DK THE SOCIOLOGY BOOK

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 149

See also: Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Manuel Castells 152–55 ■ Ulrich Beck 156–61 ■ David Held 170–71 ■
Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25

Industrialization spreads throughout the world, leading to...

...mining and ...globalization and ...the mass ...greater
refining more the increasing production of dependence on
minerals for the consumer technology, which
manufacture of movement of people products, which enhances human
commodities. and goods in cars, become central to capacities and
people’s self-identity.
trains, boats, experiences.
and planes.

People don’t want to accept that their consumer lifestyles contribute
to carbon emissions, so climate change is a back-of-the-mind issue.

A by-product of this energy However, Giddens is optimistic which use market forces to reward
production is carbon dioxide, which about the future. He believes that companies that reduce their
builds up in the upper atmosphere the same human ingenuity that greenhouse gas emissions.
and traps energy from the sun, gave rise to industrial and high- New technologies are also being
leading to “global warming” and tech societies can be used to find researched, developed, and shared,
extreme weather events, such as innovative solutions to reducing which could potentially end the
droughts, floods, and cyclones. carbon emissions. For instance, world’s reliance on fossil fuels, and
international cooperation is seeing provide cheap and clean sources
Innovative solutions countries introducing carbon of energy for both developed and
In The Politics of Climate Change trading schemes and carbon taxes, developing societies. ■
(2009) Giddens argues that
because the dangers posed by Future discounting person take up smoking, when
environmental degradation and the health risks are widely
climate change are not obvious or According to Giddens, the known? For the teenage smoker
immediately visible in everyday concept of “future discounting” it is almost impossible to
life, many people ”...do nothing of explains why people take steps imagine being 40, the age at
a concrete nature about them. Yet to solve present problems but which the dangers start to take
waiting until such dangers become ignore the threats that face hold and have potentially fatal
visible and acute—in the shape of them in the future. He notes consequences. This analogy
catastrophes that are irrefutably the that people often choose a small applies to climate change.
result of climate change—before reward now, rather than take People are addicted to advanced
being stirred to serious action will a course of action that might technology and the mobility
be too late.” lead to a greater reward in the afforded by fossils fuels. Rather
future. The same psychological than tackle an uncomfortable
“Giddens’ paradox” is the label principle applies to risks. reality, it is easier to ignore the
that he gives to this disconnect warnings of climate scientists.
between the rewards of the present To illustrate his point,
and the threat of future dangers Giddens uses the example of
and catastrophes. a smoker. Why does a young

150

NO SOCIAL JUSTICE
WITHOUT GLOBAL
COGNITIVE JUSTICE

BOAVENTURA DE SOUSA SANTOS (1940– )

IN CONTEXT A Western capitalist world order has taken root, stratifying
nations not only along economic and political lines but also by
FOCUS
Epistemologies forms of knowledge.
of the South
This has resulted in a cultural battle in which the global North,
KEY DATES with its culture rooted in science, regards the global South
1976 G-7 is formed by the as culturally inferior.
world’s seven wealthiest and
most influential nation-states Global equality can only be achieved when cultures
to discuss global affairs. enter into a dialogue based on mutual respect and
acknowledgment of different forms of knowledge.
1997 Indian scholar Shiv
Visvanathan coins the term There can be no social justice without
“cognitive justice,” in his book global cognitive justice.
A Carnival for Science: Essays
on Science, Technology, T he notion that knowledge ways in which its members
and Development. and culture are inseparable accumulate socially specific
was proposed by French knowledge about the world.
2001 The World Social Forum sociologist Émile Durkheim. He
is founded in Brazil by anti- claimed that the culture of a Portuguese sociologist
globalization activists to group—its collectively produced Boaventura de Sousa Santos
discuss alternative pathways ideas and ways of thinking about accepts that this link exists
to sustainable development situations and events—shapes the and, building upon Immanuel
and economic justice. Wallerstein’s concept of the world

2014 British sociologist David
Inglis uses de Sousa Santos’s
ideas about the plurality
of knowledge to critically
consider the development
of cosmopolitan society.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 151

See also: Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Immanuel Wallerstein 144–45 ■ Boaventura de
Roland Robertson 146–47 ■ Arjun Appadurai 166–69 ■ Antonio Gramsci 178–79 Sousa Santos

system, he has extended the idea global North, he refers to different Boaventura de Sousa Santos is
to what he says is the cultural agendas from the peripheral states a professor at the University of
battle created by globalization. He as “epistemologies of the South.” Coimbra, Portugal. He earned
claims the world is divided into an his doctorate in the US, at
uneven conflict between dominant In his work, de Sousa Santos Yale, and is a visiting professor
(“hegemonic”) groups, states, acknowledges that his goal is to at the University of Wisconsin-
and ideologies on one side, and end these hierarchies of exclusion, Madison. He is a defender
dominated (“counter-hegemonic”) because “there is no social justice of strong social and civic
groups, collectives, and ideas on without global cognitive justice.” movements, which he regards
the other. The battle takes place He maintains that the cultural as essential for the realization
at a number of levels, including the diversity of the world is matched of participative democracy.
economy, technology, and politics. by its epistemological diversity;
recognition of this has to be at In 2001 de Sousa Santos
Culture and power the core of any global effort to founded The World Social
De Sousa Santos says that the eradicate current inequalities. Forum as a meeting place
cultures of the world—and the The biggest obstacle to this, for organizations opposed to
knowledge embedded within argues de Sousa Santos, is that the forms of globalization led by
them—are hierarchically arranged scientific knowledge of the global neoliberal economic policy
and unevenly accessible, in line North is “hegemonic” within the and transnational corporate
with wider capitalist power social hierarchy of knowledge. capitalism. He has published
relations. Referring to the widely on globalization,
philosophical term “epistemology” Technological dominance sociology of law and the state,
(from episteme, “knowledge”), he The capitalist and imperial order democracy, and human rights.
argues that the marginalization imposed on the global South by the
of some nations by others on the global North has an epistemological Key works
world stage is intimately related to foundation. Western powers have
epistemological exclusion. Because developed the capacity to dominate 2006 The Rise of the Global
the dominant models of social many parts of the world, not least Left: The World Social Forum
research are those imposed by the by elevating modern science to and Beyond
the status of a form of universal 2007 Cognitive Justice in
Indigenous tribes, such as Brazil’s knowledge, superior to all other a Global World: Prudent
Kayapó, understand the properties of types of knowledge. Other non- Knowledges for a Decent Life
healing plants. Western pharmaceutical scientific forms of knowledge, and 2014 Epistemologies of the
companies exploit this knowledge, but the cultural and social practices of South
fail to reward the tribes adequately. different social groups informed by
these knowledges, are suppressed plurality: an “emancipatory, non-
in the name of modern science. relativistic cosmopolitan ecology
Modern science has colonized our of knowledges,” which will have
thinking to such an extent that at their heart the recognition
diverging from it is classified as of difference, and of the right to
irrational thought. An example difference and coexistence.
of this is the Western media’s Only by these means, says de
portrayal of Middle Eastern culture Sousa Santos, can we achieve
as irrational and excessively a truly global understanding of
emotionally charged, which has how societies work. This vision
“destructive consequences.” informs the efforts of groups
such as The World Social Forum,
Instead, de Sousa Santos is which seeks to bring about social
keen to develop a transnational and economic justice using
cultural dialogue that will result in alternatives to capitalism. ■

152 IN CONTEXT

THE UNLEASHING FOCUS
OF PRODUCTIVE Network society
CAPACITY BY
THE POWER KEY DATES
OF THE MIND 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels’ The Communist
MANUEL CASTELLS (1942– ) Manifesto forecasts the
globalization of capitalism.

1968 Manuel Castells studies
under French sociologist
Alain Touraine on the subject
of social movements and
resistance to capitalism.

From 1990 The corporate use
of Internet-based technology
increases, spreading out to the
wider public and domestic life.

1992 US sociologist Harrison
White writes “Markets,
Networks, and Control,” a
discussion of network theory.

1999 Dutch sociologist Jan
Van Dijk writes The Network
Society, focusing on social
media such as Facebook.

T he last 50 years have seen
giant leaps in science and
developments in Internet-
based and digital technologies.
According to Spanish sociologist
Manuel Castells (whose work
straddles communication and
information studies and is strongly
influenced by Karl Marx), these
advances have been shaped
by—and played a key role in
contributing to—economic, social,
and political developments on the
world stage. This has led Castells
to focus on globalization and its
economic and social effects.

For Marx, industrial capitalism
was based on the production of
consumer goods and commodities.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 153

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Niklas Luhmann 110–11 ■ Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Anthony Giddens 148–49 ■
Ulrich Beck 156–61 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25 ■ Harry Braverman 226–31

The “network society” ...where access to the This means almost
is an interconnected network, or the “space of anyone, anywhere,
global community can use telecommunications-
flows,” is no longer the based technology for any
of interests... preserve of a dominant creative purpose.

social group.

During the 1970s, US sociologist and whole societies is networks. The idea of a fully connected
Daniel Bell invoked the term Moreover, the malleable and open- world, wired through the Internet,
“post-industrialism” to designate ended nature of these networks conjures up images of people in
the shift toward a service-led means that they span the globe. all corners of the planet engaging
economy. Castells argues that the productively in different types
rise to prominence of Internet- When classical sociologists of relations with one another in
based technologies means such as Karl Marx, Émile constantly shifting networks—
capitalism now centers on Durkheim, and Max Weber use constrained not by geography or
information and knowledge. Human the term “society,” it refers nationality, but only by the capacity
societies, he claims, have left primarily to that of a given nation- of human imagination. It is now
behind the Industrial Age and state. So, for example, it is possible possible to access information
entered the Information Age, the to talk of US society as something 24 hours a day through search
social–structural expression of different from, as well as sharing engines such as Google, and to join
which is the “network society.” similarities with, say, British chat rooms with people thousands
society. However, in Castells’ work, of miles away and engage in
A networked world the nation-state has become the instantaneous communication.
The Information Age is defined by globe and everything in it. The
the creation and dissemination of world of relatively autonomous Castells elaborates on the
various specialist knowledges such nation-states, with their own concept of networks in a variety
as fluctuations in world oil prices, internally structured societies, is of ways. Microelectronics-based
the financial markets, and so on. no longer—it has been reimagined networks define the network
In advanced capitalist societies, as multitudes of overlapping and society and have replaced
networks of financial capital and intersecting networks. bureaucracy as the main way of ❯❯
information are now at the heart of
productivity and competitiveness.

The shift from the production of
goods and services to information
and knowledge has profoundly
altered the nature of society and
social relations. Castells claims that
the dominant mode of organizing
interpersonal relations, institutions,

BM&FBOVESPA in São Paulo, Brazil,
is the largest stock exchange in Latin
America. The exclusively electronic
trading environment exemplifies the
global economy in the Information Age.

