The Sociology Book

SOCIAL INEQUALITIES 99 The automobile industry has a long higher paid employment, for Sylvia Walby history of using women as sex objects instance), while British Muslim to sell cars (despite the deeply tenuous women are more likely to Professor Sylvia Walby is link to the product), positioning them experience higher levels of private a British sociologist whose as a focus of male fantasy and desire. patriarchy (affecting their abilities work in the fields of domestic to leave the house or choose their violence, patriarchy, gender increased exploitation of women preferred form of dress). relations, and globalization in prostitution, the sex industry, has found wide acceptance and human trafficking. Since writing Theorizing and acclaim. She graduated in Patriarchy, Walby has noted that sociology from the University The last of Walby’s six while conventional “wisdom” of Essex, UK, in 1984, and structures is culture; specifically, a sees the family as still central to went on to gain further society’s cultural institutions. She women’s lives, it has become less degrees from the universities claims that patriarchy permeates important. However, this has of Essex and Reading. key social institutions and agents resulted, she suggests, in women of socialization in society, including working more, shifting them from In 1992, Walby became education, religion, and the the realms of private patriarchy into the founding President of media, all of which “create the greater levels of public patriarchy. the European Sociological representation of women within Women in the West are now Association, and in 2008 she a patriarchal gaze.” The world’s exploited less by “individual took up the first UNESCO religions, for example, continue patriarchs,” such as their fathers Chair in Gender Research, to to exclude women from the top and husbands, and more by men guide its research into gender positions and seem determined to collectively, via work, the state, equality and women’s human restrict them to the “caring” rather and cultural institutions. rights. In the same year than executive level—this, they she was awarded an OBE for say, is more “natural” for them. Central to Walby’s examination services to equal opportunities Women are thereby defined from of patriarchy is her insistence and diversity. Walby has a patriarchal viewpoint and kept that we see patriarchy neither as taught at many leading firmly “in their place.” purely structural (which would lock institutions, including the women into subordinate positions London School of Economics A shift to public patriarchy within cultural institutions) nor (LSE) and Harvard University. The notions of private and public as pure agency (the actions of patriarchy are important for Walby individual men and women). She Key works in distinguishing other ways in says that if we see patriarchy as which power structures intersect fundamentally about structure, 1986 Patriarchy at Work to affect women. She points out, we are in danger of seeing women 1990 Theorizing Patriarchy for example, that British women as passive victims. On the other 2011 The Future of Feminism of Afro-Caribbean origin are hand, if we see women as locked more likely to experience public into patriarchy through their own, When patriarchy patriarchy (finding it hard to gain voluntary actions, we may see loosens its grip in one them “as colluding with their area it only tightens it patriarchal oppressors.” in other arenas. In Theorizing Patriarchy, Walby Sylvia Walby gives an account of patriarchy that explains both changes in structure (such as changes in the capitalist economy) and of agency (the campaigns of the three waves of feminism). She says major shifts must be made both within women themselves and by the society and cultures that surround them if we are to make meaningful progress. ■

MODERN

LIVING

102 INTRODUCTION In Gemeinschaft und In The Metropolis and Georg Simmel Jane Jacobs appeals Gesellschaft, Ferdinand Mental Life, Georg Simmel publishes his essay for “eyes on the “The Stranger” street” to protect Tönnies laments the examines the negative change in values from effects of increased in Sociology: urban communities community to mere Investigations on the from city planners in urbanization on Forms of Sociation. The Death and Life of association in social interaction Great American Cities. modern society. and relationships. 1887 1903 1908 1961 1893 1904–05 1920S Émile Durkheim explains Max Weber, in The Robert E. Park and other in The Division of Labor Protestant Ethic and members of the so-called in Society the solidarity the Spirit of Capitalism, “Chicago School” of that comes with the warns of the sociology focus on interdependence of people dehumanizing effects with specialized functions. urban life and of rationalization. social structures. A s prehistory’s primitive sociologists from Adam Ferguson effects upon the individual of living human groups began to Ferdinand Tönnies recognized in large groups, often separated to settle down in one place, that there was a major difference from traditional community ties the foundations of civilization were between traditional rural and family. Building upon his work, laid. From these early beginnings, communities and modern urban the so-called Chicago School of humans increasingly lived together ones. This alteration of social order sociology, spearheaded by Robert E. in larger and larger groups, and was ascribed to a variety of factors Park, helped to establish a distinct civilization grew further with the by an assortment of thinkers: to field of urban sociology. Soon, establishment of villages, towns, capitalism by Karl Marx; to the however, sociologists changed the and cities. But for the greater part division of labor in industry by emphasis of their research from of human history, most people lived Émile Durkheim; to rationalization what it is like to live in a city, to in rural communities. Large-scale and secularization by Max Weber. what kind of city we want to live in. urbanization came about only with It was Georg Simmel who the Industrial Revolution, which was suggested that urbanization itself Having evolved to meet the accompanied by a huge expansion had affected the ways in which needs of industrialization, the of towns and cities, and massive people interact socially—and one of city—and urban life, with all its numbers of people migrating to the fundamental characteristics of benefits and disadvantages—was work in the factories and mills modern living is life in the city. felt by many sociologists to have that were located there. been imposed on people. The Community in the city Marxist sociologist Henri Lefebvre Living in an urban environment Simmel examined not only the new believed that the demands of became as much an aspect of forms of social order that had arisen capitalism had shaped modern “modernity” as industrialization in the modern cities, but also the urban society, but that ordinary and the growth of capitalism, and people could take control of their

MODERN LIVING 103 Niklas Luhmann Amitai Etzioni Robert D. Putnam In the spirit of Ritzer’s develops his social advocates a restoration explores social capital “McDonaldization” of civic values to foster and community spirit thesis, Alan Bryman systems theory. social cohesion in The argues that modern in “Bowling Alone: consumer society is Spirit of Community: America’s Declining The Reinvention of Social Capital” in the becoming increasingly American Society. Journal of Democracy. “Disneyized.” 1970S 1993 1995 2004 1968 1982 1993 1996 In Right to the City, In Loft Living: George Ritzer likens the New Communitarian French Marxist Henri Culture and Capital changes in society to the Thinking by Amitai Lefebvre argues that in Urban Change, Etzioni advocates a people have the right to Sharon Zukin looks at rationalization and control and transform life in regenerated, efficiency of a chain of social philosophy post-industrial cities. fast-food restaurants in The that will reinvigorate their social space. McDonaldization of Society. collective values. urban environment, what he called Not everyone agreed, however, industrial buildings became their “social space.” Similarly (but that the answer to the social desirable postmodern living from a different political standpoint), problems of urban life was a return spaces, the concept of modern Jane Jacobs advocated that people to traditional community values. metropolitan life became should resist the plans of urban Niklas Luhmann pointed out associated with prosperity rather developers and create environments that the problem today is one than gritty industrialization. that encouraged the formation of of communication between communities within the city. social systems that have become This manifested itself not only increasingly fragmented and in the transformation of urban In the late 20th century, several differentiated. In the post-industrial living spaces, as described by sociologists took up this idea age, with all its new methods of Sharon Zukin in the 1980s, but of the loss of community in communication, new strategies for throughout the postmodern social our increasingly individualized social cohesion need to be found. order. George Ritzer likened the Western society. A communitarian efficiency and rationalization of the movement emerged, led by Post-industrial cities service industries to the business US sociologist Amitai Etzioni, The nature of cities began to model pioneered by fast-food chain suggesting new ways to restore change in the late 20th century, McDonalds, and Alan Bryman has community spirit in what had as the manufacturing industries noted how a US entertainment become an impersonal society. moved out or disappeared. While culture created by Disney has Robert D. Putnam also gave some cities became ghost towns, influenced modern consumerism. prominence to the idea of others became centers of the Modern urban society, having been community in his explanation service industries. As working- created by industrialization, is now of “social capital,” and the value class areas were gentrified, and being shaped by the new demands and benefits of social interaction. of post-industrial commerce. ■

104 STRANGERS ARE NOT REALLY CONCEIVED AS INDIVIDUALS BUT AS STRANGERS OF A PARTICULAR TYPE GEORG SIMMEL (1858–1918) IN CONTEXT T he Industrial Revolution people and their work, which meant was accompanied in new restrictions and curtailments FOCUS Europe and the US by of individual liberty. Mental life of the urbanization from the 19th century metropolis onward. For many people, this German sociologist Georg resulted in increased freedom as Simmel wanted to understand the KEY DATES they experienced liberation from struggle faced by the city dweller 19th century Urbanization the constraints of traditional social in preserving autonomy and begins taking place on a large structures. But in tandem with individuality in the face of these scale in Europe and the US. these developments came growing overwhelming social forces. He demands from capitalist employers discovered that the increase From 1830 Nascent sociology for the functional specialization of in human interaction that was claims to offer the means to brought about by living and understand the changes brought about in society by Urbanization changed People were poorly equipped the Industrial Revolution. the form of social to deal with the strangers 1850–1900 Key social interaction that had they encountered in thinkers such as Ferdinand existed in rural society. the metropolis. Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, and Karl Marx express Strangers are not These strangers took many concerns about the effect really conceived as forms—from “the trader” to of modernization and individuals but as industrialization on society. “the poor”—and all were strangers of a defined by their social From the 1920s Simmel’s particular type. relations with others. work on the impact of urban life influences the development of urban sociology in the US by a group of sociologists, known collectively as the Chicago School.

MODERN LIVING 105 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■ Erving Goffman 264–69 ■ Michel Foucault 270–77 working in an urban environment Through this anonymity... of living in a metropolis, and ideas profoundly affected relationships each party acquires an about social space influenced one between people. He set out his of his best-known concepts: the findings in The Metropolis and unmerciful matter-of-factness. social role of “the stranger,” which Mental Life. Whereas in pre-modern Georg Simmel is set out in an essay in Sociology. society people would be intimately In the past, he says, strangers familiar with those around them, Simmel says that the attitude of were encountered only rarely and in the modern urban environment the metropolitan can be understood fleetingly; but urbanite strangers are individuals are largely unknown to as a social-survival technique to not drifters—they are “potential those who surround them. Simmel cope with the mental disturbance wanderers.” Simmel says that the believed that the increase in social created by immersion in city life— stranger (such as a trader), or the activity and anonymity brought an approach that enables people to stranger group (his example is about a change in consciousness. focus their energies on those who “European Jews”), is connected to matter to them. It also results in the community spatially but not The rapid tempo of life in a city them becoming more tolerant of socially; he or she is characterized by was such that people needed a difference and more sophisticated. both “nearness and remoteness”—in “protective organ” to insulate them the community but not of it. from the external and internal Space in the metropolis stimuli. According to Simmel, the Degrees of proximity and distance The stranger was one of many metropolitan “reacts with his head among individuals and groups were social types described by Simmel, instead of his heart”; he erects central to Simmel’s understanding each becoming what they are a rational barrier of cultivated through their relations with others; indifference—a “blasé attitude.” an idea that has influenced many The change in consciousness also sociologists, including Zygmunt leads to people becoming reserved Bauman. Erving Goffman’s concept and aloof. This estrangement from of “civil inattention,” whereby traditional and accepted norms of people minimize social interaction behavior is further undermined in public—by avoiding eye contact, by the money culture of cities, for instance—is also informed which reduces everything in the by one of Simmel’s insights: his metropolis to a financial exchange. notion of the “blasé attitude.” ■ Georg Simmel Born in Berlin in 1858 to a phenomena by concentrating prosperous Jewish family, Georg not on the content of Simmel is one of the lesser-known interactions but on the forms founders of sociology. He studied that underlie behavior. But it philosophy and history at the is his study of life in a metropolis University of Berlin and received that remains his most influential his doctorate in 1881. Despite the work, as it was the precursor popularity of his work with the to the development of urban German intellectual elite, notably sociology by the so-called Ferdinand Tönnies and Max Chicago School in the 1920s. Weber, he remained an outsider and only gained his professorship Key works at Strasbourg in 1914. 1900 The Philosophy of Money He developed what is known 1903 The Metropolis and as formal sociology, which derives Mental Life from his belief that we can 1908 Sociology understand distinct human

