Sociology Lens

 by ishein1

Teenagers, especially during the years of economic prosperity, consistently cast their consumer vote at various clothing retail stores.  Marketers respond by relentlessly attempting to woo this coveted demographic.  Various stores, even ones owned by the same corporation, create varying images in order to create a perspective of “cool”.  “Coolness,” they believe, will induce the most profit.  In schools around the country teenagers define themselves by what they are wearing.  Brand names are signifiers that display identity.  An individual’s social position, even if it is fictive, can be discerned from their dress.  During tough economic times, however, it is possible that brand names lose some of their mysticism and clout or “cool”.  The article referenced here discusses why certain retail companies continue to flourish while others begin to fall by the wayside.  In this moment of economic turmoil various retail companies are striving to maintain a balance between brand image strength and price elasticity.  The perspective is that if price is cut the brand image will suffer.  A multitude of sociological concepts are useful while discussing these pertinent topics of American consumer culture.  Marx’s discussion of commodity fetishism, 150 years ago, elucidates the mysticism inherent in consumer products.  Bourdieu’s Distinction, guided in part by symbolic violence, is a heuristic tool in understanding the symbolic boundaries and lines teenagers draw between themselves.  Finally, a cultural sociology perspective can illuminate the meaning structures behind these consumer goods.  By utilizing these perspectives consumers can more easily discern how marketers are attempting to balance economics and image to increase their products’ consumption.  Thus, the consumer vote can be more informed and based on a veracity of knowledge as opposed to voracity toward commodities.     

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 Terry Newholm and Deirdre Shaw on Ethical Consumption 

by ishein1

It was only a few weeks ago when I saw an Olive Garden Restaurant advertisement depicting its culinary school in Tuscany.  It utilized this image to support its claim that the restaurant provides an authentic Italian dining experience.  Wary of the veracity of this advertisement’s culinary school postulations, I researched the said school.  As it turns out, the Olive Garden did indeed open a culinary school in Tuscany.  This is an attempt by the Olive Garden to put its ‘money’ where its advertising image is.   This opens up a plethora of interesting questions for sociologists interested in authenticity. 

Authenticity for the consumer of a text is often ineffable.  Furthermore, the text in question, whether it is a work of art, piece of music or as in this case a gastronomic experience, often is assumed to have an ontological quality, which designates its authenticity.  The opposite end of this spectrum is demonstrated by the Frankfurt school’s polemics against popular culture and its characteristic of mass dissemination.  The Frankfurt school suggests that the moment a text is mass-produced it losses its authenticity.  It is highly possible that similar recurrent characteristics can be observed within authentic texts, however to suggest that authenticity is inherent in a particular text without considering its contingency upon historical, cultural and individual context is naïve.  Thus, the Olive Garden, a chain restaurant subject to institutional isomorphism, in which each restaurant is a mimic of their successful model in order to create consistency and constancy, must also remain transient and fluid to truly sustain an image of authenticity. 

No matter how far fetched the claim of authenticity may appear, its protean nature is an important concern for business models and image control.  The case of the Olive Garden demonstrates the paradox between mass production and a unique singularity.  Within this dialectic a struggle for authenticity occurs.  The Olive Garden and other chain restaurants must navigate this tightrope.  Dining is a text, which consists of more than just sustenance to its consumers.  It is a multifaceted experience, which consists of aesthetics and cuisine that individuals take and make meaning from.      

