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The Roots of Domination: Beyond Bourdieu and Gramsci
Abstract
In this article I examine Bourdieu’s conception of symbolic domination as based on misrecognition and compare it with Gramsci’s notion of hegemony based on consent. Drawing on ethnographic research in workplaces in the USA and Hungary I show how both theories are flawed. Gramsci does not appreciate the importance of mystification as a foundation for stable hegemony in advanced capitalism while Bourdieu’s notion of misrecognition, based on the notion of habitus, is too deep to comprehend the fragility of state socialist regimes. Comparative analysis, I argue, calls for a concept of domination that is more contingent than Bourdieu’s symbolic domination, yet deeper than Gramsci’s hegemony.
... This research is then an interrogation of experience that brings theory to bear on it in an attempt to illuminate specific issues in the labour processes in this late stage of neoliberal capitalism (Fairbanks II and Lloyd 2011;Harvey 2005). Doing this exposes how ideology is reproduced in social relations, and specifically in the social relations of work (Burawoy 1979(Burawoy , 2012. This approach aims at a detection of societal contradictions in social processes and practices that might lead to emancipatory social change. ...
... There is truth in this problematic as research on tipping often equates the custom with individual freedom and agency (Brewster et al. 2013) and fails to qualify notions of freedom and flexibility (See point 8 above) with a critical awareness of this flexibility in relation to the socio-historical circumstances of neoliberal capital (Kingfisher and Maskovsky 2008). What is missed in an overemphasis on freedom and autonomy is how many workers become complicit in their own exploitation and can even enjoy it (Dean 2008, McNay 2009Lordon 2014, Burawoy 2012. Tipping is an example of this. ...
... takes on an objective truth or the 'building [of] symbolic domination or social solidarity' (Burawoy 2012(Burawoy : 1919. However, the relations of generosity and the intimacy of gift-giving are not lost. ...
This dissertation presents an ethnographic analysis of tipping in the restaurant sector of The Hamptons of Long Island, New York. Taking the form of a full participant insider ethnography, the research is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with co-workers and in-role observations. The research took place in a small restaurant (under fifty employees) that served casual and moderately priced food and drink. The ethnographic research offers access to the processes of subjectivity formation, as well as to the economic relations produced by tipping. Tipping is a technique of labour control particularly suited to the neoliberal political economy. In this study neoliberalism is understood as a series of political, economic, and ideological practices that centre around individual and entrepreneurial freedoms, pure market logic, and consumerism. Those economic relations produce governable subjectivities for capital by making workers complicit in their own domination. This is done through a process of mobilization at the site of the server, whereby servers: 1) internalize a neoliberal logic and self-commodify; 2) are incentivized by the potential of working for tips; and 3) are informalized and individualized within their work and wage relations. Tipped workers are subject to a sub-minimum wage, which at the federal level is as low as $2.13 per hour. Some workers benefit from the tipped-wage system more than others, and those nearer to the top maintain the inequality and exploitation of this system as a whole. Tipping is both a post-Fordist technology that relieves capitalist companies from paying wages in full, and a neo-feudal master/servant relation of unequal dignity. That contradiction forces workers into an asymmetric relation outside of market neutrality. Tipping reinforces the hierarchies of class, gender, and race, and constructs an embodied labour that requires a sexualised selling of the self. 3 Acknowledgements and Dedication
... To further examine agency struggles and sources of tension, Bourdieu is complemented with insights from French Pragmatic Sociology (FPS) (Boltanski, 2011;Boltanski & Thévenot, 1999) which allows me to focus on the 'critical capacity' of migrant professionals in everyday life situations (Boltanski, 2011: 43). In this way, some accusations of 'determinism' to Bourdieusian approaches (Burawoy, 2012(Burawoy, , 2018Celikates, 2012) are freed for the framework. The framework can then capture sources of tension, demands by migrant professionals, and how organizations respond to these demands. ...
... While symbolic power has been used to study migrant workers (Samaluk, 2015), misrecognition appears to be absent in this literature. This is unexpected as misrecognition is a central concept for understanding the reproduction of domination (Burawoy, 2012(Burawoy, , 2018. Misrecognition is understood in the context of symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1979(Bourdieu, , 1982(Bourdieu, , 1990. ...
... The alleged totalizing vision of symbolic power is however contested (Boltanski, 2011;Burawoy, 2012;Celikates, 2012). Migrants may resist and display strategies that could question their most immediate circumstances including conditionality in organizations. ...
This dissertation explores what happens when organizations make efforts
to include migrant professionals. Drawing on sociology and organization
studies, the dissertation analyzes a program targeting highly skilled migrants
striving to become part of a new workplace. An 18-month ethnography re�veals the complex power relations involved in inclusion processes. It shows
how inclusion brings about multiple tensions, providing opportunities to
expose unequal power structures. By situating the analysis in tensions, this
monograph disentangles the conditions under which inclusion takes place.
Taking the migrant professional’s perspective, this dissertation responds to
the question, ‘how are the terms of inclusion engaged with?’. It argues for an
understanding of inclusion as a process characterized by negotiation under
arbitrary conditions. Such negotiation often contradicts official discourses of
migrant professional success. This finding brings the reader into the everyday barriers and enablers migrant professionals experience regarding skills,
professionalism, ethnicity, culture, class, language, and religion in a new
organizational context. The dissertation proposes to give a central place to
the terms and conditions under which ‘the other’ is invited to be part of an
organization and society.
... In broad strokes, Gramsci's theory of hegemony explains that in advanced capitalist economies, the ruling classes exert power over society through consent and coercion (Burawoy, 2012;Gramsci, 1971). While political society, such as law, police, and the military, largely function to control society through direct force and coercion, traditional intellectuals working through civil society's formal educational systems, churches, organizations, clubs, and media secure obedience through producing and reproducing ideas and worldviews (i.e., histories, facts, explanations, etc.) that justify the present social, economic, and political arrangements. ...
... As individuals struggle one against the other within and across fields, larger economic and political tensions and contradictions are absorbed and never fully disrupt the overall order. In this way Bourdieu provides a theory for studying and explaining the contestation and collaboration that maintains hegemony (Burawoy, 2012). ...
... From the vantage of the periphery, brokers appear as allies; and brokers believe themselves to be translators, realists, and bridge-builders. Critical education policy network studies can provide systematic, theoretically informed, power maps that demystify domination (Burawoy, 2012). ...
Education policy networks are reshaping education across the globe. While these studies grow in number, critical policy researchers argue for critical self-reflection, noting the risks of engaging simply in research of elites, by elites and for elites. In this essay, the author proposes three theoretical elaborations for critical policy network analysis with implications for methods. The author suggests: 1) examining policy networks as sites of hegemonic construction and maintenance; 2) studying policy networks through the lens of racial capitalism; and 3) utilizing Bourdieu's field theory to bridge micro-social network insights with concepts of domination. Finally, the author suggests implications of the proposed theoretical elaborations for methodologies and how critical researchers can support counter-hegemonic efforts.
... In this article, I focus on critically evaluating one particular conception of objectivity: what I call the 'object-focused' conception, which associates objectivity with an accurate grasp of the object of analysis. I do so by considering the way that this conception is used in critical social science, exploring Michael Burawoy's use of the objective/subjective divide in his analysis of domination (Burawoy 1979(Burawoy , 1998(Burawoy , 2012a(Burawoy , 2017. ...
... Setting aside the question of whether Freeland's approach is more convincing than Burawoy's, the key point here is that there is not a single consensual sociological approach to analysing the social relations in the Chicago plant. And, of course, Burawoy is himself disagreeing with other sociologists, as in his dispute with Bourdieu about whether institutional forms of internalized dispositions explain consent to the labour process, and indeed about whether the habitus can be said to exist at all (Burawoy 2012a). The existence of competing sociological views would suggest that we cannot simply consider the sociologist's perspective to capture the truth about social reality, unless we are willing to admit the possibility of multiple truths. ...