106 THE FREEDOM TO REMAKE OUR CITIES AND OURSELVES HENRI LEFEBVRE (1901–1991) IN CONTEXT Cities should be places But modern cities that encourage freedom are shaped to reflect the FOCUS interests of powerful The right to the city of expression, play, and creativity. corporations and KEY DATES capitalism. 19th century Extensive urbanization takes place Cities must be The poor, across Europe and the US. rebuilt in the interests the working class, and other marginalized 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich of the oppressed. groups are denied a say Engels offer a critique of class in how cities are built inequalities in Western and social space capitalist society in The Communist Manifesto. is utilized. 1903 German sociologist Reclaiming the “right to the Georg Simmel publishes The city” gives us the freedom to remake Metropolis and Mental Life. our cities and ourselves. From the 1980s According to British sociologist David T he city need not be seen exciting and complex combination Harvey and Spanish theorist as a concrete jungle— of power relationships, diverse Manuel Castells, cities serve grimy, unpleasant, and identities, and ways of being. the interests of capitalism and threatening. For French sociologist this affects the interaction of and philosopher Henri Lefebvre, Writing in the 1960s and 1970s, those who live there. who dedicated most of his life to Lefebvre maintained that one of the the study of urban society, it is an most fascinating aspects of the city From the 1990s Lefebvre’s is not simply the people in it, but concept of “right to the city” influences social movements across the world, including in the US, France, Brazil, and the Philippines.

MODERN LIVING 107 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Peter Townsend 74 ■ Elijah Anderson 82–83 ■ Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ Jane Jacobs 108–09 ■ Amitai Etizoni 112–19 ■ Sharon Zukin 128–31 ■ Saskia Sassen 164–65 Vast, impersonal malls serve the interests of consumer capitalism. The construction of such spaces often leads to the displacement of the area’s original, working-class residents. the fact that it is an environment Considerable power is wielded by Lefebvre’s vision is of cities that that both reflects and creates those who own and control urban pulse with life and are vibrant society. Applying a Marxist spaces—architects, planners, expressions of human freedom and perspective to his analysis, “the merchant bourgeoisie, the creativity, where people can play, Lefebvre also says that urban intellectuals, and politicians,” explore their creative and artistic spaces are shaped by the state according to Lefebvre. But he needs, and achieve some form of and serve the interests of powerful believes that decisions about self-realization. City streets should, corporations and capitalism. Parts the exact nature of the urban he says, be designed to encourage of the city mirror the class relations environment—what takes place this type of existence—they may contained within it: the opulence in it, how social space is built be raw, exciting, and untamed but of some areas reveals the power and used—should be open to all. precisely because of this they will and wealth of elites, while run- Ordinary people should participate remind people that they are alive. down inner-city areas and ghettos in creating a space that reflects outside the center indicate the their needs and interests—only by Lefebvre’s demand for the right to displacement and marginalization claiming this “right to the city” can the city is not simply a call for a of the poor, the working class, and major social issues be addressed. series of reforms but for a wholesale other excluded groups. transformation of social relations Henri Lefebvre within the city, if not wider society— Public and private it is, in essence, a proposal for a Many modern cities, for example, Marxist sociologist and radical form of democracy, whereby have become dominated by private philosopher Henri Lefebvre was control is wrested from elites and spaces, such as shopping malls born in Hagetmau, France, in turned over to the masses. This, he and office complexes, built in the 1901. He studied philosophy at says, is only achievable by groups service of capitalism. The loss of the Sorbonne, Paris, graduating and class factions “capable of public space has severely restricted in 1920. He joined the French revolutionary initiative.” ■ the arenas in which people can Communist Party in 1928 meet on an equal footing with and became one of the most before moving to Nanterre in others, so eroding their personal prominent Marxist intellectuals 1965. Lefebvre was a prolific freedoms and stifling their means in France. He was, however, writer on a wide range of to satisfy their social and later expelled by the Communist subjects. His work challenged psychological needs. This can lead Party and became one of its the dominant capitalist to serious social problems, such as fiercest critics. In 1961 he was authorities and as such was not crime, depression, homelessness, appointed professor of sociology always well received, but has social exclusion, and poverty. at the University of Strasbourg, gone on to influence several disciplines, including geography, philosophy, sociology, political science, and architecture. Key works 1968 Right to the City 1970 The Urban Revolution 1974 The Production of Space

108 THERE MUST BE EYES ON THE STREET JANE JACOBS (1916–2006) IN CONTEXT A good city street has J ane Jacobs spent her buildings that face outward... working life advancing a FOCUS distinct vision of the city—in Urban community ...and a mix of business particular focusing on what makes and residential properties. a successful urban community. KEY DATES Her ideas were formed from her 1887 Ferdinand Tönnies’ It needs a steady traffic observations of urban life in the Gemeinschaft und of people on the sidewalks... neighborhood of West Greenwich Gesellschaft stirs sociological Village, New York, where she lived interest in the bonds of ...to increase community for more than 30 years. community in urban society. and security... Jacobs was opposed to the From the 1950s Inner city ...and create activity for large-scale changes to city life that neighborhoods in Western people to watch and enjoy. were occurring in New York during cities experience waves of the 1960s, led by city planner and pressure from city planners. There must be eyes her archrival Howard Moses; these on the street. included slum-clearance projects 2000 US sociologist Robert D. and the building of high-rise Putnam argues in Bowling developments. At the heart of her Alone that community values vision is the idea that urban life have eroded since the 1960s. should be a vibrant and rich affair, whereby people are able to interact 2002 In The Rise of The with one another in dense and Creative Class, US sociologist exciting urban environments. She and economist Richard Florida prefers chaos to order, walking to cites Jacobs as an influence on driving, and diversity to uniformity. his theories of creativity. For Jacobs, urban communities 2013 Increased use of camera are organic entities—complex, surveillance in US cities integrated ecosystems—that after 9/11 results in the should be left to grow and to identification of suspects change by themselves and not wanted for the Boston be subject to the grand plans of Marathon bombings. so-called experts and technocrats. The best judges of how a city should be—and how it should

MODERN LIVING 109 See also: Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ Henri Lefebvre 106–07 ■ Robert D. Putnam 124–25 ■ Sharon Zukin 128–31 ■ Saskia Sassen 164–65 Jane Jacobs’ vision of what a city street should be like is exemplified by this New York scene of vibrant urban life, with residential apartments, street- level businesses, and sidewalk bustle. evolve—are the local residents Diversity and mixed-use of space Finally, urban communities flourish themselves. Jacobs argues that are also, for Jacobs, key elements better in places where a critical urban communities are best of this urban form. The commercial, mass of people live, work, and placed to understand how their business, and residential elements interact. Such high-density— city functions, because city life of a city should not be separated but not overcrowded—spaces are, is created and sustained through out but instead be side by side, she feels, engines of creativity and their various interactions. to allow for greater integration vibrancy. They are also safe places of people. There should also be a to be, because the higher density Ballet of the sidewalk diversity of old and new buildings, means that there are more “eyes on Jacobs notes that the built form and people’s interactions should the street”: shopkeepers and locals of a city is crucial to the life of determine how buildings get who know their area and provide an urban community. Of prime used and reused. a natural form of surveillance. ■ importance are the sidewalks. The streets in which people live should be a tight pattern of intersecting sidewalks, which allow people to meet, bump into each other, converse, and get to know one another. She calls this the “ballet of the sidewalk,” a complex but ultimately enriching set of encounters that help individuals become acquainted with their neighbors and neighborhood. Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs was a passionate her life she was an activist and writer and urbanist. She left campaigner for her community- Scranton, Pennsylvania for New based vision of the city. York in 1935, during the Great Depression. After seeing the In 2007 the Rockefeller Greenwich Village area for the Foundation created the Jane first time, she relocated there from Jacobs Medal in her honor Brooklyn—her interest in urban to celebrate urban visionaries communities had begun. In 1944 whose actions in New York City she married, and moved into affirm her principles. a house on Hudson Street. Key works It was when Jacobs was working as a writer for the 1961 The Death and Life magazine Architectural Forum of Great American Cities that she first began to be 1969 The Economy of Cities critical of large top-down urban 1984 Cities and the Wealth regeneration schemes. Throughout of Nations

110 ONLY COMMUNICATION CAN COMMUNICATE NIKLAS LUHMANN (1927–1998) IN CONTEXT Modern society has These systems give distinct social systems meaning to the world, FOCUS Systems of communication (the economy, the law, yet they consist not of education, politics, people but of KEY DATES and so on). 1937 US sociologist communications. Talcott Parsons discusses systems theory in The Structural couplings Each system processes Structure of Social Action. enable restricted activities and problems communications in its own distinctive way, 1953 Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s between the different so cannot connect concept of language games is communication systems. to other systems published posthumously and without assistance. influences Luhmann’s ideas on communication. M odernity’s defining system that encompasses all the feature, according to other systems: society is, he says, 1969 Laws of Form by British German sociologist the system of systems. mathematician George Niklas Luhmann, is advanced Spencer-Brown underpins capitalist society’s differentiation Individuals, Luhmann insists, Luhmann’s ideas about into separate social systems— are socially meaningless. Society’s structural differentiation. the economic, educational, base element is not the human scientific, legal, political, religious, actor but “communication”—a term 1987 German sociologist and so on. Luhmann argues that that he defines as the “synthesis Jürgen Habermas engages the term “society” refers to the of information, utterance, and Luhmann in critical debate understanding” arising out of the about systems theory. 2009 Luhmann’s ideas are applied by Greek scholar Andreas Mihalopoulos in his analysis of the criminal justice and legal systems.