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 Michael B. Beverland on Brand Authenticity

 by ishein1

“It takes tremendous courage to think for yourself and examine yourself, this Socratic imperative requires courage.”  This quote is taken from the trailer of the second documentary from Astra Taylor and is spoken by Cornel West in the back of Taylor’s car.  Taylor’s first film, Zizek, was a documentary in which the ‘intellectual rock star’, Slavoj Zizek, is shadowed on his lecture circuit.  Taylor’s new film “Examined Life”, set to open in New York City, once again attempts to bring the erudite musings of social thinkers into the gaze of the public.  This documentary includes interviews from eight of the world’s foremost and exemplary social commentators (Kwame Anthony Appiah, Judith Butler, Michael Hardt, Martha Nussbaum, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Cornel West, and Slavoj Zizek).  Though the film perhaps falsely conflates intellectualism with progressive political views, a thread in its fabric is Marx’s 11th Thesis on Feuerbach. This thesis states “philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”  The leitmotif of this film is Marx’s sentiment.  Too often have our greatest thinkers been isolated and removed from the very individuals, collectives and environments they claim to elucidate.  This film dislocates the philosopher from the safety of their ivory tower and places them in the trenches, or more specifically in the back of a car, on Fifth Avenue or in a waste disposal site.  The interviews take place with the public sphere in mind.  In order for the dialogue of these academics to escape the boundaries of their own limited spaces and circles, bombastic language is avoided and context is provided.  If, what Marx suggested one hundred and sixty years ago should be the telos of academics, then films like these, even if they only dip their feet in the ocean, create a space in which social critique can effect change.  Academics must be willing to take center stage touching ground ‘in the real’ and thus possibly transforming what it means to be a social analyst.                 

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 Watch Trailer

 by ishein1

Newly elected president, Barack Obama, held his first official press conference on Monday evening.  This historically rich press conference on the surface was isomorphous with press conferences of the past.  This fact was accentuated by the presence of Helen Thomas, currently a columnist for Hearst Newspapers.  As she has done for the past four decades, and despite attempts by President Obama to lighten the moment, Thomas asked her usual critical and pertinent questions.  Obama responded as most past presidents have by not making any “obvious news”.  What happened next, however, demonstrated that the press conference was not as anachronistic as it would seem.  President Obama fielded a question from Sam Stein, the White House correspondent for Huffington Post.  This marked the first time a blogger’s question was voiced at a presidential press conference.  Neither the particular question from Mr. Stein nor the answer given by Obama caused any ruckus.  What did induce a palpable excitement, however, was the fact that this question was solicited.  Furthermore, it is telling that the White House, who decided in advance which reporters would be given an opportunity to ask their questions, gave this honor to the Huffington Post and not the Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, or Newsweek, among other more conventional news outlets.  It is clear that the political landscape is in a liminal period.  Civil society theorists can help elucidate whose journalistic narratives are being legitimized.  The Huffington Post gained popularity as an alternative public sphere.  This space of subaltern news provides a potential opportunity for regular citizens to enact a comparative analysis between it and its mainstream counterpart.  It is true, as Jeffrey Alexander, civil society theorist, proffers, that the values of democracy, represented as a semiotic binary (e.g. openness vs. secrecy) are ubiquitous within an ecumenical civil society and they structure most, if not all, political events and discussions.  Smaller public spheres however, provide spaces for alternative narratives and a check on the ecumenical civil sphere. As a result, Huffington Post and other blog sites as they become more influential and visible must remain wary of becoming subjugated by the mainstream news’ narrative and potentially losing the spirit of genuine deliberation.         

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John Michael Robert on Spaces of Dissent

by ishein1

As the first week of Obama’s presidency passes, a top priority, set forth prior to his election, is to transform “the internet based machinery”, that helped him get elected, into an agenda setting tool.  The millennial generation tools within a new frontier of political interaction, i.e. social networking sites, like facebook, twitter, and YouTube are still in their embryonic form, particularly with regard to their impact on the political process.  It is clear, however, that if one wants to be a powerful political actor he or she must embrace these new forms of media.  There are a number of past politicians, once with substantial clout, who are now lying in the graveyard that this new media dug.  Trent Lott and George Allen, for example, were sidelined by the powerful quotidian torrent of Internet politics.  Obama’s campaign was an exposé of the galvanizing proclivities of this new medium.  Now, it is the telos of the Obama administration to turn its revolutionary campaign into revolutionary governance. 

