CULTURAL ANALYSES OF THE ECONOMY
RC02 preliminary program at the ISA Forum (is also available on-line: https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/forum2020/webprogrampreliminary/Symposium568.html)
July 13, 2020 – 9 am to 7 pm Location and schedule TBA
Welcome
Aaron Pitluck and Nadya Araujo Guimarães
(Illinois State University, USA; Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)
Opening Keynote
Culture and the Economy: From Horkheimer to Bourdieu and beyond
Philippe Steiner
(Université Paris-Sorbonne, France)
The critical theory of Adorno and Horkheimer, but also of Benjamin, faced the question of the relationship between economy and culture to point out “cultural industries” that downgrade culture, as opposed to high culture and the unique oeuvre that requires effort, that preserves aura. Later on, Bourdieu accommodated the relationship between culture and economy according to the nature of the capital involved and relegating the relationship of the "economic" economy to mass culture, while Zelizer proposes to multiply the "trade circuits" channeling economic and cultural transactions.
Beyond this reminder of the canonical forms with which social sciences take into account the relationship between culture and economy, my presentation seeks to enrich our understanding of popular culture in its close association with the economy. Accordingly, I rely on the Polanyian tripartition of the economy (market, reciprocity and redistribution) in order to avoid believing that the economy is reduced to the market alone. On the other hand, I use an ongoing inquiry of popular street festivals in the south of France to show the complexity of the mutual relations between these economies and popular culture.
Session 1
Capitalism and the moral economy: A Neo-Polanyian perspective
Session Organizer: Noboyuki Yamada
(Komazawa University, Japan)
Oral Presentations:
“Circumventing the double movement: Explaining the resurgence of nationalist politics and authoritarian tendencies in the post-neoliberal era”, Cory Blad (Manhattan College, USA)
The relative ubiquity of exclusionary nationalist politics and resurgent authoritarian tendencies can be understood to be a strategic response to political legitimation crises in the post-recession (2008) era. In short, the structural failures of neoliberal political economic platforms have resulted in broad popular dissatisfaction with the adverse conditions manifested by market liberalization, as predicted in the Polanyian double movement. As such, it becomes difficult to maintain market liberalization as well as political legitimacy in democratic contexts due to the inevitable emergence of countermovement pressure to mitigate market liberalization. Market capital proponents are then forced to engage in alternative means of obtaining the political legitimation necessary to sustain neoliberal hegemony – this can often be found in promoting forms of exclusionary nationalism that focus on historically privileged constituencies and tightening political control over avenues of resistance to liberal market hegemony. Thus, market fundamentalist proponents – often in contradiction with traditional neoliberal parameters – seek democratic political legitimation through exclusionary nationalist cultural protectionism and authoritarian controls on both dissent and as a means of forcibly maintaining deeply unpopular market liberalization initiatives. Finally, I argue that these conditions reflect a move past neoliberal orthodoxy and into a more vicious stage of private capital dominance that is no longer able to legitimate market capitalism as it perpetuates conditions of inequality and broadly experienced economic adversity.
“Doble movimiento y economía moral en el escenario del estancamiento secular”, Agustín R. Vázquez García (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – UAM, México)
El doble movimiento de Polanyi desemboca en el modo de coordinación regido por el principio de redistribución organizado por el Estado-nación. Representa la respuesta colectiva de la sociedad al modo de coordinación de mercado, cuyos principales resultados sobre la sociedad, activan normas y costumbres promotoras de lo común, confrontando las “leyes” de la economía política reivindicativas de la disimetría y asimetría de la reproducción social. Edward P. Thompson, el historiador social que registra y relata dicha activación, nombró tal respuesta como economía moral. En el siglo XIX tal movilización fue expresada en la demanda de incremento salarial, y en los siglos XVII y XVIII, motines para impedir el incremento del precio de los granos. No obstante, la estructura productiva y social ha cambiado desde aquellos años de activación de la multitud, registradas y expuestas por el historiador inglés. En la actualidad, lo productivo y reproductivo, tiene un sesgo urbano y metropolitano resultado de la división técnica y social del trabajo, aunque arribamos a un escenario conocido como estancamiento secular. Esto es explicado por dos hechos estructurales: estancamiento de la productividad agregada debido al creciente peso de los servicios personales que generan la enfermedad de los costos de reproducción social (salud, educación, vivienda, cuidados), y por el incremento de la tasa de envejecimiento de la población, sobre todo en los países avanzados. Este escenario genera una ambivalencia sobre la población migrante: integración sin reconocimiento estatal. La hipótesis que planteo es que este escenario conduce al modo de coordinación basado en el hogar (redistribución escala micro) donde rigen la reciprocidad y altruismo, pero también la sobre explotación, convirtiendo la “protección social” a una especie de contratos bilaterales surgidos al interior de los hogares receptores de migrantes. Esa manifestación de economía moral dibuja de manera tenue una expresión del doble movimiento, aún sin incidencia en la dimensión estatal, ya que el criterio economicista de enfermedad de costos, y la nacionalidad como reconocimiento de ciudadanía, predominan en la asignación de los recursos; más aún con la política neoliberal de austeridad. Suprimir la condición ambivalente -y no contradictoria- de paria- asalariado es un desafío para la economía moral del siglo XXI. Es decir, encauzar la economía moral contra la austeridad y el nacionalismo en aras de promulgar una especie de ciudadanía universal.
