key concepts cultural studies

Question 1

cultural materialism (Raymond Williams)

Answer 1

understand how and why cultural meanings and practices are enacted on a terain that is not of our making, even as we struggle to creatively shape our lives. it is concerned with the connections between cultural practise and political economy

Question 2

culture (Raymond Williams)

Answer 2

one of the three most complicated words in the English language

Question 3

anthropological approach to culture (CS)

Answer 3

centres on everyday meanings: values, norms and material/symbolic goods

Ordinariness of culture
The everyday, lived character of culture
The active, creative capacity of common people to construct shared meaningful practices

Question 4

culturalism

Answer 4

culturalism stresses the `ordinariness´ of culture and the active, creative capacity of people to construct shared meanings and practices

Question 5

marxism

Answer 5

philosophy/theory attempts to relate production & reproduction culture to organisation of material conditions of life→ ‘Culture is a corporeal force tied into the socially organised production of material conditions of existence’

Question 6

ideology (CS and Marx)

Answer 6

the binding and justyfing ideas of any social group. it is commonly used to designate the attempt to fix meanings and worldview in support to be powerfull

The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consiousness, is directly interwoven with the material avtivity of men. If in all ideology men and their circumstances appear upside down as in a camera obscura, this phenomenon arises just as much from their historical life-process as the inversion of objects on the retina does from their physical life-process

Question 7

base-superstructure

Answer 7

In Marxist theory, society consists of two parts: the base (or substructure) and superstructure. The base refers to the mode of production which includes the forces and relations of production (e.g. employer–employee work conditions, the technical division of labour, and property relations) into which people enter to produce the necessities and amenities of life. The superstructure refers to society’s other relationships and ideas not directly relating to production including its culture, institutions, roles, rituals, religion, media, and state. The relation of the two parts is not strictly unidirectional. The superstructure can affect the base. However, the influence of the base is predominan

Question 8

social formation (louis Althusser –> Stuart Hall

Answer 8

• not a totalitry of which culture is just an expression
• complex structure of different instances (levels of practices) that are structured in dominance
• different instances of politics and ideology are articulated together to form a unity
• not the result of single, one way, base-superstructure determination
• the economic level is determant only in the last instance (relative autonomy)
  Louis: you work bc you need money
  Stuart Hall: you work because you like your job

Question 9

hegemony (Gramsci and CS)

Answer 9

implies in a situation in which an `historical bloc´ of rulling-class factions, exercises social authority and leadership over the subordinate classes through a combination of force and concent, It is the process of making, maintaining and reproducing the govering set of meanings of a given culture

Culture comprises a multiplicity of streams of meaning and encompasses a range of ideologies and cultural forms. However there is one strand of meaning that can be called ASCEDANT (OR DOMINANT). the process of makin, maintaining and reproducing these authorative sets of meanings and practices is what we call hegemony

Question 10

globalization

Answer 10

increasing multi-directional economic, social, ciltural and political global connections across the world and our awareness of them

Question 11

structuralism

Answer 11

theory that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader system.

Question 12

semiotics

Answer 12

study of signs

Question 13

signifier-signified

Answer 13

Signifier= the physical form, so the letters on paper, the sound of the word etc
Signified= the concept/meaning of a word etc

Question 14

dennotation-connotation

Answer 14

denotation= descriptive+literal level of meaning shared all members of a culture→ example: pig is a pink animal
connotation= meanings that are generated by connecting signifiers to wider cultural concerns→ meaning involves association of signs with other cultural codes of meaning→ single sign becomes loaded with many meanings → usually arises by comparison with absent alternatives (paradigmatically) → example: pig is nasty police officer etc

Question 15

myth

Answer 15

form maps of meaning to make sense of world→ myths are cultural constructions→ appear to be pre-given universal truths embedded in common sense→ thus related to ideology→ which arguably works at level connotation→ Volosinov: domain ideology corresponds with ideology→ where there are signs, there’s ideology

Question 16

polysemic signs

Answer 16

Later Barths: signs not one stable denotative meaning but are polysemic= carry many potential meanings → reader of texts temporarily ‘fixes’ on meaning for particular purposes→ interpretation depending on reader’s cultural repertoire+knowledge social codes→ which are differently distributed along class, gender, nationality etc.

