theoretical organ, the sensory overload characteristic of the metropolis, the blasé attitude as a psychic defense strategy, the display windowing of urban space, and sociability as a game of forms. The analysis is also extended to reflections on the bridge and the door as visual materializations of connection and separation, and on the adornment as a visual expansion of personality. The article reaffirms the centrality of visuality in Simmel’s sociology not only as an aesthetic element but also as a form of interaction, pointing out the current relevance of his analytical categories and the limitations of his perspective regarding contemporary visual culture.