Transcript Coca-Cola, kitchens and Superman

”Superman, kitchens and the battle of minds
and souls. Danish reflections on the cold war
and the welfare state”
Klaus Petersen
Centre for Welfare State Research
University of Southern Denmark
Three relations
Welfare
state
Cold
War
Americanization
Denmark in the 1950s
Politically
•
Since the 1930s Social Democracy had been the dominating political party
•
Political culture dominated by consensus and negotiation
Economy
•
Relatively poor country until late 1950s
•
Late modernization and economic growth
•
Small open economy
Social
•
Modern welfare state (social security)
•
Equality and social citizenship
Culture
•
Homogenous society: Language, religion
•
Strong democratic tradition
•
Welfare state culture (belief in state solutions, paternalistic)
International orientation
•
Member of NATO since 1949
•
Marshall Help recipient
•
American free trade bloc (IMF, GATT)
•
Nordic welfare identity (third way)
The Cold War and the Welfare State
General arguments:
Danish arguments
• National expansion of
the Cold War
• Revolution insurance
• Small nation state
strategy
• Consensus-building
• 3. road strategy
• Anti-communist
strategy
• ”Bread or Weapon”?
Example 1: Communist organized Womens demonstration
1947 (”We demand soap and cheaper underwear”)
Example 2: Communist Poster Against DK buying US Jet
Fighters (”For en Air Fighter you can get … 4 sheets for
each newly married couple”
What is Americanization?
•
•
•
-
Standardizing new citizens in the US
American influences on other countries
Similar concepts (synonyms)
Coca-Colanization
McDonaldization
Modernization/globalization
Standardization
Americanization and the Welfare State
Different models –but
• Directly:
Policy Transfer
• Indirectly:
America as model
A & WS: Policy Transfer
• Predates 1945 (ex: eugenics, social work)
• Marshall-travellers
• Americanization of social sciences
-
Henning Friis (1911-1997): New School, Lazarfeldt, Wright Mills
Sociology
Social psychology
Economist, lawyers, political scientist
• Import of the concept: Welfare State
A & WS: US as a model
• A vision of the future
• Role model for
modernization
• Creolization
Fields:
Language
• Economy (capital, production)
• Market economy (liberalization,
marketing strategies, retail trade
etc.)
• Political Economy
• High culture
• Popular culture (commercial
culture): Film, Music, comics etc.
• American way of life (homes, cars
etc.)
• Consumer culture (products and
ways of consuming)
• Youth culture (fashion, life style,
protest)
Wikipedia: Definition
• “Americanization (or Americanisation)
is the term used for the influence the
United States of America has on the
culture of other countries, resulting in such
phenomena as the substitution of a given
culture with American culture. When
encountered unwillingly or perforce, it has
a negative connotation; when sought
voluntarily, it has a positive connotation.”
What it is about?
• US as role model for
modernization, a
vision for the future or
as a dystopia
• Cultural encounter
Americanization and the Cold War
• A battle over hearts and minds
• Victoria de Grazia: Irresistible Empire
(2005)
What’s the point?
”A supermarket can
outweigh a lot of ’isms”
(R.W. Boogaart, American
capitalist 1958)
Pictures:
Minister of Trade Lis Groes opening
the first Danish self service shop
in 1947
US official programmes
• “psychological warfare” or cultural
diplomacy
• “information programs”
• exchange programs:
- introduction of modern retail trade
- learning American life style
• Undercover operations
Consumer Culture I
•
-
American products under license:
Nylon stockings
Books, comics, magazines
•
-
Ersatz-Americana:
Cigarettes
Sweets
Soft drinks
Ersatz-Americana: Popular Mechanics 1959
(”How do we tame the Hydrogen Bomb?”)
Ersatz-Americana:
Holiday cigarettes (1956)
– Ersatz-Americana:
Majami soft drink
Consumer Culture II
Creating positive images:
•
American kitchen ideals
•
Economic growth
•
Most developed country
•
US as scientific &
efficient
•
US as ”in” and
”modern”
•
Creating security
US as a projection of the
future?
”America shows us our
future, in so far as one
country can reveal it at all
to another”
(Karl Kautsky 1902)
But what about anti-americanism?
• An elite project in the 1950s (cultural
conservaties & communists
• Supported by business interests
• ”America is different”: pro- and antiAmerican, the two ”Americas”
• Much anti-americanism imported from the
US (comics and ”youth rebellions”)
(BUT ….)
• The Housewife’s
dream kitchen (1955)
Youth Culture
•
•
•
•
•
Young people as consumers
Rock’n’roll
Jeans (American uniforms)
Language: OK
Yankie Bar and Milk Pops
Danish Cold War Thriller (1958)
Rock’n’roll in Denmark
• Copenhagen 1956
• Danish cover versions
• Preben Uglebjerg
Concluding Remarks
Focus on the relations (the historical
contexts) – and not a full explanation
• Americanization: Economic interests,
culture, anti-Americanism
• Cold War: Ideology, diplomacy, national
interest/security
• Welfare State: Politics, Institutions, Values
But inter-related topics, that
need to be studied as such.