Making Sense of Popular Culture
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The Cultural Formation of Mass Incarceration
The Biography of an Institution: The Cultural Formation of Mass Incarceration Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Nicole Barnaby, B. A. Graduate Program in African American and African Studies The Ohio State University 2016 Thesis Committee: Devin Fergus, Advisor Denise Noble Lynn Itagaki Copyright by Nicole Barnaby 2016 Abstract It may be hard for some to justify how the United States imprisons over two million people when it is hailed ‘the land of the free,’ but this thesis argues that there are very real social, economic and political drivers behind this growing trend having nothing to do with crime. While mass incarceration has its roots in other older forms of racialized social control, it exists in its current form due to an array of cultural conditions which foster its existence. Utilizing the cultural studies tool known as the circuit of culture, this thesis aims to provide a holistic understanding of the articulation of social factors contributing to the existence of mass incarceration. In order to do this, mass incarceration is assessed with the use of the 5 processes of the circuit of culture (production, regulation, representation, consumption and identity) and a specific look at its relation to the Black community over time is considered. ii Vita 2012…………………………B. A. Sociology, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth 2014-present......................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of African American and African -
Understanding the Value of Arts & Culture | the AHRC Cultural Value
Understanding the value of arts & culture The AHRC Cultural Value Project Geoffrey Crossick & Patrycja Kaszynska 2 Understanding the value of arts & culture The AHRC Cultural Value Project Geoffrey Crossick & Patrycja Kaszynska THE AHRC CULTURAL VALUE PROJECT CONTENTS Foreword 3 4. The engaged citizen: civic agency 58 & civic engagement Executive summary 6 Preconditions for political engagement 59 Civic space and civic engagement: three case studies 61 Part 1 Introduction Creative challenge: cultural industries, digging 63 and climate change 1. Rethinking the terms of the cultural 12 Culture, conflict and post-conflict: 66 value debate a double-edged sword? The Cultural Value Project 12 Culture and art: a brief intellectual history 14 5. Communities, Regeneration and Space 71 Cultural policy and the many lives of cultural value 16 Place, identity and public art 71 Beyond dichotomies: the view from 19 Urban regeneration 74 Cultural Value Project awards Creative places, creative quarters 77 Prioritising experience and methodological diversity 21 Community arts 81 Coda: arts, culture and rural communities 83 2. Cross-cutting themes 25 Modes of cultural engagement 25 6. Economy: impact, innovation and ecology 86 Arts and culture in an unequal society 29 The economic benefits of what? 87 Digital transformations 34 Ways of counting 89 Wellbeing and capabilities 37 Agglomeration and attractiveness 91 The innovation economy 92 Part 2 Components of Cultural Value Ecologies of culture 95 3. The reflective individual 42 7. Health, ageing and wellbeing 100 Cultural engagement and the self 43 Therapeutic, clinical and environmental 101 Case study: arts, culture and the criminal 47 interventions justice system Community-based arts and health 104 Cultural engagement and the other 49 Longer-term health benefits and subjective 106 Case study: professional and informal carers 51 wellbeing Culture and international influence 54 Ageing and dementia 108 Two cultures? 110 8. -
Civilization Studies 1
Civilization Studies 1 Civilization Studies Civilization studies provide an in-depth examination of the development and accomplishments of one of the world's great civilizations through direct encounters with significant and exemplary documents and monuments. These sequences complement the literary and philosophical study of texts central to the humanities sequences, as well as the study of synchronous social theories that shape basic questions in the social science sequences. Their approach stresses the grounding of events and ideas in historical context and the interplay of events, institutions, ideas, and cultural expressions in social change. The courses emphasize texts rather than surveys as a way of getting at the ideas, cultural patterns, and social pressures that frame the understanding of events and institutions within a civilization. And they seek to explore a civilization as an integrated entity, capable of developing and evolving meanings that inform the lives of its citizens. Unless otherwise specified, courses should be taken in sequence. Note the prerequisites, if any, included in the course description of each sequence. Some civilization sequences are two-quarter sequences; others are three- quarter sequences. Students may meet a two-quarter civilization requirement with two courses from a three- quarter sequence. Because civilization studies sequences offer an integrated, coherent approach to the study of a civilization, students cannot change sequences. Students can neither combine courses from a civilization sequence with a freestanding course nor combine various freestanding courses to create a civilization studies sequence. Students who wish to use such combinations are seldom granted approval to their petitions, including petitions from students with curricular and scheduling conflicts who have postponed meeting the civilization studies requirement until their third or fourth year in the College. -
