The Sociology Book

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 199 and worlds, and even re-create The age of simulation thus World than in Europe. There is no ourselves in any shape or form begins with a liquidation of all longer a requirement for systems online, in virtual worlds where we referentials—worse: by their or things to be rational, just to work are invited to interact with other well, or be “operational.” We have real/virtual people. artificial resurrection in created a hyper-reality that is, he systems of signs. says, “the product of an irradiating And herein lies the danger, says synthesis of combinatory models in Baudrillard. Constructed realities Jean Baudrillard a hyperspace without atmosphere.” can be built to maximize pleasure, We seem not to have noticed the so they are far more appealing to us. Simulacra make sense of the fact that only robots can “live” than reality. We are constructing world, even if this is at the cost of without an atmosphere. utopias, because if you have the complex meaning. The world is freedom to construct a world, why becoming ever more superficial. Some critical theorists, such not aim at a utopia? But the utopia as US philosopher Douglass Kellner, we are creating in our virtual The simulacra that make up our have criticized Baudrillard for worlds is tantamount to death: we reality today have been constructed moving away from a Marxist no longer want the real experience to immediately gratify our desires. interpretation of culture. Marxist of something, but the experience of Baudrillard says that as virtual geographer David Harvey takes being told about the experience of reality increases, our ideals and a similar stance, saying that something—in such a way that it imaginations will recede. We Baudrillard is wrong to insist that is hyperreal, or more real than real. accept what is given, just as we there is no reality behind the For instance, we prefer to sit in a find it far easier to travel from image. Many theorists, however, cinema and enjoy the hyperreal “Germany” to “France” in Disney including Canadians Arthur and experience of a family reunion than Marilouise Kroker, praise his go to one of our own. On screen it is celebration of postmodern culture more colorful, noisy, and complete— and see his work as a vital guide it seems “so true.” Our own lives to the cultural dangers of the pale by comparison, except perhaps 21st century. As media ecologist our virtual lives, on Facebook or Kenneth Rufo notes, Baudrillard is elsewhere. Meanwhile, we sit, not “full of interesting things, and even moving, looking at a screen. his misses... still pack a wallop.” ■ Too much information According to Baudrillard, our reality is now dictated by the incredible amount of information that streams into our lives from so many forms of media. He says that, strangely, although the real is disappearing, “it is not because of a lack of it, but an excess of it.” An excess of information pouring into our awareness puts an end to information, he says, because we drown in complexity, and reach for the simple solution that is handed In Disney World, US, countries such as “China” are re-created. These virtual models, says Baudrillard, are far more appealing to Disney’s customers than the world “outside.”

200 MODERN IDENTITIES ARE BEING DECENTERED STUART HALL (1932–2014) IN CONTEXT ...increasing awareness ...increasing awareness and incidence of mixed of and identification FOCUS ancestry, so no one nation Cultural identity is seen as self-defining. with differing countries’ traditions, values, KEY DATES and beliefs. 17th century “The self” becomes a noun for the first Modern identity is no longer time, gaining currency as an fixed, because it stems from... idea worthy of investigation. ...a self-built “life story” ...a questioning of 1900s Max Weber says that that is no longer felt to be traditions and lifestyles individuals act according to determined by class, race, their subjective interpretations due to global of the world. or gender. interconnections. 1920s G.H. Mead’s idea of I n the late 20th century, transforming modern societies, symbolic interactionism sociologists began to speak fragmenting the cultural examines the symbols that about a new “crisis of identity,” landscapes of class, gender, allow people to communicate because identity—once seen as sexuality, ethnicity, race, and to each other despite their a simple idea—was becoming nationality. These are the subjective interpretations. increasingly hard to pin down. frameworks that we have Professor Stuart Hall claims that traditionally relied upon to 1983 Anglo-American this is due to the way in which tell us who we are, both within professor Benedict Anderson structural change has been society and as individuals. says that national identity is an “imagined community.” 2010 British sociologist Mike Featherstone examines self-driven identity change through bodily transformations such as cosmetic surgery.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 201 See also: W.E.B. Du Bois 68–73 ■ Roland Robertson 146–47 ■ David Held 170–71 ■ G.H. Mead 176–77 ■ Norbert Elias 180–81 ■ Erving Goffman 190–95 ■ Benedict Anderson 202–03 ■ Howard S. Becker 280–85 In modern cities different cultures transformed continuously places, histories, and traditions, are thrown together. The more our according to the ways that it is and we are now faced with a range lives are influenced by these diverse addressed or represented in society. of identities from which we can cultural traditions, the less sense we This is a self in process, defined choose, when they appeal to us. have of a fixed national identity. historically rather than biologically. Within the “discourse” (meanings It contains contradictory identities system) of global consumerism, Hall names three modern ideas that pull in different directions, the differences and cultural of identity: the Enlightenment and only seems continuous or distinctions that are used to define “self,” the sociological “self,” stable because of the narrative identity have become a kind of and the postmodern “self.” The that each of us constructs about global currency. For example, jeans Enlightenment sense of self ourselves (our “life story”). and sneakers—once associated prevailed from the 17th to the early with “being American”—are now 20th centuries, and was held to be Detached identities just as much a part of being a a complete, autonomous being: a Hall says that the rapid, continuous, young person in India or Kenya. person was born with a firm inner and extensive change that began “core” that unfolded with age, but to take place at the end of the 20th Where to the Afro-French remained unchanged. century has added to a sense of philosopher Franz Fanon, black instability. Traditions and social people were always defined as In the 1920s, sociologists such practices are constantly examined, “other” to whites, Hall says that as G.H. Mead suggested that challenged, and often transformed in the global arena, cultures are identity is formed in relationship by new information stemming from thrown together “with each with the environment and increased global interconnection. ‘Other’,” where that other is “no “significant others,” who explain The global marketing of styles, longer simply ‘out there’ but also and transmit the values, meanings, places, and images means they within.” People increasingly come and symbols of the child’s world. pop up in every country, disrupting from a mixture of living spaces, The self in this definition was still a traditional sense of fixed ancestry, and birthplaces, and are seen as an inner core, but it could nationality and cultural identity. aware of internally holding a range be modified by society, through of identities that may come to the internalizing cultural values and This “mash up” of global culture fore at different times. This inner meanings. This “interactionist” means that identities have become and outer diversity, Hall says, is the view of the self, which bridges detached from specific times, force that is shaping our times. ■ the gap between the personal and public worlds, became the classic Stuart Hall movement. He was a cofounder sociological view of the self. of the Left Review in 1957, Known as the “godfather of director of the Centre for The postmodern self, on the multiculturalism,” Stuart Hall Contemporary Cultural Studies, other hand, says Hall, has no stable was born into a Jamaican family Birmingham, UK, and in 1979, inner core. It is not fixed in any that he says played out the a professor of sociology with the way, but instead is formed and conflict between the local and Open University. He also worked imperial (colonizing) context. with film-makers and artists on His parents were from different black subjectivity. social classes and from mixed ancestry; Hall rebelled against Key works their suggestions to play only with “higher color” friends. 1979 The Great Moving Right Show In 1952, Hall went to Oxford 1980 Encoding/Decoding University, England, and 1992 “The Question of became a key figure in the Cultural Identity” emerging New Left political

202 ALL COMMUNITIES ARE IMAGINED BENEDICT ANDERSON (1936– ) IN CONTEXT B efore the 16th century, the the idea of nationalism as a given: idea of nationalism did not if you are born in a certain place, FOCUS exist. It is a modern concept you have a certain nationality, just Nationalism that we have imagined into being as you are born a particular gender. and then convinced ourselves KEY DATES that it has an immemorial past. Anderson’s book Imagined 1800 German philosopher These are the views of social Communities (1983) questions Johann Fichte argues for a and political theorist Benedict the entire basis of nationalism. centralized state that could Anderson, who says that we take He defines “the nation” as “an isolate itself from the world imagined political community to develop a volksgeist—a nation’s distinct sense of self. With the development of printing, publishers appealed to the masses with books written in the most 1861 Soon after Italian unification, politician Massimo widespread vernacular languages as well as in Latin. d’Azeglio announces: “We have made Italy. Now we have to This gave the languages more stability, and helped make Italians.” to define groups of people according to the language they spoke. 1965 British-Czech anthropologist Ernest Gellner This unification via a common language allowed suggests that “nationalism is the growth of shared ideas and values, and the idea of not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it belonging to a nation grew. invents nations where they do not exist.” In a time when belief in religious rule was in decline, the concept of “nationhood” gave the populace 1991 French philosopher Étienne Balibar says that something to believe in, and a cause to die for. “every ‘people’… is the project of a national process of ethnicization.”

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 203 See also: Paul Gilroy 75 ■ Edward Said 80–81 ■ Elijah Anderson 82–83 ■ Saskia Sassen 164–65 ■ David Held 170–71 ■ Stuart Hall 200–01 that is imagined as both limited the many regional dialects, they Benedict Anderson and sovereign.” He explains that chose the larger ones, and as these it is “imagined” because members dialects gained stability in print, Benedict Richard Anderson of even the smallest nation in the so they created unified fields of is professor emeritus of world will never know or even meet communication and helped define international studies, most of their fellow-members, but what the nation should “look like.” government, and Asian “in the minds of each lives the studies at Cornell University, image of their communion.” Giving life purpose US. Born in Kunming, China, Sovereignty is also part of this in 1936, he was the son of National consciousness idea of the nation, Anderson says, an Irish father and English The idea of the nation is “limited,” because the concept arose during mother who had been active Anderson argues, because even the Enlightenment and an era of in Irish nationalist movements. the largest of nations has finite revolution. Religions lost their The family emigrated to boundaries, although these are unquestioned grip on people’s California in 1941, and “elastic” (due, for example, to minds, and it was no longer thereafter to Ireland. movement from immigration, accepted that monarchs had been Anderson was educated at emigration, and contested divinely chosen by God to rule. Eton College in Berkshire, territories). No nation has ever The sovereign state allowed the England. He took a degree entertained the possibility of structure of a nation to exist in classics at the University making everyone in the world part without calling on its people to of Cambridge in 1957. of “their nation,” he says, in the way believe in religious dogma. But that a religion, such as Christianity, with the death of religious rule, A fascination with Asian would like to see everyone joined questions about the meaning of politics led Anderson to in one, unified belief system. life went unanswered, according undertake a PhD at Cornell to Anderson. The rationality of the University, which included a Anderson claims that one of Enlightenment did not suggest any period of research in Jakarta, the ways in which nationalities reason for living, or dying—but Indonesia. His public response revealed their “elastic borders” was with the idea of the nation, a new to the 1965 communist coup via the printing industry. In the purpose arose. Here was something there resulted in him being 16th century, booksellers catered worth dying for, and it also deported from the country, to the educated, Latin-speaking provided a sense of continuity of after which he traveled in minorities, but realized they purpose that people had previously Thailand for several years needed to reach larger markets for gained from an idea of the afterlife before returning to Cornell bigger profits. Unable to cater for (such as heaven). to teach. Nationality, or… nation-ness, Some have questioned Key works as well as nationalism, Anderson’s theory, in particular are cultural artifacts. with respect to the Arabic world, 1983 Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson which continues to use a classical 1998 The Spectre of form of language and is still defined Comparisons by religious belief. However, at a 2007 Under Three Flags time in which political unrest is rife within “sub-nations” (such as Scotland or Catalonia) around the world, Anderson’s idea of imagined nationhood has proved both controversial and hugely influential. Imagined Communities has been published in 29 languages. ■