Building off his campaign’s successful use of the new frontier, Obama’s first step was to revamp the white house website, modeling it after his campaign site.  The improved White house website can be continually updated with presidential orders and blogs.  Next, rather than utilizing the old medium of radio, Obama streamed his position on the economic crisis via video.  Presidential Obama’s utilization of new media provides for an unparalleled dissemination of information.  It successfully bypasses the conduits of the old watchdog media leaving the bypassed representatives of the older forms of media concerned.  It can be proffered, however, that citizens are now becoming the watchdogs, as they are provided with new forums for discussion and reaction.  Obama, differently than during his astonishing and meteoric rise to the presidency, will now have many more restrictions on his usage of the millennial generations tool kit.  Mr. Obama was unfettered in his usage of Facebook, instant messaging and twitter, President Obama will be more regulated.  Democracy theorist Benjamin Barber (1998 ) adroitly elucidates the potential of new technology’s proclivities for civics.  He states, “The bittersweet fruits of science will…serve as facilitator rather than a corruptor of our precious democracy”. The Internet is interactive and the viewer has much more control, thus, fostering democracy.  New technology has transformed the dynamics and structure of civics, political campaigning, and democracy.  Therefore, citizens, and politicians alike must embrace this new medium and shunt aside any desire to stultify the inexorable current of this new media.  We have entered the new political frontier and there is no turning back.         

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 Janet M. Ruaneand Karen A. Cerulo on Presidential Politics 

by ishein1

With Barack Obama’s much anticipated moving date less than a week away, George W. Bush declared a state of emergency for the upcoming inauguration.  This is the first time a state of emergency has been declared for a ‘non-disaster’ and will provide additional state funding.  Additionally, executives from various companies have been donating profuse amounts of money to help fund what will most likely be the most expensive inauguration ever.  Public Citizen, a watchdog organization that keeps track of campaign financing, has a very difficult task.  This is in part because of the sweeping number of donors and is compounded by their increasing use of the Internet.  Furthermore, the donations as suggested by a Public Citizen representative, are from “big money well-connected people…that get a chance to influence policy or get government contracts or earmarks.”  This past election demonstrated a reverse trend in American democracy, a meteoric boom in civic participation.  Historical comparative sociologist Theda Skocpol argues that participation in civic life, even incipiently, might not have declined, rather it has transformed. This shift is, the shift from voluntary associations to professionally run advocacy groups.  Advocacy groups, with the availability of new technology to administer massive mailings and phone calls, have created new associations hinging on a large membership of check senders.  These types of associations have an ability to lobby, effect policy and are often elite-run.  As a result, the power is taken out of the hands of everyday citizens.  Without a broad-based active citizenry, government responds to the deepest pockets and can find itself isolated from the realities of its citizens.  Americans must not sit idly by and expect ‘change’ to occur.  The impetus of this historic moment that has galvanized the public and fostered participation cannot be allowed to be subjugated by corporations and lobbyists.  The current élan must become the reverse alchemy that turns executives’ gold into genuine democracy.     

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Clark A. Miller on Civic Epistemologies

