DK THE SOCIOLOGY BOOK

SOCIAL INEQUALITIES 99

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

MODERN

LIVING

102 INTRODUCTION

In Gemeinschaft und In The Metropolis and Georg Simmel Jane Jacobs appeals
Gesellschaft, Ferdinand Mental Life, Georg Simmel publishes his essay for “eyes on the
“The Stranger” street” to protect
Tönnies laments the examines the negative
change in values from effects of increased in Sociology: urban communities
community to mere Investigations on the from city planners in
urbanization on Forms of Sociation. The Death and Life of
association in social interaction Great American Cities.
modern society. and relationships.

1887 1903 1908 1961
1893
1904–05 1920S

Émile Durkheim explains Max Weber, in The Robert E. Park and other
in The Division of Labor Protestant Ethic and members of the so-called
in Society the solidarity the Spirit of Capitalism,
“Chicago School” of
that comes with the warns of the sociology focus on
interdependence of people dehumanizing effects
with specialized functions. urban life and
of rationalization. social structures.

A s prehistory’s primitive sociologists from Adam Ferguson effects upon the individual of living
human groups began to Ferdinand Tönnies recognized in large groups, often separated
to settle down in one place, that there was a major difference from traditional community ties
the foundations of civilization were between traditional rural and family. Building upon his work,
laid. From these early beginnings, communities and modern urban the so-called Chicago School of
humans increasingly lived together ones. This alteration of social order sociology, spearheaded by Robert E.
in larger and larger groups, and was ascribed to a variety of factors Park, helped to establish a distinct
civilization grew further with the by an assortment of thinkers: to field of urban sociology. Soon,
establishment of villages, towns, capitalism by Karl Marx; to the however, sociologists changed the
and cities. But for the greater part division of labor in industry by emphasis of their research from
of human history, most people lived Émile Durkheim; to rationalization what it is like to live in a city, to
in rural communities. Large-scale and secularization by Max Weber. what kind of city we want to live in.
urbanization came about only with It was Georg Simmel who
the Industrial Revolution, which was suggested that urbanization itself Having evolved to meet the
accompanied by a huge expansion had affected the ways in which needs of industrialization, the
of towns and cities, and massive people interact socially—and one of city—and urban life, with all its
numbers of people migrating to the fundamental characteristics of benefits and disadvantages—was
work in the factories and mills modern living is life in the city. felt by many sociologists to have
that were located there. been imposed on people. The
Community in the city Marxist sociologist Henri Lefebvre
Living in an urban environment Simmel examined not only the new believed that the demands of
became as much an aspect of forms of social order that had arisen capitalism had shaped modern
“modernity” as industrialization in the modern cities, but also the urban society, but that ordinary
and the growth of capitalism, and people could take control of their

MODERN LIVING 103

Niklas Luhmann Amitai Etzioni Robert D. Putnam In the spirit of Ritzer’s
develops his social advocates a restoration explores social capital “McDonaldization”
of civic values to foster and community spirit thesis, Alan Bryman
systems theory. social cohesion in The argues that modern
in “Bowling Alone: consumer society is
Spirit of Community: America’s Declining
The Reinvention of Social Capital” in the becoming increasingly
American Society. Journal of Democracy. “Disneyized.”

1970S 1993 1995 2004
1968 1982 1993 1996

In Right to the City, In Loft Living: George Ritzer likens the New Communitarian
French Marxist Henri Culture and Capital changes in society to the Thinking by Amitai
Lefebvre argues that in Urban Change, Etzioni advocates a
people have the right to Sharon Zukin looks at rationalization and
control and transform life in regenerated, efficiency of a chain of social philosophy
post-industrial cities. fast-food restaurants in The that will reinvigorate
their social space. McDonaldization of Society.
collective values.

urban environment, what he called Not everyone agreed, however, industrial buildings became
their “social space.” Similarly (but that the answer to the social desirable postmodern living
from a different political standpoint), problems of urban life was a return spaces, the concept of modern
Jane Jacobs advocated that people to traditional community values. metropolitan life became
should resist the plans of urban Niklas Luhmann pointed out associated with prosperity rather
developers and create environments that the problem today is one than gritty industrialization.
that encouraged the formation of of communication between
communities within the city. social systems that have become This manifested itself not only
increasingly fragmented and in the transformation of urban
In the late 20th century, several differentiated. In the post-industrial living spaces, as described by
sociologists took up this idea age, with all its new methods of Sharon Zukin in the 1980s, but
of the loss of community in communication, new strategies for throughout the postmodern social
our increasingly individualized social cohesion need to be found. order. George Ritzer likened the
Western society. A communitarian efficiency and rationalization of the
movement emerged, led by Post-industrial cities service industries to the business
US sociologist Amitai Etzioni, The nature of cities began to model pioneered by fast-food chain
suggesting new ways to restore change in the late 20th century, McDonalds, and Alan Bryman has
community spirit in what had as the manufacturing industries noted how a US entertainment
become an impersonal society. moved out or disappeared. While culture created by Disney has
Robert D. Putnam also gave some cities became ghost towns, influenced modern consumerism.
prominence to the idea of others became centers of the Modern urban society, having been
community in his explanation service industries. As working- created by industrialization, is now
of “social capital,” and the value class areas were gentrified, and being shaped by the new demands
and benefits of social interaction. of post-industrial commerce. ■

104

STRANGERS ARE NOT REALLY
CONCEIVED AS INDIVIDUALS
BUT AS STRANGERS OF A
PARTICULAR TYPE

GEORG SIMMEL (1858–1918)