THROUGHOUT THE WORLD CULTURE HAS BEEN DOGGEDLY PUSHING ITSELF CENTER STAGE JEFFREY ALEXANDER (1947– )



206 JEFFREY ALEXANDER Sociologists have tended to regard culture as of secondary importance. IN CONTEXT Material factors—such as economic FOCUS wealth and social class—have been seen Cultural sociology as more influential. KEY DATES 1912 In The Elementary Alexander emphasizes the role of Forms of the Religious Life, culture for determining social life. Émile Durkheim discusses how culture and meaning Without culture, no communication, event, are interrelated. or human interaction is intelligible. 1937 US sociologist Talcott Within sociology, culture Parsons emphasizes the has been doggedly pushing autonomy of culture in The Structure of Social Action. itself center stage. 1973 US anthropologist Clifford Geertz stresses the importance of meaning for human social life in The Interpretation of Cultures. 1995 In Fin de Siècle Social Theory, Alexander criticizes Pierre Bourdieu, the world’s leading sociologist of culture. 2014 British sociologist Christopher Thorpe applies Alexander’s ideas in his examination of how the British experience Italy. M any of us live our lives The culture that we inhabit shapes maintains that sociologists have without examining why how we think, feel, and act in the historically seen culture as being we habitually do what most existentially pervasive ways. of secondary importance. As one of we do and think what we think. It is not in spite of our culture that the most influential social theorists Why do we spend so much of each we are who we are, but precisely in the world, Alexander has sought day working? Why do we save up because of it. to ensure that the subject of culture our money? Why are we interested takes center stage in the analysis in gossip about people we don’t US sociologist Jeffrey Alexander of late-modern society. know? If pressed to answer such argues that culture—the collectively questions, we may respond by produced ideas, beliefs, and values Sociology and culture saying “because that’s what people of a group—is integral to an While early sociological theorists like us do.” But there is nothing understanding of human life. Only recognized the central importance natural, necessary, or inevitable through culture can humans pry of culture, they failed—according about any of these things; instead, themselves apart from a primordial to Alexander—to take seriously we behave like this because the state to reflect upon, and intervene the idea that culture is essential culture we belong to compels us to. in, the world around them. In to understanding why people think spite of its central role, Alexander

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 207 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Jeffrey Alexander Erving Goffman 190–95 ■ Talcott Parsons 300–01 ■ Herbert Blumer 335 We are not anywhere Émile Durkheim. For Durkheim, Jeffrey Alexander, born in as reasonable or rational religion involved the separation 1947, is the Lillian Chavenson or sensible as we would of the sacred—meaning the ideas, Saden Professor of Sociology icons, and representations of at Yale University, and Co- like to think. the divine—from the profane, Director for the Center Jeffrey Alexander or the functions of everyday life. for Cultural Sociology. As Alexander saw culture as akin part of this role, Alexander and act in the ways they do. Karl to the sacred—autonomous from, established Cultural Sociology Marx, for example, saw mainstream rather than dependent upon, as a new academic journal to culture as a function of the ideas society; enabling rather than solely promote cultural sociological and values of the ruling class; constraining; and containing both ideas and methods. accordingly, culture served as irrational and rational elements. little more than a veil to blind the His cultural sociology focuses on In the US, and arguably majority of people to the profoundly understanding how individuals and on the world scene generally, unjust society in which they lived. groups are involved in the creation notably through his work on Max Weber took a different view of meaning by drawing upon Remembering the Holocaust: and argued that Western culture collectively produced values, A Debate (2009), he is one of was rational and involved viewing symbols, and discourses—ways the most distinguished social the natural and social worlds in a of talking about things—and how thinkers of his time. Originally dispassionate and scientific way; this in turn shapes their actions. taught by the influential US it was devoid of any wider sociologists Talcott Parsons meaning or worth. Three aspects of culture and Robert Bellah, Alexander Alexander defines cultural carried forward structural- For Alexander, both of these sociology in terms of three main functionalism to its logical views are lacking: Marx’s account points, relating to origination, conclusion before abandoning is overly reductive because it holds interpretation, and structure. it and founding his cultural that culture is determined by the First, culture can be completely sociological paradigm. way society is organized; Weber’s autonomous from the material account is overly rational because dimensions of social life. Key works it fails to acknowledge the highly Marx’s theories about culture irrational aspects of Western became the orthodox way of 2003 The Meanings of Social culture—in particular the role of conceptualizing the relationship Life: A Cultural Sociology emotions and values in directing between the “social” and the 2012 Trauma: A Social Theory the responses of individuals, and “cultural.” In Marx’s view, the 2013 The Dark Side of even entire nations, to the events material base of society (the Modernity taking place around them. economy, technologies, and the division of labor) determined the ...the heart of current Alexander’s theoretical ideal superstructure (the norms, debates lies between... approach was very different, and values, and beliefs of culture). ‘cultural sociology’ and built upon ideas about religion the ‘sociology of culture.’ proposed by French sociologist In contrast, Alexander believes Jeffrey Alexander that culture cannot be understood as a mere by-product of the “harder,” more “real” material dimensions of social life. The notion that material factors determine ideal ones—that economy determines culture— is fundamentally misguided. ❯❯

208 JEFFREY ALEXANDER Instead, culture is, and should be, The failure of Bourdieu... is cultural structures. These are according to Alexander, considered that he doesn’t recognize that symbolic resources, constellations “an independent variable,” culture has relative autonomy of signs and symbols that members detached from the life conditions of a culture draw upon to invest the from which it emerged but able to from social structure. world with meaning and relevance. exert power over the individuals Jeffrey Alexander People are often only partially and collectives within that culture. aware of these structures—they structured, but partially unique to do not consciously reflect upon the People’s understanding of them, and for this reason cannot extent to which their conscious events is neither natural or be understood in terms of simple and unconscious minds are shaped inevitable but is determined by the cause and effect. How people by them. Nevertheless, those culturally specific language and interpret an event cannot ever be structures are socially produced symbols they use to interpret, code, fully predicted but instead requires and patterned. The goal of cultural and make sense of the world. As to be understood retrospectively sociology is to make these Alexander says, whether a society and from the perspective of the structures visible. The ultimate is defined as capitalist, socialist, people concerned. aim is to understand better— or authoritarian does not bring us and, where desirable, intervene any closer to understanding the Third, Alexander claims that in—the collective actions and collective meaning attributed to in the same way that there exist reactions to events that take an event. Instead, this is something social structures—patterned ways place in the world. that needs to be explored from of behaving that exist above and “inside,” in terms of the collectively beyond individuals—there are also Meaning and the Holocaust produced structures, meanings, To demonstrate the way social and symbols that people use to groups are compelled by value- make sense of it. laden meanings and symbols, Alexander draws upon the example Second, in order to understand of the Nazi Holocaust of World War culture, sociologists must adopt an II. He uses this example because interpretative approach. Alexander the Holocaust is recognized as one compares culture to a text— of the most powerful symbols of something that people read and interpret in ways that are socially Culture in society can be explained in a number of different ways. Marx linked culture to social structure, but cultural sociologists such as Alexander see it as an independent, vast body of resources. Marx saw Alexander argues culture as a product of that culture behaves like economic, technological, software in a computing and social activity, cloud that users can forming part of the contribute to and draw social structure. upon to create meaning in the world.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 209 human suffering and evil; it is group lessened, did it become An earthquake in 1997 destroyed (almost) beyond question that this possible for individuals and Giotto’s frescoes of St. Francis in the event could be understood in any institutions to identify with them basilica at Assisi, Italy. Mira Debbs other way. Unbelievable as it may psychologically. By the early 1970s, reflected on how this loss resulted in seem now, he argues, it is neither the necessary cultural structures socially constructed cultural trauma. natural or inevitable that those were in place for the Holocaust to events came to be understood be re-evaluated, re-narrated, and the creation of meaning and its as an act of unprecedented evil; symbolically recoded as an act of maintenance across a range of rather: “...the category of ‘evil’ must evil. Only then was it elevated to areas—including the Holocaust, be seen not as something that the level of a traumatic event for democracy and civil society, and naturally exists but as an arbitrary all humankind and not just the the 9/11 attacks—have led to construction, the product of Jews. On a state visit in 1970, more scholars developing and cultural and sociological work.” the West German chancellor’s extending his ideas. For example, “kneefall” at the Warsaw Ghetto US sociologist Mira Debbs has In his 2001 essay “On the Social memorial has been described by analyzed the response in Italy Construction of Moral Universalism: Valentin Rauer, in Alexander’s to the destruction in 1997 of the The ‘Holocaust’ from War Crime Social Performance (2006), as a artist Giotto’s iconic frescoes in to Trauma Drama,” Alexander “symbol in action.” the basilica at Assisi. Such was the demonstrates in rich detail that in sacred status allocated to them in the years immediately after World Alexander’s cultural sociology the national imagination that their War II the Holocaust was not is rapidly establishing itself as loss has often been given more viewed with anything like the one of the most innovative and prominence than that of human same horror and condemnation insightful sociological theoretical life. Debbs draws upon Alexander’s as it is now. As a socially distinct frameworks. As part of the wider ideas to demonstrate how the ethnic group, European Jews were “cultural turn” within the social narration and coding of the typically negatively regarded in sciences, his work has helped artworks in a particular way—as many societies, which in turn led retrain the analytical focus of sacred national treasures—led to to a less than empathetic response social thinkers onto the topic such a strong, seemingly irrational, to their plight. Only as they became of “meaning.” In particular his collective emotional response by more integrated into wider society, adaptation and application of the majority of Italian people. ■ and their distinctness as a social Durkheim’s work to understanding Willy Brandt’s kneefall at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1970 was an act that symbolized German repentance, triggering a shift in collective identity.