“Between symbolic and economic markers: Trajectories and positions occupied by graduates in the labor market”, Márcio Rogério (Federal University of Grande Dourados – UFGD, Brazil) & Thais Joi Martins (Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia – UFRB, Brazil)
For Karl Polanyi, the formal economy by which individuals maximize their economic gains through competitive behavior does not apply to all societies. The socially rooted economy imposes limits on economic and market functions, that is, in capitalist societies not every economic action is rooted out of noneconomic motives. There are other mechanisms used that go beyond the previous logic are those of redistribution and reciprocity. Therefore we will work in the present work questioning the following statement: the existence of rational behavior on the part of students entering the university, with regard to the goal of obtaining the most cost-effective to obtain a degree and to succeed in job market after graduation. However, we work with the proposition that there are symbolic, moral, political dilemmas, and above all, resources (capitals: cultural, social, economic, symbolic capitals of parents, geographical location, performative behaviors, race, gender between others) that direct the trajectories of individuals towards besides a trajectory dictated by homo economicus, that is, rationalized, calculated to achieve academic and professional success and success in their trajectories. In this sense, the objective of this work is to use the methodology of multiple correspondence analysis (ACM) in order to map the social space through which the trajectories of the students of peripheral Brazilian universities, such as the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia, are outlined ( BA) and the Federal University of Grande Dourados (MS). Therefore, we will work with data regarding the student trajectories of some human and exact courses in the universities mentioned above. In this sense we can outline how the rationalizing (economic) wills and symbolic (non- economic) dictates relate to each other through the mapping of their capitals and other symbolic markers to reach the labor market.
“Moral economics, algorithms and collaborative economics organizations”, Greice M. Gomes (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS, Brazil) and Elaine da Silveira Leite (Federal University of Pelotas - UFPel, Brazil)
Technology, currently, is directly related to the formation of markets and consumer relations. Assuming that, social relations are mediated by technological tools created from algorithmic conceptions; and that this new format of relationships is a relevant topic for understanding how moralities are constituted in a digital world of contemporary capitalism. This communication seeks to present the social effect of online organizations as an analytical tool to stimulate the theoretical debate on issues between economics and morals. It means, collaborative economy organizations, such as Airbnb promotes the ideals of collaboration, personality, informality, intimacy, confidence, which are assimilated by its participants, thus influencing and valuing the social dynamics. The research was conducted comparing online comments from Airbnb users from the cities of Porto Alegre (Brazil) and Coimbra (Portugal), in order to understand how online organizations, seek to transform hosting conceptions that morally reinforce close relationships and build a sense of security based on intimacy; at the same time that obscure the dimension of money and profit as business relations. Among the main results, this communication highlights a discussion about the influence of algorithmic logics, regards the formation of new consumer markets, and the moral constitution of capitalism.
Distributed Papers:
“Resolving the tension among the ´runners´ from different status under neo-liberalism”, Rui Marques Pinto (Reutlingen Council, Germany)
After erosion of colonial ideology in Africa, Angola, I and my family must move to Portugal and start new life. With my-self narrative, I would like to make my contribution to panel of discuss about distributive of justice under meritocracy or solidarity approach in context of immigration among neoliberalism taking for grant the arbitrary factors like displacement, natural elements like race.
And my introduction question is: Are neoliberal social policies taking in account arbitrary factors on the fight against poverty and inequality?