IN CONTEXT T he Industrial Revolution people and their work, which meant
was accompanied in new restrictions and curtailments
FOCUS Europe and the US by of individual liberty.
Mental life of the urbanization from the 19th century
metropolis onward. For many people, this German sociologist Georg
resulted in increased freedom as Simmel wanted to understand the
KEY DATES they experienced liberation from struggle faced by the city dweller
19th century Urbanization the constraints of traditional social in preserving autonomy and
begins taking place on a large structures. But in tandem with individuality in the face of these
scale in Europe and the US. these developments came growing overwhelming social forces. He
demands from capitalist employers discovered that the increase
From 1830 Nascent sociology for the functional specialization of in human interaction that was
claims to offer the means to brought about by living and
understand the changes
brought about in society by Urbanization changed People were poorly equipped
the Industrial Revolution. the form of social to deal with the strangers

1850–1900 Key social interaction that had they encountered in
thinkers such as Ferdinand existed in rural society. the metropolis.
Tönnies, Émile Durkheim,
and Karl Marx express Strangers are not These strangers took many
concerns about the effect really conceived as forms—from “the trader” to
of modernization and individuals but as
industrialization on society. “the poor”—and all were
strangers of a defined by their social
From the 1920s Simmel’s particular type. relations with others.
work on the impact of urban
life influences the development
of urban sociology in the US
by a group of sociologists,
known collectively as the
Chicago School.

MODERN LIVING 105

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■
Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■ Erving Goffman 264–69 ■ Michel Foucault 270–77

working in an urban environment Through this anonymity... of living in a metropolis, and ideas
profoundly affected relationships each party acquires an about social space influenced one
between people. He set out his of his best-known concepts: the
findings in The Metropolis and unmerciful matter-of-factness. social role of “the stranger,” which
Mental Life. Whereas in pre-modern Georg Simmel is set out in an essay in Sociology.
society people would be intimately In the past, he says, strangers
familiar with those around them, Simmel says that the attitude of were encountered only rarely and
in the modern urban environment the metropolitan can be understood fleetingly; but urbanite strangers are
individuals are largely unknown to as a social-survival technique to not drifters—they are “potential
those who surround them. Simmel cope with the mental disturbance wanderers.” Simmel says that the
believed that the increase in social created by immersion in city life— stranger (such as a trader), or the
activity and anonymity brought an approach that enables people to stranger group (his example is
about a change in consciousness. focus their energies on those who “European Jews”), is connected to
matter to them. It also results in the community spatially but not
The rapid tempo of life in a city them becoming more tolerant of socially; he or she is characterized by
was such that people needed a difference and more sophisticated. both “nearness and remoteness”—in
“protective organ” to insulate them the community but not of it.
from the external and internal Space in the metropolis
stimuli. According to Simmel, the Degrees of proximity and distance The stranger was one of many
metropolitan “reacts with his head among individuals and groups were social types described by Simmel,
instead of his heart”; he erects central to Simmel’s understanding each becoming what they are
a rational barrier of cultivated through their relations with others;
indifference—a “blasé attitude.” an idea that has influenced many
The change in consciousness also sociologists, including Zygmunt
leads to people becoming reserved Bauman. Erving Goffman’s concept
and aloof. This estrangement from of “civil inattention,” whereby
traditional and accepted norms of people minimize social interaction
behavior is further undermined in public—by avoiding eye contact,
by the money culture of cities, for instance—is also informed
which reduces everything in the by one of Simmel’s insights: his
metropolis to a financial exchange. notion of the “blasé attitude.” ■

Georg Simmel Born in Berlin in 1858 to a phenomena by concentrating
prosperous Jewish family, Georg not on the content of
Simmel is one of the lesser-known interactions but on the forms
founders of sociology. He studied that underlie behavior. But it
philosophy and history at the is his study of life in a metropolis
University of Berlin and received that remains his most influential
his doctorate in 1881. Despite the work, as it was the precursor
popularity of his work with the to the development of urban
German intellectual elite, notably sociology by the so-called
Ferdinand Tönnies and Max Chicago School in the 1920s.
Weber, he remained an outsider
and only gained his professorship Key works
at Strasbourg in 1914.
1900 The Philosophy of Money
He developed what is known 1903 The Metropolis and
as formal sociology, which derives Mental Life
from his belief that we can 1908 Sociology
understand distinct human

106

THE FREEDOM TO
REMAKE OUR CITIES
AND OURSELVES

HENRI LEFEBVRE (1901–1991)

IN CONTEXT Cities should be places But modern cities
that encourage freedom are shaped to reflect the
FOCUS interests of powerful
The right to the city of expression, play,
and creativity. corporations and
KEY DATES capitalism.
19th century Extensive
urbanization takes place Cities must be The poor,
across Europe and the US. rebuilt in the interests the working class,
and other marginalized
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich of the oppressed. groups are denied a say
Engels offer a critique of class in how cities are built
inequalities in Western and social space
capitalist society in The
Communist Manifesto. is utilized.

1903 German sociologist Reclaiming the “right to the
Georg Simmel publishes The city” gives us the freedom to remake
Metropolis and Mental Life.
our cities and ourselves.
From the 1980s According
to British sociologist David T he city need not be seen exciting and complex combination
Harvey and Spanish theorist as a concrete jungle— of power relationships, diverse
Manuel Castells, cities serve grimy, unpleasant, and identities, and ways of being.
the interests of capitalism and threatening. For French sociologist
this affects the interaction of and philosopher Henri Lefebvre, Writing in the 1960s and 1970s,
those who live there. who dedicated most of his life to Lefebvre maintained that one of the
the study of urban society, it is an most fascinating aspects of the city
From the 1990s Lefebvre’s is not simply the people in it, but
concept of “right to the city”
influences social movements
across the world, including in
the US, France, Brazil, and the
Philippines.

MODERN LIVING 107

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Peter Townsend 74 ■ Elijah Anderson 82–83 ■
Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ Jane Jacobs 108–09 ■ Amitai Etizoni 112–19 ■ Sharon Zukin 128–31 ■ Saskia Sassen 164–65

Vast, impersonal malls serve the
interests of consumer capitalism.
The construction of such spaces often
leads to the displacement of the area’s
original, working-class residents.

