Figurational dynamics and parliamentary discourses of living standards in Ireland1

While the concept of living standards remains central to political debate, it has become marginal in sociological research compared to the burgeoning attention given to the topic of consumer culture in recent decades. However, they both concern how one does and should consume, and, indeed, behave at particular times. I use the theories of Norbert Elias to explain the unplanned but structured (ordered) changes in expected standards of living over time. This figurational approach is compared to other alternative explanations, particularly those advanced by Bourdieu, Veblen and Baudrillard. Though these offer some parallels with Elias's theories, I argue that consumption standards are produced and transformed through the changing dependencies and power relations between social classes. They cannot be reduced to the intentions, interests or ambitions of particular elites, nor to the needs of social systems. Using qualitative data from parliamentary debates in Ireland to trace changing norms and ideals of consumption, as well as historical data to reconstruct shifts in social interdependencies, I further contend that discourses of living standards and luxury are vital aspects of the growing identification and empathy between classes, which in turn encourages greater global integration in the face of emigration and national decline.     

Becoming “People of Faith:” Personal Moral Authenticity in the Cultural Practices of a Faith-Based Social Justice Movement

Interactive cultural practices such as songs and storytelling are key to contemporary social movement organizing because they can attenuate the challenges of social difference by expanding participants’ understandings of self and community. Yet the precise cultural dynamics through which such practices become effective are not well understood. Using the case of a large faith-based community organizing coalition, I show that practices focused on personal moral authenticity are especially effective in fostering alignment between social movement goals and individuals’ pre-existing moral commitments. I define personal moral authenticity as the ambition to develop, enact, and perform a moral identity that is “true” to an enduring internal self, and validate that identity through interactions with others. This is an effective basis for organizing practices because it spans the various cultures of commitment that prevail in different racial and religious subgroups and gives individuals a personal stake in social change projects. In highlighting how it animates practices in faith-based community organizing, one of the most robust fields of grassroots civic activity in the United States, this article illuminates an important part of the cultural dynamics underlying much contemporary social change work, and specifies how religion contributes to progressive social change efforts amid ongoing religious disaffiliation.     

“You Always Remain Slightly an Outsider”: Workplace Experiences of Academics from Working‐Class or Impoverished Backgrounds

Debates surrounding class inequality and social mobility often highlight the role of higher education in reducing income inequality and promoting equity through upward social mobility. We explore the lived experience of social mobility through an analysis of 11 semistructured interviews with Canadian academics who self‐identified as having working‐class or impoverished family origins. While economic capital increased substantially, cultural capital and habitus left many feeling like cultural outsiders. Isolation—both chosen and imposed—reduced professional networks, diminishing social capital. Caught between social worlds, participants mobilized symbolic capital in moral boundary marking, aligning themselves strategically with either their current class status or their working‐class roots. While upward social mobility is a path toward reducing economic inequality, the lived experience of social mobility suggests it may exact a high emotional cost.     

How to fight the ‘Methodenstreit’? Veblen and Weber on economics,psychology and action

There have been comparative discussions about Thorstein Veblen and Max Weber before, but not quite from the most appropriate viewpoint. The present paper treats them as theorists of action, in social and economic analysis, and this perspective yields some interesting new findings. Both theorists are to be taken as participants in the great Methodenstreit in economics, 100 years ago, and it is Veblen who suggests a more radical solution to this dispute, he suggests its final abolishment. The main difference between Veblen and Weber is in their respective appreciations of the role of psychology in social analysis. Weber does not think it important, but in so thinking he misses the viewpoint of evolutionary psychology that Veblen endorses. Accordingly, both of these classical thinkers are to be considered as theorists of action, but so that it is Veblen who proffers a more general theory.     

Racial Habitus, Moral Conflict, and White Moral Hegemony Within Interracial Evangelical Organizations

Re-conceptualizing habitus as a complex of inculcated moral dispositions that—particularly within the racialized social system of the United States—are racially-constituted, this article proposes a framework through which racial conflict and structural/cultural domination within interracial religious organizations, and perhaps other volunteer organizations, may be analyzed. Drawing upon qualitative data from a study of fundraising experiences within interracial evangelical organizations, I demonstrate, first, that racial conflicts within these organizations are best framed as disputes over moral standards arising out of divergent, racially-constituted, moral dispositions, and second, that these conflicts are worked out via the institutionalization and instilment of white cultural norms, ultimately resulting in the hegemony of white moral standards within the organizations.     

