CAPITALISM AND POPULAR CULTURESOC 21023.11.2015

What is capitalism?• Capitalism is an economic system based on private

ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods and services for profit.

• Central characteristics of capitalism include; Private property

Capital accumulation Wage labour

Competitive markets

Emergence of Capitalism• Capitalism began to develop into its modern form during

the early modern period in the protestant countries of North-Western Europe, especially in England and Netherlands at 14th century.

• 14th century is known by the conflictbetween the land-owning aristocracyand the agricultural producers, Workers who they call serfs atthat time.• Conflicts between lords and serfs.

Emergence of Capitalism• Demographic crisis of 14th century in England.• Several causes: 1. Agricultural productivity reached its technological

limitations and stopped growing.2. Bad weather conditions caused drought3. The sickness ‘Black Death’ led to a population crash.

• Rebellions of serfs in England.• Social changes led the creation of a new class called

tenant-farmers.

Emergence of Capitalism• Lords who are not happy relying on rents, evicted tenant-

farmers and had to hire free-labor to work their estates.• There happened to be 2 different kind of commodity

owners; the owners of money, means of production and than free workers, the sellers of their own labor-power.

• Karl Marx labeled this period as the ‘pre-history of capitalism’.

• That social order continued till 16th century. After feudalism, that is how mercantilism developed, and it was a precursor to capitalism.

Emergence of Capitalism• With mercantilism, an economic system characterized by

private or corporate ownership of capital goods. • Competition started in a free market.• European merchants, backed by state controls and

monopolies, made most of their profits from the buying and selling of goods.

• Trading companies occurred.

Emergence of Capitalism• Adam Smith- Industrial Capitalism• Industrial capitalism, marked the development of the

factory system of manufacturing and it is characterized by a complex division of labor between and within work process and the routinization of work tasks and finally established the global domination of the capitalist mode of production.

Emergence of Capitalism• In the period following the Great Depression and Second

World War, the economic recovery of the world’s leading capitalist economies started, and capitalism found itself a new format.

• The state began to play an increasingly prominent role to moderate and regulate the capitalistic system throughout much of the world.

• The state owned and operated certain major industries.

Emergence of Capitalism• After the collapse of communism, and with the increase

on the mobility of people and capital since the last quarter of the 20th century which we call as ‘globalization’, capitalism formed as a truly world system.

• Today, capitalism is pervasive economic system worldwide.

A sociological look to Capitalism• Capitalism is a social system, more than an economic

system.• Capitalism created a sharp class division in the society.• The means for producing and distributing goods are

owned by a small minority of people- capitalist class.• The majority of people must sell their ability to work in

return for a wage or salary- working class.

Capitalism & Popular Culture• The development and forms of pop culture and economic

systems are naturally intertwined. • In the decade following WWI, the big state’s economies

embarked to a spectacular growth.• There happened to be a desire to assume a modern and

forward-looking world view. • The booming economy and fast-paced life of 1920s,

triggered the emergence of a veritable pop culture in cinema, print and radio.

Capitalism & Popular Culture• Advertising became a part of the overall social system,

developing a parntership with pop culture and everything started to be ‘sold’ and ‘packaged’ in the same way as commercial products and all these serve capitalism.

• Capitalism played a critical role in the institution and spread of cultural commercialization.

• The business world co-opted the lifestyles and aesthetics of counterculture young generation as part of its overall marketing philosophy.

• The strategy of business world creating a trend for youth culture and then co-opted to sell commodities and services of all kinds, continue today.