Showing papers in "Theory and Society in 1978"

Social class and arts consumption

Abstract: The last decade has witnessed a burgeoning of American high culture. The number of museums and theaters has increased, the number of orchestras, opera companies, and dance companies has skyrocketed, and attendance at all of them is up.1 Ironically, however, the upsurge in public enthusiasm has been accompanied by financial tension. Earnings from admission and ticket prices have risen far less quickly than expenses, traditional patrons have been unable or unwilling to bridge the gap, and inherently labor-intensive production systems, inflation, energy costs, urban fiscal crises, and constraints on ticket and admission fees promise to make the situation worse.2 The effect of this fiscal malaise has been to involve the government federal, state, and municipal in American high culture to a degree unprecedented in this country. In twelve years the National Endowment for the Arts' budget has grown from $3 million to $96 million, the number of state arts agencies has increased from 18 to 55, and the number of local arts councils has expanded from 175 to 900.3

Heterogenistics and morphogenetics

Abstract: The epistemological restructuring goes much beyond the controversy between the relativists and the universalists. It makes us realize that the basic principle of biological, social and some physical processes is increase of heterogeneity and symbiotization. It requires us to see heterogeneity not as deviation from the average but as indispensable components in the system; not as source of conflict but as source of symbiosis and mutual benefit. Furthermore, it goes beyond the concept of division of labor and considers heterogeneity as interactive network which contributes to further heterogenization, symbiotization and cultural change instead of maintenance of the status quo. It sees heterogeneity not as an instrument of evolution which is assumed to have a universal direction, but as a producer of unpredetermined directions of evolution. It sees culture or elements of culture as generating new needs and goals rather than regarding them as internally satisfactory. And it prompts us to develop a science of finding symbiotic combinations among alternative ways the heterogeneous elements can select, rather than watching unsymbiotic combinations defeat themselves.

The New Class project, II: A frame of reference, theses, conjectures, arguments, and an historical perspective on the role of intellectuals and intelligentsia in the international class contest of the modern era

Abstract: 7.1 The necessary institution for the mass production of the New Class and its special culture of critical discourse is the historically unique system of "public education," whether at the secondary or tertiary levels. This system is characterized by the fact that (a) it is education away from the home and thus away from close parental supervision; (b) it is education mediated by a special group of New Class, "teachers," whose role requires them to take the standpoint of the collectivity as a whole, and who train students to believe that the value of their discourse does not depend upon their differing class origins, that it is not the speaker but the speech that is to be attended. (c) All public schools, therefore, are schools for a linguistic conversion, moving their charges away from the ordinary languages of their everyday lives and moving them toward the CCD (i.e., the culture of critical discourse).

The epistemology of social practice

Abstract: Relying upon a faith that our universe is not a chaos, but an ordered cosmos, I believe that through sincere and courageous effort man can learn what is true. I believe that inherent in what is true is that which will serve creation in its highest form, which is humanity. I believe that truth shall make man free free from its ills of the flesh and the spirit. I rely upon an unfolding knowledge of the truth to provide a solution for the problems and conflicts that vex humanity. I therefore dedicate myself to the task of seeking the truth. Arthur H. Compton1

Marxism and the new middle classes: French critiques

Abstract: An entire history of political sociology could be written on the theme of the "new middle classes." Whether in the guise of the "managerial revolution," "white collar," the "new working class," or the "new petite bourgeoisie," the emergence of intermediate strata in advanced industrial societies has been rediscovered more often than the wheel. Moreover, nowhere does the ideological. commitment of whatever variety found in political sociology appear more tiansparently than in consideration of this problem. Examples abound. German Social Democratic sociologists used the appearance of the new mittelstanden (with their alleged political moderation) as the sociological justification for their Revisionism. Later, and primarily in America, the "managerial revolution" was used by intellectuals of many political persuasions for their own purposes, from liberal economic fundamentalists (Schumpeter, James Burnham) who saw new bureaucratic strata as decisive threats to the integrity of capitalism, to liberal pluralists (Kaysen et al.) who saw the same groups as bringing the private corporation to a new stage of socially responsible soulfulness. Then, in the America of the 1950s and 60s, in what C.Wright Mills called the "Great American Celebration," pluralist political scientists saw the burgeoning new middle classes as a new, moderate political center between polarized elites and workers and, as such, the key to American capitalism's permanent stability (S. M. Lipset's Political Man is one key source here). This analysis was exported in toto to England in the 1950s by "revisionist" British intellectuals to justify the strategic changes which they were urging upon the British Labor Party.

Using Marx’s Theory of Alienation Empirically

Abstract: Although there is a very large literature concerning Marx’s theory of alienation, there is unfortunately little agreement about precisely what the theory is, let alone how best to use it in empirical research. The purpose of the present paper is to try and identify the major issues concerning the theory, and, through a critical examination of existing research, to suggest appropriate directions for future research.

Civilizations and modes of production: Conflicts and convergences

Abstract: The main problem . . . is that of the dialectic of the specific (the factor of nationality, of national culture, of civilization) and the universal (the syncretic civilization that will emerge out of the human species through the mediation of science and technology). In the first stage, the principal danger is not that of accentuating the dimension of nationality but rather that of imposing hegemonic molds that are asserted to be universal, and which will ensure, even more than previous ways, the denaturing of nonWestern world civilizations, destined to be sub-products of technicality and productivism; economic, demographic, ethnographic reserves; an alienated underworld.

