No Coffee

Abstract

A short history of coffee, and of civil society. What is it about coffee – and coffeehouses – that makes it so agreeable to the bourgeoisie? asks Jakob Norberg in a brief social history of the dark, rich brew. For Jürgen Habermas, the coffeehouse is a place where bourgeois individuals can enter into relationships with one another without the restrictions of family, civil society, or the state. It is the site of a sort of universal community, integrated neither by power nor economic interests, but by conviviality and common sense. For Carl Schmitt, coffee is a symbol of Gemütlichkeit, or the specious bourgeois desire to enjoy undisturbed security. And for Alexander Kluge, drinking coffee provides the opportunity for people to talk to each other beyond the constraints of purpose-governed exchanges, to enter into "human relationships". But who should be invited to participate in such relationships? With whom can we chat over a cup of coffee?