154 MANUEL CASTELLS

The network society is a Financial Chat this elite’s preferred spatiality
result of affordable, globally data rooms is the global city—from here it is
unifying telecommunications able to reproduce its cosmopolitan
technology that has changed practices and interests.
how we live, think, and do
things. People who may never Meanwhile, in contrast, the
meet one another can now lives of the masses tend to be local
communicate instantly to rather than global—organized
trade goods or to exchange around and clustered in places
information and ideas. where people live in close physical
proximity and social relations are
Entertainment Online characterized by shared ways of
services shopping life. Therefore, said Castells, most
people build meaningful identities
organizing social relations, because a social order organized into and and lives in actual geographically
they are far better at managing around networks can lay claim to specific locales, the “space of
complexity. As well as the being highly dynamic, innovative, places,” rather than in the ethereal
economic networks of financial and geared to ongoing, fast-moving and placeless world of electronic
trade and capital investment, social changes. Castells describes networks, the “space of flows.”
microelectronic networks include networked social relations as a
political and interpersonal “dynamic, self-expanding form With the spread of the Internet
networks. The “network state” of human activity” that tends and social media, however, this
includes transnational political to transform all spheres of social view of a unified, cosmopolitan,
bodies such as the European Union, and economic life. global elite using the space of flows
while examples of interpersonal to exert power came to be seen
networks are enacted through Social dynamics as overly simplistic. Economically
the Internet, email, and social The matter of whether individuals impoverished social groups may
networking websites such as and institutions participate in, or find it harder to incorporate into,
Facebook and Twitter. are excluded from, certain social and center their lifestyles on,
networks provides Castells with Internet-based technologies to the
Castells says a network can a window on the power dynamics same degree as socially dominant
be defined as follows: it has no at work in the network society. He groups, but this is less and less
“center”; it is made up of a series concludes that networked relations the case. Castells now claims that
of “nodes” of varying importance have changed the structure of “people of all kinds, wishing to do
but nevertheless all are necessary society over time. all kinds of things, can occupy this
in order for the network to operate; space of flows and use it for their
the degree of social power peculiar Castells’ initial argument was own purposes.”
to a network is relative depending that individuals working within
on how much information it is able large multinational finance houses Networks have become the
to process; a network only deals and institutions, and whose predominant organizational
with a certain type of information— professional work is structured
namely, the type of information within and through networks of form of every domain of
relevant to it; and a network is an global financial flows, comprised human activity.
open structure, able to expand and the dominant social group—what
compress without limits. he calls the “technocratic-financial- Manuel Castells
managerial elite.” Occupying the
Castells emphasizes the high key posts of command and control
levels of adaptability characteristic within the worldwide system,
of network society. Key here is that

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 155

Anti-capitalist organizations, such today. Others deny that the present Manuel Castells
as the Anticapitalist Initiative social and economic order is
(which expressly refers to itself historically unprecedented; British Manuel Castells Oliván was
as a network on its website), have sociologist Nicholas Garnham born in 1942 in Spain. After
made use of the Internet in creative argues that the network society is being active in the student
ways to connect people through a more accurately a development of anti-Franco movement, he
burgeoning network that occupies industrialism than a novel stage in left Spain for France to study
the space of flows. Castells uses human society. British sociologist for a PhD in sociology at the
the example of the Zapatistas in Frank Webster charges Castells University of Paris during the
Mexico to acknowledge that social with technological determinism— politically turbulent late 1960s.
power can be accrued through the the view that social relations are
space of flows by marginalized intimately shaped by technological In the 1980s Castells
groups in order to challenge the developments but are not moved to California—the
state and elite institutions. The determined by them; rather, home of Silicon Valley. A
Zapatistas have been successful the two influence one another. decade or so later he wrote an
in attracting media attention in influential three-volume study
cyberspace and have used the Whether or not the network about the network society
Internet to perform virtual sit-ins, society is novel or beneficial, entitled The Information Age:
with software clogging government there is no doubt that the world is Economy, Society, and Culture.
servers and websites, as well as to increasingly interconnected and
plan and coordinate offline events. reliant on digital technologies, Castells is an influential
which are reshaping social social scientific thinker. He is
Dystopia or utopia? relations. For Castells, the rise of a sociologist at the University
Castells’ twin concepts of a global society bound by myriad of Southern California (USC),
Information Age and network networks is, ultimately, a positive Los Angeles, contributed to
society provide a powerful set thing. Enabling people from far- the establishment of the USC
of analytical tools for understanding flung places to interact offers the Center on Public Diplomacy,
the transformative effects that potential for humanity to draw and is also a member of
information technology and upon its collective productive the Annenberg Research
globalization are having on human resources to create a new and Network on International
life and social relations. enlightened world order. He argues Communication (ARNIC).
that if we “are informed, active,
Marx’s concept of alienation and communicate throughout the Key works
resonates throughout Castells’ world” then we “can depart for
work, which represents an attempt exploration of the inner self, having 1996 The Information Age:
to make sense of the furiously made peace among ourselves.” ■ Volume I: The Rise of the
paced changes and processes Network Society
unfolding in the world around us While organizations are 1997 The Information Age:
with a view to reclaiming control located in places... the Volume II: The Power of
over them. However, the idea that Identity
humans have created a global organizational logic 1998 The Information Age:
society they have lost control of and is placeless. Volume III: End of Millennium
are alienated by is in part indebted
to other theorists of globalization Manuel Castells
such as Anthony Giddens, Ulrich
Beck, and Zygmunt Bauman.

Castells’ work has many critics.
Sociologists such as Bauman
say it is utopian considering the
“reality” of the social, economic,
political, and environmental
problems confronting humanity

WE ARE LIVING IN A

WORLD

THAT IS BEYOND

CONTROLLABILITY

ULRICH BECK (1944–2015)



158 ULRICH BECK We are entering a new period of “reflexive”
modernity, which is characterized
IN CONTEXT by uncertainty and insecurity.

FOCUS The scientific and technological revolution that delivered
Risk society progress is now viewed as having introduced problems
of development and global risks.
KEY DATES
1968 The Club of Rome think Nothing appears fixed anymore and contradictions
tank is founded and in 1972 emerge between scientists and policymakers about
publishes a report “The Limits
to Growth,” which identifies the appropriate risk response.
the risk posed by excessive
population growth. Loss of respect for institutions and experts
creates uncertainty and doubt as we begin
1984 US sociologist Charles
Perrow publishes Normal to fear we are living in a world that is
Accidents: Living with High- beyond controllability.
Risk Technologies.

1999 US sociologist Barry
Glassner draws on Ulrich
Beck’s concept of risk in
The Culture of Fear: Why
Americans Are Afraid
of the Wrong Things.

2001 The 9/11 attacks on
the US lead to worldwide
changes in the perception
of the risks posed by
international terrorist
organizations.

H uman societies have institutions had changed profoundly means that individuals, groups,
always faced dangers, and over the past decades, and that this governments, and corporations
historically these have required a new way of thinking are increasingly concerned about
usually been “natural” in origin. In about risk. Beck argues that social the production, dissemination,
recent years, science, technology, life is progressing from a first stage of and experience of risk. We now
and industry have created modernity to an emergent second, or have to confront problems that
prosperity, but have also brought “reflexive,” stage. This is shaped by previous generations could not
about new dangers (for example, an awareness that control of—and imagine, and this requires new
those posed by the production of mastery over—nature and society societal responses.
nuclear power), which have focused may be impossible. This awareness
the thoughts of individuals and may itself lead to disenchantment In his earlier work, Beck points
societies on a quest for safety and with existing social structures as in particular to the risks posed
the idea of calculable risk. In the providers of safety and reassurance. by nuclear energy, the chemical
mid-1980s the German sociologist industry, and biotechnology. He
Ulrich Beck claimed that our A key characteristic of this new says that the application of science
relationship to society and its stage is the emergence of a global and technology to meet human
“risk society,” by which Beck needs has reached a critical

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 159

See also: August Comte 22–25 ■ Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Anthony Giddens 148–49

threshold; that our advances century, such as health pandemics, Neither science, nor the
have opened up the possibility nuclear meltdowns, or genetically politics in power... are in
of disasters on an unprecedented modified foodstuffs. As a result,
scale. Should such a catastrophe how do scientists, corporations, a position to define or
occur, it would be so grave that and governments try to manage control risks rationally.
it would be almost impossible such potentially catastrophic risks?
to contain its impact or to return Ulrich Beck
to the way things were before. Real and virtual risk
Beck identifies a strange ambiguity means that scientists often cannot
Qualities of risk in how society understands risks. agree on questions of likelihood,
Beck identifies three significant On the one hand, they are real— possible severity, or how to set up
qualities of risk. First, global, they exist as objective, latent proper safety procedures. In fact in
irreparable damage: accidents threats at the heart of scientific and the public mind, it is these same
cannot be compensated for, technological progress. They cannot experts—in their manipulation of
so insurance no longer works. be ignored, even if authorities try genes or splitting of atomic nuclei—
Second, exclusion of precautionary to pretend they do not exist. At who may have created the risks.
aftercare: we cannot return the same time, however, risks are
conditions to the way they were also virtual; that is, they represent However, while there is public
before the accident. Third, no limit current anxieties about events skepticism about scientists, Beck
on space and time: accidents are that have yet to—or may never— notes that they are nevertheless
unpredictable, can be felt across happen. Nonetheless, it is the essential in the risk society.
national borders, and impose their apparent threat posed by these Precisely because we cannot feel,
effects over long periods of time. risks, the anticipation of disaster, hear, smell, or see the risks that ❯❯
that ushers in new challenges
In terms of dealing with the to the power of scientists,
possibility or likelihood of such corporations, and governments.
calamities happening in the
future, traditional methods of risk Beck observes that no one is
calculation have become obsolete an expert on questions of risk, not
in relation to many of the new kinds even the experts themselves. The
of risks that concern us in the 21st intrinsic complexity of many risks

Ulrich Beck Ulrich Beck was born in 1944 was also Visiting Professor at
in the town of Stolp, Germany, the London School of Economics.
which is now part of Poland. Beck was one of Europe’s most
From 1966 onward he studied high-profile sociologists; in
sociology, philosophy, psychology, addition to his academic writing
and political science at Munich and research he commented on
University. In 1972 he received contemporary issues in the
his doctorate at Munich University media and played an active
and in 1979 he became a full role in German and European
university lecturer. He was political affairs. He died in 2015.
subsequently appointed professor
at the universities of Münster Key works
and Bamberg.
1986 Risk Society
From 1992 Beck was professor 1997 What is Globalization?
of sociology and director of the 1999 World Risk Society
Institute for Sociology at Munich’s 2004 The Cosmopolitan Vision
Ludwig Maximilian University; he

160 ULRICH BECK

we face, we need these experts to themselves from risks, perhaps
help measure, calculate, and make by paying more to live in a safer
sense of them for us. community or by having private
insurance to provide better medical
Making risks meaningful Reduced to a formula, care. However, people can no longer
Beck notes the important role wealth is hierarchic, buy their way out of many modern-
played by so-called “new social smog is democratic. day risks. Up to a point, someone
movements” in raising public could spend their way out of one
awareness of risk. For instance, Ulrich Beck risk by eating more expensive
Greenpeace, an independent organic food to avoid the perceived
organization committed to a powerful symbolic form. For hazards of industrial pesticides.
environmental protection, runs example, the consequences of Similarly, wealthier nations might
many high-profile publicity rising global temperatures over avoid the polluting effects of heavy
campaigns to draw attention many decades into the future can industry by outsourcing production
to the environmental risks both feel slightly unreal and abstract. to rapidly developing nations such
caused and downplayed by However, “then-and-now” imagery as China. Sooner or later, however,
corporations and governments. of retreating glaciers, or footage these risks “boomerang” back.
of polar bears perched perilously Here, Beck emphasizes the third
The media feeds on public on top of dissolving chunks of quality of risk—that it does not
anxieties about risk, claims Beck. ice, delivers a powerful message respect boundaries of space and
To increase sales, news providers about the immediacy of the risks time. Wealth itself provides no
latch on to stories of corporate or the world faces. certain way to avoid risk—the
institutional failures to adequately affluent West cannot ultimately
manage risk, or sensationalize Among the wider social escape the consequences of global
stories of the hidden threats posed consequences of living in a warming that will be exacerbated
by technological developments. risk society is a change in the by China’s industrialization.
nature of inequality. In the past,
While ultimately self-serving, wealthier individuals could protect Globalized fears and hopes
Beck sees this as a positive thing In his more recent work on the
because it helps develop public concepts of “world risk society” and
consciousness about risks and “cosmopolitanism,” Beck argues
promote open debate. The media that the process of globalization—
makes risks visible and meaningful
for people by giving abstract risks

Today’s technological societies create risks that may
be unknown or almost impossible to quantify. According
to Beck, when faced with such unknowable risks, we have
three main responses—denial, apathy, or transformation.

