culture and identity

• Dominant culture


  main culture of a society, which is hared, or at least accepted without opposition, by the majority of people
• High culture


  I a cultural creation that have particularly high standards. Established historically e.g. historical paintings, opera or classical music. This is associated with the upperclass and the powerful.
• Folk culture


  Refers to traditional cultural products and activities that originate with ordinary people and are rooted in pre-industrial societies. For example, folk dancing or Morris men.
• Low culture


  Refers to the culture of lower-ranked groups in society (those without status) and implies the culture has little worth or value compared to high culture.
• Mass/ Popular culture


  Refers to the products of mass media in modern capitalist societies e.g. tv, films and magazines. It is manufactured for mass consumption rather than created for own sake and consequently has little or no artistic merit compared with the products of high culture.
• Bourdieu


  argues that culture is one of the key ways that class inequalities (socio-economic factors) are reproduced. Culture is a form of capitalism or resources that can help with upward social mobility. Classes can be distinguished according to both the type and the amount of cultural capital they possess with the higher social classes possessing more cultural deprivation.
• Master status - Becker


  Some identities can take on what Becker calls master status- a dominant status or identity that overrides all other aspects of that persons identity. For example, an asian woman may not wish to be identified primarily as an asian woman, but as a senior manager or entertainer. However, if others still continue t see her primarily in terms of master status on her ethnic or gender characteristics, she may find it more difficult to assert her chosen identity.
• Woodward - individual or personal identity


  Suggests that individual identity is concerned with the question 'who am I?'. Individuals are different from other people, and the things that give them their own unique personal or individual characteristics.
• Goffman - spoiled or stigmatised identities


  Argued that stigmatised identity is an identity that is in some way undesirable or demeaning, excluding people from full acceptance in society. Those with stigmatised identities can face serious social consequences, with others treating them with contempt. Having a stigmatised identity nearly always means that any attempts made by individuals to present an alternative 'normal' impression of themselves will fail. This alternative 'failed' identity is sometimes called a spoiled identity. Goffman put in 'stigma is a process by which the reaction of others spoils normal identity'.
• Durkheim's views on culture - functionalist


  Culture and society is more important than the individual. Society exists before the individual is born in to it and it continues after they die. Social order is essential if society is to survive. A shared culture or value consensus is the cement that binds people together,
• Anomie


  The opposite of social order. Anomie occurs when the norms and values of society become unclear so people are no longer sure what is right or wrong.
• Marxism - culture as an ideology


  Marxists are critical of capitalist society (a type of economy based on the private ownership of wealth and the pursuit of profit). Capitalism is based on a small, wealthy ruling class exploiting a large, powerless working class. Marxists see culture as a way for the ruling class to control the masses. Mass culture acts as a distraction from what is really going on (exploitation) and helps to create a 'false needs'.
• The Frankfurt School


  They were critical of capitalist society and the role of mass culture. Adorno was interested in the mindset that baptism creates. They see mass culture as preventing radical and progressive change which could challenge the position of the ruling class.
• Adornos ideas


  Leisure time is toxic: now days it is used to go on social media where as it should be used to read books, build yourself up and become a better person.

  The culture industry: not a goof way to live as your are distorting yourself and nit involving yourself.

  False needs vs real needs: our real needs are hidden by hidden by capitalism which is community, love and closure. Industrial economy wants us to buy unnecessary things.

  Adorno assumes that the working class passively consume mass culture when this is not always true.
• Marcuse mass culture


  Argues that mass culture has created a 'one dimensional man'; a 'happy robot' chasing false needs so that they are locked in tot he capitalist system; mass culture is therefore, a form of social repression. For revolution to happen the working class need to give up mass culture.
• Macdonald masse culture


  Argues that mass culture poses a threat to high culture which he sees as being more worthy. This is because it is easier to understand and enjoy, it prevents people from trying to engage with more worthwhile pursuits e.go reading. Mass culture turns adults in to children by getting them to consume simplistic products e.g. Star Wars
• Goffman dramaturgical approach - interactionist


  Culture is created through everyday interactions of people. They take a micro approach as they are more interested in analysing society in a small scale. We manipulate how others see us through 'impression management' to show a better version of ourselves. Our social life is like acting in a play as we use a 'script' and use 'props' in social interactions and we can relax 'backstage' between 'performances' as we present to our 'audiences'.
• Baudrillard - Postmodernism Theory


  Post modernity society is characterised by diversity and culture and choice - social groups and society itself has become fragmented and big social institutions have lost their authority. Postmodern society is media-saturated and she argues that his has lead to a collapse in meaning. How we spend out money and consume is more important than how we earn it.
• Strinarti - postmodernism


  The distinction between high and low culture is weakening; high culture is no longer the preserve of the upperclass. Media and cultural products are now available to everyone due to mass communication technology such as the internet, cable, satellite and digital TV.
• Global culture


  Refers to the way cultures in different countries of the world have become more alike, sharing increasingly similar consumer products and ways of life. This has arisen as globalisation has undermined national and local cultures.
• Cultural hemogenisation


  This is the process whereby the separate characteristics of two or more cultures are lost or erased, and become blended in to now uniform culture. This is often linked to the idea of globalisation and global culture.
• Oakley - feminist view of socialisation


  Argues that children are trained to conform to societal expectations about their gender.

