Modern or old world?
In his latest book, Vanni Codeluppi tackles the subject of the present day in ten ‘steps’
Our world is moving faster than ever before. Screens and social media are blurring the line between reality and the digital world. Perhaps it’s too much modernity. However, it must be understood in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Is it truly a new world, or just an intensification of the previous one? How can we interpret this seemingly unstoppable flow? These are important questions for everyone, and finding the answers is anything but easy. Vanni Codeluppi attempts to address them in ‘Megamodernità. Capire la società’ (Megamodernity. Understanding society).
The book’s 150 pages begin with an observation of the many labels with which our present is characterised. However, these labels can never fully encapsulate the complexity of the world in which people, institutions and companies exist. What is evident to all, however, is that we live in an ‘over-excited society’, in which digital media produce an accelerated succession of informational ‘shocks’ that spill over into a social structure composed of increasingly vulnerable individuals, as the author explains.
Rather than providing more labels, Codeluppi tries to offer a set of tools to help us better understand and experience what is happening, set out in ten key concepts: from ‘aesthetic capitalism’ and ‘hyper-consumerism’ to ‘hyperdivism’, ‘body-flux’ and ‘bio-capitalism’.
In this way, the reader is guided along a path that makes them wonder whether they are living in a completely new world or simply one that is ‘more intense’ in terms of the content and speed of dissemination.
Codeluppi’s book does not claim to provide absolute interpretations of reality; it merely aims to help us understand and be more aware of what is happening. And it is a worthwhile read.
Megamodernità. Capire la società
Vanni Codeluppi
Laterza, 2026
In his latest book, Vanni Codeluppi tackles the subject of the present day in ten ‘steps’
Our world is moving faster than ever before. Screens and social media are blurring the line between reality and the digital world. Perhaps it’s too much modernity. However, it must be understood in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Is it truly a new world, or just an intensification of the previous one? How can we interpret this seemingly unstoppable flow? These are important questions for everyone, and finding the answers is anything but easy. Vanni Codeluppi attempts to address them in ‘Megamodernità. Capire la società’ (Megamodernity. Understanding society).
The book’s 150 pages begin with an observation of the many labels with which our present is characterised. However, these labels can never fully encapsulate the complexity of the world in which people, institutions and companies exist. What is evident to all, however, is that we live in an ‘over-excited society’, in which digital media produce an accelerated succession of informational ‘shocks’ that spill over into a social structure composed of increasingly vulnerable individuals, as the author explains.
Rather than providing more labels, Codeluppi tries to offer a set of tools to help us better understand and experience what is happening, set out in ten key concepts: from ‘aesthetic capitalism’ and ‘hyper-consumerism’ to ‘hyperdivism’, ‘body-flux’ and ‘bio-capitalism’.
In this way, the reader is guided along a path that makes them wonder whether they are living in a completely new world or simply one that is ‘more intense’ in terms of the content and speed of dissemination.
Codeluppi’s book does not claim to provide absolute interpretations of reality; it merely aims to help us understand and be more aware of what is happening. And it is a worthwhile read.
Megamodernità. Capire la società
Vanni Codeluppi
Laterza, 2026