Denial Apathy Transformation
Behaving as if Acknowledging Taking collective,
the risks do not the risks may exist, global action to
exist or are small. but doing nothing
This is a common live positively
reaction of many in response. under the shadow
corporations and of risk—the idea of
governments. cosmopolitanism.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 161

Surveillance, of both public spaces as a whole and must be responded environmental issues and
and private communications, has to collectively, beyond the confines accidents, such as the 1984 Bhopal
grown in the Western world in of national borders. Second, the disaster in India—where a gas leak
response to the real and perceived level of media attention devoted from a chemical plant caused
dangers posed by terrorist violence. to risks and catastrophes has the widespread poisoning—and the
effect of giving more attention to 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant
the growth of interdependency that how disasters impact most heavily explosion in Ukraine. More recently,
undermines the influence and upon the poor; the media coverage Beck’s analysis has been applied to
power of nation-states—produces of Hurricane Katrina in the US in issues of global terrorism and the
its own negative consequences. 2005, for example, demonstrated near-collapse of the financial
to a global audience how poverty system in 2008; it has been taken
These include financial risks worsens the experience of on board by others as a way of
and terrorism risks. With the global catastrophe. Third, public making sense of a diverse array
growth of hedge funds, futures experience and awareness of risk of issues, including international
markets, derivatives trading, debt today draws groups into dialogue relations, crime control, human
securitization, and credit default with one another; for example, Beck health, food safety, social policy,
swaps, no country can hide behind notes how environmental groups and social work.
its borders from the consequences and businesses have joined forces
of something going wrong. Acts to protest at the US government’s Ultimately, a positive strain runs
of terrorist violence, planned and lack of responsiveness to the through Beck’s work. He argues
carried out by ideological groups, problem of climate change. that the experience of responding
permeate the boundaries between to global risk can lead to innovative
states by striking at the heart of Risk and reward solutions and constructive
global cities such as New York Beck’s work has been read widely social changes. It is only in new
and London. Interestingly, Beck beyond the world of sociology, encounters with the possibility of
observes that global terrorism because it deals in an all- catastrophe that collective welfare
is one of the few risks that encompassing way with many of and common interests can prevail
governments are happy to draw the key changes and concerns of over narrow, selfish concerns and
attention to for political purposes. recent decades. First published in our modern institutions can be
German in 1986, at a time of new reconfigured accordingly. ■
While Beck’s overriding focus environmental concerns about
on risk seems bleak, he also acid rain and ozone layer depletion, Fears about acid rain and global
highlights what he sees as the his original concept of the warming led to the Intergovernmental
positive possibilities inherent in risk society encapsulated and Panel on Climate Change. Formed in
the growth of risk. He points to anticipated a number of high-profile 1988, it reviewed the state of knowledge
the development of what he terms of the science of climate change.
“cosmopolitanism,” a concept
comprising several components.

First, the existence of global
risks calls for a global response:
catastrophic risks affect humanity

162

IT SOMETIMES
SEEMS AS IF THE
WHOLE WORLD
IS ON THE MOVE

JOHN URRY (1946– )

IN CONTEXT S ince the 17th century, new Being physically mobile
technologies have been has become… a ‘way
FOCUS emerging that have enabled of life’ across the globe.
Mobilities people, objects, and ideas to move
around the world more easily than John Urry
KEY DATES before. British sociologist John Urry
1830 The world’s first advises that the consequences of He argues that the study of
inter-city railway opens in this increase in global mobility “mobilities” makes apparent the
England between Liverpool demand that the social sciences impacts and consequences of
and Manchester. develop a “new paradigm” for the globalization. Likewise, the study
study of how goods, people, and of the forces preventing mobility—
1840 In Britain the first ideas circulate. For Urry this “immobilities”—is essential for
prepaid adhesive postage movement creates new identities, comprehending contemporary
stamp, the “Penny Black,” cultures, and networks, giving rise social exclusion and inequality.
revolutionizes the circulation to cultural diversity, economic
of information and goods. opportunities and, at times, new By understanding this global
forms of social inequality. flow, sociology can better explore
1903 US brothers Wilbur globalization’s social and
and Orville Wright make Systems and mobilities environmental advantages and
the first powered flight in Urry’s primary contribution to the costs (such as economic growth
North Carolina. study of globalization is his focus or industrial pollutants), as well as
on the social systems that facilitate the forces driving social change. ■
From the 1960s movement. The 20th century, in
Telecommunications satellites particular, saw the emergence of
go into orbit, heralding the cars, telephones, air power, high-
instantaneous global speed trains, communications
transmission of information. satellites, networked computers,
and so on. These interconnecting
1989–91 British scientist Tim “mobility systems” are the dynamic
Berners-Lee develops the heart of globalization, says Urry.
World Wide Web.
See also: Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Manuel Castells 152–55 ■
2007 British sociologist John Saskia Sassen 164–65 ■ David Held 170–71
Urry publishes Mobilities.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 163

NATIONS CAN BE IMAGINED
AND CONSTRUCTED WITH
RELATIVELY LITTLE
HISTORICAL STRAW

DAVID MCCRONE

IN CONTEXT T he economic, political, a few symbols are needed to evoke
and cultural forces that strong feelings in people, such
FOCUS globalization brings to as the Senyara flag of Catalonia,
Neo-nationalism bear have, according to British or the fleur-de-lis symbol in
sociologist David McCrone, Quebec. Although a sense of
KEY DATES coincided with a rise in neo- being distinctively different from
1707 The Act of Union is nationalism, which occurs when a the larger state may be the main
ratified and the United social group within a nation tries to factor that prompts calls for more
Kingdom is officially formed. redefine its identity. He argues that autonomy or outright independence,
all neo-national identities concern the motivations for neo-nationalist
1971 British ethnographer smaller entities within larger identities or separatism can differ
Anthony D. Smith publishes nation-states: for example, Scotland widely. They may, for example, be
his highly influential study, in the United Kingdom, Catalonia motivated by perceived unfairness
Theories of Nationalism. in Spain, the Basque Country that in taxation or resource allocation. ■
straddles southwestern France
1983 British sociologist and northern Spain, and French- The Basque separatist organization
Benedict Anderson publishes speaking Quebec in Canada. ETA engaged in political and armed
Imagined Communities, which conflict with the Spanish and French
examines the formation of Both national and neo-national states from 1959 to 2011, in a quest
nationhood. identities are forged from the “raw for political independence.
historical materials” of a common
1998 British sociologist David language, cultural myths and
McCrone argues in The narratives, and social ideals.
Sociology of Nationalism that McCrone says that solidarity
nationalism operates as a comes into being whenever enough
vehicle for a variety of social people invoke these raw materials,
and economic interests. or “historical straw,” in pursuit
of a common cause. Moreover,
2004 Japanese sociologist relatively little historical straw
Atsuko Ichijo explores the is required to galvanize neo-
apparent contradiction of an nationalist sentiment; often only
“independence in Europe”
policy in Scottish Nationalism See also: Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Paul Gilroy 75 ■ John Urry 162 ■
and the Idea of Europe. David Held 170–71 ■ Benedict Anderson 202–03 ■ Michel Maffesoli 291

164

GLOBAL CITIES ARE
STRATEGIC SITES
FOR NEW TYPES
OF OPERATIONS

SASKIA SASSEN (1949– )

IN CONTEXT G lobalization does not take new connections and becoming
place by itself. According economically interdependent.
FOCUS to Saskia Sassen, professor These changes were resulting, in
Global cities of sociology at Columbia University, part, from trade liberalization and
New York, certain cities play a key the global expansion of industrial
KEY DATES role in generating the economic and capitalism. Within this new “global
1887 Ferdinand Tönnies says cultural flows that connect the economy,” central clusters of
urbanization affects social world together. These “global economic and cultural activity,
solidarity by giving rise to a cities” exert power and influence or “global cities,” were forming.
more individualistic society. well beyond the territory in which
they are located. The modern metropolis
1903 Georg Simmel suggests Global cities, Sassen advises,
that cities can cause people to Sociologists study cities produce goods in the form of
adopt an “urban reserve” and to understand what impact they technological innovations, financial
blasé attitude. have on the behavior, values, products, and consulting services
and opportunities of occupants. In (legal, accounting, advertising,
1920s–40s “Chicago School” the 20th century, they noted that and so on). These service
sociologists claim that cities the large industrial cities of the industries are highly intensive
have an “urban ecology,” in developed world were forming users of telecommunications
which people compete for technologies and are therefore
employment and services. Wall Street is the economic engine of integrated into business networks
the global city of New York. Such cities, that stretch across national borders.
From the 1980s British Sassen says, are the “terrain where a They are also part of the post-
sociologist David Harvey and multiplicity of globalization processes industrial or “service” economies
Spanish sociologist Manuel assume concrete, localized forms.” of the developed world, in that
Castells separately argue their main products are knowledge,
that cities are shaped by innovation, technical expertise,
capitalism, which influences and cultural goods.
not only their character but
also the various interactions Sassen argues in The Global
of their inhabitants. City (1991, revised 2001) that the
emergence of a global market for
financial and specialized services
gives global cities a “command and
control function” over economic

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 165

See also: Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ Henri Lefebvre 106–07 ■ Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■
Immanuel Wallerstein 144–45 ■ David Held 170–71

Globalization is transforming industrial cities and giving rise to “global cities,” which are...

...command posts ...key locations for ...sites of ...markets in which
for the direction and service industries, knowledge the products of new
policies driving the production and
including financial innovation for new industries and
global economy. and legal firms. industries and services are

sectors. bought and sold.

Global cities are strategic sites for new types of operations.

globalization. This is because employees of local, national, processes of globalization are
the headquarters of many major and multinational firms interact. performed and their consequences
transnational companies are Influential universities and research dispersed through the socio-
located in global cities. Consultant facilities also contribute to the economic networks of the global
firms are also “over-represented” production of knowledge and economy. While global cities are
in these urban hubs. These innovation, which are central to not free from poverty and other
companies make the decisions that information-based economies. forms of social inequality, they
direct global flows of money and are nevertheless cosmopolitan
knowledge, and that can cause Sassen’s research shows that sites of diverse economic and
economic activity to expand or global cities are sites where the social opportunities. ■
contract in other regions. human activities behind the

The global marketplace Multinational urban culture
Global cities are also marketplaces
where financial goods are bought Sassen’s work highlights that national culture also increases
and sold. New York, London, Tokyo, global cities are increasingly economic activity. This is
Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Shanghai, cosmopolitan. As migrants add because global cities are more
Frankfurt, and Sydney (among new foods, cultural expressions, appealing for transitory visitors
others) are major financial centers, fashions, and entertainments and migrants, who can maintain
home to large banks, businesses, to the host national culture, aspects of their ethnic and
and stock exchanges. In the global this diversity enriches a city. national identities, while
city, national and global markets embracing the new experiences
interconnect, which leads to a In a nation-state that and values of a cosmopolitan
concentration of financial activity. encourages multiculturalism city. The cultural diversity of
and social inclusion, global cities global cities also means that
Global cities are supported by can become even more vibrant they are orientated toward
multifunctional infrastructure. sites of cultural innovation as supporting the activities
Central business districts provide ideas and values are freely of a global economy and a
employment clusters where the shared. This multicultural cosmopolitan global culture.
texturing of a pre-existing

166 IN CONTEXT

DIFFERENT SOCIETIES FOCUS
APPROPRIATE THE Globalization and
MATERIALS OF modernity
MODERNITY
DIFFERENTLY KEY DATES
1963 Jacques Derrida
ARJUN APPADURAI (1949– ) introduces the concept of
“différance” (difference), which
later informs ideas about
cultural heterogeneity.

1983 British social thinker
Benedict Anderson says
that groupings based on the
perceptions of their members
rather than direct interaction
are “imagined communities.”

1991 Economic liberalization
opens India to globalizing
forces as the country tries to
integrate into the global order.

2008 Postcolonial studies
thinker Richard Brock applies
Appadurai’s notion of “scapes”
to critically consider the
cultural construction of the
HIV/AIDS pandemic.

T he term “globalization” has
become associated with
the spread of free-market
capitalism and the development
of borderless economies—the idea
of a global trading village. In a
sociological context, however,
globalization is not just an
economic, but a cultural, social,
and ideological phenomenon.