Popular Culture, Relational History, and the Question of Power in Palestine and Israel Author(S): Rebecca L
Institute for Palestine Studies Popular Culture, Relational History, and the Question of Power in Palestine and Israel Author(s): Rebecca L. Stein and Ted Swedenburg Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Summer, 2004), pp. 5-20 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3247543 Accessed: 18/05/2009 11:53 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press and Institute for Palestine Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Palestine Studies. -
The Popular Culture Studies Journal
THE POPULAR CULTURE STUDIES JOURNAL VOLUME 6 NUMBER 1 2018 Editor NORMA JONES Liquid Flicks Media, Inc./IXMachine Managing Editor JULIA LARGENT McPherson College Assistant Editor GARRET L. CASTLEBERRY Mid-America Christian University Copy Editor Kevin Calcamp Queens University of Charlotte Reviews Editor MALYNNDA JOHNSON Indiana State University Assistant Reviews Editor JESSICA BENHAM University of Pittsburgh Please visit the PCSJ at: http://mpcaaca.org/the-popular-culture- studies-journal/ The Popular Culture Studies Journal is the official journal of the Midwest Popular and American Culture Association. Copyright © 2018 Midwest Popular and American Culture Association. All rights reserved. MPCA/ACA, 421 W. Huron St Unit 1304, Chicago, IL 60654 Cover credit: Cover Artwork: “Wrestling” by Brent Jones © 2018 Courtesy of https://openclipart.org EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD ANTHONY ADAH FALON DEIMLER Minnesota State University, Moorhead University of Wisconsin-Madison JESSICA AUSTIN HANNAH DODD Anglia Ruskin University The Ohio State University AARON BARLOW ASHLEY M. DONNELLY New York City College of Technology (CUNY) Ball State University Faculty Editor, Academe, the magazine of the AAUP JOSEF BENSON LEIGH H. EDWARDS University of Wisconsin Parkside Florida State University PAUL BOOTH VICTOR EVANS DePaul University Seattle University GARY BURNS JUSTIN GARCIA Northern Illinois University Millersville University KELLI S. BURNS ALEXANDRA GARNER University of South Florida Bowling Green State University ANNE M. CANAVAN MATTHEW HALE Salt Lake Community College Indiana University, Bloomington ERIN MAE CLARK NICOLE HAMMOND Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota University of California, Santa Cruz BRIAN COGAN ART HERBIG Molloy College Indiana University - Purdue University, Fort Wayne JARED JOHNSON ANDREW F. HERRMANN Thiel College East Tennessee State University JESSE KAVADLO MATTHEW NICOSIA Maryville University of St. -
Cannabis (Sub)Culture, the Subcultural Repository, and Networked Mediation
SIMULATED SESSIONS: CANNABIS (SUB)CULTURE, THE SUBCULTURAL REPOSITORY, AND NETWORKED MEDIATION Nathan J. Micinski A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2014 Committee: Ellen Berry, Advisor Rob Sloane © 2014 Nathan Micinski All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Ellen Berry, Advisor Subcultural theory is traditionally rooted in notions of social deviance or resistance. The criteria for determining who or what qualifies as subcultures, and the most effective ways to study them, are based on these assumptions. This project seeks to address these traditional modes of studying subcultures and discover ways in which their modification may lead to new understandings and ways of studying subcultures in the contemporary moment. This will be done by suggesting a change in the criteria of examining subcultures from that of deviance or resistance to identification with a collection of images, symbols, rituals, and narratives. The importance of this distinction is the ability to utilize the insights that studying subcultures can offer while avoiding the faults inherent in speaking for or at a subculture rather than with or from it. Beyond addressing theoretical concerns, this thesis aims to apply notions of subcultural theory to study the online community of Reddit, in particular, a subset known as r/trees–a virtual repository for those images, symbols, rituals, and narratives of cannabis subculture. R/trees illustrates the life and vibrancy of a unique subcultural entity, which to this point has evaded a cultural studies analysis. To that end, this project advocates for the importance of the cultural studies approach to analyzing cannabis subculture and further, to insert the findings of this study into that gap in the literature. -
Central Problems in Cultural Studies
