Mass Society-
Era of Mass Society and Culture- till 1965
Please Note: This blog is meant for Under Graduate students specifically. Hence the language and the definition has been kept simple in order to make the concept understandable for students of the particular age group. For those expecting, scholarly descriptions, kindly refer to the References section and read the full fledged scholarly writings of varied authors.
The term Mass is basically a term that was attributed to the masses or people characterized as the modern society. However, in the context of the term ‘Mass Society’, there is a historical element attached which led to the creation of the term and its development and modification in the 19th century. We now take a look at how the term Mass Society was viewed at through the years.
Definition of Mass Society:
The definitions of varied scholars have to be viewed in a context. Th historical perspective provided in the notes will highlight what this term meant when used by different scholars.
Lang K and Lang E (2009) in their research paper titled, ‘Mass Society, Mass Culture, and Mass Communication: The Meaning of Mass’ say that the concept of mass goes back a long way to characterize a society that consists of people somehow connected by communication while, at the same time, also dispersed in space and essentially detached from one another. Mass has also been a pejorative for critics of modern capitalist society and its culture.
Andre Munro (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2016) defines Mass Society as a concept used to characterize modern society as homogenized but also disaggregated, because it is composed of atomized individuals. The term is often used pejoratively to denote a modern condition in which traditional forms of human association have broken down and been replaced by conformist or even totalitarian forms of collective behaviour.
Fakhar Naveed (2015): Mass Society Theory can be regarded as a collection of conflicting notions developed to make sense of what was happening as industrialisation allowed big cities to spring up and expand. Mass Society notions came from both ends of the political spectrum. Some were developed by people who wanted to maintain the old political order and others were created by revolutionaries who wanted to impose radical changes.
Historical Perspective:
It is important that we understand the historical element that went into the coming about of this term
The term ‘Mass Society’ could also be attributed to a conservative (those who support the supremacy of traditional institutions) reaction of critics to the social upheaval in countries like France and the undermining of the Royalty, the nobles and the Traditional institutions like the Church that held massive powers. It was a term that pejoratively signified “a modern condition in which traditional forms of human association have broken down and been replaced by conformist or even totalitarian forms of collective behaviour” (Munro, 2016).
One of the primary reasons for the change, was the massive emergence of the Third Estate (Tiers État)- a great majority of the non-aristocratic members from amongst the people of France during the French Revolution. The French Revolution was a massive revolt led by the people against the atrocities they had to face including the massive taxation, the increasing prices of food amidst drought and the extravagant spending by King Louis XVI and his precursor, which had led the country into bankruptcy. The People were driven to the brink due to two decades of drought which led to massive unrest amongst the farmers, cattle disease, massive taxation by the aristocrats. The revolt was bloody and tumultuous and gradually led to the abolishment of the monarchy and the establishment of the French Republic (History.com Editors, 2009). The concept of the Mass Society had its roots here as according to many “critics ranging from Edmund Burke to Hannah Arendt, the Revolution was significant in part because it allowed ordinary people—the “swinish multitude,” in Burke’s view—to enter politics” (Munro, 2016). There was also a fear among the intellectuals of this era that as the ordinary masses would attain power instead of the Traditional elite and Aristocrats there would be a degradation of the artistic world.
Evolution of the term post Industrialisation:
The term ‘Mass Society’ also emerged as an outcome of the massive industrialisation that started occurring in the 19th century. European countries like Italy and France saw massive changes due to revolutions leading to the conceptualisation of terms called ‘New Societies’. Basically ‘New Societies’ at this point of time indicated an outcome of change from the initially hierarchical era which favoured the dominant and elite classes towards an acceptance of the presence of the middle class and the lower social strata of people, who seemed to live a disintegrated, homogenised lifestyle.
Gradually, countries like Italy, America and others saw massive increase in Industrialisation in the 19th century that led to Urbanisation. Industrialisation had led to many people turning towards the cities for jobs, as a workforce in companies thus interrupting rural lives (Alabarces, 2017). Thus, Mass Society was defined as a term that emerged as “an adjective used to describe every society in which ‘masses’ occupy roles and areas which had previously been reserved for its dominant classes or social groups dependent upon them: mainly politics and cities.” Simply put, the term Mass Society indicated people, especially in the cities, who lived in a place, as strangers but were still connected as they were dependent on each other for their needs. Their similarity of lifestyle was not an indication of their consanguinity. It was an outcome of their transition and adaptation to a particular lifestyle in their search for attempts at survival in the Urban areas. Therefore, albeit the fact that people clubbed together in cities, they are strangers. Theodor Geiger (1891-1952), a Danish sociologist rightly said, “Today, mutual dependence . . . exists among people, most of them strangers and personally indifferent to one another. What connects them are not the bonds of sympathy but the necessities of life” (Geiger, 1955).
However, the concept was never stagnant as the advent of Mass Media from the year 1920 and forward saw the growth of News Paper, Radio and Television creating appendages to the term ‘Mass Society’. The consumers of the then mass media or the audiences of the then popular literature, press, radio and cinema were considered to be mostly people from the New Mass Societies who had adapted the western culture. These audiences were also Masses.
It is gradually over here that the concept of ‘Mass Culture’ began developing. Various Schools with varied perspective emerged during this time highlighting the degradation of artistic skills and the rise of a consummeristic and materialistic mass of people. It also led to the formation of the concept of Cultural studies.
Mass Society has thus turned into a term that has evolved over the years from different perspectives.
REFERENCES
1. André Munro, 2016, Mass society, Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/mass-society
2. Fakhar Naveed, 2015, The era of Mass Society and Mass Culture, Mass Communication Talk, https://www.masscommunicationtalk.com/the-era-of-mass-society-and-mass-culture.html
3. French Revolution, History.com Editors, Updated: Feb 4, 2021, Original: Nov 9, 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/france/french-revolution
4. Geiger, T. (1955). Die Legende von der Massengesellschaft. Acta Sociologic, 1, 75-79
5. Lang Kurt and Lang Engel Gladys, 2009, Mass Society, Mass Culture, and Mass Communication: The Meaning of Mass, International Journal of Communication 3 (2009), 998-1024
6. Pablo Alabarces, Mass Culture and Mass Society, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, Editors- George Ritzer and Chris Rojek, Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd, DOI: 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosm040.pub2
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