WORK A CONSUM

ND ERISM

212 INTRODUCTION Max Weber describes In The Coming of Post- the religious roots Industrial Society: A Venture in Karl Marx and of modern capitalist Social Forecasting, Daniel Bell Friedrich Engels work in The Protestant describe in The Ethic and the Spirit predicts the replacement Communist Manifesto of manufacturing with the exploitation and of Capitalism. alienation of workers. information and service industries. 1848 1904–05 1973 1899 1964 1974 Thorstein Veblen introduces Robert Blauner suggests, in In Labor and Monopoly Capital: the concept of Alienation and Freedom: The The Degradation of Work in the Factory Worker and His Industry, conspicuous consumption that increased automation Twentieth Century, Harry in his Theory of the Leisure helps reduce the alienation Braverman describes the Class: An Economic Study de-skilling of workers felt by industrial workers. through increasing automation. of Institutions. S ociology initially focused repetitive and soulless nature of the and leisure. The value that was its attention on the changes work itself alienated the workers, ascribed to material wealth meant to society that had been while the division of labor removed that a person’s social status was brought about by industrialization. any feeling of connection with the judged by economic worth. A major aspect of modernity was finished product or pride in their the changing nature of people’s work. Later, Max Weber pointed out Toward the end of the 19th working lives: the dramatic shift how rationalization and the work century, sociologist Thorstein from agriculture and crafts in rural ethic combined to force people to Veblen pointed out that the communities to employment in the work for a specific economic end bourgeoisie could assert its social new manufacturing industries. rather than for the good of the status, whether real or not, by Along with this came the growth of community as a whole. Traditional conspicuous consumption— capitalism, bringing prosperity to communal values had been eroded, spending not on goods and services at least some members of society. and replaced with an emphasis on that were necessary, but luxuries material worth. and leisure pursuits that would be Among the first to study the noticed. Colin Campbell was later implications of work in modern Consumer society to liken the rise of a “consumer industrial society were Karl Marx For the working class, this society” in the 20th century to the and Friedrich Engels, who saw the translated into a struggle to earn Romanticism that flourished in emergence of two social classes: the means to support a family, and reaction to 18th-century rationalism an affluent bourgeoisie, or middle resignation to a life of work that and industrialization. Daniel class, and an oppressed proletariat, was unrewarding in every sense. Miller saw the growth of material or working class. But as well as the For the growing capitalist middle consumerism as a potential source exploitation of the working class, class, it meant increased prosperity of social cohesion—a means of the pair recognized that the identifying with a social group.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 213 Pierre Bourdieu Arlie Hochschild’s In The Romantic Ethic Daniel Miller argues in reworks Veblen’s idea The Managed Heart and the Spirit of Modern Stuff that material consumption is a of conspicuous suggests that the Consumerism, Colin consumption in service economy has Campbell echoes Weber positive force in the Distinction: A Social establishment of commercialized to examine the links Critique of the human emotions. between Romanticism personal identity and Judgment of Taste. social cohesion. and consumerism. 1979 1983 1987 2010 1979 1986 2007 In Manufacturing In Patriarchy at Work: In Assembling Women: Consent, Michael Patriarchal and Capitalist The Feminization of Global Burawoy examines how Relations in Employment, Manufacturing, Teri Lynn workers develop ways Sylvia Walby highlights gender inequalities in Caraway examines the to deal with effects of more women unsatisfying jobs. the workplace. entering employment. Industrialization continued to yet more alienated. Somewhere longer seen as a male preserve; spread across the world in the between these two views, however, more women than ever before are 20th century, and technological Michael Burawoy suggested that in paid employment. advances led to an increase in workers reconcile themselves to automation—in agricultural ultimately dull and oppressive work One effect of the shift into what and traditional crafts as well by recognizing its positive aspects. is now known as the post-industrial as in manufacturing industries. world has been identified by Arlie Societies, in the industrialized Post-industrial work Hochschild. Service industries West at least, became more In the 1970s, around 200 years after are more emotionally demanding materially prosperous, and the beginning of the Industrial than manufacturing; in effect, fostered the rapid growth of mass Revolution, the nature of work they commercialize emotion, to the consumerism, but sociologists looked set to change yet again. extent, she argues, that people can disagreed about the effects of Daniel Bell predicted that associate their feelings with their automation on the workforce. mechanization would take people work rather than their home lives out of manufacturing industries, and leisure. The social effects of Robert Blauner forecast that and they would be employed these recent changes to the nature automation would free people from predominantly in the information of employment have yet to be fully mindless tasks and reduce their and service industries. To a large studied; it is too early to tell whether feelings of alienation. On the other extent, in the affluent world at work in the service economy will hand, Harry Braverman argued least, this has proved correct. prove to be any more rewarding, or that automation meant workers Another change that became conducive to social solidarity, than were no longer required to develop apparent in the latter part of the manufacturing work—or if gender professional skills, had less control 20th century is that work was no inequality will be reduced because over their working lives, and felt more women are in the workforce. ■

CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION OF VALUABLE GOODS IS A MEANS OF REPUTABILITY TO THE GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE THORSTEIN VEBLEN (1857–1929)



216 THORSTEIN VEBLEN T he work of US economist The motive that lies at and sociologist Thorstein the root of ownership IN CONTEXT Veblen focuses on the relationship between economy and is emulation. FOCUS society, and on how different class Thorstein Veblen Conspicuous consumption groups consume specific goods and services. He draws on the ideas of a The industrious class forms KEY DATES number of key theorists, including the vast majority of the population 1844 Karl Marx discusses Karl Marx, British sociologist and engages in productive labor, class structure in capitalist Herbert Spencer, and British such as manual craft and machine society in Economic and naturalist Charles Darwin. Veblen’s work. By contrast, the leisure Philosophical Manuscripts insights into capitalist society and class is a numerically far smaller, of 1844. the types of consumer behavior but nevertheless socially and it gives rise to are outlined in his economically privileged, group 1859 Charles Darwin explains most celebrated work, The Theory that is parasitic on the labor his theory of evolution in On of the Leisure Class: An Economic of the industrious class. For Veblen, the Origin of Species by Means Study of Institutions (1899). members of this predatory leisure of Natural Selection. class do not produce anything of Capitalism and class any real benefit to the wider good 1979 Pierre Bourdieu reworks Veblen sees the transition from of society. The wealth and privilege Veblen’s theory of conspicuous traditional to modern society as they possess derive from driving consumption in Distinction. propelled by the development of competition and manipulating technical knowledge and industrial workers, with the sole aim of 1992–2005 Studies by US production methods. Like Marx, increasing their personal wealth. sociologist Richard A. Peterson Veblen argues that capitalist suggest that snobbery is no society is split into two competing longer a determining factor in social-class groups: the industrious the consumption practices of class made up of workers; and the the middle class. leisure class, also referred to as the pecuniary or business class (which From 2011 Veblen’s concept also includes politicians, managers, of conspicuous consumption lawyers, and so on), which owns influences economic ideas the factories and workshops. about irrationality and consumer behavior. Capitalist society is divided into The industrious class produces consumer two classes. goods, and the leisure class thrives on the profits created by the industrious class. Conspicuous consumption Members of the leisure class buy of valuable goods is a nonessential luxury goods to display means of reputability to their wealth, power, and status. the gentleman of leisure.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 217 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Charles Wright Mills 46–49 ■ Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Anthony Giddens 148–49 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Colin Campbell 234–35 ■ Herbert Spencer 334 Worse still, the privileged class The concept of “Veblen goods,” or luxury goods consistently impedes positive that signal high status, appeared in economic theory social advancement through its in the 1970s. In a reversal of usual trends, the higher deliberate mismanagement of the price of these items, the more they are desired. industry and society generally. Social recognition Desire for goods increases Veblen’s concept of “conspicuous as price increases. consumption” is his most renowned contribution to economic and PRICE OF LUXURY ITEM sociological theory. Framed by the Darwinian notion that all life DESIRE FOR LUXURY ITEM represents an ongoing struggle for resources in the pursuit of members of the leisure class spend production of consumer goods advancement of the species (or in pursuit of activities that are and services) and time are wasted. in the case of human societies, neither economically nor socially A glaring example of this culture the groups to which individuals productive. Very simply, leisure of waste is the depletion of natural belong), Veblen argues that under implies an absence of work. For resources such as oil and minerals capitalism the majority of human members of this privileged class in the manufacture of luxury ❯❯ behavior is determined by who have sufficient distance from struggles for social recognition, economic necessity (the need to Travel to foreign lands, learning status, and power. This is most work), the nonproductive use of languages, and acquiring knowledge evident in relation to patterns of time can be used to further their about other cultures were powerful consumption and leisure. social prestige and class position. status symbols for wealthy Europeans Going on exotic foreign vacations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Conspicuous consumption and learning about other countries refers to spending money on, and are classic examples of conspicuous consumption of, nonessential leisure, according to Veblen. luxury goods in order to display to other members of society The inevitable consequence one’s own economic and material of conspicuous leisure and wealth. An example of this is the consumption is the production of modern business tycoon who buys unnecessary waste. Conspicuous an expensive yacht so that he can waste, argues Veblen, derives from entertain friends and clients. It is the amalgamation of conspicuous not the utility value of the yacht consumption and conspicuous (whether or not it is an effective leisure. The net result of these two means of transport) that matters activities is that socially valuable to the tycoon; rather, its value is as resources (the raw materials and a highly conspicuous signifier of human labor essential for the the wealth at the tycoon’s disposal, for which he will receive both admiration and respect. Leisure and waste Closely bound to Veblen’s concept of conspicuous consumption is the notion of conspicuous leisure: the vast amount of time that

218 THORSTEIN VEBLEN goods and commodities, which in to emulate, both consciously and The carbon-copy lifestyle of turn gives rise to increased carbon unconsciously, the consumption some middle-class neighborhoods emissions and climate change. practices of their social arises from pressure to emulate the “superiors”—members of the leisure consumption practices of residents in Veblen’s concepts of class. This is an attempt to signify an attempt to gain status and prestige. conspicuous consumption and to others their affiliation to the most conspicuous leisure are “political” socially powerful and dominant according to Veblen. As capitalism ones because they contain within groups in society. becomes increasingly competitive, them a strong moral stance toward so the process of invidious the actions and lifestyle of what he Pecuniary emulation is firmly comparison proliferates. The sees as the predatory and parasitic rooted in the idea of ownership: dominant mode of evaluating leisure class. once the immediate material needs other people is “with a view to of individuals are met, consumer rating and grading them in Pecuniary emulation goods are purchased for their utility respect to relative worth or value.” Aside from the wastefulness that as signifiers of social-class status But in addition to generating even the lifestyle of the leisure class and affiliation to the identity and more waste across the population, necessitates, a further negative lifestyle of a given social group. the process of pecuniary consequence of their activities In capitalist society, social-class emulation does not guarantee the is captured in Veblen’s notion of groups are stratified hierarchically. accumulation of social respect pecuniary emulation. This concept Attached to each class group is a or prestige. Here Veblen uses the refers to the idea that individuals specific amount of social status. term “nouveau riche,” or recently from lower social-class groups try Ownership, power, status, and acquired wealth, to describe people dominance become inextricably who engage in conspicuous acts of Wealth is now itself bound together, such that the consumption, such as buying flashy intrinsically honorable struggle for status is founded cars or designer-brand clothes. This and confers honor on primarily in displays of economic may result in disapproval from wealth and pecuniary respect. people whose wealth or status— its possessor. Veblen claims that people are and what may be considered as Thorstein Veblen constantly comparing themselves— more understated or subtle taste and what they have—to those dispositions—is inherited from around them. There are, he says, a previous generations. This could number of very real and negative serve to alienate the nouveau riche unintended consequences arising even further from the dominant from this phenomenon. social groups they aspire to emulate. Purchasing conspicuous Individuals and entire groups consumer goods can lead to the are subjected to the pressures attainment of social prestige, but of “invidious,” or unjust, comparison with one another,