Question 17

discourse

Answer 17

refers to the production of knowledge through language which gives bounded meanings to material objects and social practices. Discourse constructs, defines and produces the objects of knowledge in a regulated+comprehensible way while excluding other forms of reasoning as incomprehensible-

→ concept of discourse involves the production of knowledge through language→ discursive gives meaning to material objects+social practices→ because through language they are given a meaning/brought into view, thus discursively formed

Question 18

active audience paradigm

Answer 18

Active audience paradigm= suggests audiences not passive but active producers of meaning from within their own cultural context
→ meanings of tv not only generated by texts but also by audience → watching tv is socially+culturally informed activity centrally concerned with meaning

Question 19

manipulative model

Answer 19

Manipulative model
→ media seen as reflection of class-dominated society→ ideology consciously introduced by media controllers→ direct result of concentration of ownership in hands of people who are part of ‘establishment’ or through direct government manipulation and/or informal pressure
exL:nazi propaganda

Question 20

pluralist model

Answer 20

Pluralist Model
→ media selection is determined by audience→ market forces lead to plurality of outlets+multiplicity of voices addressing different audiences→ audiences aware of range of political views+presentation styles within media, choose to buy/watch what already agree with

Question 21

hegemonic model

Answer 21

Hegemonic Model
→ been popular within CS→ any given culture multiplicity if streams of meaning→ but cultural hegemony: one strand of meaning the dominant one
→ within hegemonic model: ideological processes in news production result of routine attitudes+working practices of staff→ reproduction of ideology (or justifying world views) as common sense→ in translating the primary definitions of news, the media as secondary definers reproduce the hegemonic ideologies associated with the powerful

Question 22

circuit of television

Answer 22

“Each of these moments in circuitive meaning has specific practices which are necessary for the circuit but which do not guarantee the next moment” → by going along circuit make sense→ impact eachother again and again→ so although meaning in every level, not necessarily taken with to next level→ “Circuit of Television”
Production, distribution, circulation and reproducion

Question 23

subculture

Answer 23

A subculture refers to a group or person who share distinct values and norms which are held to be at variance with dominant or mainstream society. Subcultures offer maps of meaning which make the world intelligible to its members.

Question 24

resistance through ritual

Answer 24

→ book by Hall+Jefferson→ homology+bricolage played significant role in this book about youth cultures

Question 25

homologies

Answer 25

homology= the concept that connects a located lived culture as a set of constitutive relationships with the objects, artefacts, institutions and systematic practices of other which surround it

Question 26

bricolage

Answer 26

bricolage= the reordering and recontextualisation of objects to communicate fresh meanings→ objects that already carry sedimented symbolic meaning are re-signified in relation to other artefacts in a new context

Question 27

double articulation of youth

Answer 27

The double articulation of youth
Parent-working class culture= develops its own distinctive ways of being+modes of meaning in relation and opposition to hegemonic culture
→ never entirely disappears, placed in position of structural resistance to hegemonic culture

→ Youth cultures share same basic problematic in relation to dominant culture as parent-working clss culture→ BUT simultaneously seek to distantiate themselves from that
→ subcultures involve the expression of difference from and identification with, the parent culture

Question 28

identity

Answer 28

Can distinguish between
self identity= how you think about yourself, who are you? Can also change→ what do you identify with, what are your affinities? Etc
Social identity= way others see us/way others form us→ probably people close in your life like parents put some expectations on you→ those have shaped how you think about yourself
So are both intertwined as well

Question 29

subject and subjectivity

Answer 29

subjectivity= the condition of being a person and the process of which we become a person→ how we are constituted as cultural subjects and how we experience ourselves
subjectivity and identity close

Question 30

essentialism

Answer 30

Essentialism: western notion that we have an essence of self→ that’s what call identity→ by this logic is underlying essence in all social categories, like femininity, masculinity etc

Question 31

anti-essentialism

Answer 31

Anti-essentialism: identity cultural ‘all the way down’ → specific to particular times+places→ idea identity is not a thing but description in language→ words not taken as having referents with essential/universal qualities so that language rather makes than finds

Question 32

sex gender

Answer 32

Sex is binary→ either man or female, no other possibilities
Sex determines gender→ if born with vagina you’re woman, if born with penis you’re a man
Sex determines behaviour→ if man strong and interdependent, female are empathic and good communicationist
Sex determines sexual preference→ women attracted to men and vice versa

