Sociology, Culture and Modernity
This summary consists of assigned literature for the course Sociology, Culture and Modernity, as well
as personal notes from lectures and webinars (Peters, J. 2021, personal communication).
Week 1: Simmel
The context of most of the texts we read is the rise of modernity = expansion, urbanization,
industrialism, capitalism. We study modernity (or: social scientific study of culture) through the
connection to three elements:
1. Subjective culture = the bearers of culture.
This is culture that we have internalized and lives inside of us.
- This can be ideas we have about politics or other things in life. It is our subjective experience
of the world.
- Subjective culture is socially influenced by other people but you fully possess this culture
yourself and it makes up your personality.
2. Objective culture = the content of culture (independent of bearers or forms).
- Objective culture is anything that is made by humans, so before it was objective culture, it
was subjective culture, in somebody’s head. So this is anything that a person produces: it is
the outcome of human action, thinking, appreciation, meaning and sense-making.
- This can be tangible (goods, architecture) and intangible (language, science, organization).
3. Social structure = the formal forms of interaction (independent of content).
- This is about the social positions of people and groups of people in relation to one another.
E.g. hierarchical relationships, competition, division of labour.
- Social structure can be related to geometry (Simmel) of social forms, separated from content
(objective culture) and those who embody that content (subjective culture).
Simmel, Georg. (1990). The Problem of Sociology. American Journal
of Sociology, 15(3), 289-320. https://doi.org/10.1086/211783
A society is made up of groups of people (or in Simmel’s time, classes) that are connected to each
other. The lower classes have less power than the upper class, and this is known by everyone. This
class-consciousness made that people started looking at the different social relationships among
classes; looking at social structure.
In this text, Simmel is critical of people who view sociology as the science of everything human. There
are people that think that sociology encompasses everything that is not “science of external nature”
(p. 290). Simmel also says that we cannot look at the individual only when we want to study
sociology/society. Everyone is part of a society, and that society exists of groups of people and
classes, not just individuals who go their own way in life.
This is called sociation: the form of relations in which people and groups of people interact
with one another (social structure), separate from content (subjective & objective culture).
So, sociology is social structure (sociation), and the objective & subjective cultures are
outcomes of this sociation (Peters, 2021, personal communication).
For Simmel, then, sociology is about examining the social relationships between people and
groups of people. The concept ‘society’ doesn’t say much about a group/groups of people,
but their interactions do.
, He states it as: “I think of society as existing wherever several individuals are in reciprocal
relationship. This reciprocity arises always from specific impulses, or by virtue of specific purposes.”
(p. 296). One group of people influences another group in one society, thereby creating a
relationship between the two.
Simmel draws geometry into the mix with sociology. Geometry outlines the amount of and the
arrangements of social relationships.
To illustrate: for sociation to happen, we need two people. One individual person is not yet a society.
For that you need two or more people. When a third, fourth or fifth person enters the society, the
social relationships between these people start to become more complex. Everyone associates with
each other and needs to take each other into account in their daily lives. The more people join a
group, the more complex this sociation becomes.
Geometry can represent the complexity of these social relationships in a scheme of dots and lines
etc. This is to show who are the ingroup and who are the outgroup relationships and people, for
example. It might also show the hierarchy between different (groups of) people.
Simmel, Georg. (1903). The Metropolis and Mental Life. In The
Sociology of Georg Simmel (pp. 406-426)
In a city or metropolis, an individual is part of a complex and crowded society. With each added
person to this society, sociation becomes increasingly complex. this affects cultural content
(subjective and objective culture) and can lead to functional differentiation, rationalization and
individualization.
Functional differentiation is the arrangement of society in a certain way.
- This is necessary in a metropolis because there are many people and they all need a different
role for the society to be viable and run smoothly. The metropolis therefore reacts in a very
rational way, ‘giving’ everyone a role in order to survive.
- Moreover, as an individual, a person wants to set themselves apart from the rest of the
crowd to keep his individuality and business. For example, when you own a theatre, you
want to differentiate yourself from other theatres in order to attract audiences.
The increasingly complex functional differentiation also makes possible increasingly complex
objective culture (the content of culture).
The result of functional differentiation can be a division of labour and specialization. People
with specific roles will specialize in these roles.
Simmel argues that the metropolis can influence people’s mental life, so it can influence the
subjective culture. He states it as: “the deepest problems of modern life flow from the attempt of the
individual to maintain the independence and individuality of his existence against the sovereign
powers of society” (Simmel, 1903, p. 406). The metropolis has a very rational way of treating society
and the way things are organized, which is an impersonal way of life.
In other words, as the city is a big place with a complex sociation and many relations
between people, this can become overwhelming for the citizens to ‘survive’ in a
metropolis, then, people need to mentally distance themselves from the city. They can do so
by creating a blasé outlook on life.
Simmel calls this ability to mentally distance oneself an intellectualistic quality. The individual
doesn’t let emotions lead his response to life but rather acts in a rational way. This quality has
implications for the city.
