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Jeux De Masques: Postmodern Tribalism
... Mithilfe der Metapher der Neo-Tribes beschreibt Michel Maffesoli (1988Maffesoli ( , 1996 flüchtige Vergemeinschaftungen mit thematischer Fokussierung und teilzeitlichem Charakter, die seit Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts die charakteristische Form der Sozialität westlicher Gesellschaften bilden. ...
... "Tribe" bezieht sich dabei auf nicht kultisch stabilisierte soziale Aggregationen (Hitzler et al. 2008), die "in den Augenblicken ihrer Verdichtung [...] eine buchstäblich atemberaubende Intensität erreichen" (Bauman 1995, S. 20) Neo-Tribes sind instabile Gemeinschaften, "imaginäre Gebilde derer [...], die sichwie auch immerauf sie beziehen" (Hitzler 1998, S. 85). Ihr einziger Zwecke besteht in der Beschäftigung mit der kollektiv gelebten Gegenwart und im Teilen von emotionaler Wärme (Maffesoli 1988(Maffesoli , 1996. Neo-Tribes sind charakterisiert durch Fluidität, gelegentliches Zusammentreffen und Zerstreuung (Maffesoli 1996 (Keller 2008). ...
... Allerdings lässt sich an dieser Stelle nur begrenzt von einer Entscheidung sprechen, denn eher handelt es sich um Prozesse des Anziehens und Abstoßens, "um deindividualisierte Partizipation an den Moden und Strömungen der Zeit" (Keller 2008, S. 93). Vor diesem Hintergrund erscheint es so auch sinnvoll, dass Individuen sich nicht an einen Stamm binden, sondern ihre Mitgliedschaft temporär und nichtsingulär ist (Maffesoli 1988). Die Teilnahme an einer Vielzahl von Neo-Tribes, die ihrerseits miteinander in Beziehung stehen, ermöglicht es, die eigene Pluralität zu leben (Maffesoli 1996 11 Maffesoli fasst den Begriff des Brauches sehr weit und bezeichnet damit "the collection of common usages that allow a social entity to recognize itself for what it is" (Maffesoli 1996, S. 21). ...
BTS, a seven-member K-pop boy band from South Korea, is regarded as cultural, social, and economic "Next Generation Leaders" due to their commitment to themes such as mental health, education, and the environment. A significant part of their success is attributed to their dedicated fan community, the BTS A.R.M.Y. This transnational community, active both online and offline, is characterized by their loyalty to the band as well as charitable and activist engagement. The present study, based on sociological theories of postmodern communitas, examines how members of the German BTS A.R.M.Y. create transnational community. The research relies on empirical data from 13 group interviews conducted between February 14 and May 18, 2023, and analyzed using Strauss' and Corbin's Grounded Theory methodology. The study sheds light on contextual factors, fandom triggers, community-building strategies, and their consequences. Contexts encompass the genre features of Korean popular music, the significance of social media platforms, identification with band members, and the development of parasocial relationships. Fandom triggers often stem from introversion and psychosocial issues faced by the participants. Community-building strategies consist of the collective engagement in fan activities, the establishment of shared values, norms, and core topics, as well as the use of a symbolic sign system. As a result of these actions, many respondents experience, on one hand, stigma from outsiders regarding their passion. On the other hand, they report changes in their way of life, particularly in the form of personal growth, increased self-love, and openness to new experiences.
... As highlighted, Burning Man has ten guiding principles which underpin the structure of the international Burner community. Within this thesis, these principles have been linked to Maffesoli's concept of Postmodern tribalism or Neotribalism and Bakhtin's Carnivalesque theory (Bakhtin, 1984;Bakhtin & Emerson, 1984;Maffesoli, 1995;Maffesoli et al., 2004;Maffesoli & Foulkes, 1988). The link to these theories was made because, as my findings will highlight, Burners share a postmodern counterculture, passionate desire for connection to others in the community, collaborative community identity (whilst still promoting individualism), set community practices, rituals and newage spirituality, with collective ideology (McCaffrey, 2012;Sherry & Kozinets, 2007;St John, 2018). ...
... As tribal structures challenge the status quo of modern large-scale societies, denial of this re-emergence of ancient perceptions and practices through neotribalism becomes 'mandatory' in some circles of 'established thought' (Maffesoli et al., 2004). According to Maffesoli, these neotribal social structures have emerged out of "the tragic sense of life" as contemporary life is 'inescapable' and 'fated' (Maffesoli et al., 2004, p. 133;Maffesoli & Foulkes, 1988). ...
This thesis consists of tales, narratives, and anecdotes of Kiwiburners, interpreted through anthropological and philosophical theory. Kiwiburn is a regional Burning Man event hosted in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is the longest-running regional community and event to exist outside of America. In a world that influences and impacts our personal experiences, many often encounter a lack of a sense of belonging. This lacking can, at times, be exacerbated by the fragmentation of cultures worldwide due to the processes of globalisation, pluralisation, and mobility. Kiwiburn’s counterculture is an example of social development in response to such processes or fragmentation. Through doing so, Kiwiburn offers a space in which Burners can embody something meaningful about identity, community, locality, and belonging.
Kiwiburners are postmodern neotribal thinkers, fiercely embracing the postmodern elements of such a position, conscious of the transience of all things in the unfixed nature of realities. This position leads to normative frameworks, such as those focused on social norms and reality, being re-evaluated, rejected, restructured, reinterpreted, or repositioned within postmodernist Burner perspectives.
