3.4.1

Production & Consumption

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Identity and Production

Work is an important source of identity because factors relating to type of occupation and level of earnings are a good indicator of a person’s social class, providing information about status.

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Influence of work on identity

  • Work (or people’s role in production) influences identity in a number of ways.
  • The type of occupation is an important indicator of social class identity and, therefore, perceived status within society.
  • The amount of money a person earns influences status, the kind of consumer goods they can buy and the lifestyle they can lead.
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Influence of work on identity cont.

  • Work-related peer-group influences and friendships can influence the identity someone chooses to assert (e.g. group leader, trades union activist).
  • People’s work can influence the identities they project to other through their work-leisure patterns.
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Lack of work as stigmatised identity

  • Lack of work can occur through, for example, unemployment, disability or retirement.
  • Lack of work can undermine the part of our identity related to employment and can lead to what Durkheim called anomie (normlessness, or a lack of feelings of security and certainty).
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Stigmatised identity cont.

  • Unemployment can also lead to other disruptions of the normal routines and traditions of everyday social life.
  • The unemployed may face what Goffman called a stigmatised identity through negative labelling as ‘benefit scroungers’.

Work and Leisure

Patterns of relationships between work and leisure (Parker, 1971/1976).

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Parker

  • Parker (1971, 1976) believes that people’s occupations and the way they experience their work (e.g. the amount of independence and satisfaction) have important influences on their leisure.
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Three patterns

  • Parker suggests that there are three patterns in the link between work and leisure:
    • Opposition.
    • Neutrality.
    • Extension.
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Opposition pattern

  • In the opposition pattern, people see their leisure as a central life interest to compensate for and escape from physically hard and dangerous jobs.
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Neutrality pattern

  • The neutrality pattern suggests that people see their family and leisure (not work) as major life interests because their jobs are boring, unfulfilling and routine.
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Extension pattern

  • In the extension pattern, work is so interesting and demanding that there is a blurring of the distinction between work and leisure time; work extends into leisure time and leisure is often work-related.
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Criticisms

  • Parker overemphasises the importance of work in shaping leisure activities.
  • Parker over-simplifies the influence of work on leisure.
  • Parker's research is focused primarily on men in full-time paid employment.

Consumption and Identity

Postmodernists argue that work is declining in significance as a source of identity and is being replaced by consumer choices and leisure choices.

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The declining significance of work as a source of identity

  • Postmodernists like Bauman, suggest that work had lost its once central importance in people’s lives.
  • Work is no longer seen as the central axis of identity which underpins other identities.
  • Consuming goods and lifestyle choices have become much more significant sources of identity than work and occupation.
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Postmodernists approaches to consumption and identity

  • Postmodernists (e.g. Lyotard) argue that the most important aspects in moulding people’s identities have changed and are now more closely associated with consumer choices and leisure choices.
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Consumer choices

  • Consumer choices refer to people’s tastes and the type, image and style of the goods they buy, including music, home décor and designer labels.
  • Leisure choices include holiday destinations, clubs and self-improvement activities.

Jump to other topics

1Theory & Methods

2Education with Methods in Context

3Option 1: Culture & Identity

4Option 1: Families & Households

5Option 1: Health

6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

7Option 2: Beliefs in Society

8Option 2: Global Development

9Option 2: The Media

10Crime & Deviance

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