14 results
Search Results
2. Who thinks what about capitalism? Class consciousness and attitudes to economic institutions. [An earlier version of this paper was presented in a seminar series devoted to the 'Citizen Beliefs and Attitudes' strand of the Reshaping Australian Institutions Project at the Research School of Social Sciences, the Australian National University.]
- Author
-
Western, Mark C.
- Published
- 1999
3. The refeudalization of modern capitalism.
- Author
-
Neckel, Sighard
- Subjects
CAPITALISM ,SOCIAL change - Abstract
Jürgen Habermas once investigated the structural transformation of the modern public using the term 'refeudalization'. He reconstructed how, in the course of the development of economic monopolies, pre-bourgeois forms of power again penetrated the public sphere. It is not only the fact that the social sciences today speak again of a crisis of the public sphere, however, that gives Habermas' concept of 'refeudalization' new relevance. On the contrary, a social change is taking place in numerous areas of present-day society which, in the course of a neoliberal modernization of the economy, is once again re-creating pre-modern social forms, hierarchies and power structures. This does not take place as a relapse into past social forms, but as a paradoxical result of social transformations that generate the old as the new and thereby produce 'neo-feudal' patterns in the distribution of wealth, recognition and power. In this paper 'refeudalization' is presented as a key concept for understanding the development of modern capitalist societies today. It will be shown that the dichotomy of 'progressive' and 'regressive' forms of transformation of capitalism must be complemented by more complex models of paradoxical social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Disentangling the normative justification of basic income from the structure of the capitalist wage relation and the culture of the work ethic.
- Author
-
Henderson, Troy
- Subjects
BASIC income ,WORK ethic ,TECHNOLOGICAL innovations ,LABOR supply ,PAY for performance ,LABOR market - Abstract
This article contributes to the literature on basic income and work by articulating the case for disentangling the normative justification of basic income from the structural and temporal imperatives of the capitalist wage relation and the work ethic. It begins with a survey of the major normative justifications of basic income and their respective orientations towards capitalist development and labour markets. Next it presents an argument against tying the justification of basic income to posited labour supply responses based on predicted technological change, the extant empirical evidence from pilots or technical policy simulations. It then addresses the politico-cultural barrier to basic income presented by the wage relation and the work ethic, and critically evaluates the 'exit option' argument for basic income. The article concludes that asserting a right to an ad vitam basic income is an ethically justified and politically astute step towards a necessary decentring of (capitalist) work in basic income scholarship and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Economy and society.
- Author
-
Gilding, Michael and Marjoribanks, Tim
- Subjects
SOCIOECONOMICS ,SOCIOLOGY ,HISTORY of sociology ,SOCIAL network analysis ,FIELD theory (Social psychology) ,SOCIOLOGY education ,ECONOMICS - Abstract
Australian sociologists have barely engaged with the resurgence of economic sociology in the USA and Europe. It might be argued that this lack of engagement arises from a robust local agenda, immune from metropolitan fashions This article argues that this is not the case. Rather, it arises from the enduring residualism of Australian sociology vis-a-vis economics In turn, this residualism is grounded in sociology's late beginnings in Australia, the dominant framework at the time of its institutionalization in the 1950s and 1960s, and the limited challenge presented by critical approaches from the 1970s. The article identifies four major lines of inquiry in the resurgence of economic sociology: network analysis, comparative political economy, field theory and performativity theory Notwithstanding their differences, these approaches direct attention to the social construction of markets. In turn, they challenge both mainstream economics and sociology. The papers in this Special Edition of the Journal of Sociology build upon these lines of inquiry in the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Xenophobia towards asylum seekers: A survey of social theories.
- Author
-
Peterie, Michelle and Neil, David
- Subjects
POLITICAL refugees -- Social conditions ,XENOPHOBIA ,SOCIOBIOLOGY - Abstract
In recent decades, there has been a global rise in fear and hostility towards asylum seekers. Xenophobia – or 'fear of the stranger' – has become a pressing issue in a range of disciplines. Several causal models have been proposed to explain this fear and the hostility it produces. However, disciplinary boundaries have limited productive dialogue between these approaches. This article draws connections between four of the main theories that have been advanced in the existing literature: (1) false belief accounts, (2) xenophobia as new racism, (3) sociobiological explanations and (4) xenophobia as an effect of capitalist globalisation. While this article cannot provide an exhaustive review of theories of xenophobia, it aims to present a useful comparative introduction to current research into the social aspects of xenophobia, particularly as these theories have been applied to asylum seekers. In bringing together divergent models, it also invites interdisciplinary engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
