Identify and the Contemporary Economy

• Specification: sociological explanations of the relationship of identity to production, consumption and globalisation
• What you need to know

  • Outline, explain, analyse and evaluate how identity relates to:
  • Work
  • Consumption
  • Leisure and lifestyle choices
  • Globalisation
• Work and identity


  Traditionally, people's identity has been closely linked to what they do: to their work
• Many names originate from occupations (eg. Smith, Fletcher, Cooper, Thatcher, etc.) because what people did was the principle way in which people were identified
• Even today the question "what do you do?" tends to appear quite early in discussions and people are still identified with their occupation
• Social change impact on work and identity

  • In a pre-industrial society, the blacksmith's son would also work as a blacksmith, the name passing down with the ascribed role
  • In an industrial society, with increased geographical mobility people were more likely to do different jobs from their parents and perform achieved roles because of meritocracy
  • In a postmodern society, people are increasingly likely to do several quite different jobs in their lives
• Shift from production to consumption

  People are less identified by what they do and what they make, and more by what they buy
• Consumption and identity


  • We consume not only material goods but also experiences, information, and cultural products like art, music, film, and television
  • Postmodern sociologists discuss how we use consumption to help form our identities in the contemporary world
• Businesses developing products and brands think about who their likely customers might be and what buying their product would say about them
• Labels are associated with particular subcultures. People wear clothes that show the label prominently because the label is a message to others about identity
• Marxist and neo-Marxist critics

  • Class is still a structural factor in consumption and identity
  • Buying an expensive "super car" is intended to express that you are part of a wealthy elite, which is not a choice anyone can make
• Leisure, lifestyle choice and identity


  • Leisure choices have played a key role in identity for a long time
  • Postmodernists argue that these are ways in which individuals now choose their identity and express it through their choices
  • Neo-Marxists argue that the capitalist system creates the leisure industry and controls people's leisure
• Bourdieu


  • A great deal of leisure pursuits are only really accessible to the rich, which is how they gain their cultural capital
  • Postmodernists criticise this view as outdated, arguing that leisure is much more flexible and accessible today than in the past
• Globalisation and identity


  • Globalisation is the idea that society is becoming ever more interdependent and interconnected
  • Globalists see this as a positive transformation in society in which people increasingly become global, cosmopolitan citizens
  • Pessimistic globalists are concerned that what is really happening is westernisation and a form of neo-colonialism or cultural imperialism
• McDonalisation


  The world has increasingly become like McDonalds: companies operating everywhere with low-skill jobs and limited choices replicated all around the world
• Glocalisation


  The process of adapting a global product or service to local markets
• Globalisation has had multiple effects on identity, some of which seem contradictory
• Culture and Identity Today

  • You can no longer distinguish between "culture" and "reality"; that cultural products, the media, leisure, etc. are a fundamental part of reality, not just an expression of it
  • Our behaviours, our culture and our identity, are neither determined by social structures nor entirely our own to choose and "buy": we have choice, flexibility and diversity, but we are also constrained by the situations we find ourselves in and are not necessarily of our choosing