Utility and excess: the radical sociology of Bataille and baudrillard

Abstract

This paper consists of three sections. In the first in will attempt it will attempt to establish the theoretical centrality of the contrasting notions of utility and of excess in relation to their treatements within the ‘sociological mainstream’. The second section will introduce antother, radical sociological lineage extending from Nietzsche through Bataille and on to baudrillard. It will be argued that this ineage offers a more adequate approach to the analysis of the linked yet contrasting notions of utility and excess. These concepts will be approached, first, through the notion of general economy, in contrast to the theories and methods of restricted economy, particularly as it operates in the work of Bataille. The theory of Baudrillard will be situated as a treatment of the Problematic of excess in the modern age whereby utility and excess are no longer starkly and simply counterposed. Further, it will argue that Baudrillard's work reveals the importance of a radical theory of contemporary society, one which goes beyond not only restricted explanatory economies but also the notion of general economy itself. it is argued that the dominant strands of modern sociology are ocked within the methodological and theoretical structures of utility and of restricted economy and that this constitutes its fatal weakness. The specific maniestations of excess discussed are social violence, particularly sacrifice and death, transgression, ‘evil’ and the notion of ‘profitless expenditure’. The final section deals, briefly, with the theoretical and material consequences of ture'. The final section deals, briefly, with the theoretical and material consequences of the continue suppression, denial or domestication of this radical or marginal lineage.