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

Key works

1968 Right to the City
1970 The Urban Revolution
1974 The Production of Space

108

THERE MUST
BE EYES ON
THE STREET

JANE JACOBS (1916–2006)

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

MODERN LIVING 109

See also: Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ Henri Lefebvre 106–07 ■
Robert D. Putnam 124–25 ■ Sharon Zukin 128–31 ■ Saskia Sassen 164–65

Jane Jacobs’ vision of what a city
street should be like is exemplified by
this New York scene of vibrant urban
life, with residential apartments, street-
level businesses, and sidewalk bustle.

evolve—are the local residents Diversity and mixed-use of space Finally, urban communities flourish
themselves. Jacobs argues that are also, for Jacobs, key elements better in places where a critical
urban communities are best of this urban form. The commercial, mass of people live, work, and
placed to understand how their business, and residential elements interact. Such high-density—
city functions, because city life of a city should not be separated but not overcrowded—spaces are,
is created and sustained through out but instead be side by side, she feels, engines of creativity and
their various interactions. to allow for greater integration vibrancy. They are also safe places
of people. There should also be a to be, because the higher density
Ballet of the sidewalk diversity of old and new buildings, means that there are more “eyes on
Jacobs notes that the built form and people’s interactions should the street”: shopkeepers and locals
of a city is crucial to the life of determine how buildings get who know their area and provide
an urban community. Of prime used and reused. a natural form of surveillance. ■
importance are the sidewalks. The
streets in which people live should
be a tight pattern of intersecting
sidewalks, which allow people
to meet, bump into each other,
converse, and get to know one
another. She calls this the “ballet
of the sidewalk,” a complex
but ultimately enriching set of
encounters that help individuals
become acquainted with their
neighbors and neighborhood.

Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs was a passionate her life she was an activist and
writer and urbanist. She left campaigner for her community-
Scranton, Pennsylvania for New based vision of the city.
York in 1935, during the Great
Depression. After seeing the In 2007 the Rockefeller
Greenwich Village area for the Foundation created the Jane
first time, she relocated there from Jacobs Medal in her honor
Brooklyn—her interest in urban to celebrate urban visionaries
communities had begun. In 1944 whose actions in New York City
she married, and moved into affirm her principles.
a house on Hudson Street.
Key works
It was when Jacobs was
working as a writer for the 1961 The Death and Life
magazine Architectural Forum of Great American Cities
that she first began to be 1969 The Economy of Cities
critical of large top-down urban 1984 Cities and the Wealth
regeneration schemes. Throughout of Nations

110

ONLY COMMUNICATION
CAN COMMUNICATE

NIKLAS LUHMANN (1927–1998)

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

2009 Luhmann’s ideas are
applied by Greek scholar
Andreas Mihalopoulos in his
analysis of the criminal justice
and legal systems.

MODERN LIVING 111

See also: Max Weber 38–45 ■ Jürgen Habermas 286–87 ■ Talcott Parsons 300–01 ■ Herbert Spencer 334 ■
Alfred Schütz 335

activities and interactions, verbal events—the activities and ways of Artists protest at BP’s sponsorship
and nonverbal, within a system. communicating—peculiar to itself; of London’s Tate Britain art gallery,
Luhmann argues that just as it is relatively indifferent to what reflecting the protesters belief that the
a plant reproduces its own cells takes place in the other systems system of corporate enterprise is not
in a circular, biological process (and the wider society). So, for compatible with that of the art world.
of self-production, so a social example, the economic system is
system is similarly self-sustaining functionally dedicated to its own “Structural coupling” is a concept
and develops out of an operation interests and is uninterested in that helps to account for the
that possesses connectivity— moral issues, except where these relationship between people (as
emerging when “communication might have an impact on the conscious systems) and social
develops from communication.” profitability of economic activities systems (as communications).
He likens communication to the and transactions—whereas moral
structural equivalent of a chemical. concerns are of great consequence Despite its extreme complexity,
in, say, the religious system. Luhmann’s theory is used
Structural couplings worldwide as an analytical tool
Luhmann uses George Spencer- Luhmann identifies this lack for social systems. His critics say
Brown’s ideas on the mathematical of systems integration as one that the theory passes academic
laws of form to help define a of the major problems confronting scrutiny, but operationally it fails to
system, arguing that something advanced capitalist societies. He show how communication can take
arises out of difference: a system identifies what he calls “structural place without human activity. ■
is, according to this theory, a couplings”—certain forms and
“distinction” from its environment. institutions that help to connect
And, says Luhmann, a system’s separated systems by translating
environment is constituted by the communications produced by
other systems. For example, the one system into terms that the
environment of a family system other can understand. Examples
includes other families, the political include a constitution, which
system, the medical system, and couples the legal and political
so on. Crucially, each individual systems, and a university, which
system can only make sense of the couples the educational and,
among others, economic systems.

Humans cannot Niklas Luhmann Bielefeld, where he remained.
communicate; not Luhmann was the recipient of
even their brains Niklas Luhmann studied law several honorary degrees, and
can communicate; at the University of Freiburg, in 1988 he was the winner of
not even their conscious Germany, from 1946 to 1949, the prestigious Hegel Prize,
minds can communicate. before becoming a civil servant awarded to prominent thinkers
Niklas Luhmann in 1956. He spent 1960 to by the city of Stuttgart. He
1961 on sabbatical at Harvard was a prolific writer, with some
University, studying sociology 377 publications to his name.
and administrative science,
where he was taught Key works
by Talcott Parsons.
1972 A Sociological Theory
In 1966 Luhmann received of Law
his doctorate in sociology from 1984 Social Systems
the University of Münster and 1997 Theory of Society
in 1968 he became professor of (two volumes)
sociology at the University of

SOCIETY

SHOULD ARTICULATE

WHAT IS GOOD

AMITAI ETZIONI (1929– )



