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This is an extended summary of all lectures of the course contemporary approaches in cultural sociology by Michael Bergman.
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LECTURE 1 - Contemporary approaches in cultural sociologyIntroduction to cultural sociology
Sociology of culture = specific domain of society (economy, politics, family, etc.) things that
go on in society. Looks at culture as a topic.
Cultural sociology = culture as an approach. Seen as a factor accounting for action. Culture
is an aspect of any field in society (in politics, in the economy etc.).
Sociology – refresh my memory
Sociology is the science of society. Therefore it is a science, it is systematic and
generalizing. Finding patterns that can be applied to a broader domain that you are studying.
Sociology tends to defamiliarize the familiar. We tend to forget that we are part of society, we
look more at ourselves as individuals. Sociology is much problem-oriented, phrase certain
problems in terms of problems that you have to understand that require an understanding of
how society works.
Culture in sociological history
1930 – 1960: culture was very important (most important thing you need to think about) as
part of structural functionalism.
1965 – 1980: culture discarded as part of structural functionalism (they didn’t bother about
culture anymore).
1980s – present: culture was rediscovered ‘cultural turn’cultural turn’
Culture in structural functionalism
Sociology doesn’t have a single truth, they don’t know what the truth is about society.
1930s – 1960s: one way of looking at society, this was the actual truth and therefore the only
useful way to look at society structural functionalism by Talcott Parsons.
Talcott Parsons picked bits and pieces of various aspects and blended them into his own
society. By combining all of this you could get the truth about society, a grand theory about
society.
Structural functionalism is about: context 1930s, mayor crisis (beurskrach), a lot of poverty,
inequality etc. The mayor/central question in those days was: ‘cultural turn’what holds society together?’:
People behaving as they are supposed to. If you’re being rational you are also being
nice to other people according to economics. Parsons noticed this because people
constantly do things that are not rational and serving your best interest is not on
people’s mind all the time.
So are people rational actors? No, not necessarily, no.
In most cases it’s easier to not play by the rules and to deceive people (?)
Not making a lot of laws makes that people are not breaking the rules and will not
take advantage of them. So Parsons idea was that people wanted to play by the rules
of themselves. They need to feel the desire to follow the rules, and they should feel
ashamed and guilt when they are not following the rules.
Laws are not put on paper, but put in people’s mind. So, no consensus over values
and norms. (values = main things people value, find important) (norms are more
practical ways of behaving that help you achieve these values).
this all is culture
,The iron triangle
This triangle connects the main systems in society (system theory).
Social system (society needs to run smoothly. Children have to be educated, people need
clothes etc. there is a need for specific functions structural functionalism. Society depends
on functions that have to be fulfilled.) and personality system (individuals, people have their
own desires, goals etc. ) at the base. These two systems need to be brought in line. The
cultural system is about shared values and norms. They are on the one hand the functions
and how they should be fulfilled, they give us roles (parents who take responsibility of the
children, the mother doing the child and the father doing the work), these roles are needed in
society to bring children up, you can have expectations of these roles, this makes society a
little bit predictable. Those roles can only be in place by institutionalizing them. People
should also want to fulfil these roles and play by the system. Personal level should be
adjusted to the social system.
People are socialized by these values and norms. People learn what the rules are and that
they are valuable and worth striving for (girls were told it was worthwhile to have children and
be a mother, boys had to make a living and care for their family). By internalizing these
values and norms people fell in line with the expectations of society.
However, it mainly works if you picture family’s in the 1950s. the ‘cultural turn’traditional’ picture. But in
the 1960’s people started to doubt these expectations, especially women, they wanted to
have a career for their own. Also black people were rallying for their rights. History showed
that Parsons wasn’t entirely right, his system started showing cracks in the 1960s his theory
was discarded and with his theory culture was also abandoned by sociologists.
Exit culture
3 main criticisms on Parsons sociology, together with critique of ‘cultural turn’culture as shared values’:
1. Culture was way too consensual. General agreement over values and norms, society
was looked as a unified block. But in reality there was conflict, but this wasn’t shown
in his theory.
2. The way he looked at culture was way too deterministic. It was a top-down relation.
He saw people as cultural dopes. There was no free choice anymore in their system.
But people are capable of conflict and as well socialized as parsons would want to be
3. He saw culture way too abstract, general and idealistic. How can you know what a
value is? You cannot touch or observe a value on the spot. Culture became
something of a free-floating realm of values. You couldn’t see it so you couldn’t prove
it.
Culture became something of a taboo notion because it was too vague.
