Tags: capitalism, marx/marxism, organizations/occupations/work, alienation, mass production, labor process, fordism, 06 to 10 mins Year: 1936 Length: 7:25 Access: YouTube Summary: This short excerpt (if using the entire film, begin it at 2:50 & end at 10:15) is an excellent illustration of Marx's concept of alienation (including alienation from the production process, the product, species-being, and fellow workers). First, Charlie Chaplin’s character is alienated from the production process. On the assembly line, he has no control over the speed of the assembly line, how it is arranged, or his role within it. His boss stands over him barking commands at him, probably telling him to speed up and work harder. This type of alienation is pushed even further when he is subject to the automatic "feeding machine” and Chaplin even loses control over the basic activity of eating. Second, we know that Chaplin will not be able to keep the products he produces; it is not even clear from the video what he is producing. Like any capitalist enterprise, these products will become the property of the capitalist and thus the worker is alienated from them. Third, Chaplin is alienated from his own species-being. Through interaction with the industrial machinery, he is interacting not with nature through any creative means, but in an incredibly boring and monotonous fashion. The mind-numbing work requires no creativity, which Marx believes to be an essential element of human nature. Finally, the workers are alienated from each other in this clip. They are made to function in isolation, needing to each do the single mundane task assigned to them by the owner. There is no cooperation or social element to their work. Through the automatic “feeding machine,” the capitalist seeks to “eliminate the lunch hour” and “increase production.” As a consequence, the lunch hour, which is normally a social time for the worker, is lost. When showing the video in class, I ask students to identify how Chaplin's character is alienated and how this relates to Marx's broader theory about capitalism and class. Submitted By: Paul Dean
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Tags: capitalism, commodification, consumption/consumerism, corporations, marketing/brands, theory, critical theory, culture industry, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 1999 Length: 3:04 Access: No online access Summary: These 2 separate scenes from Fight Club draw on a familiar dialogue about consumers and are a great illustration of the culture industry (begin/end 4:45-5:40; 29:06-31:15). The scenes include the narrator's (Edward Norton) discussion of Ikea, and his conversation with Tylder Durden (Brad Pitt) about consumption and social control. In one scene, Norton discusses all the Ikea furniture around his apartment. He begins: “like many others, I have become a slave to the Ikea nesting instinct” as the screen pans around his apartment and overlays the space with images and text like it was straight out of an Ikea catalog. In a later scene, Norton laments the loss of all of his stuff, saying “when you buy furniture, you tell yourself ‘that’s it, that’s the last sofa I’m gonna need. Whatever else happens, I’ve got that sofa problem handled. I had it all … I was close to being complete.” Brad Pitt’s character concludes the scene stating “The things you own end up owning you,” which often facilitates very lively and interesting class discussion. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: capitalism, class, corporations, globalization, government/the state, marx/marxism, political economy, capitalist, internal contradiction, labor, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2010 Length: 11:10 Access: GOOD Blog Summary: The GOOD Blog describes the video as "another of those fantastic RSAnimate videos from London's Royal Society for the Arts, the Marxist sociologist David Harvey explains how the 'internal contradictions of capital accumulation,' not human nature or faulty institutions, are the actual root cause of the recent financial collapse (along with a host of other economic crises)." The clip would work well in a class grappling with Marxism and the continuing relevance and application of Marxist theory. In my view, the clip is particularly useful when attempting to broaden the discussion to the way capitalism works on a global scale. The clip can be used in conjunction with Harvey's new book, The Enigma of Capital: and the Crisis of Capitalism, and a fifteen minute audio interview he recently gave to Wisconsin Public Radio about the causes of the financial crises. Harvey's argument dovetails nicely with Mark Blyth's argument about class politics and the true meaning of "austerity," which is also posted on The Sociological Cinema. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: abortion/reproduction, class, demography/population, government/the state, inequality, political economy, philippines, poverty, fertility, contraception, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2008 Length: 12:26 Access: YouTube Summary: This news report from Al Jazeera English focuses on the growing population in the Philippines. "It's a population explosion," the reporter begins, "Every year two million babies are born in the Philippines." The report suggests that one important reason for the growth is the government's pronatal policies, and specifically, its failure to promote contraception. The clip highlights the role governments play in demographic realities and fertility in particular. The clip suggests connections between population growth and economic development and would work well in a class on demography or development. