Talking Productivity: Cultural Values Associated with Being Productive

• In Event: 20420 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 4: Investigating Cultural Ideas

Abstract

The present study poses the question, how do individuals integrate the concept of productivity into their daily lives, and are there consequences to that integration? Can productivity be labeled virtuous, or is it morally neutral? These questions are explored through critical discourse analysis of an online community forum dedicated to the practice of productivity, Reddit’s r/Productivity. In this forum, the cultural ideals associated with personal productivity are made explicit through online text-based conversation in the form of social media posts. Using these posts as data, this research explores how personal meaning-making and social value judgments are discursively narrated when people share stories about productivity. This research explores the cultural dynamics within the productivity-related questions, advice, and concerns from this online community. More broadly, this research unlocks an understanding of the cultural values and ideologies surrounding work that are internalized into personal attitudes towards productivity and explores how productivity is transformed into an ethical ideal.

Author

• Ellen Bloss, NORC at the University of Chicago