Kiwiburners create a reality constructed around communitas, personal agency and even rebellion. Kiwiburn provides a space where the limitations of broader society can be abandoned and habitus can be embraced. New Zealand has influenced and been influenced by Kiwiburn; at times, this has been achieved through subversion. Kiwiburners often achieve this challenge against the limitations of broader society through humour and a pattern of play. In some cases, this humour is identified through performance and art; sometimes, it is communicated as a form of protest. Ultimately, such practices are collectively shared and understood at Kiwiburn, leading to a sense of belonging being experienced and identified within Burner spaces as well as an example of an expression of New Zealand culture.
... Chang does not necessarily engage the more sophisticated discourses of neotribalism, but does offer a contingent understanding thereof-that the contemporary relationship between consumerism and self-reflexivity marks a return to the classical anthropological idea of individuals being organised into distinct tribes that place major emphasis on their "indifferentiation" (Maffesoli and Foulkes 1988). This study explores the nuanced discursive and material realms of Afrikaner youth culture, which apparently aims to maintain a sense of ethnic distinctiveness even as it usurps the accoutrements of globalised trends such as hipsterism. ...
... Investigating hipsters also means being partial to their aesthetics, since the irredeemably consumerist milieu in which they form collectives is predominantly characterised by iconic signifiers that become intelligible via resemblance. Faced with globalisation and the increasing difficulties of establishing a sense of individuality, appearances have become tantamount to literally displaying one's "belonging" (Maffesoli and Foulkes 1988). The rationale for this mode of thinking is propelled by the notion that neo-tribal projects are markedly symptomatic of late-capitalist societies, which value commodities not for their utilitarian qualities, but for their potential to signify. ...
This article situates the contemporary commodification of Afrikaner ethnic identity in the ethos of late capitalism, which attributes a central place to aesthetics in the global economy. The manner in which the commercial appeal of markers of Afrikaner ethnicity significantly vacillates across time is of concern here. It is argued that (post)modern expressions of Afrikanerness give access to the superior sensibilities central to hipsterism (which hinge on idiosyncratic or discerning modes of consumption), but also augment such knowledges via an ethnocentric vocabulary which is intelligible mainly to the Afrikaner consumer. By organising themselves into so-called “tribes”, premised on the collective consumption of particular goods in order to become visible—and visibly “cool”—to others, some Afrikaner youths possibly negotiate the loss of a coherent ethnicity (precipitated by the downfall of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism) by forging new affective and aesthetic connections. A number of commodity items and images illustrative of such processes are discussed. Speculation is offered on the (economic and social) limitations and potentials of the notion of “hip Afrikanerness” available for appropriation by racial or ethnic others who also seek a sense of distinction via consumer culture.
... This form of emotion-centered community is a new evolutionary trend of the "imagined community" based on social media platforms, as social media provide the possibility for the instantaneous transmission of emotions across regions, groups and cultures. It is in this sense that Michel Maffesoli has developed the concept of affectual tribes (Maffesoli and Foulkes 1988), which have become a metaphor for the emotional community that not only forms the social basis of post-modernity, but also contributes to the creation of a zeitgeist (Xu and Petit 2014). The emotional community that the protesters tried to construct is an "affectual tribe" that is linked by collective emotional experience and characterized by communication behavior on social media platforms. ...
With the large-scale application of computational propaganda, disinformation campaigns have emerged globally in response to the logic of “post-truth” politics. Organized disinformation campaigns operate frequently on overseas social media platforms, with China often being the target. In order to understand the dissemination mechanisms of such disinformation campaigns, the study found that the dissemination of disinformation became a key strategy for the campaign’s emotional mobilization. The main subjects of disinformation have formed an international communication matrix, creating and spreading all kinds of disinformation on a large scale. The “coalition of protesters” is based on the shared emotional experience evoked by disinformation and characterized by the act of spreading disinformation. Then, the widespread dissemination of the corresponding emotions leads to different perceptions of the “target,” thus prompting protesters to adopt different types of collective action. This mechanism of emotional mobilization shows that facts are “too big to know,” which exacerbates confirmation bias and provides more space for the spread of disinformation. The strong emotions embedded in disinformation contributed to the completion of the protesters’ imagination of community, and emotions became the dominant factor in coalescing the group and providing motivational support for collective action.
... Connell and Gibson (2003 : 228) further note that music tourism sub-cultures have emerged around the tours of particular artists, with groups of highly committed fans (even "groupies"), who follow performers around from concert to concert, even generating a sense of communitas through shared experiences, fan clubs and traditions maintained on-tour. This focus on the collective experience of cruise festivals can be also contextualized within Maffesoli's (1996 ;Maffesoli & Foulkes, 1988 ) concept of "neo-tribalism". Maffesoli argues that as the social institutions of modernism have transformed into those of postmodernism, their ability to fuse large groups of people towards a common goal has been lost, replaced by small groups bonded by common experience, emotions, and aesthetics. ...
... Rewards in a tribal system are a good idea, because tribes will force the individual actors to behave properly through group consensus, peer pressure, and shaming. Thus tribes, by their mere function, will serve as a self-check mechanism to reduce violence and maintain a more peaceful atmosphere [59,60]. ...
... However, the new ImCon personae are not merely imaginary, but arbitrary, artificial and superficial: they are composites of image-signs of identity industrially produced and socially recognized. Maffesoli (1989) writes that such personae have replaced the notion of modern individual, and describes them: they are fluid, directionless, performative identities. Each consists in an amalgam of roles; as the consumer-subject is supposed to consume and change them according to the logic of the markets, constantly upgrading his self-image, his mutating identity will be defined by "perpetually playing roles ... in a pointless theatre of the world" (Tester, 1993, p. 77). ...