Wilson's theorem for economic environments and continuous social preferences

Wilson's generalization of Arrow's impossibility theorem has been proved for the realm of private goods and economic preferences by Border and by Bordes and Le Breton. However, their proofs require the exclusion of the zero vector from the commodity space. This paper assumes continuity of social preference to obtain the impossibility theorem for the entire allocation space, even if the society is infinite. A simple corollary reveals that there is some individual who is assigned the zero consumption vector at every social optimum whenever the social welfare function is nonnull and nonimposed, and satisfies Arrow's independence axiom and continuity and transitivity of social preference.Financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is gratefully acknowledged, as are the suggestions of Charles Plott and an anonymous referee. The author assumes responsibility for any errors.     

Consumption and digital commodities in the everyday

The category of the everyday has designated in social theory the remainder, what is left over after the important regions of politics and production. This left consumption in the under-theorized domain of the everyday. Since Veblen – and more recently Baudrillard and de Certeau – consumption has been reconfigured as significant in its own right, as a complex, articulated area related directly to culture. Liberal thinkers have also claimed consumer activity as central to society, as the domain where the individual is realized. This paper will review these positions and attempt to develop an understanding of consumption in daily life in relation to digital cultural objects. It will also argue that these mediated commodities, in the practices of appropriation connected with them, configure subjects in ways that are difficult to reconcile with existing structures of domination.     

‘Say no to the ATO’: the cultural politics of protest against the Australian Tax Office

Researching a broad array of protest forms offers valuable insights into social change. One such unusual form includes protests against tax law rulings made by the Australian Tax Office (ATO). Across Australia thousands of taxpayers invested in ‘tax effective schemes’ in the late 1990s. However, by 2000 each owed on average AUS$75,000 as a result of these schemes being ruled illegal. Rather than pay the money owed many have refused, publicly protesting through formal administrative and political mechanisms, and through public debate. At first glance, this appears an issue of individual economic self‐interest. However, qualitative research methods provide a more detailed and contextual picture of why protestors feel justified in their actions. Focusing on the hard‐hit Goldfields region of Western Australia, protests are argued as being about real and imagined identities; concerns over roles and status in Australian society; and the failings of institutional and political frameworks that should support, not penalize, citizens. The offence and ‘moral shock’ of being publicly labelled as ‘tax cheats’ facilitated protestors' view of themselves as workers trying to do the ‘right thing’ by their families and country. And as such, the normally private issue of individual tax affairs became a public debate and a site of cultural politics wherein the ATO's official discourse of rationality and regulation compliance is received by protestors as symbolic of their beleaguered position in Australian society. Here, citizenship struggles have not been eclipsed by post‐material or ‘new social movement’ concerns. Rather, sites of cultural politics, such as struggles over tax and identity, are constantly redrawn in light of new social practices and relations.     

Can cultural consumption increase future earnings? Exploring the economic returns to cultural capital

Cultural consumption is often viewed as a form of embodied cultural capital which can be converted into economic rewards (e.g., earnings) because such practices increase the likelihood of moving into more advantaged social positions. However, quantitative evidence supporting this theory remains uncertain because it is often unable to rule out alternative explanations. Cultural consumption appears to influence hiring decisions in some elite firms, in both the US and the UK, but it is unclear whether these processes are applicable to other professional occupations and other labour market processes, such as promotions. We examine these processes using data from Understanding Society, an individual‐level panel survey conducted in the UK, allowing us to explore whether cultural consumption predicts future earnings, upward social mobility and promotions. People who consume a larger number of cultural activities are more likely to earn higher wages in the future, to be upwardly socially mobile, and to be promoted. Cultural consumption, then, can function as cultural capital in some labour market settings, potentially contributing to the reproduction of income inequality between generations.     

《古兰经》和圣训中的伊斯兰经济思想

伊斯兰经济思想是关于阿拉伯-伊斯兰社会经济问题理论和观点的统称。其渊源主要依据《古兰经》和圣训,以伊斯兰信仰和道德伦理为基本特点。伊斯兰积极入世的思想,对社会、经济、生活均有指导和干预作用,因此,其经济思想、理论、实践都受《古兰经》和圣训教诲的制约。无论是过去还是现在,以《古兰经》和圣训为核心的伊斯兰经济思想对阿拉伯-伊斯兰世界经济理论及其实践都有着直接的影响。     

Trading Diamonds Responsibly: Institutional Explanations for Corporate Social Responsibility

This article identifies factors that led to a comprehensive regulatory regime for the global diamond trade, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), established through negotiations among NGOs, states, and the industry. The conflict diamonds case provides important insights into the processes by which global norms redefine how corporations are expected to conduct business. First, we show that global corporate social responsibility (CSR) norms rooted in the construct of world citizenship facilitated the rapid progress of the conflict diamonds campaign. Second, we detail how these norms became institutionalized in the KPCS, stressing the importance of the legitimacy of NGOs as bearers of corporate world citizenship models and the role of moral leaders within the diamond industry itself. We consider two theoretical perspectives on CSR development: management theories, which are strong on practitioner issues but mute regarding the content and authority of CSR ideology, and institutional theories, which offer better frameworks for understanding the impact of cultural and institutional environments on company responses to the moral claims advanced by NGOs. We use the conflict diamonds case to draw conclusions about how NGOs can effectively define new social responsibilities that companies come to see as obligations they must heed as responsible world citizens.     