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 219 not in those cases in which the Individuals... seek to dispositions and consumption consumers are perceived to be, and excel in pecuniary standing practices are emulated by all often are, exceeding the financial other social groups. means available to them. and... gain the esteem and envy of fellow-men. Developing this idea further, Veblen’s legacy US sociologist Richard Peterson Veblen’s ideas on the conspicuous Thorstein Veblen devised the concept of “cultural nature of consumption have been omnivore” to refer to an emergent influential in the development of are able to construct a sense of social group—the educated fraction sociological analysis and continue self-identity and worth through of the middle class working in to attract controversy and debate the products they buy and the the new media industries and in equal measure. activities they pursue. advertising—that accrues prestige from consuming an eclectic mix For example, the work of the More recently, sociologists of high- and low-brow consumer French theorist Pierre Bourdieu have questioned whether a socially goods. Social prestige, according is indebted to Veblen’s notions distinct leisure class can really to Peterson, is now no longer of pecuniary emulation and be said to exist at all. British derived from conspicuous conspicuous consumption, even sociologist Mike Savage, for consumption of luxury goods though he modified them to fit his example, has argued that the alone, but from the “knowing” theoretical model. Bourdieu maps shifting dynamics of modern and “ironic” consumption of out how individuals and social- class relations means there is no purposively non-luxury items such class groups constantly compete aristocratic leisure class in the as retrograde clothing, baseball with, and differentiate themselves modern world. This also means, caps, Dr. Martens boots, and so on. from, one another through the according to Savage, that there consumption of certain types is no longer a clearly identifiable Despite criticisms and of socially distinguishing goods social group whose taste modification of his ideas, Veblen’s and services. The Theory of the Leisure Class, with its detailed examination British-born sociologist Colin of the intended and unintended Campbell, however, sees Veblen’s social consequences of consumer work as overly reductive. He claims spending and wider consumption that Veblen fails to acknowledge patterns in capitalist societies, that the acquisition of consumer nevertheless remains an essential goods plays an essential and reference for economists and positive part in the way people sociologists alike. ■ Thorstein Veblen religion, combined with his his notoriously promiscuous odd manner and allegedly behavior. This culminated in Thorsten Veblen was born in monotonous teaching style, divorce from his wife in 1911. Wisconsin to Norwegian meant that he struggled to gain He moved to California, where immigrant parents. He obtained employment. As a result, from he passed his remaining years his undergraduate degree in 1884 to 1891 he depended on in depressed solitude. economics from Johns Hopkins the largesse of his family. University in 1880; four years Key works later he received his doctorate In 1892, his former mentor, from Yale University. J. Laurence Laughlin, joined the 1899 The Theory of the Leisure University of Chicago, taking Class: An Economic Study Veblen’s relationship with Veblen with him as a teaching of Institutions the world of institutional assistant. It was here Veblen 1904 The Theory of Business academia was a fractious one. wrote and published The Theory Enterprise In the late 19th century, many of the Leisure Class. Shortly after, 1914 The Instincts of universities were strongly he was fired from the University Workmanship and the State affiliated with churches, and of Chicago and, later, also from of the Industrial Arts Veblen’s skepticism about the University of Stanford for

220 IN CONTEXT THE PURITAN FOCUS WANTED TO WORK Protestant work ethic IN A CALLING; WE ARE FORCED KEY DATES TO DO SO 1517 German theologian Martin Luther posts his MAX WEBER (1864–1920) “Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” which is a catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. From the 1840s Karl Marx focuses on economic—rather than religious or cultural— factors for understanding the rise of capitalism. 1882 A worldview hostile to Christianity is articulated by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who declares “God is dead.” 1920 Max Weber’s book Sociology of Religion is published and becomes a major influence on sociological theories of religion. M ax Weber, a founding father of sociology, provides a very different account of the rise of capitalism to that outlined in the work of the two other traditional founders of the discipline, Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904– 05), Weber’s most acclaimed work, he offers an analysis of the role played by religious ideas, beliefs, and values—particularly Protestantism—in the rise of modern capitalism. For Weber, the definitive feature of capitalist society is the particular “work ethic” or “spirit of capitalism,” as he refers to it, that

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 221 See also: Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Jeffrey Alexander 204–09 ■ Colin Campbell 234–35 ■ Karl Marx 254–59 ■ Bryan Wilson 278–79 Roman Catholicism’s The reformist notion A religiously inspired corruption and other- of “the calling” claims work ethic develops with worldliness prompts religious duty and earning a sense of duty animated calls for change. a living are the same. by “social usefulness.” Capitalism’s religious roots An emphasis on fade from view as its success economic accumulation fuels the new Protestant leads to the triumph “spirit of capitalism.” of secularization. drives modern economies and the to capitalism, he argues, is that the Where, wondered Weber, did this pursuit of wealth and profit. He pursuit of profit becomes an end ideal—the unrelenting pursuit of claims that this “work ethic” is in itself. A modern-day example profit, or wealth for wealth’s sake— founded on the values of rationality, is the transnational banking that animates the “work ethic” at calculability, individual self- group HSBC, which made a pre-tax the heart of capitalism, actually regulation, and gain. profit of US $22.6 billion in 2013. come from? If this profit was distributed The pursuit of profit among all of the firm’s employees Weber believed that to answer Weber’s focus on the part played by they could stop working and still this question, we must look not cultural factors was partly intended live materially comfortable lives. to changes in social solidarity or to counter Marx’s view that the rise Instead, firms such as HSBC use technology but to one of the oldest of capitalism was a natural and the profit they make to reinvest features of all human societies— inevitable process. Weber rejected in the corporation, improve its religion. He looks back in time the notion that human history is efficiency, and pursue further profit. to religious developments that driven by underlying, inexorable were taking place in 16th-century ❯❯ “laws” that determine the path society will take. The buying and selling of goods and services for more than they are worth is, Weber says, not unique to capitalism. Throughout history people have always traded with one another with a view to accruing profit. What is historically unique The vast profits of the US retail giant Walmart should, staff says, be redirected into paying better wages. The corporation came under scrutiny in 2014 as a low-paying employer.

222 MAX WEBER Europe, when Protestantism concept of “the calling” is the belief Calvinist church aesthetics stress emerged as a reaction to the that earning a living and religious simplicity: Protestantism focused on perceived corruption and failings duty are one and the same thing. austerity and thrift in contrast to the of the Roman Catholic Church. grandeur and ostentation that was Nascent Protestantism offered a Luther’s ideas were taken up often associated with Catholicism. very different vision of the relations within two decades and developed between God and his subjects in important ways by arguably the another that there were certain and the ethics overseeing them. most influential of all the reformers, distinct signs that revealed who John Calvin (1509–1564). However, was predestined to be saved. The Protestant “calling” contained within the otherwise Weber identified in particular the coherent ethical system Calvin Social usefulness importance of “the calling” to the formulated was a significant Protestants felt that the most new Protestant system of ethics, by inconsistency or contradiction: if obvious way in which they could which was meant the position that God is all-seeing and all-knowing, tell whether or not they were saved God has called people to occupy then our destiny as individuals is was by succeeding in the world, in this world. Whereas the Roman predetermined because God made especially in economic affairs. Catholic Church urged monastic the world and everyone in it. Essential to this outcome was, retreat from the world of mundane they believed, a specific work affairs (such as daily life and work), Calvin’s notion is referred to as ethic—historically novel and Protestantism demanded that its the concept of the “elect.” Because uniquely Protestant—that followers fulfilled their worldly God already knows how we are emphasized the absolute need for duties and responsibilities. fated to live our lives, he also knows austerity, self-monitoring, and self- whose souls he has elected to save control in the conduct of economic In drawing attention to this and whose souls will be damned. affairs. Weber referred to this as the difference in religious ideals, Weber The problem for Protestants, “spirit of capitalism.” identified the German theologian however, is that there is no way of Martin Luther (1483–1546) as the knowing in advance the category— A further aspect of this spirit man whose thinking was essential the saved or the damned—to which was the drive toward increasing to the development of Protestant they belong. According to Weber, rationalization, control, and theology. Luther was the first this unknown gave rise to calculability within the sphere person to suggest that fulfilling “salvation anxiety” and led to of economic action. To prosper the duties of secular life also psychological terror among the economically is to demonstrate to demonstrated reverence to God. followers of Protestantism. To one’s self and others adherence to He claimed that at the heart of the resolve their unease, Protestants the notion of “the calling”: the more convinced themselves and one Modernity and the Holocaust For Weber, the spread of and acting, Bauman sees it as the values of calculability, a highly rationalized event. Not rationality, and self-restraint only did modernity’s rationality that defined the Protestant work make the Holocaust possible, it ethic were also central to the was a necessary condition for it development of modernity. because the extermination was run on bureaucratic, organized German-Polish sociologist lines. Bauman argues that the Zygmunt Bauman argues that high levels of rationality and the value-basis of that ethic also self-discipline exhibited by the explains how the Nazi Holocaust Holocaust’s perpetrators are was able to occur. Instead of the inextricably bound up with traditional view of the Holocaust the religious culture and values as the triumph of irrationality that were found throughout and a regression to primitive, Protestant Europe. pre-modern ways of thinking

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 223 hard-working, austere, and self- More than 100 years after Fulfillment of worldly duties controlled individuals are in their its original publication in German, is... the only way to live actions, the greater will be the Weber’s theory of the Protestant acceptably to God. economic rewards they reap; and ethic remains hotly debated among Max Weber the more wealth they accumulate, contemporary sociologists and the more this is understood as proof historians. The Italian sociologist in The Romantic Ethic and the of their religious purity and the Luciano Pellicani, for example, has Spirit of Modern Consumerism promise of salvation. argued that the spirit of capitalism (1987), Colin Campbell uses Weber’s arose much earlier than Weber theory to account for the rise of The inverse of the Protestant suggests and that it was already consumer culture in Europe ethic is to shy away from work— present in medieval society. and the US. This extension of to commit the sins of idleness Weber’s ideas confirms that his and indolence and to fail to In Weber’s defense, English religion-inspired account of the prosper financially. historian Guy Oakes points to rise of capitalism continues to the fact that medieval capitalism exert a powerful influence over Secularization was fueled by greed rather than sociological thought. ■ With the steady decline of formal by the sober, mundane sense religion (secularization) from the of duty promoted by Calvinism. Industrial Revolution onward, the However, the fact that industrial Protestant ethic that underpins capitalism first took hold in the the “spirit of capitalism” has been Protestant countries of Europe, eroded. When Weber claims that such as the Netherlands, Britain, early Protestants “wanted to work and Germany, confirms the in a calling” but that today “we are link that Weber made between forced to,” he is suggesting that Protestantism and the enterprising although the values of hard work, impulse that was necessary for the self-control, and self-discipline development of capitalism. And upon which capitalism is founded have remained and are valued The Protestant world view was shaped socially, their religious roots have by the concept that worldly duties show disappeared from view. reverence to God and promote his glory. Material success is interpreted as God’s In identifying the strong affinity approval—a reward for effort, thrift, between the work ethic contained sobriety, and other “correct” ways of living. within Reformation Protestantism— particularly the teachings of WHdSouaeDrrltfildi-sdeccwlsoiyp:noltrirknoel Honor your John Calvin—and the spirit of calling and capitalism, Weber draws attention you shall be to a great historical irony. The rewarded Protestant Reformation was intended to salvage the message of God from the corrupting influences of the Roman Catholic Church. Nearly 500 years later, formal religion has gone into significant decline. What began as an attempt to salvage the Word has given rise to a work ethic that has been essential to the proliferation of capitalism. And as capitalism has developed, the power of formal religion to influence our actions has greatly diminished.