In this article I offer an overview of my doctoral dissertation, which studied the social imaginary of consumerism, and the psychological subjectivity it produces, through the dream - as both a leitmotif or thematic lens, and the empirical object of research. For such I employed an interdisciplinary exploratory outlook, whose theoretical framework first discusses the symbolic imaginaries (G. Durand) and their relations with the unconscious psyche, dream, imagination, and subjectivity (C. G. Jung), and then explores their relationships with consumption (Baudrillard, Bauman) and its semiotic imaginaries and ideology, focusing on the concepts of consumption dreams and dream-worlds of consumption. The main research aim was to explore how night dreams represent the colonization of subjectivity by the imaginary of consumerism. The method consisted in a multiple-case study in which each night dream was taken as a case and interpreted through Jungian hermeneutics. Findings stress that night dreams can offer a deep sociocultural critique; in them the imaginary of consumption appeared as a totalizing mass ideology engendering colonization of both symbolic imaginaries and the subject and her unconscious psyche. Conclusions emphasize such colonization as an anthropological mutation - the progressive commodification and dehumanization of the subject.
... However, the new ImCon personae are not merely imaginary, but arbitrary, artificial and superficial: they are composites of image-signs of identity industrially produced and socially recognized. Maffesoli (1989) writes that such personae have replaced the notion of modern individual, and describes them: they are fluid, directionless, performative identities. Each consists in an amalgam of roles; as the consumer-subject is supposed to consume and change them according to the logic of the markets, constantly upgrading his self-image, his mutating identity will be defined by "perpetually playing roles ... in a pointless theatre of the world" (Tester, 1993, p. 77). ...
Abstract This theoretical work discusses consumerism's processes of subjectivation and their psychological consequences. Its regime is studied through its social imaginary and its totalitarian character: the discourse of advertising, as a global hegemon, absorbs all forms of discourse and signification, thereby actualizing capitalism's telos - the colonization of the Lebenswelt under a great imperative: everything must become a commodity, especially the subject. A process of totalization of subjectivity occurs under a commodification logic centered on the representation: every image must be transformed into commodity-signs. Thus the consumption imaginary appears as a totalizing ideology, functioning as archaic représentations collectives (Durkheim) and simulating a religious imaginary. It mass-produces subjectivity through participation mystique (Lévy-Bruhl) with its commodity-signs (and their fetish) and the whole imaginary. Its subject is defined as a bricolage of consumable commodity-signs, being therefore eternally fluid, performative, and ethereal. Thus it produces an anthropological mutation, the commodity-subject: a disposable, empty, thoroughly commodified self.
... Such a perspective indicates the multisensory, experiential, and emotive facets of consumers' experiences with products and/or services (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982) where consumers are not only perceived as rational human beings but also as emotional and narcissistic (irrational) agents who utilise consumption as the means to the construction of meaningful experiences (Ostergaard and Jantzen, 2002). The latter perspective argues for a shift from a rational period with increasingly evident signs of liberatory individualism and fragmentation to an empathetic period with a focus on the immediate and the affectual linked with a collective sense of shared feelings and experiences in which individuals come together into fluid, temporal and free-floating (neo) tribes (Maffesoli, 1988; Maffesoli, 1996). The tribal stream of thought initiated a novel concept within marketing and consumer culture research circles, most commonly labelled as tribal marketing (Cova and Cova, 2002), where groupings of consumers are formed which are united by common shared passions and emotions for a consumption activity, brand, product or service and are normally dissimilar in terms of demographic, geographic or psychographic characteristics (Cova, 1997). ...
... This is not to say that individuals become detached from group affiliations. For Maffesoli (1988) and Bauman (1990), senses of association can be achieved through 'neo-tribes' -affectual, emotive and transitory attachments to small groups based around shared life-style images. Movement between such life-styles is unproblematic because group affiliation amounts to little more than buying into the selected life-style image. ...
The role that consumption might play in processes of identity formation has been subject to much recent sociological debate. This article explores four principles of kitchen consumption orientations that were described by three groups (differentiated by levels of economic and cultural resources) who live in an English new town. The varying meanings applied to kitchen usage are also explored. It is argued that the similarity of kitchen tastes and the meanings applied to its usage within the three groups cast doubt over theories that suggest consumption and identity formation are increasingly free from normative group constraints. In conclusion it is argued that association within locality-based ‘taste communities’ acted to confirm shared tastes which respondents mapped onto generic social categorizations of class, a confirmation made possible through varying degrees of sociability within local contexts.
... In the recent development of marketing theory, the postmodernist frame of reference has significantly challenged such well-known conventions as the concept of brand image, and has reinforced the notion of the brand as a cult (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2000; McAlexander et al., 2002; Maffesoli and Foulkes, 1998). In its application to organizational marketing, it has signalled the necessity of understanding new social organizations with consumption behaviour patterns distinctly different from the traditional norm. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate “tribal” consumption behaviour and its relationship to branding, in the particular context of the surfing community in Portugal.
Design/methodology/approach
Two focus group meetings with “surfers” and “fans” respectively, in April 2006, were enriched by computerised projective techniques and program‐assisted design (PAD) technology, backed by high quality video prompts. Qualitative data analysis was enhanced by quantified data collected in the PAD phase. The design was expressly directed at future quantification and model building.
Findings
Four research propositions, derived from an extensive literature review, were mostly confirmed: surfing does exhibit characteristics of a cult. There are three distinct types of adherent, their associative behaviour characterized by affiliation, social recognition, socialization and symbolism. Surfers and fans exhibit strong brand awareness and less strong preferences for surf‐linked brands, in different ways.