Central Problems in Cultural Studies 1 Language and Material For Marxism, culture is a corporeal force locked into the socially organized production of the material conditions of existence. Marxism has argued that the material mode of production is ‘the real foundation’ of cultural superstructures. That is, the material – understood here as the economic – determines the cultural. However, this orthodox reading of Marx proved to be too mechanical and deterministic in exploring the specific features of culture. Consequently, the narrative of cultural studies involves a distancing of itself from Marxist reductionism. Instead, the analysis of the autonomous logic of language, culture, representation and consumption was placed in the foreground. – Barker, pp. 25-26 2 The Textual Character of Culture Most students of cultural studies are aware that culture can be read as a text, using concepts like signification, code or discourse. However, an emphasis on structuralist and poststructuralist accounts of signification has sometimes led cultural studies to reify language as a ‘thing’ or ‘system’ rather than grasp it as a social practice. – Barker, p. 26 3 The metaphor of culture as ‘like a language’ has a great deal to recommend it. However, there is also much to be gained by describing culture in terms of practices, routines and spatial arrangements. Not only is language always embedded in practice, but also all practices signify. Further, the identification of textual codes and subject positions does not guarantee that the proscribed meanings are ‘taken up’ by concrete persons in daily life (see Ang, 1985; Morley, 1992). – Barker, p. 26 4 The Location of Culture For Raymond Williams (1981, 1983) culture is located, for all intents and purposes, within flexible but identifiable boundaries. -
Sustainable Development and Cultural Policy: Do They Make a Happy Marriage?
ENCATC JOURNAL OF CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AND POLICY Sustainable Development and Cultural Policy: Do They Make A Happy Marriage? Géraldine Dallaire HEC Montréal, Canada François Colbert HEC Montréal, Canada Keywords: ABSTRACT Cultural Policy The aim of this article is to foster debate within the academic community on the notion of Agenda 21 culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development. Is Agenda 21 for Culture not just another way of making the case for increased funding of the arts by the different Sustainable governments? Are the goals of this fourth pillar not the same as those traditionally found in development cultural policies? This article looks at the origins of Agenda 21 and raises questions about its relationship with the challenges facing cultural and arts organizations, the different definitions Market Issues of the term “culture,” and the distinction between high and popular culture. It explores the links between these questions and the economic and market issues confronting stakeholders High art / popular in the cultural sector as well as public policy makers. art 6 ENCATC JOURNAL OF CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AND POLICY Introduction The issue of cultural democratization is a recurring theme that was once again pushed to the Cultural actors in all developed countries are fore on the occasion of the anniversaries of the struggling with a serious lack of funding. The cultural ministries of France and Quebec, notably, in economic crisis of 2008 has had a devastating impact 2009 and 2011. Indeed, one of the founding missions on government budgets, leading to severely limited of the French Ministry of Culture upon its creation in access to public funding. -
Dziesinski, SOC 459 SPRING15 (WI,E), 16Wks Prov2
SOC 459, Spring 2015 Sociology of Popular Culture Dziesinski COURSE SYLLABUS SOC 459 Sociology of Popular Culture Focus Designation: Eth, WI (3 Credits) University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Spring 2015 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10:30-11:20 A.M. Meeting Place: TBD Instructor: Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D. Office: Saunders Hall, Room 241 Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:30-5:00 p.m. and by appointment. Email: [email protected] Course Website: https://laulima.hawaii.edu/ Prerequisite: Sociology 300 I. COURSE DESCRIPTION This course examines popular culture from various sociological perspectives. Popular culture appears in many forms in our daily life such as the Internet, the media, film, music, comic books, video games, clothing fashions, and even the food we eat. We will explore the roles and influence popular culture has upon daily life by defining and analyzing the phenomenon with the aid of various sociological approaches that have been used to explain popular culture. Who has the power to classify what is ‘popular’, what is ‘high brow’ culture, and what is ‘low brow’ entertainment? Does popular culture manifest ‘from the bottom up’ - is popular culture created for and by the people? Or is popular culture dictated ‘from the top down’ - by elites and commercial interests in positions of power that shape the cultural tastes of the masses? Who are the producers and consumers of popular culture? With the global accessibility offered by the Internet and social media, have the boundaries between producer and consumer blurred? And where does the concept of intellectual property and ownership fit into the digital age of popular culture? Finally, we will compare the forms and features of the Western popular culture hub of Hollywood with other global hubs such as Bollywood and Tokyo. -
Cultural Marxism and Cultural Studies Douglas Kellner