  Manipulation- parents reward/ punish behaviours deemed 'appropriate' for the Childs gender.

  Canalisation- children are channeled towards different interests depending on gender.

  Different activity- boys and girls are exposed to different activities based on gender.

  Verbal appellations- parents reinforce expectations by stereotypical feminine and masculine depictions.
• Walter 'living doll' - feminist


  Critical of contemporary society - there is sexism and determinism. She argues that the words like 'empowerment', 'liberation' and 'choice' - key feminist watchwords have been co-opted by a patriarchal society that sells women airbrushed, highly sexualised and a very narrow vision on femininity.
• Structuralists


  See socialisation as a key way that norms and values are transmitted from one generation to another. They see culture and individual identities as being created by wider social forces and institutions.
• Mead 'taking the role of the other'


  We interact through symbols. In order to interpret symbols we have to 'take the role of the other' or put ourselves in the shoes of another person in order to understand their meanings. Our ability to take the role of the other develops through initiative play when we take the role of the 'significant other' such as parents by playing mums and dads with dolls. Later, we come to see ourselves from the point of view of the wider community through the 'generalised other'.
• Cooley "looking glass self" theory


  Through our view of ourselves was formed not the social structure, but through the responses of other people reflecting back to us through interaction.
• Savage 'social class' theory


  Economic capital- consisting of income and wealth.

  Social capital- involving social contracts.

  Cultural capital- measures through questions on leisure activities and interests and differences were made between high and low culture.

  High culture are more likely to have been educated at top unis. These are generally people from the top called the 'elites' who represented 6% of the population.
• Scott - upperclass identities


  Socialisation through family life provides an exclusive upbringing and lifestyle. This privilege is maintained through close kinship ties and intermarriage with similar families. Secondary socialisation is through education at private boarding schools followed by elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Key social events and exclusive clubs reinforce this sense of separateness from the rest of society.
• Marx


  The powerful exploit the working-class or the oppressed who only have their labour power to hire out in return for wages. The real power lies with the bourgeoisie. Class culture and class identities are a consequence of the ideological power of the capitalist class- their capacity to have their ideas and views as dominant.
• weber


  A class can be a group people who share similar market situation by virtue of superior education or skill. Having 'new money' can never make an 'upperclass' and losing one's wealth does not necessarily diminish one's status and identity with the upper class. By 'party' Weber meant the mobilisation of a group to exclude others and to ensure higher rewards for that group.
• Bourdieu


  Developed his ideas around cultural 'taste' and the choices cue make, synthesised in to a theory of how dominant social structures are reproduced. 'Habits' is an individuals disposition/personal leisure. Influenced how we see the social world, our preferences and tastes. 'Field' refers to external settings that are external to the individual fields can be quite general like the economic, cultural or political field. All fields explore a kind of social closure, which Bourdieu calls 'distinction' - something which separates the 'outsiders' from the 'insiders' , based on their cultural capital.
• Murry - the underclass


  Murry argues a new social group of the 'underclass' has formed. This is a group of people who are below the working class, rely on state benefits rather than working for a living, and also have developed an identity around dependancy rather than self-reliance.
• Pakulski and Waters - postmodernists


  Identity is more fluid and like a pick and mix (hybrid). There is a blurring between mass and high culture. Class identity is mire fragmented in to numerous separate identities. Social class as a form of identity is no longer recognised by the young generation. Culture and tastes are strongly influenced by social class. They argue social class is outdated. We now live in a status-orientated society where how we spend our money is more important than how we earn it.
• Bradley - postmodernists


  Accepts that social class has become a weaker source of identity in contemporary Britain despite widespread inequality. Other sources of identity have become more important e.g. religion, gender and ethnicity and sexuality. Fractured identities are more significant today.
• Connell - hegemonic masculinity


  Came up with the idea of hegemonic identity in particular hegemonic masculinity. A hegemonic identity is one that is so dominant that it make it difficult for individuals to assert alternative identities.
• Feminist views on hegemonic identity as socialisation


  Argue that hegemonic identities both masculine and feminine are transmitted through agencies of socialisation. Gender norms and patriarchal ideology are reproduced with position of males and females in an unequal hierarchy or gender order.
• Statham- gendered socialisation


  Argues by the age of 5 children have acquired a clear gender identity. They know what constitutes appropriate behaviour for the genders and they know which gender they belong too.
• Mac and Ghail - crisis of masculinity


  Globalisation has caused a lack of manual jobs, causing men to experience a crisis of masculinity. Work is entered to the identity of traditional working-class men, and a lack of work can lead to embarrassment, loss of self-esteem and loss of identification with others. Young men may also start to see school or qualifications as irrelevant and seek alternative sources of status in activities that might 'boost' their masculinity such a violence and gang activity.
• Collin - dominant masculinity


  Found that schools constructed a dominant masculinity - 'masculine success'. Collin argues this identity encourages feelings of 'better than' and 'not good enough' amongst male students.
• Wilkinson - changing girls identities


  Girls identities now more firmly based around work, career and interdependance - they aren't a stop gap before marriage. The gender quake had given girls increased opportunity leading to identity