Research limitations/implications
Interpretation is limited by the scope of the study: two focus groups in one country. There is some compensation in the richness of the data.
Practical implications
Marketers involved with cult consumers and tribal brands need a body of knowledge on which to base their marketing intelligence gathering and strategic planning.
Originality/value
This paper provides exploratory research findings related to one classic example of the tribal brand‐consumption behaviour that accounts for significant consumer spending around the postmodern world.
This study examined two second-generation Muslim youth clubs in the city of Ottawa. First-generation mosques and community centres have ample space for youth. Still, as a form of defiance against their parents, these youth have created youth clubs outside of Ottawa’s residential areas. The clubs had devised an original form of ‘fun’ for themselves, which, despite being ‘halal’, was not approved by their parents and thus represented a form of resistance against them. These youth clubs have exacerbated tensions within the Muslim community in Canada. This article contends that a Muslim youth subculture is emerging among second-generation immigrants, which is consistent with aspects of the Birmingham School and post-subcultural theories. Steve Redhead argues that today’s youth continue to resist not through style but by ‘lengthy clubbing’. A total of 26 young women and men were interviewed alongside 10 months of fieldwork.
Stadt-Land-Bezüge haben in der Jugendforschung eine lange Tradition. Ein Themenfeld ist in diesem Zusammenhang in der jüngeren Vergangenheit aber kaum untersucht worden: die Tradierung und Modifizierung von Brauchformen der ländlichen Jugend. Durch ein Schlüsselerlebnis sind wir in unserer Forschungsgruppe eher zufällig auf ein Ereignis aufmerksam geworden, das im Nachhinein als ‚Geburtsstunde‘ unserer gezielten soziologisch-ethnographischen Suche nach Handlungsmustern und Veranstaltungsformen angesehen werden kann, denen in ländlichen Regionen lebende Jugendliche Brauchcharakter zuschreiben. An zwei Fallbeispielen soll gezeigt werden, in welchen konzeptionellen Schritten und mit welchen Zugangs-, Erhebungs- und Interpretationsverfahren tradierte und neue Brauchformen als Ressource und Aktionsfeld jugendlicher Expressivität und Gruppenbildung erkundet und erklärt werden können. Die Beispiele sind so gewählt, dass sie einerseits die Bandbreite und das Spannungsverhältnis jugendkultureller Praxisfelder und Vergesellung sichtbar werden lassen und andererseits die Fruchtbarkeit ethnographischer Forschung in höchst divergenten ruralen und brauchkulturellen Handlungsfeldern verdeutlichen. Den Abschluss bildet der Versuch einer kategorialen Klassifikation von jugendlichen Brauchkulturen, auf die wir in unseren Studien im Zeitraum von etwa zwei Jahrzehnten gestoßen sind.
„Die Unbekannten Theorie-Objekte, sogenannte UTO’s, sind zufällige Verdichtungen des theoretischen Feldes. […] UTO’s sind Kristallkugeln, in denen das vage Licht eines noch nicht existierenden Theorems auftaucht.“ Dies schrieb 1993 die Agentur Bilwet aus Amsterdam, die sich die Verbreitung illegaler Wissenschaften zum Ziel gesetzt hat.
Das Verhältnis von Soziologie und Alltag beziehungsweise Alltäglichkeit ist vielgesichtig. Diese Feststellung lässt sich nicht allein auf paradigmatisch unterscheidbare Thematisierungen des Alltags beziehen, sondern führt tiefer. Zunächst ist der Alltag ein Gegenstandsbereich soziologischer Forschung.
This chapter discusses the semiotic imaginary of consumerism (ImCon), its logic and characteristics, in comparison with symbolic imaginaries; it is defined as a regime of signification composed of signs as social signifiers and based on imagery and the irrational. The social logics of consumption (consumption of social signification through commodity-signs) and commodification (production of sign-values), and a theory on the commodity-sign (as elemental form of consumerism), are presented. Consumerism and the ImCon are analyzed through the idea of dream, focusing on consumption dreams: the social representations that, being mass-produced following the logic of advertising, determine and colonize desires and irrational factors, and signify the social subject as a consumer. Finally, the chapter discusses how the ImCon and its dreams colonize subjectivity, and its effects.
Critiquing neo-tribal research for discounting the role of social differentiation and overstating the inclusive and non-hierarchical aspects of neo-tribal communality, this chapter attempts to extend the neo-tribe concept to incorporate processes of exclusion, hierarchy and symbolic boundary formation as well as acknowledging the continuing influence of class relations. To this end, it firstly draws on Durkheim’s, Goffman’s and Collins’ writings on rituals and collective effervescence, to discuss how neo-tribal gatherings have a hierarchical and excluding character. Secondly, the chapter discusses recent research influenced by Bourdieu and studies on ‘alternative’ food consumption to conceptualise how neo-tribal formations can be connected to class-based forms of cultural hierarchy.
Recent work on youth participation has mobilised a ‘DIY’ or ‘individualised’ framework to explain the nature of contemporary participation, particularly amongst minoritised religious youth. This paper examines this conceptual framework in light of concurrent claims that contemporary participation can be better conceptualised using a ‘doing it with others’ (DIWO) approach, which emphasises the collaborative nature of participation. In light of these claims, I analyse the participation experiences of 22 young adult Buddhist practitioners who are located within a neo-liberal Australian context, yet simultaneously have access to religious teachings and practices which challenge distinct notions of selfhood. This paper shows that both ‘DIY’ and ‘DIWO’ conceptions of participation find expression in the participation experiences of participants from the study, and that both DIY and DIWO approaches can additionally be seen as mutually reinforcing rather than distinctly contrasting. I propose a new concept of ‘disindividualisation’, suggesting that Maffesoli's concept of ‘disindividuation’ and Elias's work linking psychological development and social change should be considered in conjunction with an individualised or DIY perspective on youth participation to denote this kind of participatory work.
