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by Stefan Kalt
It is a commonplace that, in the
West, we have moved from a manufacturing/production economy to a
service/consumption economy. In The Age of Access
(2000), Jeremy Rifkin goes further, arguing that the entertainment
services – or what German sociologists  Theodore Adorno and Max
Horkheimer oxymoronically dubbed the “culture industry” – increasingly
take center stage, and have begun to define the trajectory of the
service economy. The culture industry encompasses movies, television,
music, theme parks, and tourism. These are the fastest-growing
businesses in the United States, and Rifkin notes they give us what we
want most of all: “experiences.” Although Hollywood and the recording
industry still constitute the largest sector of the “experience
economy,” the theme park business and the tourist business operate at
its forefront. Here, Rifkin argues that the consumer’s own lived
experience – in a sense, his altered consciousness – becomes the core
commodity. The culture industry neatly packages experiences of the
culturally authentic, the phantasmagoric, and the far-and-away. Of
course, there is no real adventure, because that would require danger
and risk. Rather, all is simulated (in the case of theme parks) or
domesticated (in the case of tourism) to provide a safe spectacle. As a
result, the historical assets of traditional indigenous peoples are
reduced to props, stage settings, and backdrops.
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On the September 12, 2005, the Industry and Research Committee of the
European Parliament started its discussion of the Seventh Framework
Program (FP7) on Research and Development (2007-2013) with a hearing on
the planned European Research Council.
Brigitte Servatius is Professor of
Mathematical Sciences at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in
Massachusetts, where she has been for almost 20 years now. Looking all
the way back to her very first contact with mathematics in school, it
becomes clear that she overcame many obstacles before she got to the
point where she is now. But Ms. Servatius seems to see obstacles as
more of a challenge than a problem.