Culture

• Culture


  A quality possessed by individuals who are able to learn and achieve the qualities that are seen as desirable in a 'cultured human being' (Jencks)
• Culture

  A quality possessed by some societies, seen as more civilised and superior
• Culture

  The collective body of all the arts and intellectual work in a society. This can also be referred to as 'high culture'
• Culture

  The way of life of a society's members; the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit from generation to generation (Linton)
• Types of culture

  • High culture
  • Folk culture
  • Mass culture
  • Popular culture
  • Global culture
• High culture

  • Cultural products and activities which are seen as superior to other forms of culture
  • Marxists see this as elitist, the ruling classes have labelled it as such to make themselves different from the rest of society
  • Bourdieu says this gives the ruling class cultural capital, their norms and values are considered the best
  • Berger says high culture is used to justify the ruling class view of the world
  • Cultural Decline theorists reckon high culture is being eroded away by mass culture and will eventually vanish
  • The elite refer to mass or popular culture as 'low culture' to show their culture is better
• High culture


  • Opera
  • Ballet
  • Classical music
  • Classic literature
• Folk culture

  • The culture of pre-industrial times,
  • Redfield says folk culture was based upon extended families, supportive communities and local culture
  • Replaced by mass culture when industrialisation meant people moved to towns and cities to work
  • Still exists in some elements like folk festivals, Morris Dancing and barn dances, to hold onto local identity
• Folk culture

  • Morris Dancing
  • Folk songs
  • Fairy tales
• Mass culture


  Cultural products (like TV, films or music) enjoyed by millions of people
• Mass culture


  • Simmel says in industrial societies people have little in common with each other and are more individualistic, so folk culture goes out the window and mass culture takes over
  • Marxists see mass culture as a problem, it maintains class division and community is taken over
  • Marxists Marcuse and Adorno state mass culture is all about making money, not like folk culture which was just people telling stories
  • Marxists say mass culture produces false needs and false consciousness, making people forget they are being exploited
  • Audience is passive
• Mass culture


  • Britain's Got Talent
• Popular culture


  A term used by Marxists and Neo Marxists to describe Mass Culture, seen as less elitist
• Popular culture

  • Can be used to express frustration at class exploitation, like Banksy's rebellious graffiti art
  • Hall argues people are good at using popular culture to be creative and rebellious. He calls this cultural resistance
  • Hebdige says rebellious subcultures like punk quickly become mainstream, a process he calls 'incorporation'
  • Sees the audience as active, making decisions for themselves
• Global culture


  The influence on British culture of cultural products from outside the UK, like American clothes, media, food etc.
• Global culture

  • Giddens says technology has led to globalisation, goods can be transported anywhere and local culture has become global
  • Klein points out that transnational corporations produce goods consumed throughout the world, some are more powerful than governments
  • Klein talks about cultural homogeneity, the traditions and rituals of some countries being taken over by globalisation, losing cultural diversity
  • Supporters of globalisation say it is a two-way process, Western culture is transmitted to other parts of the globe but it also takes its fair share of other cultures and identities
• Functionalism


  • Durkheim says that the individual is the product of society, we are socialised into our culture by learning norms and values which create value consensus
  • Socialisation happens through the family, education and religion, transmitting shared ideas and creating our culture and identity
  • Functionalism is a structural theory, ignoring the individual and focusing too much on structures (criticised by Interactionists and Marxists)
  • Postmodernists say functionalism ignores the complex and diverse range of norms and values in society
• Marxism


  • The most important force in society is class conflict, workers are exploited by employers keeping most of the profit
  • Institutions like family, education and media lead individuals into accepting the inequalities of capitalism, creating false consciousness and false needs
  • Criticised by Functionalists for putting too much emphasis on class and economic structures, and by Interactionists for not focusing enough on individuals
  • Postmodernists say social class doesn't have such an important influence on individuals, people are defined by choices they make
• Feminism

  • Feminists concentrate on gender roles, believing we live in a patriarchal society controlled by men, where culture and identity are based upon male dominance
• False consciousness


  The belief that you are doing okay in life and not being exploited, even though you are
• False needs


  Making us think we need stuff so that we buy it and then think we are not being exploited, even though we are
• Criticism of Marxism


