Social Inequality and the Sociology of Life Style: Material and Cultural Aspects of Social Stratification - Focus on Economic Sociology

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The,  Oct, 2001  by Dieter Bogenhold

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Weber noticed this earlier noncongruence in distribution situations, cultural attitudes, and patterns of behavior when he distinguished "class" from "status." He wanted to convey that classification into classes represents one thing, and human social organizations and socialization represents something else. This early foundation for the discussion on life styles, which Simmel had formulated in broader terms, had already been integrated and taken into consideration by Weber. To quote Weber himself, "Classes can be divided according to their relationships to production how they acquire goods, 'status' according to the principle in which goods in the form of specific types of life styles are consumed" (Weber 1972:538, translated from the original German).

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Life Style Research

MANY FEATURES OF LIFE STYLE research still seem rather indefinite. The semantic delimitation of life styles compared with other categories such as mentalities, mileus or sub-cultures does not seem to exist. A greater part of the discussions on life styles is due to the discomfort with vertical stratification models. Since the forms of possession in vertical class situations are not inevitably transposed into the presumed corresponding sociological practice forms, the need for innovatative sociological tools for theoretical and empirical surveys on the organization and articulation of life has now arisen. However, the latter forms will not necessarily become empty and obsolete due to the former; both can complement each other wisely.

The fact that these issues are only now gaining ground is connected with the internal logic in the development of new topics and theses in the academic discussion. (9) The mainstream discussion is now asking questions about the congruence between material "possession" and cultural stylization, an issue that has already been mentioned by a series of authors many decades ago. (10) The more differentiated modern societies become, the greater becomes the possible scope for expressively staging social life. The better the material provisions, the broader the margins will become, from which one or the other form can be selected. (11)

However, even among social positions that already are at the lower end of the stratification scale, the broadening of competing social expressions is obvious. (12) Let us look at the category of unemployed persons. No average expected type of behavior among unemployed persons exists. Within this category no process of common socialization (Vergemeinschaftung) has taken place. Their individual biographical histories are far too different: their occupational qualifications, their training prerequisites, their aspirations, and living requirements are too different.

The intersection of (vertical) stratification sociology with socio-cultural issues can provide important answers to sociologically relevant patterns of life styles in modern societies. Joseph A. Schumpeter had already mentioned briefly in a general chapter in his book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) that the development or capitalist life styles can easily and perhaps most impressively he described with the genesis of modern lounge suits (Schumpeter [1942] 1947:126). This example indicates that studying social change can include the process by which social and economic structures are differentiated as well as the processes of cultural change. The sociology of the stratification of unequal material distribution situations is important. How the system of classification is determined is another question that can be dealt with separately. However, these levels of distribution cannot be directly translated into either specific value patterns within society or in cultural attitudes as an expression of social life. These issues need to be dealt with by the sociology of life styles.