George Simmel
Social scientific study of culture = connection between three elements:
- Individual: 1. Subjective culture: bearer of culture -> person, individual expression
(identity, the self).
- Social: 2. Objective culture: content of culture. The outcome of human action and
behaviour (language, laws, science, art, education).
- Social: 3. Social structure: formal forms of interaction. The social position of people and
groups within society. Hierarchical relationship, competition, division of labour,
cooperatives.
- Sociology is abstracted from content (objective culture) and those who embody that
content (subjective culture).
Modernity: industrialism, capitalism, surveillance.
1. Separation of time and space.
2. Disembodied mechanisms (no longer restricted to time and space).
3. Institutional reflexivity.
Sociations = interactions between people and groups of people. Society = sum of sociations.
- Law of increasingly individualization and sociation. Functional dependencies are
increasing, personal dependencies decrease (work, care, help, babysitter).
Sociological and psychological growth due to individualization:
- Sociological: increase in social interactions, relationships.
- Psychological: growing sense individuality as result of an increase in social relationships.
Diagnosis of modern culture: modernization = higher sociation and individualization.
Three long-term characteristics:
1. Increasing objectification of culture -> personal and professional spheres become
separated.
2. Increasing rationalization of culture: from content to function, from quality to quantity
(amount of Facebook friends), from end to means.
3. Gap between the development of the person and the development of culture.
Relevance sociology of arts -> The Metropolis and Mental Life: what is urban mentality?
- Rational: distance from emotional and personal, calculating, weighing.
- Dominance money culture (money is impersonal, time is money).
- Urban mentality is caused by overstimulation of signals -> citizens should psychologically
protect themselves from an overdose of these signals (psychological distance).
- Consequence: more freedom and anonymity, danger loss of self, fragmented version of
reality.
Fashion, two sociological characteristics:
1. Differentiation -> wanting to be different from others (individuality, change).
2. Imitation -> wanting to be the same as others (society belonging, similarity).
- Increasing imitation -> everyone fashionable? -> option differentiation diminishes.
Features of fashion:
1. Fashion is not related to content (function over form).
2. Trickle-down theory: differentiation -> imitation -> renewed differentiation -> middle-
class forces upper class to change.
3. In big cities it is difficult to differentiate -> if you dress shockingly, less will notice.
4. Fashion draws attention to the individual, can also be an united action.
Criticism Simmel:
- Incomplete, not systematic, too essayistic, not scientific enough, hardly any
methodological justification.
, Thorstein Veblen
Grasps society as a whole in order to determine its main drift.
Modernity is money culture > modernity is machine culture -> conspicuous consumption:
consumption to enhance prestige (consuming without producing, without satisfying the true
needs to satisfy).
Leisure = demonstrating not having to work -> unproductive use of time -> exemption of
work -> demonstration of idleness.
Content of culture determined by the symbolic struggle between the elite and the common
man: what are proper manners and taste? Mass culture is functional, but not distinctive.
Attention to everyday culture (sport, fashion, popular press) -> he researches lifestyle.
Trickle-down theory: prestige-criteria leisure class as a standard for society -> lower class
idolize and imitate lifestyle leisure class -> luxuries become a necessity and lose their
distinctive power (The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899).
In big cities concentration of wealthy class with more leisure time -> conspicuous
consumption more important and more subtle -> turnover-rate fashion increases
(fashionable styles change often).
Normal good: price up, demand down. Veblen good: price up, demand up.
Clothing (functional, physical ease) vs. dress (expensiveness, novelty, ineptitude, adornment)
(The Economic Theory of a Women’s Dress, 1894).
Principle of expensiveness:
- Conspicuous expensiveness: a cheap coat makes a cheap men.
- Socialization = time = conspicuous leisure -> prestige goes up.
- Role of women: indirect leisure and consumption -> trophy wife (advertisement).
Principle of novelty:
- Fashion should not be worn too often -> immaculate clothes (holiday) symbolizes leisure.
Principle of ineptitude (lack of skill):
- Physical inability to perform productive work = monetary ability to afford idleness.
Veblen vs. Bourdieu: culture has an independent distinctive function with Bourdieu (cultural
capital); with Veblen, culture is much more a reflection of the economy.
Criticism Veblen:
- Little empirical research into why people consume certain goods.
- Trickle-up instead of trickle-down: fashion worn by lower class -> gets picked up by
designers -> upper-class purchase the designs.
- Consensus on status symbols may have changed.
- Idol of the sphere of production (Adorno).
- Conspicuous non-consumption: non-consumption to enhance prestige.
Theodor Adorno
