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Book
ReviewAssertions
of Practical Embodied ConsciousnessThe body in culture, technology and society.
Chris Shilling, 2005. London: Sage; ISBN 0761971246, 247 pp., £19.99, paper
SAGE Publications, Inc.2007DOI: 10.1177/09675507070140040702
ValWalsh
University of Liverpool
Chris
Shilling's book is much more than a map or summary of the field of body studies
over the last 20 years; it demonstrates that the embodied
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preconditions
of agency and the physical effects of social structures must now be taken
into account in any study. He identifies `the enigmatic nature of embodiment
in social theory' as the legacy of classical sociology, then consolidates
the insights yielded by this re-examination in developing what he calls corporeal
realism: starting with the idea that in dealing with the body–society
relationship we are dealing with an emergent, causally consequential phenomenon,
that `the body is a multi-dimensional medium for the constitution of society'.
The body cannot be conceptualized adequately as an entirely passive location
for social or cultural inscriptions. Not only do embodied subjects often possess
the capacity to resist the effects of external structures, but the properties
of the body serve actively to dispose them favourably or unfavourably towards
these conditions. (p. 90) For Shilling, interaction and emergence are vital
theoretical concepts, living practices and values, and `the generation of,
and participation in, sociable relations constitute a realization of what
it means to be a human being'. He cites `the meal, as a prime facilitator
of [these] non-rational relationships' and notes `the demise of eating communities'.
The idea of `eating for productivity'/refuelling (the instrumental relationship
with food/meals) as opposed to `feasting for sociality' (the non-instrumental
relationship with food/meals) is suggestive of a contemporary shift in habits
and values; but it also risks glossing over historical relations with food
and meals as they have been marked by privilege and poverty. In chapters on
(in order) working bodies, sporting bodies, musical bodies, sociable bodies
and technological bodies, Shilling shows that the consequences of rationalization
for sustainability and creativity (as entwined projects) are already stark
enough to justify putting the body at the centre of social theory. Sustaining
sociable relations looks ambitious in the context of intensified instrumentalism
and commodification. What it is to be/have a body in turn raises concerns
about a life beyond utility: that from being a means for the attachment of
individuals to capitalism, bodily experience can become a vehicle for social
transformation. Shilling holds firmly to that aspiration throughout. He is
critical of theoretical accounts within which the body disappears; or where
the body is seen as a productive source of society, but only instrumentally:
where `the expressive and creative capacities fade from view'. Similarly,
accounts where the body's significance seems dependent on breakdown or dysfunction
rather than more routine, `non-pathological dispositions and tastes' surely
signal the lurking binary divide between the `thinking mind' (elite, masculine)
and the `feeling body' (`feminine and
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essentially
disruptive). Gendered codes and gender issues are noted and discussed throughout
the book. For example, Shilling acknowledges that the archetypal sporting
body was/is male, and that the white, western, middle-class `cult of manliness'
was colonial, and sport was initially perceived as `unladylike', `equated
with the conquering of nature'. He does not mention that, as a conse- quence,
the elite male athlete provides not only the benchmark for per- formance (in
terms of speed, strength, style), but that this models the paradigmatic athletic
body. To achieve this through training and diet, women athletes decrease the
size of breasts and hips and fat deposits generally, and increase arm and
leg musculature, to improve power (speed, strength, stamina): they shape their
bodies to become more masculine (and below a certain weight they will cease
menstruating). I am as yet uncon- vinced that the pervasiveness of gendered
norms has ceded or will cede in `the move away from traditional conceptions
of masculinity, femininity, class or race, and towards the cellular and molecular
factors that sports scientists associate with sporting capacity' (p. 207,
citing Gilroy). The question of the subjugation of bodily diversity and creativity
in the contemporary era drives Shilling's thesis. Turning the body into a
location of pure productivity is a target with considerable consequences for
the individ- ual and for society, at times amounting to (self-)abuse. Likewise
the internal- ization of the disciplinary mechanisms required to continue
as a credible member of society, where appearance and employability are increasingly
entwined projects, and where emotion work (both surface acting and deep acting)
is intensified and spills across the previous public/private divide. Sporting
bodies and musical bodies provide alarming evidence of the drive towards instrumentality
and commodification. The overtrained bodies of elite athletes operate on the
borders of physical breakdown and, almost certainly, mental as well. Musical
bodies also have training and performance schedules designed for `profit'
where action and values are subordinated to the imperatives of performance.
The Fordist assembly line was the precursor for these changes that have reached
beyond the indus- trial workplace: `The long working day taxed people's stamina
to its limit and made it increasingly difficult to undertake other forms of
body work necessary for social well-being and physical health' (pp. 80–81).
Changing conditions of waged work have also eroded the boundaries between
paid work and body work. The chapter on technological bodies provides more
examples of people exerting the will to transform, as well as participate
in, (new) communi- ties. While reminding us that these technologies are not
politically neutral and that they can present us with problems of overload
and emotional disconnection, as well as confidentiality and control, Shilling
suggests that rather than thinking about cyberspace and physical space as
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opposites,
we should pay more attention to `how they interact and consti- tute extensions
of each other'. Throughout, Shilling counters pessimism and the sense of wreckage,
sug- gesting a more variable picture for researchers to work to illuminate.
This is a suggestive and stimulating text, which I believe will prove to be
a treasure trove for students. It reminds me why I studied sociology in the
first place: as a social being, I wanted to understand; as an activist I wanted
to make a difference; and as a young woman I believed that both were possible.
Part of the attraction of this text is that motivating Shilling's arguments
are ques- tions about equality/oppression, community and individuality. The
20-year period of the emergence of body studies coincides with the introduction
of new managerialism within academia: pedagogy and knowl- edge production
as business projects. Academics may find reading Shilling on the status and
function of the body in the workplace unnerving. Increasingly instrumental
even coercive working environments, casualiza- tion, deskilling, the increase
in emotion work are being functionally deployed by and for the economic/political
system itself. There is much here for the academic reader to identify with,
as a body under duress, who has hitherto failed to admit the problem. Experiencing
the body as a `multi- dimensional medium for the constitution of society'
could lead to some cre- ative alliances/communities across the gulf between
academia and society. As historical defenders of the body/mind split and the
gendered `rational- ity' project, academics have been slow to include their
own bodies in the equation. Intellectuality/elite masculinity has been defined
in opposition to the body/femininity and as a denial of the body's exertions
and limits and of its vulnerability, fragility and contingency. And just as
social theorists were moving towards a less hesitant take on embodiment, along
came new man- agerialism and its body-defying, spirit-crushing, heart-breaking
business practices. Nourished by Shilling's work, academics variously involved
in pedagogy and curriculum development; administration and organization; research
and writing, may now wish to step up to the table, as simultaneously theorists
and bodies, asserting their `practical embodied consciousness'.