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Sociology of Culture > Midterm > Flashcards

Midterm Flashcards

1
Q

What is the anthropological definition of culture?

A

Shared set of (implicit and explicit) values, ideas, concepts, beliefs, representations, technical knowledge, material culture and rules of behaviour:
- That allow a social group to function and perpetuate itself
- That support the group’s representation of itself, its relationships with others

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2
Q

What is the sociological definition of culture?

A

Social processes by which norms, beliefs, habits, representations, etc. are produced, reproduced, transmitted
- how they change over time in terms of cooperation and conflict

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3
Q

What is cultural sociology about?

A

Meaning-making
- how meaning-making happens, why meanings vary, how meanings influence human action, and the ways meaning-making is important in social cohesion, domination, and resistance

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4
Q

Explain the difference in views of culture between anthropology and sociology?

A

Anthropology: culture –> society
Sociology: society –> culture

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5
Q

What is class ethnocentrism?

A

to apply one’s own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures

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6
Q

What is cultural relativism?

A

a person’s beliefs should be understood based on that person’s own culture

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7
Q

What is cultural legitimacy theory?

A

identifies the quality of being in conformity with the accepted principles or rules and standards of a particular culture

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8
Q

What are the 3 distinct processes of culture and inequality?

A
  • Process by which social positions or opportunities are allocated
  • Process by which social boundaries are generated and maintained
  • Process by which inequality is legitimized
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9
Q

What is the difference between Marxist tradition and Weberian tradition?

A
  • Marxist tradition: class structure of the society reflected in different class cultures: bourgeois culture and working class culture
  • Weberian tradition: cultural norms, habits, attitudes, tastes contribute to the production of symbolic boundaries that define as status order and that prevent the crossing of class boundaries
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10
Q

What is status order? (Bourdieu)

A

Symbolic hierarchy of cultural items, norms and attitudes symbolically hierarchized
- cultural legitimacy reflect the symbolic power of those in dominant position in the class structure

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11
Q

What is the relativist conception of culture?

A

trying to understand cultural practices of other groups in its own cultural context

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12
Q

What are the 4 underlying processes behind the blurring of symbolic boundaries between classes?

A
  • school expansion
  • increasing cultural supply
  • online culture
  • cultural disintermediation and growing influence of recommendation algorithms
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13
Q

What is status hierarchy based on?

A

based on differences in esteem and honor attached to categorical difference (class, race, gender)

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14
Q

Status differences between groups involve:

A

Shared beliefs about the rankings and characteristics of in-group and out-group

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15
Q

Explain Weber’s theory of action

A
  • People tend to act in accordance with the values they project in their behaviour
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16
Q

Explain Parson’s voluntarist theory of action

A

idea that consciously desired ends provide the motivation for individual behaviour

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17
Q

Explain Ann Swindler’s toolkit model

A

What endures is the way culture is ORGANIZED, not its ends (cultural meanings and values)

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18
Q

What is automatic cognition?

A

scripted, routine actions
- impulsive, stereotyped actions

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19
Q

What is deliberate cognition?

A

Thoughtful deliberation
- strategic action

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20
Q

Explain Bourdieu’s habitus

A

Unreflective practical dispositions, cognitive patterns that vary between cultures and sub-cultures (class, race, gender, generation)
- cultural habits

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21
Q

Explain Stephen Vaisey’s dual model

A

Actors primarily driven by deeply embodied habits
BUT actors are also able of deliberation and justification (discursive consciousness)

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22
Q

Explain Berger and Luckmann’s social constructionist theory

A

People’s conceptions and beliefs of reality embedded in the institutional fabric of society

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23
Q

Explain the Lamont, Beljean and Clair model of cultural causal pathway to inequality

A

How cultural processes contribute to produce and reproduce inequality in routine ways, as side-effects of other ongoing activities

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24
Q

What is identification?

A

process through which individuals and groups identify themselves and are identified by others, as members of a larger collective