Appeals to social norms as policy instruments to address consumption externalities

We consider appeals to social norms as a policy instrument to address consumption externalities. We explore whether appeals to social norms can be an efficient policy instrument and compare the efficiency of such appeals to the efficiency of taxation in addressing consumption externalities. We find that when the existing norm helps to shift consumption towards the socially optimal level of consumption, taxation welfare dominates appeals to social norms as a policy tool. While previous studies have found that economic instruments are superior to information in other contexts, we arrive at a different conclusion for situations where the norm shifts behavior away from what is socially optimal. In such cases appeals to social norms can be a better policy instrument than taxation.     

Collective belonging and mass media consumption: unraveling how technological medium and cultural genre shape the national imaginings of Australians

Sociological literature lacks a firm evidentiary base with respect to how mass media usage works to forge patterns of collective attachment among socially diverse individuals within contemporary societies. This paper seeks to engage with this absence by examining the detailed ways in which complexities of media consumptions are linked with divergent popular visions of national belongingness and identity. Focusing in particular on variations in cultural genre and delivery technology, the study aims to help clarify extant disciplinary discussions about if and how media consumption interconnects with the substance of individual national imaginings in an era of cultural globalization. Using data from a large social survey of changing visions of national identity among contemporary Australians, the study shows that established media technologies and the consumption of lowbrow genres harden individual attachment to a traditional imagining of the nation. By contrast use of the Internet and highbrow genres foster a more inclusive vision of nation identity. In terms of sustaining these different national identity configurations, cultural genre is revealed to be of greater consequence than technological medium. Furthermore, and in a more general way, the findings suggest that notwithstanding the complexity of effects, mass media usage stands up alongside a more established concern with individual social structural background as a highly salient factor in shaping contemporary formations of national attachment.     

Giving away one's poverty. On the consumption of scarce resources within the family

This article draws on qualitative data from a Belgian poverty research. Intensive in‐depth interviews questioned parents of deprived households about the way they deal with their limited means. To make ends meet, they are forced to restrain their personal needs and desires until they are adapted to the financial stringency of their condition. Further analysis of their situation is somehow confronted with a marked contrast between the parental austerity and the sometimes affluent way in which the wants of their young children are gratified. The poor household's consumption is indeed favouring the kids. Although there is not that much to share, the respondents prefer to neglect their own basic needs in order to satisfy their children's desires. This self‐sacrifice is upholding one's honour as a parent and it develops at the same time a relationship with the children marked by affection, care and loyalty. By giving one can take up the parental role of a responsible actor who preserves his/her children from economic adversities. Consequently the gift bestows an identity upon the parents and helps to constitute a family bond marked by internal solidarity. This altruism clearly shows that consumption is not a simple deduction of the available income, nor is it a strictly utilitarian business. The means of consumption are also cultural means of communication, through which people assume roles and create social ties, resulting in a moral economy that tries to counter the misfortune of the outside world.     

The Perilous Freedoms of Consumption: Toward a Theory of the Conduct of Consumer Conduct

This paper considers recent work on “governmentality” for the manner in which researchers in this area have regarded the practice of consumption. Governmentality theorists (Rose, DuGay, Dean) have examined the specific cultural and economic conditions of neo‐liberalism, and concluded that practices of governmentality are aimed at producing an “enterprising self” – a mode of self regulation centered on autonomy, flexibility and instrumentality in professional and institutional life. However, research in governmentality studies has tended to underemphasize the practices of the consumer, or reduced them to a dependent set of practices to that of professional, productive life. Through an examination of consumption as a realm of carnivalesque and liminal self transformation, the thesis on governmentality is adapted to the unique conditions of consumption. Moreover, the distinctions between production and consumption, once relegated to stable institutional practices, are argued to fall under the responsibilities of individuals, who become talented at marking the boundaries of consumption as a realm of immersion, ludic behavior and expressive play. The necessity to develop these skills becomes all the more urgent as consumption becomes increasingly powerful in undermining the economizing logics of everyday life (partly as a result of increasing appeals to unplanned purchases, partly through the extension of consumer credit). To confront these powerful influences, new skills are required for the fixing of these boundaries. The paper concludes with a comment on the case of the “compulsive shopper”, whose techniques of self restraint are inscribed through the governmentality of consumption.     