MODERN LIVING 111 See also: Max Weber 38–45 ■ Jürgen Habermas 286–87 ■ Talcott Parsons 300–01 ■ Herbert Spencer 334 ■ Alfred Schütz 335 activities and interactions, verbal events—the activities and ways of Artists protest at BP’s sponsorship and nonverbal, within a system. communicating—peculiar to itself; of London’s Tate Britain art gallery, Luhmann argues that just as it is relatively indifferent to what reflecting the protesters belief that the a plant reproduces its own cells takes place in the other systems system of corporate enterprise is not in a circular, biological process (and the wider society). So, for compatible with that of the art world. of self-production, so a social example, the economic system is system is similarly self-sustaining functionally dedicated to its own “Structural coupling” is a concept and develops out of an operation interests and is uninterested in that helps to account for the that possesses connectivity— moral issues, except where these relationship between people (as emerging when “communication might have an impact on the conscious systems) and social develops from communication.” profitability of economic activities systems (as communications). He likens communication to the and transactions—whereas moral structural equivalent of a chemical. concerns are of great consequence Despite its extreme complexity, in, say, the religious system. Luhmann’s theory is used Structural couplings worldwide as an analytical tool Luhmann uses George Spencer- Luhmann identifies this lack for social systems. His critics say Brown’s ideas on the mathematical of systems integration as one that the theory passes academic laws of form to help define a of the major problems confronting scrutiny, but operationally it fails to system, arguing that something advanced capitalist societies. He show how communication can take arises out of difference: a system identifies what he calls “structural place without human activity. ■ is, according to this theory, a couplings”—certain forms and “distinction” from its environment. institutions that help to connect And, says Luhmann, a system’s separated systems by translating environment is constituted by the communications produced by other systems. For example, the one system into terms that the environment of a family system other can understand. Examples includes other families, the political include a constitution, which system, the medical system, and couples the legal and political so on. Crucially, each individual systems, and a university, which system can only make sense of the couples the educational and, among others, economic systems. Humans cannot Niklas Luhmann Bielefeld, where he remained. communicate; not Luhmann was the recipient of even their brains Niklas Luhmann studied law several honorary degrees, and can communicate; at the University of Freiburg, in 1988 he was the winner of not even their conscious Germany, from 1946 to 1949, the prestigious Hegel Prize, minds can communicate. before becoming a civil servant awarded to prominent thinkers Niklas Luhmann in 1956. He spent 1960 to by the city of Stuttgart. He 1961 on sabbatical at Harvard was a prolific writer, with some University, studying sociology 377 publications to his name. and administrative science, where he was taught Key works by Talcott Parsons. 1972 A Sociological Theory In 1966 Luhmann received of Law his doctorate in sociology from 1984 Social Systems the University of Münster and 1997 Theory of Society in 1968 he became professor of (two volumes) sociology at the University of

SOCIETY SHOULD ARTICULATE WHAT IS GOOD AMITAI ETZIONI (1929– )



114 AMITAI ETZIONI F rom the end of World War A responsive community is II to the early 1970s, the one whose moral standards IN CONTEXT US experienced rapid economic growth, which resulted reflect the basic human FOCUS in increasing prosperity and needs of all its members. Communitarianism upward social mobility for the vast majority of its citizens. The Amitai Etzioni KEY DATES social and political landscape of 1887 Gemeinschaft und the country changed too, with the entitlements, to shore up the Gesellschaft (Community and Civil Rights movement, organized moral foundations of society.” Society) by Ferdinand Tönnies opposition to the Vietnam War, The guiding principle of his form of extols the value of community. the sexual revolution, and feminism communitarianism is that society becoming prominent. should articulate what is good, 1947 German thinker Martin through the shared consensus Buber’s Paths to Utopia In 1973, however, the oil crisis of its members and the principles anticipates the modern and stock market crash sent the US embodied in its communities communitarianism movement. economy into sudden decline and— and institutions. according to sociologist Amitai 1993 The Communitarian Etzioni—the basis of traditional Furthermore, for Etzioni, it was Network, a nonpartisan, values on which US culture was not enough for sociologists to think transnational, and nonprofit founded began to crumble. about and contemplate social life; coalition is founded. rather, they should be actively The response to this cultural involved in trying to change society 1999 US scholar and and moral crisis, and to the for the better. By the early 1990s, republican communitarian concurrent rise of the ideology a growing number of US social Stephen Goldsmith joins of individualism and liberal thinkers—including sociologists former president George economic policy—where the free W. Bush’s advisory team market is allowed to operate with for social policy. minimal government intervention— was the emergence of the social 2005 British sociologist Colin philosophy of communitarianism. Gray publishes an article In Etzioni’s words, its aims were to: entitled “Sandcastles of “...restore civic virtues, for people Theory,” arguing that Etzioni’s to live up to their responsibilities work is overly utopian. and not merely focus on their Amitai Etzioni Amitai Etzioni was born in degrees; in 1958 he obtained Germany in 1929 and by the age his PhD in sociology from of seven was living in Palestine the University of California, with his family. In 1946 he left Berkeley. His first post was at education to join the Palmach New York’s Columbia University and fight for the creation of Israel. where he served for 20 years. In Some five years later he was a 1980 he became a professor at student in an institution where George Washington University, the Jewish existential philosopher where he serves as the Martin Buber had worked. Buber’s director of the Institute for focus on the “I and Thou” Communitarian Policy Studies. relationship resonates throughout Etzioni’s approach toward Key works communitarian living. 1993 The Spirit of Community: In 1951 Etzioni enrolled in the The Reinvention of American Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Society where he gained BA and MA

MODERN LIVING 115 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Richard Sennett 84–87 ■ Jane Jacobs 108–09 ■ Robert D. Putnam 124–25 ■ Anthony Giddens 148–9 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25 ■ Robert N. Bellah 336 Etzioni’s communitarianism is founded on various core social values. Strong individual rights Schools should provide Families are the presume strong social essential moral education most invaluable form responsibilities. of community and need to without indoctrinating be remodeled on more young people. egalitarian lines. Society should articulate what is good. Robert D. Putnam, Richard Sennett, second to ties created by rational relations compared to the high and Daniel Bell—self-consciously self-interest, bureaucracies, and levels of solidarity found in sought to extend communitarian formal beliefs. traditional forms of communal ideals from the university campus living—Gemeinschaft. Although into the wider society. Tönnies held that the defining Etzioni developed the communitarian principles of Gesellschaft in modern thinking of Tönnies, he believed Responsibilities and rights society represented a backward that Tönnies overemphasized the ❯❯ The roots of Etzioni’s ideas lie in step in the development of human the work of earlier theorists, such as German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, who had distinguished between two types of social ties, Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (association). The first referred to personal relationships and face-to-face interactions that created communal society; the Life in pre-industrial societies was strongly focused on communal living (as in the European village scene shown here), but Etzioni says this was often at the expense of the individual.

116 AMITAI ETZIONI communal at the expense of the Moral anarchy, not the society has been brought about individual. Tönnies’ contemporary excesses of community, by an excess of individualism Émile Durkheim, on the other and is what makes it necessary, hand, feared that modernity might is the danger we more than ever, for the US to threaten social solidarity; for him, currently face. adopt the moral principles individuals had to be social beings of communitarianism. whose ambitions and needs Amitai Etzioni coincided with the group. What is a community? will provide services, and respect For Etzioni, communities are webs Etzioni says that Gemeinschaft and uphold individual rights—but a of social relations “that encompass communities also have drawbacks: weakened sense of moral obligation shared meanings and above all they can often be oppressive, to the community, both local and else shared values.” The views of authoritarian, and hinder individual national. For example, most young a community cannot be imposed growth and development. His Americans claim that, if charged by an outside group or internal updated form of communitarianism with a crime, it is their inalienable minority, but must be “generated is designed to achieve the optimum right to be judged by their peers, yet by the members of community degree of equilibrium between the only a small minority would be in a dialogue that is open to individual and society, between willing to do jury service. all and fully responsive to the community and autonomy, and membership.” Etzioni’s community between rights and responsibilities. According to Etzioni, this major is inherently democratic, and each decline in “social capital”—the community is nested “within a Etzioni argues that striking a relations founded on the shared more encompassing one.” This balance between individual rights values of reciprocity, trust, and a definition of community is and community responsibilities is sense of obligation—across US applicable to a variety of forms essential, because one cannot exist of social organization, from micro without the other. Moreover, he claims that present-day Americans Chinatowns, found in Western cities, have lost sight of the ways in which exemplify Etzioni’s community living. the fortunes of the individual and Recreating this culture on foreign soil those of the community are bound is made possible by the inhabitants up with one another. Americans upholding shared norms and values. have a strong sense of entitlement— expectations that the community

MODERN LIVING 117 Communities rather than individuals are, says Etzioni, the The first aspect is what Etzioni elemental building blocks of society, and society comprises multiple, calls the “moral voice”—the overlapping communities. People are therefore characteristically name given to the shared set of members of many different intersecting communities. collectively assembled norms and values on which the interpersonal National and moral conduct that binds community members is based. Faith No society can thrive without a solid moral order, especially if Family reliance on state intervention in public matters is to be kept to a Neighborhood Professional minimum. By identifying and Voluntary establishing a moral voice, it is no longer necessary to rely on either Regional individual conscience or law enforcement agencies to regulate formations, such as families and are not bound by an obvious the conduct of community schools, through macro formations, commitment to shared norms members. When communities such as ethnic groups, religions, or and values. value certain behaviors—such nation-states. as avoiding alcohol abuse and not Communities are not always speeding—antisocial behaviors Communities need not be virtuous: some may be harsh and are prevented, and tend to be geographically concentrated: for confining, or they may be founded curbed effectively. example, the Jewish community on shared values that are far in New York is dispersed across from ethical. Etzioni cites the Second is the “communitarian the city but nevertheless maintains example of an Afrikaaner village family.” Bringing a child into this a strong sense of moral solidarity in South Africa whose members world not only obligates the parents through core institutions such supported and colluded in lynching. to the child but the family to the as synagogues and faith-based community too. When children are schools. Etzioni even counts online The communal society raised poorly, the consequences Internet-based communities as Rather than just operating at must usually be faced not just legitimate forms of community, the intellectual level, Etzioni by the family but by the entire ❯❯ provided that members are proposes four aspects of how a committed to, and share, the same communitarian society should be Two-parent families, Etzioni claims, values. Conversely, some classically implemented and organized. He are far better equipped to undertake conceived communities, such as does this by identifying the core the job of rearing children than villages, do not meet Etzoni’s aspects of communitarian society one-parent families, because it is criteria if the aggregate of the and the functions each one plays in a “labor intensive, demanding task.” people comprising the village relation to the wider social whole.

