The Mysterious Stranger and Modern Enchantment
1Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
The British Journal of Sociology
|July 29, 2026
Summary
Modern enchantment arises not from the past, but from mystery within everyday urban life. This mystery, found in social interactions and architecture, creates depth and meaning in modern experiences.
Area of Science:
- Sociology
- Cultural Studies
- Urban Studies
Background:
- Traditional sociological theories of modernity focus on rationalization and alienation.
- These theories often overlook or marginalize the concept of enchantment in modern life.
- Existing frameworks struggle to integrate enchantment within social and cultural contexts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a new framework for understanding enchantment in modernity.
- To identify mystery as a core cultural structure generating modern enchantment.
- To analyze how everyday urban experiences contribute to enchantment.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical analysis of sociological and cultural concepts.
- Examination of mystery as a constitutive element of social interaction.
- Case studies drawing on literary and artistic representations of urban life (e.g., Baudelaire, Hopper).
- Analysis of architectural elements (windows, glass façades) and mobility (trains) in shaping modern sensibility.
Main Results:
- Mystery transforms mundane lack of information into transcendent significance.
- Enchantment is decentralized, not confined to religious or traditional centers.
- Urban elements like transparency and mobility structure encounters with the unknown.
- Literary and artistic works reveal mystery as an endogenous feature of modern urban experience.
Conclusions:
- Mystery is an endogenous and durable feature of modern urban experience, not a residual pre-modern trace.
- Enchantment in modernity is generated through ordinary cultural experiences and social interactions.
- This approach offers a new lens for understanding the affective and imaginative dimensions of modern life.
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