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SOCI 219: Sociology of culture > Midterm 1 > Flashcards

Midterm 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Etymology of the word “culture”

A

Latin word “culture” - to cultivate

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2
Q

Important people in the Sociology of Culture

A

Ibn Khaldun
Auguste Comte coined the term Sociology
Marx, Weber, Freud, Spencer, Durkheim

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3
Q

Definition of Society

A

Group of people sharing a community (place) and a culture

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4
Q

Definition of Culture

A 
totality of ideas
beliefs, values
symbols, rituals
creating 
patterns of behaviour of a group of people
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5
Q

Sociology of Culture

A

study of the interaction between society and culture
Uses empirical evidence
Focus on social and cultural factors

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6
Q

Cultural sociology

A

study of the interaction between sociology and culture

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7
Q

Generation Gap creates..

A

inter-generational conflict

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8
Q

Ethnocentrism (other word + definition+ antonym)

A

Cultural relativism
Use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging others
Xenocentrism: Belief that another culture is superior

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9
Q

Norms

A

Standards of behaving in a given context

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10
Q

Cultural shock

A

When the norms are different

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11
Q

Values

A

Culturally defined standards about what is desirable, proper, valuable

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12
Q

Subculture

A

Smaller but not inferior, different norms and values

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13
Q

Counterculture

A

Subculture whose values or activities and goals are opposed to the mainstream culture

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14
Q

Spencer’s theory

A

Social evolutionism

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15
Q

Social evolutionism

A

Culture development is a product of social evolution, product of transformation of natural factors

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16
Q

Different Stages

A

Barbaric - organic environment

Civilised - super organic environment

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17
Q

Criticism of social evolutionism

A

Eurocentric vision (B shaped by N, Civilisation shaped by C)

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18
Q

Engels on the gender war

A

“world historical defeat of the female sex”

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19
Q

Series of events that led to monogamy

A

Agricultural settlement –> The rise of PP –> ensure inheritance by “own” children

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20
Q

Paul Seabright

A

natural selection –> breeding viable children

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21
Q

What are the conditions at a given time the expression of for Marx?

A

An ongoing power struggle between two groups

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22
Q

What does culture reflect?

A

the social conditions at a given time

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23
Q

3 oldest branches of philosophy that shapes Marx’s idea

A

Ontology - deals with the nature of being
Epistemology - study of knowledge
The philosophy of consciousness - what it is to be human

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24
Q

2 ways of understanding reality (-isms) + Marx’s stance

A

Idealism - reality only exists in our idea of it
Materialism (≠) - ideas are the manifestation of physical properties
Marx: both: ideas generate ideas (Human centric naturalism)

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25
Q

Species-being

A

through creativity, we created a reality we understand through experience.
The created product defines the nature of the producer

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26
Q

What does the product do?

A

Reflect back our nature

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27
Q

Commodity fetishism

A

the products created have a life of their own

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28
Q

Origin of the word ideology

A

Latin: idea (image) and logos (knowledge)

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29
Q

Definition of ideology

A

distorted image of reality that gives us false knowledge

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30
Q

Georg Lukács on ideology

A

Reification - distorted cultural lens

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31
Q

Ideology springs from a spontaneous philosophy which contains

A

Language
Common sense (conventional wisdom) and good sense
Popular Religion

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32
Q

Definition of counter-hegemony

A

World view selective accommodation of the desires of a wide range of groups within a society

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33
Q

Criticism of culture as an ideology

A

People may have reason to believe in the social order
Culture is not just ideology + interest of Bourgeois
Culture might shape economy (weber)

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34
Q

Weber’s methodology

A

Comparative historical analysis

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35
Q

Comparative historical analysis

A

Have to understand social action and the meaning that people give to their actions

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36
Q

What does Weber create to understand reality?

