The family and the market

1. The family and the market Aim: To trace the development of family life and link rising expectations to anxiety

2. The effect of the market on family • In pre-capitalist societies the family is the primary site of production, which is also based on land ownership • The extension of market and technology based systems of production lead to the outsourcing of production formerly done in the home (especially by women, who are traditionally cheaper labour)

3. Some terms • Sex and kinship are biological concepts • Gender is the display of sex related behaviour which the society requires • Feudal governance structures are built primarily around kinship (family) loyalties • Democratic societies claim to reward individual merit and often see kinship governance forms as corrupt or discriminatory

4. More terms • Feudal ideology sees family loyalty as leading to the overall good • Market ideology sees individual freedom as leading to the overall good • Socialist ideology sees subjugation of individual freedom to the overall good as necessary • (I personally would not vote for family ideology)

5. Capitalism and ‘private life’ • The early development of capitalism produced consumption for a home life away from the workplace, and also for a ‘private’ life, depending on leisure and wealth • In wealthy families, the control of women by men was justified by the view that it is necessary to protect a weaker sex and their offspring, and that women find this a welcome bargain

6. In the 19th century Engels puts another view • He saw marriage primarily as a family based property alliance by the wealthy • He thought that increasing productivity would eventually lead to all women being drawn into an ever-expanding market, and also becoming increasingly equal with men because of their new found economic independence

7. Parsons and the feminists • As capitalism developed in the 20th century, people traveled more and had fewer children so the nuclear family replaced the extended one • Parsons saw modern marriage as a welcome bargain between the sexes – the male role is primarily instrumental, the female is expressive • Feminist writers tended to be gloomier than Engels, and to see women as biologically based captives of a man made market

8. Discrimination • The concept of discrimination is based on the idea that individuals deserve equal opportunities and choices, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, etc. • A society that embraces freedom from discrimination should also embrace a concern for the care of children and other vulnerable life. • If not, the primary concerns of adults will otherwise be driven by the market, not traditions which necessitate the care of the next generation.

9. Looking inside the self The psychoanalytic and psychological traditions at the beginning of the 20th century began a new interest in the individual and interior life Freud saw infants as instinctive, primarily sexual beings whose rapacious appetites require civilizing within the family at an early age

10. Freud His theory of the unconscious mind and the nature of the id, the ego and the superego became extremely influential The id is instinctual, uncontrolled behaviour The ego develops in response to an understanding of self preservation needs Superego development entails gaining a broader moral and social view

11. Freud and followers • Freud thought civilization was very fragile and easily overwhelmed by our innately aggressive animal nature • Writers after world war II emphasized the importance of mothering and social bonds instead. They claimed that selfish aggression, rather than being an innate drive, owes its existence to the unmet demand for love.

12. Jung Jung was a disciple of Freud but became his critic, as had many others earlier. He saw contemporary 20th century economic, political and scientific approaches to the world as extremely powerful but based on comparatively crude and limited perspectives, designed primarily to serve narrowly utilitarian scientific and commercial purposes.

13. Jung Jung thought that the cold war provided strong evidence that the world was mad, and motivated by fear and hate, rather than the broader love of humanity, as its major ideologies and religions claimed. He put the problem down partly to a refusal to examine the dark side of the self, but to instead project it onto the other.

14. The protest generation • Marcuse argued that the development of capitalism made people become increasingly self-obsessed. He thought that the productivity of capitalism had successfully diverted the social reality of comparative powerlessness into an unsatisfying individual consumption of goods and services. We must see ourselves as products which are for sale in the market.

15. The Narcissistic Society • The ‘narcissistic’ or ‘consumer’ society commencing in the sixties and beyond is one where the individual is engaged in an anxious, continual and self-destructive quest for self-identity and self-gratification. Constant anxiety about whether one can ‘measure up’ to peer or related group requirements produces the ‘lonely crowd’ and ‘other directed’ personality. (Does my bum look big in this?)

16. The feminists • De Beauvoir pointed out that in a world constructed and controlled by men, women could only see themselves through male eyes • Freidan mainly argued that society would be better off if women were treated equally, especially at work • Greer pointed to historical and contemporary evidence of men’s hatred and oppression of women, with sexual expression being seen as a major site of control

17. The feminists Ehrenreich argued that the fashionable 1960s horror of conformity came partly from a male rejection of providing for an essentially dependent group – the wife and kids. She also saw it as the logical byproduct of the capitalist ideology of competitive individualism, which also undermines traditional family life.

18. Lasch • Lasch argued that after the political turmoil of the sixties people withdrew into ‘psychic self-improvement’ and learning to ‘relate’. • Exposed increasingly to the market, the family increasingly becomes a site of contradiction, as reality fails to measure up to advertising fantasy, and the person becomes more fragile as a result of market generated family and peer pressures.

19. A postmodern world? Global culture is so complex and diverse that belief in God and science must be seen as meaninglessly relative. In the world dominated by the market there is only ‘spin’ which seeks to produce fashion, mass appeal and related product or service take-up. All professional endeavour reflects and seeks to create this. History and culture become mere trappings of the product, which is also the self.

20. The policy alternative • Requires successfully coordinated international, national and local structures which can provide business incentives to promote health and environment development for current and future generations, commencing with the most vulnerable social groups – children, and other fragile forms of life. • This is ideally supported by a broadly debated quest for evidence, education and communication which encompasses the whole community.