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Cultures are never monolithic – there are always tensions, culture is dynamic and full
of contestation:
Between elite and mass culture,
Between different global trends and local culture,
Between what is available in the mainstream and what is produced by
subculture.
Studying culture allows you to understand globalization, nationalism, customs and
rituals op people, communities and groups.
How does CS approach culture?
Dominant approach: that you cannot define it in one way because its always changing and
contradicting, so there are several possible definitions and concepts. It’s not important to ask
what it is but what it does, how it does it, how to use it and for what purpose. We use it to give
meaning to our life. It doesn’t exclude recorded culture.
What is the anthropological approach to culture?
- Williams’s concept of culture is ‘anthropological’ since it centres on everyday
meanings: values (abstract ideals), norms (definite principles or rules) and
material/symbolic goods.
- Meanings are generated not by individuals alone but by collectives. Thus, the idea of
culture refers to shared meanings
Culturalism
The focus on ordinary culture (is what) we call Culturalism and/or anthropological approach to
culture (ppt1)
is a form of historical cultural materialism that traces the unfolding of meaning over time. Here
culture is to be explored within the context of its material conditions of production and
reception. There is an explicit partisanship in exploring the class basis of culture that aims to
give ‘voice’ to the subordinated and to examine the place of culture in class power.
Culture is ordinary (what does cultural studies mean by that?)
- There is a focus on lived experience (ordinary life)
- The anthropological definition of culture describes it as an everyday lived process not
confined to ‘high’ art - but as a whole way if life, including norms/values/behavior/institutions
This matters because humanities traditionally study “high culture” as a canon of the “best”
literary and artistic texts available, paying little attention to ordinary culture, and CS studies
both elite and mass culture. We study the tensions between those two, and look at how
ordinary people give meaning to their lives through culture, this gives it a democratic edge
Cultural Materialism (Raymond Williams)
explores how and why culture meaning is produced and organizes. Connection
between cultural practice and political economy and physics, look at the process
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,instead which looking the meaning and theory of it. It is concerned with the connections
between cultural practice and political economy. It involves, never in an isolated context
but always in connection with another aspect. Where does cultural materialism stand
for: culture is a part of an expressive totality of social relations(culture is not possible
to be isolated from material conditions/economic posibilities/social positions of who
creates the culture, we can use culture to understand social relations), culture must be
understood trough the representations and practices of everyday life in the context of
the material conditions of their production.
Cultural materials urges you to focus on some steps: institutions(involved in creating
a culture throughout; television/museum/schools), formations(how do they
teach/approach culture to by how and what do they highlight ideas), modes of
production(what can we identify in the production of culture), identifications(how do
people identify with a cultural practice, do people actually relate to these cultures?),
reproduction(how is this culture, produced, remembered, achieved?),
organization(how is that archive and remembrance organized?)
Three levels of culture according to Raymond Williams (which three?)
defines culture by dividing it into three categories. The “ideal” definition, the “documentary”,
and the “social”. The relations between these categories makes up one final definition, since
to analyse culture you cannot just use one
lived culture(practical everyday what you do, present but no guarantee that it will still
exist in future), recorded culture(broad sense, all everyday facts to not be forgotten
so keep the tradition alive, culture from the past that is still available to us), culture of
the selective tradition(culture from the past and present culture connection, thus a
connection between recorded culture and lived culture/provide meaning to a selective
tradition, for instance; dutch history and teaching it on school)
· Culture as lived experience (how do we define that?)
Culture for Williams is constituted by:
- The meanings generated by ordinary people;
- The lived experiences of its participants;
- The texts and practices engaged in by all people as they conduct their lives
The meanings of lived culture are to be explored within the context of their conditions of
production. In this sense culture is understood as ‘a whole way of life’
The foundations of culture according to Marx
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, - According to Marx, historical and material conditions are what determine culture. The
foundations of culture according to Marx was therefore the economy which produced
these material conditions. (see: base-superstructure).
