Status and Strategy in Unsettled Times: passive and active Nazis and anti-Nazis in the third Reich

• In Event: 20420 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 6: Status, Legitimacy, & Legitimation

Abstract

Swidler’s distinction between settled and unsettled periods suggests that while culture operates as a taken-for-granted toolkit in stable contexts, unsettled times require more explicit ideological engagement as individuals construct new strategies of action. Yet, research has largely overlooked how individuals across different social positions respond to such ruptures. Through an analysis of a reconstructed dataset of 211 biographical profiles collected by American psychiatrist David Levy in the immediate aftermath of World War II in Germany, this study examines how social status shaped Nazi-era Germans’ responses to the unsettled context of the Third Reich.
Using multiple correspondence analysis and qualitative data, I distinguish two dominant dispositions—passive and active. Higher-status individuals, afforded structural insulation, were more likely to maintain passive dispositions. Whether compliant or resistant, they relied on familiar strategies even under drastically changed conditions, effectively preserving their social status. Conversely, lower-status individuals, lacking such buffers, displayed active dispositions. They reconfigured their strategies of action, either aligning themselves with the Nazi party to gain economic or social mobility, or engaging in open, sometimes risky, forms of resistance.
These findings challenge the conventional assumption that changes in ideology alone explain shifts in behaviour during unsettled times. Instead, this study demonstrates that capacity for adaptation is stratified, with social position influencing who changes their strategies of action and who can afford to stay on established paths. The results underscore that explicit ideological engagement in unsettled periods is not uniform but reflects pre-existing social inequalities. The implications extend beyond the historical case of the Third Reich to broader cultural sociology debates, highlighting the role of status-based discrepancies in how individuals navigate changing social landscapes.

Author

• Ori Gilboa, University of Toronto