This article critically evaluates the idea that the division between objectivity and subjectivity can illuminate the relationship between social scientific and lay perspectives on the social world. It examines a conceptualization which associates objectivity with a grasp of the features of the object of investigation and associates subjectivity with the potential for lay actors to suffer from misapprehensions. The article explores how this division is used in critical social science, such that the critical perspective of the sociologist is seen as objective, whereas the perspectives of lay actors are seen as subjective and always potentially problematic. The article explores Michael Burawoy’s analysis of objectivity and subjectivity within the context of a critical social scientific appraisal of the labour process. Contrary to Burawoy’s approach, this article postulates that a meaningful dialogue between sociologists and lay actors can only be achieved if the objectivity of social scientific accounts is not assumed.
... The "falseness" of ideology does not emanate from actors' consciousness but "from the social structure itself" (Burawoy 2012, 203) and its internal contradictions. Within the Marxist tradition, this conception stands closer to Gramsci's (1932, 157) insistence on ideology as real, as a material and contradictory "terrain" where actors are inserted, and especially closer to Burawoy's (2012) theory of mystification. ...
... 1. Burawoy's (2012) description of consent production is a remarkable exception. Foucault's (1977) analyses of discipline and subjectification are difficult to classify in these terms. ...
We present evidence on a social mechanism of legitimation—ideological inversion—proposing that a fantasy consensus deters collective actions oriented toward social change, even in contexts were individuals support transformations. This fantasy consensus emerges as individuals infer the order’s validity mainly from the practices of others, which are largely constrained by social structures. Relying on a factorial survey experiment conducted in Chile, our results support the two main hypotheses from ideological inversion: people systematically overestimate the support for the status quo, and this overestimation has a deterrent effect on collective actions oriented toward social change. We argue that ideological inversion helps explain how legitimation crises often remain hidden, and therefore how political crisis often emerge abruptly. For instance, before the revolt of 2019 Chile was perceived as an example of social stability within Latin America, yet after an ordinary subway fare hike the country erupted in an unrelenting and massive wave of protests. Our findings suggest that the social support for the status quo previously perceived in Chile was a fantasy consensus enforced by constrained practices, and that this fantasy was very effective until recently in deterring social change. Ideological inversion thus provides a mechanism that contributes to explain the stability of social structures and inequalities regardless of individual dispositions or shared norms.
... This difficulty is founded on ideology, that is the dominant ideas in organizations that represent and preserve order (Coopey, 1995;McLaren, 2020, Millar andPrice, 2018). These dominant ideas are not only imposed but produced in interaction: common sense is acquired, accepted, routinely consented to, and embraced (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992;Bourdieu, 2000;Burawoy, 2012). Dominant ideas act not only as the main lens through which employees understand and make sense of organizational reality, but also how they imagine alternatives (see Seeck et al., 2020). ...
... In practice, a doxic experience in an organization is not absolute as actors can reflect on their social conditions (Archer, 2012;Wacquant, 2004;Bourdieu, 2003), allowing for improvisation within limits (Burawoy, 2012). But what induces this critical reflection in the absence of critical reflexive educational training? ...
How can managers reach a critical position from which to develop more responsible management practices? The literature suggests that the answer lies in critical reflexive learning, explaining how reflexivity can detach individuals from the grip of harmful ideologies. We challenge this premise, according to which critical reflexive learning and ideology are counterposed, arguing instead that they need to be studied as intertwined. We build on the organizational ethnography of a firm promoting inclusive and responsible management, studying a program for recruitment of highly-skilled migrants. Exploring managerial learning achieved through this program, we show how critique, reflexivity, and learning are closely linked to the ideological system of beliefs that naturalizes the organizational order: the organizational doxa 'Diversity is good'. This work makes three contributions to literature on critical reflexive learning: it stresses the currently overlooked interconnection between critical reflexivity and ideology; it shows how an ideological expression (doxa) both induces and simultaneously bounds managers' engagement with critique; and it argues for the counterintuitive possibility that critique and change can be achieved through doxa. We answer our opening question-how to reach critique and responsible change-somewhat provocatively: through the adoption of a new ideology.
... As he argues, RDoC provides academics with an opportunity to create a new taxonomy that is more aligned with pharmaceutical companies' interests. Indicative of hegemony (e.g., Burawoy, 2012;Connell, 1995), rather than strict and forceful coercion, pharmaceutical companies exercise considerable influence but also require assent from other groups. The FDA cedes the decision to academics, while Drs. ...
Medicalization is an important theory that has been subject to numerous debates. Drawing on three varied datasets, we forward a relational approach to medicalization that responds to critiques while aiming to reinvigorate the theory with new concepts and questions. In contrast to prior process-based work, our relational approach argues that medicalization is best understood as an action or activity undertaken by specific groups or actors. We further suggest that unequal relations characterize medicalization. Specifically, we argue that 1) groups or actors receive a benefit from participating in medicalization, which we call the medicalizing dividend and, 2) an actor/group occupies a hegemonic position in medicalizing relations, reaping the largest dividend and constraining other actors. While we assert that pharmaceutical companies are currently hegemonic, we argue that their hegemony is not indefinite. We discuss how our approach facilitates links between medicalization and other theories, while outlining future steps for medicalization research.
... Ciertamente, en el ámbito del sentido común pueden encontrarse las semillas de la transformación: a esto se refirió Gramsci como la esencia del «buen sentido» dentro del sentido común. Mientras el sentido común de las clases subalternas les restringe de desafiar Enero -Junio 2024 la hegemonía predominante, el «buen sentido» dentro de él puede formar la base para un cambio radical (Birchfield, 1999;Burawoy, 2012). Estudiar las tradiciones, las creencias locales y la vida diaria es importante no para reafirmar las creencias enraizadas en estructuras opresivas, sino para develar los trazos de visiones del mundo opuestas que se encuentran en las experiencias vividas (Robinson, 2005;Crehan, 2011). ...
Mexico is in the grips of a public health crisis related to its changing food system, characterized by dramatic increases in diet-related illness. Ideas about how to reverse these trends stretch from top-down nutrition education to demands for regulation of the food and beverage industry. Taking a different approach, this paper focuses on the perspectives and practices of rural Oaxacans, drawn from qualitative research conducted in seven communities over six years. We find an emergent critique of the contemporary capitalist food system rooted in embodied engagements with food production, preparation, consumption, and community history. We analyze these findings through the lens of Gramsci’s concept of ‘good sense,’ understood as the critical-thinking basis for revolutionary transformation among subaltern classes. We situate this idea within literature on embodied knowledge and visceral politics, suggesting that such ideas and perceptions have the potential to challenge the growing hegemony of the corporate food system and contribute to broader social movements in defense of land and life.
... On the other, the democratic imperative mandates that the law ensures impartial treatment for all individuals, dismantling privileges in the distribution of benefits (Waldron 1999). When striking a balance between both, a key factor in modern societies is social legitimacy (Lenski 1966;Burawoy 2012). The acceptance of legal norms as legitimate by the majority of a society secures social stability. ...
... The structures of social inequality, rooted in the possibility or impossibility to use languages, necessitate mechanisms of legitimation so that they can be peacefully accepted by individuals (Lenski 1966;Burawoy 2012). Ideologies-the ideas accepted as maps of a sociotemporally defined territory (Geertz 1993) that institutionalize uses and give them a hallo of naturalness (Eagleton 1991)-serve as the means for legitimizing inequalities. ...
This contribution serves as the introductory framework for the articles featured in the special issue of Just Journal of Language Rights & Minorities, Revista de Drets Lingüístics i Minories exploring the intersections between ideologies and language rights. The article navigates through fundamental concepts, contending that prevailing ideologies within societies play a pivotal role in legitimizing inequalities among social identities, often within legal frameworks. The introduction underscores the historical and dynamic nature of social configurations that establish relationships of dominance among collective identities. Within this contextual backdrop, language emerges as a potent symbol, embodying the identification of social groups and encapsulating the conflicts that arise between them. The article concludes by highlighting the significance of the published articles in fostering a dialogue that brings to light the impact of language ideologies and of the varied manifestations of language rights on the acceptance of inequalities among social identities—an initial stride towards their eventual rejection.
