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The Useful Body: The Yogic Answer to Appearance Management in the Post-Fordist Workplace

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Yoga Traveling

Abstract

In this article posture-based yoga practice will be discussed as a contingent social construct which has evolved as a type of bodywork that answers specific needs of contemporary yoga practitioners. I shall focus on yoga practice in present-day Germany. The prevalent form of physical, posture-based yoga associated with Hatha Yoga will be discussed in sociological terms and related to needs that arise due to the post-Fordist deregulation of work. To cope with these work conditions a demand for more flexibility, fitness, and expression management arises to be met by postural yoga. I shall analyze some aspects and effects of current “yoga bodywork.” This analysis results in the thesis that today’s predominant form of yoga creates an “inside” perspective of a productive “useful body” that stands in contrast to the “outside” perspective that consumer society has on the physical body—being a place of consumption and aesthetical appearance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Schnäbele (2010).

  2. 2.

    Ibid. 124.

  3. 3.

    For further discussion of the sociology of the body see ibid., 123–132.

  4. 4.

    E.g. Durkheim (1999 [1895]).

  5. 5.

    Shilling (1993, 8). For a critique of Shilling’s observation see Waskul and Vannini (2006).

  6. 6.

    For a gender studies perspective on the body see Butler (1999).

  7. 7.

    Malacrida and Low (2008) and Waskul and Vannini (2006).

  8. 8.

    Csordas (1994, 12) and Butler (1999).

  9. 9.

    Bourdieu (1984), Bourdieu (1998), and Bourdieu et al. (1999).

  10. 10.

    Barbalet and Lyon (1994, 52).

  11. 11.

    For an extensive discussion see Schnäbele (2010).

  12. 12.

    See Ibid., 123–158.

  13. 13.

    Especially moments of inner silence, moments of meditation, when discursive thinking comes to a halt, have been identified as having a transformative potential (see Schnäbele 2010, 154–158).

  14. 14.

    Fuchs (1990, 11).

  15. 15.

    Miller (1998, 29).

  16. 16.

    See Hauser’s Introduction: Transcultural yoga(s). Analyzing a Traveling Subject.

  17. 17.

    Eliade (2009, 200) and Sjoman (1999 [1996]).

  18. 18.

    Alter (2004, 20).

  19. 19.

    Sjoman (1999 [1996]), Alter (2004), and Singleton (2010).

  20. 20.

    Ibid., 161.

  21. 21.

    Alter (2004, 5).

  22. 22.

    URL: http://ashtangayoga.info/ashtanga-yoga/power-yoga.html (accessed 22 December 2009). See also Nichter (this volume).

  23. 23.

    Schnäbele (2010, 47–52).

  24. 24.

    Alter (2004, 18).

  25. 25.

    Ibid., 15.

  26. 26.

    For a serious discussion of the yoga “tradition” in a popular magazine see Anne Cushman’s article “New Light on Yoga” in the Yoga Journal 1999 (http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/466_1.cfm) (accessed 22 December 2009).

  27. 27.

    Singleton (2010).

  28. 28.

    De Michelis (2005), Schnäbele (2010), Singleton (2010), and Strauss (2005).

  29. 29.

    On the educational status of yoga practitioners see Fuchs (1990) and Strauss (2005). Immaterial work encompasses the service sector, information technology, media, engineering, and many other knowledge based sectors in which a specific corpus of knowledge is required. Often academic training is compulsory to work in these areas. It is rarely manual work, but mostly mental work. Affective work is mainly found in the service sector, in healthcare, customer services, social work, teaching, etc. Emotional work requires a seemingly natural friendliness towards customers or clients. Emotional availability is expected and an integrative part of many professions.

  30. 30.

    Schnäbele (2010).

  31. 31.

    On the change in employment contracts and work conditions see: Möller (2000), Negri et al. (1998), Schnäbele (2010), Sennett (1998), and Voß (1994, 1998).

  32. 32.

    Strauss (2005, 72).

  33. 33.

    Translation V.S., Gorz (2000, 61–62).

  34. 34.

    Translation V.S., Lazzarato (1998, 49).

  35. 35.

    Voß (1998).

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Möller (2000).

  38. 38.

    Strauss (2005).

  39. 39.

    De Michelis (2005, 249).

  40. 40.

    Schnäbele (2010).

  41. 41.

    Strauss (2005, 13 and 31).

  42. 42.

    Fuchs (1990), Schnäbele (2010).

  43. 43.

    Singleton (2010).

  44. 44.

    Alter (2004, 21).

  45. 45.

    Singleton (2010).

  46. 46.

    Featherstone (1982).

  47. 47.

    Barbalet and Lyon (1994, 52).

  48. 48.

    See also chapter 4 by Hauser, Chapter “Touching the limits, Assessing Pain: On Language Performativity, Health, and Well-Being in Yoga Classes”.

  49. 49.

    Barbalet and Lyon (1994).

  50. 50.

    All interviews have been published in Schnäbele (2010).

  51. 51.

    Eliade (2009) and Feuerstein (2001).

  52. 52.

    Thomas (1996, 510).

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 511.

  54. 54.

    Papadopoulos and Stephenson (2006, 23) and Schnäbele (2010).

  55. 55.

    Csikszentmihalyi (2008).

  56. 56.

    Thomas (1996, 511).

  57. 57.

    Shilling (1993, 5).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hamburg, Germany

    Verena Schnäbele

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  1. Verena Schnäbele
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Correspondence to Verena Schnäbele .

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  1. Institut für Kultur-, Literatur- und, Musikwissenschaften, Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Universitätsstraße 65-67, Klagenfurt, 9020, Austria

    Beatrix Hauser

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Schnäbele, V. (2013). The Useful Body: The Yogic Answer to Appearance Management in the Post-Fordist Workplace. In: Hauser, B. (eds) Yoga Traveling. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00315-3_6

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