Question 33

enlightenment subject

Answer 33

Enlightenment subject→ conception of human being as fully centred, unified individual, endowed with capacities for reason, consciousness and action whose centre consists of inner core: the essential centre of the self was the person’s identity
→ allied with enlightenment philosophical movement associated with idea that reason+rationality form basis for human progress

Question 34

sociological subject

Answer 34

Sociological subject= the socialised self constituted through process of acculturation→ innercore of subject not autonomous and self-sufficient but formed in relationship through others who mediated to the subject the values, meanings and symbols aka the culture they inhabited

Question 35

postmodern subject

Answer 35

Postmodern subject= innerself is fragmented, and shifting and consists of multiple identities, sometimes contradictory ones→ different identities at different times, which are NOT unified around ‘coherent’ self

Question 36

feminism (first, second and third wave)
ethnicity

Answer 36

feminism= centrally concerned with sex as organising principle of social life and one that is thoroughly saturated with power relations: subordinating women to men
→ the subjection of women is understood to be a structural condition
eminist Waves:
First wave: late 19th/early 20th century
associated with suffragette movements→ strictly about political inequalities: seeking equality with men in terms of right to vote
but also sense that women were morally superior to men (making it a verison of difference feminism) → so still grounded in binary division between men and women
Second wave: 1960s-1990s → associated with radical activism
like theatrical protests at Miss America pageants throwing bras, makeup etc in bin in front of reporters
Baas in eigen buik etc
Cultural+political gender roles are linked
Personal life became seen as politicised: “the personal is political”
Awareness of cultural construction of gender
More about cultural inequalities (instead of political) → like discrimination
Third Wave: anti-essentialism→ 1990s
Anti essentialist reaction to 2nd wave feminists→ Rebellion younger women against what was perceived as prescriptive, pushy and sex negative approach older feminists
No global, universal claims about women→ Emphasis on differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality and religion
Individual and DIY tactics as opposed to collectivists politics
Fluid+multiple subject positions and identities
Cyberactivism
Reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’and ‘bitch’for liberatory purposes
Sex positivity

Question 37

racialisation

Answer 37

racialisation= founded on argument that race is social construct→ not universal/essential category of biology
→ Hall: races do NOT exist outside of representation→ formed in+by symbolisation in process of social+political power struggle→ observable characteristics transformed into signifiers of race
→ concept of racialisation refers to: those instances where social relations between people have been structured by signification of human biological characteristics in such way as to define+construct differentiated social collectivities

Question 38

imagined community

Answer 38

Benedict Anderson: “Imagined Communities”→ nation is an imagined community and national identity is a construction assembled through symbols and rituals in relation to territorial and administrative categories

concept of imagined communities→ one feels horizontal comradeship with citizens of that nation→ idea of nation is very real concept of community that lives in people minds→ use to give meaning and purpose to their lives and the activities they undertake→ so what kind of society do we have with the internet allowing us to do all sort of things:

Question 39

subjectivation

Question 40

docile bodies

Answer 40

docile bodies= people are so used to being watched continuously that their discipline becomes internalised and they no longer have the capacity to resist.

Question 41

disciplinary power

Answer 41

Disciplinary power: “Discipline tries to rule a multiplicity of men [sic] to the extent that their multiplicity can and must be dissolved into individual bodies that can be kept under surveillance, trained, used, and, if need be, punished.”

Question 42

disciplinary technologies

Answer 42

Disciplinary technologies produce ‘docile bodies’ which can be subjected, transformed and improved

Question 43

digital divide

Answer 43

Digital Divide:
Digital media are ubiquitous in societies with an advanced digital infrastructure (large part of Western world, major urban areas throughout the world)
Nevertheless broadcast television remains at the core of our leisure time (even in societies with an advanced digital infrastructure) → is now restructured+compassed→ think of HBO prime, HULU etc→ have all these platforms that allow you to watch tv series in very different way that we used to watch→ but watching television
The (ability to) use of digital media is unevenly distributed throughout all societies (including Western societies!) → example: facebook has received tremendous impact by allowing/facilitating free internet→ through facebook platform→ means that at moment that facebook as country blacks out, have no access to internet at all→ shows how unevenly distributed
We can see internet penetration increasing rapidly outside of the major urban centres of the world (specifically in Western, Eastern and Middle Africa)
Sum up→ when thinking about digital divide→ should be thinking about multiple factors that account to the uneven distribution of the internet→