... The structures of social inequality, rooted in the possibility or impossibility to use languages, necessitate mechanisms of legitimation so that they can be peacefully accepted by individuals (Lenski 1966;Burawoy 2012). Ideologies-the ideas accepted as maps of a sociotemporally defined territory (Geertz 1993) that institutionalize uses and give them a hallo of naturalness (Eagleton 1991)-serve as the means for legitimizing inequalities. ...
Based on an awareness of the dynamics of power and dominance inherent in linguistic choices, this special issue seeks to cultivate a more inclusive and equitable dialogue on the position of language communities within societies. The special issue interweaves two primary lines of argument: firstly, that the prospects of language communities, and consequently individuals, hinge on language rights; and secondly, that domination is a multidimensional (or intersectional) process rooted in collective ideologies that allocate symbolic capital (value) to specific practices while neglecting others. Drawing on these foundational lines, the thesis advanced by the special issue "Ideologies and Language Rights Meet (and Clash)" asserts that ideologies serve to legitimize social inequalities arising from an inequitable distribution of rights and resources.
... inhabit, and thereby offers to them the "possibility of achieving self-consciousness and of inquiring into the principles of their own practices, interests, and disinterestedness, not least of all their interest in disinterestedness." See also Bourdieu 1996Bourdieu , 1998b GE N RE Bourdieu's ideas of habitus emerged in an effort to negotiate between structure and agency, but Michael Burawoy (2012Burawoy ( , 2019 contends that in his repeated efforts to transcend antinomies, Bourdieu often ends up simply combining or alternating between opposing perspectives. Thus the difficulty of reconciling structure and agency results in two versions of habitus that Burawoy calls Homo habitus and Homo ludens; the former emphasizes how subjects internalize social structure while the latter insists upon the agency of players in a game. ...
This article argues for the limitations of John Guillory's analysis of canon formation in terms of its treatment of race. The article reads Guillory's 1997 essay “Bourdieu's Refusal” alongside Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant's 1999 essay “On the Cunning of Imperialist Reason,” pointing in each to a sociological determinism, for which well-intentioned social actions intended to address racial and gendered inequalities of representation seem only to prop up structures of market domination. In spite of Bourdieu's resistance to American discourses of racial identity, the article argues, the “globalization of race” in fact allows for the emergence of a relatively unmediated political discourse. Cultural studies, in particular, provides an entrance to that project. One limitation of racial politics is that it does not necessarily impact the structure of economic relations, but at the same time, purely class or economic struggles do not necessarily alter noneconomic modes of class domination in the social and cultural sphere, nor the symbolic violence of social hierarchies such as race or gender.
... Violence is strengthening the power of the dominant class by involving the state apparatus. Hegemony is strengthening the power of the dominant class with the agreement of the controlled group (Burawoy, 2012). Thus, power is the core and essential thing when discussing hegemony (Flynn, 2021). ...
This study discusses the issue of power in the novel They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera analyzed using the hegemony theory by Antonio Gramsci. The focus of this study is Death-Cast power over other groups that have a lower position in the novel. This study aimed to find out the dominant and the subordinate group in the novel. This study used a qualitative design with a close-reading method. Data collection was done by reading the novel repeatedly, marking the parts in the novel that were in accordance with the research objectives using Antonio Gramsci's theory, and taking notes. Data analysis was carried out in three steps, such as data reduction, data display, and conclusion. The result of this study showed that power inequality in the novel can cause the presence of the dominant group and the subordinate group. The dominant group in the novel is Death-Cast which is a part of civil society. The subordinate group in the novel is Decker, President, and the herald.AbstrakPenelitian ini membahas persoalan kekuasaan dalam novel They Both Die at the End karya Adam Silvera yang dianalisis menggunakan teori hegemoni Antonio Gramsci. Fokus penelitian ini adalah kekuatan Death-Cast atas kelompok lain yang memiliki posisi lebih rendah dalam novel. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui kelompok dominan dan kelompok bawah dalam novel. Penelitian ini menggunakan desain kualitatif dengan metode close-reading. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan membaca novel secara berulang-ulang, menandai bagian-bagian dalam novel yang sesuai dengan tujuan penelitian menggunakan teori Gramsci, dan mencatat. Analisis data dilakukan dalam tiga tahap, yaitu reduksi data, penyajian data, dan penarikan simpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ketimpangan kekuasaan dapat menyebabkan hadirnya kelompok dominan dan kelompok subordinat. Kelompok dominan dalam novel tersebut adalah Death-Cast yang merupakan bagian dari “masyarakat sipil”. Kelompok bawahan dalam novel tersebut adalah Decker, President, dan herald.
... Individuals are, indeed, doubly imprisoned: by objective structures and by the constraints of collective dispositions. Thus, it is assumed that the myriad concepts introduced by Bourdieu lead inexorably to «structuralist» and «holistic» analyses (Boudon 2010;Fabiani 2016) of social phenomena, and to findings of social continuity and the perpetuation of power relationships (Jenkins 1982;Goldthorpe 2007;Burawoy 2012). In this reading, Bourdieu's thought admits «dynamic» elements -strategy, struggle, even revolution -only to the extent that they are subordinated to «static» outcomes. ...
A focus on «crisis» and «rupture» may help to break with the scholastic point of view because it calls attention to the complexity of Bourdieu’s sociological work. The general project which animated this work was built with the explicit intention of taking into account both changes and continuities – and to do so at both the institutional and the individual levels, while accounting for their interconnection. Thus, to avoid the «mu- seumification» of his conceptual architecture, we will not give too much space to scholastic debates, as we prefer to emphasize the fertility and the dissemination of Bourdieu’s ideas in many research fields accounting for the crises and ruptures that affect women’s and men’s contemporary life experiences.
... Life pressure means they have to cooperate with the platform's time control, willingly extend labor time, and increase labor intensity. It is similar to Gramscian "consent" (Burawoy 2012). Even if delivery workers recognize the platform's control, they have to obey its time arrangement because there is no better alternative. ...
In this field study of the labor process of food delivery workers, we examine the new rules of time and new forms of labor time control in the food delivery industry. Food delivery platforms attract laborers with the flexibility of working time and place but simultaneously strictly surveil the labor process of delivery workers, thus establishing a multidimensional body of control consisting of the platform and customers. At the same time, platform mechanisms of “grab the order” and “wait for the order” help platforms subtly control delivery workers’ experience, thoughts, and emotions. These mechanisms create a sense of time characterized by “punctuality” and “speed,” making delivery workers “all-day workers.” Delivery workers come to delivery platforms in search of work freedom, but in the end, they become constrained by platforms. Helpless, they voluntarily subject themselves to the time control of the platform, while the latter obtains profit under the guise of freedom.
... In exploring the complexities of misrecognition, this article dialogues with literature that directly critiques the concept and its relation to habitus. This work has critiqued Bourdieu's concepts as being overly deterministic and unable to account for working-class consciousness, agency, and struggle (Burawoy 2012;Dillon 2001;Gartman 1991;Lakomski 1984;Lovell 2000;Sewell 1992). In contrast, this article offers a theoretical scheme by which to explain different types of "misrecognition" and, in turn, varying potential for political awakenings. ...
This article explains variations in misrecognition of domination among the racialized subaltern. I draw on a comparative analysis of the fields of Islam in France and India, informed by the work of Bourdieu and Fanon. I first argue that Bourdieu’s concept of the religious field provides a crucial reframing of the Islamic field whereby religious judgments represent classification struggles over legitimate Islam. Second, I approach misrecognition in the field by distinguishing the field’s discourse from its doxa. I argue that misrecognition varies according to the degree of (1) subaltern minority integration into educational institutions and (2) proximity of the subaltern to the dominant classes. I bring in the work of Fanon, whose writings on the psychological effects of racial domination are a crucial complement to a Bourdieusian analysis. Together, they provide a more refined understanding of misrecognition in racialized religious fields and, in turn, potential for political resistance.