Much debate among cultural
theorists has addressed the issue
of whether globalization necessarily
means that the world will become
more homogenous—moving toward
a “one-world” culture—or whether
reactions to the forces of
globalization will reinforce diversity
in language, culture, and ethnicity.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 167

See also: Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Immanuel Wallerstein 144–45 ■
Roland Robertson 146–47 ■ Manuel Castells 152–55 ■ Jeffrey Alexander 204–09

The human imagination Individuals
is key to understanding conceptualize
globalization. globalization through
five fluid dimensions.

How these dimensions These dimensions Arjun Appadurai
are experienced encompass finance,
technology, ideas, media, Born in Mumbai, India, Arjun
by individuals, groups, Appadurai went to the US to
or states is a matter and the mobility study at Brandeis University,
of people. near Boston. He attained
of perspective. his master’s degree in 1973
and his doctorate from the
Different societies—and the diasporas University of Chicago in 1976.
comprising them—appropriate the
materials of modernity differently. Appadurai is currently the
Goddard Professor in Media,
Indian social anthropologist and different altogether. The result Culture, and Communication
sociologist Arjun Appadurai has is that globalization does not at New York University, where
taken this debate in a different necessarily denote a uniform he is also Senior Fellow at the
direction. He argues that the and all-encompassing process; Institute for Public Knowledge.
conventional view of globalization rather, nations are more positively He has served as an advisor
as a form of cultural imperialism disposed toward certain facets to the Smithsonian Institution,
fails to reflect the reality of the of globalization than others, the National Endowment for
changes globalization has set depending on a range of factors, the Humanities, the National
in motion. Instead, Appadurai such as the state of the economy, Science Foundation, the
suggests that different societies political stability, and strength United Nations, and the World
appropriate the materials of of cultural identity. For example, Bank. Appadurai founded and
modernity differently. China has embraced industrial is president of the nonprofit
and information technologies group Partners for Urban
What this means is that one and global economic expansion, Knowledge Action and
society, such as China, may take while retaining a strong sense Research, based in Mumbai,
up one aspect of global change of political autonomy. and he is one of the founders
(such as economic change) very of Public Culture, an
rapidly, and another aspect (such For Appadurai, the process of interdisciplinary journal
as ideological change) very slowly, globalization is one that leads to focused on transnationalism.
while another society will be “disjunctures” where areas such ❯❯
Key works

1990 “Disjuncture and
Difference in the Global
Cultural Economy”
1996 Modernity at Large:
Cultural Dimensions of
Globalization
2001 Globalization

168 ARJUN APPADURAI

One man’s imagined calls these dimensions “scapes”— provide large and complex
community is another ethnoscapes, mediascapes, repertoires of images and narratives
man’s political prison. technoscapes, finanscapes, and to viewers, and these shape how
Arjun Appadurai ideoscapes. Unlike landscapes, people make sense of events taking
which are characteristically place across the world.
as the economy, culture, and fixed, Appadurai’s “scapes”
politics do not move in the same are constantly changing, and Technoscapes represent the
direction, thereby causing tensions the manner in which they are rapid dissemination of technology
in society. An example of this is experienced depends largely and knowledge about it—either
the distance between a promise on the perspective of the social mechanical or informational—
of consumer goods made by global actors involved. across borders. For example, many
companies and the ability of local service industries in Western
people to afford them. In this context, social actors Europe base their customer-care
may be any one of a number of call centers in India, and Indian
Appadurai’s work addresses groupings, such as nation-states, software engineers are often
how globalization diminishes the multinational corporations, recruited by US companies.
role of the nation-state in shaping diasporic communities, families,
cultural identity and argues or individuals. The different ways Finanscapes reflect the almost
that identity is increasingly in which these five scapes can instantaneous transfer of financial
becoming deterritorialized by combine means that the imagined and investment capital around the
mobility, migration, and rapid world that one person or grouping globe in the fast-moving world of
communications. People no longer perceives can be radically different, currency markets, stock exchanges,
hold coherent sets of ideas, views, and no more real, than that seen by and commodity speculations.
beliefs, and practices based on another observer.
their nationality or membership Ideoscapes are made up of
of a state; instead, new cultural Shifting scapes images that are “often directly
identities are emerging in the Appadurai first used the term political,” either state-produced and
interstices between different states “ethnoscape” in a 1990 essay, intended to bolster the dominant
and localities—what Appadurai “Disjuncture and Difference in ideology, or created by counter-
calls translocalities. the Global Cultural Economy,” ideological movements “oriented to
to describe the flow of people—
Globally imagined worlds immigrant communities, political France has embraced many economic
The key to understanding exiles, tourists, guest workers, dimensions of globalization yet seeks
globalization, says Appadurai, economic migrants, and other to limit the influence of foreign cultures
is the human imagination. He groups—around the globe, as by, for example, charging a ticket levy
argues that rather than living in well as the “fantasies of wanting to help fund the French film industry.
face-to-face communities, we live to move” in pursuit of a better life.
within imagined ones that are The increasing mobility of people
global in extent. The building between nations constitutes an
blocks are five interrelated essential feature of the global
dimensions that shape the global world, in particular by affecting
flow of ideas and information. He the politics of nation-states.

Mediascapes refer to the
production and distribution of
information and images through
newspapers, magazines, TV, and
film, as well as digital technologies.
The multiplying ways in which
information is made accessible
to private and public interests
throughout the world is a major
driver of globalization. Mediascapes

The perspective of Ethnoscapes Ideoscapes LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 169
social actors—who may
be individuals or Mediascapes Technoscapes Finanscapes
groups—is shaped by the
position they occupy in
relation to the wider
culture, society and
particular moment
in historical time. From
within this milieu, they
construct a world view.

It’s great to be based Positive ethnoscape It’s great that the Positive finanscapes
in a vibrant, multicultural world view strong world economy world view
city, but the effect of the is bolstering our nation,
global economy on house but levels of immigration

prices is a concern. are a concern.

capturing state power or a piece of The different scapes are capable intention to critically deconstruct
it.” Examples include ideas about of moving together or of following what he considers the naive
a state built through concepts such different trajectories, in turn view that something as complex
as “national heritage,” countered serving either to reinforce or and multifaceted as globalization
by social and political movements destabilize one another. can be explained through one
that promote the rights of minority master theory. That said,
groups and freedom of speech. Appadurai states that Appadurai’s work has been
the scapes are constructs of criticized by the likes of Dutch
Sameness and difference perspective because they are social thinker Gijsbert Oonk,
The different “scapes” identified determined by the relation of the who questions whether or not his
by Appadurai may be, and often viewer to the viewed. If this relation concept of global landscapes can
are, incongruous and disjointed. changes, so in turn does the view. be meaningfully applied when
For example, social actors in one In sum, the world view constructed conducting empirical research. ■
place may be positively disposed by any social actor is exactly that: it
toward economic developments is a view dependent upon the social, The new global order
brought about by globalization cultural, and historical positioning cultural economy has
(that is, they see a positive of the actor; and for this reason, to be understood as a
finanscape), while simultaneously who and where we are determines complex, overlapping,
regarding immigration as a threat what scapes we see and how we
to national identity and culture interpret them. There are multiple disjunctive order.
(a negative ethnoscape). ways of imagining the world. Arjun Appadurai

By conceptualizing globalization The impact of Appadurai’s
in terms of the five scapes, contribution to globalization
Appadurai is able to undermine the theory is a significant one,
view of globalization as a uniform primarily because it does not try
and internally coherent process; to provide an integrated theory
instead, globalization is understood of globalization in the orthodox
as a multilayered, fluid, and manner of social thinkers such as
irregular process—and one that is Immanuel Wallerstein from the US
characterized by ongoing change. and Spain’s Manuel Castells. Quite
the opposite; it is Appadurai’s

170

PROCESSES OF CHANGE
HAVE ALTERED THE
RELATIONS BETWEEN
PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES

DAVID HELD (1951– )

IN CONTEXT Global movements of products, ideas, and people affect...

FOCUS ...cultures: ...politics: ...economics:
Globalization values, identities, international capitalism,
and cultural forms organizations and
KEY DATES institutions financial markets,
1960s Canadian media intermix and multinational
theorist Marshall McLuhan and evolve. influence
claims that the world is national states. businesses
contracting into a “global expand.
village” through technology.
The world is increasingly interconnected.
1974 US sociologist Immanuel
Wallerstein publishes The Processes of change have altered the relations
Modern World-System, between peoples and communities.
highlighting the social effects
of a global economy. T he world is becoming the way communities and
smaller due to the mass individuals are interacting and
1993 US sociologist George movement of people and communicating with one another.
Ritzer claims that systematic the exchange and flow of products,
methods of production are ideas, and cultural artifacts. Migration, for example, creates
influencing the operations of These changes, suggests British an intermixing of cultures and
institutions and corporations sociologist David Held, are altering the development of multicultural
around the world. societies. People also connect

2006 German sociologist
Ulrich Beck argues that states
must embrace multilateral
cooperation, transnational
institutions, and cosmopolitan
identities if they are to prosper
in the global age.

LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD 171

See also: George Ritzer 120–23 ■ Immanuel Wallerstein 144–45 ■ David Held
Roland Robertson 146–47 ■ Ulrich Beck 156–61 ■ Arjun Appadurai 166–69

Bollywood films in India represent the development of a global David Held was born in
the assymetrical flow of culture around civilization. Some hyper-globalists Britain in 1951 and was
the world. Despite selling more tickets praise globalization for driving educated in Britain, France,
than Hollywood, they make far less economic development and Germany, and the US. He
revenue from international distribution. spreading democracy; others are holds an MSc and a PhD
critical of the spread of capitalism in political science from
with global cultures, such as music and its social consequences. Massachusetts Institute
genres or cuisines, blending the of Technology (MIT).
global with the local to produce The skeptics, by contrast,
new cultural products. downplay the extent to which In 1984, Held cofounded
globalization is a new phenomenon Polity Press, the highly
Held suggests globalization and reject the idea that global influential international
is best understood as a set of integration and institutions are publisher of social-science
processes and changes. Cultural undermining the power of the and humanities books,
dimensions include the distribution nation-state. They see globalization where he continues as
of media products and movement of as marginalizing the developing Director. He has written and
ideas and people across societies. world, while at the same time edited more than 60 books
Political dimensions include the benefiting corporations based on democracy, globalization,
rise of international organizations, in developed nations. global governance, and public
institutions, and multinational policy. In 2011 Held resigned
companies. The economic The transformationalists, his professorial position
dimensions include the expansion according to Held, best explain in political science at the
of capitalism and consumerism. the contradictory processes of London School of Economics
globalization. They argue that to become Director of the
Change for better or worse? boundaries between the global and Institute of Global Policy at
In Globalization/Anti-Globalization, local are breaking down, and that Durham University in the UK.
Held examines the views of the human world is becoming
different sociologists on interconnected. They also argue Key works
globalization, organizing them that there is no single cause
into “hyper-globalists,” “skeptics,” of globalization, and that the 1995 Democracy and the
and “transformationalists.” outcomes of these processes Global Order
are not determined. 2002 Globalization/Anti-
The hyper-globalists see the Globalization (coauthor)
forces of globalization as powerful, Globalization, Held suggests, 2004 Global Covenant
unprecedented, and as facilitating is giving rise to a new global
“architecture” comprised of multinational companies and
institutions, and characterized
by asymmetrical cultural and
economic flows.

The precise nature of the
emerging patterns of inequality
and prosperity brought by
globalization is not yet clear.
Importantly, however, Held sees
globalization as a dynamic process
that can be influenced: nation-
states can embrace policies and
relationships that address global
problems or risks, be they poverty,
pandemics, or environmental
damage and change. ■

CULTURE
IDENTITY

AND

174 INTRODUCTION Norbert Elias’s In Culture and Society and
three-volume The the essay “Culture is
In The Social Self, Civilizing Process
social psychologist Ordinary,” published in the
G.H. Mead explains examines the same year, Raymond
connection between Williams places the
that a sense of concept of culture
identity is only social order and center stage.
individual behavior.
possible in a
social context.

