This book draws upon the work of Georg Simmel to explore the limits tensions and dynamism of
social life through a close analysis of the works produced in the final years of his life and
reveals what they might still offer some 100 years later. Focusing on the relationships between
worlds lives and fragments in these works David Beer opens up a conceptual toolkit for
understanding life as both an individual experience and as a deeply social phenomenon. Taking
the reader through artistic and musical forms of inspiration to the problems of culture and on
to the conceptual understanding of lived experience the book illuminates the richness of
Simmel¿s ideas and thinking. This sophisticated dialogue with Simmel¿s lesser known later works
will provide fresh insights for students and scholars of cultural and social theory and pave
the way for a reinvigorated engagement with his ideas.