A

Ideal types (and compare cases and look at similarities and deviances)

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37
Q

2 kinds of ideal types

A

Classificatory - social action, authority

Historical - spirit of capitalism

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38
Q

Main theoretical assumption for Weber

A

every person acts within a cultural context that is historically specific

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39
Q

4 ideal types for social actions

A

Value rational
Affective action
Traditional action
Instrumental-rational action

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40
Q

Value rational

A

Based on values and morals

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41
Q

Affective action

A

Emotion in a given situation

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42
Q

Traditional action

A

Determined/motivated by habits or customs

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43
Q

Instrumental-rational action

A

means and ends are rationally linked (logical only in a particular culture)

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44
Q

Weber’s 3 meanings of rationalization

A

Means/end calculation
Bureaucracy (organisational culture)
Disenchantment/ secularisation/ demystification

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45
Q

Steps that lead to domination

A

Rationalisation –> Legitimation –> Domination

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46
Q

Characteristics of hyper-reality (4)

A

Efficiency, calculability, predictability, technology

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47
Q

Ideal type of authority (3)

A

Charismatic Authority
Traditional Authority
Rational Legal Authority

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48
Q

Charismatic Authority

A

Belief in supernatural or intrinsic gifts of the individual

49
Q

Traditional Authority

A

Belief in time and customs

50
Q

Rational legal authority

A

Belief in procedure rules and laws

51
Q

Definition of a class (Weber)

A

ability to buy and sell goods and services that bring us satisfaction

52
Q

Definition of a status (Weber)

A

Have an effective claim to social esteem in terms of positive or negative privileges (based on: lifestyle, education and occupation)

53
Q

Definition of a party (Weber)

A

The social organization and practice of power (ex. political parties, unions, interest groups)

54
Q

When does social change occur?

A

When legitimation of the stratification is questioned

55
Q

“Calling”

A

Luther - type of social action, social responsibility to behave correctly in society

56
Q

“Predestination”

A

Calvin - faith is predestined

57
Q

Ascetism

A

Blessings of god to be reinvested (in K: wealth)

58
Q

Ideal type of the spirit of capitalism

A

Ethically oriented maxim for the organization of life

59
Q

3 maxims of the spirit of capitalism

A

Life with a specific goal to always make more money
Work as an moral duty, vocational calling
Life and actions are legitimised on basis on quantitative calculations

60
Q

Basic premise of the Frankfurt School critical theory (3)

A

Cant understand reality from scientific perspective
Science studies things with market value
Social dynamics understood in context of a whole : Social totality

61
Q

What does enlightenment switch out

A

Tradition with reason

62
Q

Science, most dominant form of…

A

ideology

63
Q

The culture industry (2 main people)

A

Adorno and Horkheimer

64
Q

Cultural items no longer have artistic value but…

A

exchange value

65
Q

Benjamin

A

In advanced technological societies, art loses its aura (originality and authenticity) when mechanically produced

66
Q

Fromm

A

Pathology of normalcy

67
Q

Marcus

A

technocrats set the rules of the game through technological rationality and use technology to dominate us

68
Q

Repressive desublimation

A

exchanging certain freedoms for others

69
Q

Sublimation (Freud)

A

transform libido into “socially useful” achievements

70
Q

Surplus repression

A

imposes discipline from the inside

71
Q

Habermas (replacement of … by … )

A

Life world by System world because of rationalisation (loss of agency)

72
Q

Eliot and Lewis (culturalism)

A

Loss of tradition and reaction to modernism

73
Q

Williams and Hogart (culturalism)

A 
W: Elite/high culture: form of social privilege
H: main objective of cultural studies is to diagnose the cultural health of a society (he compared pre war working class and post war mass culture)
74
Q

Ordinary people, working class and youth are controlled (or at least tried to) by

A 
Demolishing working class habitats and building tower blocks
Creating a market for their cultural creativity (creative economy)
75
Q

4 industries of creative economy

A

Heritage
Arts
Media
Creative business services

76
Q

Definition of creative industries

A

Activities born in individual creativity, skill and talent which have potential for wealth and job creation through intellectual property

77
Q

Problems with creative economy

A

Distributors capture more of the value

Big industries dominate

78
Q

Collective representations (for Durkheim)

A

Social components of ourselves: beliefs,norms and values

Socially created classifications or cultural lenses

79
Q

What does the division of labour determine (for Durkheim)

A

Solidarity

80
Q

Simple society (for Durkheim)

A

Mechanical solidarity

81
Q

Complex society (for Durkheim)

A

Organic solidarity

82
Q

Anomie (for Durkheim)

A

Normless situation (condition of alienation), leads to crime and suicide

83
Q

Religion (for Durkheim)

A

unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them

84
Q

What does religion provide?