1913 1939 1958
1930S 1955 1963

Antonio Gramsci argues In The Sane Society, In Stigma, Erving Goffman
that dominant social sociologist and examines how individuals
groups impose their values become marginalized in
and beliefs on others psychologist Erich society and come to assume
Fromm criticizes the
in the process of conformity imposed stigmatized identities.
“cultural hegemony.”
by modern society.

F rom its beginnings in The emergence of sociology—the work of Erich Fromm in the
the early 19th century, systematic study of how society 1950s, who argued that many
sociology sought to shapes human interaction and psychological problems have
examine not only the institutions identity—had coincided with the social origins. In the process of
and systems that created social establishment of anthropology connecting with wider society
order, but also the factors that and psychology, and there was a and identifying with a particular
maintained social cohesion. degree of overlap between the three culture, individuals are expected
disciplines. It is unsurprising, to conform with society, and this
Traditionally, this had come then, that one of the first cultural stifles our individualism so that
from the shared values, beliefs, and sociologists was also a pioneering we lose a true sense of self. Around
experiences of communities, but social psychologist, G.H. Mead. the same time, Erving Goffman
with the advent of “modernity” in He set the scene for a sociological began discussing the problems
the form of industrialization and study of culture by highlighting the of establishing a sense of identity,
secularization, the structure of connection between the individual and in the 1960s, he focused on
society was radically transformed. and society, and especially the the stigma attached to those who
Although it was recognized that notion of a social identity. An do not conform or are “different.”
modernity had changed the way individual, he argued, can only
people associated with one another, develop a true sense of identity Culture and social order
it was not until the 20th century in the context of a social group, Norbert Elias, in the 1930s, had
that culture—the ways that people through interaction with others. described the imposition of social
think and behave as a group, and norms and conventions as a
how they identify themselves as The connections with social “civilizing process,” directly
members of a society—became psychology continued throughout regulating individual behavior.
an object of study in its own right. the 20th century, notably in the

In One-Dimensional Benedict Anderson’s CULTURE AND IDENTITY 175
Man, Herbert Marcuse Imagined Communities
argues that pluralistic explains that national Jeffrey Alexander argues in
The Meanings of Social Life:
society has identity is an
homogenized illusory concept. A Cultural Sociology that
culture and quashed culture is autonomous
the spirit of rebellion.
from society, but can
still act as a force for

social change.

1964 1983 2003
1981 1992

Jean Baudrillard’s In his article “The Question of
Simulacra and Simulation Cultural Identity,” Stuart Hall

suggests that nature describes the “identity
and artifice are crisis” brought about by the
fragmentation of traditional
indistinguishable in the
postmodern world. notions of culture.

There is clearly a connection information, culture had become and customs, as well as their
between the regulating power so far removed from the society in literature, art, and music.
of culture and the maintenance which it exists that it bears little Also at the forefront of this British
of social order, and some saw it relation to reality. school of cultural studies was
as more than merely a process of Stuart Hall, who suggested that
socialization. Antonio Gramsci Cultural identity notions of cultural identity are
recognized the potential for culture A distinct branch of culturally no longer fixed. With significantly
to be used as a means of social oriented sociology emerged in improved communications and
control. Through subtle coercion, the UK from the latter part of the increased mobility, traditional
a dominant culture imposes a 20th century: cultural studies. national, ethnic, class, and even
“cultural hegemony” in which The starting point was Raymond gender identities have all but
social norms become so ingrained Williams’ extensive research disappeared—and another British
that anything else is unthinkable. into the idea of culture. His work sociologist, Benedict Anderson,
transformed the concept, opening goes so far as to suggest that
Michel Foucault developed this up entirely new areas of study to the concept of belonging to any
idea further in his study of power sociological investigation. community is illusory.
relations, and others, including
Herbert Marcuse, examined the Williams explained that culture However, the US sociologist
ways in which culture could be is expressed by material production Jeffrey Alexander considered
used to quell social unrest. Later, and consumption, and by the culture to be an independent
another French sociologist, Jean creations and leisure pursuits of variable in the structure of society.
Baudrillard, argued that in the social groups of a specific time His cultural sociology examines
postmodern world, with its and place—their food, sports, how culture shapes society through
explosion of availability of fashion, languages, beliefs, ideas, the creation of shared meaning. ■

176

THE “I” AND
THE “ME”

G.H. MEAD (1863–1931)

IN CONTEXT To have a sense of ourselves,
the “I” can reflect on...
FOCUS
The development of self grandmother mother

KEY DATES sibling ...the “me” father
1902 US sociologist Charles that represents
Cooley says our views of self the behaviors and
reflect the standpoint of attitudes formed
significant others in our lives. by interactions

1921 In The Language of with others.
Gestures, German philosopher
Wilhelm Wundt says that the friend grandfather
mind is inherently social.

1975 US anthropologist
Clifford Geertz claims the
self is a “distinctive whole
and set contrastively against
other such wholes.”

1980s British-born US social
psychologist Hazel Rose
Markus suggests we each
form a schema based on
past social experiences that
operates as a self-system.

1999 US psychologist Daniel
Siegel suggests that the
development of the social
self happens in concert with
developing brain function.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 177

See also: W.E.B. Du Bois 68–73 ■ Edward Said 80–81 ■ Norbert Elias 180–81 ■ Erving Goffman 190–95 ■ Stuart Hall
200–01 ■ Benedict Anderson 202–03 ■ Howard S. Becker 280–85 ■ Adrienne Rich 304–09 ■ Jeffrey Weeks 324–25

G eorge Herbert Mead was a is formed within the context of Our view of ourselves, of who we
social psychologist and a social relationships, one or more are, is developed from birth through
philosopher, and he looked particular languages, and a set of interaction with those closest to us.
to both disciplines in trying to work cultural norms. From birth, babies Individual selves are not the products
out what exactly we mean when begin to sense communication of biology but rather of this interaction.
we talk about the “self.” Traditional through gestures, which function
philosophers and sociologists saw as symbols and build “a universe of seeing the bigger picture: the “me”
societies as growing from the discourse.” Over time, they learn to acts in habitual ways, while the “I”
coming together of individual, mimic and “import” the practices, can reflect on these and make self-
autonomous selves, but Mead said gestures, and eventually words of conscious choices. It allows us
the opposite was true—selves those around them, so that they to be different, both from other
emerge from social interactions; can make their own response and people and our former selves,
they are formed within society. receive further gestures and words through reflection on our actions.
from others.
This concept is prevalent now Mead’s theory of the
in psychology and psychotherapy, Who we are development of self was pivotal
but when Mead first presented The pattern of attitudes that the in turning psychology and
his ideas in 1913 in The Social Self, baby experiences and internalizes sociology away from the idea
it was a revolutionary point of view. (learns) creates the sense of “me.” of “self” as being merely internal
Mead disagreed with the idea In this way, the “me” represents introspection, and aligning it
that individual, experiencing selves the behaviors, expectations, firmly within a societal context. ■
exist in any recognizable way and attitudes learned through
before they are part of the social interactions with others.
process. The social process
of experience or behavior is But Mead says that we also
“logically prior to the individuals have another sense of ourselves,
and their individual experiencing which he calls the “I.” Both the “I”
which are involved in it.” and the “me” are different functions
of the self. The “I,” like the “me,”
By this, Mead is suggesting that keeps evolving, but its function is
an individual’s consciousness, with to reflect on the “me,” while also
all its intentions, desires, and so on,

Mind can never G.H. Mead seven years later moved to the
find expression, and University of Chicago, where he
could never have come George Herbert Mead was worked until his death in 1931.
into existence at all, born in Massachusetts. His He claimed to have an “activist
except in terms of father was a minister in the spirit” and marched in support
a social environment. Congregational Church, and of women’s suffrage and other
he moved the family to Oberlin, causes. The philosopher John
G.H. Mead Ohio, to teach at the seminary Dewey acknowledged Mead as
there when Mead was six years having “a seminal mind of the
old. After graduating from very first order.”
Oberlin College in 1883, Mead
worked for a few years as a Key works
teacher and then as a railroad
surveyor before returning to 1913 The Social Self
academia. He began his studies 1932 The Philosophy of the
in philosophy and sociology at Present
Harvard University in 1887 and 1934 Mind, Self, and Society

178

THE CHALLENGE OF
MODERNITY IS TO LIVE
WITHOUT ILLUSIONS AND
WITHOUT BECOMING
DISILLUSIONED

ANTONIO GRAMSCI (1891–1937)

IN CONTEXT According to Marx, the ruling class controls the
economic base and creates the superstructure of institutions
FOCUS
Cultural hegemony and social relations that dominate the working class.

KEY DATES Gramsci claims class domination also occurs culturally:
1846 Karl Marx and Friedrich the working class are subject to the ideological illusions
Engels finish The German
Ideology; not published perpetrated by the ruling class.
until 1932, it later strongly
influences Gramsci’s thinking These illusions must be seen through,
about ideology. and resisted at all costs.

1921 The Italian Communist The challenge of modernity is to
Party is founded. live without illusions and without

1922 Benito Mussolini becoming disillusioned.
becomes dictator of Italy
and a leading figure in the T he Marxist view of society intensified into a contest for control
development of Fascism. is that life is an ongoing between a minority ruling elite and
struggle of competing the majority, made up of workers.
1964 The Centre for groups; these groups are Italian socialist and social thinker
Contemporary Cultural Studies determined economically, and Antonio Gramsci tries to explain
is established at the University under modernity the struggle has why revolution is not precipitated
of Birmingham, England, and
draws heavily on Gramsci’s
notion of hegemony.

1985 Inspired by Gramsci’s
concept of hegemony, Ernesto
Laclau and Chantal Mouffe
develop a post-Marxist
manifesto in Hegemony
and Socialist Strategy.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 179

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Friedrich Engels 66–67 ■ Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■
Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Jean Baudrillard 196–99

in a crisis, as it should be according the consent of the subordinated. The nature and extent of these
to classical Marxist theory. He The ruling class’s ideas, which are struggles between competing
argues that repression by the ruling the dominant ones permeating the world views is contingent upon
class is insufficient to secure a whole of society, are propounded social, political, and economic
stable social order; there must also by intellectual groups working circumstances. A series of
be ideological subjugation. This in its service (often only partially prolonged economic crises leading
happens in a complex process knowingly) such as journalists to high unemployment, for example,
whereby the ruling elite propagates who disseminate these ideas to is liable to result in a situation in
its views of the world so that they the wider population. Constant which various counter-hegemonic
are accepted as common sense and exposure to them means that the forces arise in the form of trade
largely beyond contention. Gramsci lower classes experience them as unions or protest movements.
calls this “hegemony,” a concealed natural and inevitable, and come Gramsci notes that in most
mode of class domination that to believe them. Hegemonic ideas capitalist societies the ruling
explains why workers can become shape the thinking of all social classes face constant opposition
Fascists rather than revolutionaries. classes. It is for this reason, says and dissent “from below” and have
Gramsci, that the challenge to devote a vast amount of time and
The hegemonic struggle of modernity is not to become energy to managing this situation,
Gramsci claims that hegemony is disillusioned with the ongoing with complete control highly
cultural and that it is involved in a struggle but to see through the unlikely, even for short periods.
struggle between competing class- “illusions”—the views propounded
based world views, by which is by elite groups—and resist them. Gramsci’s ideas emphasize
meant sets of values, ideas, beliefs, the role of individuals and
and understandings of what human Because individuals have the ideologies in the struggle for social
beings are like, what society is, capacity to think critically about change, and thereby challenge
and—crucially—what it could be. the view imposed upon them, the economic determinism of
which Gramsci calls “counter- traditional Marxism. His concept
Hegemony, he says, involves hegemonic” thinking, the ruling of “cultural hegemony,” which
an invisible mechanism whereby class’s ideological dominance is recognizes human autonomy
positions of influence in society often in the balance. In Western and the importance of culture,
are always filled by members of an liberal democracies, the challenge has had a lasting impact on a
already ruling class—largely with to hegemony is an everyday reality. number of academic disciplines. ■

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Gramsci was born after World War II, when it
in Sardinia, Italy, in 1891. He was published posthumously
was a cofounder of the Italian in what are known as the Prison
Communist Party. While Notebooks. By the 1950s, his
serving as the party’s leader, prison writings had attracted
he was sentenced to 20 years interest not only in Western
imprisonment in 1928 by Benito Europe, but also in the Soviet
Mussolini, Italy’s prime minister bloc. Due to the poor diet,
and dictator at the time. illness, and bad health he
suffered in prison, Gramsci died
Gramsci wrote prolifically of a stroke at the age of only 46.
while in prison. Although he had
a prodigious memory, without the Key works
help of his sister-in-law, Tania,
who was a frequent visitor, his 1975 Prison Notebooks
ideas would not have come to (three volumes)
light. This intellectual work did 1994 Pre-Prison Writings
not emerge until several years

180

THE CIVILIZING
PROCESS IS
CONSTANTLY MOVING
“FORWARD”

NORBERT ELIAS (1897–1990)

IN CONTEXT As nations stabilized in the West after the 1500s,
power was centralized and became the preserve of
FOCUS
The civilizing process a small number of people.

