Defusing the male working class: Populist politics and reality television

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 545-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Stiernstedt ◽  
Peter Jakobsson
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Reality Show ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Cultural Artefact ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Right Wing Populism

This article presents an analysis of the makeover reality show Real Men, which was broadcast on Swedish television in 2016. The analysis shows that Real Men – like other shows of its genre – functions as a form of ‘governmentality’ through which forms of neoliberal subjectivity are propagated and pedagogically enforced on ‘bad subjects’. However, the show surpasses the genre conventions by questioning the authority of the norms and values (i.e. middle-class, cosmopolitan and urban values) that are being propagated and in letting the values held by the working-class men on the show eventually be victorious and accepted within the narrative. The purpose of this article is to try to make sense of a popular cultural artefact such as Real Men against the background of the crisis of legitimacy for the neoliberal ideology and the rise of (right-wing) populism, and to try to understand how the forms and genres of popular culture transform and respond to this changing political context.

Shaming the working class in post-socialist Reality Television

2020 ◽  
pp. 136754942090279
Author(s):  
Irena Reifová
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Investment Project ◽  
Reality Tv ◽  
Cultural Setting ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Reality Show ◽  
Everyday Reality

This article examines the ways in which working class participants are shamed in Czech Reality TV programmes. Previous research demonstrates that everyday Reality TV is an exercise in neoliberal governmentality and respective technology of the self, which advances the idea of the entrepreneurial self as a capital investment project and a brand. The article seeks to illuminate the process of stigmatisation of those who do not comply with these norms in the cultural setting of post-socialist neoliberalism. It builds on the arguments contending that neoliberal capitalism was implemented in the post-socialist part of Europe with higher momentum and stronger hegemonic power than in the West. The research looks at the acts of shaming working classes in three different Reality TV programmes as the dynamics through which class positions are moulded in a culture with a yet emerging class structure. The qualitative analysis of shaming interactions reveals that a working class position in the post-socialist cultural setting is articulated predominantly to excessive preservation of habits dating back to the period of socialism or, however, insufficient employment of the innovations and opportunities brought about by capitalism. Qualitative clustering of the targets of shaming resulted in four different types of self – marketised self, depaternalised self, unclassed self and (desperately) inegalitarian self – which the analysed Reality TV programmes endorse as the ideal facets of post-socialist personhood. The master homology between the genre of makeover reality show and post-socialism is detected as both systems are entrenched in the values of a complete overhaul of an individual or society.

Castle, Vernon (1887–1918) & Castle, Irene Foote (1893–1969)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan C. Cook
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Individual Response ◽  
Active Lifestyle ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
One Step ◽  
Racial Hierarchies

During the years 1911–1917, Irene Foote Castle (1893–1969) and her husband Vernon Castle (1887–1918) explicitly marketed ragtime dancing as "modern" to their upper-class and, increasingly, middle-class audiences eager to partake in new kinaesthetic forms of popular culture. Dancers, who previously skipped to the 6/8 marching meter of the two step, began to trot, strut, and glide, taking a step on each beat of syncopated 2/4 meter music long associated with African American culture. Easily learned, these new one-step dances invited improvisation and individual response. Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle, as they called themselves, became the most public proponents of new trotting dances and distinguished their style from those previously associated with working-class consumers, through discursive and embodied associations of modernity, whiteness, class prestige, and restraint. Irene Castle presented new modes of modern femininity through her corset-less fashions, short haircut, and active lifestyle. With the assistance of their agent Elisabeth Marbury, the Castles collaborated with noted African American composer and bandleader James Reese Europe, who composed works for them and whose ensemble accompanied their live performances. Thus while drawing on the "primitive" yet energizing power of syncopated music, the Castles and their self-proclaimed "refined" dance style offered a modernity that promised newfound vitality while maintaining racial hierarchies.