114 AMITAI ETZIONI F rom the end of World War A responsive community is
II to the early 1970s, the one whose moral standards
IN CONTEXT US experienced rapid
economic growth, which resulted reflect the basic human
FOCUS in increasing prosperity and needs of all its members.
Communitarianism upward social mobility for the
vast majority of its citizens. The Amitai Etzioni
KEY DATES social and political landscape of
1887 Gemeinschaft und the country changed too, with the entitlements, to shore up the
Gesellschaft (Community and Civil Rights movement, organized moral foundations of society.”
Society) by Ferdinand Tönnies opposition to the Vietnam War, The guiding principle of his form of
extols the value of community. the sexual revolution, and feminism communitarianism is that society
becoming prominent. should articulate what is good,
1947 German thinker Martin through the shared consensus
Buber’s Paths to Utopia In 1973, however, the oil crisis of its members and the principles
anticipates the modern and stock market crash sent the US embodied in its communities
communitarianism movement. economy into sudden decline and— and institutions.
according to sociologist Amitai
1993 The Communitarian Etzioni—the basis of traditional Furthermore, for Etzioni, it was
Network, a nonpartisan, values on which US culture was not enough for sociologists to think
transnational, and nonprofit founded began to crumble. about and contemplate social life;
coalition is founded. rather, they should be actively
The response to this cultural involved in trying to change society
1999 US scholar and and moral crisis, and to the for the better. By the early 1990s,
republican communitarian concurrent rise of the ideology a growing number of US social
Stephen Goldsmith joins of individualism and liberal thinkers—including sociologists
former president George economic policy—where the free
W. Bush’s advisory team market is allowed to operate with
for social policy. minimal government intervention—
was the emergence of the social
2005 British sociologist Colin philosophy of communitarianism.
Gray publishes an article In Etzioni’s words, its aims were to:
entitled “Sandcastles of “...restore civic virtues, for people
Theory,” arguing that Etzioni’s to live up to their responsibilities
work is overly utopian. and not merely focus on their

Amitai Etzioni Amitai Etzioni was born in degrees; in 1958 he obtained
Germany in 1929 and by the age his PhD in sociology from
of seven was living in Palestine the University of California,
with his family. In 1946 he left Berkeley. His first post was at
education to join the Palmach New York’s Columbia University
and fight for the creation of Israel. where he served for 20 years. In
Some five years later he was a 1980 he became a professor at
student in an institution where George Washington University,
the Jewish existential philosopher where he serves as the
Martin Buber had worked. Buber’s director of the Institute for
focus on the “I and Thou” Communitarian Policy Studies.
relationship resonates throughout
Etzioni’s approach toward Key works
communitarian living.
1993 The Spirit of Community:
In 1951 Etzioni enrolled in the The Reinvention of American
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Society
where he gained BA and MA

MODERN LIVING 115

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Richard Sennett 84–87 ■
Jane Jacobs 108–09 ■ Robert D. Putnam 124–25 ■ Anthony Giddens 148–9 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25 ■ Robert N. Bellah 336

Etzioni’s communitarianism is founded
on various core social values.

Strong individual rights Schools should provide Families are the
presume strong social essential moral education most invaluable form
responsibilities. of community and need to
without indoctrinating be remodeled on more
young people. egalitarian lines.

Society should articulate
what is good.

Robert D. Putnam, Richard Sennett, second to ties created by rational relations compared to the high
and Daniel Bell—self-consciously self-interest, bureaucracies, and levels of solidarity found in
sought to extend communitarian formal beliefs. traditional forms of communal
ideals from the university campus living—Gemeinschaft. Although
into the wider society. Tönnies held that the defining Etzioni developed the communitarian
principles of Gesellschaft in modern thinking of Tönnies, he believed
Responsibilities and rights society represented a backward that Tönnies overemphasized the ❯❯
The roots of Etzioni’s ideas lie in step in the development of human
the work of earlier theorists, such
as German sociologist Ferdinand
Tönnies, who had distinguished
between two types of social ties,
Gemeinschaft (community) and
Gesellschaft (association). The first
referred to personal relationships
and face-to-face interactions that
created communal society; the

Life in pre-industrial societies was
strongly focused on communal living
(as in the European village scene
shown here), but Etzioni says this was
often at the expense of the individual.

116 AMITAI ETZIONI

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

MODERN LIVING 117

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

118 AMITAI ETZIONI

School leavers should enroll for
military service (as at these barracks
in Germany in 2011), Etzioni argues,
because it instills self-discipline and
builds character and community spirit.

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

The imbalance between
rights and responsibilities
has existed for a long time.

Amitai Etzioni

MODERN LIVING 119

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

120 IN CONTEXT

MCDONALDIZATION FOCUS
AFFECTS VIRTUALLY McDonaldization
EVERY ASPECT
OF SOCIETY KEY DATES
1921–1922 Max Weber’s
GEORGE RITZER (1940– ) Economy and Society, which
analyzes the relationship
between rationality and
bureaucracy, is published
in Germany.

1961 US entrepreneurs
Richard (“Dick”) and Maurice
(“Mac”) McDonald sell their
pioneering fast-food burger
business to Ray Kroc, who
develops it worldwide.

1997 The sushi restaurant
chain YO! Sushi opens in
Britain, self-consciously
using the McDonald’s model.

1999 British sociologist
Barry Smart edits Resisting
McDonaldization, a wide-
ranging collection of critical
responses to Ritzer’s
McDonaldization thesis.

G erman sociologist Max
Weber argued that a
defining feature of the
shift from traditional to modern
society was the ever-growing
number of aspects of life that
were organized and enacted along
rational, as opposed to emotionally
oriented or value-laden, lines.

