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CULTURAL ANALYSIS the Work of Peter L. Berger, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, and Jürgen Habermas

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CULTURAL ANALYSIS the Work of Peter L. Berger, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, and Jürgen Habermas ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: MICHEL FOUCAULT CULTURAL ANALYSIS CULTURAL ANALYSIS The Work of Peter L. Berger, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, and Jürgen Habermas ROBERT WUTHNOW, JAMES DAVISON HUNTER, ALBERT BERGESEN, EDITH KURZWEIL Volume 5 First published in 1984 This edition first published in 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © Robert Wuthnow, James Davison Hunter, Albert Bergesen and Edith Kurzweil 1984 Printed and bound in Great Britain All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 10: 0-415-56195-7 (Set) ISBN 10: 0-415-56198-1 (Volume 5) ISBN 10: 0-203-09277-5 (ebook) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-56195-2 (Set) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-56198-3 (Volume 5) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-09277-4 (ebook) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfec- tions in the original copies may be apparent. The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. CULTURAL ANALYSIS The Work of Peter L. Berger, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, and Jiirgen Habermas Robert Wuthnow James Davison Hunter Albert Bergesen Edith Kurzweil Routledge & Kegan Paul London and N ew York FirstPublished in 1984 Reprinted in 1985, 1986 and 1987 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd 11 New FetterLane, LondonEC4P 4EE Published in USA by RoutledgeandKeganPauIInc., in association with Methuen Inc., 29 West35thSt., New YorkNY10001 Set in 11112 Journal by HopeServices, Abingdon, Oxon and printed in GreatBritain by T,f. Press (Padstow) Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Copyright©RobertWuthnow,JamesDavisonHunter, AlbertBergesen and Edith Kurzweil 1984 No part ofthis book may be reproduced in any form withoutpermission from the publisher, except for the quotation ofbrief passages in criticism Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data Cultural analysis. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Culture. 2. Social change. 3. Berger, PeterL. 4. Douglas, Mary Tew. 5. Foucault, Michel. 6. Habermas, Jurgen. 1. Wuthnow, Robert. HM101.C86 1984 306 83-17781 ISBN 0-7100-9894-4 ISBN 0-7100-9994-0 (Pbk.) Contents Preface vii 1 Introduction 1 Limiting assumptions 3 F our perspectives on culture 7 Toward clarification and comparison 17 2 The phenomenology of Peter L. Berger 21 Intellectual assumptions 23 Berger's perspective on culture 34 Culture and social change 54 Conclusions 71 3 The cultural anthropology of Mary Douglas 77 Intellectual assumptions 79 Douglas's perspective on culture 84 Culture and social change 115 Conclusions 131 4 The neo-structuralism of Michel Foucault 133 Intellectual assumptions 134 Foucault's perspective on culture 140 Culture and social change 153 Conclusions 175 5 The critical theory of Jurgen Habermas 179 Intellectual assumptions 180 Habermas's perspective on culture 192 Culture and social change 211 Conclusions 232 v Contents 6 An emerging framework 240 The problem of subjectivity 241 Relating culture and social structure 247 The issue of positivism 256 Cultural analysis 259 Bibliography 264 Index 271 VI Preface The idea for this book grew out of a graduate seminar on theories of culture at Princeton University. In examining the writing of various contemporary analysts of culture - Althusser, Barthes, Bellah, Berger, Douglas, Eliade, Foucault, Geertz, Habermas, Levi-Strauss, Lukacs, Ricoeur - and in comparing this work with the standard social science literature on culture two conclusions became apparent. First, and of course obvious to anyone who has tackled some of these writers, was the need for interpretation and simplification in order to derive usable concepts and hypotheses from their work. Second, and of greater importance, was the conclusion that some fundamental reorientations were being presented here; moreover, there were some common themes even among these otherwise diverse perspectives on culture. The present book is an attempt to clarify the contributions of four of these writers - Berger, Douglas, Foucault, and Habermas - with respect to the study of culture and to point up some of the converging assumptions that may be laying the foundation for a new approach to the study of culture. The writers selected were chosen because they represent four relatively distinct theoretical traditions, yet each has modified that tradition and moved in significant ways toward develop­ ing a new approach to culture. While some other writers have made contributions in this field too, the number to be discussed was intentionally limited so that each perspective could be examined in depth. The book's focus is specifically on culture, a concept (it Vll Preface will be apparent) which remains subject to ambiguities of treatment but which retains value as a sensitizing concept for investigations into the symbolic-expressive dimensions of social life. This book differs from other treatments of these writers, therefore, in that its focus is on questions concerning the definition and content of culture, its construction, its relations with social conditions, and the manner in which it may be changing. We have sought to explain what each of our four theorists has had to say about these questions. As already implied, we have also approached these writers with the social scientist chiefly in mind, rather than the philosopher, humanist, or historian. As for the role that each of the book's co-authors played in its preparation, Wuthnow was primarily responsible for initiating the project and for drafting chapters 1, 5, and 6 j Hunter, for drafting chapter 2 j Bergesen, for drafting chapter 3 j and Kurzweil, for drafting chapter 4. Each of us read, commented on, and participated in revisions of all the initial drafts as well. So the final product is truly a collaborative effort. Special thanks are due to the Problems of the Discipline Committee of the American Sociological Association which awarded a small grant for a conference to discuss our pre­ liminary work on these theorists. This conference was held at Princeton University in May 1982. Much credit also goes to Robert Cox whose encouragement and insights were a special source of inspiration. He is the originator of the diagram which appears in modified form in chapter 5. His comments on Foucault and Habermas were also of particular value. Others with whom discussions on these writers have played a valuable role include: Angela Aidala, Stephen Ainlay, Keith Allum, Marvin Bressler, Karen Cerulo, Kevin Christiano, John Gager, Sarah Hewins, John Kuzloski, Ann Orloff, Don Redfoot, Wesley Shrum, Jeffrey Stout, Walter Wallace, and David Woolwine. Vlll 1 Introduction While theories, methods, and research investigations in other areas of the social sciences have accumulated at an impressive pace over the past several decades, the study of culture appears to have made little headway. The major theorizing, as well as the bulk of empirical work, that has been done in the social sciences since the Second World War has tended to pay little attention to the cultural factor. The Marxist tradition has, of course, been notorious for its neglect of the cultural realm. Even in the more interesting variants of American and British neo-Marxism, culture often continues to be dismissed as little more than ideological subterfuge. The structural­ functional perspective, as advanced principally by Parsons, identified culture as an autonomous system of action, but failed largely in its efforts to promote research investigations of this system. Symbolic interactionism, ostensibly concerned with symbolism and meanings, developed chiefly around the perceptions of individuals in microscopic settings rather than with the larger patterning of cultures themselves. Other perspectives in social psychology, while paying heed to cultural phenomena such as beliefs and attitudes, have been equally caught up with the individual psyche rather than devoting theoretical effort to the investigation of culture. In substantive fields the story has been much the same. The study of social movements has shifted increasingly toward examining the resource base from which collective behavior is able to emerge, rather than giving weight to the goals, frustrations, or legitimating symbols of challenging groups - 1 Introduction nuts and bolts have replaced hearts and minds. In the field of formal organizations, research has shifted away from norms and goals to the selective rationality of markets and environ­ ments. Studies of status attainment, one of the more popular topics in the social sciences, deal almost entirely with formal models of inter- and intra-generational transmission, even though (ironically) the concept of occupational prestige seems an obvious candidate for cultural analysis. Social networks studies focus exclusively on interpersonal linkages and exchange. Even in social psychology where the relation between 'culture and personality' still occupies a position of formal importance, research has come to focus more on life events, stages of development, support networks, and social roles than on the influences of culture. On the whole, it may be only slightly presumptuous to suggest that the social sciences are in danger of abandoning culture entirely as a field of inquiry. All of this is of little concern as long as the alternative approaches and theories are able to get by without recourse to the idea of culture. But the denial of culture has been difficult to sustain in actual practice. For all its materialism, Marxism does continue to posit the existence of ideology and neo-Marxists raise questions about the legitimating assumptions of the state - surely aspects of culture.
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