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25
What is racialization?
process by which social markers or biological and phenotypic differences between human bodies are saturated with significance by social actors
26
What is stigmatization?
Labeling, negative stereotyping
27
What is rationalization?
the action of attempting to explain or justify behaviour or an attitude with logical reasons, even if these are not appropriate
28
What is standardization?
process by which individuals, groups, and institutions construct uniformities
29
What is evaluation?
negotiation, definition, and stabilization of value in social life, through categorization and legitimization
30
What is an effective means of intergenerational transmission of social position?
cultural and human capital - produces wealth through labour
31
What is cultural capital?
an individual's social assets (education, intellect, style of speech, dress, etc.) that “promote social mobility within a stratified society”
32
What is human capital?
the knowledge, skills, and health that people invest in and accumulate throughout their lives, enabling them to realize their potential as productive members of society
33
Where do the highest incomes increasingly derive from?
well-paid “knowledge-intensive” occupations, rather than from wealth
34
Explain Bourdieu's approach on class and culture
- Multidimensional social structure made up of multiple forms of capital - Less based on clear cut boundaries than Marxist theory of classes - Upper classes tend to be less distinguished
35
What is geometrical data analysis?
- Method consists of analyzing similarities/dissimilarities between individuals characterized by a certain number of variables - Info on habits, clothes, cultural consumption, political opinions
36
What are the 3 states of cultural capital?
- Embodied: long-lasting dispositions - Objectified: cultural goods (monetized) - Institutionalized: primarily through education
37
What is the fielded concept of society?
Each form of capital related to a specific field where it is subject to emulation and competition between actors
38
What is the omnivore/univore hypothesis?
Cultural elites no longer resemble the traditional stereotype of an elitist snob - Instead they are more likely to be 'omnivores' with broad tastes encompassing both elite and popular cultural forms
39
What are the social factors of cultural change?
- School expansion - Social mobility (structural aspect) - Urbanization/gentrification - Changing relations to time and culture among elites
40
Explain the conservative critique of mass culture
Degrading version of scholarly culture - Anomic (disorganized) tendencies associated with a cultural production that is no longer addressed to the individual but to the mass
41
What is David Riesman's "other-directed person"?
whose relation to society is shaped by peer groups, adjusting one’s values to conform to such group
42
Explain the Marxian critique of mass culture (Frankfurt school)
Standardization of aspirations, lifestyles, and ethical and aesthetic attitudes as a consequence of the standardization of CULTURAL PRODUCTION
43
What is cultural alienation?
the process of devaluing or abandoning one's own culture or cultural background because of imposition of a dominant view
44
What is popular culture?
Place of conflict and negotiation between the interests of the dominant and the dominated - Cultural domination and well as cultural resistance
45
What was the starting point of popular culture?
- Crisis in the reproduction of the working-class world – restructuring of paternal roles - Effects of prolonged schooling of young people from working-class backgrounds - The transition to large-scale urbanism - Rise of mass media
46
What is the spiral of silence?
the idea that the threat of isolation exerts a censoring effect on individuals on opinions, preferences and tastes that do not conform to those massively conveyed by the media
47
Explain the two-step flow of communication
info goes from media to opinion leaders, then from them to the public
48
What is intersectionality?
Intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing
49
Women of generations from the 1960s onwards were more:
- More highly educated than male counterparts - More often literary or artistic training - More often employed in jobs with a quasi-professional relationship to cultural leisure - More often in the domestic space in charge of cultural transmission to children
50
Explain the difference in cultural assimilation between boys and girls
- Over-cultural assimilation of girls from low SES and immigrant background - Under-cultural assimilation of boys from low SES and immigrant background
51
Explain Lamont, Beljean and Clair model of cultural causal pathway to inequality
- Because of human spirit limitations, we rely on patterns of information, schemas that enable us to quickly interpret the world around us - Schemas used to categorize people automatically, routinely, and subconsciously
52
Explain cultural inequalities at the micro, meso, and macro level
- micro-level: people’s values, personality traits, tastes, ways of speaking, manners - meso-level: groups’ and/or institutions’ specific norms and repertoires - macro-level: collective beliefs or representations that contribute to maintain or mitigate of structural inequalities
53
Explain Gans' view on mass culture and class society
Functionalist assumption that all humans have the same cultural needs that they satisfy in accordance with the different means they can afford - Relativist conception of culture: various repertoires serve the same functions for various classes
54
What is cultural appropriation?
- A kind of cultural colonialism similar to class appropriation that degrades the authenticity of the culture
55
What is cultural democratization?
View that culture as a social good that should be available to everyone in a democratic society - universalist and elitist conception of culture
56
What is cultural democracy?
* The notion that everybody's heritage and cultural expression is worthwhile and deserving of an equitable share of whatever resources are available * Acknowledgement of cultural diversity and cultural relativism
57
What are the two competing mechanisms regarding culture and educational inequalities?
- Culture as a cognitive resource reservoir for schooling - Culture as a symbolic barrier to school achievement
58
What are the two distinct understandings of the notion of cultural capital?
- Cultural capital as a set of resources - Cultural capital as a social relationship of power
59
What is symbolic violence?
Imposing on 'dominated' classes the sense of legitimacy of the culture of the ‘dominant’ classes, of its desirability
60
The cultural privilege of the dominant classes is due to the exercise of what?
symbolic violence
61
What is the notion of art AND society?
* Artworks as the expression of the deep characteristics of a society, its culture, aspirations, values
62
What is the notion of art IN society?
* Sociogenesis (socially produced development) of the art worlds
63
What is the notion of art AS society?
Argues that art works are not the creation of isolated individuals but result from cooperation between different people
64
Explain Bourdieu's fields
Different points of view make up an artform - relational conception
65
What are the two dominant approaches of genre?
- Internal: focus on the 'text' itself - External focus on the context

Sociology of Culture (1 decks)

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