As the article Lufkin (2017) stress poverty and inequality never would be defeated and the relationship although, however, it can minimized through the way we look it. The question is: How to resolve the tension fairly, for all who will run the race, special when the runners starting in different starting points? Is going the race be fairly? Are the arbitrary factors elements to take in account when we analyse poverty and inequality? And How the bridge of justice can be fairly shared on moral point of view taking in account that are not their fault, of some runners, being born in determined social, economic status?
On another side of the discussion is the account of who have the lucky to born on other side of the river has the obligation to help who are in the bottom? Hat the state right to enforce power to punish the both sides, who are in the bottom and who are wealth through redistribution of taxes?
“Popular business management content in digital media: Impressions of the Brazilian spirit of capitalism through LinkedIn influencers”, Ricardo Mello Duarte (Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCAR, Brazil) & Silvio Eduardo Alvarez Cândido (Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCAR, Brazil)
At each stage of the historical development of capitalism is related a set of thoughts and practices that seek to justify the social and economic order. Although the maintenance of a capitalist "essence" occurs, the sometimes expressive transformations on its surface require the mobilization of distinct discourses. These justifications of capitalism offer reasons for engaging the people necessary for the running of business. The present work considers that business media is a privileged space for the spirit of capitalism manifestation, and that digital media has come to occupy a prominent place in the dissemination of management news, especially the social network LinkedIn. In this way, the research draws on Economies of Worth model proposed by Boltanski and Thévenot to investigate how the main digital influencers on Brazilian LinkedIn depict the contemporary spirit of capitalism. Considering articles published between 2014 and 2019 by the elected “LinkedIn Top Voices”, it was identified those publications dedicated to express the “spirit of capitalism,” and a corpus of 218 texts was elaborated. Through this set it was possible to identify and analyze the critics made by these authors against previous accumulation models, the assumptions involved in the management problems as well as in the solutions proposed to solve them. The work also identifies and analyzes the reasons offered by those texts for the engagement in capitalism as a source of excitement, security and fairness, as proposed by Boltanski and Chiapello. The findings reveal the "Californian model" as the paradigmatic enterprise and also show how under the banner of the “impact economy” some contemporary initiatives try to add some elements to business discourse. It is also possible to observe a great prominence of an inspired logic of justification, especially by the requirement of finding people’s “purposes”, which is said to outweigh their needs for guarantees.
Lunch Break
Session 2
The forms of activity, setting and clashes of intermediaries in the 21st century
Session Organizer: Julio Donadone
(Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCAR, Brazil)
“Economic sociology of matching”, Philippe Steiner (Université Paris – Sorbonne, France)
Matching processes have important consequences on the social life of individuals who, nolens volens, pass through them for their love relationships, their studies, the place in which their lives will take place, the care they will receive. In short, in our present society, a whole series of matches are decisive for the life of each of us, but also for the proper functioning of the society as a whole. The communication proposes a first comparison between market, central planning and algorithmic matching with an emphasis on information collection and processing (§1). The following part reveals what can be called an economic sociology of information in addition to the way information is processed by matching economists (§2). The last part illustrates this point by considering two matching arenas: the assignment of high school students in higher education and the allocation of kidneys to be transplanted (§3).
“The social construction of the love market in Brazil: wedding agencies as intermediaries”, Maria Chaves Jardim (Universidade Paulista Julio de Mesquita – UNESP, Brazil)
The purpose of this research is to map the marriage market through marriage agencies. This is part of a larger, ongoing project to target the love market for marriage agencies and apps. The methodology includes visits to wedding agencies, interviews with owners and consumers of this market. The results indicate that this market has reinvented itself in the face of dating apps; and reproduces a certain common sense about love (especially the idea of romantic love), as well as the same inequalities and hierarchies existing in society in general
“The mapping of the economic field of tourism intermediaries in the 21st century through the case of beach bar owners in Aracaju-Sergipe-Brazil”, Marina de Souza Sartore (Federal University of Sergipe - UFS, Brazil)
The tourism market has been facing the growth of online services such as TripAdvisor, Booking, Airbnb, etc, that turned out to be challenge the leading role of travel agents as intermediaries of the tourism market in the 21st Century. They provide accommodations, recommend places to eat and visit that are evaluated by independent travellers. This paper maps and makes a first sketch of the economic field of tourism market. The data from a previous study case of the Aracaju beach bar owners revealed three types of intermediaries providing services to connecting people to places to eat: the word of mouth, that relies on personal relationships, the travel agent, who relies on professional relationships, and the TripAdvisor, that relies on online independent evaluations and algorithms. To understand how these three types of intermediaries relate reveal how the forms of activity, settings and clashes of the economic field of tourism market are culturally produced in the 21st Century.