Developing Weber’s ideas, US
sociologist George Ritzer claims
that the process has reached new
levels in both North American and
Western European culture, and is
now manifested in unprecedented
ways. According to Ritzer, author
of the 1993 sociological classic
The McDonaldization of Society,
this “wide-ranging process of

MODERN LIVING 121

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Roland Robertson 146–47 ■
Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Harry Braverman 226–31 ■ Karl Mannheim 335

“McDonaldization” The McDonald’s
is the boldest realization fast-food restaurant
model is characterized by
of Weber’s notion of efficiency, calculability,
rationalization.
predictability,
and control.

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

122 GEORGE RITZER

A McDonald’s next to Xi’an’s historic
Drum Tower. McDonald’s opened its
first outlet in China in 1990. By 2014,
with 2,000 premises, it was China’s
second-biggest restaurant chain.

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

Principles of modernity
Ritzer argues that the sociological
significance of these five principles
of McDonaldization is their
extension to an ever-greater
number of spheres of social activity.
In essence, the dominant cultural
template for organizing all manner

MODERN LIVING 123

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

While Ritzer admires the
efficiency and capacity to adapt
to change demonstrated by
the McDonald’s fast-food chain
since its inception in 1940, he is
simultaneously wary of the

YO! Sushi restaurants in the UK
enhance McDonald’s rationalization
approach by making the creation and
distribution of the food into an urban,
Tokyo-style eating experience.

124

THE BONDS OF OUR
COMMUNITIES
HAVE WITHERED

ROBERT D. PUTNAM (1941– )

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

2013 Dutch social thinker
Marlene Vock and others use
the concept of social capital in
“Understanding Willingness to
Pay for Social Network Sites.”

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

126

DISNEYIZATION REPLACES
MUNDANE BLANDNESS
WITH SPECTACULAR
EXPERIENCES

ALAN BRYMAN

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

1983–2005 Disney parks
are opened in Tokyo, Paris,
and Hong Kong.

1993 US scholar George
Ritzer publishes The
McDonaldization of Society.

MODERN LIVING 127

See also: George Ritzer 120–23 ■ Sharon Zukin 128–31 ■ Jean Baudrillard 196–99 ■ Arlie Hochschild 236–43

a nonexistent reality, become
models for American society.”
Furthermore, Disneyization is also
occurring in the rest of the world.

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

128 IN CONTEXT

LIVING IN A FOCUS
LOFT IS LIKE Gentrification and
LIVING IN A urban life
SHOWCASE
KEY DATES
SHARON ZUKIN 1920s US sociologist Robert
E. Park coins the term “human
ecology” and is a leading
figure in establishing the
“Chicago School” and its
systematic study of urban life.

1961 Jane Jacobs’ The Death
and Life of Great American
Cities is published, becoming
one of the most influential
post-war studies of urban
environments.

1964 British sociologist
Ruth Glass invents the word
“gentrification” to describe
the displacement of working-
class occupiers by middle-
class incomers.

1970s Artists begin to move
into former factory buildings
in Lower Manhattan.

C ities are dynamic places
of change and renewal
for people, communities,
ideas, and the built environment.
Social thinkers have always been
drawn to the study of urban life,
especially during times of rapid
change. The period of metropolitan
growth from the 19th century
onward, the transformation of cities
and the movement into suburbia
that followed World War II, and
changes in the structure of the
urban village in the 1960s have all
been the subjects of intense study.

Another such period occurred in
the 1980s, when many cities in the
Western world had been radically
altered by the loss of manufacturing

MODERN LIVING 129

See also: Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ Henri Lefebvre 106–07 ■ Jane Jacobs 108–09 ■ Alan Bryman 126–27 ■
Saskia Sassen 164–65

A former industrial area of a city becomes de-industrialized to replace the mass production
and run down. of modernism and the uniformity
of suburban living with the
Artists are attracted to the area because of low rents individualization of a space once
and generous spaces in which to be creative. used for mass production (since
many loft spaces had once been
Young urban professionals are then attracted to the “cool” workshops or factories). In a loft, the
that artists create. privacy of the detached suburban
house was replaced by a non-
hierarchical layout that opens up
“every area... to all comers.” This
space and openness creates an
impression of informality and
equality, transforming the loft into a
“tourist attraction” or a showcase—
a place that demands to be seen.

Property developers see an opportunity to make money Urban regeneration
and buy up property. Zukin also closely examined the
costs of urban regeneration and
Rents increase and the artists and poor people move out; loft living. On the surface, the
the area in turn loses its diversity and vibrancy. movement of people back into
virtually abandoned districts
appears to be a positive process,
breathing new life into old
buildings and places. However,
Zukin questions this assumption,
arguing that regeneration ❯❯

industries and the growing impacts their use as dwellings was having Bare walls, exposed beams, and
of globalization. A new generation on long-established communities unexpected architectural details
of scholars began to investigate in New York. provide the authenticity sought by
inner-city decline, the processes of buyers of urban loft apartments.
urban regeneration, and what gives Zukin reiterated the ideas
somewhere its distinctive sense of of thinkers such as French
place. Prominent among them has philosopher Gaston Bachelard, who
been Sharon Zukin, author of the argued, in The Poetics of Space
influential 1982 work, Loft Living. (1958), that a home was more than
a space for living; it represented the
The meanings of space “psychic state” of the inhabitants.
Zukin moved into a loft—a former For example, in Victorian times,
garment factory and artist’s houses were divided into rooms
studio—in Greenwich Village, with specific functions (drawing
New York, in 1975. She became room, dressing room, and so on),
interested in what these new providing a series of intimate
residential spaces meant to their spatial encounters.
occupiers, and was particularly
concerned by the impact that The psychic state of a loft-
dweller, argued Zukin, was that of a
search for authenticity—an attempt

130 SHARON ZUKIN

Chelsea Market is a New York food
hall created in the 1990s in a derelict
factory in the Meatpacking District.
Zukin says the area is a far cry from
the one-time “no-go zone” of butchery.