Ursachen für die Entstehung antidemokratischer Haltungen. Ausgewählte quantitative Ergebnisse

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 679-699
Author(s):  
Heinz Stapf-Finé
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Social Question ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Middle Class People

Zusammenfassung Vor dem Hintergrund einer zunehmenden Politikverdrossenheit und des aufkommenden Rechtspopulismus werden mögliche Ursachen der Entstehung antidemokratischer Haltungen überprüft. Vorgestellt werden quantitative Befunde einer empirischen Überprüfung im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojekts im Berliner Bezirk Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Hinsichtlich soziodemografischer Daten entsprechen die Befunde den Erwartungen: Menschen, die der Demokratie distanziert gegenüberstehen, haben häufiger Erfahrungen mit Arbeitslosigkeit im Vergleich mit Zufriedenen. Gleichgültigkeit und Distanz gegenüber der Demokratie ist eher bei Menschen mit niedrigen Bildungsabschlüssen zu finden. Bei Gutverdienern und der Mittelschicht überwiegen eindeutig positive Grundhaltungen gegenüber der Demokratie, bei Geringverdienern halten sich positive und negative Haltungen nur noch die Waage. Insofern muss die soziale Frage in der politischen Debatte wieder auf die Tagesordnung. Überraschend sind die Befunde hinsichtlich autoritärer Haltungen und menschenfeindlicher Einstellungen: es sind nicht die Demokratie-Distanzierten, sondern eher die Unpolitischen, welche solche Haltungen an den Tag legen. Daraus ergeben sich wichtige (sozial-)politische Befunde für die Praxis und die politische Bildung. Abstract: Causes for the Development of Antidemocratic Attitudes. Selected Quantitative Findings On the background of increasing disenchantment in politics and increasing right wing populism possible causes for antidemocratic attitudes are examined. In the paper quantitative findings of an empirical research project in the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf are presented regarding the causes of such attitudes. Concerning socio-demographical factors the results correspond with the expectations. People that are distant towards democracy have more experiences with unemployment as compared with people that are satisfied with democracy. Indifference or distance towards democracy can more often be found among people with a lower educational level. Among higher earners and middle-class people positive attitudes towards democracy prevail. Poor earners are split in positive and negative attitudes towards democracy. These findings underline the neeed that the social question must get more importance in political discussions. Surprising were the findings concerning authoritarian and inhumane (racist) attitudes: it is less the democracy distant and to a much bigger extent the unpolitical people that are prone to such attitudes. This implies important findings for practical (social) politics and for civic education.

Mass Observers’ Attitudes to Class, 1990

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Class A ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
Cultural Homelessness ◽  
Post War

This chapter uses responses to Mass Observation’s 1990 directive on ‘social divisions’ to examine what the Mass Observers thought about class. It concludes that earlier accounts have overstated these (largely middle-class) writers’ comfortableness with technical, sociological class language. Rather, many were hostile to or ambivalent about using such terms, and drew on popular culture, especially humour, when talking about class. A rejection of ‘class’ and snobbishness, and an emphasis on ordinariness and authenticity, were again central to many Mass Observers’ writings about class. In their testimonies, we can also see that new ethnic diversity and new, more diverse norms of gender in post-war Britain had disrupted the old class categories. Upwardly mobile people were particularly over-represented among the Mass Observers and their writing shows that upward social mobility—which expanded in the post-war decades—could lead to a cultural ‘homelessness’ and critiques of both traditional working-class and traditional middle-class cultures.

The Two Faces of Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe

1993 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 663-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Georg Betz
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Party Group

During the past several years, radical right-wing populist parties have made impressive electoral gains in a growing number of West European countries. Their dramatic surge to political prominence has obscured the fact that these parties hardly form a homogeneous party group. Generally, it is possible to distinguish between neo-liberal and national populist parties. Both types of parties are a response to the profound economic, social, and cultural transformation of advanced societies interpreted as a transition from industrial welfare to postindustrial individualized capitalism. National populist parties are primarily working-class parties which espouse a radically xenophobic and authoritarian program. Neoliberal parties appeal to a mixed social constituency and tend to stress the marketoriented, libertarian elements of their program over xenophobic ones. Rather than being mere short-lived protest phenomena, radical right-wing populist parties are a reflection and expression of new political conflicts created by the transition to postindustrial capitalism.