“Intermediaries and job intermediation in Brazil: actors, devices and regulations in a historical perspective”, Nadya Araujo Guimarães (University of São Paulo – USP, Brazil) & Léa Lima (Conservatoire national des arts et métiers – CNAM / Laboratoire interdisciplinaire pour la sociologie économique - LISE, France)
The presentation will analyze the job intermediation system in Brazil, comparing three moments in the constitution of the intermediation market, namely: the 1960-70s, the 1990-2000 years and the current moment. Thus, we will start from the moment of its initial regulation (in the first ten years of the military dictatorship), and we will follow the movement of internationalization of intermediaries, until we reach the current forms of massification in the market for job candidates through the platforms. We aim at understanding how job intermediation chain has been changing, and how these changes have modified its actors, devices and regulations.
“Intermediation, legitimation and social space”, Julio Donadone (Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCAR, Brazil)
The article analyses the emergence and the configuration of intermediation in social spaces, taking organizational changes as its departure point. We consider as intermediaries the legitimate agents able to define what counts as valid and possible in the market of cultural and economic goods, working at the intersection of culture and economy. It focuses in researches about the role of consultants and the new spaces to intermediation like social health organizations, responsible for managing some of the public hospitals in São Paulo. The empirical analysis enables to characterize the performance and configuration of this specific type of intermediary in the Brazilian social space and enhances the knowledge on intermediation as a more general phenomenon.
Closing Keynote
The Dignity of Debtors, the Indignities of Debt:
A Cultural Accounting of Strained Finances
Frederick Wherry
(Princeton University, USA)
Social scientists and historians have documented the growth and consequences of debt across the globe. Debt has increased along with its sources. Those households that used to have access only to informal sources of debt can now comingle the informal with the formal, the material with the digital, while staking claims to inclusion accompanied by assaults on their worth. How are low- and moderate- income households experiencing these assaults on their social, moral, and economic worth; under what conditions does debt deny them their dignity; and what prices are those debtors willing to pay to protect it?
Reception and Dinner
PRE-CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS AND AUTHORS
Conference Program Organizers:
Nadya Araujo Guimarães, University of São Paulo – USP, Brazil – nadya@usp.br
Aaron Pitluck, Illinois State University, USA – Aaron.Pitluck@IllinoisState.edu
Keynote Speakers:
Philippe Steiner, Université Paris-Sorbonne -- philippe.steiner@sorbonne-universite.fr
Frederick Wherry, Princeton University, USA - ffwherry@princeton.edu
Session organizers:
Noboyuki Yamada, Komazawa University, Japan - jogoaya@ruby.plala.or.jp
Julio Donadone, Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCAR, Brazil - donadojc@uol.com.br
Authors:
Agustín R. Vázquez García, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – UAM, México - agustin.mundo@yahoo.com.mx
Cory Blad, Manhattan College, USA cory.blad@manhattan.edu
Elaine da Silveira Leite, Federal University of Pelotas - UFPel, Brazil - elaineleite10@gmail.com
Greice M. Gomes, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS, Brazil - greice.martins.gomes@gmail.com
Julio Donadone (Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCAR, Brazil - donadojc@uol.com.br
Léa Lima (Conservatoire national des arts et métiers – CNAM / Laboratoire interdisciplinaire pour la sociologie économique - LISE, France - lea.lima@lecnam.net
Márcio Rogério (Federal University of Grande Dourados – UFGD, Brazil -marciosrogerio@gmail.com
Maria Chaves Jardim (Universidade Paulista Julio de Mesquita – UNESP, Brazil - nespom.oficial@gmail.com
Marina de Souza Sartore (Federal University of Sergipe - UFS, Brazil – marinass@ufs.br
Nadya Araujo Guimaraes (University of São Paulo – USP, Brazil – nadya@usp.br
Ricardo Mello Duarte (Federal University of São Carlos - UFSCAR, Brazil - m.duartericardo@gmail.com )
Rui Marques Pinto (Reutlingen Council, Germany - Bencao.rui@sapo.pt
Silvio Eduardo Alvarez Cândido (Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCAR, Brazil - m.duartericardo@gmail.com
Thais Joi Martins (Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia – UFRB, Brazil - thaisjoi@gmail.com