Otherwise known as Black Rock City, Burning Man is an artistic event, that, mounted annually in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, has become the inspiration for a global cultural movement. While it has been the subject of considerable attention from ethnographers and sociologists, Burning Man has persistently resisted classification. In this article, I undertake a tentative approach to Burning Man via a concept integral to Maffesoli’s postmodern social philosophy popular within Anglophone sociology: the neo-tribe. Ethnographic attention to Burning Man illustrates spectacular aspects of neo-tribalism. It is cyclical, immediate, sensual, enchanted, collaborative and offers multiple sites of belonging for participants, many of whom will self-identify as ‘tribal’ or ‘neo-tribal’. And yet Burning Man is also demonstrative of an optimising modernist ‘project’ complicating, if not incongruent with, postmodern tribalism. With Black Rock City theme camps, art projects and build teams echoing a design-orientated maker culture, and an organisation – the Burning Man Project – dedicated to propagating and scaling (making) the ethical, civic and progressive dimensions of this culture, this article demonstrates the paradoxical proclivities of Burning Man’s tribal character. The objective of the article is to forge a fuller understanding of Burning Man and other ‘transformational’ events illustrative of an alternative tribalism, and to explore ways the phenomenon both approximates and deviates from Maffesoli’s thesis.
How do the shared values and attitudes of Generation Y compare with those of postmodernism ? We have conducted an exploratory survey with 244 youths aged between 18 and 25 years. The statistical analysis indicates that the Y Generation values a certain quality of life while caring about others and the global environment. Several postmodern ideas are present in their value system, such as the expectation of creating new social interaction models, the awareness about the fragility of narratives and a universal sociability. Contrary to postmodern ideals, certain individualistic tendencies do resemble traits of the previous generations. These results could help HR managers better attract, motivate and retain young talents.
Die Begriffe Identität und Habitus bezeichnen Verhaltensdispositionen, die Menschen im Verlauf ihres Lebens entwickeln. Individuen statten sich selbst mit bestimmten sozialen Merkmalen aus und ordnen sich sozialen Gruppen zu. Auch werden sie von anderen zugeordnet und sozial typisiert; beispielsweise als Männer oder Frauen, Kopfarbeiter oder Handarbeiter, Fußballfans oder Golfspieler. Diese Zuordnungen werden in Verhaltensstilen, Denkweisen, Kleidung, Gestik und Mimik wie auch durch Sprache zum Ausdruck gebracht. Sie werden in Form von zum Beispiel Konkurrenz oder Solidarität, von Geist und Körper, Männlichkeit und Weiblichkeit, Ästhetik und Lebensstilen ausgebildet. Typen und Besonderheiten von Menschen in bestimmten Gesellschaften zu einer bestimmten Zeit werden als Identität und als Habitus sichtbar. Die Begriffe sind einem Wandel der Bewertungen unterworfen, keinesfalls statisch und gleichbleibend und variieren historisch wie auch kulturell.
It has become increasingly clear that social activities play an important role for many UK undergraduate students in informing identity and place attachment through interactions with their term-time location. While attention has been given to the ways in which students construct ‘exclusive geographies’ through self-segregation from non-students, thus far there has been very little discussion of how students' identities may be affected by their changing activity spaces and how this may blur the boundaries between student and non-student spaces. Exploring these transformations over the duration of the degree is important as they highlight how identity performances may be influenced by students' transitions through university and their changing mobility patterns. This paper will address such matters by considering the following: (1) how first year activity spaces may constitute a student bubble for new undergraduates; (2) how, in subsequent years, these activity spaces adapt as students hone their social practices and explore environments less associated with student life; and (3) how ‘local’ student's activity spaces can become complex as they contemplate locating their multiple identities during term time.
Die Begriffe Identität und Habitus bezeichnen Verhaltensdispositionen, die Menschen im Verlauf ihres Lebens entwickeln. Individuen statten sich selbst mit bestimmten sozialen Merkmalen aus und ordnen sich sozialen Gruppen zu. Auch werden sie von anderen zugeordnet und sozial typisiert; beispielsweise als Männer oder Frauen, Kopfarbeiter oder Handarbeiter, Fußballfans oder Golfspieler.
Die Begriffe Identität und Habitus bezeichnen Verhaltensdispositionen, die Menschen im Verlauf ihres Lebens entwickeln. Individuen statten sich selbst mit bestimmten sozialen Merkmalen aus und ordnen sich sozialen Gruppen zu. Auch werden sie von anderen zugeordnet und sozial typisiert; beispielsweise als Männer oder Frauen, Kopfarbeiter oder Handarbeiter, Fußballfans oder Golfspieler. Diese Zuordnungen werden in Verhaltensstilen, Denkweisen, Kleidung, Gestik und Mimik wie auch durch Sprache zum Ausdruck gebracht. Sie werden in Form von zum Beispiel Konkurrenz oder Solidarität, von Geist und Körper, Männlichkeit und Weiblichkeit, Ästhetik und Lebensstilen ausgebildet. Typen und Besonderheiten von Menschen in bestimmten Gesellschaften zu einer bestimmten Zeit werden als Identität und als Habitus sichtbar. Die Begriffe sind einem Wandel der Bewertungen unterworfen, keinesfalls statisch oder gleichbleibend und variieren historisch wie auch kulturell.
