The philistine verdict: forms, functions and dynamics of the invective against the social middle class in modern times
Subproject I of the Collaborative Research Center 1285 "Invectivity. Constellations and Dynamics of Disparagement" of the DFG
Head: Prof. Dr. Dominik Schrage
(The project ended in June 2022)
Project collaborator: Sonja Engel
With the erosion of the feudal order and the establishment of a modern social structure, characterized by social mobility in Western Europe in 18th and 19th century, the social middle class took on a critical function for the newly forming social order. While for liberals middle class was the driving force behind social progress, set apart from aristocracy and lower classes, many pejorative characterizations of middle class groups have been circulating since the 19th century at the latest, condensed into the terms philistine and petty bourgeois, and "Spiesser" in German: For the Romantics, the mediocre 'philistines' are counter-figures to the concept of genius that they claimed for themselves. Based on Marxism, the 'petty bourgeois' are those situated between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, who are described as passive, backward-looking and refusing to take a political stand. Finally, the term 'Spiesser' or 'Spiessbürger' takes up both attributions by devaluing those in the middle class as mediocre; it became dominant in the second half of the 20th century in particular. All three terms are understood as functionally equivalent with regard to the polemical connection between mediocrity and passivity that is of interest here, although typically not only those who are reviled in this way, but also those who are reviling this way, can be attributed to social mediocrity.
The subject of this sub-project is the phlistine verdict as a genuinely modern form of invective (using the term "Spiesser"): it mobilizes the juxtaposition of a passively stubborn bourgeoisie and a forward-looking attitude that stands for social change and has recognized the signs of the times. These invectives against groups in middle-class social positions and their lifestyles articulate and disseminate their own ideas of order aimed at overcoming the status quo, which can then assert themselves as hegemonic under certain circumstances. In this respect, philistine verdicts have a productive function for social change, which is what makes them special and sociologically relevant. The sub-project is based on the assumption that philistine verdicts thematize processes of social change in the mode of invective in a way that itself becomes effective as a factor of change due to its conflict-inciting perspectivity: The invected and the invectors are socially positioned in terms of economic, legal, political and cultural status, albeit not in a merely vertically structured social order, but in one that is changeable and in flux. The pejorative attribution of regression or a passive role and the affirmative interpretation of social change go hand in hand here and confirm each other. As this is also addressed to an audience, this interpretation has an effect beyond the invectors, whereby the form of the philistine verdicts does not foresee a reaction from the intended audience, but can certainly provoke re-evaluative counter-invective.
The theoretical claim of the sub-project lies in testing and sharpening the concept of invectivity, which is decisive for the Collaborative Research Center 1285, as a mediating concept of sociological theories of social change and the sociology of cultural practices, conflicts and forms of knowledge, based on empirical analyses.
To the website of the sub-project
From left to right: Alina Gündel, Sonja Engel, Katharina Lerch, Mirjam Gräbner, Dominik Schrage