Key Concepts Flashcards
Culture
A culture is a way of life of a group of people–the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
Culture as shared meanings
Anthropologic definition of culture that meanings are shared through symbols from generation to generation and allows us to make sense of, express, and give meaning to our lives.
Culture as contested meaning
Cultural studies definition of culture that vies culture as an apparatus of power within a larger system of domination where meanings are constantly negotiated.
Culture as a resource
Definition of culture as resource for political development, economic growth, and exploitation, as well as collective and individual empowerment, agency, and resistance.
Positionality
One’s social location or position within an intersecting web of socially constructed hierarchical categories, such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, and physical abilities etc.
Ethnocentrism
Idea that one’s own groups way of thinking, being, and acting in the world is superior to others.
Intercultural Praxis
Process of critical analysis, reflection, and action for effective intercultural communication in the context of globalization; six ports of entry: inquiry, framing, positioning, dialogue, reflection, and action.
First World
During the Cold War, First World nations were countries friendly to the US and identified as capitalist and democratic. Developed nations that refer to former colonial powers with advanced capitalist economies.
Second World
During the Cold War, Second World nations were countries perceived as hostile and ideologically incompatible with the US (Russia and China) - Communist
Third World
During the Cold War, Third World nations were countries seen as neutral or nonaligned. Now known as developing nations, more commonly used today to refer to formerly colonized countries that are less economically developed than FW nations.
Globalization
Complex web of forces and factors that bring people, cultures, cultural products, and markets, as well as beliefs and practices, into increasingly greater proximity to one another within inequitable relations of power.
Economic globalization
Globalization characterized by a growth in multinational corporations, an intensification of international trade and international flows of capital and internationally interconnected webs of production, distribution, and consumption.
Ideology
Set of ideas and beliefs reflecting the needs and aspirations of individuals, groups, classes, or cultures that form the basis of political, economic, and other systems.
Political globalization
Globalization characterized by the interconnectedness of nation-state politics, the formation of bodies of global governance and global movements of resistance responding to inequities in political power.
Deterritorialized
Culture in the context of globalization where cultural subjects are uprooted from their situatedness in a particular physical, geographic location.
Americanization
Global cultural homogenization with U.S. culture, such as McDonalds and Disney.
Signifiers
The physical form, such as the body, things, actions, images, or words of the sign.
Patriarchy
A form of social organization where men are dominant and women are subordinate.
Intersectionality
An approach to understanding how socially constructed categories of difference, such as race, gender, class, and sexuality operate in relationship to each other.
No one has one single identity. They are all intertwined and cannot be disconnected. A person can simultainiously occupy positions of oppression and privilege.
Constructing the “other”
Process by which differences marked on or represented through the body are constructed as significant and are infused with meaning through a hierarchical racial system that justifies and promotes domination and exploitation.
The power of texts
Texts construct, maintain, and legitimize systems of inequity and domination by creating authorized and preferred versions of history and leaving out other perspectives, experiences, and stories.
Cultural homogenization
Convergence toward common cultural values and practices as a result of global interaction.
Cultural Imperialism
Domination of one culture over others through cultural forms, such as pop culture, media, and cultural products, a dimension of cultural globalization in which unequal and uneven flow of cultural forms negatively impacts local industry and culture.
