Mass Culture, Popular Culture, And Social Life In The Middle East

Georg Stauth

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429709807
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

The papers in this collection have a common theme in the question of modernity and mass culture. Two papers, those by Chaney and Featherstone respectively, discuss aspects of this theme in a general, global context, all the others are concerned more specifically with the regional context of the Middle East. All the articles in this collection were

Part I
Mass Culture: General Perspectives

Consumer Culture, Symbolic Power and Universalism

Mike Featherstone

Introduction

This paper seeks to provide an outline of the basic features of consumer culture and move beyond regarding it as merely a mass culture by inquiring into the problem of the differential reception and the use of consumer goods and images. Utilizing in perspective derived from the work of Pierre Bourdieu it emphasises the symbolic nature of consumer goods and images and the way they are the source of a struggle between various classes and groups who seek to use the logic of symbol systems to create distinctions which favour their own interests. The paper ends with some speculative remarks about the reception of consumer culture in Third World countries. Here the view that consumer culture can merely be regarded as a product of the universal logic of capitalist development is questioned and some of the possible ways how consumer goods and images can be used by various classes and groups to enhance their particular interests are outlined.

Consumer Culture

The term consumer culture points to the impact of mass consumption on everyday life which has involved a series of transformation in the symbolic order, meaning structures and practices. To use the term consumer culture as opposed to for example the term consumer society is to emphasise that mass consumption has not merely provided an extension of the range of commodities available for purchase in the market place, the culmination of a long–term process which has left existing motivational structures and cultural values intact, but that this process has entailed a reorganisation in the form and content of symbolic production and everyday practices. The term consumer culture should not be taken as a judgement which points to the passivity of regimented and regulated consumers, rather consumer culture offers productive consumption in the sense that it holds out the promise of a beautiful and fulfilling private life: the achievement of individuality through the transformation of self and lifestyle. While consumer culture should by no means be seen as identical to contemporary culture, it can be argued that it is a central element within the production of contemporary culture. Despite the persistance of groups which seek to place themselves beyond the reach of the market — for example the oppositional practices of youth subcultures and new social movements — the dynamic of the market with its voracity for the 'new' leads it to rapidly retreading and recycling of both the latest styles and elements of tradition.

Consumer culture therefore is premised upon the constant production of signs, a surfeit of meaning which threatens to drive meaning out of existence, and given its appetite to pass all cultural meanings through its filter, all social struggles must to some extent involve a struggle for the sign, the struggle to produce and fix meanings within a transitory process. It is not the intention here to inquire into the historical origins of the consumer society, a number of useful accounts which spell out its foundation and development in the 18th century (McKendrick et al 1982), the 19th century (Ewen and Ewen 1982), and 20th century (Ewen 1976) already exist. Rather a composite picture of contemporary consumer culture can be built up which highlights the following features:

