Homogenization

Terminological note: this page covers Heller/Lukács's sociological concept (absorption into a homogeneous sphere of objectivation). For the interior-design sense of the word — the homogenization of the interior as uniform style across a house's rooms (Eastlake, per the Intimus editors' headnote) — see stylistic-unity.

Definition

Heller's objective criterion for distinguishing everyday from non-everyday activity, adopted from Lefebvre-adjacent usage of Georg Lukács's terminology. Everyday life is irreducibly heterogeneous — "it moves turbulently in a world of heterogeneous actions" — and in it "the whole man takes part" (Lukács). Homogenization is the counter-process: the person is "absorbed in a given homogeneous sphere of objectivation, and concentrates his activity upon one single objective homogeneous sphere of action" (Heller, p. 57); from being 'a whole man' the subject becomes 'man-as-whole'. Its criteria are: a direct, conscious, active relationship to a homogeneous generic objectivation; concentration on a single task; the sifting or screening of particularity; and the generalization of the personality. Homogenization is "not a subjective but an objective criterion" — a demand the objectivations themselves confront the person with (p. 88). In moral homogenization — since morals have no sphere of their own — the process is always momentary or instantaneous; the decision that transforms the 'after' from the 'before' is catharsis (pp. 87–88). Everyday and non-everyday remain "ideal types of activity, and empirical overlapping does not impair the validity of the homogenization criterion" (p. 59).

Key Thinkers

• Agnes Heller — the systematic account: homogenization across the generic objectivations (work's transitional type, morals, religion, science, art, philosophy) and the theory of moral homogenization and catharsis.
• Henri Lefebvre — the source of the repetitive/inventive praxis vocabulary Heller reworks within the homogenization framework.
• Georg Lukács — 'the whole man' vs 'man-as-whole' (the Aesthetics); tact as accumulated experience; the 'beforehand' of aesthetic reception.

Related Concepts

• Everyday Life — the heterogeneous terrain homogenization emerges from; the two conditions are interdependent ("everyday life could not be reproduced without the heterogeneous human activities, and neither could the objectivation 'for itself' be reproduced without the homogenization process").
• Objectivation 'In Itself' and 'For Itself' — homogenization is absorption into a homogeneous sphere of the 'for itself'.
• Species-Essentiality — the level to which homogenization raises the person (the generic).
• Particularity and Individuality — homogenization sifts particularity; the individual can also homogenize within everyday life (moral decisions).
• Repetition — the everyday pole: repetitive praxis/thinking vs the concentration homogenization demands.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Ultrasuede (Wagner 2002/2006) — homogenization's designed form and its intentional, valuable version. Wagner documents the deliberate homogenization of the interior: the 'discordant collection of table and chair legs' (the 'slum of legs,' p. 380) erased in favor of unified pedestal bases; eclectic clutter eliminated through 'the enveloping continuity of the whole and its governing surfaces' (p. 380); and the type-case interior 'monolithic, monochromatic and very subtle' (p. 385), its ceiling reading 'like canvas that absorbs all the light and reflects all the color' (p. 385). Wagner adds the concept's aesthetic value-side: the homogenized interior was not a failure but the intended product — 'producing a purely local reality in a space with a continuous surface, eminently spatial and inwardly focused – a space for mental reflection and bodily suspension' (p. 383). The page's critical literature (junkspace, generic interiors) treats homogenization as systemic default; Wagner shows it as a program — which raises the question of what distinguishes designed continuity from systemic sameness. See performative-envelope, stylistic-unity.
• Everyday Life (Heller 1970) — the primary source: ch. 4d (homogenization as the criterion of 'emergence'), ch. 5 (its varying extent across work, morals, religion, science, art, philosophy), and the theory of moral homogenization and catharsis.
• Everyday Life in the Modern World (Lefebvre 1971) — the festival and the 'moments' as Lefebvre's rival account of emergence from the everyday.
• source-notes/hadjiyanni-2018-interiors-as-global-constructs

Open Questions

• Is homogenization compatible with the multiplicity of contemporary attention (fragmented absorption into many homogeneous media — screens, feeds)? Heller's criterion assumes one sphere at a time.
• Can architecture, as a professional discipline, be described as a homogeneous sphere of objectivation in Heller's sense — and is design practice homogenization or 'transitional' work?
• If moral homogenization is always momentary, how does Heller distinguish genuine catharsis from the mere 'disorderly repentance' she describes (p. 88)?