by ishein1

As the current economic crisis necessitates consumer frugality, various companies are attempting to reap additional revenue by innovative means of selling their brand.  Internet cultures and networking sites are expanding at a meteoric rate providing a spate of opportunity for celebrities and companies to capitalize materially from this virtual medium.  The company Virtual Greats, based out of California, is utilizing this opportunity by representing celebrities and brands that are being sold in virtual worlds.  These sop virtual goods are sold at a fraction of the price compared to their ‘real’ material counterpart.  As the co-founder of Virtual Greats astutely recognizes “a customer may not be able to afford the ‘real’ Louis Vuitton bag but [certainly] can afford the virtual one.”  Virtual Greats acts as a buttress between brand companies, celebrities and virtual worlds like Gaia, Whyville and WeeWorld.  These three virtual worlds are youth oriented and have witnessed, perhaps counter intuitive to the current economic climate, unabated sales.  The perennial and fecund concept ‘commodity fetishism’ concretized by Marx 150 years ago is a useful tool in understanding this new level of consumption and identity formation. This fetishism refers to the mystical qualities products retain above and beyond their use value.  Similar to the material world, certain virtual goods are kept sparse in order to increase their value.  It is palpable that goods bartered in virtual worlds have limited, if any, use value, but its ‘fetishized’ value is potentially unlimited.  Marx could not have augured the commodification of virtual worlds, however this new medium may be bringing commodity fetishism to its apogee. Avatars, as in the past, are no longer just icons with dialogic capabilities; they are self-expression identities.  If we are to allow children unencumbered access to virtual worlds, and believe they provide fruitful growth experiences, we must beware the dangers of consumerism subjugating self-expression.  Citizens of virtual worlds must remain wary of their colonization and hucksters selling them ersatz products, even if it creates distinction and temporarily fills a void.   

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 Silvia Rief on a Critical Sociology of Consumption

by ishein1

The ubiquity of news programs on contemporary American television is palpable.  The four major network stations all have their own sister news station.  It can be said, without many cavils, that the Fox news station, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, oscillates at varying degrees along the right side of the American political spectrum.  Fox News’ longest running and second highest rated program, only behind the O’Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, at the end of the year will lose its left half.  Alan Colmes announced his departure from the show, planned for the end of this year.  Hannity will stay on as host and as of now it appears as if no one will join him.  The program will lose all of its “anachronism” and diversity.  The result will be a program isomorphous with most other cable news programs. These quotidian programs often only provide one paradigm.  The critical theorist Jurgen Habermas discusses the paramount concept of the public sphere.  The public sphere is a space in which open discussion and dialogue take place.  According to Habermas, within this arena, rationality and reason will win out.  This ideal has the possibility of being prevalent, and furthermore, it is the telos toward which the public sphere and therefore news media must aspire.  If our media continues to only cater to niche audiences, providing only one-sided arguments, our public sphere will be stultified and remain underdeveloped.  The possibility to circumvent the colonization of our life worlds and foster reason will be razed.  Our news media programs must represent an ideal form of communication in which the strongest argument will foster élan for its stance.  The watching public must covet a variegated dialogue between a multitude of positions if we expect democracy and reason to flourish.   

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 Dwayne Winseckon on Media Ownership

by ishein1

Two years ago, Google paid a copious, $1.65 billion to acquire the incipiently profitless Web site, YouTube.  This video sharing website’s meteoric rise was in part due to its software’s facileness and accessibility.  In this light, anyone with access to a computer and some gumption could post their own video.  In an effort to transform their costly addition into a revenue-producing agent, Google announced that it would begin selling space to advertisers on YouTube’s search results pages.  As a result, an advertiser can bid on key word searches.  Interestingly, advertisers pay based upon the number of clicks on their ads.  This new profit-making addition coincides with a recently added “click to buy” feature, which directs users to an ancillary site that provides a purchasing opportunity.  Sociologists have a perennial interest in media production and consumption.  Utilizing the lens of the critical theorist Walter Benjamin, it is palpable that there is the potential of what Benjamin refers to as the democratization of the media.  Within this paradigm the production and consumption of media is taken out of the hands of the elite.  One can see the potential promise but augur the insidious nature of the now profit seeking YouTube. With Google’s attempt to create a profit-oriented advertisement model and change YouTube’s image, the possibility of democratization is precarious.  The users’ power to weed out the detritus is weakened, and the power of those with more economic capital is increased.  As a result, the greatest number of “hits” or views is of content provided by major media conglomerates, thus thwarting parvenus.  The question remains, is it possible for a media source to make a profit while its democratic process remains unabated?  If we are to take the quotidian torrent of user interactive Internet media seriously, then we must be careful not to have content adulterated by a profit-seeking motive.   

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 Lincoln Dahlberg on Computer-Mediated Communication and The Public Sphere