KEY DATES These people were no longer revered for their
c.1500 Feudalism in Western physical strength, but for their social standing,
Europe comes to an end and
court society emerges. reflected in their courtly manners.

1690 English philosopher To be identified with People (and nations)
John Locke describes “civil power, people are encouraged lacking the right behavior
society” as a united body of to display the same “civilized are seen as inferior and need
individuals under the power “civilizing” into following
of an executive. behavior” as a nation’s the rules of the powerful.
governing elite.
1850s Auguste Comte
asks how the individual T o shed light on the West’s and the effect they have had on
can be both a cause and centralization of national individuals, in his famous book
consequence of society. power and increasing The Civilizing Process.
global domination over the last
1958 Max Weber says values 500 years, Norbert Elias turned his Elias draws on history,
and beliefs can cause dramatic attention to the “psychical process sociology, and psychoanalysis to
change in the social structure. of civilization”—the changes in conclude that the way in which
behavior, feeling, and intentions of Western society believes itself to
1962 US anthropologist people in the West since the Middle be superior to others is summed
Robert Redfield says that Ages. He describes these changes, up by the concept of “civilization.”
civilization is a totality of This is both historical and
great and little traditions.

1970s Antonio Gramsci says
the ruling classes maintain
their dominance through the
institutions of civil society.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 181

See also: W.E.B. Du Bois 68–73 ■ Paul Gilroy 75 ■ Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Edward Said 80–81 ■ Elijah Anderson 82–83 ■
Stuart Hall 200–01

“Good” table manners and “correct”
etiquette and deportment were,
according to Elias, key components
of the cultural template in the spread
of the European “civilizing” process.

contemporary, and can refer to all
sorts of facts about nations: from
general ones such as lifestyles,
values, customs, and religions,
to personal ones such as levels of
bodily hygiene, ways of preparing
food, and so on. In every case,
Western society stresses that “its”
version is the standard against
which all others should be judged.

The rise of manners These minor changes resulted in Elias says that the process spread
Elias studied etiquette books and the formation of a courtly class, ever more widely from the 1500s
found that a transformation in identifiable by its highly codified onward, because “good manners”
attitudes toward bodily behaviors manners and disciplined way of help people get along more
was key to this sense of civilization. living. Warrior knights became peaceably, and growing towns
Westerners had gradually changed quiet courtiers, expressing and cities require such cooperation.
their ideas of what was acceptable restraint and maintaining The process, he said, at some point
in terms of facial expressions, strict control of impulses and became a question of internalizing
control of bodily functions, general emotions. “Civilized” behaviors the social rules of one’s parents,
deportment, and so on. soon became essential to everyone rather than one’s “betters.”
wishing to trade and socialize However, the rules about what
Behaviors considered normal in with others, from tradesmen to constitutes “good manners” have
the Middle Ages were thought noblemen and women. always been dictated by the upper
“barbarous” by the 19th century. classes, so “civilization” continues
to work toward furthering the
Norbert Elias In 1933 Elias went into exile in interests of the powerful elite.
Paris and then London, where
Norbert Elias was born in he finished The Civilizing Elias saw the transformation
Breslau (now the Polish city of Process. In 1939 the book was of manners as an important part of
Wrocław) in 1897, to a wealthy published in Switzerland, but the centralization of power within
Jewish family. After leaving sank into oblivion until its Western nations, and a sign of the
school he served in the German republication in West Germany growing interdependency of people
army during World War I. in 1969. A sought-after lecturer, during urbanization. But it was also
Elias studied philosophy and Elias spent his final years important in colonization during
medicine at Breslau University, traveling in Europe and Africa. Elias’s lifetime. He was writing
gaining a PhD in philosophy in during the 1930s, when colonial
1924. He then studied sociology Key works powers such as Britain and France,
with Max Weber’s younger secure in their sense of national
brother, Alfred, at Heidelberg, 1939 The Civilizing Process self-consciousness, justified the
Germany, before moving to (3 volumes) morality of colonization by claiming
Frankfurt University to work 1939 The Society of Individuals it brought civilization, which would
with Karl Mannheim. 1970 What is Sociology? be “good” for colonized peoples. ■

MASS CULTURE

REINFORCES POLITICAL

REPRESSION

HERBERT MARCUSE (1898–1979)



184 HERBERT MARCUSE D uring the 20th century, it The Statue of Liberty symbolizes
became apparent that the the American Dream of a “classless”
IN CONTEXT transformation of society society with equal opportunity –
theorized by Karl Marx had failed through hard work, anyone can improve
FOCUS to materialize. The sociologist and their lives and fulfill their potential.
The culture industry philosopher Herbert Marcuse tried
to determine what had happened back, to the end of feudal society
KEY DATES by urging Marxists to move beyond in Europe in the late Middle Ages.
1840s Karl Marx says there theory and take into account the In this time of transition, people
are always at least two classes real, lived experience of individuals. moved from being bound to work
in capitalist societies: those for a landowner to being free to
who own the means of Marcuse said that capitalism find work anywhere, for their own
production and those who had somehow integrated the benefit alone. But this “freedom of
sell their labor to that group. working class: workers who were enterprise was, from the beginning,
supposed to be the agents of not altogether a blessing,” says
1923 The Institute for Social change had accepted the ideas Marcuse. Although free to work
Research is founded in and ideals of the establishment. wherever they wanted, the majority
Frankfurt, and gives rise to the They had lost sight of themselves of people had to labor extremely
new “critical theory” of culture. as a class or group and become
“individuals” within a system that
1944 German-Jewish émigrés prized individuality. This seemed
Max Horkheimer and Theodor to be the route to success, but
W. Adorno coin the term in abandoning their group, the
“culture industry” in workers lost all bargaining power.
Dialectic of Enlightenment.
Freedom to choose
1963 Canadian sociologist How had the workers been so easily
Erving Goffman publishes silenced? There was no obvious
Stigma, in which he claims moment at which this had taken
identity is constructed by place, so Marcuse examined how
other people and society. rebellion against the status quo
seemed to have been so effectively
1970s–80s Michel Foucault quashed during the 20th century.
examines the normalizing He started by looking much further
techniques of modern society.

Culture has always played a key role But from the 1960s, even art forms once
in pointing to possible ways of living thought subversive were subsumed
that are outside the social “norm.”
into daily life and appropriated by the media.

The possibility of rebellion By absorbing the media’s messages people
has effectively been quashed: accepted society’s rules and values as
their own; they realized that to step beyond
mass culture reinforces
political repression. them would seem neurotic.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 185

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Antonio Gramsci 178–79 ■ Erving Goffman 190–95 ■
Jean Baudrillard 196–99 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■ Daniel Miller 246–47

hard, with no guarantee of work then manipulating people through The cultural center is
from day to day, and they were those needs. Essentially, by becoming a fitting part
frightened about the future. convincing people that they have of the shopping center.
certain needs, and then making
Centuries later, the machines of it look as though there is a route Herbert Marcuse
the Industrial Revolution promised to satisfying these needs (even
to lift national economies to such though there is not), “vested Marcuse suggests that: “People
an extent that it was thought a interests” effectively control the recognize themselves in their
person would no longer need to rest of the population. commodities; they find their soul in
worry about survival, but might “be their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level
free to exert autonomy over a life False needs are not based on home, kitchen equipment.”
that would be his own.” This was real ones such as the necessity for
the American Dream, and the hope food, drink, clothes, and somewhere Everything is personal; the
of most Westerners during the 20th to live, but are instead artificially individual is paramount, and his
century. If the longed-for freedom generated and impossible to satisfy or her needs are what matter. This
was synonymous with choice, in any real sense. Marcuse cites the apparent empowerment of the
individuals were free as never need “to relax, to have fun... and individual is in fact its opposite,
before, because choices in work, consume in accordance with the according to Marcuse. Social
housing, food, fashion, and leisure advertisements, to love and hate needs—for job security, a decent
activities continued to widen over what others love and hate”—the living standard, and so on—are
the decades. actual content of these needs (such translated into individual needs, such
as the latest “must-have” gadget) is as your own need for a job to buy ❯❯
“False needs” proposed by external forces; it does
However, when Marcuse looked not naturally arise in someone
closer, he discovered that “a like the need for water does. Yet
comfortable, smooth, reasonable, these needs feel internally driven
democratic un-freedom prevails in because we are bombarded by
advanced industrial civilization”— media messages that promise
far from being free, people were happiness if you do that or go there.
being manipulated by “totalitarian” In this way we begin to believe
regimes that called themselves that false needs are real ones.
democracies, he said. Worse
still, people were unaware of the
manipulation, because they had
internalized the regimes’ rules,
values, and ideals.

Marcuse goes on to describe
government as a state apparatus
that imposes its economic and
political requirements on its people
by influencing their working and
leisure time. It does so by creating
in people a set of “false needs” and

Desire for “must-have” clothing,
gadgets, and inessential goods stems,
says Marcuse, from a false sense
of “need” that is implanted in
us by advertising and the media.

186 HERBERT MARCUSE

The classics have left the reality that pointed to other Flaubert’s Madame Bovary chose
mausoleum and come to life possible ways of living and being, to die rather than “fit in.” But modern
again, but… they come to but that gap has disappeared. society has absorbed all forms of
life as other than themselves; Traditionally, the forms of art lifestyle; so today, Marcuse suggests,
considered to represent “culture”— she would be offered therapy.
they are deprived of their such as the opera, theater,
antagonistic force. literature, and classical music— incendiary calls to revolution but
Herbert Marcuse aimed to reflect the difficulties must-read “modern classics” that
encountered by the transcendent someone might consume on a self-
consumer products. If you think human soul forced to live in social improvement program. The “avant
you are badly paid, your employer reality. It pointed to a possible garde and the beatniks” now
might invite you in to talk “about world beyond gritty reality. entertain without troubling people’s
you.” There is no longer any sense consciences. Culture is not in a
of being part of a group that is Tragedy, says Marcuse, used position of dangerous “other,” but
treated unfairly—all hopes of to be about defeated possibilities; has been stripped of all its power.
Marxist rebellion are lost. about hopes unfulfilled and Even great works of alienation, he
promises betrayed. He cites
A dimensionless world Madame Bovary, in Gustave
According to Marcuse, we are Flaubert’s novel of that name
caught in a bubble from which (1856), as a perfect example of
there is no escape, because it has a soul unable to survive in the
become almost impossible to stand rigid society in which she lived.
outside the system. There used to
be “a gap” between culture and However, by the 1960s, society
had become so pluralistic that it
could apparently contain everyone
and all their chosen lifestyles.
Tragedy is no longer even possible
as a cultural motif; its discontent
is seen as a problem to be solved.

