" Sociology of Everyday life . Lifestyles , образ жизни , Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings in Russia.

"Sociology of Everyday life. Lifestyles, образ жизни, Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings in Russia." Dr. Denis Gruber State University of St. Petersburg Faculty of Sociology DAAD-Lecturer for Sociology

Themenübersicht • meeting: 12.02.2009: Introduction • meeting: 19.02.2008: Concepts of Lebensführung, Lebensweise, lifestyle • meeting: 26.02.2009: Lifestyle, Everyday life and milieus • meeting: 05.03.2009: Lifestyle, everyday life and socialism • meeting: 12.03.2009: Lifestyle, everyday life and work in socialist period • meeting: 19.03.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Gender Aspects

Themenübersicht • meeting: 26.03.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: housing situation • meeting: 02.04.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Poverty, homelessness, „The search for security“ • meeting: 16.04.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Religious communities and affiliation • meeting: 23.04.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Family structures and demographic trends

Themenübersicht • meeting: 30.04.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Deviance I - Prostitution, Pornography, AIDS, • meeting: 21.05.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Deviance II: physically disabled and mentally handicaped persons, consumption of drugs and alcohol

"Sociology of Everyday life. Lifestyles, образ жизни, Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings in Russia." 1. Meeting: Concepts of Lebensführung, Lifestyles, Lifeworld

Concepts of Lifestyle

Key Questions • What does the notion of „everyday life“ mean? • What does „Lebensführung“ (lifestyle, modus vivendi, way of life) mean? • Which differences for lifestyle are obvious in comparision of the Soviet and the contemporary period?

Concepts of Lifestyle • sociologically, two important functions: • classify or categorize the practitioner within a broader social matrix • offer practitioners a unique sense of self and identity • combine material and symbolic processes • practical ways of providing for basic needs and requirements such as food, clothing, and shelter • also aesthetic and symbolic expressions of one's sense of self and of one's membership among certain social groups. • lifestyles occur at the intersection of individual agency and social structure • has sustained as a key sociological concept, capable of bridging the divide between macro-level concerns • a bridge between large scale social structures and social groupings, and micro-level concerns with the subjective dimensions of agency, meaning, and identity

Approaches of Lifestyle in Sociology research of Lebensführung is closely-linked with important sociological approaches like • Karl Marx  class concept and differentiation of work and reproduction • Max Weber  rational „way of life“ (Lebensführung) • Durkheim  differentiation theory • Simmel  cultural criticism about the individual • life style research with the focus on disparities in Lebensführung (Bolte, Kudera, Voß) • Sociology of leisure • Habermas  differentiation between system and Lebenswelt • Habitus theory  Bourdieu

Lebensführung-Max Weber • traditionale Lebensführung: refers to routines and „valid“ norms of the everyday • strategische Lebensführung: can be seen as a kind of planning ones life to reach aims • situative Lebensführung: does not follow routines and rational or logical aspects, but is characterized by flexiblity

Georg Simmel Simmel began with the elements of everyday life: - playing games • keeping secrets • being a stranger • forming friendships • the quality of relationships

Georg Simmel: Social Types The Stranger “The stranger” in Simmel’s terminology, is not just a wanderer “who comes today and goes tomorrow,” having no specific structural position. On the contrary, he is a “person who comes today and stays tomorrow…He is fixed within a particular spatial group…but his position…is determined…by the fact that he does not belong to it from the beginning,” and that he may leave again. The stranger is “an element of the group itself” while not being fully part of it. He therefore is assigned a role that no other members of the group can play. By virtue of his partial involvement in group affairs he can attain an objectivity that other members cannot reach…Moreover, being distant and near at the same time, the stranger will often be called upon as a confidant…In similar ways, the stranger may be a better judge between conflicting parties than full members of the group since he is not tied to either of the contenders…

Erving Goffman (1922-1982) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life(1959) • Dramaturgical approach to understanding human behavior and interactions. • Impression management in everyday settings • How does the self form, act, and change in response to interactions with others?

Concept „Alltägliche Lebensführung“ (Everyday life) • Following Weber’s investigations in “Lebensführung” the concept of “Alltägliche Lebensführung” was elaborated in the 1980s and 90s (Bolte, Voß and Kudera) • In this approach “Lebensführung” is understood as a balance of contradictory demands and claims which fulfils important functions for individuals as well as society and for the mediation of both spheres (cf. Voß 1995:37) • Lebensführung is a “bridge” between the individual and the society, it is a societal ordinal factor which encloses the creation of the everyday life (Bolte 2000:27) .

