culture studies Flashcards
Williams (1983)
culture is a way of life
Merton (1957)
institutions have manifest functions (intended outcomes) and latent functions (unintended functions)
Goffman (1956)
- society is one big stage
- ‘front stage’ at school, work, public places
- ‘backstage’ at home or with peers
- the gap is known as role distance
Cooley (1902)
- looking glass self, the way people see us effects our behaviour
- you become the person you think they think you are
Durkheim (education)
education teaches children values such as competition, success and honest conduct so they function well at work
Handel (2006)
3 key stages in childhood for identity
- learning to communicate with others with little understanding of how others see them
- develops a sense of empathy
- develop a sense of self and see themselves from other peoples perspectives
Mead (1925)
- play was important for developing a sense of self
- social control depends on how far people take on the attitudes of others
Lyotard (1979)
lots of competing versions of knowledge help people choose who to listen to and what values to have
Storey
‘hopelessly commercial culture’
‘formulaic and manipulative’
Adorno
- pop culture isn’t based on peoples tastes, it’s forced on us by industries
- popular by repetition as its standardised and predictable
leisure time has become toxic
- Adorno
- we are passified by technology instead of bettering ourselves
- society is an open prison as we are taught to be individualistic and pliant
capitalism doesn’t sell us what we need
- Adorno
- because of choice, we assume we need stuff
- we are taught to want manufactured goods and not emotions and comfort
- adverts sell us a lifestyle
Gitlin
“no cultural system since medieval christianity has the unifying potential of mass culture in the age of television”
Lury
key features of consumer culture:
- availability of a wide range of goods
- shopping is a leisure pursuit
- different forms of shopping are available
Mcluhan
we live in a ‘global village’ as everything is increasingly interconnected and time and space has shrunk
Stuart Hall
- culture becomes homogenous and national identity is eroded
- cultural resistance where governments control everything
- a fusion of global influences and local traditions has created a cultural hybridity
Sewell
argues that students who join anti-school subcultures get their attitude from outside of school
Lacey
went to middle class schools and found that pupils were effected by differentiation and bottom set labels deprived them of status
Paul Willis - learning to labour
he observed 12 working class lads who saw school as pointless to their future as factory workers, saw the middle class students as bad as they listened to the teacher
Durkheim - subculture
a feeling of anomie is more likely to lead to criminal activity as people lack structure and guidance
Anderson (1983)
- nation is an imagined community as members won’t meet most fellow members
- its facilitated by the printed language
- media is vital in constructing it as in reality its too big to know everyone
Postman (1982)
‘disappearance of childhood’ and blames the media for exposing children to the adult world too early
Parsons (1962) - youth subculture
- youth only emerged due to family changes associated with capitalism
- its a period of socialisation and training for the workplace
- its an important transitional stage during a stressful time
- important to break ties with family and develop independence
Eisenstadt (1956) - youth subculture
- way of bringing young people into society
- it provides a sense of belonging and stops the isolated phase and feelings of anomie
McRobbie and Garber (1976)
- girls were ignored in most research
- when they were involved it was mainly stereotypes
- they have closer knit friendship groups
Maffesoli (1996) - post
- group identity is no longer formed along traditional social lines like gender or class
- the group is used to satisfy individual needs
Bennett (1999) - post
- neo tribes based around fashion, music, lifestyle have no shared values
- subculture rigidly links music and style preferences
Brake (1980) - subcultures
- these were ‘magical’ symbolic solutions to working class youth problems
- gave them strength and made them feel like they were fighting back
Thorton (1995)
- teenage market was dominated by boys
- difference in subcultural capital as girls invested in school whereas boys invested in going out
- girls had less disposable income, earn less and married earlier
McRobbie (1991)
- girls are more active in consumer culture
- they don’t passively accept information (music, magazines)
- they can critique it and challenge its message
Weeks (1986)
“sexual identification is a strange thing”
- more complex than other aspects of identity
Turings Law
men in gay relationships were chemically castrated
Quinn (2001)
- Native American tribes celebrated same sex marriage
- men have ‘boy wives’ that are treated like females between age 12-20
Plummer (1996)
- homosexuality is a process
- join subcultures which reaffirm behaviours
- share an identity of sameness
Rich (1980)
- women sexuality is oppressed by men in patriarchal society
- socialised into a subordinate role ensuring their availability to men
- heterosexuality is forced on them
The Macpherson report
found the met police to be insituioanlly racist after the Stephen Lawrence case
Macan Ghail
found well-intentioned white teachers often had lower expectations for. black, male students
Macan Gail (1994)
argues many men from wc backgrounds are in crisis leading to depression, suicide and crime
Betty Friedman
femininity is constructed to be childlike, passive and dependent
Muncie (2004)
highlights how youths in the media are represented as deviant and troublesome
Sontag (1978)
highlights how women in particular are required to match up to a youthful ideal of all their lives
Biggs (1993)
found that sitcoms tend to portray old people as feeble, vague and forgetful
Hockey and James (1993)
found that people in retirement homes were treated like children: not allowed to keep their money and had their privacy taken away
Williams (1984) - age
unemployment prevents young people from moving onto adult roles or gain adult status
Hendricks- age
ageing brings physical and psychological decline
Parsons - age
society should find roles suitable for old age people
Bond
government pensions are inadequate as wc income is too low to save for retirement
Modood
found that Asian differences can be very specific in terms of Religion, language, dress code and diet
Ghumman (1999)
suggest 1st generation of Asian parents to arrive in the UK primary socialised these values:
- obedience and loyalty to elders and community
- parents know best
- the choice of partner
- religious training
- role of the mother tongue
Hennik (1999)
found 75% of Sikh and 85% of Muslim teenage girls expect arranged marriages9
Anwar (1981)
the family is a site of conflict between parents and child
Drury (1991)
found that 1/5 of girls in her Asian sample were secretly dating boys
Enoch Powell
felt increased immigration was making life difficult for native British people and Britain was losing its identity and culture