Wieder einmal (und noch immer): Ein Gespenst geht um — nicht nur in Europa, und natürlich nicht nur, aber doch nach wie vor gerade in Deutschland: das Gespenst diesmal einer juvenilen Spaß-Kultur. Sein Name ist ‚Techno‘. ‚Techno‘ meint einen bestimmten kollektiven Lebensstil1, der sich — sozusagen ‚kultisch‘ — in einer ausdifferenzierten Art von stark repetitiver, elektronisch erzeugter Musik, in besonderen Tanzformen, speziellen Konsumgewohnheiten, auffälligen Attitüden und habituellen Eigenarten und in signifikanten Arten von Geselligkeiten äußert.
Artiklen problematiserer Zygmunt Baumans argument om, at æstetiseringen i den postmoderne by er uforenelig med en virksom etisk ansvarlighed for den fremmede i byen. Denne forståelse er kraftigt inspireret af Emmanuel Lévinas’ fænomenologiske nærhedsetik, der forstår æstetik og etik som antagonistiske fænomener. Med afsæt i denne forståelse anser Bauman æstetiseringen af den Anden, som en maskering af det nøgne ansigt, der ifølge Lévinas er den etiske fordrings kilde. Hermed mødes den Anden ikke som et unikt menneske, men snarere som et overfladisk objekt, der nydes uden etisk ansvar. Artiklen peger på, at Knud E. Løgstrups fænomenologiske nærhedsetik – som Bauman fejlagtigt jævnfører med Levinas’ – tilbyder en interessant alternativ forståelse af forholdet imellem æstetik og etik: Ifølge Løgstrup har æstetikken nemlig forrang for etikken. Artiklens afgørende argument bliver i lyset heraf, at den etiske fordring som den Anden stiller, forudsætter at jeg er i kontakt med dennes liv, hvilket netop sker i den æstetiske sansning. Den æstetiske maskering af den Anden kan således ikke per se afskrives som en uetisk objektificering, men rummer snarere potentialet til, at jeg på sanselig-æstetisk vis kommer i stemt nærvær med det liv, der fordrer mig etisk. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Lasse Suonperä Liebst: Ethics in the Masked City The article questions Zygmunt Bauman’s argument that the aesthetization of the postmodern city is incompatible with the existence of an ethical responsibility towards the stranger in the city. This argument stems from Emmanuel Lévinas’ phenomenological ethics of proximity according to which aesthetical and ethical phenomena are antagonistic. Bauman’s lévinasian argument is based on the assumption that the aesthetization of The Other in the city veils the naked face which, according to Lévinas, is ethically demanding. This way, The Other is not faced as a unique human being, but rather as a masked and fungible object, which can be enjoyed without any responsibility. In this article it is argued that Knud E. Løgstrup’s phenomenological ethics of proximity, which Bauman sees as nearly equivalent to Lévinas’ ethics, offers an alternative theoretical concep-tualization. According to Løgstrup, the aesthetics has primacy over the ethical: The ethical demand of The Other presupposes that I am in contact with the life of The Other which takes place in a sensuous-aesthetic way. The aesthetical masking of The Other, thus, is not per se an unethical objectification, but rather a sensuous way to become ethical demanded by the Other. Key words: Zygmunt Bauman, Knud E. Løgstrup, Emmanuel Lévinas, urban sociology, aesthetization, ethics of proximity.
This is a somewhat revised version of a talk that was originally presented in Berlin in April 2015 as a ‘Masterclass’ at the ‘Academy of Urban Super-Diversity’, organised by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (based at Göttingen), under the direction of Prof. Steve Vertovec. For the purposes of participants, speakers were asked to suggest a short list of articles and books which those attending might read beforehand. My list included a number of venerable items, one of which (Louis Wirth’s) was originally published some 80 years previously (1938). I proposed such texts (along with much more recent references) because it is important to grasp the long-term trajectory of work in the broad field of urban diversity, and also understand how to read these older writers, who still have something to tell us.
The original title of the presentation was ‘Super-Diversity Through the Lens of Anthropology’, but I have devised a slightly different title for this version: ‘Reflections on Super-Diversity by an Urban Anthropologist, or “Super-Diversity So What?”’ I should add that it is largely concerned with developments in Europe, and principally the UK.
the study investigates contextual and musical factors that incite audiences in Western music entertainment venues to sing along to pop songs. Thirty nights of field research were carried out in five entertainment venues across northern England. The percentage of people singing along was recorded for each of the 1,054 “song events,” serving as the dependent variable. In addition, musical analysis was carried out on the songs of a subset of 332 song events. Nine contextual factors as well as 32 musical features of the songs were considered as different categories of explanatory variables. Regression trees and a random forest analysis were employed to model the empirical data statistically. Results indicate that contextual factors can account for 40% of the variability in sing-along behavior, while adding musical factors into the model – in particular those relating to vocal performance – was able to explain about another 25% of the variance. Results are discussed with respect to theoretical approaches on neo-tribal behavior.
Recent attempts to involve the remote and small town communities of Northern Australia in their own policing and correctional services have often been held up as a model for developing Aboriginal criminal justice policies. Such a proposal raises important questions as to both the construction of the post-colonial 'community' in remote and settled Australia and the sociological principles by which these criminal justice schemes (eg night patrols, community wardens, community corrections) have been constituted. The paper explores the constructions of the Aboriginal community over the past two decades (ethnographic, politico-administrative and postmodernist) as a background to the development and implementation of community-based criminal justice schemes in the Northern Territory. A typology of post-colonial criminal justice strategies is developed which identifies four 'ideal types' in which the initiatives may be positioned. These are the mediative (community wardens, night patrols), the educative (community justice programs), the neo-colonialist (new forms of imposed European laws and policing) and the incorporative (pervasive and totalising forms of control). The possibility of transposing these Northern Territory schemes to other Aboriginal situations is then critically evaluated in the light of differing socio-political constructions of 'community'.
