^ Welcome to Elsewhere, USA, where the American individual has become extinct.
Acclaimed sociologist Dalton Conley looks closely at a population of intraviduals -- fractured people who struggle to juggle professional, familial, and personal pursuits.
Gone are the days when professionals could count on clearly-defined work days with the same company for twenty years, and clearly defined roles within the family to come home to.
Instead, today's citizens of Elsewhere must try to satisfy their various selves simultaneously.
By examining three arenas – economic, familial, and technological – Conley is able to illustrate how we have all become inhabitants of Elsewhere, where division between home and office has been all but demolished; our wireless economy encourages us to work 24/7, marketing has invaded the most intimate aspects of our lives, and leisure has become a lost art.
- FORA.tv
You know when you meet someone for the first time, say, at a party, or on campus, or through a friend? Often one of the first things brought up between you are such questions as "What do you do?", "How long have you worked there?", "Where did you go to school?"
Such questions clue us in on how we define ourselves and each other, and how we define ourselves is often based on things like our professional life, what we do for a living, what things we own, where we live, how we were able to afford where we live and why we chose to live there, where we went to school, what degrees we earned, and the professional positions and similar things that our social circle holds.
I've had conversations with strangers before that were no different from this. But my answers usually diverge from what most people expect. When they ask me, for example, what I do, I say, "I currently read a lot of non-fiction, I blog, and I listen to NPR." Or I say, "I volunteer as a docent at an Asian art museum and work with grade school kids." Or, "I spend some afternoons at cafe reading and enjoying a coffee, and I help take care of my elderly mother."
These answers catch people off guard, and that's because of how we at large have been conditioned by our society to identify each other through things like a certain job and the social status that such a job would place us in, and other factors typical in a consumer driven society. I didn't lie to these people when I answered the way I did, it's just that we're set up to think and place each other in particular ways. My job is not necessarily me, and vice versa. I've simply gone and redefined myself more on things other than what I do to earn money, and what I buy with the money I earn.
Dalton Conley offers an overture on topics like self-identity and placement in terms of worker, consumer, social creature, and shifting values defined by culture, belief system, industry, and technological progress throughout the 20th century and in the foyer of the 21st century of America.
If you aren't busy this moment, have about an hour and a half, and a cup of coffee or tea, find out what Mr. Conley has to say about it. You may glean a bit more about where you place yourself in your life and why, and where life around you places you. Here? There? Elsewhere?
Such questions clue us in on how we define ourselves and each other, and how we define ourselves is often based on things like our professional life, what we do for a living, what things we own, where we live, how we were able to afford where we live and why we chose to live there, where we went to school, what degrees we earned, and the professional positions and similar things that our social circle holds.
I've had conversations with strangers before that were no different from this. But my answers usually diverge from what most people expect. When they ask me, for example, what I do, I say, "I currently read a lot of non-fiction, I blog, and I listen to NPR." Or I say, "I volunteer as a docent at an Asian art museum and work with grade school kids." Or, "I spend some afternoons at cafe reading and enjoying a coffee, and I help take care of my elderly mother."
These answers catch people off guard, and that's because of how we at large have been conditioned by our society to identify each other through things like a certain job and the social status that such a job would place us in, and other factors typical in a consumer driven society. I didn't lie to these people when I answered the way I did, it's just that we're set up to think and place each other in particular ways. My job is not necessarily me, and vice versa. I've simply gone and redefined myself more on things other than what I do to earn money, and what I buy with the money I earn.
Dalton Conley offers an overture on topics like self-identity and placement in terms of worker, consumer, social creature, and shifting values defined by culture, belief system, industry, and technological progress throughout the 20th century and in the foyer of the 21st century of America.
If you aren't busy this moment, have about an hour and a half, and a cup of coffee or tea, find out what Mr. Conley has to say about it. You may glean a bit more about where you place yourself in your life and why, and where life around you places you. Here? There? Elsewhere?
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