Modern Enchantment: A Structural Theory

Dmitry Kurakin, University of Virginia

Contemporary sociology often assumes that enchantment belongs to the premodern world, surviving in modernity only as residue, illusion, or revival. This paper challenges that assumption by developing a structural theory of modern enchantment, arguing that modernity generates its own distinctive forms of enchantment rooted in modern culture and social organization rather than survivals from an earlier epoch. Revisiting classical diagnoses of disenchantment, I derive a structural definition of enchantment as the generation of affective intensity from foundational principles of social life. I then offer a reinterpretation of Durkheim’s theory of the sacred better suited to modern conditions, foregrounding the ambivalent nature of the sacred—its pure and impure poles—as a core mechanism through which such intensity is produced. I illustrate how this mechanism operates across three strategic domains of modern enchantment: mystery, escape, and hope. These domains show that modern enchantments are structurally decentralized, embedded across differentiated social and institutional spheres, and central to understanding motivation, cultural practices, and social life today.

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 Presented in Session 82. Global Modernities and Alternative Epistemologies