Concept „Alltägliche Lebensführung“ (Everyday life) key points of this approach refer to (cf. Weihrich 1998:6): • Lebensführung refers to an everyday connection of the practical life. It concerns with the question how a person organizes the everyday life. • Lebensführung is understood as an active achievement of construction of individuals who have to connect different activities, demands and expectations. • Lebensführung is not only determined by specific social structures but it also depends on specific historical circumstances • Lebensführung is a category between individual and societal structures

Concept „Alltägliche Lebensführung“ (Everyday life) • concept refers to a rising educational level, decline of the type of "normal family", changed life plans and life orientations, increasing differentiation of the employer-employee relationships, flexibility of working hours (cf. Kudera 2000:77 following) • Lifestyle is understood as a balance by contradictory demands and claims • Lifestyle becomes the individual and social ordinal factor, it encloses the order of the everyday life

Concept „Alltägliche Lebensführung“ (Everyday life) • Lifestyle expresses „how a person refers to the different societal spheres and arranges with these partial, spatially, contentually“ (Voß 1995:32) • Lifestyle means the „arrangement of the single arrangements of a person“ (Voß in 1995: 32) • These arrangements are changeable, they vary due to the interplay of different persons and depend on respective living conditions (cf. Kudera/Voß 2000:16) • but these arrangements can stabilize human lifestyle  they can be important for secure bases and methods, own rules, priorities and routines“ (Kudera/Voß 2000:17)

Following Kudera (1995) lifestyles can be classified as follows: • differentiation (easy-complex) • elasticity (open-closed, stiff-flexible) • stability (robust-fragile) • processing capacity of contradictions • regulation • available resources

Summary: The Concept of „Everyday Lifestyle“ Weihrich (1998:6) • a) lifestyle refers to the everyday connection of the practical life. It is not the question what a person is doing, but how the everyday is organized! b) lifestyle is an active construction achievement of the person who must bind different activities, demands and expectations to an arrangement c) lifestyle is not only determined by societal structures, because its form and logic depends also on historical situation d) lifestyle means a category between the individual (subject) and social structures.

"Sociology of Everyday life. Lifestyles, образ жизни, Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings in Russia." 2. Meeting: Classes, Layers, Milieus, lifestyles, lifeworld, Habitus

Key words for social structure analysis • Group (subgroups) • Caste • Stand  Status • Class • Layer • Milieu • Lifestyles social life situations

Class Theory: Marx (1818 – 1883) • social conflict was the core of historical process (cf. Coser 1977:43) • class is a social group which members are characterized by a similar position in the economic system and a common social position (Klassenlage, class position), common interests and common consciousness (Klassenbewusstsein, class consciousness) • “...the social relations people enter into by participating in economic life…” create an economic category/social phenomenon known as social class • Classes were formed to control the means of property possession • This would in turn result in class conflicts

Social Class: Max Weber (1864 – 1920) • dimensions of social inequality: class positions are interpreted as market and power positions • difference between property class and worker class (property as central differentiation marker for chances, e.g. qualification)

Social Layers • an order of social positions and prestige, which is responsible for the hierarchical occupational structure • social inequality can be measured for individual distribution of issues (property, knowledge, relations, occupation, etc.) • a person is able to change ist vertical social mobility, in this sense, a person can change ist belonging to a social layer • due to the change of social layer‘s belonging also life styles are changing • indicators: • occupational positions (occupational prestige), • income • education • in families: issues of household‘s planning

Social Layer of a modern „Mittelstandsgesellschaft“ (middle class society) in the second half of the 20. century upper class middle class uper middle class centred middle class lower middle class lower class

Habitus and social class • For Bourdieu, class position is not based crudely on the possession or non-possession of the means of production as in Marxist materialistic conceptions of class • Bourdieu uses Weber’s approach that allows him to identify different types of social behaviour of social classes (layers) • Bourdieu argues that cultural forms (the habitus) are mainly determined by the socio-economic situation, by the distribution of economic and cultural capital • Bourdieu sees class as determined by largely economic factors, and as a set of practices, dispositions and feelings

The Concept of Habitus • is the link between the objective and the subjective components of class • Habitus refers to the everyday, the situations, actions, practices and choices which tend to go with a particular walk of life and an individual’s position in the social world (this includes, e.g. gender and race as well as class) • Habitus can be seen as including a set of dispositions, tendencies to do some things rather than others and to do them in particular ways rather than in other ways • Habitus does not determine our practices, but it does make it more likely that we will adopt certain practices rather than others

