"“For the look of the thing”: middle-class consumerism in the Mayhew Brothers’ Living for Appearances and the Greatest Plague of Life"

Lyuboslovie ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 74-91
Author(s):  
Maria Dimitrova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
The Self ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
The Look

The paper discusses the problem of consumerism in the Mayhew brothers’ Living for Appearances and The Greatest Plague of Life: Or, The Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Servant. The two novels offer a satirical comment on the emergence, in the mid-19th century, of a distinctive commodity and consumer culture in England – a development intimately related to the growth and the new visibility of the middle classes. The paper places the novels within their appropriate cultural-historical context and discusses the ways in which they address contemporary anxieties about the new consumerism. Most importantly, it focuses on the nexus between consumption and social aspiration; on commodification; on the imitation and adulteration of commodities and social identities; on the specularization of the self; and, with respect to The Greatest Plague of Life, on the problem of the specifically female gender of consumerism.

A New Look at Gentrification: 2. A Model of Gentrification

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1335-1354 ◽  
Author(s):  
P A Redfern
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Demand Side ◽  
New Middle Class ◽  
Housing Services ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
New Look

In this paper I propose a model of gentrification based on the notion that gentrification closes a gap between the flow of housing services fixed in a particular vintage of the housing stock and those available from the most modern properties. This gap is not a rent gap, therefore, but an investment gap. Modelled in this manner, gentrification appears as a problem of maximization under constraint and a subsubset of general home improvements. It is a transient and historically unique (noncyclical) phenomenon. Similarly, these constraints and the opportunities currently available to overcome them exist only in a particular historical context, the peculiarities of which must also be taken into account if gentrification is fully to be explained. In particular, these include the development of domestic technologies and the 19th-century conditions of supply of the housing available currently for gentrifying. I concentrate on the supply-side issues in gentrification, but deny that the demand-side issues can be handled via explanations based on postindustrialism, postmodernity, or the rise of a new middle class.

The “Orient” in Florence (19th Century). From Oriental Studies to the Collection of Islamic Art, from a Reconstruction of the “Orient” to the Exotic Dream of the Rising Middle Class

2013 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-31
Author(s):  
Maria Giovanna Stasolla
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Islamic Art ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Oriental Studies ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Applied Arts

Abstract The second half of the 19th Century was in Florence a period of extraordinary and fruitful interest in the oriental world when the philological and oriental studies were promoted. Thanks to the fervour of these studies, in 1878 Florence was designated to host the 4th Congress of the Orientalists. The “Orient” excited curiosity and collecting passion to such an extent that we could argue that the legacy of the magnificent Medicean collecting was inherited by the private middle-classes. Moreover, the new cultural context contributed to transforming the taste, it gave rise to new styles in architecture as well as in decoration and generally in the applied arts. After examining these topics, we will focus our attention on a little known fact that we could describe as the rebuilt “Orient” for entertainment, that is to say the Florentine Carnival in 1886, an event of the “disquieting” exoticism by which Europe represented the Islamic world.

Some Moments in History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ester Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
History Of

Chapter one sets the historical context in which both nationalist and middle-class reformist movements developed in colonial Kerala and India across caste, class, gender, and religious diversity. It focuses on the reformist movements known as the Yoga Kshema Sabha (henceforth YKS) and Nambudiri Yuva Jana Sangham (YJS) which developed at the beginning of the twentieth century to voice the class ambitions of young Nambudiri Brahmins. The YKS and YJS ethos will be discussed in relation to the colonial de-legitimation of indigenous kinship and to the broader history of gender reform that has marked the middle classes in Kerala. An analysis of YKS documents will highlight how the debate on kinship expressed the aim of drawing a ‘divine elite’ into the arena of inter-community competition and the place of reformed domesticity in this process.

Class, Control, and Classical Music

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Bull
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Music Ensembles ◽  
The Aesthetic

Through an ethnographic study of young people playing and singing in classical music ensembles in the south of England, this book analyses why classical music in England is predominantly practiced by white middle-class people. It describes four ‘articulations’ or associations between the middle classes and classical music. Firstly, its repertoire requires formal modes of social organization that can be contrasted with the anti-pretentious, informal, dialogic modes of participation found in many forms of working-class culture. Secondly, its modes of embodiment reproduce classed values such as female respectability. Thirdly, an imaginative dimension of bourgeois selfhood can be read from classical music’s practices. Finally, its aesthetic of detail, precision, and ‘getting it right’ requires a long-term investment that is more possible, and makes more sense, for middle- and upper-class families. Through these arguments, the book reframes existing debates on gender and classical music participation in light of the classed gender identities that the study revealed. Overall, the book suggests that inequalities in cultural production can be understood through examining the practices that are used to create a particular aesthetic. It argues that the ideology of the ‘autonomy’ of classical music from social concerns needs to be examined in historical context as part of the classed legacy of classical music’s past. It describes how the aesthetic of classical music is a mechanism through which the middle classes carry out boundary-drawing around their protected spaces, and within these spaces, young people’s participation in classical music education cultivates a socially valued form of self-hood.