... Gramsci menolak konsep Marxis yang lebih kasar tentang "aturan kelas" dan mendukung konsep yang lebih canggih dan halus, yaitu "kekerasan dan persetujuan". Kekerasan adalah dominasi untuk penguatan kekuatan kelas penguasa terhadap kelas tertindas dengan melibatkan aparat kekerasan, seperti polisi dan unifikasi, sedangkan hegemoni ialah pembentukan kekuatan yang sama, tetapi dilakukan penerimaan kelas untuk mencapai kesepakatan dengan sekitar (Burawoy, 2012;Faruk, 2010;Mouffe, 2014;Prys, 2010). ...
This research discusses the issue of state issues in the drama script Atas Nama Cinta by Agus R. Sarjono. The phenomenon of sarcasm or criticism of the social problems that occurred in Indonesia has implied output written in the drama script is relevant to be studied using the sociology of literature. The concept of Antonio Gramsci's Hegemony includes culture, hegemony, common sense, intellectuals, and state in accordance with the drama Atas Nama Cinta. This research uses a qualitative approach. The results of this study indicate that the state is the final form and container of the emergence of conflict. But from the conflicts, the demonstrations, the problem is full of a form of content from the state. The drama script that is said to be "comedy" is reflected in the problems. So that the drama script can be read by the young as a form of learning and information.
... Para una amplia revisión de los conceptos de poder y violencia simbólica enBourdieu, cfr. Atkinson (2012),Burawoy (2012),Coste et al. (2008),Fernández (2005),Kim (2004),Moon (2013),Reed (2013) y Tiednes (2000. ...
En sentido estricto, Bourdieu no desarrolló trabajos específicos sobre las emociones y los afectos. No obstante, como esperamos demostrar, la dimensión emocional forma parte integral de su perspectiva y constituye una vía de acceso a sus reflexiones acerca del poder. Con base en esta premisa, el objetivo del presente artículo es analizar la perspectiva bourdiana sobre el poder y la dominación simbólica, tomando como base la noción de illusio. ¿Puede la illusio entenderse como un mecanismo de poder y dominación simbólica que involucra formas de expresión emocional? A partir del análisis realizado, sostenemos una respuesta afirmativa a esta pregunta, asumiendo a la illusio como un principio de percepción, inversión emocional, adhesión y creencia por el cual los agentes se comprometen afectivamente con la lógica asimétrica de los campos en que participan, movidos por mecanismos de tipo aspiracional desde los que indirectamente terminan legitimando el orden social.
... Instead of assuming that people are nonreflexive "dupes" who suffer from false consciousness, we should pursue how people in one way or the other feel and recognize a contradiction between knowledge and practice and between different ways that the impact of IT upon the climate is assessed and acted upon. This reflexivity may be socially differentiated as well as configured in locally specific ways, see [74], and we should pay attention to how actors socially and culturally are engaged with or respond to the question and possible contradictions involved. As argued by the anthropologist Michael Cepek, many Foucauldian-inspired governmentality scholars here "underestimate the degree to which people are capable of forging a critical, self-aware, and culturally framed perspective on collaborative projects for socioecological transformation." ...
How can an anthropology of digital technology contribute to our understanding of climate mitigating initiatives? Governments and private sector industries argue that climate mitigation must focus on “decoupling” economic growth from carbon emissions if we are to reduce climate impact while still maintaining a healthy economy. Most proponents of decoupling envisage that digitalization will play a central role in this operation. Critics, however, argue that IT has a large and often unacknowledged climate impact, while IT solutions also frequently bring new and unforeseen problems, particular or systemic. The challenge of decoupling is thus broader than the management of the relationship between the economy and the climate. As much as decoupling is about how we imagine that the climate crisis can be solved with technologies, trusting that they can create the changes we need, it is also about the cultural value of lifestyles that we do not want to change. Seeing the climate crisis from this perspective opens the door for an anthropology of digital technology, which allows us to approach decoupling as a matter of how sociocultural change is imagined in the spaces between IT, climate change and society. The article thus contributes to the qualitative social scientific literature on perceptions of change by focusing on some of the ways that implicit ideas of change are embedded in the promotion of digital technologies as solutions to climate change. In addition, it presents to a wider scientific audience the perspectives that an anthropologically inspired analytic may provide on this topic.
... The sensemaking game reveals that social spaces remain vital for workers to collectively articulate the rules of work games. While drivers resist gamification by playing work games, they ultimately consent to Uber's "hegemonic regime" (Burawoy, 2012) in which the ride-hailing platform shapes the conditions of labor and can use its constant surveillance of drivers to crush dissent. Drivers who play work games, especially those that may garner customer complaints, such as shuffling, are gambling with the very real possibility they will be deactivated from Uber's platform. ...
In 2018, Uber released an overhauled mobile application for its independent contractor workforce, who had become increasingly dissatisfied by the lack of autonomy, transparency, and flexibility while working on the platform. Based on the gamification of work, the application linked individualized rewards with Uber’s need to maintain a frictionless marketplace. However, as recent studies of gig economy have revealed, workers resist gamified algorithmic management by developing work games. Our findings, based upon analysis of driver accounts of using Uber’s application, presents a typology of player modes and work games that drivers play. We identified two distinctive player modes, grinding and oppositional play, which, respectively, illustrate how drivers consent and resist gamification. We also describe several work games that Uber drivers play in resistance to Uber’s gamification. This study contributes to the understanding of how the (re)design of worker-facing apps shape the power dynamics underpinning platform-initiated algorithmic governance and worker-initiated games.
... Ohne deren Bedeutung zu verabsolutieren, sehen verschiedene Beobachter in der Organisationsmacht den zentralen Dreh-und Angelpunkt oder die conditio sine qua non gewerkschaftlicher Erneuerung (u. a. Brinkmann et al. 2008;Haipeter 2013;Rehder 2014: 253;Dribbusch et al. 2018: 227 f.;Hassel/Schroeder 2018 (Burawoy 1985(Burawoy , 2012Thompson 1990;Thompson/van den Broek 2010 Thünken et al. 2020). ...
Gewerkschaften haben es nicht leicht. Jahrelange Mitgliederverluste und immer weniger Betriebe mit Tarifbindung erfordern einen Strategiewechsel. Oft sehen sie sich gezwungen, mühselig Betrieb für Betrieb zu erschließen. Marcel Thiel untersucht den innovativen Ansatz der »bedingungsgebundenen Tarifarbeit«, mit dem Gewerkschaften diese Dezentralisierungsnot in eine Revitalisierungstugend zu verwandeln versuchen. Anhand von zehn Fallstudien im Bereich von Akut- und Rehakliniken sowie der Nahrungsmittelindustrie untersucht der Autor, wie es gelingen kann, die Belegschaften gewerkschaftlich zu organisieren und den anfänglichen Elan aufrechtzuerhalten. Zugleich zeigt die Studie, wie sich die Arbeitsbeziehungen entwickeln, wenn der betriebliche »Häuserkampf« als Erneuerungschance begriffen wird.
... Structuralist management communication theorists are interested in how domination is maintained and reproduced through communicative practices. Many of them trace their roots to Max Weber or Karl Marx (Burawoy 1982(Burawoy , 2012Cloud 2005). ...
... As some have argued (e.g., Watts, 2014), such 2 Based on an MA thesis written at the University of Oklahoma in 1970 entitled "A Translation of Max Weber's 'Ueber Einige Kategorien Der Verstehenden Soziologie'." The more recent English translation of the entirety of the Wissenschaftslehre by Hans Henrik Bruun does include a (new) translation of the Logos essay (Bruun & Whimster, 2012). There are reasons (regarding consistency of terminology concerning the concept of Chancen) to prefer Graber's older translation,however. 3 The historiography would suggest that these assumptions are mainly a nineteenth century creation that coincided with probability's mathematization, which appears somewhat anomalous, in the concentration on explanation separate from expectation, within the historical arc of concern with probability. ...