224 TECHNOLOGY, LIKE ART, IS A SOARING EXERCISE OF THE HUMAN IMAGINATION DANIEL BELL (1919–2011) IN CONTEXT Post-industrial society is characterized by the proliferation of scientific and theoretical knowledge. FOCUS Post-industrialism Scientific Universities and Technocrats progress leads to industry-based gain power due KEY DATES technological to their technical 1850s–80s Karl Marx argues advances and the research are that the social power of the key drivers of competence bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, rise of service innovation and and specialist derives from ownership of industries. social change. knowledge. industrial machines. Advances in technology lead society in 1904–05 Max Weber’s The imaginative and unpredictable new directions. Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism points to the D uring the 1960s and first-hand experience of the rapid increasingly rational nature 1970s profound changes and extensive urban development of modern culture. swept through the that was taking place. economic basis of society in 1970s Leading US sociologist Western Europe and the US. In his Bell agrees with Karl Marx that Talcott Parsons defends the influential work The Coming the bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, values and advancement of of Post-Industrial Society (1973), was the most powerful social group modern industrial society. political journalist and sociologist in industrial society because they Daniel Bell developed the concept owned the means of production— 1970–72 Daniel Bell forecasts of “post-industrialism” to refer to the factories and machines that the rise of the Internet and these changes. Having lived in produced the goods consumed the importance of home New York and Chicago, Bell had by the wider population. In computers. Bell’s post-industrial society, From the 1990s The concept of post-industrialism informs the theories of globalization experts Ulrich Beck and Manuel Castells.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 225 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Manuel Castells 152–55 ■ Ulrich Beck 156–61 ■ Max Weber 220–223 however, the most valuable social initiatives form ever-tighter and Daniel Bell “resource” is scientific and interpenetrating relations; and theoretical knowledge, and those finally, the number of unskilled The influential social thinker, who control it hold the power. and semiskilled workers declines writer, and sociologist Daniel as the majority of the population Bell was born in Manhattan, He also claims that social work in, and draw upon, the New York City in 1919. change occurs at an unprecedented expanding service industries. His parents were Jewish pace as scientific progress and Bell refers to service industries as immigrants from Eastern developments in technology those spheres of human activity Europe. His father died when interpenetrate and propel human that are devoted to managing Bell was just a few months societies into the future. The and guiding the application of old; his family’s name was post-industrial era is therefore, information and knowledge. changed from Bolotsky to Bell he says, a period in the history when he was a teenager. of society in which advances in Another key aspect of post- science and technology are as industrial society, according In 1938 Bell received a unpredictable and boundless to Bell, is the rise in power of BSc from City College of New as the human imagination. “technocrats,” or people who York. He worked as a political exercise authority through their journalist for more than 20 Post-industrial society technical knowledge and ability to years. As managing editor of According to Bell, post-industrial solve problems logically. The social The New Leader magazine society differs from industrial power of technocrats is determined and editor of Fortune, he society in three interrelated ways: by their skill in forecasting and wrote widely on social issues. first, the production of consumer guiding new scientific ideas. In 1959, in recognition of his goods is surpassed by the growth contribution to political and progress of “theoretical” Bell believes that technology journalism, he was appointed knowledge; second, developments encourages imagination and professor of sociology at in science and technology become experimentation—in so doing, it Columbia University; he was increasingly intertwined as opens up new ways of thinking later awarded a PhD from the universities and industry-led about the world. He points to the same university, even though fact that the Greek word techne he did not submit a doctoral Modern cities are no longer means “art.” For him, art and thesis. He was a professor dominated by the factories essential to technology should not be seen as of sociology at Harvard manufacturing. In the post-industrial separate realms: technology, he University from 1969 to 1990. world of service industries, futuristic says, is “a form of art that bridges architecture has space to thrive. culture and social structure, and Key works in the process reshapes both.” ■ 1969 The End of Ideology 1973 The Coming of Post- Industrial Society 1976 The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism

THE MORE SOPHISTICATED MACHINES BECOME THE LESS SKILL THE WORKER HAS HARRY BRAVERMAN (1920–1976)



228 HARRY BRAVERMAN The US economy undergoes rapid industrialization in the 1950s. IN CONTEXT The “scientific” division of labor emphasizes FOCUS rationalization, calculability, and control. De-skilling Skilled factory and office workers are alienated by KEY DATES increased automation and managerial control. 1911 US mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor Claims of increased training, skill, and education publishes The Scientific prove false as workers’ overall skill levels decline. Principles of Management. The more sophisticated machines 1950s The translation become, the less skill the worker has. into English of Karl Marx’s writing on alienation brings his work back into vogue in Anglophone sociology. 1958 US thinker James R. Bright publishes Automation and Management, which warns of links between automation and de-skilling. 1960s Mechanization causes widespread alienation among unskilled and semiskilled workers in the US. 1970s A US governmental report entitled Work in America concludes that significant numbers of workers are dissatisfied with their jobs. S ince the 1950s, Karl Marx’s acknowledging that he is following working class and craftsmen. He concept of alienation has in this intellectual tradition, Harry believed that the de-skilling of work been the leading analytical Braverman’s classic 1974 study, and the degradation of industrial lens through which sociologists Labor and Monopoly Capital: workers was a process that had from North America and Europe The Degradation of Work in the been gathering momentum since have sought to understand the Twentieth Century, is a systematic World War II. Although his focus modernization of employment inquiry into the nature of industrial was on factory workers, he also and its effects on the workforce. work and the changing composition dealt with, albeit in less detail, of the working class under the office and clerical workers. Both Marx and Max Weber had conditions of monopoly capitalism. predicted that the rise of industrial Myths of skilled labor technology would be accompanied Braverman’s analysis pivots The idea that the industrialization by a drive toward ever-greater on the notion of “de-skilling”: that of factory work is empowering for levels of efficiency, and the advances in industrial technology workers is tackled head on by rationalization of the workforce and machine production have led to Braverman and found seriously into increasingly differentiated the alienation and “deconstruction” wanting. Drawing on his own and specialized parts. Explicitly of skilled members of the industrial

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 229 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ George Ritzer 120–23 ■ Manuel Castells 152–55 ■ Erich Fromm 188 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25 ■ Robert Blauner 232–33 Industrial processes and... the workforce, typically this acknowledges that automation organization have robbed has a negative and unintended can be a positive development. The the worker of his craft and consequence for the individual effects become wholly negative, he entering paid employment. claims, when automation of the its heritage. workplace is coupled with radical Harry Braverman In the course of surveys changes to the social relations of and interviews undertaken by production: the way in which the experience of such factory work, Braverman, it was often found that total labor process is organized, Braverman challenges official the attainment of educational managed, and manipulated. statistics and governmental qualifications made the experience He emphasizes the distinction classifications of workers to of factory and office work even more between advances in science demonstrate the progressive frustrating, or lacking in fulfillment, and technology and how those and ongoing “de-skilling” of because opportunities for are implemented in the workplace the US working class. individuals to utilize and apply on the one hand, and changes to the knowledge obtained from their the social relations of production— So, for example, the notion schooling simply did not exist. the drive for ever-more efficient that increasing technology Greater educational achievement ways to organize and divide up in the workplace calls forth a can lead to a far more acutely the labor force—on the other. more technically proficient and perceived sense of alienation. educationally qualified workforce Just as machines are built to is, he argues, simply not true. Progressive skills erosion do jobs in the most efficient way, Terms like “training,” “skill,” and Before the Industrial Revolution, the workforce is structured to “learning” are vague and open to notes Braverman, material increase productivity and profit. interpretation, and the amount of goods were made by skilled and Braverman’s aim is to show that the training required to operate factory semiskilled craftsmen and artisans. embodied knowledge and technical and office machinery often takes Advances in technology had competencies of skilled workers only a matter of minutes or, at most, enabled the scale of industrial have been eroded and forgotten. ❯❯ a few weeks. Merely pointing to production to reach unprecedented the fact that workers can operate levels. The capacity for machines The production line at Opel in machinery does not necessarily to perform so many of the tasks 1950s’ West Germany. Subdivision of mean their skill levels have hitherto performed manually by labor improved efficiency but, claimed increased significantly. Tending skilled workers meant certain skills Braverman, such processes de-skilled to machinery and knowing how and technical knowledge were no and degraded the worker. to operate it—a good example is longer required, while the need for learning how to use a photocopier— new competencies and expertise does not mean that a worker should grew in their place. be reclassified as “skilled.” Understood in this way, argues Moreover, Braverman found that Braverman, automation removes while general levels of educational the need for some skills while achievement have increased among creating a need for different, new skills in their place. Technological progress alone does not necessarily lead to a decline in workers’ skill levels. Neither does alienation follow as a direct result. Braverman was not arguing nostalgically for a return to the pre-industrial model of the craft worker; on the contrary, he

230 HARRY BRAVERMAN What Braverman means by the The alienation of the worker productivity is the separating out degradation of work is the decline presents itself to management of what Braverman refers to as in the number of jobs that require “conception” from “execution.” a worker to conceptualize and as [a] problem in costs Invoking a biological metaphor, execute a task. He argues the and controls. Braverman states that the workers workforce has been reorganized are like a hand, whose every move into a mass of workers, whose jobs Harry Braverman is controlled, supervised, and require little conceptualization, corrected by the distant brain and a smaller number of managers. overall labor process. Third, of management. empowered by knowledge of the The rise of management total labor process, management is The cold logic of capitalism Influenced by the work of US able to control in highly exacting As the total range of skills engineer and industrialist Frederick ways what it is that each individual possessed by workers diminishes Taylor, who had developed a theory worker does. Careful monitoring over time, so in turn their value of scientific management and and regulation of productivity levels decreases. Workers can be paid less workflows, Braverman argues means that management is able because the tasks they perform are that three novel and significant to intervene whenever productivity increasingly menial and unskilled. developments have accelerated is perceived to be dipping, or Robbed of their expertise, they and accentuated the de-skilling whenever a worker can be shown are more dispensable and, crucially, of the labor force. to be underperforming. interchangeable. For Braverman, the cruel and unforgiving logic of First, knowledge and Braverman argues that the the capitalist system inextricably information of the entire labor ultimate negative consequence ties his analysis to the concept of process is known only to, and of organizing work in a manner social class. The deconstruction closely controlled by, management that above all else emphasizes of craftsmanship among the labor and not the workers. Second, efficiency, calculability, and force works to ensure that entire and as a direct result of the first sections of the population are development, the worker performs prevented from climbing the his set task in the total division of social hierarchy. labor on a “need-to-know” basis. Workers are kept completely in Braverman’s study focuses the dark about the impact of the primarily on industrial factory tasks they perform and about work but his attention also turns the role these tasks play in the to the de-skilling of office workers. In Braverman’s metaphor, “Conception”: “Execution”: managers are the brain and knowledge and workers are asked workers the hand of all-seeing information about to perform mundane management in the workplace. the overall labor tasks; they are kept When labor is organized process is held by ignorant of all other to maximize efficiency, management alone. aspects of work. productivity, and profit, there is a negative outcome for the workers. Braverman attributed this to the rise of management, which now observed, monitored, controlled, and regulated every action of the workforce. The effects of technology were first felt in factories; today, even retail outlets are supervised by distant, centralized head offices.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 231 Harry Braverman Female typists at a mail-order firm fear of censorship, to write such Harry Braverman was in 1912. By the early 20th century the a penetrating and biting critique born in 1920 in New York to profession of clerk had given way to of the injustices of industrial Polish-Jewish émigré parents. large-scale, efficiently arranged, and capitalism and their impact on He attended college for one scientifically managed offices. the majority of the workforce. year before leaving for While Braverman was not the financial reasons. He later He notes that control of the daily first or only thinker to identify and worked as an apprentice round of activities involved in clerical denounce the relationship between coppersmith in Brooklyn, work—including bookkeeping, automation and de-skilling, his where he developed a scheduling, and the responsibility work was crucial for revitalizing powerful insight into the that ensues from this—have been the analysis of work across a broad effects of science-based degraded to endless paper-chasing, range of disciplines, including technology on the “de- photocopying, and other menial history, economics, and political skilling” of the working class. tasks. He also observes that science. Since the publication of because—at the time he was Labor and Monopoly Capital, Deeply affected by his writing—office workers in Britain Braverman’s ideas have continued experience, Braverman joined and the US were typically female, to generate debate among the Socialist Workers Party they could be paid less, which sociologists of work. Writing in (SWP) and absorbed himself in turn reduces costs and 1979, US sociologist Michael in the work of Marx and maximizes profit. Burawoy was strongly supportive other socialist thinkers of of Braverman’s work, as was US the period. In 1953 he was Expertise diminished sociologist Michael Cooley in his expelled from the SWP, and Labor and Monopoly Capital is study of computer-aided design. went on to found the Socialist considered a classic contribution Union and to become editor to the discipline of sociology, While the conviction with of The American Socialist. but it is the only academic book which Braverman presented his In 1963 Braverman finally that Braverman ever wrote. The arguments has led to criticism completed a BA from the New book’s influence on the application from some quarters (in the work School of Social Research. of critical Marxist thinking to the of Robert Blauner, for example), empirical study of industrial work his central ideas have survived Key works has been profound. Like Marx, and been carried forward Braverman never held a university in the work of Manuel Castells, 1974 Labor and Monopoly post and it is perhaps for this very the highly influential Spanish Capital: The Degradation reason that he was able, without sociologist of globalization and of Work in the Twentieth the network society. ■ Century Marxism is not hostile to science and technology... but to how they are used as weapons of domination. Harry Braverman

