Conclusion

Abstract

This volume proposed that Walter Benjamin’s work is key to understanding the relationship between aesthetics and change today. While Benjamin’s interpretation of this relationship relied mainly on empirical and theoretical observations emblematic of the 19^th century, this volume has sought to update his observations from the perspective of the 21^st century. Reading Benjamin’s work as a methodological model of perception/observation, and embedding of theory in the material, several of the chapters have sought to test the extent to which Benjamin’s model still applies today. Perhaps not surprisingly, for a group of Benjamin scholars, the answer has been overwhelmingly positive, suggesting a series of potential alternative sites of examination — such as practices of industrial regeneration, online flânerie, digital photography, marketing and financialization — as well as new readings of classical Benjaminian sites such as urbanization, architecture and fashion.