This article uses a history of concept formation focused on Pierre Bourdieu’s probabilism to provide the groundwork for a probabilistic sociology. We argue that not only was Bourdieu a probabilist, but that reframing probability along heterodox lines holds empirical promise when it is also linked to new concept formation, as evident in the case of Bourdieu. For the anglophone sociological field, probability is of primary significance for method and epistemic commitment. Sociological theory continues to react to the integral role of probability used for the purposes of sociological knowledge but finds very little in the way of concept formation that does not adopt the same commitments as the methodologists. The history we outline retrieves a different approach, one which finds Bourdieu aligned with objective probability borrowed from the sociology of Max Weber. This version of probabilism locates probability directly in the world and makes it a source of concept formation without the intervention of the methodologists. This article follows Bourdieu as he recognizes objective probability in the work of Weber (around 1973) and then engages in novel concept formation on these grounds. Ranging between spaces of objective probability (fields), spaces of randomness (games of chance), and spaces of determinism (apparatus), Bourdieu’s mature probabilism reveals the conceptual and meta-methodological differences that come with making probability objective. Probabilistic expectations derive from the world itself, rather than existing as part of explanation or method. Specifically, this history of concept formation reveals a looping relation between objective probability (chances) and learned probability (expectations) that, as Bourdieu himself appreciated, holds wide-ranging implications for best knowledge practices and empirical sociological research.
... Individuals are, indeed, doubly imprisoned: by objective structures and by the constraints of collective dispositions. Thus, it is assumed that the myriad of concepts introduced by Bourdieu lead inexorably to «structuralist» and «holistic» analyses (Boudon 2010; Fabiani 2016) of social phenomena, and to findings of social continuity and perpetuation of power relationships (DiMaggio 1979;Jenkins 1982;Goldthorpe 2007;Burawoy 2012). On this reading, Bourdieu's thought admits «dynamic» elementsstrategy, struggle, even revolutiononly to the extent that they can be subordinated to «static» outcomes. ...
Is compulsory unpaid labor essential “therapy” or unjust exploitation? The informants of this study do not agree, but most believe the former: that the 40 hours a week they worked without pay for the Salvation Army’s multimillion-dollar thrift store enterprise was not unjustly exploitative. Yet how can such seemingly overt exploitation be justified in this way? The answer, this article argues, is stigma. This study’s 40 informants were residents of the Salvation Army’s addiction programs, where “work therapy”—compulsory unpaid labor—is the primary form of addiction “treatment.” Because people with addiction are stigmatized as unproductive and immoral, even by people who have themselves struggled with addiction, their exploitation is deemed legitimate. They need to learn the value of work and even how to work, informants argue, and so unpaid labor becomes much-needed “therapy.” This article offers new answers to longstanding sociological questions about why workers consent to their own exploitation. While scholars have identified how exploitation is both obfuscated and legitimated in the workplace, little attention has been paid to dynamics beyond the workplace. This article shows that stigma is a powerful tool of labor hegemony, wielded even by those who are themselves stigmatized.
Hospitality is popularly regarded as unskilled work and the industry relies on a young labour force. This paper examines the role of youth in the way that the ‘unskilled’ status of hospitality labour is defined and contested by workers. Drawing on qualitative data collected with hospitality workers, the paper creates new connections between theories of affective labour, the politics of skills, and conceptions of youth in relation to work. The paper shows that the capacity to be ‘fun’ and produce affects of enjoyment in hospitality venues is essentialised as an attribute of youth, who are regarded as essentially unskilled. Youth is enacted in the social relations of affective labour, including the requirement to produce affects of enjoyment. The paper shows how theories of affective labour can be developed to consider the materialities of low-wage service employment and demonstrates the significance of youthful subjectivities to social relations of hospitality work.
Este artículo se propone analizar las “trampas” de la comunidad en la perspectiva de Bourdieu. Para ello, primero, se señala el legado de Tönnies para la sociología respecto del vínculo entre la comunidad y las relaciones desinteresadas (pasadas, escasas en el presente y emancipatorias futuras). Segundo, se rastrean las profundas críticas de Bourdieu a tal legado, desde su estudio del “interés por el desinterés” enmarcado en sus reflexiones sobre la dominación social y sus eufemismos. Esto se observa en su interpretación tanto de las sociedades no modernas como del desinterés moderno del Estado, con pretensiones de universalidad (por ejemplo, en la lengua unificada y la educación), y de los campos autonomizados y desinteresados de bienes simbólicos, entre los cuales se incluye a la sociología. Por último, las “trampas” que la comunidad encierra emergen en las últimas obras de Bourdieu. Allí, él propugna una intervención política explícita en la cual aparecen tópicos comunitarios y del desinterés, por ejemplo en su llamado a la colaboración entre militantes e intelectuales. Entonces, se vuelve patente una tensión en el autor entre una sociología crítica y reflexiva y la emancipación social. Así, este artículo pretende contribuir a una teoría sobre la comunidad y la dominación social, que tiene implicancias sugerentes para la actualidad.
This article delves into the intricacies of memory, resistance, and identity within the context of Palestinian experiences, as portrayed in Hala Alyan's novel, Salt Houses. This study examines the profound impact of rememory on the collective consciousness of a Pal-estinian family haunted by forced expulsions, upheavals, and the enduring cycle of occupation and forced migrations. The essay underscores that residual elements of past are not a passive recollection but active agents that shape the present and future. It highlights how traumatic pasts, passed down through generations, become an enduring legacy, connecting history with contemporary realities. Drawing on the characters' experiences, it showcases how the struggle for identity and resistance against displacement is interwoven with the memory of ancestral trauma. Furthermore, the research explores the role of elder Palestin-ians, especially grandmothers, in preserving cultural heritage and transmitting stories that bridge generations. These narratives serve not only to understand history but also as a means of challenging occupation and advocating for the right of return. The article investigates the dissonance between imagined homelands and present-day realities, shedding light on the challenges faced by subsequent generations attempting to reclaim their heritage.
In dem Beitrag wird argumentiert, dass sich im sozial-ökologischen Transformationskonflikt um die Bearbeitung der Vielfachkrise vier Hegemonieprojekte in der deutschen Gesellschaft herausgebildet haben, die sich auf die Gestaltung der gesellschaftlichen Naturverhältnisse auswirken. Anknüpfend an die Analyse sozial-ökologischer Mentalitätstypen von Dennis Eversberg wird mithilfe einer Historisch-materialistischen Politikanalyse beleuchtet, welches Potenzial die Hegemonieprojekte in verschiedenen Klassenfraktionen und im integralen Staat haben. Dabei wird gezeigt, dass ein grüner Kapitalismus trotz vieler Widersprüche die größten Chancen hat, sich als neues hegemoniales Projekt durchzusetzen.
This journal article examines the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist, in the breakdown of mechanisms of symbolic violence or social injustice in inter-social class life. Bourdieu's ideas on the theory of habitus, capital, arena, violence, and symbolic power will be used as a perspective in exposing injustice in the film High Society. The occurrence of working relations between the upper class or conglomerates and the lower middle class cannot be separated from various forms of symbolic violence which form the basis for the formation of various other types of violence, such as physical, psychological, economic, sexual violence, and so on. Symbolic violence is a form of violence that is not easy to recognize. This symbolic violence often operates by utilizing the discourse of symbols that affect the leadership, domination, power, and so on of one group by another group. The root of this problem occurs through the habitus of poverty and powerlessness that is experienced both economically, culturally, socially, and other symbolic capital. The symbolic violence that works in this film does not make the victims understand and understand that they are becoming objects and will not put up a fight.