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

neighborhoods unique
lives on only in the

buildings, not the people.
Sharon Zukin

MODERN LIVING 131

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

LIVING I
GLOBAL

NA
WORLD

134 INTRODUCTION

The Communist Ulrich Beck argues in Boaventura de Sousa Roland Robertson
Manifesto by Karl Marx Risk Society that we Santos urges that assesses the effects
must develop new
and Friedrich Engels strategies to deal with sociological research from of globalization
forecasts the the human-made the northern hemisphere be on local cultures
risks of globalization. revised to take account of
globalization of other societies to become in Globalization:
capitalism and calls Social Theory and
for all workers to unite. truly global in scope.
Global Culture.

1848 1986 1990S 1992
1974 1990S 1991

In The Modern World-System, Zygmunt Bauman develops Saskia Sassen
Immanuel Wallerstein argues the idea of “liquid modernity”: describes the global
that globalization works to the a state of constant social importance of some
advantage of some countries
change resulting from core cities, rather
and to the detriment of advances in global mobility than nation-states, in
developing nations.
and communications. The Global City.

S ociology grew out of a desire had accelerated. In the 20th Perhaps the most noticeable social
to understand, and suggest century, the telegraph and aviation effect of these technological
ways of improving, the revolutionized international advances has been from the
modern society that had emerged connections, and post-World improvement of communications.
during the Enlightenment, War II information technology From telephones to the Internet,
and especially the effects of has sustained this pattern. the world has become increasingly
industrialization, rationalization, interconnected, and social
and capitalism. But as the Network society networks now transcend national
discipline of sociology became While many people feel that the boundaries. Information technology
more firmly established in the world has entered a new, post- has not only made commercial
latter part of the 20th century, industrial, postmodern age, transactions quicker and easier
it became apparent that there others see globalization as simply than ever, but has also connected
was another force driving social a continuation of the process of individuals and communities that
change: globalization. modernity. Zygmunt Bauman, for had previously been isolated.
example, argues that what began
International trade had with industrialization has now Manuel Castells was among the
been in force for centuries, with entered a mature, “late modern” first to identify the social effects of
multinational corporations rooted stage as technology has become this network society, while Roland
in the trading empires of the 16th ever more sophisticated. The Robertson argued that rather than
and 17th centuries, so the idea of nature of technological progress having a homogenizing effect
globalization was nothing new. means this stage is characterized (by creating a universal model
However, since the Industrial by a “liquid modernity”—a state of society), globalization was in
Revolution, the pace of progress of constant change. fact merging with local cultures
in transport and communication to produce new social systems.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 135

Manuel Castells analyzes the David Held and Anthony Anthony Giddens warns
social effects of information McGrew point out the of the dangers of
technology in the first part of his contradictory social
three-volume The Information Age: effects of globalization procrastination over
The Rise of the Network Society in Globalization/ environmental issues
Anti-Globalization:
(1997, The Power of Identity; in The Politics of
1998, End of Millennium). Beyond the Great Divide. Climate Change.

1996 2002 2009
1996 2002 2007

Arjun Appadurai examines David McCrone examines In Mobilities, John Urry
how identities are formed the role of national explains how new

in a globalized world identity in a globalized cultures and identities
in Modernity At Large: world in The Sociology are emerging as people
of Nationalism: are increasingly able to
Cultural Dimensions Tomorrow’s Ancestors. move around the world.
of Globalization.

Another aspect of late modernity Western countries, an influx of Santos has urged a change in
is the ease with which people migrants from different cultures sociological thinking to include
now travel worldwide. Just as the has changed attitudes to race, marginalized points of view.
migration from the countryside religion, and culture, especially
to the cities after industrialization as second- and third-generation Others, such as Ulrich Beck,
created new social structures, immigrants identify themselves have warned of the risks associated
increased mobility in the late with their host country. with globalization, as traditional
20th century has changed social ways of life are eroded by
patterns. Economic migration has Much of this movement has advances in new technology and
become increasingly common as been driven by economic inequality communication. Unlike in the past,
people move not just into the new between nations, which has not we no longer face only natural risks
global cities, but internationally in been alleviated by globalization. on a local scale, but also human-
search of work and prosperity. As According to Immanuel made crises that have international
Arjun Appadurai and others have Wallerstein, it is the spread of consequences. Environmental
pointed out, this has led to cultural capitalism that perpetuates issues are perhaps the greatest
changes, including a questioning the differences between rich threat, but as a society we have
of how identities are formed. and poor countries. Capitalism tended, as Anthony Giddens has
reaps an economic advantage pointed out, to bury our heads
Culture and environment by maintaining this difference, in the sand. While enjoying the
Many sociologists have tried to and exploiting the resources of benefits of modern global society,
assess globalization’s impact on developing countries. And because we continue to put off dealing with
local cultures, and the changing of the increasing contrast between the underlying problems, maybe
nature of national identities. In the northern and southern to the point where it is too late to
hemispheres, Boaventura de Sousa prevent disaster. ■

ABANDON ALL HOPE OF

TOTALITY

YOU WHO ENTER THE

WORLD OF FLUID

MODERNITY

ZYGMUNT BAUMAN (1925– )



138 ZYGMUNT BAUMAN As society moves away from the first phase of modernity,
known as “solid modernity...”
IN CONTEXT
...sources of ...people traverse ...economic
FOCUS identity are the globe in uncertainty and
Liquid modernity eroded, leading vast numbers.
to fragmented competition
KEY DATES consumer grows, and job
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich identities.
Engels publish The Communist security
Manifesto, which forecasts the weakens.
globalization of capitalism.
Global society becomes fluid, highly changeable, and uncertain.
1929–35 Antonio Gramsci’s We have entered the world of liquid modernity.
concept of hegemony shapes
Zygmunt Bauman’s view that
the culture of capitalism is
highly resilient.