7. Ideology and utopia: Historic crisis of economic rationality and the role of public sociology.
- Author
-
Colic-Peisker, Val
- Subjects
PUBLIC sociology ,UTOPIAS - Abstract
This article reflects on the role of public sociology in the debate on the systemic crisis of western capitalism reinvigorated by the 2007-8 global financial crisis. The article argues that, in the current moment in history, sociologists have a professional duty to challenge the growing irrationality of the economically rational public discourse and to more vigorously uphold the formulation of alternative 'real-utopian' discourses. The article first introduces capitalism's core ideology -- economic rationality -- arguing that it has hardened into the irrational dogma of the ostensibly rational West, with an unrelenting grip on the public discourse, especially in the 'neoliberal' Anglosphere. The ideology suppresses measures needed to address issues such as global warming and global financial disorder. Contemporary 'Anglo' sociology, including Australian sociology, is internally compartmentalized, self-referential and of marginal influence in the public sphere. Moreover, it espouses economic rationality in its practice within increasingly corporatized universities, while maintaining a progressive cloak over its intellectual products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. Seeker-friendly: The Hillsong megachurch as an enchanting total institution.
- Author
-
Wade, Matthew
- Subjects
EVANGELISTIC work ,RATIONALIZATION (Sociology) ,CAPITALISM - Abstract
The increasingly voluntary quality of religious expression has prompted many faith-based entities to embrace ‘secular’ means of evangelism. This is evident within the Sydney-based Hillsong Church, which has grown rapidly in attendees, capital resources and global reach. This ‘seeker-friendly’ strategy, however, raises questions around whether the ‘megachurch’ can sustain itself in offering respite from wearying Weberian processes of rationalisation and disenchantment. Hillsong’s resolution of this dilemma has been to create an encompassing arena of enchantment for constituents, a contemporary Goffmanian ‘total institution’ by reproducing the unalterable mechanisms of the economic order in a way that imbues them with greater meaning. Loyalties are sought by aligning desires for both personal reinvention and collective subsumption with the overarching evangelical aims of the Church. Thus for the committed devotee the transcendent and pragmatic may become synonymous and imbued with wonder, so that any gnawing dissonance felt as characteristic of late capitalism may be reconciled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. The refeudalization of modern capitalism
- Author
-
Sighard Neckel
- Subjects
Inequality ,media_common.quotation_subject ,05 social sciences ,General Medicine ,Neoclassical economics ,Capitalism ,050601 international relations ,Structural transformation ,0506 political science ,Term (time) ,050602 political science & public administration ,Public sphere ,Sociology ,media_common - Abstract
Jürgen Habermas once investigated the structural transformation of the modern public using the term ‘refeudalization’. He reconstructed how, in the course of the development of economic monopolies, pre-bourgeois forms of power again penetrated the public sphere. It is not only the fact that the social sciences today speak again of a crisis of the public sphere, however, that gives Habermas’ concept of ‘refeudalization’ new relevance. On the contrary, a social change is taking place in numerous areas of present-day society which, in the course of a neoliberal modernization of the economy, is once again re-creating pre-modern social forms, hierarchies and power structures. This does not take place as a relapse into past social forms, but as a paradoxical result of social transformations that generate the old as the new and thereby produce ‘neo-feudal’ patterns in the distribution of wealth, recognition and power. In this paper ‘refeudalization’ is presented as a key concept for understanding the development of modern capitalist societies today. It will be shown that the dichotomy of ‘progressive’ and ‘regressive’ forms of transformation of capitalism must be complemented by more complex models of paradoxical social change.
