Types of culture

• Children raised in a high culture have greater advantages within school.
• Subcultures try to differ from dominant cultures by creating their own style, dress, and music; they can also have their own distinctive values.
• Knowledge is gained while enjoying high culture, which helps people in work and education.
• Higher-status individuals often network at high-culture activities, which leads to financial rewards.
• One example of a subculture is an anti-school subculture, which breaks the norms and values of schools.
• Some subcultures develop to oppose authority and rebel against the rest of society.
• Pierre Bourdieu claims that high culture provides people with cultural capital.
• One example of a high culture activity would be enjoying opera.
• Social closure refers to the fact that it is hard to enter high culture unless you were born into it or married.
• Willis explored this subculture by studying working-class boys and found that the anti-school subcultures were formed because the boys knew they would not succeed in school.
• A subculture is a smaller group within a larger group that has its own norms and values that differ from those of a wider society.
• • Dominant culture is the main culture within a society
• Similarities within subcultures

  • Share norms and values
  • Opposition to authority
  • Style, music tastes, etc
• High culture is related to the kinds of culture enjoyed by those with higher status in a society.
• Cultural Capital is having appropriate norms and values (enjoying parts of high culture) which can lead to financial rewards and social mobility
• What are the 7 types of culture?

  1. Subcultures
  2. High Culture
  3. Popular Culture
  4. Consumer Culture
  5. Global Culture
  6. Cultural Diversity
  7. Cultural Hybridity
• Popular culture is every aspect of culture that is not high culture.
• Give examples of popular culture:

  1. Pop music, eg Beyonce
  2. Consumer items, eg iPhones
  3. Media, eg, Eastenders or Harry Potter
  4. Clothing, eg, fake designer bags
  5. Food, eg KFC
• Strinati (1995) argues that the media is largely responsible for creating popular culture because we are now so influenced by what we see and hear in it, such as clothing, language, food, etc. eg saying something "Ate" or Sambas becoming popular again.
• Views around Popular Culture (what it is, etc.):

  • Some argue that popular culture is a simple or less sophisticated version of culture.
  • Others argue that Popular culture is replacing high culture as the dominant culture in society
  • Some argue that popular culture borrows from high culture and makes it available to the masses. EG Designer bags get duped, making them accessible to lower status groups.
• Sociological views around the role of "Popular Culture":

  • Some argue that the powerful high culture groups and individuals use popular culture to exploit and control the lower status groups in society. E.g., by influencing us to buy things that make the rich richer.
  • Others have claimed that popular culture provides lower status groups an opportunity to express their own cultural values and to even rebel, as often what is popular is not in line with what is high culture.
• Global Culture

  A collection of specific norms and values that cross national boundaries.
• Global Culture: Norms and values that cross national boundaries. The world is becoming a much smaller place, which many argue is due to the spread of media and migration as well as the ability to communicate and travel much more easily. As such, ideas about culture can be shared much more easily. Mcluhan calls this a "global village."
• Additional information about Global Culture:

  • McDonaldization: Ritzer argues that certain values such as predictability, calculability, efficiency and control that were found in McDonalds brand are now being shared across the world and found in other companies and behaviours globally
  • Coca-colonisation: Gordon suggests that the spread of originally American brands are now being found all over the world, e.g., starbucks
  • This has caused a loss of traditional culture as societies are becoming more western.
• Examples of Global Culture:

  McDonald's, Starbucks, and Apple are brands that can be found worldwide. Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and BTS are examples of celebrities that have become famous globally.
• Consumer culture


  A set of ideas that encourages people to buy a range of never-ending products.
• What has Consumer culture been created by?

  Mass production of goods as well as the increased affluence of different groups of people who have money and time to buy objects/services.
• A set of ideas that encourages people to buy a range of never-ending products. Consumerism has become a part of people's culture, as buying goods has become a way of people's lives, products often expressing their culture.
• Lury identifies some of the features of consumer culture

  • Availability of a wide range of goods
  • shopping being seen as a leisure pursuit
  • different/new forms of shopping i.e. internet, local shops, outlets, etc.
  • being in debt being seen as a norm
  • packaging and promotion of goods is big business
• Examples of Consumer Culture: The growth of huge multinational websites such as amazon where you can buy an enormous range of products at any time of the day and have them delivered within 24 hours, as well as the growth of shopping centres such as westfield which opens till 10pm, shows the growth of consumption in the UK.
• Examples of Consumer Culture:

  Buying from fast fashion brands that sell “micro”-trends/clothes that do not last, ie., Shein. Having to buy every shade of lipstick (the norm of overconsumption.)
• Cultural Diversity

  This is the idea that there are cultural differences in society, which means that there are different groups in our society that live alongside each other.
• Cultural Diversity has been created because of what?

  Due to increases in migration, new and different cultures have been brought into the UK. Globalisation and the rise of global media have also made it easier for individuals to find out about different cultures across the world.
• Contemporary UK is a culturally diverse society with a mix of class, ethnicity, and sexuality. Many argue that this has occurred due to the increase in migration, which has led to people living in the UK who have originated from other parts of the world and have brought elements of their culture with them.
• Parekh argues there are 3 types of cultural diversity:

  • When a member of society has distinct ways of life but still follows the dominant culture in society, e.g., homosexuals. There are certain aspects associated with homosexuals but they otherwise have the same norms and values as the rest of society
  • Some members of society rebel against a central principle of society, e.g., nudists. Other than this key norm which they reject they follow the dominant culture
  • Communal diversification: where ethnic groups have long-established communities and add diversity to the dominant way of life, e.g., Asians and Southall, Afro-Caribbeans and Brixton. Within these areas, the food, shops, restaurants, and places of worship are influenced by the culture now dominant there.
• • Examples of Cultural Diversity:

  Nudists, Southall, Brixton
• Cultural Hybridity

  Where two cultures are combined to form a new culture.
• • Cultural Hybridity has been created by?

  The process of globalisation and mass media
• • Examples of Cultural Hybridity:

  Tikka Masala, Jamaican influence on British slang, and Caribbean food being influenced by Indians, e.g., roti.
• Cultural Hybridity: The expansion of the mass media has meant that it is now possible for people to consume products from all areas of the world, no matter where they live. For example, Chicken Tikka Masala is now Britain's most popular dish—a mixture of British and indian influence.