Hard workers and big spenders facing the bru: understanding men's employment and consumption in a de-industrialized Scottish village

Abstract

This thesis provides an ethnography of an ex-coal mining village in central Scotland, concentrating on the meanings that employment and consumption have for men, and how this is affected by mass unemployment. A particular example of British working class culture is described, relying principally on data gathered through participant observation while living in 'Cauldmoss' for two years, and combining this with the results of questionnaires, time and money budgets and semi-structured interviews. These methods are described in Ch. 2.

Ch. 3 provides a general ethnography of the village, outlining its history and identifying the main social institutions. The significance of social status in the villagers' daily lives is emphasized. Two conflicting models of stratification are abstracted from the distinctions that inhabitants make. These distinctions are based either on 'restricted' (more traditional) values, or on 'unrestricted' values; though incompatible, the same people often subscribe to both simultaneously. Since "belonging" to Cauldmoss is found to be a fundamental source of identity the significance of 'community feeling' is explored. Gender is introduced as a social division affecting all areas of social life, frequently on a hierarchical basis, and it is intrinsic to the interpretation of male employment.

In Ch. 4 both the explicit and implicit meanings attributed to "Work" are explored, and the differences in values between generations are described. Essentially employment means time sold in self-sacrifice for the sake of the family wage; to understand why men discipline themselves to this unenjoyable activity one has to appreciate the cultural significance of consumption.

In the first two ethnographic chapters five principal explanatory variables indigenous to the culture of Cauldmoss are identified: social status, community belonging, gender, employment and age. Each of these is expressed through consumption patterns, and each affects how an individual evaluates commodities. This is shown in Ch. 5 by the analysis of consumption in terms of culturally ascribed value. Following Sahlins it is argued that this symbolic value is a more useful way of understanding expenditure and consumption than to resort to a supposedly absolute 'use value'. The semiological nature of commodities implies that their meaning is largely arbitrary; this helps to explain the dynamic for increased consumption.

A general analysis of consumption is illustrated in Ch. 6 with a detailed description of the use of one particular commodity: alcohol. Drinking is central to male culture in Cauldmoss and it can be understood in terms of the masculinity, adulthood and employment status conveyed, as well as the male solidarity of the village which is reproduced in the pubs. Traditional 'restricted' status values are perpetuated by gregarious ready-spending, while the less constrained drinking patterns of the young in the trendy pubs of the local town, and the drinking at home by some Cauldmoss couples, suggest a move towards 'unrestricted' values.

The cultural criteria by which commodities are valued (as opposed to supposed 'functional' criteria) are demonstrated by the unemployed's perspectives towards consumption, analyzed in Ch. 7. Largely because the unemployed in the village do not see themselves as a distinct group the cultural values ascribed to goods and jobs change little. For older men with a strong 'employment ethic' being without work is the worst aspect o+ unemployment, while for younqer people, who are more likely to assess social status according to 'unrestricted' values, unemployment is suffered most acutely through poverty.