232 AUTOMATION INCREASES THE WORKER’S CONTROL OVER HIS WORK PROCESS ROBERT BLAUNER (1929– ) IN CONTEXT Workers in different industries experience varying levels of alienation in automated work processes... FOCUS Alienation ...those who ...those with lack knowledge of and expert knowledge KEY DATES control over technology 1844 Karl Marx introduces of technology the concept of estrangement have high levels of have low levels of or alienation from the world alienation. in Economic and Philosophic alienation. Manuscripts of 1844. Knowledge of automation 1950–60 Increasing increases the worker’s control over work industrialization of the US economy leads to the processes and reduces alienation. significant occupational restructuring of society. A lienation occurs when to examine the possibility that workers are disconnected alienation in the workplace can 1960 The concept of alienation from and lack control over be significantly reduced by the is imported into US sociology their work, according to Karl Marx. effective use of technology. by theorists from the neo- In his influential book on industrial Marxist “Frankfurt School.” society, Alienation and Freedom: Blauner claims alienation The Factory Worker and His is central to understanding the 1964 Robert Blauner’s Industry (1964), US sociologist negative impact of automation work redirects the focus Robert Blauner draws heavily on workers during and after the of US, French, and British on Marx’s concept of alienation Industrial Revolution. His text sociologists on alienation critically assesses Marx’s claim and automation. 2000–present Commercial organizations such as Apple and Microsoft seek to empower workers by using automated work processes.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 233 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Erich Fromm 188 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25 ■ Robert Blauner Harry Braverman 226–31 ■ Arlie Hochschild 236–43 ■ Michael Burawoy 244–45 Robert Blauner is an emeritus that all workers are necessarily Automated technology on car professor of sociology at alienated due to the increased assembly lines should be organized the University of California, automation of work. Blauner and deployed in ways that enable the Berkeley. He was awarded suggests, on the contrary, that manufacturing workers to regain a his undergraduate degree automation can actually facilitate, sense of control over their environment. from the University of Chicago empower, and liberate workers. in 1948. he proposes, because they possess Using a wide range of data expert knowledge of the relevant Blauner was a staunch (including statistics, interviews technology, which in turn is communist, and after with workers, and attitudinal meaningful and fulfilling because graduating he worked in surveys), Blauner examines four it furnishes them with a significant factories for five years, aiming types of industry: craft printing, degree of control over their work to inspire a working-class car assembly lines, textile experience and environment. revolution. Unsuccessful in machine-tending, and chemical- those efforts, he completed processing. Alienation levels are By contrast, the automated his MA and PhD at Berkeley tested according to four criteria: technology used in car production in 1962. His PhD thesis job control, social isolation, and in textile factories leads to became the 1964 study that sense of self-estrangement, relatively high levels of alienation. established his reputation. In and meaningfulness of work. These findings seem to contradict addition to his contributions Blauner’s claim that greater to the study of alienation Technology and alienation automation diminishes alienation. and work, Blauner has made Blauner describes his results as To explain this, however, he argues penetrating analyses of race conforming to an “inverted U that it is not technology itself that relations in the US. curve.” According to his study, alienates workers, but a lack of alienation is typically very low control over the way it is used, how Key works among print workers. He suggests work is organized, and the nature of that the use of machinery is the relationships between workers 1964 Alienation and Freedom: empowering for these employees and management. The Factory Worker and His because it provides them with Industry greater control and autonomy. Blauner concludes that under 1972 Radical Oppression The same is true for workers in the right organizational conditions, in America chemical-processing plants: again, automation increases the worker’s 1989 Black Lives, White Lives: these individuals are empowered, control over his work process and Three Decades of Race diminishes a sense of alienation Relations in America Alienation exists when in equal measure. workers are unable to conducted by sociologists in control their immediate Blauner’s study has greatly the US, as well as in Britain influenced the sociology of work, and France during the 1970s and work processes. as testified by follow-up studies 1980s. Furthermore, the “political” Robert Blauner character of Blauner’s work means studies of alienating work environments have fed into, and strongly influenced, commercial working directives and policies. The global technology firm Apple, for example, is renowned for investing heavily in training staff to use Apple technology to enhance their working experience as well as their own personal lives. ■

234 THE ROMANTIC ETHIC PROMOTES THE SPIRIT OF CONSUMERISM COLIN CAMPBELL (1940– ) IN CONTEXT W hy have Western Europe Consumerism (1987), intended as and the US developed a sequel to Max Weber’s similarly FOCUS consumer cultures? named and hugely influential The Romantic ethic British sociologist Colin Campbell, The Protestant Ethic and the emeritus professor at the University Spirit of Capitalism (1904–05). KEY DATES of York, discusses this question in 1780–1850 The Romantic his important study, The Romantic Weber claims that the values movement in Europe reacts Ethic and the Spirit of Modern of self-discipline and hard work, to the overly rationalistic, which lie at the heart of modern abstract ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. The “Romantic ethic” These values emphasizes intuition and are inculcated into the 1899 In The Theory of the middle class, who seek Leisure Class, US social and the pursuit of pleasure authenticity through economic thinker Thorstein and novel experience. Veblen suggests that the purchase of consumption is driven by consumer goods... groups “emulating” one another to gain social status. The Romantic ...but the novelty of ethic promotes purchased goods soon 1904–05 Max Weber identifies wears off and a desire a connection between the the spirit of “Protestant work ethic” consumerism. for new products and the rise of capitalism. takes over. Present Scholars such as US sociologist Daniel Bell and Italian sociologist Roberta Sassatelli draw heavily on Colin Campbell’s ideas in their studies of consumption.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 235 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Jean Baudrillard 196–99 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25 Designer goods stimulate the desire The Romantic ethic was inculcated of this process for economies based for purchase, possession, and for a into and carried forward by the on consumption are vast because lifestyle far removed from the mundane burgeoning middle class, and by consumers are forever chasing the realities of existence. But desire, by its women in particular, Campbell latest commodities. very nature, is insatiable. argues. Within consumer culture this ethic is expressed as a self- Campbell’s concept of the capitalist societies, have their basis perpetuating loop: individuals Romantic ethic has had immense in the Protestant work ethic of the project their desire for pleasure and influence on sociology and 16th and 17th centuries. Campbell, novelty onto consumer goods; they anthropology. His work not only building on Weber’s work, advances then purchase and make use of dispels the overly simplistic view of the theory that the emotions and those goods; but the appeal of the humans as necessarily disposed to hedonistic desires that drive product quickly diminishes as the acquire things, but it also attempts consumer culture are firmly rooted novelty factor and initial excitement to shed light on the more positive in the ideals of 19th-century fade; the desire for excitement, aspects of consumer society. Romanticism, which followed on fulfillment, and novelty is then the heels of the Enlightenment and projected onto, and restimulated It is simply wrong, according the Industrial Revolution. by, new consumer items. And to Campbell, to suggest that so the cycle of consumption, consumerism is an inherently Desire, illusion, and reality fleeting fulfillment, and ultimate bad thing. Instead, the pursuit The Enlightenment conceived disillusionment, repeats itself. and projection of our innermost of individuals as rational, hard- desires onto consumer goods form working, and self-disciplined. But The engine of capitalism a fundamental part of our own self- the Romantics saw this as a denial The cycle described by Campbell realization in the modern world. of the very essence of humanity. is one of highs and lows for the They stressed intuition above consumer. Consumer desire is the Campbell’s highly original reason, and believed that the very engine of capitalism because and powerful correctives to more individual should be free to pursue it drives individuals to search economically reductive and cynical hedonistic pleasures and new and for that elusive yet satisfying accounts of consumerism have exciting feelings. experience amid the endless tide of provided contemporary thinkers new products. The consequences with fertile soil in which to develop more positive and historically informed appraisals of modern-day consumer society. ■ Consumerism as mass deception The uniqueness of Campbell’s They see the failed social and focus on the Romantic ethic as political revolutions of the late the key to modern consumerism 1960s as signifying the “death lies in its engagement with the of Marxism” and therefore impact of long-term historical also the triumph of capitalism. processes. His ideas differ Barthes’ work on semiotics greatly from those of the identifies the advertising highly influential French post- industry as playing a key role structuralist and postmodern in blinding consumers to their thinkers such as Roland Barthes true wants and desires, whereas and Jean Baudrillard a decade for Baudrillard the media is or so earlier. responsible for overwhelming the consumer and concealing For them, unlike Campbell, the vacuous nature of modern the triumph of consumer culture capitalist society. is to be resisted at all costs.

IN PROCESSING PEOPLE THE PRODUCT IS A STATE OF MIND ARLIE RUSSELL HOCHSCHILD (1940– )



