SO1506

Economy, Work & Consumption

Lecture Topics

Lecture 1: a) The Rise of Modern Industrial Capitalism, Industrial Workers, Urbanisation & The Birth of Consumerismb) Fordism, The Affluent Worker & Mass Consumption

Lecture 2: Fordist Society cont’d. -The Post War Era; Work, Consumption & Family c)Post-Fordism, Flexibility, Deregulation, The Global Market, Global Labour and Global Consumer Culture

Pre-Capitalist Society

From Antiquity to the Middle Ages:

Ancient Trade

Ancient Empires

Spice, Silk, Serfdom & Subsistence

(The Renaissance – mid 1300’s +)

(The Reformation 1517)

Individualism

The Enlightenment

Scientific Revolution

Rationality & Romanticism

Threads of Modernity

a) Pre-Industrial Capitalism – Seeds of ‘Great Transformation’ (1700-1900)

Mercantilism cc 16th – 18th C.

Adventure/Booty Capitalism

Early Commercial Organisation & ‘Corporations’

Towards an Industrial Capitalist Society

The Agricultural Revolution (cc 1760 onwards)

Rational Capitalism & Free Markets

Industrial Revolution

Urbanization

‘Birth’ of Consumer Culture

The Industrial Revolution

Energy & The Factory System

The Division of Labour

Agriculture to Factory and ‘Service’ Work

Wage Labour

The Industrial Workers

The Conditions of 19th Century Workers

The Trade Unions

Separation of Home & Work

Urbanization

Urbanization

The Expansion of Cities in the 19th Century

1800 1850 1900

London 1,000,000 2,685,000 6,500,000

Paris 500,000 1,000,000 2,700,000

Vienna 247,000 444,000 1,675,000

Berlin 172,000 419,000 1,889,000

New York 60,515 515,000 3,437,000

Chicago <1000 29,000 1,689,000

The Birth Of Consumerism

The Department Store

The City & The Leisure Class (Veblen, 1899)

Early Department Stores emerge from mid 19th Century (Laermans, 1993)

Paris, New York, Chicago prominent in the development of “the production of

consumption”- England and Germany followed by the turn of the century

(Adburgham, 1981).

The Birth of Consumer Culture: The Department Store

Taylorism & Scientific Management

FW Taylor (1911)

Rational Organization

Specialization (Tasks and Planning)

Standardization (Tools & Rules)

Time & Motion

Piece Work

Fordism & Mass Production

Assembly Line (Michigan, 1913)

“You’ve got to work like hell in Ford’s” (Ford factory worker in the 1920’s)

De-Skilling (Braverman)

Human Relations Management:Controlling and Motivating Workers

Fordist Society & Mass Consumption

Making Mass Consumers:

Use Value & Exchange Value

Waste

‘Captains of Consciousness’ (Ewen)

Economic Systems

Free Market Capitalism: Private Ownership of Industry and Property, Free Competition, Consumer Sovereignty and Markets

Socialism: Collective (Public) Ownership of Industry and Property, State Controlled Economy

Welfare Capitalism: Mixed Economy (Private & Public Ownership of Industry & Property), Government Intervention in Market (Demand Management, Redistribution), Social Welfare System

SO1506

Economy, Work & Consumption

Lecture 2: The Post War Era – The Present

Recap Lecture 1 Key Points

1) ‘The Great Transformation’ (cc1700 – 1900) underpinned by increasing rationality (Enlightenment) - transforms science, technology and capitalism - leads to div. of labour, industrial rev., rational capitalism. (opposition from Romantics late 18th)

2) Agricultural work gives way to factory and ‘service’ work. Mass movement towards city living. Increasing anonymity and individuation within the urban setting – ‘society of strangers’. Identity and status more dependent on appearances.

3) Availability of consumer goods and desire for distinction amongst urban bourgeoisie creates suitable conditions for the birth of consumerism. Dept. Stores (1850’s +) serve as ‘bourgeois’ (female) leisure centres - rational capitalism in a ‘romantic’ setting. Notion of consumer goods as identity markers emerges. Early consumer culture limited to the wealthy elite.

4) Early 1900’s Taylorism and Fordism further rationalize production – make mass production possible. Need to motivate workforce + stimulate demand for mass produced goods. Solutions: Pay higher wages (‘family wage’) - allow more leisure time. Overturn working class asceticism (advertising industry) – encourage self-indulgence and ‘waste’. Transform limited consumer culture of 19th C. into mass consumer culture of 20th.

The Fordist Society

The Great Depression

Economic Systems

Keynesianism

Full Employment & the ‘Job for Life’

Corporatism

Post-War Boom & the Consumer Society

War Production becomes peace production

A ‘New Deal’-’The American Dream’

Leisure

Suburbia

Riesman ‘ The Lonely Crowd’ 1950

The ‘Housewife’

The Triumph of the Visual? Cinema, Television and Consumer Culture

Hollywood Cinema (cc 1910 onwards)

Television (cc 1950’s)

USA: ‘In 1945 almost no one owned a television set; by 1950 alone, 7,500,000 were

sold’ (Marling, 1994).

‘Soaps & Sitcoms’

Post-Fordism & De-Industrialization

1970’s :

End of the ‘Consensus’

Deregulation

Privatization

Marketization

Industrial Decline and The Rise of Services

Flexible Production & Services

Flexible Production:

Multi-tasking & Multi-skilling

McDonaldization (Ritzer)

The Post-Fordist Labour Market

The Dual Labour Market:

Primary & Periphery

High Road & Low Road Flexibility

Casualization & Risk-shifting

Work, Gender Relations & The Family

Women In the Workforce

The ‘Family Wage’ (declines)

Balancing Home & Work

The Commercial Colonization of The Self

The Home/Work Boundary

‘The Longest Day’

Emotional Labour

‘Willing Slaves’

‘Managism’

‘I Shop Therefore I Am’

Consumer Bodies/Consumer Selves

Consumerism, Counter Cultures and Incorporation

‘Branding’

The Global Economy

Communication/Media

Transport

Transnational Corporations (TNC’s)

Interlocking Directorate

Global Labour Markets

A Global Division of Labour?

Economic Migration

‘Offshoring’

Global Consumer Culture

Citizens or Consumers?

Niche Marketing

Homogenization or Glocalization

Future Work & Consumption

‘Brazilianization’ (Beck)

‘The End of Work’ (Rifkin)

The Leisure Society?