ABSTRACT
In Spheres, Sloterdijk argues that humans are essentially sphere-producing and sphere-dependent beings (Sloterdijk, 1998, 1999, 2004). Spheres are forms of immunisation or protection against the threatening and initially quite harmful outside world (Sloterdijk, 1998, p. 28).1,2 When relating Sloterdijk’s notion of immunisation to the historical description of immunity above, it appears that Sloterdijk’s idea of immunisation cuts across all the various dimensions of the concept of immunity by grounding it in a more fundamental and overarching ‘spatio-cultural’ understanding of immunisation (Sloterdijk, 1998, p. 66).For Sloterdijk, culture as such revolves around a process of immunisation (Sloterdijk, 1998; 2001, p. 346).3,4 Spheres are spatial environments that function as protective immune systems. They defend us from looming threats coming from outside and create an ambiance, a place that humans can inhabit and which allows them to live their lives in the immensity of the world.