A

framework, clear moral guidelines

85
Q

Totem and taboo

A

Sacred animal or object that spiritually represents a group

Ritual prohibitions around a totem

86
Q

Purpose of a ritual

A

reinforce societies key values, bind individuals to the community and make the world symbolically meaningful to them

87
Q

How does religion classify things (in what process)

A

Differentiation

88
Q

What theories/ists does functionalism and structuralism come from?

A

Durkheim’s totetism
Saussure’s linguistic theory
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

89
Q

Saussure’s linguistic structuralism

A

Language is a system (langue)
Made up of signs: signifiers (phonetic expression of an idea) and signified (idea or concept)
RS is arbitrary and culturally defined

90
Q

Social psychological structuralism (theorist)

A

Freud

91
Q

All signs are arbitrary (freud) because of two important psychological mechanisms

A

Condensation

Displacement

92
Q

Condensation

A

the unconscious seeks to express itself by attaching meaning to something (ex. metaphor in dream)

93
Q

Displacement

A

using one thing to stand for another (metonymy)

94
Q

What does civilization do to our principles

A

restriction of our pleasure principle and makes us abide to reality principle (norms, laws, rules..)

95
Q

Too much discipline leads to

A

discontent, nervosis

96
Q

Definition of a myth

A

unproved collective beliefs or stories used to understand or justify a cultural practice or tradition
A vital feature of culture

97
Q

How are stories important

A

Meaningful way to understand realities of human experience, to see how they understand their reality

98
Q

What is totetism due to for Levi-Strauss?

A

Due to the universal processes of the human mind in terms of binary oppositions

99
Q

Why are we prisoners of language according to Barthes?

A

We can only access reality through our culture schemes and codes

100
Q

What is modernity based on? (3)

A

the industrial revolution
greek philosophy
Inductive logic

101
Q

Post structuralism

A

There aren’t any real things, they’re representations of the image produced by the signifier

102
Q

Jacques Derrida

A

Each system is always changing

103
Q

Deconstructionism

A

Method of textual reading and writing

104
Q

Baudrillard (on postmodernism)

A

Contemporary post-modernist isn’t real: produced by an endless series of signifiers

105
Q

Simulated world that capitalism has created (Marx)

A

Simulacrum

106
Q

Simulacra

A

signs or images that fabricate a reality that doesn’t exist

107
Q

The Culture of Spectacle (organized around 3 things + author)

A

Guy Debord: a media and consumer culture organised around the production and consumption of images, spectacular commodities and stages events

108
Q

McLuhan 3 definitions of a medium

A
  1. Any extension of human mind and body
  2. Anything from which a change emerges, anything we conceive or create
  3. It’s the message
109
Q

What is a message according to McLuhan

A

The change of scale or pace or pattern, it differentiates between the previous and current state (change in interpersonal dynamics)

110
Q

For debord, what is the goal of all production systems?

A

manufacturing signe and images

111
Q

Consequence of the SotS

A

creates passivity, decrease in public engagement

112
Q

Entropy (in this context)

A

When output is smaller than input

More and more information, less and less meaning

113
Q

Negentropy

A

output bigger than input

ex. photosynthesis, capitalist investment

114
Q

How is negentropy made possible in the capitalist society?

A

through exploitation of nature and human labour

115
Q

Democracy and capitalism producing entropy of …

A

meaning

116
Q

Simulation doesn’t copy reality but it…

A

destroys it

117
Q

Mechanisms happening in simulacra (5)

A
  • Media
  • Language and ideology
  • Urbanization
  • Multinational capitalism
  • Consumer capitalism (exchange value/money)
118
Q

Definition of simulacrum

A

is a copy of a copy whose relation to the model has become so attenuated that it can no longer properly be said to be a copy. It stands on its own as a copy without a model.

SOCI 219: Sociology of culture (2 decks)

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