Outsourcing the Self

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunil Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Call Center ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Self ◽  
New Middle Class ◽  
First World ◽  
Class Youth ◽  
Call Center Workers

This chapter analyzes how call center workers, who are mostly middle- and working-class youth, create narratives that are described as expressing modern forms of “individualized Indianness.” The chapter demonstrates how call center workers produce narratives of individualized Indianness by engaging in practices of mimicry, accent training, and consumption; by going to public spaces such as bars and pubs; and by having romantic relationships that are largely hidden from their families. The narratives examined in this chapter are created out of an asymmetrical context of power as young Indians work as “subjects” of a global economy who primarily serve “First World” customers. The interviews with Indian youth reflect how tradition and modernity, mimicry and authenticity, collude with each other to dialogically create new middle-class subjectivities.

Naive, connected, and counselor tween girl identity groups: Consumption practices and social identity constructions within consumer culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 146954052110160
Author(s):  
Tiziana Brenner Beauchamp Weber ◽  
Eliane C. Francisco Maffezzolli
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Consumer Identity ◽  
Identity Constructions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Identity Groups

This research identifies the relationship between consumption practices and the construction of social identity among tweens in a Brazilian context. Using consumer culture theory and social identity theory, we employed 80 h of observation, 9 interviews, and projective techniques with fifteen girls. Three social identity groups were acknowledged: naive, connected, and counselors. These groups revealed different identity projects, such as the integration and maintenance within the social group of current belonging, the access to the social group with the greater distinctions, the generation of differentiable and positive distinctions (both intra- and intergroups), and the expression and consolidation of identity and its respective consumption practices. This research contributes to the consumption literature that relates to consumer identity projects. The findings reveal a current resignification of girlhood and exposes tweens’ consumption practices as a direct mechanism of the expression and construction of their social identities. These are mechanisms of social identity construction as mediated by group relations through the processes of access, maintenance, integration, differentiation, and distinction.

Reevaluating the Middle-Class Protest Paradigm: A Case-Control Study of Democratic Protest Coalitions in Russia

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRYN ROSENFELD
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Population Data ◽  
Case Control ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Electoral Fraud ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
State Sector ◽  
State Dependent ◽  
Selective Incentives

A large literature expects rising middle classes to promote democracy. However, few studies provide direct evidence on this group in nondemocratic settings. This article focuses on politically important differentiation within the middle classes, arguing that middle-class growth in state-dependent sectors weakens potential coalitions in support of democratization. I test this argument using surveys conducted at mass demonstrations in Russia and detailed population data. I also present a new approach to studying protest based on case-control methods from epidemiology. The results reveal that state-sector professionals were significantly less likely to mobilize against electoral fraud, even after controlling for ideology. If this group had participated at the same rate as middle-class professionals from the private sector, I estimate that another 90,000 protesters would have taken to the streets. I trace these patterns of participation to the interaction of individual resources and selective incentives. These findings have implications for authoritarian stability and democratic transitions.

Mafalda: Middle Class, Everyday Life, and Politics in Argentina, 1964-1973

2014 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Cosse
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Comic Strip ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Modernization ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Abstract In this article I reconstruct the history of Mafalda, the famous comic strip by the Argentine cartoonist Quino that was read, discussed, and viewed as an emblematic representation of Argentina’s middle class. With the aim of contributing to discussions on the interpretation of the middle class in Argentina and Latin America, I examine the emergence, circulation, and sociopolitical significance of the comic from its first strips in 1964 until Quino stopped producing new installments in 1973, making use of two conceptual and methodological approaches: a perspective situated at the intersection of the everyday and the political, as well as a consideration of humor as a way of exploring social identities. I argue first that Mafalda’s ironic and conceptual humor worked with the contradictions of the middle class as it faced social modernization, cultural and political radicalization, and a weakening democracy. Second, I suggest that the strip contributed to a representation of a heterogeneous middle class marked by ideological differences but nonetheless conceived as one. Third, I claim that such a representation lost its relevance with the political polarization and violence of the 1970s, as portraying a middle class—or a society—united despite differences was no longer feasible in that context. To illustrate this, the article closes by noting that, shortly after Mafalda was discontinued, state terrorism would brutally demonstrate just how little space there was in Argentina for the young, antiestablishment generation depicted in the strip.

The Grimm Tales in 19th Century Denmark1

Target ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-214
Author(s):  
Cay Dollerup
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
High Esteem

Abstract In most countries, the Tales of the brothers Grimm become known by degrees, beginning with one or two stories or a small selection. The situation in Denmark is not typical for a variety of reasons: the Grimms had close personal contacts with prominent Danes. Culturally their Tales belonged to a distant pangermanic tradition common to Danes and Germans. Therefore the first volume of tales (1812) was soon translated into Danish. The initial high esteem is felt to this day as a strong tradition of 'respectable and faithful translations'. Yet changes in market forces and reading audiences have created two more strata in the translational heritage of the Grimm Tales in Danish. The Grimm tradition has also responded to changes in Danish middle-class perception of Germany.

Historiography of one city: colonialism, colonization, frontir. On the historiography of the history of functioning of the fortress city of the left wing of the Caucasian cordon line on the example of the history of Kizlyar in the first half of the 19th century

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (12-3) ◽  
pp. 250-258
Author(s):  
Mahomed Gasanov ◽  
Abidat Gazieva
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

The article is devoted to the analysis of the historiography of the history of the city of Kizlyar. This issue is considered in the historical context of the Eastern Caucasus. The author analyzes the three main theoretical concepts of the problem concerning Russia’s policy in the region, using the example of the city of Kizlyar in the context of historiography.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document