Social Milieu • introduced in sociologyby Émile Durkheim whorefers to a socialenvironment, in which an individual isborn-in, grows-up and lives • Emerged in early ‘80s from ongoing research into lifeworlds (SINUS) • peoplewhoarelivingundersimilarconditions and share common values, same opinions, and follow common styles of interaction (cf. Hradil 2006) • groupsthataresharing common interests, similarvalueidentification, common practices of lifeplanning, similarrelations to otherpersons, similarmentalities and political, social, cluturalinterest • objectivesocialconditions d influence and limitate the way of thinking and interacting of thisgroup, but they do not coinit, therefore, memebrs of the same occupationalgroupcanbelong to different socialmilieus (cf. Hradil 1999) • 2006)

Towards a theory of Social Milieus: The new cultural sociology in Germany • main argument: life-styles do not have to spring from the economic situation (Gerhard Schulze, Reinhard Kreckel, Hans-Peter Müller, Stefan Hradil) • milieus rely on internal communication from which a common life-style emerges (Schulze) • milieus are not clear-cut social entities, but they overlap and form a plural and interrelated social universe (Rössel) • Milieus can thus be conceived of as networks with increased internal connectivity • Based on this connectivity, they develop a specific life-style that in turn makes internal ties more likely than ties to other milieus • Friendships form more easily between people with similar values, or around the foci of activity (bars, sports clubs etc.) in such life-style milieus

Towards a theory of Social Milieus: The new cultural sociology in Germany • However, modern social structure is too plural and multi-faceted to be partitioned into milieus as clearcut entities • milieu concept is able to capture a tendential ordering of ties around common values and activities – but it does not lead to a neatly ordered topology of society • milieu is seen as the social environment of cultural patterns and people around us – it is not a bounded group. • The bases for such milieus can be manifold  by age, gender, level of education, wealth, common activities, ethnic descent, race, locality, etc.

After Germany‘s reunification: introduction of new typologies for social milieu researches middle class-humanistic Milieu traditional working and peasant milieu GDR-rooted Milieu political left-intellectual alternative Milieu Status- and career-oriented Milieu upward-oriented Milieu non-traditional working class milieu Hedonistic Milieu Modern working class milieu modern middle-class-milieu traditional middle-class Milieu

Higher conservative milieu (Neo-)conservative values, the virtues of civic behaviour, sense of elite status Petty bourgeois milieu Traditional orientation, security, ready for self denial, duty, conventionalism, harmony Traditional workers milieu Simplicity, thrift, contentment, solidarity, conformity, sense of community Traditionless workers milieu Under privileged, compensation for disadvantage, ostentational display of social belonging New workers milieu Young mainstream, professionalism in job, leisure orientation, realistic hedonism Aspirational milieu Modern mainstream, flexibility, high readiness for achievement, career orientation, display of status Technocratic-liberal milieu Intellectual elite, post material values, self realisation, cultural interests, trend setting Hedonistic milieu Pleasure orientation, living in the here and now, hunger for experience, style protest, MacJob mentality Postmodern milieu Young/middle aged, independent professions, experimentation and dramatization life strategies, changing/plural values and cultures Core values of the SINUS milieus

Upper level Upper middle level Middle middle level Lower middle level Lower level Traditional basic orientation ‘Keep’ Materialist basic orientation ‘Have’ VALUE CHANGE Hedonism/ pleasure Post-materialism ‘Being’ Postmodernism Have, be, enjoy Social milieus in West Germany according to SINUS 1998 Social position  Conservative-technocratic10% Liberal-intellectual 10% Modern bourgeois 9% Postmodern 7% Petty bourgeois 8% Modern workers 8% Aspiring 20% Hedonistic 13% Traditional workers 4% Traditionless workers 11% Value orientation 

Upper level Upper middle level Middle middle level Lower middle level Lower level Traditional basic orientation ‘Keep’ Materialist basic orientation ‘Have’ VALUE CHANGE Hedonism/ pleasure Post-materialism ‘Being’ Postmodernism Have, be, enjoy Social milieus in West Germany according to SINUS 1998 Social position  Value orientation 

Sinus Milieus - France Quelle (Abb.): www.sinus-sociovision.de

Sinus-Milieus Germany Quelle (Abb.): www.sinus-sociovision.de

"Sociology of Everyday life. Lifestyles, образ жизни, Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings in Russia." 3. Meeting: Lifestyles, Everyday Life, Socialism and Postsocialism

Socialism’s principles • egalitarianism or equality  Capitalism exploits the very people who create society’s wealth. • Moralism  social justice and true liberty for all.

Karl Marx’s key ideas - economic systems go through historic cycles • over time, an economic system becomes rigid and cannot adjust to new technologies • a new system emerges, with new class relations and oppression • someday, a perfect classless society will emerge and there will be no further cycles

Communist Revolution • Revolution will eliminate private property • No longer will man have the means of exploiting another man. • Bourgeoisie will fight, so revolution will be violent. • A dictatorship of the proletariat will follow to weed out remaining capitalist elements.