Die Rede von und über Identität ist weit verbreitet: Firmen haben neuerdings eine „corporate identity“, die Identität von
Personen kann im Internet auf Homepages eingesehen werden und wird per Iris-und Fingerabdruck an internationalen Flughäfen
festgestellt. Die Identität einer Nation wird an „Dichtern und Denkern“ oder an Ernährungsgewohnheiten festgemacht und wurde
zuletzt in einer Debatte um „Leitkultur“ zu konkretisieren versucht. Die Unterstützung von Jugendlichen bei ihrer Identitätssuche
und die Beratung von Erwachsenen im Fall von Identitätskrisen gelten als eine wichtige pädagogische Aufgabe.
Unsere Gesellschaft ist durch Entwicklungen geprägt, die wir mit Begriffen wie „Säkularisierung“, „Pluralisierung“, „Individualisierung“
und (neuerdings) „Globalisierung“ bzw. „Neo-Liberalisierung“ zu fassen versuchen. Viele Menschen empfinden diese Gesellschaft
als „kalt“. Auf der Suche nach einem „wärmenden“ Miteinander (vgl. Gebhardt 1999) treffen sie zunehmend (auch) auf Gemeinschaftsformen, die ihnen sowohl ein Höchstmaß an individueller Freiheit als auch
ein attraktives Zusammensein mit gleichgesinnten anderen versprechen. Der entscheidende Unterschied dieser auf die genannten
(und andere) Modernisierungseffekte gleichsam ‚antwortenden‘ Vergemeinschaftungsangebote gegenüber herkömmlichen Gesellungsformen
besteht im Wesentlichen nämlich darin, dass die Teilhabe an ihnen nicht mit den in traditionalen und traditionellen Gemeinschaften üblichen Bindungen und Verpflichtungen einhergeht. Diese mithin
andersartige, eben posttraditionale Form der Vergemeinschaftung resultiert vielmehr daraus, dass jeder einzelne „Interessent“
und „Partizipant“ (immer wieder aufs Neue) zur Teilhabe verführt wird (vgl. Hitzler 1998 und 1999; Hitzler/Pfadenhauer 1998). Da sie somit lediglich in der zufälligen und zeitweisen Übereinstimmung von Neigungen, Vorlieben, Leidenschaften und bestimmten,
als „richtig“ angesehenen Verhaltensweisen gründen, ist die Bindekraft solcher posttraditionaler Gemeinschaften in aller Regel
auch entsprechend labil. Gleichwohl scheinen sie denen, die an ihnen teilhaben, so etwas zu bieten wie eine — zumindest situative
— ‚Kuhstallwärme‘. Einige Varianten derartiger Vergemeinschaftungen, wie sie sich insbesondere seit den 1980er Jahren entwickeln, werden als „Szenen“ bezeichnet.
Robin Horton has studied modes of thought for decades. His attitude is strongly "intellectualist" and directed against "symbolic" interpretation in anthropology A contrast between these two standpoints is regarded in this paper as axiomatic, derived from worldview assumptions presented as a scientific debate. Divergences concern isssues such as the objective status of human cognition, the degree of rationality of a given thought system, and the desirable status of anthropological interpretations of human thought. Horton's standpoint is criticized, mainly his views on the universality of standards of rationality established in the West, and the presentism of his "cognitive foundationalism," which claims that cognition is the primary function of any thought/belief system. His intellectualist position is placed in the context of contemporary postmodern anthropological discourses.
Patterns of indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice systems of settler societies such as Australia and Canada exhibit a strong spatial component, with rural and remote regions showing higher levels both of serious crime and of punitive response. In Australia, these patterns have been the subject of recent cultural geographies of Aboriginal offending which rely on limited functionalist models of the effects of modernisation. An alternative model is proposed, which interprets these variations in the light of socio-spatial theories of postmodernisation. A probit analysis of rates of Aboriginal offending across Australian jurisdictions reveals a close relationship between levels of seriousness of crime and levels of cultural stability and socioeconomic stress.
This paper seeks to examine the nature of moral education in a postmodern cultural context with a particular focus on continuing professional education. It is argued that postmodernity sees the radical privatisation of moral responsibility. Building upon a critique of modernist ethics and moral education, five types of response to that privatisation are postulated and evaluated: foundationalism, codification, egocentrism, neotribalism and situationalism. Only the last of these types is seen as an acceptance of the moral responsibility of postmodernity, the other four being forms of retreat from it. Eleven dimensions of moral situationalism are presented as the sort of learning outcomes indicated by it. Those dimensions are then recast in the notion of situational sensitivity, as defining an appropriate curriculum for continuing professional education. Continuing professional moral education in particular is seen as calling for the deconstruction of modernist ethics and its reconstruction in the capabilities, understandings and dispositions involved in empathetically understanding and responding to the particularities of lived events.