Profane Culture

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Willis
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
The Self ◽  
Contemporary Theory ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rock N Roll

A classic of British cultural studies, this book takes the reader into the worlds of two important 1960s youth cultures — the motor-bike boys and the hippies. The motor-bike boys were working-class motorcyclists who listened to the early rock 'n' roll of the late 1950s. In contrast, the hippies were middle-class drug users with long hair and a love of progressive music. Both groups were involved in an unequal but heroic fight to produce meaning and their own cultural forms in the face of a larger society dominated by the capitalist media and commercialism. They were pioneers of cultural experimentation, the self-construction of identity, and the curating of the self, which, in different ways, have become so widespread today. This book develops an important and still very contemporary theory and methodology for understanding the constructions of lived and popular culture. Its new preface discusses the ties between the cultural moment explored in the book and today.

Redeeming the ‘ordinary working class’

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
Robbie Shilliam
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Western World ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Moral Economies ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Philosophical Debates

Critical responses to the rise of right-wing populism in the Western world have done much to draw attention to the racialization of moral economies. However, it is not only remarkable that class has returned to the grammar of politics as an intractably racialized category – the white-working-class; it is just as remarkable that the racialized moral opprobrium of the underclass has given way rhetorically and ideologically to a racialized moral commitment to social justice for the ordinary working class. More critical reflection is needed to understand the way in which the imagined constituency of populist lore is worthy of redemption not just by virtue of their whiteness but of their white-ordinary-working-classness. This article presents a series of key comparative moments in debates over social security and welfare provision – past and present – that demonstrate the centrality of labour’s ‘cooperative spirit’ for political-philosophical debates over social security and welfare. To this end, the author methodologically sketches out a set of political ‘grammars’ that through these debates frame ethical quandaries and policy prescriptions. The author argues that such political grammars have variously apprehended the orderly or disorderly nature of labour’s cooperative spirit by reference to patriarchal and eugenic filiations. While the debates interrogated here have no doubt utilized different terms and categories, their grammars resonate strongly. This gives cause to consider that the redemption of the ‘ordinary’ working class requires the segregation of that class along imperial – and postimperial – lines of heredity.

scholarly journals Social Integration and Right-Wing Populist Voting in Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-398
Author(s):  
Patrick Sachweh
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Social Marginalization ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Party Support ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Socially Excluded

Abstract Electoral support for right-wing populist parties is typically explained either by economic deprivation or cultural grievances. Attempting to bring economic and cultural explanations together, recent approaches have suggested to conceptualize right-wing populist support as a problem of social integration. Applying this perspective to the German case, this article investigates whether weak subjective social integration-or subjective social marginalization, respectively-is associated with the intention to vote for the AfD. Furthermore, it asks whether the strength of this association varies across income groups. Based on original survey data from 2017, the results show that indicators of weak subjective social integration-feeling socially excluded, being anxious about one’s status, and distrusting others-increase the likelihood of voting for the AfD. Moreover, weak subjective social integration increases right-wing party support particularly among the middle-class. Thus, next to fears of downward mobility, feelings of subjective social marginalization emerge as a pathway to right-wing populism for the middle-class.

Middle-Class Victorian Street Arabs: Modern Re-creations of the Baker Street Irregulars

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Cheetham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Street Children ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sherlock Holmes ◽  
Upward Shift

In three of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories there are brief appearances of the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of ‘street Arabs’ who help Holmes with his investigations. These children have been re-imagined in modern children's literature in at least twenty-seven texts in a variety of media and with writers from both Britain and the United States. All these modern stories show a marked upward shift in the class of the Irregulars away from the lower working class of Conan-Doyle's originals. The shift occurs through attributing middle-class origins to the leaders of the Irregulars, through raising the class of the Irregulars in general, and through giving the children life environments more comfortable, safe, and financially secure than would have been possible for late-Victorian street children. Because of the variety in texts and writers, it is argued that this shift is not a result of the conscious political or ideological positions of individual writers, but rather reflects common unconscious narrative choices. The class-shift is examined in relation to the various pressures of conventions in children's literature, concepts of audience, and common concepts of class in society.

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