Describe and analyse an aspect of your life which has been affected by COVID-19, using what you have learned in this unit.

Sociology of Everyday Life

Week 6 Lecture The meaning of STUFF!

PART 2

Dr Phillipa Bellemore, Sociology August 2020

STUFF

• In Part 2 discuss the meaning that ‘stuff’ or things holds for us

• Move past simplistic notions that collecting stuff is superficial and meaningless

• Ask you to consider your own stuff and what it means in your life

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Types of objects (RIGGENS, 1990)

Riggins, Stephen (1990) ‘The power of things: the role of domestic objects in the presentation of self’ in Beyond Goffman: Studies on Communication, Institutions and Social Interaction.

• Status Objects: front stage of social life. Defined social ranks.

• Esteem Objects: demonstrates social duties regardless of rank / class e.g. trophies, military decorations, medals, education certificates, Christmas and birthday cards.

• Occupational Objects: certificates/professional credentials, tools.

• Collective Objects: ties with groups outside immediate domestic setting: nationalist symbols, sports clubs, political or religious affiliations.

• Stigma Objects: Artefacts linked to what Goffman says is a ‘spoiled identity’; groups that viewed as deviant from norm or by physical disability. e.g. medical equipment-syringes; swastika; Confederate flag.

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‘Spark joy’? MARIE KONDO

• Joy vs joyless • Useful vs useless • Materialistic, superficial society • Easy to cleanse and clear

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My mother’s cups

Memory Interaction ritual Respect Care and grace Carefully arranged Rich in meaning, deeply symbolic

MORE THAN A TEACUP

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Respect for ‘stuff’

Miller (2008): Engaging with minutiae to understand humanity

Microethnography - 30 portraits of relationships with things in homes in a South London street – door-knocked a long street & side streets

Research over 17 months & participants valued opportunity to reflect on their things. Often several interviews

Objects speak: things are curated, not random…aesthetic

Closer our relationships with objects, the closer our relationships with people

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Stuff and things

• Is there comfort in things? • Portrait 1 Empty- George "The flat was empty, completely empty, because its

occupant had no independent capacity to place something decorative or ornamental within it".

• Portrait 25 Oh Sod it! - Di “Because it is the kind of strength that give insistence to one’s presence in the world in the face of disapproval, disappointment, possible disdain and finally age (p. 227)

• What kinds of objects are important to you? • Do you possess any objects that express your personality or individuality?

• What about how objects are displayed or used in your parent’s home? Do they reflect aspects of their identity? Your identity? Or do you find these objects oppressive? Why?

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The meaning of objects

“we live in a world of ever more stuff – what sometimes seems a deluge of good and

shopping. We tend to assume this has two results: that we are superficial and that

we are more materialistic; our relationships to things coming at the expense of our

relationships to people. We make such assumptions, we speak in clichés, but we

have rarely tried to put these assumptions to the test. By the time you finish this

book you will discover that, in many ways, the opposite is true; that possessions

often remain profound and usually the closer our relationships are with

objects, the closer our relationships are with people” (Miller,2008:1)

To understand things and what they mean to people we have to understand

individual perspectives.

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Week 6

• Reflection assessment is due Sunday 6th September

• Ask you to consider your own stuff, what is important and of value to you and where it comes from and its impact on you and your environment

• Reading from Daniel Miller, Portrait 13 about the objects of importance in Marina’s life.

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References

• David Miller, (2008) The Comfort of Things. Polity

• Riggins, Stephen (1990) ‘The power of things: the role of domestic objects in the presentation of self’ in Beyond Goffman: Studies on Communication, Institutions and Social Interaction.

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