238 ARLIE RUSSELL HOCHSCHILD IN CONTEXT W hen Karl Marx, in Das ‘Sincerity’ is detrimental to Kapital, expressed one’s job, until the rules of FOCUS concern about mother- salesmanship and business Emotional labor and-child factory workers and the become a ‘genuine’ aspect “human cost” of labor, he said they KEY DATES had become an “instrument” of of oneself. 1867 Karl Marx completes the labor. This observation, and the Charles Wright Mills first volume of Das Kapital, environment of brutalizing physical which inspires Hochschild’s work, led to his alienation concept, Following the translation of Marx’s concept of emotional labor. whereby lack of fulfillment and work into English in the 1960s, control leads workers to feel alienation became a powerful 1959 Canadian sociologist disconnected and estranged. analytical tool for sociologists Erving Goffman publishes trying to make sense of the The Presentation of Self in Alongside Marx’s insights, two changes then taking place to Everyday Life. models of emotion emerged in the working conditions in North late 19th and early 20th century. America and Western Europe. 1960s The burgeoning service The “organismic” model, built industries of Europe and from the work of Charles Darwin, A state of mind North America start to be William James, and Sigmund Inspired by these various ideas, heavily gendered toward Freud, identifies emotion as mainly and drawing upon women thinkers women workers. a biological process: external such as Simone de Beauvoir, US stimuli trigger instinctual feminist and sociologist Arlie 1970s Feminist thinkers begin responses that people express in Hochschild has made the analysis to turn their attention to the similar ways. From the 1920s, John of the emotional dimensions of negative consequences of Dewey, Hans Gerth, Charles Wright capitalism for women. Mills, and Erving Goffman created an “interactional” model. They 2011 Sociologists Ann Brooks accepted emotion had a biological and Theresa Devasahayam component, but they maintained publish Gender, Emotions that it is more interactive and and Labour Markets, which differentiated by a range of social combines Hochschild’s ideas factors: culture is involved in the with globalization theory. formulation of emotion and people manage feelings subjectively. New service industries require workers Because women are stereotyped as to possess “emotional resources.” more emotional, these industries are heavily gendered toward a female workforce. Under capitalism, human Women workers are asked to emotions are commodified: act in ways that create positive emotional states to help ensure in processing people, the product is a state of mind. future custom.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 239 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ G.H. Mead 176–77 ■ Erving Goffman 190–95 ■ Harry Braverman 226–31 ■ Christine Delphy 312–17 ■ Ann Oakley 318–19 Children are exposed to “childhood training of the heart,” says Hochschild. Whereas girls learn to be caring and to master aggression and anger, boys mask fear and vulnerability. human interaction her life’s work. appearance in order to produce selfhood is created during social More specifically, she concentrates a proper state of mind in others. interaction. Only by interacting on the ways in which social Whereas for Marx the individual with others—and managing the and cultural factors condition in the factory becomes alienated way we present ourselves—are the experience and display of from the products they create, individuals able to obtain a emotions in capitalist society. Hochschild argued that in the personal sense of identity. In service-based economy “the essence, our innermost sense of Her work charts the rise of the product is a state of mind.” selfhood is inextricably bound up service industries in North America with the social contexts in which from the 1960s onward, and the In Hochschild’s view, the we are implicated. emergence of forms of employment increasing use of emotionally based in which the emotions of workers rather than manually based labor Hochschild extends this have become marketable has a greater impact on women idea in a critical way by arguing commodities sold for a wage: than men, because women are that emotions, as well as being “emotional labor,” as she calls it. conditioned since childhood to something external—residing in supply feelings. But she believes interactions between individuals Hochschild says that her that this can come at a cost to and groups—are subject to self- interest in how people manage the individual, who may become management too. Emotions and emotions probably began when estranged from their own emotions, feelings are also tied directly to she was growing up in a household which feel like they belong to their behavior and are experienced where her diplomat parents acted work rather than to them. by individuals as they prepare as hosts to foreign embassy staff. to act and interact with others. Where, she wondered, did the Managing interaction person end and the act begin? One of the major influences In a similar way to the sensory Later, as a graduate, she was on Hochschild is symbolic faculty of hearing, “emotion inspired by the chapter “The Great interactionist Erving Goffman. The communicates information,” Salesroom” in Wright Mills’ White idea underpinning his work is that as Hochschild puts it. She likens Collar, in which he argued that we emotion to what Freud referred ❯❯ sell our personality when selling goods and services. Hochschild felt that this had the ring of truth, but that it missed the sense of the active emotional labor involved in the selling. Unlike 19th-century factory work, where output could be quantified and it mattered little whether you loved or hated what you made, employment in a service industry is qualitatively different. It means that “the emotional style of offering the service is part of the service itself,” which makes it necessary for the worker to sustain a certain outward

240 ARLIE RUSSELL HOCHSCHILD to as a “signal function,” whereby ways is purposively enacted. She Many women work in service- messages such as fear or anxiety calls this process “emotional work,” industry jobs, where employers ask are relayed to the brain, indicating and uses it to describe how people them to exude real emotion to satisfy the presence of danger, and so on. alter and intensify particular customers. All in the line of, as Hochschild says that: “From feeling feelings, while simultaneously Hochschild puts it, “being nice.” we discover our own viewpoint on trying to suppress unpleasant the world.” Emotions engender a emotions. She identifies three main although this is always possible. mental component that reconciles ways that people work to produce She is attempting to demonstrate past events with actual situations emotion: cognitive emotional work, the ways and extent to which in which we put or find ourselves. bodily emotional work, and people interact and work together expressive emotional work. to define a particular social In addition to putting these situation and how, in turn, this emotional dimensions at the heart In cognitive emotional work, feeds back into, and intimately of social interaction, Hochschild individuals use images, ideas, shapes, their emotional states. stresses the myriad ways in which and thoughts in order to call forth, emotions are mediated and shaped or stifle, the various emotions Hochschild maintains by wider processes. Society and associated with those ideas. Bodily that rationalization and the culture intervene in the emotional emotional work refers to any marginalization of the more economy of the individual through attempt to control the physical emotional aspects of human socialization. For example, through reaction accompanying a particular behavior have meant that the primary socialization people learn emotional state, such as sweating often tacit rules that underpin to make sense of their emotions when anxious, or shaking when interpersonal conduct have begun and, with varying degrees of angry. Expressive emotional work to develop in new directions. To success, manipulate and manage involves attempting to manage explain this, she introduces the them. Hochschild is saying that the public display of particular notion of “feeling rules.” These emotions are not simply things that emotions with a view to realizing are socially learned and culturally happen to passive human actors. a specific feeling, or set of feelings. specific norms that individuals Rather, individuals are actively draw upon in order to negotiate and involved in producing and creating The purpose of Hochschild’s guide the display and experience their feelings and emotions. typology of emotions is to highlight of emotions and feelings. In modern the extent to which individuals are capitalist societies, there are two Emotional work and rules actively involved in shaping and types: display rules and emotional As individuals, claims Hochschild, managing their inner emotional rules. Display rules are, like we “do” emotions. Feeling states in order to call forth certain “surface acting,” the outward emotional and acting in emotional feelings. Earlier work in this area focused on outward appearances: ...the action is in the body the physical behavior and verbal language, the put-on sneer, the cues we use to communicate emotions; what Hochschild refers to posed shrug, the controlled as “surface acting.” She extends her sigh. This is surface acting. analysis to focus on “deep acting,” referring to “method acting” when Arlie Russell trying to explain it: “Here, display Hochschild is a natural result of working on feeling; the actor does not try to seem happy or sad but rather expresses spontaneously, as the Russian theater director Constantin Stanislavski urged, a real feeling that has been self-induced.” It is not Hochschild’s intention to suggest that people consciously manipulate or deceive one another,

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 241 verbal and nonverbal cues people physically—in terms of their In the case of the flight communicate to one another. personal appearance—and attendant, the emotional Emotional rules refer to the level emotionally. Keen to increase of people’s emotions, the directions passenger numbers, Delta focused style... is... the service. they take, and how long they on employing young, attractive, Arlie Russell endure. For example, if a loved single women, although a small Hochschild one dies, there is a strong social number of men were employed too. expectation that the grieving The appeal of the women was that feelings are actually present.” process will take time to run its they were perceived to embody, Training manuals and guidelines course. In essence, emotional in the most literal ways, the very were issued so that flight rules exist that influence what specific ideals and image the attendants could perform emotional constitutes an appropriate corporation wanted to project to labor and produce authentic response to death, how powerful customers. Especially important performances. The manuals taught the response should be, and the was that flight attendants did not an array of sophisticated strategies length of time it should last. use surface acting when displaying with which to produce corporately emotion. In order to ensure calculated emotional states and Delta Airlines passengers felt the emotional feeling repertoires. If these were The interconnected notions of experience they were receiving genuine, passengers would feel ❯❯ emotional labor and emotional work was authentic, flight attendants were explored by Hochschild in her were taught to practice “deep most celebrated book, The acting” by producing within Managed Heart: Commercialization themselves emotional displays that of Human Feeling (1983). The study were sincere and genuine. Delta focuses primarily on Delta Airlines. Airlines recognized that authentic She demonstrates that the airline displays of emotion and emotional consistently hired people who it performances are far easier to perceived could be controlled perform and sustain “when the I’m tired, fed up, and You’re my guest and I want to go home. I’m happy to help you in any way I can. Champagne, sir? Emotional labor is, according to Hochschild, the Surface acting Deep acting “commercialization of human feeling.” Delta Airlines, she says, trained recruits so that they could transcend “surface acting,” whereby postures or expressions are deceits and feel faked. The company urged trainees to imagine the cabin as their home, into which they welcomed customers as “personal guests.” Once staff had mastered the art of “deep acting,” feigning sincerity became unnecessary as real feelings were self-induced.

242 ARLIE RUSSELL HOCHSCHILD reassured, happy, and at ease. occurred: trying to manage the Women make a By evoking in passengers positive very real disparity between their resource out of feeling emotional states and feelings of personal feelings and the emotional comfort and safety, Delta believed states they strived to evoke in and offer it to men. it could secure the loyalty and passengers, typically led to one of Arlie Russell future custom of passengers. two outcomes among them—either Hochschild they began to resent themselves Ingenious and innovative as the emotionally or they developed entered into the workforce, with corporate philosophy might at first resentment for the job. many joining the burgeoning seem, Hochschild argues that the service industries. For Hochschild, deep acting and emotional labor Hochschild claims that even this is not necessarily a positive demanded of flight attendants if individuals actively engage development, because it serves was ultimately damaging to in strategies aimed at self- to push the highly uneven division their psychological well-being. preservation, resenting the work of emotional-labor characteristics Constantly having to control, as opposed to themselves, the net of modern capitalist society further manage, and subvert their own result is the same. The emotional in the direction of women. In feelings, while simultaneously and psychological well-being of making this argument, Hochschild working to produce and display the individual is harmed, with claims that women are more a range of positively authentic the result they feel increasingly inclined to make a resource out emotions, proved harmful. alienated from their innermost of feeling, which they in turn self and their emotions too. sell back to men. Although the She identified two particularly increasing numbers of working negative consequences arising Gender inequality women seem to testify to a shift from long-term emotional labor. As a feminist sociologist, in the occupational status of First, the fusing together of the Hochschild’s study of Delta also women in modern society, a closer flight attendants’ private sense of provides a window onto the ways examination of the statistics shows selfhood with their public self—the in which wider gender inequalities that women are far more likely roles they played as attendants— are sustained and reproduced than men to work in the service was liable to lead to emotional and within US society. Since the 1960s, industries—most retail associates, psychological burnout. Second, a increasing numbers of women have call-center operators, and hotel sense of self-estrangement often and bar staff are women. Within modern capitalist society, it falls to women to undertake the vast majority of the total emotional labor. In the long term, this is a negative and Many nurses claim their emotional labor is invisible to some colleagues. They give loving, daily care to patients, often in an attempt to compensate for the insensitivity of more senior staff.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 243 unintended consequence of Arlie Russell capitalism because it makes Hochschild women more emotionally prone to burnout, and psychologically and Arlie Russell Hochschild socially susceptible to feelings of was born in 1940 and is a self-estrangement and alienation. US feminist and sociologist of work and emotion. Her Insatiable capitalism Call-center operators experience parents were both US Hochschild’s notion of emotional high levels of emotional burnout and diplomats. Hochschild claims work and her analysis of the distress, induced by their emotional that growing up in a social emotional labor performed by labor, according to research by Dutch milieu defined by the need for airline flight attendants marks sociologist Danielle van Jaarsveld. people to control and manage a key moment in the history of their emotions in very subtle sociological thinking. For Marx, number of occupations, ranging and convincing ways instilled capitalism leads to physical and from nurses and caregivers to within her a fascination with mental degradation for the worker waitresses, telemarketers, and the emotional dimensions of as the nature of work becomes call-center operators. modern social life. increasingly repetitive, menial, and specialized. Social thinker Harry Hochschild gives particular Hochschild obtained her Braverman argued that automation credit to a cross-cultural study of MA and PhD at the University of the workplace leads to the steady emotion management, between of California, Berkeley. During deconstruction of a once highly Japan and the US, by Aviad Raz in this time she became a skilled workforce. Remaining with his 2002 book Emotions at Work. feminist and developed an the Marxist tradition, Hochschild She relates his story about “smile ongoing interest in the dual demonstrates that even the most training” in which the Japanese roles women play as workers personal aspects of individual managers at Tokyo Dome and primary caregivers in selfhood—our emotions, feelings, Corporation were not happy with capitalist society. and affective life—are turned into the weak, “spiritless, externally- commodities and exploited by imposed smiles” that they thought The overtly political pitch the capitalist market in order to managers in the US were prepared of Hochschild’s work has make profit. Her ideas have been to settle for. Instead, the Japanese strongly influenced feminist developed by many other scholars felt it necessary to appeal to the thinking in the US and involved with the sociology of work underlying chi (“spirit”) of Western Europe. It has also and emotions, and applied to a the workers. This they enticed led to an ongoing dialogue from their employees through the with captains of industry ...when a worker abandons her culturally powerful force of shame. and high-level politicians. work smile, what kind of tie Cameras were placed at the cash remains between her smile registers of unfriendly sales clerks, Hochschild’s work has and her self? whose videotaped behavior was informed social policy at a Arlie Russell shown later to their fellow workers. number of levels, including the Hochschild US state of California’s Child The smile may now be a global Development Policy Board fad but Raz confirms Hochschild’s as well as former US vice insight that capitalism exploits president Al Gore’s working emotional aspects of culture. ■ families’ policy directives. Key works 1983 The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling 2003 The Commercialization of Intimate Life: Notes from Home and Work 2012 The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times