- Published
- 2019
10. Always look on the bright side of life: Cancer and positive thinking.
- Author
-
Youll, Jackie and Meekosha, Helen
- Subjects
OPTIMISM ,CANCER patient psychology ,PSYCHOLOGY of caregivers ,GOVERNMENTALITY ,NEOLIBERALISM ,SOCIAL values ,CAPITALISM ,POWER (Social sciences) - Abstract
‘Positive thinking’ is widely advocated and encouraged, particularly in the area of serious illness. Yet what positive thinking really means for people remains elusive. Research undertaken with carers of people with cancer finds that positive thinking affects the experience of cancer. Findings suggest that positive thinking is an effort by carers to minimize stress and harm, which they perceive would follow from expressing negative feelings. However, from a Foucauldian perspective, common social values and discursive systems embedded in participants’ talk reveal institutional practices and power relations. In addition, positive thinking exists in popular discourse as a form of resistance and agency as well as a symptom of governmentality. It is found that the ideology of positive thinking reflects broader neo-liberal, capitalist culture and is therefore an example of ‘technologies of the self’ through which individuals and populations self-regulate so as to preserve health and maintain demographic norms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. Social capital meets identity.
- Author
-
Brough, Mark, Bond, Chelsea, Hunt, Julian, Jenkins, David, Shannon, Cindy, and Schubert, Lisa
- Subjects
SOCIOLOGY ,CAPITALISM ,LOCAL culture ,ABORIGINAL Australians ,INDIGENOUS peoples ,TORRES Strait Islanders ,RACISM ,DISCRIMINATION (Sociology) - Abstract
This article reports on a qualitative study of social capital within an urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context. Using data generated from 100 Aboriginal and Tortes Strait Islander participants in focus group discussions and in-depth interviews collected by Aboriginal community development workers, this article describes two worlds of social capital available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The primary source of bonding social capital comes from family and wider Aboriginal and Tortes Strait Islander community connections. In the context of an oppressive history and experiences of ongoing racism and discrimination, a second world of bridging social capital remains elusive to many Indigenous Australians. Our findings suggest that to understand the tensions between the two social capitals requires an engagement with the complexities of identity. We argue that it is vital to explore the texture of social capital, rather than just measure its volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
12. Families and fortunes: Accumulation, management succession and inheritance in wealthy families.
- Author
-
Gilding, Michael
- Subjects
FAMILIES ,INHERITANCE & succession ,PERPETUITIES ,FAMILY-owned business enterprises ,ENTREPRENEURSHIP ,MANAGEMENT - Abstract
Since the managerial thesis (notably Bane and Means' classic study), the rote of the family in capitalist enterprise and organization has often been viewed as an anachronism, the remnant of an earlier era. This article uses qualitative interviews with wealthy Australians to argue that family relationships are an enduring influence in relation to accumulation, succession and inheritance. There are two reasons. First, the decline of family control in big business is not just a historical event, but also an ongoing event that informs the passage of most entrepreneurial businesses as they grow in scale and complexity; hence the enduring influence of nepotism in large companies such as News Corporation. Second, a variety of considerations - including dynastic ambitions, tax minimization and trust - encourage family members to cooperate in the management of inheritance through family business institutions, from family holding companies to family offices. These family business institutions possibly reflect the rise of `network forms of organization' grounded in personal trust, at the expense of large companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
13. Economy and society
- Author
-
Michael Gilding and Timothy Marjoribanks
- Subjects
05 social sciences ,Mainstream economics ,General Medicine ,Capitalism ,Social constructionism ,Metropolitan area ,0506 political science ,Economic sociology ,050903 gender studies ,Political economy ,Performativity ,050602 political science & public administration ,Sociology ,0509 other social sciences ,Social science ,Field theory (sociology) - Abstract
Australian sociologists have barely engaged with the resurgence of economic sociology in the USA and Europe. It might be argued that this lack of engagement arises from a robust local agenda, immune from metropolitan fashions. This article argues that this is not the case. Rather, it arises from the enduring residualism of Australian sociology vis-a-vis economics. In turn, this residualism is grounded in sociology's late beginnings in Australia, the dominant framework at the time of its insititutionalization in the 1950s and 1960s, and the limited challenge presented by critical approaches from the 1970s. The article identifies four major lines of inquiry in the resurgence of economic sociology: network analysis, comparative political economy, field theory and performativity theory. Notwithstanding their differences, these approaches direct attention to the social construction of markets. In turn, they challenge both mainstream economics and sociology. The papers in this Special Edition of the Journal of Sociology build upon these lines of inquiry in the Australian context.
- Published
- 2007
14. KNOWING CAPITALISM.
- Author
-
Papson, Stephen
- Subjects
CAPITALISM ,NONFICTION - Abstract
The article reviews the book "Knowing Capitalism," by Nigel Thrift.
- Published
- 2006
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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