The Worker’s Utopia • In the end, a classless society with no more oppression or internal contradictions. • People are able to live to their fullest potential  Consider the description in Marx’s Communist Manifesto in 1845: “In communist society, …nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes,… to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, … without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”

Real-existing socialism • JÁNOS KORNAI (1980, 1988) investigated the shortage economy in Socialist societies • KORNAI sees the reasons of the chronical shortage of ressources of socialist economies caused by the institutional basic structure of the economic system • JÁNOS KORNAI defines an economy as a shortage economy if this shortage is manifested, obviously, intensively and chronical (not only spatial) • emphazises the „primate of politics“: political institutions are responsible for the emergence of economic institutions • but political and economic institutions together are stimulating the MOTIVATION STRUCTURES of a societal system and are influencing the capabilities of a national economy • intermingle of previous pre-socialist structures with socialist principles have caused obstacles for economic rise of socialist systems (exception: USSR in the 1920s and 1930s)

Real-existing socialism • the self-reproducing shortage in all spheres of economy causes the limited access to resources for actors • the political system (socialist ones with only one-party-system) is the core point and origin for all further developments • different attemps of perfektionism or reformism of the system can not be succesful as long as the position of the Communist Party is not critized • centralized political system of socialist societies emphasisez state property and the absence of private ownership • decentralized character of private ownership is not congruent with a totalitarian political system • elimination of capitalistical forms of property was not the result of a sudden economical development process  it was the result of the conception of the Communist Party: state ownership

The view of Srubar (1991) • According to Srubar, the ineffectiveness of the socialist economy combined with the Communist party power monopoly created a distinct mechanism of social integration of 'compensatory redistribution networks of goods and services‘ • In a socialist shortage economy, the consumer's main worry generally was not how to get money to buy products • Instead, the main problems were first, how to find information about the availability of goods, and second, how to gain access to them • Both problems were solved with the help of one's social network • real nature of these redistribution networks have created an atmosphere of 'functional friendship' of mutual favours

Lebensführung in Socialism and post-socialism • Transformation does not only mean that market-economy "institutions" are introduced ("institution transfer") but that the economic actors at all economic levels – also at the level of private households – are acting with market behavior • The everyday transformation of economic action is the basis of our concept of Lebensführung • In the prior phase of transformation close institutions got lost, and the adaptation to new institutions of the market economy and the new market action required time to tune own roles and activities in the everyday practice or to define totally new • Uncertainty, planning deficits, crises in the economic system of the national states are only some catchwords which can be stated for this period

Discussing Post-Communist Pathways • ‘transformation’ or “transition” • post-socialist development with ideal-typical text-book capitalism will be successfully? • Transitions are seen as processes which carry out in stages from political liberalization, via democratisation to consolidation and/or regression of democracies • Transitions are mostly restricted to the political sphere of transformations and refer to the period of transition from one type of political system to another

Discussing Post-Communist Pathways • term ‚transformation’ is often used to describe developments in Middle and Eastern European States in relationship to intermingle and simultaneously processes of economic, political and social change • transformational research often refers to Talcott Parsons theory of modernization  is based on the fact that after the collapse of state socialist systems, modernization theory has an advantage against Marxist approaches

Modernization Theory • a theory of development and constitution of western industrial nations • Stands as a synonym of modernity and progress • modernization is merely the adaptation of the paragon of the highly developed capitalistic industrial nations • central assumption: in the course of the process of modernization all societies develop a universal pattern of development, which maintains against regional and temporal countertendencies paradigm assumes an unilinear process of development, but: • Have all Western nations taken the same way of development? • Have all post-socialist countries the same preconditions?

Path dependency • Path dependency theorists (e.g. North) argue for policy strategies tailored to national pathways • tend to overestimate the actually attainable range of systemic diversity • underestimate the constraints imposed by Western regime goals and powerful global actors • concentrating on the past and origins • However, they open up a potential to consider the future of Eastern European capitalism as being different from the Western European one, due to unique historical experience. • main focus is on concrete, historical, and region-specific forms of emergent capitalism, distinct from the Western-European type of capitalism

Path dependency • national and regional developments take divergent paths • focus on how the development of an economic system is coined through different constrains and resources • socio-economic transformation debate concentrates on the informal structures and relations that have come up as a reaction to the rigid and inadequate conditions of communism and planned economy • Parallel structures emerged, referring to the first, legal and second, informal economy inside and outside the governmental sector • networks of actors inside and between state institutions, networks among economic and political actors

" Sociology of Everyday life . Lifestyles , образ жизни , Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings in Russia.