244 SPONTANEOUS CONSENT COMBINES WITH COERCION MICHAEL BURAWOY (1947– ) IN CONTEXT Management pacifies workers with the illusion of choice by playing workplace “games,” such as... FOCUS Manufacturing consent ...“collective ...an internal ...a “piece-rate bargaining” that job market that pay system” in KEY DATES co-opts rather reduces conflict which workers 1979 The effects of the global than alienates oil recession impact on US by enabling compete manufacturing industries, workers. mobility. to increase causing tension between production. workers and management. Workers play along with these “games” in order to establish 1981 British sociologist consensual workplace relations. Anthony Giddens refers to Michael Burawoy’s book, Consent combines with coercion to ensure Manufacturing Consent: workers are controlled. Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly W hy workers in the sociologist Michael Burawoy Capitalism, as “one of the capitalist system work analyses from within a Marxist most significant contributions as hard as they do and theoretical framework. From this to industrial sociology.” how the interests of workers and perspective, the interests of labor management are negotiated are and capital are seen as being in 1998 In “Manufacturing issues that Anglo-American fundamental opposition; Burawoy Dissent? Burawoy in a Franco- Japanese Workshop,” French sociologist Jean-Pierre Durand and British sociologist Paul Stewart apply Burawoy’s concept of manufacturing consent to a Nissan automobile plant.

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 245 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Michael Burawoy Anthony Giddens 148–49 ■ Harry Braverman 226–31 ■ Robert Blauner 232–33 contends that modern management workers play are not attempts to Michael Burawoy is an Anglo- now manufactures and channels reduce job discontent or oppose American Marxist sociologist workers’ consent to work harder. management, because often lower- at the University of California, level management participates in Berkeley. He obtained his He rejects Marx’s explanation the games and the enforcement first degree in 1968 in that workers are simply exploited of their rules. Playing the game mathematics from the and coerced into working as hard creates consent among workers University of Cambridge, as they do. The rise in the power about the rules upon which England, before going on of labor unions and workers’ workplace games are based—and, to complete his doctorate in collectives has done a lot to curb crucially, the arrangement of social sociology at the University the use of power by managers, relations (owners–managers– of Chicago in 1976. which was once exerted through workers) that define the rules. the bullying of workers. Burawoy Burawoy’s academic career acknowledges that within any Moreover, because managers has changed direction and organization there is always and workers are both involved focus over time. His early coercion and consent but their in playing games, the numerous work involved a number relative proportions and mode of opposing interests that define the of ethnographic studies of expression have changed. social relations between the two industrial workplaces in the are obscured, ensuring that US as well as in Hungary Management, he claims, now manager–worker conflict is kept to and post-Soviet Russia. seeks to control workers by creating a minimum. Burawoy claims such In the latter part of his restrictive social relations and methods of manufacturing and career he turned away from organizational structures that give eliciting cooperation and consent the factory floor to focus them the “illusion of choice,” but are more effective than the coercive on raising the public profile of that ultimately serve to mask and measures of early capitalism. sociology by using sociological maintain unequal power relations. theories to address prominent Burawoy’s work is a seminal social issues. Workplace “games” contribution to the sociology Burawoy worked in a factory of industrial relations and has In 2010, in recognition of called Allied Corporation, where inspired follow-up studies, his considerable contribution he researched his ideas about including those by British social to the discipline, and in the “games” played within the thinkers Paul Blyton and Stephen particular to promoting workplace, such as collective Ackroyd, focusing on workplace sociology more widely to bargaining (negotiation of wages resistance and coercion. ■ the general public, Burawoy and conditions of work), ensuring was elected President of the internal job mobility for workers, Conflict and consent are International Sociological and the piece-rate pay system, in not primordial conditions Association (ISA) at the which workers are paid more if they XVII ISA World Congress produce above quota. This system, but products of the of Sociology. He is editor he says, gives the illusion that organization of work. of Global Dialogue, the work is a game; the workers are Michael Burawoy magazine of the International the players and compete with Sociological Association. one another to “make out”—surpass their expected production quotas. Key works Job satisfaction is achieved by mastering the intricate and often 1979 Manufacturing Consent: devious and informal strategies Changes in the Labor Process workers use to “make out” under Under Monopoly Capitalism various production conditions. 1985 The Politics of Burawoy claims that the games Production: Factory Regimes Under Capitalism and Socialism 2010 Marxism Meets Bourdieu

246 THINGS MAKE US JUST AS MUCH AS WE MAKE THINGS DANIEL MILLER (1954– ) IN CONTEXT Modern societies are S ociologists, drawing on materialistic and the pioneering work of FOCUS Thorstein Veblen in the Material culture consumerist. late 19th century, have traditionally conceived of consumer goods KEY DATES Consumerism is often symbolically, as objects people 1807 In Phenomenology of perceived negatively—as a acquire to communicate specific Spirit, German philosopher signifier of wastefulness and meanings to one another—for Georg Hegel outlines his superficiality, for example. example, the type of lifestyle theory of “objectification,” they lead and the amount of which describes how people But material objects social status they possess. transform their labor into and possessions can help material objects (a house, shape and strengthen However, British sociologist for example, is the result of Daniel Miller in his book Stuff, considerable collective labor). people’s self-identity published in 2010, points out and their interactions and that the myriad ways in which 1867 Karl Marx introduces his relationships with others. consumer goods inform personal ideas about the fetishization identity, selfhood, and interactions of commodities in Das Kapital. Things make us with others have been understood just as much as primarily in negative terms. 1972 French sociologist Pierre we make things. Consumerism is, he says, Bourdieu publishes Outline of considered by the majority of A Theory of Practice, which commentators to be wasteful examines the life and material and bad; desiring consumer culture of the Kabyle Berber goods is thought to be superficial people in Algeria. and morally reprehensible; and consumerism is alienating and 2004 Finnish sociologist socially divisive—it separates Kaj Ilmonen examines how the “haves” from the “have-nots” people externalize a part of and can lead to serious social themselves in the material problems, including theft. objects they own. Miller puts a very different slant on things by emphasizing the various positive ways in which material artifacts contribute to

WORK AND CONSUMERISM 247 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■ Colin Campbell 234–35 ■ Theodor W. Adorno 335 making us who we are and how how ongoing discussions with Stuff... achieves its mastery they mediate in our relationships family members enable him to of us precisely because we and interactions with others. find a compromise with regard to furnishing and decoration. constantly fail to notice Rethinking the house what it does. Miller gives the example of his Miller claims that he and his own family home. The architectural family imagine and relate to the Daniel Miller style and physical design, he says, house as though it were a family feed into and shape his identity member, with a unique identity sustainability of a materialistic, in relation to the property, but they and its own needs. His argument consumer culture, Miller’s work also affect the interactions with here is that the materiality of the is thought by many, including and between family members. house is not necessarily oppressive, sociologists Fernando Dominguez alienating, or divisive; on the Rubio and Elizabeth B. Silva, to His property retains “many contrary, it not only positively provide a provocative riposte to of the original features,” including shapes the relationships of the views that denigrate material an oak staircase, fireplaces, and family to it, but also facilitates culture in society. Miller’s ideas are window surrounds. These physical interaction and increasing permeating sociological analysis and aesthetic features frame his solidarity between family members. and inform part of the increasing experience of and relationship interest in the examination of to the house, he says. For example, A counterbalance material objects (the “materiality his predilection for furniture and Miller’s work is designed to provide of cultural forms”), spearheaded by design by the popular Swedish an alternative to the accounts of French sociologist Bruno Latour. ■ furnishing store IKEA creates consumerism given by Frankfurt a tension within him: he feels School thinkers such as Herbert that his taste for the modern, Marcuse and Theodor W. Adorno, clinical, and clean lines that are who read mass consumer characteristic of this brand means culture as “symptomatic of a that he has “demeaned” and loss of depth in the world.” At a betrayed the house, that it deserves time when the global economic someone with “better taste.” To and environmental crises have resolve this tension, he describes cast serious doubt over the The denim phenomenon Tight blue jeans are popular in Since 2007, British sociologist Woodward has found that the Brazil because they are thought to Sophie Woodward, in collaboration appeal of denim is inextricably enhance the natural curvature of with Miller and other sociologists, bound up with the cultural a woman’s buttocks. has been interested in blue denim mores and frames of meaning as a phenomenon of consumerism. specific to particular locales. In She suggests that despite being London, England, for example, available everywhere, denim blue jeans are often used by garments are often revered as many different types of people highly personal items, with which to resolve anxieties about their owners have an intimate what to wear—their anonymity relationship—a favorite denim and ubiquity protect the wearer jacket or pair of jeans, for example. from negative judgement. In Brazil, however, jeans are often Drawing on ethnographic worn by women to emphasize studies of denim jeans as fashion their sensuality. items throughout the world,

248 FEMINIZATION HAS HAD ONLY A MODEST IMPACT ON REDUCING GENDER INEQUALITIES TERI LYNN CARAWAY IN CONTEXT More women are entering—and feminizing—the workforce. FOCUS Although globalization has helped to The feminization of work erode men’s domination of the economy, the unequal gender division of labor persists. KEY DATES From the 1960s The Significant feminization of the industrialized rise of globalization and economy can occur only if... industrialization in the developing world attracts ...labor ...women are ...the trade the attention of feminist demand more available unions either scholars of work. outstrips the for work due to support the capacity of the better access access of women 1976 Michel Foucault’s male workforce or are unable to The History of Sexuality, available. to higher exclude them Volume I: An Introduction education and from “male” claims that gender roles occupations. and relations are socially childcare. constructed discourses. 1986 Sylvia Walby publishes Patriarchy at Work: Patriarchal and Capitalist Relations in Employment. 1995 R.W. Connell’s fluid conception of gender categories as things that are flexible and open to change is articulated in Masculinities.