Labourism and the Commodification of Work and Social Life
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University of Wollongong Thesis Collections University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Year Labourism and the commodification of work and social life David Humphries University of Wollongong Humphries, David, Labourism and the commodification of work and social life, PhD thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Wollongong, 2004. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/231 This paper is posted at Research Online. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/231 Labourism and the commodification of work and social life A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy from University of Wollongong by David Humphries B.A. Honours (University of Newcastle) Sociology Program 2004 i DECLARATION I, David B. Humphries, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Sociology Program University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. David Humphries 18th of May, 2004 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS: Abstract v Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Australian masculinities, nationalism and cultural egalitarianism 29 1a. New World masculinity and egalitarianism 31 1b. Anzac nationalism 33 1c. Drugs and cultural identity 39 1d. Protestantism and the New World 47 1e. Australia’s ‘dead heart’; the reification and ossification of Aboriginality 57 Chapter 2 Social democracy and economic rationalism 64 2a. Neo-liberalism and the Labor Party 67 2b. Post-welfare state labor 78 2c. The selective welfare state 81 2d. The social democratic backlash 84 2e. Academia and New Labor 91 iii Chapter 3 Competing ‘welfarism’ 103 3a. Unemployment and notions of ‘bludging’ 105 3b. Mutual Obligation 118 3c. The Job Network and working for the ‘dole 124 3d. Public housing and neo-liberalism 132 Chapter 4 The formation of sexuality in industrial capitalism 139 4a. Debauchery or morality?: the choice between Classical or Christian sexual ethics 140 4b. Sexology; the sexualisation of Age of Enlightenment discourses 145 4c. Late capitalist sexology 154 4d. Pornography 158 4e. Phallus critiques 166 Chapter 5 Women’s roles and sexuality in capitalism 180 5a. Women and families 180 5b. Late capitalist families 191 5c. Romantic love 198 5d. Popular literature and soap operas 206 iv Chapter 6 Masculinity and sexuality under late capitalism 213 6a. Men and families 214 6b. Liberal egalitarianism and masculinity 217 6c. Male sports 224 6d. Suicidal masculinity 233 6e. Masculinity and the state 238 Chapter 7 Homosexuality and postmodernism 242 8a. Lesbianism 243 8b. Lesbian sadomasochism 248 8c. Homosexuality 259 8d. Paedophilia (hebophilia) 267 8e. Heterosexual paedophilia 276 Conclusion 284 Bibliography 310 v ABSTRACT The thesis explores concepts of alienation and commodification in relation to public and private themes of identity, in contemporary Australia. It is argued that as labour conditions have intensified and the social safety net has eroded the emphasis on private themes of identity have increased. These themes emphasise sexuality and gender, and down-grade the issue of work and labour. The Australian Labor Party helped create the conditions for postmodernist identity politics weakening their commitment to working class improvement in favour of emphasising “hypercapitalism” and “hyperliberal” gender discourses. This approach favours the inclusion of marginal groups that have been traditionally outside of labourist concerns (women, homosexuals, Aborigines) at the expense of civilising capitalism, labour alienation and commodification as the central concern for workers. In short, the abandonment of Marxism, labourism and Social democracy: and their replacement by identity issues. The backlash to a post-welfare state social democracy designed to ameliorate conditions for marginal groups, become a key feature in the election of the Howard government in 1996, with “Howard’s battlers” consisting of former Labor voters disenfranchised by “political correctness”. This produced an attack on “welfare cheats,” high taxation, and “trendy” concerns such as Aboriginality – and reinforced Hansonism. In this context, the Australian and American relationship and the frontier tradition is stressed as a pivotal factor in determining the role of identity in the neo-liberal political vi economy, with the pressures created by neo-liberalism and globalisation. Australian mythology based on Anzac symbolism and ‘personality’ creates a vacuous phenomenon for genuine themes of Australian national identity to survive the homogenous nature of “hyper-capitalism”. The drift towards the power of American capitalism and political cosmologies can then been seen as a natural evolution of Australian political mythology. It is here that the thesis argues that hyper capitalist themes can have an implicit relationship to concepts of “hyper-liberalism” found in gender discourses and moreover, ironically evocative of the individualism Weber argued existed in American Protestant religious sects. Subsequently the ‘de-construction’ of masculinity that has been characteristic of feminist and gay theory, that reflects a social psychological perspective rather than one based in Marx’s historical materialism that places ‘man’ within social history. Social theory therefore unfairly constructs the heterosexual masculine personality in relation to working class elite occupations such as coalmining or as a reflection of a corporate dominance, to create polemic ‘avenues’ for marginal groups. The focus upon heterosexuality within the thesis links its relationship to the characteristics demanded by industrial capitalism such as the Fordist mode of production, and in Marxist terms, the complete enslavement and alienation that existed between “social man” and the capitalist mode of production. This approach emphasises the experience of wage labour, culminating with the high levels of unemployment that has risen concomitantly with de-industrialisation, globalisation and neo-liberalism. The disciplining of the unemployed in the post-welfare state exists alongside hyper-liberal themes of sexual and social identity, indicating a general shift to a “social fascism”, or two- tiered form of democracy that resides alongside, and is often in competition with vii conservative advocates for the nuclear family and heterosexuality. The development of “Howard’s battlers” reflects a conservative appropriation of the original Australian legend that was based on labourism and mateship and now exists in a nationalist paradigm evocative of frontiersmen and Anzacs rather than one based on class. A framing issue for the thesis subsequently is what role does gender and sexuality have in the function of the industrial capitalist society? viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge and express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Andrew Wells, whose guidance assisted the process of exploring and uniting ideas. For my parents; and in memory of my father who helped inspire the journey. ix INTRODUCTION Chapter one (Australian masculinities, nationalism and cultural egalitarianism) explores the unique banality of Australian politics explained by its reliance on frontier, New World political and religious traditions. In this context, White’s (1981) notion of “national inventions” is used describe the idiosyncratic and ephemeral differences which evade the reality of Australia’s ‘Americanisation’. The chapter contests the secular legend of Australian culture by arguing the existence of an increasing link between Weber’s notion of the Protestant individual in capitalism and that of the distinctive Protestant culture of America. Previously, In so far as gold brought more people to the bush and led to the growth of country towns, it may be said to have brought the bushmen into closer touch with organised religion, but this was a long-term process. (Ward, 1958:123) The romance of the bush and the Australian ‘personality’ are revealed as the key features separating the frontier experiences of the two countries. The durability of the Anzac mythology, (where much of the conceptualisations of the personality originate) has evolved into a right-wing phenomenon in the neo-liberal economy that negates nationalistic divisions of substance due to the homogeneous nature of the globalised phase of late capitalism. National identity is seen increasingly from a perspective that focuses on consumption rather than work, as representations of identity are only useful in terms of marketing and advertising projections. Otherwise Russel Ward’s “mates” are only referred to in the context of nationalist and imperialist wars. The ‘apoliticality’ of Ward’s thesis that had appeal as a naturally evolving leftist bias was too easily turned 1 into a right-wing interpretation that involved soldiers that fought for Empire. Capitalism has always had a ‘global’ perspective, and thereby played a central role in defining nationalism and “nation-building”. Globalisation then creates unique pressures on nations with small populations, and perceived nebulous or borrowed national identities. As Turner suggests (in Sterne), Australia’s economic base is inexorably linked to its nationalism that can appear increasingly contrary as globalised capital buffets the economy and sense of identity. An ‘incomplete’ capture of the state that does not incorporate the emotional and hegemonic concepts of nationhood, can unlock the