This article is based on one of the chapters of the book Making the Cut: How Cosmetic Surgery is Transforming our Lives written by Anthony Elliott© (Reaktion Books, 2008). Translation becomes very interesting for Spanish speakers who try to understand the aesthetic surgery phenomenon in contemporary societies, from a wider perspective. Communication media have undoubtedly performed an important role when promoting, legitimating, and establish surgical cosmetic interventions as an ordinary social practice by means of which triumph can be assured nowadays. However, exploration and analysis made by Elliott appropriately combines special features of the advanced globalization, logics of the new economy, high technology development, and prevailing desire for immediate reinvention. In this way, Elliott displays an overview over which the so called aesthetic surgery culture moves. Through a narration, the author involves his experience as a sociology researcher with journalistic, scientific, and statistical reports, and he constructs a clear, accurate, and pleasant text for both new and expert readers. Translation has been authorized by Reaktion Books and is registered as one of the products of a research entitled Cuerpo Narrado (Narrated Body). I have developed it with the support of Universidad de Medellin School of Communication and its Communication Research Center (CIC, for its initials in Spanish). The research belongs to the Audiovisual Narrative research line (from the Communication, Organization, and Politics group-Colciencias category A1) and the body as a narrative category on "Cambio Extremo" (Extreme Change) reality show has been studies. Elliott's text is then very important since it provides key elements which allow clarifying essential aspects of the aesthetic surgery culture as a media, economic, and social phenomenon.

Este artículo responde a la reciente controversia en torno al concepto de estética cotidiana, intentando plantear una sucinta definición dirigida a esclarecer el objeto de estudio. A fin de posibilitar su uso y accesibilidad, el artículo acude intencionalmente a la brevedad.

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A diferencia de Melchionne (2013) y Naukkarinen (2013), abogo por una definición expansiva de la estética cotidiana que, además de las experiencias más comunes y cotidianas, incluya los festivales, el turismo y un sinnúmero de actividades llevadas a cabo diariamente por artistas y profesionales de diversas áreas. Establezco continuidades entre las estéticas de la vida diaria, del arte y de la naturaleza. Por ejemplo, el acto de mirar a través de una ventana puede involucrar aspectos de las tres estéticas. Aunque coincido con Melchionne (2013) en que la estética cotidiana está muy ligada a las preguntas por la búsqueda del bienestar subjetivo, asumo una aproximación más expansiva basada en estudios sicológicos recientes sobre la experiencia del asombro; ello con el fin de enfatizar la importancia de esa experiencia en tal búsqueda, vinculando así, los aspectos más sobresalientes de la estética cotidiana, la estética del arte y la estética de la naturaleza.

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