118 AMITAI ETZIONI School leavers should enroll for military service (as at these barracks in Germany in 2011), Etzioni argues, because it instills self-discipline and builds character and community spirit. community. It is for this reason, Etzioni finds that the accumulation sense of self, of purposefulness, according to Etzioni, that the of evidence tends to support the and the ability to control impulses procreation, and bringing up, of important social role of the family, and defer immediate gratification. children should be considered and observes: “It is no accident that In particular, the values of a communitarian act. Etzioni in a wide variety of human discipline, self-discipline, and argues that parents have a moral societies (from the Zulus to the internalization—the integration responsibility to the community to Inuits, from ancient Greece and of the values of others into one’s raise their children to the best of ancient China to modernity), there own sense of self—play a major their ability; and the communities has never been a society that did role in the child’s psychological have an obligation to help them in not have two-parent families.” He development and wellbeing. their efforts. Communities should argues that such a structure, or support and encourage, rather than one that replicates its supportive As part of his emphasis on stigmatize, parents who take a parenting arrangements, is crucial self-discipline, Etzioni argues that respite from work in order to spend to “reducing the parenting deficit” all school leavers should undertake time with their children. brought about by developments a mandatory year of national such as new career patterns, service. Doing so, he claims, would Education, particularly divorce, the growth in single provide “a strong antidote to the character formation, is the parenthood, and increased ego-centered mentality as youth individualism. As part of this, serve shared needs.” essential family task. he says that society needs to limit Amitai Etzioni the institutionalization of young Fourth, and finally, Etzioni children in day care centers. puts forward measures intended to counter the loss of traditional Etzioni’s third principle sets out community while also serving as the functions of the “communitarian the basis on which to build new school.” Schools should do far communities. These include more than transmitting skills and changing what US sociologist knowledge to pupils. They should Robert N. Bellah termed “habits build upon the task of character of the heart.” Etzioni’s measures formation initiated by parents to include fostering a “community help lay the foundations for a stable environment” in which thinking about our individual actions in The imbalance between rights and responsibilities has existed for a long time. Amitai Etzioni

MODERN LIVING 119 terms of their consequences for His vision of a more democratic, Today there is increasing the wider community becomes just, and egalitarian society is interest among youngsters... second nature; working out commended by scholars and in finding careers... [in which] conflicts between individual commentators from a wide range you can combine ‘making it’ career aspirations and goals and of ideological positions. However, with something meaningful. commitments to the community; Etzioni’s work has also drawn redesigning the physical, lived criticism. For example, some Amitai Etzioni environment in order “to render supporters of feminism object it more community-friendly”; and strongly to communitarianism communitarian principles and seeking to reinvest more of our as an attempt to undo women’s values. If, as Etzioni claims, US personal and professional resources economic liberation. They argue culture is self-obsessed and overly back into the community. that a mother with a full-time job individualistic, then he fails to now spends more quality time provide an answer as to why Criticisms with her children than the average anyone would choose to take on Etzioni’s communitarianism is a homemaker did 30 years ago. responsibility to a community response to a range of real concerns Beatrix Campbell has accused the that would make demands of them about the deterioration of private communitarians of a “nostalgic and potentially impinge upon their and public morality and shared crusade,” pointing out that the kind individual rights. values, the decline of the family, of mother they evoke did not exist. high crime rates, and civic and In spite of criticisms, many of political apathy across US society. US sociologist and political the ideas at the heart of Etzioni’s theorist Richard Sennett claims communitarianism have influenced Volunteers play an important part Etzioni’s work fails to address the governments. In his book The Third in thousands of organizations across nature of political and economic Way, British sociologist Anthony North America and Western Europe, power other than in the vaguest Giddens sees Etzioni’s work as including community tree-planting of terms, and does not provide a central to the framework of the projects in many neighborhoods. convincing account of what might political philosophy known as the motivate individuals to commit to Third Way, developed by former British prime minister Tony Blair. Etzioni’s work appealed to the UK’s New Labour government in two distinct ways: first, it provided middle ground between the political Left, with its overemphasis on the role to be played by the State, and the political Right, with its exaggerated support of the free market and championing of the individual; second, it presented the notion of citizenship as something that has to be earned through the fulfillment of shared expectations and obligations. ■

120 IN CONTEXT MCDONALDIZATION FOCUS AFFECTS VIRTUALLY McDonaldization EVERY ASPECT OF SOCIETY KEY DATES 1921–1922 Max Weber’s GEORGE RITZER (1940– ) Economy and Society, which analyzes the relationship between rationality and bureaucracy, is published in Germany. 1961 US entrepreneurs Richard (“Dick”) and Maurice (“Mac”) McDonald sell their pioneering fast-food burger business to Ray Kroc, who develops it worldwide. 1997 The sushi restaurant chain YO! Sushi opens in Britain, self-consciously using the McDonald’s model. 1999 British sociologist Barry Smart edits Resisting McDonaldization, a wide- ranging collection of critical responses to Ritzer’s McDonaldization thesis. G erman sociologist Max Weber argued that a defining feature of the shift from traditional to modern society was the ever-growing number of aspects of life that were organized and enacted along rational, as opposed to emotionally oriented or value-laden, lines. Developing Weber’s ideas, US sociologist George Ritzer claims that the process has reached new levels in both North American and Western European culture, and is now manifested in unprecedented ways. According to Ritzer, author of the 1993 sociological classic The McDonaldization of Society, this “wide-ranging process of

MODERN LIVING 121 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Roland Robertson 146–47 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Harry Braverman 226–31 ■ Karl Mannheim 335 “McDonaldization” The McDonald’s is the boldest realization fast-food restaurant model is characterized by of Weber’s notion of efficiency, calculability, rationalization. predictability, and control. The principles The model has George Ritzer of fast-food provision gained widespread have spread to ever- appeal because of George Ritzer was born in convenience and 1940 in New York City. His wider spheres of father drove a taxi and commercial and affordability. his mother worked as a social activity. secretary. Ritzer claims that his upbringing inspired him McDonaldization to work as hard as he could affects virtually every at his studies in order to distance himself from the aspect of society. often lowly standard of living that characterized his “upper rationalization” is most clearly on rationalization. Ritzer terms this lower-class” childhood. exemplified by the McDonald’s development “McDonaldization,” fast-food restaurant chain. and claims that the tendencies Since 1974, George Ritzer and processes it refers to have has been at the University The McDonald’s way infiltrated, and now dominate, of Maryland, where he Wherever you are in the world, a “more and more sectors of is now Distinguished McDonald’s restaurant never seems American society as well as University Professor. While to be far away. In fact, there are the rest of the world.” He argues the McDonaldization thesis around 35,000 restaurants in more that McDonaldization has five is his best-known and most than 100 countries around the main components: efficiency, influential contribution to globe. And no matter where that calculability, predictability, control, sociological theory, he is happens to be, there is a virtually and “the ultimate irrationality of primarily a critic of so-called flawless level of uniformity and formal rationality.” consumer society and has reliability. This familiarity of published prolifically across experience is a definitive feature Efficiency refers to the a wide range of areas. of McDonald’s restaurants all bureaucratic principles employed over the world and it is directly by the corporation as it strives, from Key works attributable to the strong emphasis the level of organizational structure the McDonald’s corporation places down to the interactions between 1993 The McDonaldization employees and customers, to find ❯❯ of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Character of Social Life 1999 Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption 2004 The Globalization of Nothing

122 GEORGE RITZER A McDonald’s next to Xi’an’s historic Drum Tower. McDonald’s opened its first outlet in China in 1990. By 2014, with 2,000 premises, it was China’s second-biggest restaurant chain. the optimum means to an end. For day or night, when customers enter technologies that are more example, food preparation: burgers a restaurant they want to know predictable and easier to control are assembled, cooked, and what to expect—and knowing than people may come to replace distributed in an assembly-line what it is they want, where to find employees entirely. fashion because this is the most the menu, and how to order, they efficient way. Not only is this true will be able to pay, eat, and leave. Finally, Ritzer assesses the in terms of the time taken to costs of this otherwise beneficial prepare food, but also the space Control is closely linked to rationalization. He acknowledges necessary for doing so. Moreover, technology. The machinery used to his debt to Weber in observing the physical layout of a McDonald’s cook the food served in McDonald’s that, paradoxically, rational systems restaurant is designed in such a restaurants dominates both seem to spawn irrationalities way that employees and customers employees and customers. The and unintended consequences. alike behave in an efficient manner. machines dictate cooking times, The ultimate irrationality, Ritzer A culture of efficiency is cultivated and so the pace of work for the emphasizes, is the dehumanizing and maintained by staff adhering employees; and the machines effects that the McDonald’s to a strict series of standardized produce a uniform product so model has on both employees norms, regulations, rules, and customers cannot specify how they and customers. operational procedures. would like their food to be cooked. Ritzer argues that—in time— He notes that McDonald’s Calculability refers to things employees work in mindless, that are counted and quantified; McDonald’s has become production-line style jobs, often in in particular, there is a tendency to more important than the cramped circumstances for little emphasize quantity (the “Big Mac”) pay. There is virtually no scope for over quality. Ritzer notes that many United States itself. innovation and initiative on behalf aspects of the work of employees at George Ritzer of employees, either individually or McDonald’s are timed, because the collectively, resulting in worker fast-paced nature of the restaurant dissatisfaction and alienation, and environment is intended to ensure high staff-turnover rates. maximum productivity. The customers line up to buy Predictability affects the and eat unhealthy food in what food products, restaurant design, Ritzer describes as “dehumanizing and employee and customer settings and circumstances.” interactions. Irrespective of the Moreover, the speed of production geographic setting, or the time of and consumption in McDonald’s restaurants means that, by definition, customers cannot be served high-quality food, which requires more time to prepare. Principles of modernity Ritzer argues that the sociological significance of these five principles of McDonaldization is their extension to an ever-greater number of spheres of social activity. In essence, the dominant cultural template for organizing all manner

MODERN LIVING 123 Within sociology, theory is dehumanizing effects that the Two decades after it first appeared, one of the least likely elements pursuit of rationalization can lead Ritzer’s McDonaldization thesis to be McDonaldized, yet it too to. Echoing Weber’s notion of the remains as pertinent as ever, if has undergone that process, “iron cage,” Ritzer argues that not more so. Ritzer and others although McDonald’s has assumed have continued to work to apply, at least to some extent. iconic status as a highly efficient recalibrate, and update it across George Ritzer and profitable Western corporation, a range of topics, including the the spread of its principles across sociology of higher education. of collective and individual an increasing number of spheres of A collection of essays edited by actions and interactions is now human activity leads to alienation. British social thinkers Dennis shaped by efficiency, calculability, Hayes and Robin Wynyard, predictability, control, and As a transnational corporation, The McDonaldization of Higher rationalization costs. McDonald’s plays a significant role Education, contains a range of as a carrier of Western rationality. arguments that draw upon Ritzer. This is an extension of Weber’s To this end, according to Ritzer, For example, Hayes claims that argument that, once set in motion, McDonaldization is one of the the traditional value-base on which the process of rationalization is key elements of global cultural higher education was founded— self-perpetuating and proliferates homogenization. However, critics from college to postgraduate until it covers virtually every aspect of this position, such as British university-level education— of social life. To remain competitive sociologist John Tomlinson, is rapidly being replaced by in the market, firms must adhere rebut this charge by using the standardization, calculability, and to the principles of rationality and concept of glocalization. Tomlinson so on. Furthermore, argues Hayes, efficiency being used by others. acknowledges that McDonald’s is the McDonaldization of higher Ritzer cites a host of examples to a global brand, but points out that education holds true for students substantiate his claims, including it does make allowances for local as much as it does for academic fast-food chains, such as Subway, contingencies and contexts. An institutions and staff because, and children’s toy stores, such example of this is the adaptation increasingly, the former approach as Toys “R” Us. All of these of products to conform to local education with a rational mindset corporations have self-consciously dietary conventions, such as as a means to an end, rather than adopted McDonald’s principles as including vegetarian burgers as an end in itself. ■ a way of organizing their activities. on menus in India. While Ritzer admires the efficiency and capacity to adapt to change demonstrated by the McDonald’s fast-food chain since its inception in 1940, he is simultaneously wary of the YO! Sushi restaurants in the UK enhance McDonald’s rationalization approach by making the creation and distribution of the food into an urban, Tokyo-style eating experience.