Art has lost its ability to inspire
rebellion because it is now part
of a mass media, claims Marcuse.
Books and stories about individuals
who will not conform are no longer

Herbert Marcuse Born in Berlin in 1898, Herbert In 1958 Marcuse became a
Marcuse served with the German professor at Brandeis University,
army in World War I before Massachusetts, but in 1965 he
completing a PhD in literature in was forced to resign because
1922 at the University of Freiburg. of his outspoken Marxist views.
After a short spell as a bookseller He moved to the University
in Berlin, he studied philosophy of California, and during the
under Martin Heidegger. 1960s gained world renown as
a social theorist, philosopher,
In 1932, he joined the Institute and political activist. He died
for Social Research, but he never of a stroke, aged 81.
worked in Frankfurt. In 1934 he
fled to the US, where he was to Key works
remain. While he was in New York
with Max Horkheimer, the latter 1941 Reason and Revolution
received an offer from Columbia 1964 One-Dimensional Man
University to relocate the Institute 1969 An Essay on Liberation
there and Marcuse joined him.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 187

says, have become commercials The power of the media
that sell, comfort, or excite—
culture has become an industry. The state and its
consumerist forces
This flattening of the two control the media
dimensions of high culture and in the modern world.
social reality has led to a one-
dimensional culture that easily The media reflects
determines and controls our and disseminates the
individual and social perspectives. state’s dominant values
There is no other world, or way to and ideologies, and
live. Marcuse claims that in saying manipulates society
this he is not overstating the power into buying goods,
of the media, because the social services, and lifestyles.
messages we receive as adults are
merely reinforcing the same ones
that we have been hearing since
our birth—we were conditioned
as children to receive them.

The disappearance of class Society and individuals Marcuse’s ideas about a society
The compressing of culture and are lulled into believing that includes everything—in which
reality is reflected in an apparent and conforming to the pluralism defeats the oppositional
leveling of class structure. If all art media messages. power of any idea—is particularly
forms and mass media are part of a relevant in a global age that is
homogenous whole, where nothing TV program. However, according dominated by a proliferation of new
stands outside of societal approval, to Marcuse, this kind of media. Marcuse was always aware
people from all social classes will assimilation does not indicate of the importance of scientific
inevitably start doing some of the the disappearance of classes— knowledge in shaping and
same things. Marcuse points to it actually reveals the extent to organizing not just society but
the examples of a typist who is which the needs that serve the myriad aspects of everyday life.
made up as attractively as her establishment have become shared Crucially, and often from a radical
boss’s daughter, or the worker by the underlying population. and politicized perspective, he
and his boss enjoying the same could see the potential for both
The result of this is that classes emancipation and domination,
Intellectual freedom would are no longer in conflict. The social which makes his emphasis on
mean the restoration controls have been internalized, the cultural conversation and the
of individual thought and Marcuse says that we are role of new technologies in its
now absorbed by hypnotized into a state of extreme service especially pertinent. Do
mass communication conformity where no one will rebel. these things really bring about
and indoctrination. There is no longer a sublimated social change and liberation,
Herbert Marcuse realm of the soul or spirit of inner or are they simply tools for
man, because everything has increasing manipulation and
been or can be translated into social oppression by a powerful
operational terms, problems, and ruling class? ■
solutions. We have lost a sense of
inner truth and real need, and can
no longer critique society because
we cannot find a way to stand
outside of it without appearing to
have lost our sanity.

188

THE DANGER OF THE
FUTURE IS THAT MEN
MAY BECOME ROBOTS

ERICH FROMM (1900–1980)

IN CONTEXT T he German sociologist In the 20th century, by contrast,
and psychoanalyst Erich individuals were repositioned
FOCUS Fromm claimed that by capitalist states to become
Alienation of self during industrialization in the cooperative consumers, with
19th century, God was declared standardized tastes, who could be
KEY DATES dead, “inhumanity” meant cruelty, manipulated by the anonymous
1844 Karl Marx says humans and the inherent danger was that authority of public opinion and the
become alienated from their people would become slaves. market. Technology ensured that
own essence as a systemic work became more routine and
result of capitalism. However, in the 20th century, boring. Fromm advised that unless
the problem changed: alienated people “get out of the rut” they
1903 In The Metropolis from a sense of self, people had are in and reclaim their humanity,
and Mental Life, Georg Simmel lost the ability to love and reason they will go mad trying to live a
suggests urban life breeds for themselves. “Man” effectively meaningless, robotic life. ■
alienation and indifference. died. “Inhumanity” came to
mean lacking humanity. People, Synthetic smiles have
1955 Erich Fromm publishes Fromm advised, were in danger replaced genuine laughter...
The Sane Society. of becoming like robots. dull despair has taken the

1956 US sociologist Leo Srole He attributed this sense place of genuine pain.
develops an alienation scale. of alienation to the emergence Erich Fromm
of Western capitalist societies
1959 US sociologist Melvin and believed that a state’s social,
Seeman says alienation economic, and political factors
results from powerlessness, intersect to produce a “social
normlessness, social isolation, character” common to all its
cultural estrangement, and citizens. In the industrial age,
self-estrangement. as capitalism increased its global
dominance, states encouraged
1968 Israeli-American people to become competitive,
sociologist Amitai Etzioni says exploitative, authoritarian,
alienation results from social aggressive, and individualist.
systems that do not cater to
basic human needs. See also: G.H. Mead 176–77 ■ Robert Blauner 232–33 ■ Arlie Hochschild 236–43
■ Robert K. Merton 262–63 ■ Erving Goffman 264–69 ■ Ann Oakley 318–19

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 189

CULTURE IS
ORDINARY

RAYMOND WILLIAMS (1921–1988)

IN CONTEXT W hile Karl Marx had a shape of his culture includes
keen interest in culture, mountains, farms, cathedrals,
FOCUS especially in literature, and furnaces; family relationships,
Structure of feeling he regarded the economy as the political debates, trade skills,
driver of history: culture and ideas languages, and ideas; as well as
KEY DATES were secondary. Later Marxist literature, art, and music, both
1840s Karl Marx argues that thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci popular and serious. He describes
the economy determines and Hungarian theorist Georg the shape as a characteristic
society’s ideas and culture. Lukács paid more attention to “structure of feeling,” which might
cultural matters; but culture be defined as the lived experience
1920s Italian Marxist Antonio only came to the center of radical (ordinary life) of a community
Gramsci critiques Marx’s theory in the mid-20th century with beyond society’s institutions
economic determinism. Raymond Williams’ extensive body and formal ideologies.
of work, which included his hugely
1958 Welsh academic influential text Culture and Society. Structure of feeling operates,
Raymond Williams discusses Williams explains, “in the most
the concept of “structure of Williams detaches the idea delicate and least tangible part
feeling” in Culture and Society, of culture from a politically of our activities.” The concept
placing culture firmly at the conservative understanding of suggests a combination of
center of an understanding “tradition,” enabling an analysis of something that is visible and
of social networks. what he calls “the long revolution”: organized enough to be the subject
that difficult but persistent effort to of study (structure), yet elusive
1964 British sociologist and democratize our whole way of life. enough to convey the complexities
cultural theorist Richard of lived experience (feeling).
Hoggart founds the Centre for The shape of culture Williams’ emphasis on lived
Contemporary Cultural Studies In his essay “Culture is Ordinary” experience served to open
in Birmingham, England, (1958), Williams offers a personal up to sociological study whole
and is succeeded as director reflection of a journey from the swathes of popular culture such
in 1968 by Stuart Hall. farming valleys of South Wales as television, film, and advertising,
to the colleges of Cambridge, which had earlier been seen as
1975 Jean Baudrillard England. For Williams, the culturally insignificant. ■
indicates that Marx’s focus on
economics as the driving force See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Antonio Gramsci 178–79 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■
of change is limiting. Jean Baudrillard 196–99 ■ Stuart Hall 200–01

STIGMA

REFERS TO AN ATTRIBUTE

THAT IS DEEPLY

DISCREDITING

ERVING GOFFMAN (1922–1982)



192 ERVING GOFFMAN Society provides us with a range of roles and
identities that are considered “normal.”
IN CONTEXT
The role-identity we enact in public
FOCUS (for example, teacher, doctor, nurse, storekeeper)
Stigma
is defined for us by society.
KEY DATES
1895 Émile Durkheim explores But the self-identity we have in private,
the concept of stigma and its when we are not subject to public scrutiny, is who
relation to social order.
we actually are, our “essential” self.
1920s The concept of
symbolic interactionism When there is a major discrepancy between our public
emerges at the University identity and our private self, and when performance
of Chicago as the leading of our role identity is unconvincing, we are liable
US social theoretical model. to be labeled negatively.

1934 Mind, Self, and Society When this negative labeling is repeated
by US social psychologist over time, stigma occurs.
G.H. Mead is published and
later influences Goffman’s
ideas about identity.

2006 In Body/Embodiment,
Dennis Waskul and Phillip
Vannini (eds.) see Goffman’s
work as a “sophisticated
framework” for understanding
the sociology of the body.

2014 US sociologist Mary Jo
Deegan applies Goffman’s
theories to the analysis of sex,
gender issues, and feminism.

E rving Goffman was a The basic idea underpinning with and mediated by the types
Canadian sociologist whose symbolic-interactionist thought is of people we interact with and the
work draws heavily on that the individual self is first and institutional contexts we inhabit.
the US social theoretical tradition foremost a social entity: even the
known as symbolic interactionism. most seemingly idiosyncratic Of specific interest to Goffman
This tradition focuses on micro- aspects of our individual was the subject of deviance and
level interactions and exchanges selves, according to symbolic the socially enacted processes
between individuals and small interactionists, are not so much whereby individuals and groups
groups of people, rather than on the product of our own unique come to be stigmatized (from
the far more impersonal, macro- psychology, but are socially the Greek word stigma, meaning
level relationships between social determined and culturally and “mark,” “brand,” or “puncture”), or
structures or institutions and historically contingent. Who we marked with disgrace. Deviance
individuals. Interactionist thinkers think we are, who we imagine is implicit in the notion of stigma
examine issues such as personal ourselves to be, and perhaps most because, as Goffman points out,
identity, selfhood, group dynamics, importantly, who it is we are able stigma occurs whenever an
and social interaction. to be, is inextricably bound up individual or group is perceived
to have deviated from the socially

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 193

See also: Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ G.H. Mead 176–77 ■ Erving Goffman
Howard S. Becker 280–85 ■ Alfred Schütz 335

School teachers perform one of the individuals imagine themselves to Erving Goffman was born
most “legitimate,” highly respected possess in private—the traits and in Canada in 1922 to a family
roles in society—Goffman refers to behaviors the doctor enacts in his of immigrant Ukrainian Jews.
the public roles people enact as their or her private life, for example. For After graduating from the
“virtual social identity.” Goffman, stigma arises whenever University of Toronto in 1945
the disparity between virtual and with a BA in anthropology
prescribed norms that govern actual social identity becomes and sociology, he moved to
interpersonal conduct. When an untenable—when, for instance, the the University of Chicago,
individual deviates from these respected medic is known to drink where he attained his MA
social norms they are stigmatized and smoke excessively outside of and PhD For his doctoral
and marginalized from the wider work; feelings of embarrassment dissertation, he undertook
group or social community to or shame then ensue, and social fieldwork on a remote island
which they belong. interaction breaks down. Stigma in Scotland. The data he
results from the fact that members collected there formed the
Virtual and actual identity of society share common basis for his most celebrated
In his landmark study Stigma, expectations and attitudes about work, The Presentation of
Goffman analyzes the behavior what to expect from people in Self in Everyday Life. He was
of individuals whose identity certain social situations, and how appointed to the University
is believed to be “soiled” or those people should behave or look. of Pennsylvania in 1968 and
“defective” in some way. He in 1981 was the 73rd President
distinguishes between what he The concept of stigma of the American Sociological
refers to as “virtual” and “actual” Goffman identifies three important Association. Goffman died in
social identity. features of the concept of stigma. 1982 of stomach cancer.
First, stigma is not inherent to
Virtual social identity is the a given individual, attribute, or Key works
socially legitimate version of way of behaving, although some
selfhood that individuals are behaviors, such as pedophilia, are 1959 The Presentation of Self
expected to present in public—for universally condemned. The in Everyday Life
example, the socially defined traits context in which an attribute or 1961 Asylums: Essays on the
and behaviors associated with behavior is displayed strongly Social Situation of Mental
being a medical doctor. Actual determines how others respond. ❯❯ Patients and Other Inmates
social identity is the self-identity 1963 Stigma: Notes on the
Management of Spoiled
Identity