- Relations of production= the economic structure of society Which is: the real
foundation, on which legal and political superstructures arise - and to which definite
forms of consciousness correspond(who has the power to decide, who controls the
factory and the people in charge in capitalist society).
- Base(economy) and superstructure(culture politics, art) according to Marxism:
1.superstructure(politics, culture) 2. Relations of production(wages, transportation,
companies and these relations) 3. Forces of production(people who work), this group
will get bigger in the time.
Ideology (as understood by Marx)
For Marx ideology refers to the production of images of social reality. He believes that
ideology is controlled by the ruling elite and is rooted in material conditions. focused about
class. Those who own The production of materials(material conditions) decide what a
society(you dominate) as in determines you what to know. Materiality structures your idea
Related to ‘false consciousness’ which suggests that the proletariat (working class people)
within capitalist economies are being led to believe certain things about society (e.g. this is
how it is) in order to cover up the deep exploitation at the level of production.
the Marxist concern with ideology began as an exploration into why capitalism, which was held
to be an exploitative system of economic and social relations, was not being overthrown by a
working-class revolution
Ideology (as understood within cultural studies in general)
binding and justifying ideas of any social group; appearance of being connected in a rational
and emotional way and tells them these are the right beliefs. It creates a maps of meaning(a
sense of meaning and ideas about certain stuff to navigate the world), in order them to work
you need a universal truth while most are historical specific understandings(this is the norm)
which maintain the power of social groups(class, gender, race, privillage group)
Ideology as understood within Althusser:
Ideological State Apparatuses (institutions that will make sure that the dominant ideology is
reproduces; school, police, church,) ● Ideology constitutes the subject (constantly aware of
the fact youre being watched so you will be checked; this is what the state wants,
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, police=state)● Ideology as lived experience is not false(you should understand the system but
you should look beyond and into the conditions and judgje why) ● Ideology as misrecognition
of the real conditions of existence is false(experience you’re noticing being watched is, brings
you’re conscious why they want you to behave in that way and you realize it but you should
beyond the system and realize where it is like this, while marx is about strictly following) ●
Ideology is involved in the reproduction of social formations.
The metaphors of base and superstructure (do you understand this? Can you
distinguish the correct definition from the wrong one?)
- The idea that culture is determined by the production and the organization of material
existence has been articulated in Marxism through the metaphor of the base and the
superstructure
- “In the social production which men carry on they enter into definite relations that are
indispensable and independent of their will; these relations of production correspond to a
definite stage of development of their material powers of production. The totality of these
relations of production constitute the economic structure of society – the real foundation, on
which legal and political superstructures arise and to which definite forms of social
consciousness correspond. The mode of production of material life determines the general
character of the social, political and spiritual processes of life. It is not the consciousness of
men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being determines their
consciousness.
The mode of production: what is it constituted by according to Marx?
A mode of production is constituted by the organization of the means of production (factories,
machinery, etc.) together with the specific social relations of reproduction (e.g. class) which
arise from the organization of those productive forces.
This mode of production is held to be ‘the real foundation’ of legal and political superstructures
and ‘determines’ the social, political and spiritual. Thus, the economic mode of production
shapes the cultural superstructure
Historical and cultura materialism difference:
Differences between cultural and historical: cultural materialism(every influence matters on its
own and it all influences society and there are always correlation and how people structure the
ordinary live and create the culture), historical(economics influences everything and is about
domination of one the power, determined how society/culture is structured and this influence
society, making differences, culture is determined by the power class/the means of
production). Marx differs from Williams which says there are many influenceable stuff), for
Marxism culture is about socially organized(few things matter)
Historical materialism
Marxism, or historical materialism, is a philosophy that attempts to relate the production and
reproduction of culture to the organization of the material conditions of life. Brings culture to
the organization of life, because the biggest common group could’t afford cultural stuff. culture
is a specific form of life turns out to be an expression of the social condition of your existence,
‘’elitair is only expressions. Culture is determined by social/economic situations.
Marxism and false consciousness (what are the two ideas behind 'false
consciousness'?
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