This paper addresses despotic leadership and ideological manipulation in the workplace, and explores their detrimental consequences for employees and other stakeholders. The notion of ‘hegemonic totalism’ is advanced to account for how employees are often subordinated to the will of powerful elites. Our argument is illustrated through a case study of Theranos, a high prolife Silicon Valley bio-tech company that promised a revolution in healthcare diagnostics but which was declared bankrupt in 2018. Its once much feted founding CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, has been sentenced to eleven years in prison for fraud. Analysis of empirical material on the company illustrates how business leaders may engage in despotic practices, while simultaneously invoking apparently positive ideals to enforce the performance of consent by employees. Following an exploration of the paradoxes and pathologies of hegemonic totalism, our study identifies three primary countervailing forces that act to limit its effects.
In this paper, I will try to consider the usual allegations of determinism that are directed towards Bourdieu’s notion of habitus from a slightly different perspective. One of the most common arguments found in these types of charges is that Bourdieu unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile objective and subjective aspects of social life under one notion. According to critics, habitus is not a viable solution to structure vs. agency debate simply because it cannot be both determined by social structure and open to contingency of autonomous subjective interpretations of the social world. I will show that this critique of Bourdieu actually is inspired by incompatibilist philosophy which maintains that regarding human action either determinism or free will can be true. However, those sociologists who, in criticising Bourdieu’s understanding of habitus, follow the incompatibilist line of reasoning usually overlook the compatibilist side of this old debate in moral philosophy. In that regard, I will argue that Frankfurt and Taylor’s compatibilist account of second order desires and strong evaluations can help us to better understand how habitus can be determined by environmental social factors and, at the same, time not only foster free will, but also provide a theoretical insight into radical forms of social change.
This chapter lays the conceptual groundwork for the analysis of the transformation of Amsterdam, through two mechanisms: the socio-political cycle of urban transformation which unrolls through institutional processes (voting, representational politics, spatial (urban planning) policy), and the symbolic politics of class within the State. First, the chapters establishes what class and middle class mean in the Dutch context. Second, it conceptualises the link between class and State. Third, it seeks to establish how class-state dynamics can impact the social structuring of (urban) space. Hence, this chapter unpacks the class-state dynamics of cities and transformation focusing on the structure and spatialities of class; the relationship between class and urban space, and the significance of class for urban politics and statecraft.
The “treadmill of production” economic system increasingly threatens to undermine the foundations of future human welfare. While urgent action is needed, conceptualisations of “the good life” (TGL) as the “imperial mode of living” (IML) of overconsumption are justifications upholding the system and driving forces behind the crises. German trade unions, which, as part of the historic bloc of the growth coalition, have tried to delay climate action in the name of jobs through “praising work”, have supported the hegemonic common sense of IML-TGL. This is an obstacle to environmental union organisation and progressive coalitions for social-ecological transformation. To investigate whether and to what extent divergent good sense counter-hegemonic narratives are present within German trade union discourses, we analyse the narratives of TGL and good work within the three biggest German unions – ver.di, IG Metall, and IG BCE – using Gramsci’s theory of common sense. We find that counter-narratives of TGL are present to different degrees within the unions and amongst interviewees. These can provide entry points for counter-hegemonic narratives of TGL and alliances with societal actors fighting for “solidary modes of living”, or a Good Life for All within planetary boundaries.
Media startups tend to stretch the boundaries of journalism, but are still influenced by values and ideas from legacy journalists. Guided by Bourdieu’s field theory, this study will utilize in-depth interviews to understand Singapore-based media startups, examining the disconnect between these new entrants and legacy newsrooms. This study proposes that there is a hysteresis in the field, which sets the stage for media startups to flourish. These new agents don a media startup habitus, a blend of the traditional journalistic habitus and the startup habitus that is developed out of circumstance and as a response to the changing requirements of media and journalistic work.
Recent studies exploring public opinion on participatory democracy show that disadvantaged social groups tend to hold favourable views on participatory processes. At the same time, research has also found that these groups frequently express feelings of weak agency and lack of competence to make valuable contributions to political processes. How then is support for democratic participation to be understood, if people see themselves as unskilled and incapable agents? To address this question, a series of focus groups were conducted with young, middle-aged, and older Spanish adults in situations of socioeconomic disadvantage. Like other studies, the analysis found that the participants had positive views of participatory reforms, but this was modified by low levels of personal and collective agency (internal and external efficacy and horizontal mistrust). While some scholars argue that such ambivalence is coherent with populism, the analysis suggests that many participants (particularly younger and middle-aged adults) are keenly appreciative of the complexity of such proposals and that negativity relates to the implementation of participative processes without genuine redistribution of knowledge and power, as well as a lack of mechanisms to guarantee responsiveness and commitment to bottom-up democracy. https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/GRIKCTSWP4PQVZARMWK8/full?target=10.1080/13510347.2022.2031989
In this paper, I examine what it means for culture, in both its personal and public forms, to be implicit. I begin by considering a recent attempt to develop a descriptive taxonomy of other people's views of practices developed by Stephen Turner. A key result is that a specific combination of claims about the properties of practices yields an ontologically problematic category, which is a candidate for elimination. Following Turner's lead, I provide my own refurbished taxonomy of practical culture that does not contain ontologically problematic members. Another key result of the initial analysis is that implicitness is a relational property presupposing at least one agent with awareness (or unawareness) of the cultural element in question. This epistemic dependence implies that only personal culture internalized by people can be coherently thought of as 'implicit' (to them). Finally, I conclude that using mentalistic versions of implicitness to characterize public culture, such as texts, language, monuments, tools, and classifications on paper, yields the same ontologically incoherent category eliminated in the first step. Following from this, I argue that it is desirable to conceptualize 'implicit' in a way that makes sense for public culture without stirring up the ghosts of collective minds and related conundrums. I propose one such (weak) version of implicitness when speaking of public culture that does not run afoul of this issue. I then return to personal culture, considering whether 'implicitness' is a unitary property of this kind, answering in the negative. This conclusion requires us to develop a principled taxonomy of the distinct ways personal culture can be ‘implicit,’ yielding personal culture that is implicit because it acquired 'automatic' status, versus personal culture that is implicit because it lacks (access) consciousness.
Embora seja o intelectual mais citado na Sociologia mundial, o pensamento de Bourdieu sobre o mundo do trabalho permanece, em grande medida, ignorado. Isso se deve à crença amplamente difundida de que o sociólogo francês, ao longo de sua carreira, nada disse para lançar luz sobre esse campo, e a críticas que se restringiram, frequentemente, a apontar os limites e a inadequação do seu conceito de dominação para a análise das relações sociais de produção. A partir de uma leitura abrangente de sua obra, este artigo demonstra como Bourdieu aplica seus principais conceitos – reprodução, habitus e campo – a diferentes espaços do trabalho. Além disso, sua Sociologia conduz a dois resultados: de um lado, permite-nos pensar sobre as subjetividades no trabalho, por meio de uma Sociologia voltada às dinâmicas de longo prazo, articuladas a instituições sociais como a escola e o Estado; de outro, renova a compreensão das relações sociais no trabalho com a análise das lutas simbólicas que envolvem a definição e a legitimidade de cargos e profissões. Mais do que um sociólogo do trabalho, Bourdieu é, acima de tudo, um sociólogo dos trabalhadores.
This article defends and extends the concept of workplace regimes, understood as the existence of identifiable systematic patterns of managerial control. In doing so a conceptual framework is developed for explaining both patterns in control and the dynamics of workplace politics. Specifically, this article elaborates on the approach of Michael Burawoy and extends it through an engagement with Science and Technology Studies (also known as Science, Technology and Society Studies) (STS) and Economic Sociology. The core of Burawoy’s framework is identified as the use of ideal-typical ‘workplace regimes’ to represent historically distinct positions upon a continuum between legitimation and coercion. This core is defended and it is argued that granular firm-level variations in the use of legitimation and coercion would only invalidate the theory if they were to make the identification of shifts in historical tendencies at the macro level of world systems impossible. In fact, it is claimed that once fully elaborated the resultant framework is able to explain commonalities and regularities across seemingly divergent contexts as well as variations within regimes. In the course of making this argument, an important distinction, that has not previously been fully recognised, between workplace regimes and workplace politics is highlighted. Finally, the potential explanatory power of this workplace regime approach is illustrated by drawing on recent qualitative research in the retail sectors of the UK and the US.