1. The culture of the consumer society is frequently characterised as materialist and the term consumerism is often used in everyday language to suggest a spiritual impoverishment and hedonistic selfishness in which individuals centre their lives around the consumption of material commodities. This perspective, which also gains support in some academic quarters, suggests that society has witnessed the triumph of economic rationality which has driven out traditional mores and long—held cultural values to produce a colourless post—culture. More specifically the move towards mass production and the establishment of new markets for consumer goods produced changes in the infrastructure of production such as the rationalisation of retailing which led to the emergence of new sites of consumption: the department store, the supermarket, and the shopping centre. The experience of purchasing goods was therefore transformed in the first place by the volume and anonymity of exchanges in the new urban consumption markets, but also because the new sites of consumption involved a qualitive transformation in the way goods were apprehended. Goods were not just systematically accounted and stored in vast warehouse—style shops, to surface only on customer demand, but were placed in new settings in which they were carefully framed and displayed to entice the customer. The whole enterprise of the investment in display is to make goods more than they seem, with the manipulation of images in the setting and the logic of juxtaposition producing a situation in which meaning is 'magically' transferred to goods by a process of elision. The purchase of goods therefore involves the purchase of images and experiences, and the practice of shopping becomes less a 'simple' economic transaction but more of a overtly symbolic event in which individuals purchase and consume images. The act of purchase itself may also be repressed as individuals are encouraged to enjoy voyeuristic consumption, to become flaneurs, conscious of their appearance and the image they give off, as they move through a world of goods on display in anonymous urban spaces. Tourism and theme parks (Disney World being the exemplar) continue this trend to its extreme point when they offer for sale experiences not goods.
2. Consumer culture cannot therefore simply be characterised as a materialist rationalised culture. It does not simply entail the replacement of the consumption of utilities or use —values which have a fixed meaning, by the calculation of exchange value. Rather, the tendency is for the exchange —value to de-stabilise or unhinge, the original use—value and expose its socially defined origins, which paves the way for the perception of commodities in terms of what Adorno (1960) refers to as an Ersatz or secondary use—value dreamed up by those new market goods. Baudrillard (1981) regards this loss of the referent, which is replaced by an unstable field of floating signifiers, as central to the consumer society which is characterised by the dominance of the commodity-sign. It is this which has led Jameson (1981: 131) to place culture at the centre of the reproduction of contemporary capitalism, it is "the very element of consumer society itself, no society has ever been saturated with signs and images like this one."
3. The second feature of consumer culture which must be emphasised, therefore, is that consumer culture is a culture in which images play a central part. So far we have mentioned how a profusion of new meanings become attached to 'material' commodities through display and advertising. But it should also be mentioned that the production of images as commodities is a central feature of consumer culture and the motion picture industry, the tabloid press, mass—circulation, magazines and television constantly create and circulate images.
   These images cannot be regarded as amounting to a coherent dominant ideology as images are continually re—processed and the meaning of goods and experiences re-defined. Everything becomes exchangeable with everything else and there is no apparent limit to the transferability of carefully delineated and once sealed apart meanings: the politician becomes local hero, the weapons dealer becomes the good citizen and the capitalist becomes the romantic defender of tradition and nature (Semsek and Stauth 1984). We can add to the list that the filmstar or popstar becomes royalty (Fairbanks, Gable, Presley), royalty becomes showbiz (Princess Di) and the celebrity becomes politician and the politician a celebrity (Reagan). Traditions also are ransacked and re —inverted in the search for potent symbols of beauty, romance, luxury and exotica. Consumer culture imagery and advertising are essentially modernist in their transvaluation of values and collapsing of traditional reference points in pursuit of new juxtapositions which will re—activate memories and stimulate desires. It is in this sense that Benjamin (1982) described consumer culture as a 'dream—world', an illusory reality, which nevertheless contained a positive or Utopian moment in its promise of material abundance (Buck–Morss 1983). It has also become clearer in the late 20th century that the fragments from which the dream is constructed are to a large extent filtered through the American media, and that our desire for material abundance, fulfillment and self-determination cannot easily be detached from American dreams.
4. Turning to the third feature of consumer culture it should now be evident that our day—to—day consumption practices cannot simply be designated as materialist. The planning, purchase, display and maintenance of commodities does of course require a good deal of instrumental calculation and the stringencies of time—budgeting has led commentators to refer to 'the harried leisured class' (Linder 1970) and 'leisure as work' (Horkheimer and Adorno 1972). Yet it can be argued that this instrumental orientation which is to be found at the heart of the so—called private sphere is increasingly harnessed to expressive purposes. Here we can follow Simmel (1978; Frisby 1985) who grounds the aesthehic sphere in the modern urban–consumer lifeworld. In contrast to Habermas (1981) who follows Weber in separating off the bohemian aesthetic sphere as a counter—world, we would refer to the symbolic aspects of commodities discussed above and point to the interpenetration and crossovers between the spheres which has led to a greater aestheticisation of reality. Commodities become stylised and style is a valuable commodity. Modernist styles with their reflexivity to everyday life become incorporated into the structure of daily life and the artistic counter-cultural notion of life as a work of art is given wider currency.

Hence in contemporary consumer culture lifestyle is accorded a privileged position. Consumption practices do not involve the passive and conformist assimilation of mass–produced commodities, rather the emphasis is placed upon the re–fashioning and re–working of commodities (which are themselves tastefully selected) to achieve a stylistic effect which expresses the individuality of their owner. This is the world of the Options superwoman (Winship 1983) and 'George and Lynne' (Featherstone and Hepworth 1983) whose houses, furnishings, cars, clothing, bodies and leisure–time pursuits are carefully orchestrated into an expressive and stylistic whole. The emphasis here is upon display with the individual who is aware of the effeivity of juxtaposition and the elision°° symbolic me√Naning at the heart of consumer culture, conscious that he/she speaks not only with his/her clothes and appearance, but with all the goods and practices that surround him or her. Bodily expression and presentation of self become important not only in the home, amidst ones's world of goods, but also in more anonymous public spaces — the city street, shopping centre, department store, railway station, airport lounge, wine bar, fashionable pub, leisure centre, tourist resort etc. Advertising and the media constantly emphasise that the individual's self—image is mediated through his appearance which in turn depends upon the reactions of significant others and strangers. Consequently it is emphasised that the enhancement of appearance by fashionable clothing, body maintenance and cosmetic routines will result in an enhanced self—image.