Interestingly Israeli/Palestinian peace has been structured in terms of negotiations which essentially aim at the territorial separation of these two peoples. While not always clear, the resolution offered appears to be the (re)construction of a homogenised relationship between identity (people) and place. The present impasse, framed as a struggle for 'security' and 'sovereignty', continues this segregated view of the future articulated through a discourse on war rather than peace. Recurrent violence underlines the institutional fragility of the project of separation which seeks to create a 'walled' state as the basis for regional security. There has been little attempt in the official peace process to address issues of historical justice or reconciliation through a public and personal exchange of what people have actually experienced. The growing international fashion for reconciliation seems to be missing from the official Israeli/Palestinian peace equation. This paper explores the possibility of extending community and local activities for reconciliation to create alternative foundations for imagining a different future. It looks at the possibilities of creating a 'truth commission' like forum, which addresses the personal legacies of the war and loss of both the Israelis and the Palestinians in order that both sides collectively witness the lived consequences of the past 50 years and more. It argues that this could create more attentive audiences, locally and internationally, which would have to face up to different narrative resolutions of the conflict and create a different source of impetus for dialogue and reconciliation. In the process the paper also addresses the limitations of the idea of 'national reconciliation', exploring the question of public morality as a transnational concern rather than merely a national one.
This article investigates the relationship between club culture and Evangelical Christianity based on a case study of a Christian mission, 24-7 Mission conducted on Ibiza, ‘the Mecca of house music and club culture’ (Osborne, 199914.
Osborne , B. 1999 . The A–Z of club culture , London : Hodder and Stoughton . View all references:145) in the summer of 2003. Drawing on fieldwork research undertaken on Ibiza, this article interrogates how a Christian youth group engages with club culture. The paper will adopt an ethnographic approach which allows ‘a “microsociological” focus upon the beliefs, values, rituals and general patterns of behaviour underlying social relationships or networks’ (Cohen, 19932.
Cohen , S. 1993 . “ Ethnography and popular music studies ” . In Popular Music , Vol. 12 , Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press . 2 View all references: 123). A key issue to be interrogated is the contested notion of spirituality in electronic dance music. My analysis will be concentrated on members of the 24-7 mission team and the ways in which spirituality and dance music are discussed, leading to arguments about how members appraise and use popular music within their ‘ministry’. By looking at different notions of religious and musical ‘community’, I am going to investigate the cross-over between the ways that the mission team discuss spirituality, ‘community’ in relation to music and the mystification of the music by clubbers.
The embedding of informal practices in music education in school relates to significant issues concerning students' engagement, participation, inclusion and the role of the teacher. This article addresses these issues by presenting and discussing current music education in compulsory comprehensive schooling in Sweden. It does so by drawing upon music pedagogical research, music education studies conducted during the last 10 years and national evaluations. Examples of practice from upper secondary schools are also used to clarify and illustrate the issues under consideration. It has been said that Swedish music education has gone from ‘School Music’ to ‘Music in School’. This development has been characterised by greater influence of students on curriculum content resulting in increased use of popular music, and, consequently, teaching strategies acquired from informal music playing contexts. The curriculum states that the core of the subject is practical music playing, through which personal development can occur – both musically and socially. Music education in several other countries is developing a more practical approach, and the role of popular music in schools, and what is sometimes called informal learning, is featured in international music pedagogy debates. This article considers the musical, pedagogical and democratic consequences of this pedagogy from a Swedish perspective. As a result of a sharp focus on personal social development and individual students' musical interests, music education in Sweden has become relatively limited in terms of repertoire, content and teaching methods. Recent evaluations and studies also demonstrate that music education lacks direction, and is short of creative engagement with music. The role of the teacher is unclear and sometimes lacks validity in a practical music education situation. Viewed from an international perspective, the kind of music education that has developed in Sweden is unique. Thus, when the possibilities and limitations of music education in Sweden are discussed, it has the potential to be of interest to international music education research.
While certain theorists have suggested that identity is increasingly reflexive, such accounts are arguably problematised by Bourdieu's concept of habitus, which – in pointing to the ‘embeddedness’ of our dispositions and tastes – suggests that identity may be less susceptible to reflexive intervention than theorists such as Giddens have implied. This paper does not dispute this so much as suggest that, for increasing numbers of contemporary individuals, reflexivity itself may have become habitual, and that for those possessing a flexible or reflexive habitus, processes of self-refashioning may be ‘second nature’ rather than difficult to achieve. The paper concludes by examining some of the wider implications of this argument, in relation not only to identity projects, but also to fashion and consumption, patterns of exclusion, and forms of alienation or estrangement, the latter part of this section suggesting that those displaying a reflexive habitus, whilst at a potential advantage in certain respects, may also face considerable difficulties simply ‘being themselves’.‘I noticed how people played at being executives while actually holding executive positions. Did I do this myself? You maintain a shifting distance between yourself and your job. There's a self-conscious space, a sense of formal play that is a sort of arrested panic, and maybe you show it in a forced gesture or a ritual clearing of the throat. Something out of childhood whistles through this space, a sense of games and half-made selves, but it's not that you’re pretending to be someone else. You’re pretending to be exactly who you are. That's the curious thing.’ (DeLillo, 1997: 103)
Post-Modern City CulturesCultural Capital, Gentrification and the Stylization of LifeConclusion
References
This article introduces and criticises Michel Maffesoli's attempt to formulate a post-modern sociology for post-modern times. While arguing that Maffesoli's sociology is suggestive and insightful about many aspects and features of late-modern life this article, nonetheless, questions whether Maffesoli's approach should be accepted as a fruitful sociological paradigm which others should take up uncritically. Moreover, it will be argued that Maffesoli's approach is an ultimately incoherent and one-sided approach to studying the ‘postmodern condition’ in that it does not escape the problem of ‘performative contradiction’ identified by the likes of Habermas, Giddens and Touraine. That is to say, Maffesoli has produced a one-sided and flattened out image of modernity that cannot account for the possibility of social and political critique.
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