Cultural Marxism and Cultural Studies Douglas Kellner (http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/) Many different versions of cultural studies have emerged in the past decades. While during its dramatic period of global expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, cultural studies was often identified with the approach to culture and society developed by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, England, their sociological, materialist, and political approaches to culture had predecessors in a number of currents of cultural Marxism. Many 20th century Marxian theorists ranging from Georg Lukacs, Antonio Gramsci, Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, and T.W. Adorno to Fredric Jameson and Terry Eagleton employed the Marxian theory to analyze cultural forms in relation to their production, their imbrications with society and history, and their impact and influences on audiences and social life. Traditions of cultural Marxism are thus important to the trajectory of cultural studies and to understanding its various types and forms in the present age. The Rise of Cultural Marxism Marx and Engels rarely wrote in much detail on the cultural phenomena that they tended to mention in passing. Marx’s notebooks have some references to the novels of Eugene Sue and popular media, the English and foreign press, and in his 1857-1858 “outline of political economy,” he refers to Homer’s work as expressing the infancy of the human species, as if cultural texts were importantly related to social and historical development. The economic base of society for Marx and Engels consisted of the forces and relations of production in which culture and ideology are constructed to help secure the dominance of ruling social groups. -
'Resistance,' 'Cultural Radicalism,' and 'Self-Formation'
Popular Culture, ‘Resistance,’ ‘Cultural Radicalism,’ and ‘Self-Formation’ Comments on the Development of a Theory Kaspar Maase 1. PRELIMINARY COMMENTS This article follows up on the debate over the resistance potential of popular culture. The first part traces the historical constellation of ideas in which the question arose and remains to this day. The second part attempts to systematize different dimensions of ‘resistance.’ The third part examines the development and criticism of this approach in the field of Cultural Studies. This leads to the fourth part, which investigates the role “cultural radicalism” (Fluck, “Die Wissenschaft” 115) has played in this discussion. The fifth part introduces the concept of self-formation. The sixth discusses the ways in which the political relevance of popular culture has been evaluated, and how the ‘resistance’ approach can be further developed. ‘Resistance’ in a specific sense, namely that established in British Cultural Studies, forms the point of reference, framing the topic of this article in three ways. Firstly, the analysis will take place within the supposed context of a clash of interests between ‘the people’ and ‘the power bloc’; secondly, it will focus on the cultural dimension; and thirdly, it will investigate the cultural exercise of power and oppositional practices from the perspective of ‘the people’ with the intention of facilitating their empowerment. The thoughts of political and academic actors as to what exactly constitutes ‘resistance’ are as varied and contradictory as the concerns articulated by ‘the people.’ Nonetheless, there is a widespread expectation that research from the perspective of ‘the people’ has to promote 46 Kaspar Maase oppositional feelings, thoughts, and actions. -
Megachurches and Popular Culture: on Enclaving and Encroaching
Chapter 4 Megachurches and Popular Culture: On Enclaving and Encroaching Simon Coleman and Saliha Chattoo 1 Introduction: Performing the ‘Mega’ Christians have always built large churches. Imposing cathedrals dominated the architectural profiles and often the economies of cities in medieval Eu- rope, and spread into the New World along with colonisation and missionisa- tion (Coleman and Bowman 2018). Yet, while such churches are often huge, we do not think of them as mega. Their size – expressive of ecclesiastical authority – has a different quality to the dynamic, ostensibly more democratic forms of expansion that we associate with today’s megachurches.1 If many Gothic and neo-Gothic cathedrals expanded upwards towards the heavens while ostentatiously occupying urban centres, contemporary megachurches have tended to expand sideways, taking up large swathes of land in suburban areas, or repurposing large-scale facilities such as sports arenas. Furthermore, these differences in models of growth go beyond the spatial or the architec- tural. Cathedrals have tended to represent ‘high culture’, embodying national identity, craftsmanship, education, and patronage. Megachurches inhabit a very different cultural realm, relying on an ability to attract people to their ser- vices and consumers to their products. An empty cathedral (and there are many) still provides an important symbolic and civic function. An empty megachurch serves no purpose at all. This chapter demonstrates the importance of popular culture to the devel- opment of megachurches, showing its intimate connection with such church- es’ performances of what is often made to seem like ineluctable expansion. Our use of the word performance here is very deliberate, since it is meant to convey the sense of both producing growth and displaying it through a variety of media (see also Goh 2008; Maddox 2012).