Gendered Self-Improvement: Autonomous Personhood and the Marriage Predicament of Young Women in Urban China

How does gender shape the experience and imaginaries of self-realisation? This article explores practices of self-improvement among young women in China, namely workshops for interpersonal skills. These practices direct participants to express themselves as autonomous persons, disembedded from social hierarchies and familial responsibilities. Unmarried women who attend workshops conceive of marriage as an unavoidable impediment to their self-realisation. This is due to a prevailing gender inequality in marriage, as well as the ongoing expansion of an ideal of individual autonomy in China through economic reforms. In this article, I do not centre my analysis on a cultural clash between this ideal and local cultural practices. Instead, it is the possibility of this ideal, which is always shaped and restricted by socio-economic imperatives, that induces women’s frustration with their local culture. The fact that this ideal promises universal attainment highlights for women the gender roles that limit their autonomy.     

Contemporary urban culture: how community structures endure in an individualised society

This paper examines the ways in which socio-cultural norms have shifted to accommodate higher levels of autonomy in urban communities. Largely critiquing traditional concepts of community as well as current dystopian perspectives on the fluid and vapid state of social organisation, it will show how individualism has been incorporated into societal norms, producing highly autonomous personalised networks that, when combined with large amounts of social interaction and imaginative cultural appropriation, create the common social and cultural practices emblematic of community structure. It also illustrates how many activities, traditionally viewed as indicative of social decay, are socially productive, in that they go towards generating the common bonds and world-views that unite individuals across urban landscapes. Focusing particularly on the spaces of community interaction, the construction of common identities and common sense of belonging, this paper sets out to explore alternative modes of community creation and enactment in a contemporary urban environment.     

Wandlungsprozesse elitärer und populärer Geschmackskultur?

For an entire century — from Veblen (1899) to Bourdieu (1982) — the representation of social status through cultural taste was theorized in terms of “undifferentiated” masses at the bottom, and exclusive elites at the top of the social scale. Using music-related survey data, however, recent American cultural sociology maintains that, increasingly, cultural articulation of social status is performed in a different way: high-status persons show a broad, even “omnivorous” range of tastes and an open mind for different musical styles, low-status persons show a narrow, even “univorous” range of tastes and a closed mind for different musical styles. Testing the hypotheses with data from German concert visitors results in different findings. First, American and German samples show strongly different levels in width of musical tastes. Second, musical highbrows, in accordance with the traditional paradigm, show less interest in popular styles than others and rather dislike such musics. Third, regression analysis reveals that structured symbolic distinction through cultural choices depends on the relative importance of a given symbolic universe for the individual. Discussion of findings takes up questions of method and refers to culturally and historically defined differences between the German and American sample. Simple transfer of “inductively” developed hypotheses into different cultural contexts is critcized as inadequate and misleading.     

Unlocking Hikikomori: an interdisciplinary approach

This article provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the ways in which social isolation is constructed in institutional and public imaginaries. It examines the discursive devices that produce hikikomori subjectivities, with a particular focus on the existence of an enduring deviant construct. Despite largely existing in the private sphere, hikikomori are positioned as residing outside of the prevailing system of social relationships and as such are perceived as a threat to social order. Persistent psycho-medical and idiosyncratic cultural depictions of hikikomori continue to obscure those who are doing the defining. Such portrayals also re-assert enduring normative expectations concerning the social, civil and economic participation of young people. Through an interdisciplinary approach that blends sociological and cultural critique, this paper challenges the dominant discourses framing hikikomori, at the same time underlining the ways in which these limiting discourses act upon the self by reinforcing an individualised subjectivity, masking the network of institutions and cultural discourses that mediate this process. We assert that there needs to be a broadening of the concept away from the atomised individual to one that situates hikikomori within a social and cultural context, having significant implications for identity and notions of personhood in contemporary, digital Japan and beyond.     

The Haunting of Shame: Autoethnography and the Multivalent Stigma of Being Queer,Muslim, and Single

Sociology has neglected the terrain of the gay Muslim single as a sociological phenomenon. Produced and managed via meaningful social conduct, the gay Muslim single often holds negative symbolic and cultural worth, one of lacking identification and presence. The stigma of the gay Muslim single is actively reproduced through social and power relations. I examine multiple stigmas and dichotomies by using autoethnography to illustrate the human lived experience of a gay Muslim single, who is silenced, invisibilized, and embodies a social life of “emptiness.” The gay Muslim single, bringing about a “moral panic,” confronts temporal regulations, norms, and values, notably those of heterosexual ones in everyday social life. He is cast as an “outsider,” which reinforces his stigma in everyday social life.