124 THE BONDS OF OUR COMMUNITIES HAVE WITHERED ROBERT D. PUTNAM (1941– ) IN CONTEXT A recurrent theme animating concerns about change were, the early social thinkers was 19th century was also a great era FOCUS the fear that modern of voluntarism, during which Social capital society was eroding traditional people cooperated and established forms of community life, social many of the institutions—such as KEY DATES cohesion, and a shared sense of schools, missions for the poor, and 1916 The term “social capital” solidarity. As valid as those charities—that we know today. is coined by US social reformer L.J. Hanifan, and refers to Social capital grows from a sense of common intangible things that count identity and shared values such as trust, reciprocity, in daily life, such as “good will, fellowship, sympathy, and good will, and fellowship... social intercourse.” ...which help to create the voluntary associations and civic 2000 Finnish sociologist institutions that bind communities together. Martti Siisiäinen critically compares Pierre Bourdieu and But our lifestyles are increasingly individualized Robert D. Putnam’s respective and we have disengaged from public affairs, concepts of social capital. and even friends and neighbors. 2000 The Saguaro Seminar at Harvard University produces The bonds of our communities have withered. “Better Together,” a report led by Putnam and a team of scholars aimed at addressing the “critically low levels” of social capital in the US. 2013 Dutch social thinker Marlene Vock and others use the concept of social capital in “Understanding Willingness to Pay for Social Network Sites.”

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Richard Sennett 84–87 ■ MODERN LIVING 125 Jane Jacobs 108–09 ■ Amitai Etizoni 112–19 ■ Sharon Zukin 128–31 Robert D. Putnam friends and family can help to secure a job, or provide a source of Robert David Putnam was comfort at times of emotional need. born in 1941 in New York, But bonds can be restricting, too: and raised in the small town in immigrant communities, bonds of Clinton, Ohio. With a degree with fellow immigrants can hinder from the University of Oxford, the formation of social bridges and UK, and a doctorate from Yale, linkages, which makes integration he directs the Saguaro into wider society more difficult. Seminar and is the Malkin professor of Public Policy at Putnam’s Saguaro Seminar, founded Civic engagement Harvard University. in 1995, is named after the cactus that Putnam’s study Bowling Alone he regards as a social metaphor—“it applies the concept of social capital In 1995 his article “Bowling takes a long time to develop, and then to US society. He shows that the Alone: America’s Declining it serves lots of unexpected purposes.” demise of traditional suburban Social Capital” began a debate neighborhoods and the increasing about civic engagement and However, by the late 20th century, solitude that commuters and Putnam was invited to meet the state had taken on many of workers face daily—listening to with then President Bill these responsibilities and the civic iPods, or sitting in front of computer Clinton. Since then, with the connections that once unified screens—means that people are not article having become a book people had gone into decline. just far less likely to engage with in 2000, his reputation has voluntary and community-based grown. In 2013 President The social glue that binds initiatives, but also to spend less Barack Obama awarded together individuals and wider time socializing with friends, him the National Humanities collectives is referred to as “social neighbors, and family. Medal for his contributions capital” by the US sociologist to understanding and trying Robert Putnam, and is reproduced Putnam uses ten-pin bowling to ameliorate community life through voluntary associations to illustrate his point: the number in the US. and social and civic networks. of Americans taking up the sport Americans today are wealthier has increased, but the proportion Key works than in the 1960s, says Putnam, who join a team is in decline. but at the cost of a shared sense People are literally “bowling alone” 2000 Bowling Alone: The of moral obligation and community. because the traditional community Collapse and Revival of values of trust and reciprocity American Community Three different types of links have been eroded, which impacts 2002 Democracies in Flux make up this social capital: bonds, negatively upon voluntary 2003 Better Together (with bridges, and linkages. Bonds are associations and civically oriented Lewis M. Feldstein) forged from a sense of common organizations, from parent/teacher identity, including family, friends, associations (PTAs) to local council The core idea of social and community members. Bridges committees. Since Putnam set capital theory is that extend beyond shared identity to up the Saguaro Seminar initiative social networks have value. include colleagues, associates, and in 1995 to look into aspects of acquaintances. Linkages connect civic engagement, his concept of Robert Putnam individuals or groups further up social capital has become vastly or lower down the social hierarchy. influential, and has been applied Differences in the type of social to a wide range of phenomena capital binding people are spanning neighborhood quality important. For example, bonds with of life and crime rates to voting behavior and church attendance. ■

126 DISNEYIZATION REPLACES MUNDANE BLANDNESS WITH SPECTACULAR EXPERIENCES ALAN BRYMAN IN CONTEXT Walt Disney creates The organizational Disneyland and gradually principles that underlie FOCUS Disney’s parks influence Disneyization begins to open branches modes of consumption across the world. KEY DATES more broadly. 1955 Walt Disney opens the first Disneyland to the general Disneyization Everyday activities public in California, attracting replaces mundane are transformed into 50,000 visitors on its first day. extraordinary events blandness with that blur the distinction From the 1980s The term spectacular “globalization” is used experiences. between reality increasingly to refer to the and fantasy. growing interconnectedness of the world. M odern consumer culture Bryman argues that “Disneyization” creates issues that have lies at the heart of contemporary 1981 In Simulacra and far-reaching implications. consumer society. The phenomenon Simulation, Jean Baudrillard British professor Alan Bryman is profoundly shaping our shopping says, “Disneyland is presented is interested in the impact that experiences because, he says, as imaginary in order to make Disney theme parks have upon the principles underlying the us believe that the rest is real, wider society and in how their organization of such parks are whereas all of Los Angeles and model is influencing the ways in increasingly dominating other the America that surrounds it which services and products are areas: “Thus, the fake worlds of are no longer real, but belong made available for consumption. the Disney parks, which represent to... the order of simulation.” 1983–2005 Disney parks are opened in Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong. 1993 US scholar George Ritzer publishes The McDonaldization of Society.

MODERN LIVING 127 See also: George Ritzer 120–23 ■ Sharon Zukin 128–31 ■ Jean Baudrillard 196–99 ■ Arlie Hochschild 236–43 a nonexistent reality, become models for American society.” Furthermore, Disneyization is also occurring in the rest of the world. Blurring fantasy and reality a person altering their outward The Buddha Bar has franchises Bryman identifies four aspects behavior to conform to an ideal. throughout the world and is an example to Disneyization: theming, hybrid In Disneyization, this occurs where of Bryman’s “theming” theory, whereby consumption, merchandizing, and a job appears to become more of a cultural source (in this case, religion), emotional labor. a performance, with a scripted is used to create a product or venue. interaction, dressing up, and the Theming involves drawing on impression of having endless fun. Ultimately this blurs the distinction widely recognized cultural sources between fantasy and reality. to create a popular environment— The effect of these processes is Bryman cites the fashion for trying for example, using rock music as that they can transform everyday to bestow character on somewhere the theme of Hard Rock Café. occurrences, such as shopping by associating it with a well-known and eating, into spectacular and cultural totem, leading to England’s Hybrid consumption refers sensational events. At the same Nottinghamshire becoming “Robin to areas where different kinds of time, however, the tendency to Hood Country” and Finland’s consumption become interlinked: repackage things in a sanitized Lapland “Santa Claus Land.” airports and sports arenas, for format undermines the authenticity example, become shopping malls. of other experiences and places. Bryman proposes Disneyization as a parallel notion to George Merchandizing involves the leadership in higher education. Ritzer’s McDonaldization, a process promotion and sale of goods with He is widely published in all by which the principles of the fast- copyrighted images and logos. For three areas. food restaurant (McDonald’s itself is example, literature and films such merely a symbol) come to dominate as the Harry Potter series or Shrek Bryman is unable to more and more sectors of society. generate a plethora of products from understand the disdain of McDonaldization is grounded in the t-shirts to video games. fellow intellectuals for all things idea of rationalization and produces Disney; his love of the cartoons sameness. Theme parks echo this The term “emotional labor” was and parks has greatly inspired in several ways, but Disneyization coined by Arlie Hochschild his academic work, which has is essentially about increasing the in The Managed Heart to describe become influential in both inclination to consume (goods and cultural and sociological studies. services), often through variety Alan Bryman and difference. The popularity Key works of theming and merchandizing British sociologist Alan Bryman suggests that Dizneyization is a professor of organizational 1995 Disney and his World has become an integral part and social research in the school 2004 The Disneyization of of modern life and identity. ■ of management at the University Society of Leicester, England. Prior to this he worked at the University of Loughborough for 31 years. Bryman is interested in methodological issues and different aspects of consumer culture. His specializations include combining qualitative and quantitative research methods; Disneyization and McDonaldization; and effective

128 IN CONTEXT LIVING IN A FOCUS LOFT IS LIKE Gentrification and LIVING IN A urban life SHOWCASE KEY DATES SHARON ZUKIN 1920s US sociologist Robert E. Park coins the term “human ecology” and is a leading figure in establishing the “Chicago School” and its systematic study of urban life. 1961 Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities is published, becoming one of the most influential post-war studies of urban environments. 1964 British sociologist Ruth Glass invents the word “gentrification” to describe the displacement of working- class occupiers by middle- class incomers. 1970s Artists begin to move into former factory buildings in Lower Manhattan. C ities are dynamic places of change and renewal for people, communities, ideas, and the built environment. Social thinkers have always been drawn to the study of urban life, especially during times of rapid change. The period of metropolitan growth from the 19th century onward, the transformation of cities and the movement into suburbia that followed World War II, and changes in the structure of the urban village in the 1960s have all been the subjects of intense study. Another such period occurred in the 1980s, when many cities in the Western world had been radically altered by the loss of manufacturing

MODERN LIVING 129 See also: Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ Henri Lefebvre 106–07 ■ Jane Jacobs 108–09 ■ Alan Bryman 126–27 ■ Saskia Sassen 164–65 A former industrial area of a city becomes de-industrialized to replace the mass production and run down. of modernism and the uniformity of suburban living with the Artists are attracted to the area because of low rents individualization of a space once and generous spaces in which to be creative. used for mass production (since many loft spaces had once been Young urban professionals are then attracted to the “cool” workshops or factories). In a loft, the that artists create. privacy of the detached suburban house was replaced by a non- hierarchical layout that opens up “every area... to all comers.” This space and openness creates an impression of informality and equality, transforming the loft into a “tourist attraction” or a showcase— a place that demands to be seen. Property developers see an opportunity to make money Urban regeneration and buy up property. Zukin also closely examined the costs of urban regeneration and Rents increase and the artists and poor people move out; loft living. On the surface, the the area in turn loses its diversity and vibrancy. movement of people back into virtually abandoned districts appears to be a positive process, breathing new life into old buildings and places. However, Zukin questions this assumption, arguing that regeneration ❯❯ industries and the growing impacts their use as dwellings was having Bare walls, exposed beams, and of globalization. A new generation on long-established communities unexpected architectural details of scholars began to investigate in New York. provide the authenticity sought by inner-city decline, the processes of buyers of urban loft apartments. urban regeneration, and what gives Zukin reiterated the ideas somewhere its distinctive sense of of thinkers such as French place. Prominent among them has philosopher Gaston Bachelard, who been Sharon Zukin, author of the argued, in The Poetics of Space influential 1982 work, Loft Living. (1958), that a home was more than a space for living; it represented the The meanings of space “psychic state” of the inhabitants. Zukin moved into a loft—a former For example, in Victorian times, garment factory and artist’s houses were divided into rooms studio—in Greenwich Village, with specific functions (drawing New York, in 1975. She became room, dressing room, and so on), interested in what these new providing a series of intimate residential spaces meant to their spatial encounters. occupiers, and was particularly concerned by the impact that The psychic state of a loft- dweller, argued Zukin, was that of a search for authenticity—an attempt

