SO1506 Economy, Work & Consumption
Mar 28, 2015
SO1506
Economy, Work & Consumption
Lecture Topics
Lecture 1: a) The Rise of Modern Industrial Capitalism, Industrial Workers, Urbanisation & The Birth of Consumerismb) Fordism, The Affluent Worker & Mass Consumption
Lecture 2: Fordist Society cont’d. -The Post War Era; Work, Consumption & Family c)Post-Fordism, Flexibility, Deregulation, The Global Market, Global Labour and Global Consumer Culture
Pre-Capitalist Society
From Antiquity to the Middle Ages:
Ancient Trade
Ancient Empires
Spice, Silk, Serfdom & Subsistence
(The Renaissance – mid 1300’s +)
(The Reformation 1517)
Individualism
The Enlightenment
Scientific Revolution
Rationality & Romanticism
Threads of Modernity
a) Pre-Industrial Capitalism – Seeds of ‘Great Transformation’ (1700-1900)
Mercantilism cc 16th – 18th C.
Adventure/Booty Capitalism
Early Commercial Organisation & ‘Corporations’
Towards an Industrial Capitalist Society
The Agricultural Revolution (cc 1760 onwards)
Rational Capitalism & Free Markets
Industrial Revolution
Urbanization
‘Birth’ of Consumer Culture
The Industrial Revolution
Energy & The Factory System
The Division of Labour
Agriculture to Factory and ‘Service’ Work
Wage Labour
The Industrial Workers
The Conditions of 19th Century Workers
The Trade Unions
Separation of Home & Work
Urbanization
Urbanization
The Expansion of Cities in the 19th Century
1800 1850 1900
London 1,000,000 2,685,000 6,500,000
Paris 500,000 1,000,000 2,700,000
Vienna 247,000 444,000 1,675,000
Berlin 172,000 419,000 1,889,000
New York 60,515 515,000 3,437,000
Chicago <1000 29,000 1,689,000
The Birth Of Consumerism
The Department Store
The City & The Leisure Class (Veblen, 1899)
Early Department Stores emerge from mid 19th Century (Laermans, 1993)
Paris, New York, Chicago prominent in the development of “the production of
consumption”- England and Germany followed by the turn of the century
(Adburgham, 1981).
The Birth of Consumer Culture: The Department Store
Taylorism & Scientific Management
FW Taylor (1911)
Rational Organization
Specialization (Tasks and Planning)
Standardization (Tools & Rules)
Time & Motion
Piece Work
Fordism & Mass Production
Assembly Line (Michigan, 1913)
“You’ve got to work like hell in Ford’s” (Ford factory worker in the 1920’s)
De-Skilling (Braverman)
Human Relations Management:Controlling and Motivating Workers
Fordist Society & Mass Consumption
Making Mass Consumers:
Use Value & Exchange Value
Waste
‘Captains of Consciousness’ (Ewen)
Economic Systems
Free Market Capitalism: Private Ownership of Industry and Property, Free Competition, Consumer Sovereignty and Markets
Socialism: Collective (Public) Ownership of Industry and Property, State Controlled Economy
Welfare Capitalism: Mixed Economy (Private & Public Ownership of Industry & Property), Government Intervention in Market (Demand Management, Redistribution), Social Welfare System
SO1506
Economy, Work & Consumption
Lecture 2: The Post War Era – The Present
Recap Lecture 1 Key Points
1) ‘The Great Transformation’ (cc1700 – 1900) underpinned by increasing rationality (Enlightenment) - transforms science, technology and capitalism - leads to div. of labour, industrial rev., rational capitalism. (opposition from Romantics late 18th)
2) Agricultural work gives way to factory and ‘service’ work. Mass movement towards city living. Increasing anonymity and individuation within the urban setting – ‘society of strangers’. Identity and status more dependent on appearances.
3) Availability of consumer goods and desire for distinction amongst urban bourgeoisie creates suitable conditions for the birth of consumerism. Dept. Stores (1850’s +) serve as ‘bourgeois’ (female) leisure centres - rational capitalism in a ‘romantic’ setting. Notion of consumer goods as identity markers emerges. Early consumer culture limited to the wealthy elite.
4) Early 1900’s Taylorism and Fordism further rationalize production – make mass production possible. Need to motivate workforce + stimulate demand for mass produced goods. Solutions: Pay higher wages (‘family wage’) - allow more leisure time. Overturn working class asceticism (advertising industry) – encourage self-indulgence and ‘waste’. Transform limited consumer culture of 19th C. into mass consumer culture of 20th.
The Fordist Society
The Great Depression
Economic Systems
Keynesianism
Full Employment & the ‘Job for Life’
Corporatism
Post-War Boom & the Consumer Society
War Production becomes peace production
A ‘New Deal’-’The American Dream’
Leisure
Suburbia
Riesman ‘ The Lonely Crowd’ 1950
The ‘Housewife’
The Triumph of the Visual? Cinema, Television and Consumer Culture
Hollywood Cinema (cc 1910 onwards)
Television (cc 1950’s)
USA: ‘In 1945 almost no one owned a television set; by 1950 alone, 7,500,000 were
sold’ (Marling, 1994).
‘Soaps & Sitcoms’
Post-Fordism & De-Industrialization
1970’s :
End of the ‘Consensus’
Deregulation
Privatization
Marketization
Industrial Decline and The Rise of Services
Flexible Production & Services
Flexible Production:
Multi-tasking & Multi-skilling
McDonaldization (Ritzer)
The Post-Fordist Labour Market
The Dual Labour Market:
Primary & Periphery
High Road & Low Road Flexibility
Casualization & Risk-shifting
Work, Gender Relations & The Family
Women In the Workforce
The ‘Family Wage’ (declines)
Balancing Home & Work
The Commercial Colonization of The Self
The Home/Work Boundary
‘The Longest Day’
Emotional Labour
‘Willing Slaves’
‘Managism’
‘I Shop Therefore I Am’
Consumer Bodies/Consumer Selves
Consumerism, Counter Cultures and Incorporation
‘Branding’
The Global Economy
Communication/Media
Transport
Transnational Corporations (TNC’s)
Interlocking Directorate
Global Labour Markets
A Global Division of Labour?
Economic Migration
‘Offshoring’
Global Consumer Culture
Citizens or Consumers?
Niche Marketing
Homogenization or Glocalization
Future Work & Consumption
‘Brazilianization’ (Beck)
‘The End of Work’ (Rifkin)
The Leisure Society?