The dialectic of ideology and technology

Abstract: In this book, Alvin Gouldner weaves a dialectic of intellectual approaches to the questions of ideology. The sophistication of the new sociolinguistics, hermeneutics and its near relative, Frankfurt-style critical sociology, the revelations of social and intellectual historiography, some elements of traditional social science along with reflections on the experiences and moods of the world of the Movement, the counterculture, and the Watergate scandal all these find their places in the book. Some of it, I think, is a product of too much closeness to the particular situation of the late 1960's and early 70's. Other parts make a general contribution to the analysis of ideology that marks a major intellectual advance. For just how much of an advance, one need only compare it with the work of Mannheim a full generation ago.

Two concepts of coercion

Abstract: In this essay I have begun to construct the liberal and the Marxian concepts of coercion. The differences between them are fundamental and probably irreconcilable. That does not mean, however, that given their respective ontologies, each is valid in its own right. On the contrary, neither concept is valid if its ontological presuppositions are insecurely grounded and/or if it exhibits internal inconsistencies or contradictions. The liberal concept of coercion, explicated by means of the agency model, suffers from both of these defects. The agency model of coercion is seriously, indeed fatally, flawed. For latter-day liberals this is an unpalatable conclusion. Yet I trust that my reasons for reaching this conclusion — however dry and prolix they may seem — are accessible to everyone, liberals and Marxists alike.

Emile Durkheim and the historical thought of Marc Bloch

Abstract: French historiography before Marc Bloch was predominately a history of precisely ascertained, localized and dated facts, such as changes of reign, treaties and battles, formation of new ministries and of new institutions. Historians stressed the accumulation of facts, extreme caution in the formulation of conclusions and the restriction of the historian's statement to what was obviously verifiable. The consequence of this approach was a narrow perception of historical reality.

Ladies, we've been framed

Abstract: If an individual is to act with proper demeanor and show proper deference, then it will be necessary for [her] to have areas of self-determination. [She] must have an expendable supply of the small indulgences which [her] society employs in its idiom of regard-such as cigarettes to give, chairs to proffer, food to provide, and so forth. [She] must have freedom of bodily movement so that it will be possible for [her] to assume a stance that conveys appropriate respect for others and appropriate demeanor on [her] own part⋯

A problem of sociological praxis

Abstract: Just as the economists are the scientific representatives of the bourgeoisie, so the socialists and communists are the theorists of the proletariat [...] But as history proceeds and as the struggle of the proletariat takes shape more clearly, (these theorists) need no longer look for science in their own minds; they only have to give account of what is happening before their eyes, and make themselves its voice. As long as they seek science and only create systems, as long as they are the beginning of the struggle, they see in misery nothing but misery, without recognising its revolutionary and subversive aspect which will overthrow the old society. But from this point on, science, produced by the historical movement and consciously associated with this movement, has ceased to be doctrinaire and has become revolutionary.

Beyond “reform or revolution”

Abstract: The Western left has been and continues to be rent by a Luxemburgian "either/ or" reform or revolution which produces less a confrontation than a mutual isolation of two self-enclosed dialogues. This division has become increasingly artificial and obfuscating in an era of complex technological societies, international interdependence, and nuclear weaponry. The best that can be said of the concept of revolution which is implied is that it is obsolete, at least for the West. For when Luxemburg used the term she meant essentially what Lenin meant by it and what it would come to mean in the lexicon of Soviet "Marxism-Leninism": the violent conquest of political power by the workers. Central to this view is the expectation that "objective historical forces" will produce a "crisis of capitalism" in which a well-organized working class can seize a momentary opportunity to gain control of the state, consolidate its power, and only then proceed to the creation of appropriate social relations. From this vantage point, "reform" appears as a polar opposite strategy, one which legitimates proletarian participation in the political arrangements of a state actually dominated by an alien class.

Genetic structuralism and the analysis of social consciousness

Abstract: Shortly before his death in 1970 Lucien Goldmann reflected on the work he had done in the past twenty-five years. His goal had been the development of a dialectical method for the analysis of literary creativity which would lead first to a scientific sociology of knowledge and from there to a dialectical study of human reality in general.1 Although his efforts were cut short, Goldmann did leave a theoretical model which has applications far beyond the sociology of literature. In what follows, I will describe the model Goldmann referred to as genetic structuralism, and I will show how its creator was able to use it to generate several provocative hypotheses on the relations between human consciousness and social organization.

Political economy and class unconsciousness

Abstract: Late capitalism is never late enough; or so it appears in a period of retrenchment. In the Marxist lexicon, capitalism is always digging its own grave. Every phenomenon is the last one. The end is always here or a moment away. Lenin dubbed imperialism the highest and last state of capitalism. Fascism was analyzed as a decrepit and decaying form of capitalism. Post-World War II capitalism was labeled "late." The left periodically forecasts the imminent destruction of capitalism; the reality is more the reverse: capitalism periodically destroys the left. Only two propositions seem certain: capitalism will not collapse tomorrow, nor will it last forever.

Waiting for lefty

Abstract: As the curtain goes up we see a bare stage. On it are sitting six or seven men in a semi-circle. Lolling against the proscenium Down Left is a young man chewing a toothpick: a gunman. A fat man of porcine appearance is talking directly to the audience. In other words he is the head of a union and the men ranged behind him are a committee of workers. They are now seated in interesting different attitudes and present a wide diversity of type, as we shall soon see. The fat man is hot and heavy under the collar, near the end of a long talk, but not too hot: he is well fed and confident. His nome is Harry Fatt.

Remembering the May Events

Abstract: In May of 1968 ten million French workers transformed a student protest into a revolutionary movement by joining it in the streets. In the short space of a month France was overthrown and restored, but not without suffering a shock which resounds to this day. Like many an unsuccessful revolution before it, the May Events triumphed in the political culture of the society that defeated it in the streets. In the perspective of ten years, it now appears that May '68 inaugurated a new era in French political life, which still continues.