,The cultural turn
In the 1980’s renewed interest in culture, but with caution.. taking into account the criticisms
that were pointed into account to Parsons.
3 contemporary approaches that are influenced by criticism on Parsons:
1. More about concrete culture: manifestations, texts, stories, language, symbols art.
Things you can observe, really studying stuff you can touch and you can see what’s
going on in there rather than abstract values.
2. Location/ context where culture takes place was taken into account. Culture was
being grounded (grounding culture) rather than generalizing determinism.
3. Culture was not one shared body of values and norms, it could feed conflict and be
contradictory rather than being consensual.
Contemporary cultural sociology
Culture was no longer seen as a body of values and norms, but it was seen as meaning-
making. How does meaning-making influence the way you behave? Contemporary
sociologists look at that. It’s not about the topic or a specific domain but it’s about the way
you look at it, about meaning-making.
3 new approaches in cultural sociology:
1. Culture as cognitive structure
culture structures the way we look at things. There are universal structures in our
way of thinking. This line of thinking comes from literary theory, (post-)structuralism
and cognitive science. This type of approach mainly uses analysis of text, tangible
objects. It’s still a structure that structures how people look at reality, but it is relatively
autonomous (and top-down). Structure vs. agency it falls over to structure, you
cannot decide that for yourself. Idealistic = being something that is in your mind, like
parson said, they are just ideas.
2. Culture in action
it is about culture as it is used in action, there is a mayor emphasis on agency.
How do people actively and reflexively use culture in specific situations? It’s about
using culture in practical context. It needs to take into account the context, has impact
on which cultures are used and there may be conflict between the various types of
conflicts people are using. Culture is used as a fragmentary tool-kit, it’s a bunch of
resources that you can use as it suits you.
3. Production of culture
sociology of organizations and knowledge. It’s not about how culture structures
meaning making but its more about how it is produced, it takes a specific form. The
production of culture perspective focuses on how the content of culture is influenced
by the milieu in which it is created, distributed, evaluated, thought and preserved.
Culture is considered to be a dependent valuable. How can we account for how
cultural products are given to us.
Debates - In real life they overlap. Schema is wat links zegt over de bovenstaande stroming.
, LECTURE 2 - Contemporary Approaches in Cultural Sociology, foundations of cultural
sociology
Approach 1 – culture as a cognition/structure
Culture as a cognitive structure looks at culture as a way that sort of determines the way we
look at reality and give meaning to it. Culture forms a mental structure, its inside your head.
Inspiration from sociologist Emile Durkheim.
Durkheim
To understand his sociology you have to see the time frame. Durkheim lived in a time with
social integration of modern society. Before this time people lived in rural communities (they
knew their neighbours very well). There was a lot of social control and people looked after
one another. This also had its downsides, you couldn’t step outside of your group. That
changed when industrialisation happened, they had to move to the city and couldn’t stay in
their villages. People they had known for generation were suddenly strangers.
How is society still possible in these circumstances? If they don’t feel for another how can
society integrate in these conditions? How is modern society still possible?
Learn from simple, traditional societies because modern societies are way too difficult. How
do feelings of group membership/solidarity arise? Why are there collective symbols/rituals?
Elementary forms
2 phases:
Sacred phase: phase of special festivities and rituals
Profane phase: people live very far apart and only with special festivities they gather
around. That is when strange rituals start to happen.
There was a lot of symbolism involved in these rituals. They would dress like an animal for
example. Big important of symbolism totem, had a central place in these rituals. These
people looked like they were going crazy, but they just did it and couldn’t say why they did
that. They say that some kind of spirit makes them do that, the totem (special animal) makes
them do it and brings them to a different part of reality, a truer version of reality.
According to Durkheim the totem has a double function: it is treated as something that is a
sacred you have to treat it with respect or you will get punished. Animals represent the tribes.
You can identify yourself with this animal. This totem is a badge of the group, and maybe this
means that it is worship of society itself.
Sacred rituals = external force (mana) setting moral boundaries about what they could do
and what not. Its peer pressure (collective effervescence = people build up in craziness,
because they do this together, rituals are about celebrating collectivity).
But why do they need a totem to celebrate collectivity? Because the totem is highly visible
during rituals, people were dressing up like the animal. Anything that was happening was
about the totem. It’s the totem that makes you do these things, therefore it has the focus of
attention.
Totem as focus of attention on the group itself collective representation – symbol
of abstract group.
Reminder of the group during profane phase prolong feelings of belonging. (tattoos
that remind them of the group they belonged to).
Religion is a real thing, its power comes from collectivity.
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