1957 The ratification of the
Treaty of Rome allows for the
free flow of workers within
the European Economic
Community.

1976 Bauman is influenced by
Michel Foucault’s Discipline
and Punish, and in particular
by his ideas on surveillance.

2008 British sociologist Will
Atkinson questions whether
Bauman’s notion of liquid
modernity has been subject
to sufficient critical scrutiny.

I n the late 19th century, affects society at the global, the current stage in the broader
societies began to coalesce systemic level, and also at the level evolution of Western—and now
around urban centers, and of individual experience. Bauman’s also global—society. Like Karl
Western Europe entered a phase use of the term “liquid” is a Marx, Bauman believes that human
known as modernity, characterized powerful metaphor for present-day society progresses in a way that
by industrialization and capitalism. life: it is mobile, fast-flowing, means each “new” stage develops
According to Polish sociologist changeable, amorphous, without out of the stage before it. Thus it is
Zygmunt Bauman, societies have a center of gravity, and difficult to necessary to define solid modernity
moved away from that first phase contain and predict. In essence, before it is possible to understand
of modernity—which he termed liquid modernity is a way of life liquid modernity.
“solid modernity”—and now that exists in the continuous,
occupy a period in human history unceasing reshaping of the Defining solid modernity
called “liquid modernity.” This new modern world in ways that are Bauman sees solid modernity as
period is, according to Bauman, unpredictable, uncertain, and ordered, rational, predictable, and
one marked by unrelenting plagued by increasing levels of risk. relatively stable. Its defining feature
uncertainty and change that Liquid modernity, for Bauman, is is the organization of human

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 139

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■
Anthony Giddens 148–49 ■ Ulrich Beck 156–61 ■ Antonio Gramsci 178–79

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

Key works

1989 Modernity and the
Holocaust
2000 Liquid Modernity
2011 Culture in a Liquid
Modern World

140 ZYGMUNT BAUMAN

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

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 141

increasingly perceived as being The key differences between solid and liquid
as much the cause of environmental modernity were identified by Bauman as two
and sociopolitical problems as they sets of four characteristics.
are the solution. This inevitably
leads to increased skepticism Stasis Design
and general apathy on the part
of the general public. Movement

Liquid modernity has Chance
undermined the certainties of
individuals regarding employment, Indeterminacy
education, and welfare. Today,
many workers must either retrain Determinacy Predictability Unpredictability
or change occupation altogether,
sometimes several times—the Solid modernity Liquid modernity
notion of a “job for life,” which
was typical in the age of solid education. Individuals are industrial plants, liquid modernity
modernity, has been rendered now required to continue their is instead based on the rapid and
unrealistic and unachievable. education—often at their own relentless consumption of consumer
expense—throughout their careers goods and services.
The practice of “re-engineering,” in order to remain up to date with
or the downsizing of firms—a term developments in their respective This transition from production
that Bauman borrows from the US professions, or as a means of to consumption, says Bauman, is a
sociologist, Richard Sennett—has ensuring they remain “marketable” result of the dissolution of the social
become increasingly common, as in case of redundancy. structures, such as occupation and
it enables corporations to remain nationality, to which identity was
financially competitive in the Concurrent with these changes anchored in solid modernity. ❯❯
global market by reducing labor to employment patterns is the
costs significantly. As part of retreat of the welfare state. What
this process, stable, permanent was once regarded historically as a
work—which typified solid reliable “safety net” guarding
modernism—is being replaced by against personal misfortune such
temporary employment contracts as ill-health and unemployment,
that are issued to a largely mobile state provision of welfare is rapidly
workforce. Closely related to this being withdrawn, especially in the
occupational instability is the areas of social housing, state-
shifting role and nature of funded higher education, and
national health care.
We live in a globalizing
world. That means all of us,

consciously or not,
depend on each other.
Zygmunt Bauman

Fluid identities Welfare states, as Bauman says, have
Where solid modernity was based been under pressure recently. In the
on the industrial production of UK, for example, the National Health
consumer goods in factories and Service is being eroded, despite
widespread support for the system.

142 ZYGMUNT BAUMAN

destabilizing forces are not evenly
distributed across global society.
Bauman identifies and explains
the importance of the variables
of mobility, time, and space for
understanding why. For Bauman,
the capacity to remain mobile is
an extremely valuable attribute
in liquid modernity, because it
facilitates the successful pursuit
of wealth and personal fulfillment.

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

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 143

If you define your value by the modernity is regarded by the vast ‘Community’ is nowadays
things you acquire... being majority of thinkers as a unique another name for
excluded is humiliating. contribution to the field. paradise lost.
Zygmunt Bauman
The Irish sociologist Donncha Zygmunt Bauman
as Bauman calls them, are people Marron has applied Bauman’s
who are immobile, or subject to concept of liquid modernity to can often be co-branded with
forced mobility, and excluded from a critical rethinking of consumer things the owner is interested in,
consumer culture. Life for them credit within the US. Following such as football teams, charities,
involves either being mired in Bauman’s suggestion that or stores. These co-branded cards
places where unemployment is consumption of goods and brands represent a small but revealing
high and the standard of living is is a key feature of how individuals means whereby a person is able to
very poor, or being forced to leave construct personal identity, select and present a sense of who
their country of origin as economic Marron notes that the credit they are to the outside world. ■
or political refugees in search of card is an important tool in
employment, or in response to this process because it is ideally Bauman’s global “tourists” are
the threat of war or persecution. suited for enabling people to mobile members of the social elite who
Anywhere they stay for too long adapt to the kind of fluid ways of possess the wealth and occupational
soon becomes inhospitable. living Bauman depicts. The credit status necessary to enjoy the most
card can, for example, be used to positive aspects of liquid modernity.
For Bauman, mass migration fund shopping trips to satisfy
and transnational flows of people consumer desire. It makes paying
around the globe are among the for things easier, quicker, and
hallmarks of liquid modernity and considerably more manageable.
are factors contributing to the The credit card of course also
unpredictable and constantly serves the function, says Marron,
changing nature of everyday life: of meeting day-to-day bills and
Bauman’s social categories of expenses, as people move between
tourists and vagabonds occupy jobs or make significant career
two extremes of this phenomenon. moves. And the physical card itself