Traduction by Sébastien Antoine, Cécile Piret et François Rinschbergh of Michael Burawoy’s text: « Making sense of Bourdieu » first published in 2018 in Catalyst, vol. 2, n° 1, Spring. Translated and here published with the kind authorization of journal’s publisher.
In the social sciences, secrecy is seen as a power relation of inclusion–exclusion, between those 'in the know' and dispossessed 'outsiders'. This is translated spatially as enclosure – shaping outsiders by cordoning off certain social relations – and embodies a social theory of mystification, where domination involves masking reality's oppressiveness from those exploited. Historical and more recent military fortifications, including modern U.S. military bases abroad, have been studied as creating this social effect. This article argues that today's counter-terrorism challenges this spatial model of secrecy and power. In order to project authority and disempower outsiders, enclosure must first be represented as the appropriation and hiding of space. In post-colonial spaces of secretive U.S. counter-terrorism, this projection of meaning encounters social relations that shape space differently. Using theories of colonial archives, the article analyses a new U.S. drone base in Niger, tracing its representation in news coverage as an important hub of U.S. military activities. Repeated media attempts to demonstrate sublime secrecy and U.S. authority over the Nigerien desert were complicated by patterns of environmental vulnerability, local indifference, and images of underwhelming emptiness. These incongruities undercut any representation of U.S. secrecy as effective and the base as an anchor of military power. This analysis suggests new ways of understanding secrecy’s spatial dynamics and the legitimisation of counter-terrorism.
This paper provides a conceptual account of Pierre Bourdieu's operational concept of habitus through the lens of social recognition. More precisely, a ‘habitus of recognition’, or ‘recognitive habitus’, is defined as a set of perceptive patterns and expectations whose main function is to actualize social behaviour that allows reciprocal recognition among social agents. In this respect, this paper explains why, thanks to the recognition paradigm, we can better grasp how habitus works as a pre‐reflective common sense capable of producing coordinated collective actions and social reproduction.
In this article, I clarify some components and expand a few underdeveloped ideas of the racialized social system approach to racial stratification. I divide the paper into three parts. In the first section, I explore the limitations of the figure of “the racist.” In the second part, I examine the problem of change. In the third part, which is the core of the paper, I discuss what makes “systemic racism” systemic. My main contention in this article is that the “systemic” in “systemic racism” means that we all participate in the reproduction of the racialized order. Furthermore, this reproduction depends fundamentally on behavior and actions that are normative, habituated, and often unconscious. Hence, systemic racism is the product of the behavior and practices of regular White folks rather than the “racists.” In the conclusion, I discuss the implications of my claims for further theory‐building, research, and the struggle for racial justice.
After steadily decreasing throughout the first half of the twentieth century, in the late 1960s the number of hours Americans work made a sudden U-turn and began to rise (Schor 1991).1 In 1999, American workers surpassed the Japanese to earn the dubious distinction of working the longest hours in the industrialized world (International Labour Organization 1999). Among American workers, it is the relatively well-off professional, managerial, and technical workers who are putting in the longest work hours (Jacobs and Gerson 1998).2 This paper explores the causes underlying long work hours among a group of workers on the front line of this trend, software engineers working at a large American high-tech firm which I call "MegaTech." Given the severe consequences of increasing work hours on families (Hochschild 1997), communities (Putnam 2000), and worker health (Golden and Jorgensen 2002), surprisingly little research has been done on the causes of this phenomenon. Economists focus on material motivations such as consumption desires (Schor 1991) or, more directly, the pursuit of high incomes (Reich 2000). Sociologists point to management strategies that seduce workers to put in long hours with a cozy, family-like work atmosphere (Hochschild 1997), or encourage workers to identify with their company (Kunda 1992). Popular books portray high-tech engineers' long work hours as flowing from enjoyment of their exciting work (Kidder 1981). However, my in-depth interviews and direct observations (described further in the appendix) suggest that none of these theories adequately accounts for the work hours of MegaTech's engineers. Although my findings support the sociologists' focus on management strategies, the particular strategy deployed at MegaTech is different from those described by Arlie Hochschild and Gideon Kunda. MegaTech is not a cozy comfortable workplace, and its management does not expend much energy to foster employee loyalty. Instead, MegaTech's management's strategy is to engender intense anxiety among its engineers regarding their professional competence, which leads them to self-impose long work hours. This strategy, which I call "competitive self-management," combines two practices: The periodic grading of employees' relative performances, distributed along a rigid bell-shaped curve, which requires that 70 percent of the engineers receive an average or below average score, and the dictate that employees actively participate in their own management. Although neither of these practices is new, this paper describes how they work in tandem to produce long work hours. I draw on Michael Burawoy's (1979) theory of "work games" to show that the combination of worker discretion and uncertain performance grades generates a high-stakes competition over recognition of professional competence. Specifically, the engineers' anxiety regarding their uncertain performance grades propels them to exercise their discretion to "choose" to work nights and weekends in an effort to preserve their identity as competent and valued professionals.
This book takes the reader inside a Rhode Island juvenile prison to explore broader questions of how poor, disenfranchised young men come to terms with masculinity and identity. The author, who worked with inmates to produce a newspaper, writes about the young men he came to know, and in the process extends theories of masculinity, crime, and social reproduction into a provocative new paradigm. The book suggests that young men's participation in crime constitutes a game through which they achieve “outsider masculinity.” Once in prison, these same youths are forced to reconcile their criminal practices with a new game and new “insider masculinity” enforced by guards and administrators.
This is a study of the choices faced by socialist movements as they developed within capitalist societies. Professor Przeworski examines the three principal choices confronted by socialism: whether to work through elections; whether to rely exclusively on the working class; and whether to try to reform or abolish capitalism. He brings to his analysis a number of abstract models of political and economic structure, and illustrates the issues in the context of historical events, tracing the development of socialist strategies since the mid-nineteenth century. Several of the conclusions are novel and provocative. Professor Przeworski argues that economic issues cannot justify a socialist programme, and that the workers had good reasons to struggle for the improvement of capitalism. Therefore, the project of a socialist transformation, and the fight for economic advancement, were separate historical phenomena.
Outline of a Theory of Practice is recognized as a major theoretical text on the foundations of anthropology and sociology. Pierre Bourdieu, a distinguished French anthropologist, develops a theory of practice which is simultaneously a critique of the methods and postures of social science and a general account of how human action should be understood. With his central concept of the habitus, the principle which negotiates between objective structures and practices, Bourdieu is able to transcend the dichotomies which have shaped theoretical thinking about the social world. The author draws on his fieldwork in Kabylia (Algeria) to illustrate his theoretical propositions. With detailed study of matrimonial strategies and the role of rite and myth, he analyses the dialectical process of the 'incorporation of structures' and the objectification of habitus, whereby social formations tend to reproduce themselves. A rigorous consistent materialist approach lays the foundations for a theory of symbolic capital and, through analysis of the different modes of domination, a theory of symbolic power.
This study opens a critical perspective on the slow death of socialism and the rebirth of capitalism in the world's most dynamic and populous country. Based on remarkable fieldwork and extensive interviews in Chinese textile, apparel, machinery, and household appliance factories, Against the Law finds a rising tide of labor unrest mostly hidden from the world's attention. Providing a broad political and economic analysis of this labor struggle together with fine-grained ethnographic detail, the book portrays the Chinese working class as workers' stories unfold in bankrupt state factories and global sweatshops, in crowded dormitories and remote villages, at street protests as well as in quiet disenchantment with the corrupt officialdom and the fledgling legal system.