Although it has been argued that consumer culture accords a special place to visual images this should not suggest that the image has replaced the word, rather the whole enterprise of creating a fulfilling and expressive lifestyle, of making the right choices to best use one's time when one has 'only one life to live', creates a voracious demand for information to guide the selection of the right options. Some of the information is of course of a functional and 'how—to—do it' nature, yet the selection of goods, the market choices involves aesthetic judgement and therefore there is a demand for interpretations of cultural goods, experiences and lifestyles. There is no shortage of the printed word in magazines, newspapers, publicity material which will guide the consumer in making not only a cost—efficient, but stylistically appropriate choice.

The fact that it is the upwardly mobile, such as the new rich, who have the strongest appetite for information about expressive and fulfilling lifestyles suggests that taste is socially structured. It has often been argued that consumer culture plays down the origin of goods with the production process and class distinctions deliberately kept absent from the imagery. By flattering the purchaser's individuality and sense of taste, life is presented as a simple status—game in which distinctions are achieved via the purchase of goods which are held to be within the reach of us all. This of course glosses over real distinctions in the capacity to consume and ignores the low paid, the unemployed, the old.

It has also been argued that different classes use goods in different ways and that similarities in consumption patterns conceal the basic differences between classes which are based upon contrasting views of the meaning of social relationship and 'whole ways of life'. As Raymond Williams (1961: 312) remarks in an oft—quoted passage:

The primary distinction between bourgeois and working class culture is to be sought in the whole way of life, and here again we must not confine ourselves to such evidence as housing, dress and modes of leisure. Industrial production tends to create uniformity in such matters, but the vital distinction lies at a different level. The crucial distinguishing element in English life since the Industrial Revolution is not language, not dress, not leisure ... The crucial distinction is between alternative ideas of the nature of society.

Williams' statement has become virtually the orthodox position on working class culture in Britain and is endorsed by members of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (Clarke et al 1979) and others (Fiske and Hartley 1978; Dixey 1983). It is important in its emphasis upon the socially structured use of goods, with class culture, or what Bourdieu calls habitus, a key formative factor: the working class use goods in different ways both from the middle class and those suggested by the media publicity for expressive lifestyles.

At the same time Williams' statement paradoxically concedes too much to the democratic self—image of a mass produced consumer culture with its assumption of cross class uniformities in housing, dress, leisure etc. Rather, it can be argued that the uniformities are superficial, for the consumer society from its origins has encouraged the play of difference, and although in its earlier phase the mass production of goods may be seen as creating uniformities, even then the dynamic of fashion has always sought to offer inividuality and difference not just conformity. In the late 20th century, technological changes along with customer demand have encouraged the consumer goods industries to produce a wider range of goods, and build—in subtle variations to break down the mass production runs. In effect they are able to de-massify markets and deliver to a greater extent the individuality and difference the advertisers always promised. This in turn increases the complexity and significance of the act of purchasing and interpreting the subsequent differences in signs, which in turn increases the demand for information to guide and confirm choices. Consumer culture therefore does not encourage a grey conformism in the choice of goods, rather it seeks to educate individuals to read the differences in signs, to decode the minutiae of distinctions in dress, housing, furnishing, leisure lifestyles and equipment. This is not to argue for the replacement of a class model by a status one, but to suggest that differences in goods and consumption patterns are often used to reinforce distinctions between classes and class fractions.

Symbolic Power

Pierre Bourdieu's approach to cultural consumption is an important step forward in understanding differences in the reception of, and taste for, consumer goods. For Bourdieu working class culture and consumption practices cannot be understood in their own terms, but must be related to an analysis of the production of culture in general which in turn is based upon the generation of differences or distinctions in taste which are structured to reinforce class relations. Proceeding via the use of a wide range of empirical material (including detailed surveys of consumption patterns and lifestyles encompassing preferences in food, drink, hobbies, cars, sport, music, art, novels, newspapers, magazines, holidays etc. and anthropological analyses of, for example, body image and presentation via photographs. Bourdieu (1984, see especially chart p. 128—9) superimposes a map of lifestyle and consumption practices upon the occupational and class structure. Against the notion that differences in taste are the results of autonomous choices derived from natural proclivities/talents) or that they form a coherent body of knowledge which amounts to a dominant ideology which reflects class relations in an unmediated way, Bourdieu argues that the symbolic realm cannot be detach...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: Mass Culture: General Perspectives
• Part II: Features of Islam and Popular Culture
• Part III: Popular Culture and the Nation State
• Part IV: Social Life and Popular Culture in Transition: Case Studies from Cairo