130 SHARON ZUKIN Chelsea Market is a New York food hall created in the 1990s in a derelict factory in the Meatpacking District. Zukin says the area is a far cry from the one-time “no-go zone” of butchery. benefits specific groups at the The first step was a decline in to the poor and marginalized. expense of others. She claims that traditional manufacturing industry. Because the buildings were regeneration leads to a process Just a couple of generations ago, intended to be factories, the floors whereby poor or marginalized New York had a working waterfront were not subdivided into multiple groups are effectively pushed out of that employed tens of thousands rooms, as you would find in an the areas in which they have been and a hinterland in Manhattan that apartment block, but were instead living, sometimes for generations, was packed, in the areas around open plan with tall windows. A to make way for more elite groups. Greenwich Village, with small-scale space that accommodated lots of The result can be a uniform urban workshops and factories making people needing good natural light, experience, which Zukin has textiles and clothes. The buildings while they worked on sewing identified in parts of New York and housing the workshops typically machines, also proved to be the other cities around the world. had high ceilings and lots of light, ideal studio environment for artists. and were known as “lofts.” In the early 1970s, when New York The steps of gentrification was hit by an economic crisis, Zukin argues that gentrification is The textile firms began to private rents citywide went down more than, as she puts it, a “change go out of business from the 1950s because demand for properties of scene.” It is a “radical break onward, as more and more of the decreased. Stereotypically, artists with suburbia... toward the social US’s textiles production was “off- struggle to make ends meet and diversity and aesthetic promiscuity shored” by large corporations to often seek out cheap places in of city life.” Gentrifiers, according countries in Asia where labor costs which to live and work. Lower to her, have a distinctive culture were lower. US workers were left Manhattan’s old factory lofts and milieu (they are interested, unemployed, and the affected therefore had appeal and the area for example, in restoring historical districts of New York became became home to many artists. architectural detail), which leads deindustrialized and run-down. to “a process of social and spatial By the 1970s, much of Lower This was an organic differentiation.” In her study of Manhattan had become derelict. regeneration of these old Lower Manhattan, Zukin argues neighborhoods: there was no official that gentrification is a process Creative space city government plan to convert the within which a number of steps The second step took place in lofts into live-in studios. As more can be clearly identified. the 1970s, after the abandoned workplaces had become home Much of what made [New York City’s] neighborhoods unique lives on only in the buildings, not the people. Sharon Zukin

MODERN LIVING 131 artists moved to the area, it It’s just inexorable, this by the prevalent cultural forms and developed a cultural vibrancy; the authenticity in the visual lifestyles promoted by multinational presence of the artists meant that language of sameness. media companies. The result is that secondary businesses—such as poor and marginalized groups are coffee shops, restaurants, and Sharon Zukin effectively excluded from urban life. art galleries—opened to support their activities. The area became Manhattan resulted ultimately A naked city increasingly funky and edgy, and in their exclusion from what they Zukin’s more recent work, such proved attractive to the new class had helped to regenerate. as Naked City, has focused on how of young urban professionals who gentrification and consumerism wanted to live somewhere new, The search for urban soul have created bland, homogenous, exciting, and different from the Zukin’s work has been influential middle-class areas and robbed staid, post-war homes in which in clarifying what drives change cities of the authenticity that they had grown up. in modern cities: the cultural most people long for. She and consumerist needs of some also notices that the pace of The third and decisive step social groups wishing to pursue gentrification has sped up. What in gentrification was reached when a certain lifestyle, rather than the used to take decades to unfold young professionals began to move development of new forms of now only seems to require a into the area—in this case, to industry. However, for Zukin this few years: an area is deemed become part of the urban bohemian way of life is just another form of to be “cool” and very rapidly the environment and lifestyle. There consumerism that is ultimately developers move in and begin a were now people with money empty, offering a “Disneyfied” process that fundamentally alters interested in living in what had experience in which diversity its character, invariably destroying previously been an undesirable and authenticity are marginalized what was special. In fact, the area. The fact that this new and distinctiveness of a neighborhood more affluent group suddenly Sharon Zukin has actually become a tool of wanted to live in the area attracted capitalist developers—one that the attention of profit-driven Sharon Zukin is currently results in the exclusion of the developers, who began to buy up a professor of sociology at characters who first gave an comparatively cheap property— Brooklyn College in New York, area its real “soul.” The challenge often, criticizes Zukin, with and at the CUNY Graduate for planners is to find ways of subsidies from the city authorities— Center. She has received preserving people as well as and convert it into apartments that several awards, including the buildings and streetscapes. ■ resembled the lofts in which the Wright Mills Award and the artists lived. As a result, rents began Robert and Helen Lynd Award change. Her work has mainly to steadily increase. Artists and for career achievement in urban focused on how cities are poor people found it hard to afford to sociology from the American affected by processes such as live there anymore, and they begin Sociological Association. gentrification, and investigating to move out. the dominant driving processes She is the author of books in urban living. She is also an The final step in gentrification on cities, culture, and consumer active critic of the many changes was reached when the area was culture, and a researcher on that are occurring within New colonized by the more affluent urban, cultural, and economic York and other cities. middle and upper classes. The galleries and coffee shops Key works remained, but the mix of people, the vibrancy, and the cultural 1982 Loft Living: Culture and activity that had made the Capital in Urban Change area popular was lost. In effect, 1995 The Cultures of Cities the artists became unwitting 2010 Naked City: The Death and accomplices of gentrification, Life of Authentic Urban Places and then its victims: their success in breathing new life into Lower

LIVING I GLOBAL

NA WORLD

134 INTRODUCTION The Communist Ulrich Beck argues in Boaventura de Sousa Roland Robertson Manifesto by Karl Marx Risk Society that we Santos urges that assesses the effects must develop new and Friedrich Engels strategies to deal with sociological research from of globalization forecasts the the human-made the northern hemisphere be on local cultures risks of globalization. revised to take account of globalization of other societies to become in Globalization: capitalism and calls Social Theory and for all workers to unite. truly global in scope. Global Culture. 1848 1986 1990S 1992 1974 1990S 1991 In The Modern World-System, Zygmunt Bauman develops Saskia Sassen Immanuel Wallerstein argues the idea of “liquid modernity”: describes the global that globalization works to the a state of constant social importance of some advantage of some countries change resulting from core cities, rather and to the detriment of advances in global mobility than nation-states, in developing nations. and communications. The Global City. S ociology grew out of a desire had accelerated. In the 20th Perhaps the most noticeable social to understand, and suggest century, the telegraph and aviation effect of these technological ways of improving, the revolutionized international advances has been from the modern society that had emerged connections, and post-World improvement of communications. during the Enlightenment, War II information technology From telephones to the Internet, and especially the effects of has sustained this pattern. the world has become increasingly industrialization, rationalization, interconnected, and social and capitalism. But as the Network society networks now transcend national discipline of sociology became While many people feel that the boundaries. Information technology more firmly established in the world has entered a new, post- has not only made commercial latter part of the 20th century, industrial, postmodern age, transactions quicker and easier it became apparent that there others see globalization as simply than ever, but has also connected was another force driving social a continuation of the process of individuals and communities that change: globalization. modernity. Zygmunt Bauman, for had previously been isolated. example, argues that what began International trade had with industrialization has now Manuel Castells was among the been in force for centuries, with entered a mature, “late modern” first to identify the social effects of multinational corporations rooted stage as technology has become this network society, while Roland in the trading empires of the 16th ever more sophisticated. The Robertson argued that rather than and 17th centuries, so the idea of nature of technological progress having a homogenizing effect globalization was nothing new. means this stage is characterized (by creating a universal model However, since the Industrial by a “liquid modernity”—a state of society), globalization was in Revolution, the pace of progress of constant change. fact merging with local cultures in transport and communication to produce new social systems.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 135 Manuel Castells analyzes the David Held and Anthony Anthony Giddens warns social effects of information McGrew point out the of the dangers of technology in the first part of his contradictory social three-volume The Information Age: effects of globalization procrastination over The Rise of the Network Society in Globalization/ environmental issues Anti-Globalization: (1997, The Power of Identity; in The Politics of 1998, End of Millennium). Beyond the Great Divide. Climate Change. 1996 2002 2009 1996 2002 2007 Arjun Appadurai examines David McCrone examines In Mobilities, John Urry how identities are formed the role of national explains how new in a globalized world identity in a globalized cultures and identities in Modernity At Large: world in The Sociology are emerging as people of Nationalism: are increasingly able to Cultural Dimensions Tomorrow’s Ancestors. move around the world. of Globalization. Another aspect of late modernity Western countries, an influx of Santos has urged a change in is the ease with which people migrants from different cultures sociological thinking to include now travel worldwide. Just as the has changed attitudes to race, marginalized points of view. migration from the countryside religion, and culture, especially to the cities after industrialization as second- and third-generation Others, such as Ulrich Beck, created new social structures, immigrants identify themselves have warned of the risks associated increased mobility in the late with their host country. with globalization, as traditional 20th century has changed social ways of life are eroded by patterns. Economic migration has Much of this movement has advances in new technology and become increasingly common as been driven by economic inequality communication. Unlike in the past, people move not just into the new between nations, which has not we no longer face only natural risks global cities, but internationally in been alleviated by globalization. on a local scale, but also human- search of work and prosperity. As According to Immanuel made crises that have international Arjun Appadurai and others have Wallerstein, it is the spread of consequences. Environmental pointed out, this has led to cultural capitalism that perpetuates issues are perhaps the greatest changes, including a questioning the differences between rich threat, but as a society we have of how identities are formed. and poor countries. Capitalism tended, as Anthony Giddens has reaps an economic advantage pointed out, to bury our heads Culture and environment by maintaining this difference, in the sand. While enjoying the Many sociologists have tried to and exploiting the resources of benefits of modern global society, assess globalization’s impact on developing countries. And because we continue to put off dealing with local cultures, and the changing of the increasing contrast between the underlying problems, maybe nature of national identities. In the northern and southern to the point where it is too late to hemispheres, Boaventura de Sousa prevent disaster. ■

ABANDON ALL HOPE OF TOTALITY YOU WHO ENTER THE WORLD OF FLUID MODERNITY ZYGMUNT BAUMAN (1925– )