  • Functionalists say Marxists put too much emphasis on class and economic structures
  • Interactionists say Marxists place too must emphasis on class and not enough on individuals
  • Postmodernists say social class doesn't have such an important influence on individuals: they say people are defined by choices they make
• Feminism


  • Feminists concentrate on gender roles
  • Feminists think that we live in a patriarchal society which means that it is controlled by men
  • Our culture and identity are based upon biological sex. We are socialized into traditional roles - men become the breadwinner and head of the household and women become mothers and housewives. Feminists think that everything in society promotes these identities: family, education, media, religion, low
• Types of feminism


  • Liberal feminists- they see that equality can be brought about by changes in the law
  • Marxist feminists - they argue that patriarchy suits capitalism as women are unpaid domestic labourers
  • Radical feminists - they believe that patriarchal oppression and exploitation of women is built into every aspect of the way in which society is organized
• Studies on feminism


  • Ferguson and McRobbie studied magazines and found that they promoted traditional female roles
  • Dworkin suggested that many images of women in popular culture encourages and justifies violence towards women
  • Paglia argues that popular culture can be empowering for women and offered Madonna as a powerful female role model
• Postmodernism


  • Culture does not unify people, it is too diverse. Postmodern society is full of many different interests and people
  • Hall says that this diversity leads to fragmented identities. People can construct their identities from a range of different cultures. Your identity in 21" century Huddersfield can come from nationality, gender, ethnicity, religion, politics, and media
  • Hall reckons our fragmented identities come from globalisation. As our country becomes ever closer to others in terms of communication, trade and entertainment we accept new identities such as Black British, British Muslim, and Somali living in London
• Signifiers


  When the name and image we give something has more meaning than the image itself. Examples of this are brands. We look at brands over whether the product is any good or not. This becomes the most important thing. It is a signifier of our identity
• Symbolic consumption


  In the postmodern age symbols have become commodities, we no longer buy products for what they are but for what they represent
• Interactionism


  • Our identity and culture is based upon our interactions with others in society rather than it being placed upon us by structures in society. We share norms and values but these are negotiated with others and we don't always take them on board
  • We respond to social structures in our own way, we are not just products of socialisation. We have free will and we make choices
  • A classic interactionist theory is labelling and self fulfilling prophecy
  • Goffman
• Criticisms of Interactionism

  • Functionalists say that Interactionists underpin the importance of socialisation
  • Marxists say that Interactionists ignore the division that class makes in society
  • Feminists criticize them for ignoring gender
• Subcultures


  • Smaller social groups who, while sharing their own norms and values, also go along with some of mainstream society
  • Often seen as being short term, particularly for young people for who it is often seen as a form of rebellion
  • Some subcultures such as ethnic based ones tend to be more long term
• Subcultures

  • Emo
  • Goth
  • EBoys/Girls
  • Cosplayers
  • Roadmen
• Functionalist view of subcultures


  Cohen says that subcultures develop as a way of coping with failure in society. In reaction to status frustration delinquent subcultures adapt their behaviour to achieve status in some way. Produces a group with shared norms and values
• Marxist view of subcultures (CCCS)


  • Subcultures form a basis for resisting the power of Hegemony
  • Teddy boys wore Edwardian jackets and suede shoes and bootloce ties to give working class lads higher status
  • Skinhead style was a reaction to the decline of working-class communities due to the decline of industry and immigration
  • Punk was a form of resistance to dominant cultural values of British society in the late 1970s
• Interactionist view of subcultures


  Subcultures are a produce of labels placed upon members by the wary mainstream of society (mostly projected by the media) which produces an outsider identity
• Postmodernist view of subcultures


  There is no such thing as subcultures. Spectacular subcultures are a thing of the past. Youth subcultures are fragmented now, into groups and trends such as rave, garage, dub step, indie, Emo etc etc. With so much youth culture going on subcultures are not as influential as they were.

  Willis says young people have many ways to define their identity. Have an individualistic approach. Symbolic creativity
• Symbolic creativity


  • Mixing up clothing from high street stores and charity shops
  • Sampling and scratching existing music to create new music
  • Using religious iconography such as crosses and rosary beads as fashion items