Question 44

information society

Answer 44

“Information society is a concept used to designate a society in which information is the key commodity of a post-industrial economy where economic, social, military and cultural capabilities are information-based. The management of information replaces the manufacturing sector as the key economic driver. This is a global economy driven by digital technological revolution”
→ what information society concept is saying: economic, social, military and cultural capabilities are information-based→ but is NOT saying that we are no longer manufacturing stuff→ what it IS saying: way that these industries are structured, and our culture is structured etc→ is largely driven through processes that gather+process information and drive all these different economic, social, cultural and military processes→ and therefore data is large part of our society

Question 45

convergence culture

Answer 45

Convergence culture= “By convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multimedia industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search for the kinds of entertainment experiences they want.” (Jenkins)
→ means if want to be able to be successful→ need to court your users on multiple platforms→ need to branch out→ as company need twitter, instagram, tiktok etc

Question 46

information overload

Answer 46

Information overload an the almighty algorithm
→ shift away slightly from personal perspective→ look at what kind of information is produced and what we can dowith that and what it means

Question 47

filter bubble

Answer 47

Filter bubbles= “The basic code at the heart of the new Internet is pretty simple. The new generation of Internet filters looks at the things you seem to like—the actual things you’ve done, or the things people like you like—and tries to extrapolate. They are prediction engines, constantly creating and refining a theory of who you are and what you’ll do and want next. Together, these engines create a unique universe of information for each of us—what I’ve come to call a filter bubble—which fundamentally alters the way we encounter ideas and information.” - Eli Pariser
→ attempt to try to explain how information reaches us today in comparison with let’s say 100 years ago→ filter bubbles change way we encounter ideas and information→ unique universe of information for each of us→ like how we don’t watch the same news or tv show at the same time

Question 48

cyberactivism

Answer 48

twitter revolutions

Question 49

cyberdemocracy

Answer 49

cyberdemocracy= digital media would substantially contribute to democratising process and that digital media would enforce democracy→ through eg electronic voting→ to be possibilities that internet and other digital media could be spheres of democratic participation in their own right

Question 50

space versus place

Answer 50

Do distinguish between cultural codification and more geometrical pace→ could make the following distinction:
Space refers to an abstract idea (empty or dead space)
Place refers to human experience, memory, desire, identity (shaped in space)
However: socio spatiality implies that space is an essential component of social organisation rather than simply an empty area
→ childhood home→ connected to childhood memories→ has become a place for the people that lived there→ but also when go back, geometrical space is different→ like imagined it was bigger because you were a kid→ creates different sense of space→ shows how you experience space is very much embodied

Question 51

global cities

Answer 51

→ global city theory allows one to analyse the restructuring of urban space in current moment or in the past:
The urban world and global economy are dominated by relatively small number of urban centres→ these urban centres form core network of global economy→ whereas global economy can be very dispersed→ can be couple of centres that can act like that
These act as control+command points for a dispersed set of economic activities
They are sites for accumulation, distribution, and circulation of capital and nodal (?) points for information exchange and decision making
→ when comes to that global economy→ couple of cities that act indeed as crucial cities in that information processing and decision making
→ Examples of global cities: New York, Tokyo, Seoul, LA, Frankfurt, Paris, Singapore
→ Frankfurt is important because financial centre→ where european central bank is-> command and decision centre that takes place in global community
→ NOTE: it’s NOT about size

Question 52

privatizing public space

Answer 52

Privatising of public space→ like shopping mall→ example: hoog catherijne can be entered via CS which is public space, while Hoog Catherijne is privately owned space→ large discussion about having to go through private space→ example how public spaces tend to be privatised

Question 53

creative industry

Answer 53

Creative Industries?
When talking about creative industries→ creativity that can generate revenue and thus economic growth→ cities have latched onto this→ people come together where different capacities when combined can create economically successful products→ all of these things are relatively new→ things like monetizing cultural heritage were exception
Promoting the use of culture as a way to generate economic growth
Part of the turn away from the production of material goods (post-industrial city)
City as creative hub