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Book Review: Pekka Sulkunen, The Saturated Society: Governing Risk and Lifestyles in Consumer Culture
Lotte Holm Acta Sociologica 2011 54: 313 DOI: 10.1177/0001699311413536 The online version of this article can be found at: http://asj.sagepub.com/content/54/3/313.citation
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Book Reviews
Book Reviews
Pekka Sulkunen, The Saturated Society: Governing Risk and Lifestyles in Consumer Culture. London: Sage, 2009, 210 pp.
Acta Sociologica 54(3) 313314 The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0001699311413536 asj.sagepub.com
Reviewed by: Lotte Holm, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and Alan Warde, Universities of Helsinki, Finland and Manchester, UK
The Saturated Society is a wide-ranging and multidimensional book that combines a treatise in social theory with reflection on public policy, drawing on empirical research from Sulkunens own field of studies of alcohol consumption. Detailed and inspiring accounts of major theories, e.g. a highly nuanced account of Bourdieus habitus and a lovingly constructed exposition of the sociological kernel of Adam Smiths Theory of Moral Sentiments, frame a compelling account of the demise of paternalism in Western Europe in the last part of the twentieth century. The core historical argument concerns how it has become impossible for the state to intervene through welfare policies to shape peoples private lives and conduct. The dominant account of the demise of the welfare state blames neo-liberalism and its agenda of deregulation. Controversially, Sulkenen says this is mistaken; in truth, contemporary difficulties regarding lifestyle regulation (of addiction, risk, smoking, etc.) are the corollary of the completion or the saturation of the modernization process. The modern project has been accomplished, but only to see new contradictions emerge in the doctrine of individualism between its two dominant principles of social and political justification autonomy and intimacy. Autonomy implies sameness and is associated with claims for justice (that everyone should be treated in the same way in respect of rights and duties); while intimacy values distinctiveness and liberty (that everyone should be treated differently). Intimacy (a term that Sulkunen does not use in its more normal usage, but as a signal of concern with self-identity, authenticity, the expressive self, etc.) is inspired by the romantic tradition and is about peoples sense of self as a distinct and authentic person, separate in body and soul from others. Autonomy represents, by contrast, the rationalist orientation in Western political thought. Historically, these two sides of individuality developed in relative harmony, but recently they have clashed. Intimacy, which is in the ascendant, requires acceptance of difference. However, lifestyle differences interfere with the autonomy of others, imposing costs on them, in terms of healthcare costs or environmental costs, and by victimizing third party others through passive smoking, neglect of children, drunkenness or violence. They may also violate societal norms: homosexuality may violate the norm of the heterosexual family, entering a forced marriage contravenes principles of free will and choice, etc. Yet no one, and no state, has the indisputable moral authority to interfere with lifestyle choices; and, were they to try, they have no unchallenged ethical or political rules to follow. Contemporary welfare policy cannot any longer base its authority in a shared vision of the good. As Sulkunen puts it:
The breakdown of the moral barrier around private pleasures was important in cultural terms but it also had political consequences as well. Whereas the state until now had been entrusted with extensive powers to regulate lifestyles in the interest of advancing the common good, now lifestyle issues became a challenge, not only to the states authority to take a stand in moral issues but to the justification of the welfare state as a whole. (p. 117)
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Thus the expansion of the claims of intimacy means that older forms of pastoral power (paternalism and discipline) give way to epistolary power (that of an apostle inviting people to act in a particular way, showing them the road or the light, but without in any way compelling or directing them). As the state divests itself of moral responsibility, now handing it to citizens and voluntary associations, it abrogates any role as a centre of social integration or as a superior authority. Instead, the primary link between individuals in society and between individuals and the state takes the form of the contract. Sulkunen, controversially, views this change in the nature of state power to intervene in society as grounds for abandoning sociology as we know it. No longer mentors to the welfare state on social issues, sociologists would better pursue hexicology. Hexis, a term which Bourdieu at one point considered using for what he later labelled habitus, meaning disposition or possession, points to studies of lifestyles and practices. The analysis of changes in welfare regimes is accurate and insightful. But it is presented as a generalized analysis characterizing modern Western capitalism as such. This raises the question of the empirical foundation of the analysis. The core claim that it is politically inopportune, or perhaps impossible, to regulate concretely in order to control or constrain lifestyle differentiation in fields like drugs, alcohol and obesity convinces us. Certainly, the injunction that individual adults should be responsible for themselves and their own fates is announced ever more frequently in official political discourse. We are convinced that the analysis is a precise description of what has happened to alcohol policy in Finland. However, we wonder how widespread the Finnish type of paternalist health policy was, and thus whether the general theory over-extrapolates from the experience of Finland. Because Sulkunen substitutes social theory for macro-sociological history it is difficult to evaluate his historical claims. In the book, the role of individual agency is central, but is Romanticism taken too seriously? Is it really the case that presentation of the self and an authentic lifestyle is the core concern of most people today? Has the romantic ethic won so conclusively? One achievement of late twentieth-century studies of consumption was to counter a stultifying economistic consensus around social causation and determination; but moving to the opposite pole, taking capitalism as given and unworthy of analysis (arguably, a wider tendency within sociology over the past two decades) is a questionable move. Overall, this is an interesting, thought-provoking and challenging book, and there is much in the thesis of the saturated society that we might usefully reflect upon. How to intervene effectively to diminish the effects of the personal risks associated with contemporary lifestyles is a huge issue on the political agenda, and one to which a worthwhile sociology must contribute. Mobilizing the insights of its theoretical traditions, as Sulkunen has done, is a valuable exercise and a step in the right direction.
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