FINAL Flashcards
BOURDIEU AND HABITUS
Ø We’re talking about the difference of structural and individuals
Ø Objectivists see the world as entirely shaped by structure
Ø Objectivism explains individual behavior by social structures, like markets, social classes, populations and organizations
- Cultural goods (e.g., music, high-brow literature, food, furniture) are always stamped by social class
- Society is hierarchically structured, and cultured goods are attached to certain social classes
- Ex: ugly but very expensive furniture
- Social classes produce relative homogenous lifestyle patterns
- When you see these things of culture we can connect them to class positions
Ø We can lose a lot of agency when we only focus on those structures Ø When we focus only on structure/ macro influences we ignore all the ways individuals process things Ø Bordieu is in the middle, he doesn't discount structure but we need to take into consideration people are located in a particular structure space always , which is defined by your social structure class position Ø Important to understand because this has a huge impact on the kinds of resources you have access to
HABITUS DEFINITION
Habitus: interpretive schemas, largely unconscious, that tell us how the world works, how to evaluate things, and provide guidelines for action
- Individuals who share a structural location or class position have similar, repetitive experiences which produce a common habitus which, in turn, structures their social practices
- They tell us how to evaluate things
- OUR STRUCTURAL POSITION SHAPES OUR HABITUS
- Shapes the types of experiences we have therefore shaping our social practices
Opportunity to build their cultural capital
DEMOTIC TURN
Demotic turn: the increasing visibility of the “ordinary person” as they turn themselves into media content
- The rise of reality tv has lead an increase of the amount of ordinary people that are on tv, and ordinary people who have been granted the status of celebrity
- They haven’t “earned” it
Celetoid
- Seen as “talentless” and the fame is short lived
- Hyper visible -> invisible FAST
Entertainment industry still hierarchical and exclusive
- Through reality tv fame has become democratized
- Because ordinary people can become famous, the barrier of becoming famous is breaking down
- Suggests that there is a universal entitlement, meaning everyone can enjoy it if they’re lucky enough to get chosen
Therefore, fame is no longer reserved for people that have talent, know someone, etc
CONTEMPORARY INFLUENCER INDUSTRY
Technological factors
* Software such as Blogger and WordPress
* Social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter
- Idea that started in late 1990 software programs made blogging a lot easier (didn’t have to know lots about tech)
Cultural factors
* Valorization of entrepreneurialism and self-branding
* Institutional distrust
Economic factors
* 2008 global financial crisis
* Use of blogs and social media to communicate professional expertise
- A lot of Institutional distrust (in the US in millennials)
Industrial factors
* Media industry shifts
* Advertisers looking for outlets other than print media
* Journalistic standards upended via blogs
- Back then you didn’t need to disclose that aritzia sent you this for free
GENDER AND CONSUMPTION
- Male producer/female consumer
- Reinforced patriarchal capitalism
- Victorian puritanism denigrated consumerism
- Early 20th century “excessively emotional female consumer”
- Veblen: derogatory assumptions about gender firmly demarcated along class lines
- Conspicuous consumption
- A profoundly social phenomenon
- Ostentatious is something the wives engage in
- It is in fact in the lower classes that women consume a lot, show off their buying’s
- Conspicuous consumption is profoundly social. They do this to SHOW they BELONG to a specific class
- This is gendered (women)
- Class emulation and class comparison
- Influencers always want us to BUY something/ consume
- Duality of Male producer and female consumer
- Mr breadwinner and mrs consumer
- If women were presented with mass control goods, they wouldn’t be able to control themselves outlook
CELEBRITIZATION
The ways in which social and cultural life is transformed by celebrity
- Describes contemporary changes in celeb (see 3 below)
1. Diversification: increased importance of celeb beyond entertainment and sports (politics per say)
2. Democratization: more complication
- is fame and celeb more democratic than it is now? (turner argued it is not)
3. Migration: the ability of celebs that are famous in one realm that can migrate their fame to another realm
(Donald from reality tv to president)
celebrification
Incorporation of elements of celebrity into our individual subjectivity and self- presentation
* Specularization of the self
- We become celebrified when we use the same tactics that celebs use
- Argues there’s a promotional culture
- Within it: focus on branding, relations etc
- Argues we and our culture is becoming celebrified
- Now we feel like we have to brand ourselves
Ex: social media, everyone is branding themselves
Fame as a four-phase-temporal design
- Love/hate,
- addiction,
- acceptance,
- adaptation
THE ASPIRATIONAL ETHOS
History of unpaid labour in creative industries (e.g., unpaid internships)
*Reflect economic and educational inequities in the contingent workforce
*Pink ghetto: because they were jobs that were coded feminine (fashion, beauty) made up of jobs that were not getting paid or very little, seen as less valuable
Social media production an alternative pathway to a creative career: “getting paid to do what you love”
*Pair pleasure and profitability
Enterprising young people preparing themselves for an imagined career future
*Aspirational labour reflects content creators’ belief that their (mostly) unpaid work will eventually yield respectable income
and rewarding careers
*Unpaid work motivated by passion and rhetoric of entrepreneurialism
ASPIRATIONAL ETHOS:
- You are going to make it in or as an influencer
- Even though, the gap between the work you are putting in vs what comes out
THE ASPIRATIONAL ETHOS
Ø Assumptions about class and class mobility steered the direction of ad messages in U.S. Ø Introduction of the department store changed cultural norms Ø Feminine ideals deeply intertwined with appeals to upward mobility and aspiration Ø Social media producers see brands as symbolically communicating social status Ø Aspirational consumerism a way to emulate those with a higher level of cultural capital (Bourdieu)
AESETIC LABOUR
Ø The practice of hiring employees on the basis of their looks
- Employees are recruited and trained to project both pleasant personas and handsome appearances
- Entails not just good looking but also looking good and sounding right
- “Aesthetic fit” the body communicates belonging in the classed culture of the organization
Ø Foregrounds embodiment and how worker corporeality is appropriated and transmuted for commercial benefit
- AL considers how a person’s body and their looks get shifted, altered and enhanced for commercial benefit
Ø AL: deliberate set of practice, employees and recruited and trained to project this attractive appearance but also a pleasant persona
Ø Work in which individuals are compensated for their own body’s looks and affect
Ø Can include display
Ø The display of the body is an important to job
Ø Exotic dancing, stripping etc
BODY WORK VS BODILY LABOUR
Ø Body work: unpaid work individuals do to modify their own bodies (ex: weight management practices)
- Applying makeup before work
Ø Bodily labour: paid work on other’s bodies (ex: hairdressers, nails done)
- Can include intimate labour
Two approaches to content creation
- Transactional
- Transformational
