Beyond Boganism

The article analyzes the global economy by subjecting it to an interpretive scheme derived from popular culture Boganism, an Australian colloquialism or street slang used by teenagers. Boganism, the social phenomenon of being both unaware and irresponsible, is the result of a particular type of human abandonment. This abandonment is linked to the new hypercapitalism of globalization. The article will establish the structural roots of boganism, examine the case of the abandonment of U.S. youth, and conclude with reform recommendations necessary to shift us beyond boganism to a culture of sustainability. Karl Polanyi, a Hungarian economist, argued a half century ago that the birth of capitalism meant the emergence of what he called the disembedded economy. Polanyi's essential problem with capitalism, when it emerged in the sixteenth century, was that it creates a society in which everyone is dependent on markets to meet their basic needs. The pace of life has clearly increased with the maturation of capitalism and industrialism. But with the high-technology revolution, accompanied as it has been by the globalization of capitalism, what is happening is acceleration of everyday life, the economy, market transactions, and much more. Stratification: relationships of supra- and subordination, relations of domination and injustice. These are the social dimensions and institutional, structural relations between people and groups that have played defining roles in social, political, and economic analysis over the last three centuries of industrialism. Categories of stratification include classism, racism, statism, and sexism, and others. Along with these, we can add boganism.