Applying Bauman’s theory
Zygmunt Bauman is considered
one of the most influential and
eminent sociologists of the modern
age. He prefers not to align himself
with any particular intellectual
tradition—his writings are relevant
to a vast range of disciplines, from
ethics, media, and cultural studies
to political theory and philosophy.
Within sociology, his work on liquid

144

THE MODERN
WORLD-SYSTEM

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN (1930– )

IN CONTEXT Capitalism ignored As its wealth
national borders in its and influence grew,
FOCUS global search for profit. it developed an integrated
World-system theory world-system based on
the logic of the market
KEY DATES
16th century The foundations and profit.
for global capitalism are laid
as European powers “discover” Nations benefit unequally This system exploits
and colonize parts of the from the modern world the natural resources and
Americas and Asia. labor of poorer nations,
economic system.
1750 The Industrial Revolution making it hard for
begins in Great Britain. them to develop.

1815–1914 New industries V arious nations of the world nations continue to be the primary
and social and economic are interconnected by a beneficiaries of global commodity
transformations spread global system of economic chains and the products and
to Europe, North America, relationships that sees more- wealth that are created by
Japan, and parts of developed nations exploiting the industrial capitalism.
Australasia—countries in natural resources and labor of
these regions form the “core” of developing nations, according to US The world economic system,
the modern economic system. sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein says Wallerstein, began to emerge
in The Modern World-System in the 16th century, as European
1867 Karl Marx publishes the (1974). This “world-system” makes nations such as Britain, Spain, and
first volume of Das Kapital, it difficult for poor nations to France exploited the resources of
highlighting the exploitative develop, and ensures that rich conquered and colonized lands.
tendencies of capitalism. These unequal trade relationships

From the 20th century
Global trade develops, with
new states, including former
colonies, integrating into the
“system” of global capitalism.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 145

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Roland Robertson 146–47 ■ Saskia Sassen 164–65 ■ Arjun Appadurai 166–69 ■
David Held 170–71

produced an accumulation of The modern world-system is based core nations sell their developed
capital that was reinvested in on a classlike grouping of nations, and commodities at higher prices than
expanding the economic system. results in unequal economic and trade those from the periphery. Those
By the late 19th century, most of relationships between those nations. nations in the semi-periphery
the world had been incorporated also benefit from unequal trade
into this system of commodity Periphery nations are powerless relationships with the periphery,
production and exchange. and dispossessed; they have narrow but are often at a disadvantage
economic bases in agriculture and with regards to their economic
The global stage minerals, and provide the semi- exchanges with the core.
Wallerstein’s ideas on the origin periphery and core nations with
of modern capitalism extend the commodities, raw materials, and This world-system, Wallerstein
theories of Karl Marx to the global cheap labor. suggests, is relatively stable and
stage. Marx focused on how unlikely to change. While nations
capitalism produces a struggle over Semi-periphery nations have can move “up” or “down” within the
“surplus value,” which refers to the intermediate levels of affluence and system, the military and economic
fact that a worker produces more some autonomy and economic diversity. power of states in the core, along
value in a day than he or she is paid with the aspirations of those in the
for, and this extra value translates Core nations are developed, semi-periphery, make it unlikely
as profit for the employer. Under industrialized, and affluent; they dominate that global relationships will be
capitalism, the working class is at the heart of the modern world-system. restructured to be more equitable.
exploited by wealthy social elites
for the surplus value of their labor. which produce complex products Wallerstein’s ideas on the
using technologically advanced modern world-system, originating
Wallerstein develops this idea methods of production. The core in the 1970s, predate the literature
to focus on those who benefit from nations rely on periphery nations on globalization, which only
global commodity chains, arguing for raw materials, agricultural emerged as a central concern
that there are classlike groupings products, and cheap labor. Semi- of sociology from the late 1980s
of nations in the world-system, periphery nations have a mix of the and early 1990s. His work is
which he labels “core,” “semi- social and economic characteristics therefore recognized as an early
periphery,” and “periphery.” Core of the other categories. and important contribution to
nations are developed societies, economic globalization and its
The unequal nature of this sociopolitical consequences. ■
economic exchange between the
core and the periphery means that

Global patterns of wealth and inequality

Social scientists originally Wallerstein rejected the idea
discussed global inequalities that the Third World was merely
using the terms “First World” underdeveloped. He focused
(developed Western nations), on the economic process and
“Second World” (industrialized links underpinning the global
communist nations), and “Third economy to show that, although
World” (colonized nations). a nation’s position in the world-
Nations were ranked according system was initially a product
to their levels of capitalist of history and geography,
enterprise, industrialization, and the market forces of global
urbanization, and the argument capitalism serve to accentuate
was that poorer nations simply the differences between
needed more of the economic the core and the periphery
features of developed societies nations, thereby effectively
to escape poverty. institutionalizing inequality.

146

GLOBAL ISSUES,
LOCAL PERSPECTIVES

ROLAND ROBERTSON (1938– )

IN CONTEXT Globalization results in different ideas,
cultural forms, and products being spread
FOCUS
Glocalization throughout the world, including:

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

1980s Japanese businesses
develop strategies to adapt
global products to local
markets, a process they
call “glocalization.”

1990s Roland Robertson
expands the Japanese concept
of “glocalization” in his work
on globalization.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 147

See also: George Ritzer 120–23 ■ Immanuel Wallerstein 144–45 ■ Cultural mélange
Saskia Sassen 164–65 ■ Arjun Appadurai 166–69 ■ David Held 170–71

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

148

CLIMATE CHANGE
IS A BACK-OF-
THE-MIND ISSUE

ANTHONY GIDDENS (1938– )

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