In this lively study, Rachel Sherman goes behind the scenes in two urban luxury hotels to give a nuanced picture of the workers who care for and cater to wealthy guests by providing seemingly unlimited personal attention. Drawing on in-depth interviews and extended ethnographic research in a range of hotel jobs, including concierge, bellperson, and housekeeper, Sherman gives an insightful analysis of what exactly luxury service consists of, how managers organize its production, and how workers and guests negotiate the inequality between them. She finds that workers employ a variety of practices to assert a powerful sense of self, including playing games, comparing themselves to other workers and guests, and forming meaningful and reciprocal relations with guests. Through their contact with hotel staff, guests learn how to behave in the luxury environment and come to see themselves as deserving of luxury consumption. These practices, Sherman argues, help make class inequality seem normal, something to be taken for granted. Throughout, Class Acts sheds new light on the complex relationship between class and service work, an increasingly relevant topic in light of the growing economic inequality in the United States that underlies luxury consumption.
Challenging prevailing theories of development and labor, Gay Seidman's controversial study explores how highly politicized labor movements could arise simultaneously in Brazil and South Africa, two starkly different societies. Beginning with the 1960s, Seidman shows how both authoritarian states promoted specific rapid-industrialization strategies, in the process reshaping the working class and altering relationships between business and the state. When economic growth slowed in the 1970s, workers in these countries challenged social and political repression; by the mid-1980s, they had become major voices in the transition from authoritarian rule. Based in factories and working-class communities, these movements enjoyed broad support as they fought for improved social services, land reform, expanding electoral participation, and racial integration. In Brazil, Seidman takes us from the shopfloor, where disenfranchized workers organized for better wages and working conditions, to the strikes and protests that spread to local communities. Similar demands for radical change emerged in South Africa, where community groups in black townships joined organized labor in a challenge to minority rule that linked class consciousness to racial oppression. Seidman details the complex dynamics of these militant movements and develops a broad analysis of how newly industrializing countries shape the opportunities for labor to express demands. Her work will be welcomed by those interested in labor studies, social theory, and the politics of newly industrializing regions.
This ethnography of blackjack dealing at a corporate casino in Nevada reveals that dealers, to make tips, regularly violate the house's directives for regulating their interactive labor. Although the emergent sociology of service work has highlighted novel dilemmas of autonomy (workers must be free to provide “authentic” emotional labor) and interests (workers may team up with clients) for management, it too narrowly focuses on the service labor process and, thus, cannot fully account for the genesis and functions of the casino's system of labor control. This regime is analyzed as a “hegemonic” regime. This entails, first, specifying the structural changes in the American gambling industry that have led to the contemporary competitive casino's tipped labor system; and second, elucidating the functions for management of ceding to workers a degree of freedom: lower labor costs and customized service provision.
Since the 1930s, industrial sociologists have tried to answer the question, Why do workers not work harder? Michael Burawoy spent ten months as a machine operator in a Chicago factory trying to answer different but equally important questions: Why do workers work as hard as they do? Why do workers routinely consent to their own exploitation? Manufacturing Consent, the result of Burawoy's research, combines rich ethnographical description with an original Marxist theory of the capitalist labor process. Manufacturing Consent is unique among studies of this kind because Burawoy has been able to analyze his own experiences in relation to those of Donald Roy, who studied the same factory thirty years earlier. Burawoy traces the technical, political, and ideological changes in factory life to the transformations of the market relations of the plant (it is now part of a multinational corporation) and to broader movements, since World War II, in industrial relations.
Sharp decreases in union membership over the last fifty years have caused many to dismiss organized labor as irrelevant in today's labor market. In the private sector, only 8 percent of workers today are union members, down from 24 percent as recently as 1973. Yet developments in Southern California-including the successful Justice for Janitors campaign-suggest that reports of organized labor's demise may have been exaggerated. In L.A. Story, sociologist and labor expert Ruth Milkman explains how Los Angeles, once known as a company town hostile to labor, became a hotbed for unionism, and how immigrant service workers emerged as the unlikely leaders in the battle for workers' rights. L.A. Story shatters many of the myths of modern labor with a close look at workers in four industries in Los Angeles: building maintenance, trucking, construction, and garment production. Though many blame deunionization and deteriorating working conditions on immigrants, Milkman shows that this conventional wisdom is wrong. Her analysis reveals that worsening work environments preceded the influx of foreign-born workers, who filled the positions only after native-born workers fled these suddenly undesirable jobs. Ironically, L.A. Story shows that immigrant workers, who many union leaders feared were incapable of being organized because of language constraints and fear of deportation, instead proved highly responsive to organizing efforts. As Milkman demonstrates, these mostly Latino workers came to their service jobs in the United States with a more group-oriented mentality than the American workers they replaced. Some also drew on experience in their native countries with labor and political struggles. This stock of fresh minds and new ideas, along with a physical distance from the east-coast centers of labor's old guard, made Los Angeles the center of a burgeoning workers' rights movement. Los Angeles' recent labor history highlights some of the key ingredients of the labor movement's resurgence-new leadership, latitude to experiment with organizing techniques, and a willingness to embrace both top-down and bottom-up strategies. L.A. Story's clear and thorough assessment of these developments points to an alternative, high-road national economic agenda that could provide workers with a way out of poverty and into the middle class.
Homo Academicus The Soviet variant and political capital
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Immigrant Workers and the Future of the US Labour Movement Capitalism and Social Democracy Hidden Truth: Young Men Navigating Lives in and out of Juvenile Prison The house rules: autonomy and interest among service workers in the contemporary casino industry
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Manufacturing Militance: Workers' Movements in Brazil and South Africa Engineering overwork: Bell-curve management at a high-tech firm Fighting for Time: Shifting Boundaries of Work and Social Life
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Seidman G (1994) Manufacturing Militance: Workers' Movements in Brazil and South Africa, 1970–1985. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Sharone O (2004) Engineering overwork: Bell-curve management at a high-tech firm. In: Fuchs Epstein C and Kalleberg AL (eds) Fighting for Time: Shifting Boundaries of Work and Social Life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 191–218.
Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels Transition from Below: Forging Trade Unions and Workplace Change in South Africa
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Sherman R (2007) Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Von Holdt K (2003) Transition from Below: Forging Trade Unions and Workplace Change in South Africa. Durban: University of Natal Press. Michael Burawoy teaches sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he
The Soviet variant and political capital
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Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 14-18.
Men and machines Advances in Social Theory and Methodology
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Bourdieu P (1981) Men and machines. In: Knorr-Cetina K and Cicourel A (eds) Advances in
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The German ideology The Marx-Engels Reader
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Engineering overwork: Bell-curve management at a high-tech firm Fighting for Time: Shifting Boundaries of Work and Social Life
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Sharone O (2004) Engineering overwork: Bell-curve management at a high-tech firm. In: Fuchs
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has shown just how rational it is for socialist parties to fight for immediate material gains in order to attract the votes necessary to gain and then to keep power
- Adam Indeed
- Przeworski
Indeed, Adam Przeworski (1985) has shown just how rational it is for socialist parties to fight
for immediate material gains in order to attract the votes necessary to gain and then to keep
power.
-is not an analysis of the collapse but of the (dis)continuity of elites in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Again it is an examination of the inheritance, fate and distribution of different forms of capital (economic, cultural and political) in the post-socialist era
- Europe -Eyal
Interestingly, the major Bourdieusian analysis of the transition in Eastern Europe -Eyal
et al. (2001) -is not an analysis of the collapse but of the (dis)continuity of elites in Hungary,
Poland and the Czech Republic. Again it is an examination of the inheritance, fate and distribution of different forms of capital (economic, cultural and political) in the post-socialist era.
- P Bourdieu
Bourdieu P (1977[1972]) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University
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Hidden Truth: Young Men Navigating Lives in and out of Juvenile Prison
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Reich A (2010) Hidden Truth: Young Men Navigating Lives in and out of Juvenile Prison. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press.