Sexual freedom and the rise of uncertainty

Die Israelin Eva Illouz, die in Marokko geboren wurde, bewegt sich im Grenzbereich zwischen Soziologie, Medienwissenschaft und Psychologie. Unter anderem erforscht sie, wie die Wirtschaft das Privatleben beeinflusst und was Emotionen im Geschäftsleben bewirken. Ihre Erklärung für den Erfolg des Bestsellers „Fifty Shades of Grey“ begründet sie damit, dass die klaren Rollenmuster und verbindlichen Absprachen zwischen den Protagonisten den Lesern gefallen, wohingegen die Realität oft irritierend anders aussieht. Eva Illouz hat ihre Rede „Sexual Freedom and the Rise of Uncertainty – Sexuelle Freiheit und die zunehmende Verunsicherung“ in englischer Sprache gehalten

Towards a Critical Understanding of Music, Emotion and Self-Identity

The article begins by outlining a dominant conception of these relations in sociologically informed analysis of music, which sees music primarily as a positive resource for active self-making. My argument is that this conception rests on a problematic notion of the self and also on an overly optimistic understanding of music, which implicitly sees music as highly independent of negative social and historical processes. I then attempt to construct a) a more adequately critical conception of personal identity in modern societies; and b) a more balanced appraisal of music-society relations. I suggest two ways in which relations between self, music and society may not always be quite so positive or as healthy as the dominant conception suggests: 1) Music is now bound up with the incorporation of authenticity and creativity into capitalism, and with intensified consumption habits. 2) Emotional self-realisation through music is now linked to status competition. Interviews are analysed

What a girl’s gotta do: the labour of the biopolitical celebrity in austerity Britain

This article debunks the wide-spread view that young female celebrities, especially those who rise to fame through reality shows and other forms of media-orchestrated self-exposure, dodge ‘real’ work out of laziness, fatalism and a misguided sense of entitlement. Instead, we argue that becoming a celebrity in a neoliberal economy such as that of the United Kingdom, where austerity measures disproportionately disadvantage the young, women and the poor is not as irregular or exceptional a choice as previously thought, especially since the precariousness of celebrity earning power adheres to the current demands of the neoliberal economy on its workforce. What is more, becoming a celebrity involves different forms of labour that are best described as biopolitical, since such labour fully involves and consumes the human body and its capacities as a living organism. Weight gain and weight loss, pregnancy, physical transformation through plastic surgery, physical symptoms of emotional distress and even illness and death are all photographically documented and supplemented by extended textual commentary, usually with direct input from the celebrity, reinforcing and expanding on the visual content. As well as casting celebrity work as labour, we also maintain that the workings of celebrity should always be examined in the context of wider cultural and real economies

Yoga jam: remixing Kirtan in the Art of Living

Yoga Jam are a group of musicians in the United Kingdom who are active members of the Art of Living, a transnational Hindu-derived meditation group. Yoga Jam organize events—also referred to as yoga raves and yoga remixes—that combine Hindu devotional songs (bhajans) and chants (mantras) with modern Western popular musical genres, such as soul, rock, and particularly electronic dance music. This hybrid music is often played in a clublike setting, and dancing is interspersed with yoga and meditation. Yoga jams are creative fusions of what at first sight seem to be two incompatible phenomena—modern electronic dance music culture and ancient yogic traditions. However, yoga jams make sense if the Durkheimian distinction between the sacred and the profane is challenged, and if tradition and modernity are not understood as existing in a sort of inverse relationship. This paper argues that yoga raves are authenticated through the somatic experience of the modern popular cultural phenomenon of clubbing combined with therapeutic yoga practices and validated by identifying this experience with a reimagined Vedic tradition

Consuming the romantic utopia: Introduction to a political economy of love

Combining historical and sociological research methods, this dissertation explores how modern romantic representations and practices have been shaped by the culture of capitalism. The historical research explores how romantic love became integrated within mass markets of consumption. During the closing decades of the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, traditional patterns of courtship were replaced by dating defined as a set of ritualized set of consumptive leisurely activities (dining, touring, going to the movies, riding a car etc.). The genesis of an industry of leisure targeted to the couple was accompanied by the representation of the consuming couple in the nascent mass culture of advertising and movies. The analysis of advertising images and articles drawn from various middle-class and working-class magazines shows that the depiction of romantic love in mass media iconography and the growth of the leisure market were simultaneously and reciprocally instrumental to each other: while the leisure market was the outlet of romantic behavior, romance justified symbolically the consumption of these goods. The commodification of romance was accompanied by a deep romanticization of commodities. The historical analysis sets the background against which modern practices and representations of romance are analyzed. Using in depth interviews with working-class people, professionals and intellectuals, the sociological research analyzes how the symbols, images and practices derived from the mass market of consumption have been incorporated within modern representations and practices of love. Results reveal that the market-based romance functions as a collectively binding utopia and that class differences are contained within this collective utopia

Consuming the romantic utopia: Introduction to a political economy of love

Combining historical and sociological research methods, this dissertation explores how modern romantic representations and practices have been shaped by the culture of capitalism. The historical research explores how romantic love became integrated within mass markets of consumption. During the closing decades of the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, traditional patterns of courtship were replaced by dating defined as a set of ritualized set of consumptive leisurely activities (dining, touring, going to the movies, riding a car etc.). The genesis of an industry of leisure targeted to the couple was accompanied by the representation of the consuming couple in the nascent mass culture of advertising and movies. The analysis of advertising images and articles drawn from various middle-class and working-class magazines shows that the depiction of romantic love in mass media iconography and the growth of the leisure market were simultaneously and reciprocally instrumental to each other: while the leisure market was the outlet of romantic behavior, romance justified symbolically the consumption of these goods. The commodification of romance was accompanied by a deep romanticization of commodities. The historical analysis sets the background against which modern practices and representations of romance are analyzed. Using in depth interviews with working-class people, professionals and intellectuals, the sociological research analyzes how the symbols, images and practices derived from the mass market of consumption have been incorporated within modern representations and practices of love. Results reveal that the market-based romance functions as a collectively binding utopia and that class differences are contained within this collective utopia

Foules, groupes, climats

L’incompatibilité entre les émotions et une vie politique éclairée est l’un des clichés les plus persistants et les plus répandus de la philosophie politique et du discours journalistique. Ce commentaire sur Donald Trump publié récemment dans le New York Times en offre un exemple parmi tant d’autres : Suite à sa victoire aux primaires républicaines puis à l’élection présidentielle, la campagne de Trump a été saluée pour son génie tactique. Mais ce sont les élans émotionnels de Trump qui ont d..

The End of Love: A Sociology of Negative Relations

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