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: art/music, bodies, children/youth, discourse/language, gender, lgbtq, social construction, poetry, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2009 Length: 2:45 Access: YouTube Summary: This poem from Brave New Voices is performed by two young women from Philadelphia. The poem is useful for introducing students to discussions of transgenderism, as well as for talking about the ways in which language constructs our social experiences (the term "hir" is the gender-neutral pronoun that replaces either "her" or "his"). Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: consumption/consumerism, gender, lgbtq, marketing/brands, media, sex/sexuality, social construction, theory, masculinity, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2009 Length: 0:33 Access: YouTube Summary: This commercial for Pepsi Max, marketed as the first diet cola for men, demonstrates how masculinity (and by implication, femininity) is constructed in western culture. Unlike the consumption of traditional diet cola which suggests a concern over one's figure and a willingness to sacrifice flavor in exchange for fewer calories (i.e., appropriately "feminine" concerns), the taste of Pepsi Max is the first diet cola that is flavorful (i.e., potent/powerful) enough for men. To demonstrate men's ability to handle most anything besides the taste of traditional diet cola, this clip portrays men claiming their tolerance for pain in the face of extraordinarily painful - and dangerous - events. Significantly, this unrealistic tolerance for pain is asserted exclusively by men in the presence of other men. This clip is useful for exemplifying Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity and Kimmel's concept of masculinity as homophobia. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: bodies, crime/law/deviance, discourse/language, foucault, gender, knowledge, lgbtq, religion, science/technology, sex/sexuality, social construction, theory, discipline, norms, power, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 3:29 Access: YouTube Summary: This short clip summarizes the main arguments of Foucault's "The History of Sexuality" in a playful song/music video format. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp
Tags: consumption/consumerism, gender, marketing/brands, organizations/occupations/work, housework, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2007 Length: 0:35 Access: YouTube Summary: The clear message sent in this Clorox commercial is that laundry is women's work. The commercial states that throughout time and despite many changes (one might even include the Women's Movement as a part of this timeline), women continue to trust Clorox. The underlying message is that laundry continues to be a form of women's (unpaid) labor. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: gender, intersectionality, nationalism, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, social mvmts/social change/resistance, war/military, employment discrimination, racism, representation, sexism, wwII, women's labor force participation, 21 to 60 mins Year: 1988 Length: 54:00; 1:56 Access: no online access; Vimeo preview Summary: This film was first broadcast as an episode of the television program "The American Experience" on Nov. 1, 1988. The film explores the large scale entrance of American women into the paid labor force during World War II in order to fill positions abandoned by American men fighting abroad. The film documents the experiences of women on the American home front during the war. These women talk about empowerment through greater earning power, but also through challenging dominant ideas about the division between masculinity and femininity. The empowerment thesis is challenged by the fact that once the war was over and the soldiers returned home, women were largely asked to leave their jobs and assume their prewar status as homemakers. The film would work well in a class on the sociology of gender, especially as a means of stimulating discussion about the theoretical notion of intersectionality. Gender, race, and nationalism vividly intersect throughout the film. Submitted By: Lester Andrist
Tags: bodies, children/youth, consumption/consumerism, gender, marketing/brands, media, clothes/fashion, femininity, masculinity, norms, teens, 21 to 60 mins
Year: 2001 Length: 58:26 Access: PBS Summary: This Frontline documentary, Merchants of Cool focuses on the energy and resources marketing firms devote to finding what teens collectively decide is the "next big thing" or "cool." The documentary describes these firms as the merchants of cool and suggests that they are doing much more than simply catering to the demands of popular teen culture. They are co-creators of that culture. • Among other uses, the documentary would work well in an introductory sociology class as a means of understanding what culture is and how it works. It might also be used to illustrate the concept of social norms and how social norms can be considered a component of culture. Submitted By: Lester Andrist |
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