mass society concept
Being a term most frequently used in academia, we speak of "mass society” when we refer to a specific and quite recent form of social organization. These are societies in which the vast majority of the population is inserted in a process of production and consumption in large scale of consumer goods and services, in addition to complying with a certain behavioral model widespread.
THE mass society emerged at a late point in the modernization process. The economic development resulting from the rapid industrialization process with a focus on the production of consumer goods en masse, as well as the rapid growth of the service sector, was one of the motivating forces for this type of organization. The urbanization process and the concentration of population in large cities, making them the center of the social universe, impacted the format of relations between the subject, the social world and institutions of the State.
The bureaucratization of the social environment and the formalization of relations between the individual and institutional bodies, with formal rationality prevailing as a mediation tool for this bond, weakened the forms of individual actions, since the subject is always submitted to the judgment of a larger entity and based on the aggregate of forces of the whole Social.
Finally, the advent of mass media has made possible the homogenization of language, customs, interactions and contexts, neutralizing the difference that the distancing and the lack of generic and generalizing references made emerge within the small communities that make up the body Social.
The large populations of the metropolises constitute mass societies
the subject of mass society
More succinctly, mass society is the culmination of a long path of change covered by forms of social structuring in the arising from the modernization of the Western world, which presupposes a progressive increase in the political, social and cultural engagement of the great masses of populations.
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In this context, the individual also has their behavioral predispositions and positioning in relation to their coexistence in this reality, factors influenced by the established dynamics.
the spanish philosopher José Ortega and Gasset used the concept of "mass man” to describe the subject in a mass society. For the philosopher, the mass-man is the expression of conformity with external determinations. The individual and his individuality leave the scene and give place to the subject who seeks to fit into the generic determinations of the mass social world. The “mass-man”, says Ortega, feels comfortable when he sees himself equal to everyone else, in conformity with the mass.
Another author who was also interested in the subject in mass society was the French social theorist Michel Foucault, that, in his work “watch and punish”, sought to shed light on the forms of control over the subject verified in the different disciplinary institutions of a society. Among schools, prisons, hospitals and barracks, Foucault developed the notion of punitive control as way to ensure the collusion with the conventions stipulated by the social environment in which the subject lives.
The idea of Panopticon it is central to Foucault's theory. In short, it refers to the notion of a process of building the internalization of the surveillance of one's behavior. This internalization takes place through the disciplinary process that each subject goes through in different institutions and at different times in their lives. The idea is that the subject becomes a watchman for his own actions, even if he is not under the watchful eye of a police officer or a teacher, for example. In this sense, the individual must conform and become useful to the social context, be submissive and passive in their relationship with the set in which they live.
by Lucas Oliveira
Graduated in Sociology
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
RODRIGUES, Lucas de Oliveira. "Mass society"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/sociologia/sociedade-massa.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
