Page 51 - Cultural Theory

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••• Chris Rojek •••

in the course of his discussion of the division of labour and the money economy
Simmel’s analysis of modern experience resembles Marx’s work on alienation and
commodification. That is, it presents objective culture as the reification of human
relations which stand above subjects and bears down upon them as an external
thing. However, whereas Marx hypothesizes transcendence in the form of the recog-
nition of class interests and class revolution, Simmel’s sociology is more conservative
and stoical, presenting Modernity as a formation in which many different and dis-
cordant mentalities emerge in culture. Frisby and Featherstone (1997: 1–25) submit
that this stress on different and discordant mentalities is methodologically recon-
ciled in Simmel’s sociology in the form of a conscious perspectivism – a commitment
to view themes from a variety of perspectives.
Within the tradition of action sociology there is a strong tendency to conflate
action with interest. Acts are analyzed in terms of the intentions of actors, whether
these actors are conceived in terms of individuals or collectivities. Simmel is unusual
among sociologists of his day in going beyond this conflation. His concept of socia-
bility endeavours to encapsulate the play form in life with others. Play for itself, with-
out any ulterior motive, is the essence of sociability. Passing the time, day dreaming
and idle chat are generally assigned low significance in action sociology. They are
regarded as trivial acts of exchange and interaction. In Simmel’s sociology of culture
they are privileged as pivotal resources in social integration and reproduction. A par-
allel may be drawn with Benjamin’s (1970, 1999) famous analysis of the flaneur and,
in particular, his argument that the discarded, ordinary elements in society are the
hieroglyphics of culture. Simmel’s approach preceded Benjamin in attributing impor-
tance to the ordinary, seemingly trivial mentalities of everyday life.

Money

Simmel’s (1900) best known work is The Philosophy of Money. In this massive book
Simmel regards money to externalize the relations of circulation and exchange that
comprise the inner life of Modernity. The accentuated consciousness of the artificial,
arbitrary, transitory and contingent character of all relations is represented in mon-
etary transactions. Money is the perfect exemplar of the tendency of objective cul-
ture to dominate subjective culture because it is frequently reified into a force which
stands outside subjective life and compels us to act as if in the face of an immove-
able object. Inflation, unemployment and devaluation arise from human actions and
decisions but they have the quality to appear inhuman in their effects. They alienate
us from subjective culture because they limit our choices and prevent us from acting
as we please. From them, we learn what is objectively ‘realistic’ in the conduct of life
and we cut the cloth of our life-choices accordingly.
Simmel’s interest in the money economy derives from his reading of it as the
fullest embodiment of the exchange culture that predominates in the mentalities of
Modernity. For Simmel, every interaction, every look, glance and aside is an expres-
sion of the balance of reciprocal, conditional, reflexive and unstable energy that
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