Sociology of communism From social reality to everyday life Gábor Oláh, olah@fss.muni.cz From Intellectual enlightenment to practical life in socialist society •Here I would like to take a look to the practical, everyday or mundane life of people in socialist society. •Also conceptualize the sociological approaches to the everyday life •In the previous classes you heard about intellectual enlightenment from above. Sociology of every day helps to understand the consequences of this enlightenment. •The impact of economy, architecture, urban planning, organized and collectivized agriculture, the legal system on the mundane The role of emotion -Is needed to live the myth of socialist ideals like equality -Identification with the aesthetic and intellectual representations -Identification with the socialist values -BUILDING SOCIALISM -https://www.socialismrealised.eu/catalogue/girl-on-a-tractor/ -https://www.socialismrealised.eu/catalogue/back-to-the-past/ - - Everyday in socialism •Everyday is the meeting of people with communism that turned the ideology into institutions. •Institutions are a form of social reality and a laboratory of modernity •In order to fully functioning institutional power the regime needs the myth. •The myth is a lie – myth making and performing the myth is needed for functioning • What is the everyday? -habits? -Traditions? -Events? -Sacred vs. Profane? -Activities of Everyone vs. Activities of Few -Incllusive vs. Exclusive -Hidden or visible? - - Propaganda vs. caricature -Do you still have banana? -Already gone!... TASK •Remember the aesthetics of propaganda from the last class •Compare with the aesthetics of caricature •Where are the ideals, the values, meanings? • Why focus to everyday life? •Theory vs practice and action •Structure of life •People live their lifes everyday. •It is the pragmatism that forms meanings and values •Everyday life is transforming though all the time • Sociology of everyday life •Rather sociologies of EL •Branch of approaches •Relatively new but also quiet old in the same time •Basically two approaches to EL: •In theory EL is taken for granted in abstract reasoning about the social •EL as the object of research Elephant in the porcelain shop •Eviatar Zerubavel https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1750481307082234 •EL is the normal – but what does it mean? •It is the elephant in the porcelain shop – the thing that we do not talk about •We ignore the normal •EL was also ignored in sociology but was also present the whole time •For Rousseau EL was present in the organization of family – the natural form of social organization (in Social contract) •Division of labor Durkheim •We can find references and examples in Durkheim •Division of labor •Religious life •The effects of anomy on EL •Sacred and profane • Marx saw the impact of capitalism in EL •Capitalist oppression •Types of alienation •Loss of self destroys family life •Aspects of EL are not natural any more •https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKVD-PVYPY4 • Adorno and Horkheimer •Subjection of people when they accept ideologies •A form of deprivation •Regulation of EL through ideology •E.g. Education •https://www.socialismrealised.eu/catalogue/what-we-dont-talk-about/ •https://www.socialismrealised.eu/catalogue/education-for-all/ • •Merton: Nature of social action: •Research of social action must be based on day to day experience •Giddens: Structuration theory •How social structure influences EL? Giddens shows how social structure that is a rigid structure is able to change and influence EL • • Simmel and rules of EL •Coquetry and the unwritten rules of social action •The Berlin trade •Simmel points out the dual relation btw the individual and society (product and producer) •Fashion •The usage of money •