138 ZYGMUNT BAUMAN As society moves away from the first phase of modernity, known as “solid modernity...” IN CONTEXT ...sources of ...people traverse ...economic FOCUS identity are the globe in uncertainty and Liquid modernity eroded, leading vast numbers. to fragmented competition KEY DATES consumer grows, and job 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich identities. Engels publish The Communist security Manifesto, which forecasts the weakens. globalization of capitalism. Global society becomes fluid, highly changeable, and uncertain. 1929–35 Antonio Gramsci’s We have entered the world of liquid modernity. concept of hegemony shapes Zygmunt Bauman’s view that the culture of capitalism is highly resilient. 1957 The ratification of the Treaty of Rome allows for the free flow of workers within the European Economic Community. 1976 Bauman is influenced by Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, and in particular by his ideas on surveillance. 2008 British sociologist Will Atkinson questions whether Bauman’s notion of liquid modernity has been subject to sufficient critical scrutiny. I n the late 19th century, affects society at the global, the current stage in the broader societies began to coalesce systemic level, and also at the level evolution of Western—and now around urban centers, and of individual experience. Bauman’s also global—society. Like Karl Western Europe entered a phase use of the term “liquid” is a Marx, Bauman believes that human known as modernity, characterized powerful metaphor for present-day society progresses in a way that by industrialization and capitalism. life: it is mobile, fast-flowing, means each “new” stage develops According to Polish sociologist changeable, amorphous, without out of the stage before it. Thus it is Zygmunt Bauman, societies have a center of gravity, and difficult to necessary to define solid modernity moved away from that first phase contain and predict. In essence, before it is possible to understand of modernity—which he termed liquid modernity is a way of life liquid modernity. “solid modernity”—and now that exists in the continuous, occupy a period in human history unceasing reshaping of the Defining solid modernity called “liquid modernity.” This new modern world in ways that are Bauman sees solid modernity as period is, according to Bauman, unpredictable, uncertain, and ordered, rational, predictable, and one marked by unrelenting plagued by increasing levels of risk. relatively stable. Its defining feature uncertainty and change that Liquid modernity, for Bauman, is is the organization of human

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 139 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Anthony Giddens 148–49 ■ Ulrich Beck 156–61 ■ Antonio Gramsci 178–79 activity and institutions along that social, political, and economic Zygmunt Bauman bureaucratic lines, where practical changes do not occur in solid reasoning can be employed to modernity, just that changes occur Born in 1925, Zygmunt solve problems and create technical in ways that are relatively ordered Bauman is a Polish sociologist solutions. Bureaucracy persists and predictable. The economy from a nonpracticing Polish- because it is the most efficient provides a good example: in solid Jewish family who were way of organizing and ordering modernity, the majority of people— forced to relocate to the Soviet the actions and interactions of from members of the working Union in 1939 following the large numbers of people. While class through to middle-class Nazi invasion. After serving in bureaucracy has its distinctly professionals—enjoyed relatively the Polish division of the Red negative aspects (for example, high levels of job security. As Army, he moved to Israel. In that human life can become a consequence, they tended to 1971 he settled in England, dehumanized and devoid of remain in the same geographical where he is now professor spontaneity and creativity), it is area, grow up in the same emeritus of sociology at the highly effective at accomplishing neighborhood, and attend the same University of Leeds. goal-oriented tasks. school as their parents and other family members. Bauman is the author of Another key characteristic of more than 40 books, of which solid modernity, according to Bauman regards solid modernity 20 or so have been written Bauman, is a very high degree as one-directional and progressive— since his retirement in 1990. In of equilibrium in social a realization of the Enlightenment recognition of his contribution structures—meaning that people view that reason leads to the to sociology, he was awarded live with a relatively stable set of emancipation of humankind. As the Theodor W. Adorno Award norms, traditions, and institutions. scientific knowledge advances, in 1998 and the Prince of By this, Bauman is not suggesting so does society’s understanding of, Asturias Award in 2010. The and control over, the natural and University of Leeds created the Auschwitz concentration camp social worlds. In solid modernism, acclaimed Bauman Institute in Poland was built and run by the according to Bauman, this supreme in 2010 in his honor, and in Nazis. Bauman cites the Holocaust faith in scientific reasoning was 2013 the Polish director as a product of the highly rational, embodied in the social and Bartek Dziadosz produced planned nature of solid modernity. political institutions that ❯❯ a film of his life and views entitled The Trouble With Being Human These Days. Key works 1989 Modernity and the Holocaust 2000 Liquid Modernity 2011 Culture in a Liquid Modern World

140 ZYGMUNT BAUMAN addressed primarily national assured, rational, bureaucratically The population of every issues and problems. Enlightenment organized, and relatively country is nowadays a values were institutionally predictable and stable. collection of diasporas. entrenched in the figurehead Zygmunt Bauman of the State—the primary point of From solid to liquid reference from which emerged the The transition from solid to liquid Third, electronic technologies development of social, political, and modernity, according to Bauman, and the Internet now allow for economic ideals. has occurred as a result of a near-instant, supranational confluence of profound and flows of communication. Fourth, At the level of the individual, connected economic, political, societies have become ever more claims Bauman, solid modernity and social changes. The result preoccupied by risk—dwelling on gave rise to a stable repertoire of is a global order propelled by insecurities and potential hazards. personal identities and possible what Bauman describes as a And fifth, there has been huge versions of selfhood. Solid modern “compulsive, obsessive, and growth in human migration individuals have a unified, rational, addictive reinventing of the world.” across the globe. and stable sense of personal identity, because it is informed by Bauman identifies five distinct, Defining liquid modernity a number of stable categories, such but interrelated, developments that As Bauman himself observes, as occupation, religious affiliation, have brought about the transition attempting to define liquid nationality, gender, ethnicity, from solid to liquid modernity. modernity is something of a leisure pursuits, lifestyle, and so First, nation-states are no longer paradox, because the term refers on. Social life under the conditions the “key load-bearing structures” to a global condition that is of solid modernity—like the of society; national governments characterized by unrelenting individuals it created—was self- today have considerably less power change, flux, and uncertainty. to determine events both at home However, having identified the Bauman’s idea of solid modernity and abroad. Second, global traits of solid modernity, he was embodied by Enlightenment capitalism has risen and multi- claims it is possible to define thinkers such as Isaac Newton and transnational corporations the most prominent aspects (depicted here by William Blake), have proliferated, resulting in of liquid modernity. who used reason to transform society. a decentering of state authority. At an ideological level, liquid modernity undermines the Enlightenment ideal that scientific knowledge can ameliorate natural and social problems. In liquid modernity, science, experts, university-based academics, and government officials—once the supreme figures of authority in solid modernity—occupy a highly ambiguous status as guardians of the truth. Scientists are

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 141 increasingly perceived as being The key differences between solid and liquid as much the cause of environmental modernity were identified by Bauman as two and sociopolitical problems as they sets of four characteristics. are the solution. This inevitably leads to increased skepticism Stasis Design and general apathy on the part of the general public. Movement Liquid modernity has Chance undermined the certainties of individuals regarding employment, Indeterminacy education, and welfare. Today, many workers must either retrain Determinacy Predictability Unpredictability or change occupation altogether, sometimes several times—the Solid modernity Liquid modernity notion of a “job for life,” which was typical in the age of solid education. Individuals are industrial plants, liquid modernity modernity, has been rendered now required to continue their is instead based on the rapid and unrealistic and unachievable. education—often at their own relentless consumption of consumer expense—throughout their careers goods and services. The practice of “re-engineering,” in order to remain up to date with or the downsizing of firms—a term developments in their respective This transition from production that Bauman borrows from the US professions, or as a means of to consumption, says Bauman, is a sociologist, Richard Sennett—has ensuring they remain “marketable” result of the dissolution of the social become increasingly common, as in case of redundancy. structures, such as occupation and it enables corporations to remain nationality, to which identity was financially competitive in the Concurrent with these changes anchored in solid modernity. ❯❯ global market by reducing labor to employment patterns is the costs significantly. As part of retreat of the welfare state. What this process, stable, permanent was once regarded historically as a work—which typified solid reliable “safety net” guarding modernism—is being replaced by against personal misfortune such temporary employment contracts as ill-health and unemployment, that are issued to a largely mobile state provision of welfare is rapidly workforce. Closely related to this being withdrawn, especially in the occupational instability is the areas of social housing, state- shifting role and nature of funded higher education, and national health care. We live in a globalizing world. That means all of us, consciously or not, depend on each other. Zygmunt Bauman Fluid identities Welfare states, as Bauman says, have Where solid modernity was based been under pressure recently. In the on the industrial production of UK, for example, the National Health consumer goods in factories and Service is being eroded, despite widespread support for the system.

142 ZYGMUNT BAUMAN destabilizing forces are not evenly distributed across global society. Bauman identifies and explains the importance of the variables of mobility, time, and space for understanding why. For Bauman, the capacity to remain mobile is an extremely valuable attribute in liquid modernity, because it facilitates the successful pursuit of wealth and personal fulfillment. The self-creation of personal identity sources of identity provided by Tourists and vagabonds is undertaken through consumption as solid modernity, individuals in Bauman distinguishes between traditional sources of identity, such as the modern world seek guidance, the winners and losers in liquid employment status and family ties, stability, and personal direction modernity. The people who benefit have withered under liquid modernity. from an ever-broadening range of most from the fluidity of liquid alternative sources, such as lifestyle modernity are the socially But in liquid modernity selfhood coaches, psychoanalysts, sex privileged individuals who are is not so fixed: it is fragmented, therapists, holistic life-experts, able to float freely around the world. unstable, often internally health gurus, and so on. These people, who Bauman refers incoherent, and frequently no more to as “tourists,” exist in time rather than the sum of consumer choices Self-identity has become than space. By this he means out of which it is simultaneously problematic for the individual that through their easy access to constituted and represented. In in ways that are historically Internet-based technologies and liquid modernity, the boundary unprecedented, and the transnational flights, tourists are between the authentic self and the consequence is a cycle of endless able—virtually and in reality—to representation of the self through self-questioning and introspection span the entire globe and operate consumer choice breaks down: that serves only to confound the in locations where the economic we are—according to Bauman— individual even more. Ultimately, conditions are the most favorable what we buy and no more. Depth the result is that our experience and standards of living the highest. and surface meaning have fused of ourselves and everyday life is By stark contrast, the “vagabonds,” together, and it is impossible to increasingly played out against separate them out. a backdrop of ongoing anxiety, In a liquid modern life, restlessness, and unease about there are no permanent Consumption and identity who we are, our place in the world, bonds, and any that we The central importance of and the rapidity of the changes take up... must be tied consumption in the construction taking place around us. of individual self-identity goes loosely so that they beyond the acquisition of consumer Liquid modernity thus can be untied... when goods. Without the unchanging principally refers to a global society circumstances change. that is plagued by uncertainty Zygmunt Bauman and instability. However, these

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 143 If you define your value by the modernity is regarded by the vast ‘Community’ is nowadays things you acquire... being majority of thinkers as a unique another name for excluded is humiliating. contribution to the field. paradise lost. Zygmunt Bauman The Irish sociologist Donncha Zygmunt Bauman as Bauman calls them, are people Marron has applied Bauman’s who are immobile, or subject to concept of liquid modernity to can often be co-branded with forced mobility, and excluded from a critical rethinking of consumer things the owner is interested in, consumer culture. Life for them credit within the US. Following such as football teams, charities, involves either being mired in Bauman’s suggestion that or stores. These co-branded cards places where unemployment is consumption of goods and brands represent a small but revealing high and the standard of living is is a key feature of how individuals means whereby a person is able to very poor, or being forced to leave construct personal identity, select and present a sense of who their country of origin as economic Marron notes that the credit they are to the outside world. ■ or political refugees in search of card is an important tool in employment, or in response to this process because it is ideally Bauman’s global “tourists” are the threat of war or persecution. suited for enabling people to mobile members of the social elite who Anywhere they stay for too long adapt to the kind of fluid ways of possess the wealth and occupational soon becomes inhospitable. living Bauman depicts. The credit status necessary to enjoy the most card can, for example, be used to positive aspects of liquid modernity. For Bauman, mass migration fund shopping trips to satisfy and transnational flows of people consumer desire. It makes paying around the globe are among the for things easier, quicker, and hallmarks of liquid modernity and considerably more manageable. are factors contributing to the The credit card of course also unpredictable and constantly serves the function, says Marron, changing nature of everyday life: of meeting day-to-day bills and Bauman’s social categories of expenses, as people move between tourists and vagabonds occupy jobs or make significant career two extremes of this phenomenon. moves. And the physical card itself Applying Bauman’s theory Zygmunt Bauman is considered one of the most influential and eminent sociologists of the modern age. He prefers not to align himself with any particular intellectual tradition—his writings are relevant to a vast range of disciplines, from ethics, media, and cultural studies to political theory and philosophy. Within sociology, his work on liquid