Stigma constitutes
a special discrepancy
between virtual and
actual social identity.
Erving Goffman

194 ERVING GOFFMAN

Second, stigma is a negative An attribute that alcoholism, homosexuality,
classification that emerges out of stigmatizes one type unemployment, suicide attempts,
the interactions and exchanges of possessor can confirm and radical political behavior.”
between individuals or groups, the usualness of another. He identifies the third type of
whereby one has the power to Erving Goffman stigma as tribal stigma, which
classify the other as the possessor includes social marginalization
of what are considered to be actual social identity. However, if on the grounds of ethnicity,
socially undesirable attributes the excessive behavior continues nationality, religion, and ideological
or behaviors. (Goffman refers over a period of time, and through beliefs. The attributes identified in
to non-stigmatized people as interaction with group members these three categories of stigma are
“normals.”) To this extent, it is a the individual is allocated a deviant liable, Goffman claims, to impinge
relational concept, because things status, then their self-conception negatively on the ordinary and
classified as stigmatized are liable will be altered as they assume a predicted patterning of social
to change, depending on the stigmatized identity. interactions involving the possessor
individuals or groups interacting. of the attribute, and in turn result
Goffman suggests that potentially Types of stigma in exclusion or marginalization.
any attribute or act is stigmatizing, In addition to explaining the
and for this reason some degree concept of stigma, Goffman Impression management
of stigmatization is present in identified three types of stigma. Goffman also focuses on how
virtually all social relationships: we The first type of stigma relates to individuals try to respond to and
are all capable of being stigmatized what he refers to as “deformities” cope with negative classification.
at certain times. of the body, such as physical He suggests that people who
disability, obesity, uneven skin are stigmatized actively seek to
The third characteristic of tone, baldness, and scarring. The manage or, where possible, resist
stigma, says Goffman, is that it is second type of stigma refers to the negative social identities
“processual”: this means that being blemishes of character, including, attributed to them.
stigmatized or, more precisely, says Goffman, “mental disorder,
coming to assume a stigmatized imprisonment, addiction, His concept of “impression
identity, is a socially mediated management” is important in this
process that takes place over time. context because it highlights the
For example, if an individual is various ways people try to present
made to feel uncomfortable by a version of selfhood to others that
others because they become is as favorable as possible: they
excessively inebriated at an adopt different strategies to avoid
office party, then the feelings being stigmatized. These include
of embarrassment and shame, “concealment” through use of
while not particularly pleasant and “covers,” such as prosthetic limbs
comfortable, are not likely to have in the case of people who feel
any long-term effect on the person’s ashamed of having lost a limb.
This is in direct contrast to
“disclosure,” which involves a
person openly acknowledging
the discrediting feature(s) of their
identity. Where these strategies
fail or are simply not feasible, the
possessor of a stigma is liable to

Wigs are among the “props” or
“covers” that are used by some bald
people to attempt to “conceal” their
baldness and thereby deflect potential
sources of stigma.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 195

seek out social types who they The causes of stigmatization are numerous, but can include idle
believe will act sympathetically gossip and negative attitudes that arise from ignorance and/or class-
toward them. or race-based tensions. This then leads to negative stereotyping of an
individual by the wider group. Over time, the individual internalizes
Goffman identifies three these labels to the extent that they inform the person’s self-evaluation and
categories of people in particular identity. By this point, the individual has acquired a stigmatized identity.
who are liable to fulfill this role.
The first are “the own”: people Non-stigmatized Stigmatized
who have a similarly stigmatized people or “normals” person
attribute—for example, members
of a drug-addiction recovery group. Negatively labeled and
The second category is “the wise”: marginalized by the group
people who work in an institution
or agency that supports individuals Causes of stigmatization Effects of stigmatization
who possess a stigmatizing trait include: include:
(care workers, disability officers,
nurses, mental health therapists, • Behavioral expectations • Feelings of worthlessness
and social workers, for example). • Negative stereotyping • Excessive self-evalution
The third category identified • Lack of self-confidence
by Goffman includes individuals • Negative attitudes
that the stigmatized person knows • Popular media • Loss of reputation
very well and who are likely to • Gossip • Social withdrawal
be empathetic toward them,
such as the partner of someone evaluations of certain attributes stigmatized individuals back into
with a disability or an addiction. and behaviors change as society the community. Goffman’s work
progresses. So, he says, whether also remains relevant politically—
Crossing boundaries or not mental illness and physical in particular, by offering a means
It is generally accepted within disability could still be said to of understanding how to address
sociology that Goffman’s detailed be the cause of stigma is highly the problem of the stigmatization
observations of human interactions questionable in certain social of minority groups in modern
and of the interpersonal dynamics and national contexts. multicultural societies. ■
of small-scale groups remain
unparalleled. Anthony Giddens, Goffman’s work straddles the The stigmatized individual
for example, draws heavily on disciplinary boundaries between may find that he feels
Goffman’s ideas about human sociology and social psychology—
behavior and identity formation in his theories have therefore been unsure how normals will
his much acclaimed “structuration” taken up by thinkers from a wide identify and receive him.
theory, which discusses the link range of academic backgrounds.
between structures and human Within sociology, his ideas about Erving Goffman
interaction. Pierre Bourdieu also stigma have been applied very
refers to Goffman’s work in his effectively by British social
exploration of the extent to which thinker Gill Green to consider the
people are able to change who experiences of people with long-
they are and how they feel within term illness, including those who
certain contexts. have contracted the HIV virus.
And social worker John Offer
British social thinker Anthony has used Goffman’s concepts
Wootton has argued, however, that to consider the reintegration of
Goffman’s work universalizes and
identifies certain attributes as once
and for all liable to be the cause
of stigmatizing behavior. But
normative expectations and moral

196 IN CONTEXT

WE LIVE IN A WORLD FOCUS
WHERE THERE IS Simulacra
MORE AND MORE
INFORMATION, AND KEY DATES
LESS AND LESS c.360 BCE Greek philosopher
MEANING Plato says he would banish
“the imitator” from his
JEAN BAUDRILLARD (1929–2007) perfect republic.

Early 1800s The Industrial
Revolution begins in Europe.

1884 Friedrich Nietzsche says
that we can no longer look to
God to find meaning in our
life, because “God is dead.”

1970s Roland Barthes says
signs and symbols have
ideological functions that
they impart to the reader
with a “natural” simplicity.

1989 British computer
scientist Tim Berners-Lee
invents the World Wide Web
(www.), an Internet-based
hypermedia initiative for
global information sharing.

A t the end of the 20th
century, the French
sociologist Jean
Baudrillard announced that “the
year 2000, in a certain way, will
not take place.” He claimed that
the apocalypse—the end of the
world as we know it—had already
occurred, and in the 21st century,
we “have already passed beyond
the end.” He believed this because,
he said, there had been a perfect
crime—“the murder of the real.”

The only way in which we
would “know” the year 2000,
Baudrillard said, would be the
way we now know everything:
via the stream of images that
are reproduced endlessly for our

CULTURE AND IDENTITY 197

See also: Henri Lefebvre 106–07 ■ Alan Bryman 126–27 ■ David Held 170–71 ■
Antonio Gramsci 178–79 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87

There is so much The media simplifies
information in the modern things for us, deciding
what to “make real”;
world that we cannot the replication of certain
absorb it all and work out images and stories leads us
what is really happening. to accept them as “reality.”

All complexity The things and the events Jean Baudrillard
has been lost. of the physical world—
Born in Reims, France, in
in their unexplained, 1929, Jean Baudrillard was
unpackaged form—are the first member of his family
no longer accessible to us. to attend university. His
parents were civil servants,
We live in a world where there is more and more but his grandparents were
information, and less and less meaning. peasant farmers, and he
claimed to have upset the
consumption by magazines, TV, cartographers draw up a huge map status quo when he went to
newspapers, film, advertising, of an empire. The map’s scale is Paris to study, beyond school
and websites. Reality, according 1:1, and so the map is as large as level, at the Sorbonne.
to Baudrillard, is not whatever the ground it represents, and covers
happens in the physical world (that the physical landscape of empire During the 1950s
“reality” is dead), but that which completely. As the empire declines, Baudrillard taught German
is capable of being simulated, or the map gradually becomes frayed in secondary schools while
reproduced. In fact, he says, the and finally ruined, leaving only a writing a PhD thesis under
real is that “which is already few shreds remaining. the tuition of the Marxist
reproduced.” During the 20th philosopher Henri Lefebvre.
century, representation started In this allegory, the real and In 1966, Baudrillard took up a
to precede reality, rather than its copy can be easily identified; post at the University of Paris
the other way around. the difference between them is IX teaching sociology, and
clear. Baudrillard maintains that later became a professor in the
The map comes first this is how it used to be in the subject. His left-wing, radical
Baudrillard explains his position Renaissance world, when the link attitude made him famous
with reference to a short story between a thing and its image (and controversial) worldwide.
by the Argentinian writer and was obvious. The image was a He broke with Marxism in the
poet Jorge Luis Borges, in which reflection of a profound reality, 1970s, but remained politically
and we recognized both its ❯❯ active all his life. When asked
“Who are you?,” he replied,
“What I am, I don’t know. I am
the simulacrum of myself.”

Key works

1981 Simulacra and Simulation
1983 Fatal Strategies
1986 America
1987 The Ecstasy of
Communication

198 JEAN BAUDRILLARD

Second Life is a virtual world where
users re-create themselves digitally.
Online marketing advises: “Everyone...
is a real person and every place you
visit is built by people just like you.”

engage with. They simplify the
world and make it manageable. In
addition, the reality they create is
more exciting and perfect in every
way than the one around us.

similarity to that reality and its good investment, or a breakfast Dangerous utopias
difference. With the start of the cereal. Presentation, not substance, “Simulacra”—images that have
industrial age, however, the dictated value. This was the start no original in reality—can be
link between the object and its of the age of advertising, where the produced to create a much more
representation became far less message of the brand overtook the satisfying effect than images
clear, as the original object, or a reality of the substance in question. that reflect reality. An actress can
model of one, could be reproduced Image became everything. be “digitally enhanced” to look
hundreds or thousands of times. closer to a culture’s ideal image
Simplifying the world of womanhood, but even this refers
Remaking reality Baudrillard followed the trajectory back to some kind of reality. For
Baudrillard was aware of other of this bizarre world of images this reason, Baudrillard says that
Marxist thinkers of the 1960s, such and spectacles still further. As “the territory” of the real has not yet
as French theorist Guy Debord, who technology progressed, he says, disappeared entirely—fragments
had drawn attention to the shift it became obvious that there was remain. But people who find
in cultural thinking that occurred no need to refer to a real object or pleasure in looking at these
with the onset of mass production. model at all. The image—which enhanced images may find even
Debord notes that at this point in was originally abstracted from more pleasure in images that are
history, “the whole life of those something real—could now be completely digitally created—that
societies... presents itself as created from nothing. It did not do not refer back to a “real person”
an... accumulation of spectacles.” need to connect to or reflect at all. For example, we can look at
Thus life becomes condensed into anything in the physical world “perfect” digitally created people
a set of recorded pictures: a family at all. This kind of image he calls
wedding, a holiday in France, and a “simulacrum.” The real is produced from
so on. People are more interested in miniaturized units, from
capturing the image—becoming As long as an image or set of matrices, memory banks, and
spectators—than in doing things: images is reproducible, Baudrillard command models—and with
the image, not the event, is central maintains, it can create reality. these it can be reproduced an
(the modern obsession with taking The real is “that which can be indefinite number of times.
“selfies” emphasizes how pervasive reproduced.” Once images are
this has become). replicated and widely disseminated Jean Baudrillard
(in magazines or websites, for
Baudrillard points out that example), they create a shared
through capitalism, commodities reality that people can discuss,
also became detached from in a way that they cannot do with
themselves. Wheat was no longer the messy, unstructured physical
simply wheat, for instance, but a reality that we used to try to