144 THE MODERN WORLD-SYSTEM IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN (1930– ) IN CONTEXT Capitalism ignored As its wealth national borders in its and influence grew, FOCUS global search for profit. it developed an integrated World-system theory world-system based on the logic of the market KEY DATES 16th century The foundations and profit. for global capitalism are laid as European powers “discover” Nations benefit unequally This system exploits and colonize parts of the from the modern world the natural resources and Americas and Asia. labor of poorer nations, economic system. 1750 The Industrial Revolution making it hard for begins in Great Britain. them to develop. 1815–1914 New industries V arious nations of the world nations continue to be the primary and social and economic are interconnected by a beneficiaries of global commodity transformations spread global system of economic chains and the products and to Europe, North America, relationships that sees more- wealth that are created by Japan, and parts of developed nations exploiting the industrial capitalism. Australasia—countries in natural resources and labor of these regions form the “core” of developing nations, according to US The world economic system, the modern economic system. sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein says Wallerstein, began to emerge in The Modern World-System in the 16th century, as European 1867 Karl Marx publishes the (1974). This “world-system” makes nations such as Britain, Spain, and first volume of Das Kapital, it difficult for poor nations to France exploited the resources of highlighting the exploitative develop, and ensures that rich conquered and colonized lands. tendencies of capitalism. These unequal trade relationships From the 20th century Global trade develops, with new states, including former colonies, integrating into the “system” of global capitalism.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 145 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Roland Robertson 146–47 ■ Saskia Sassen 164–65 ■ Arjun Appadurai 166–69 ■ David Held 170–71 produced an accumulation of The modern world-system is based core nations sell their developed capital that was reinvested in on a classlike grouping of nations, and commodities at higher prices than expanding the economic system. results in unequal economic and trade those from the periphery. Those By the late 19th century, most of relationships between those nations. nations in the semi-periphery the world had been incorporated also benefit from unequal trade into this system of commodity Periphery nations are powerless relationships with the periphery, production and exchange. and dispossessed; they have narrow but are often at a disadvantage economic bases in agriculture and with regards to their economic The global stage minerals, and provide the semi- exchanges with the core. Wallerstein’s ideas on the origin periphery and core nations with of modern capitalism extend the commodities, raw materials, and This world-system, Wallerstein theories of Karl Marx to the global cheap labor. suggests, is relatively stable and stage. Marx focused on how unlikely to change. While nations capitalism produces a struggle over Semi-periphery nations have can move “up” or “down” within the “surplus value,” which refers to the intermediate levels of affluence and system, the military and economic fact that a worker produces more some autonomy and economic diversity. power of states in the core, along value in a day than he or she is paid with the aspirations of those in the for, and this extra value translates Core nations are developed, semi-periphery, make it unlikely as profit for the employer. Under industrialized, and affluent; they dominate that global relationships will be capitalism, the working class is at the heart of the modern world-system. restructured to be more equitable. exploited by wealthy social elites for the surplus value of their labor. which produce complex products Wallerstein’s ideas on the using technologically advanced modern world-system, originating Wallerstein develops this idea methods of production. The core in the 1970s, predate the literature to focus on those who benefit from nations rely on periphery nations on globalization, which only global commodity chains, arguing for raw materials, agricultural emerged as a central concern that there are classlike groupings products, and cheap labor. Semi- of sociology from the late 1980s of nations in the world-system, periphery nations have a mix of the and early 1990s. His work is which he labels “core,” “semi- social and economic characteristics therefore recognized as an early periphery,” and “periphery.” Core of the other categories. and important contribution to nations are developed societies, economic globalization and its The unequal nature of this sociopolitical consequences. ■ economic exchange between the core and the periphery means that Global patterns of wealth and inequality Social scientists originally Wallerstein rejected the idea discussed global inequalities that the Third World was merely using the terms “First World” underdeveloped. He focused (developed Western nations), on the economic process and “Second World” (industrialized links underpinning the global communist nations), and “Third economy to show that, although World” (colonized nations). a nation’s position in the world- Nations were ranked according system was initially a product to their levels of capitalist of history and geography, enterprise, industrialization, and the market forces of global urbanization, and the argument capitalism serve to accentuate was that poorer nations simply the differences between needed more of the economic the core and the periphery features of developed societies nations, thereby effectively to escape poverty. institutionalizing inequality.

146 GLOBAL ISSUES, LOCAL PERSPECTIVES ROLAND ROBERTSON (1938– ) IN CONTEXT Globalization results in different ideas, cultural forms, and products being spread FOCUS Glocalization throughout the world, including: KEY DATES musical fashion consumer ideas and 1582–1922 Beginning with styles trends. products. values. the Catholic countries of and Europe and finally the states genres. of East Asia and the Soviet Union, the Gregorian calendar These global forms are modified by contact with local is adopted as the most widely communities and individuals to become “glocalized.” used calendar internationally. G lobalization is giving rise In Globalization: Social Theory and 1884 Greenwich Mean to new cultural forms, as Global Culture (1992), Robertson Time (GMT) is recognized global products, values, argues that the cultural dynamics as the world’s time standard, and tastes fuse with their local at the heart of globalization can becoming the basis for a global equivalents. This intermixing be understood by focusing on the 24-hour time-zone system. of the global and the local, relationships between four areas: says British sociologist Roland “individual selves,” “nation-state,” 1945 The United Nations Robertson, is a key feature of a “world system of societies,” and (UN) is founded to promote modern societies and is producing “a notion of a common humanity.” international cooperation. new creative possibilities. This focus allows him to examine 1980s Japanese businesses develop strategies to adapt global products to local markets, a process they call “glocalization.” 1990s Roland Robertson expands the Japanese concept of “glocalization” in his work on globalization.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 147 See also: George Ritzer 120–23 ■ Immanuel Wallerstein 144–45 ■ Cultural mélange Saskia Sassen 164–65 ■ Arjun Appadurai 166–69 ■ David Held 170–71 Soccer is the “glocal game.” Many which everything is the same, or The recent rise of global communities identify with their team “homogenized.” On the contrary, communications has produced and develop distinctive traditions and he argues that the differences what Roland Robertson soccer cultures, which they then bring between cultural groups and their describes as a “cultural to international competitions. products can be sharpened as they interconnectedness.” As encounter cultural flows from other global influences mutate and the interacting aspects of a communities. This can lead to a hybridize locally, the result person’s self-identity and their dynamic interaction between local is “glocalized” diversity, or a relationship with national and and global cultures, as people cultural “mélange,” according global cultural influences. modify cultural forms to suit their to Dutch sociologist Jan particular sociocultural context. Nederveen Pieterse. A good One’s self-identity, for example, example of this global-to-local is defined in relation to a nation, Mixing “global” and “local” process is film-making. to interactions between societies, To reflect how the global and to humankind (ideas regarding and local relate and intermix, Hollywood movies inspired sexual orientation, ethnicity, and Robertson popularized the term the Indian film industry in so on). In this context, Robertson “glocalization.” The concept was the early 20th century. But explores the tension between global developed from the practices of Indian film-makers focused on and local influences on a person’s transnational companies and their modifying Hollywood’s output: experiences and actions. strategy of taking a global product they wanted to make the art and adapting it for a local market. form their own, to appeal to Robertson emphasizes “global For example, the fast-food local culture and reflect its unicity”: the ways in which corporation McDonald’s has distinct forms of expression. globalization and cultural exchange created many “glocalized” burger In so doing, they initiated a seem to be giving rise to a global products in an attempt to appeal creative engagement between culture. This is a movement toward to customers outside the US the global and local. Indian a world dominated by Western (such as the Chicken Maharaja cinema draws on a rich body cultural products and beliefs—such Mac in India, where Hindus do not of themes—ranging from the as Hollywood movies and US pop eat beef). In sociology, glocalization country’s ancient epics and music—and is made possible by also refers more broadly to the myths to traditional drama— the increasing connectivity of localization of global cultural and retells them in colorful, societies and by people’s products or forms. distinctive ways. The Hindi awareness of the world films known as “Bollywood” as a single sociocultural entity. Globalization is, then, a twofold attract audiences well beyond process of “universalizing and the Indian diaspora. But Robertson stresses that particularizing tendencies.” Some the emergence of “global unicity” cultural forms, products, and values Local cultures adopt and does not mean the world is moving are transported around the world, redefine any global cultural toward a single global culture in where they may be adopted or product to suit their particular modified by different societies and needs, beliefs, and customs. individuals. A creative tension then emerges between the local and Roland Robertson the global, which can result in cultural innovation and social change; for example, when people tell “local stories” through their adaptation of globally recognized music genres such as Hip Hop, K-Pop, and Indie. ■

148 CLIMATE CHANGE IS A BACK-OF- THE-MIND ISSUE ANTHONY GIDDENS (1938– ) IN CONTEXT T he world is in danger Giddens calls “late modernity.” He and globalization is at uses the analogy of “riding onboard FOCUS least partially to blame, a juggernaut” to illustrate how Giddens’ paradox according to British sociologist the modern world seems to be Anthony Giddens. He believes “out of control” and difficult to KEY DATES that modernity has produced direct. While life in late modernity 1900 Modernity continues a “runaway world” in which is at times “rewarding” and to spread as nations develop governments and individuals “exhilarating,” individuals must industrial economies and face global risks such as climate also confront new uncertainties, generate economic growth. change. One of his contributions place trust in abstract systems, and to this important area of research manage new challenges and risks. 1952 The Great Smog, a toxic, is to provide a sociological smokelike air-pollution event explanation for why governments Giddens sees anthropogenic over London, kills an estimated and individuals are reluctant to (human-induced) climate change 4,000 people and leads to the take immediate action to address as one of the most important risks, Clean Air Act (1956). the causes of global warming. and indeed challenges, confronting humanity. Industrialized societies 1987 The Montreal Protocol Globalization of modernity burn significant amounts of is agreed, protecting the Giddens has been highlighting the fossil fuels to generate power. ozone layer by phasing out effects of globalization and how it the production of substances has been transforming society’s People find it hard to responsible for ozone depletion. institutions, social roles, and give the same level of relationships since the publication reality to the future as 1997 Agreement of The Kyoto of his book The Consequences of they do to the present. Protocol, a United Nations Modernity in 1990. He notes that Anthony Giddens convention intended to reduce the world’s developed and newly greenhouse gas emissions industrialized societies are now from industrialized countries characterized by experiences and prevent climate change. and relationships that are dramatically different from those 2009 A renewed commitment in pre-industrial societies. to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is made in the This globalization of modernity Copenhagen Accord. and its consequences marks a new stage in human civilization, which