chpt 5 culture

culture

1. a shared system of beliefs and knowledge (also called a system of meaning) shared among a group and transmitted to individuals through social interactions 2. a set of tools for social interaction - a "tool kit" of assumptions and behaviors and daily life culture is a system and culture is a practice

counterculture

a group whose ideas, attitudes, and behaviors are in direct conflict with mainstream culture and who actively contest the dominant cultural practices in the societies of which they are a part.

print capitalism

the mass production of books and then newspapers written in local languages for simultaneous mass consumption by an increasingly literate public

digital divide

access to technology may be creating new divisions of haves and have-nots in the form of the social, economic, and cultural gap between those with effective access to information technology and those without such access is known as the digital divide. this is the divide between those who are connected and those in the slow lane; between those with the education and media literacy to navigate around the more innovative and independent sites and those ho mainly visit the big commercial sites; between "digital natives" born into the age of the Internet and older "digital immigrants" who have to try to keep up with the changes.

class reproduction

an important topic for sociologists concerned with power and inequality is the process that causes class boundaries and distinctions to be maintained over time, known as class reproduction. there are lots of reasons why some people are rich and others poor, but how do those boundaries get maintained in the short term and the long term?

cultural universal

at a basic level, language is a cultural universal, a cultural trait common to all humans: as far as we know, all human groups throughout history have used language to communicate with each other. some linguists have even argued that language is the fundamental building block of thought - that if you don't have a word for something, you literally can't think it.

communication

both culture as a system and culture as practice describe forms of communication, which is the sharing of meaningful information among people

mass communication

communication can occur between individuals, or it can occur at large within society - what is normally called mass communication. in recent history, mass communication has occurred primarily through the mass media: television, radio, and news papers. prior to the emergence of mass media, meaning was still communicated on a large scale, just not quite as large or as quickly.

subcultures

contemporary sociologists refer to mainstream culture groups as subcultures, or relatively small groups o people whose affiliation is based on shared beliefs, preferences, and practices that exist under the mainstream and distinguish them from the mainstream. most likely to emerge in cities where, - unlike in small towns and traditional villages - the large, concentrated population allows many such groups to flourish. ex) rock climbers, hunters, ballroom dancers

global culture

cultural practices that are common to large parts of the world

norms

different groups have different norms - shared assumptions about correct behavior - and because most people belong to many groups (ex) school, national identity, gender); we learn to adopt the right style for the right occasion.

cultural relativism

evaluating cultural meanings and practices in their own social contexts. opposite of ethnocentrism

symbols

every society is full of symbols that communicate an idea while being distinct from the idea itself. ex) red heart means love, green light means go, commercials send subliminal messages through symbols

public sphere

in practice, public participation is massively unequal - for example, former felons are stripped of their right to vote in many states, and it is very hard to attract an audience for your ideas or your art if you don't have a fair amount of money - but as an ideal, this vision of equal participation in public life is a powerful one. most influential sociological account of how ideas are produced and exchanged in modern society. highest form of public life in capitalist society is private citizens assembled in a public body to confer about matters of general interest. in this ideal public sphere, citizens set aside their own interests, as well as their wealth and status, and meet as equals to collectively debate and generate ideas about how to govern collectively.

journalism

is above all a form of communication: it is the production and dissemination of information of general public interest. help/create/change news

values

judgements about what is intrinsically important or meaningful ex) patriotism, competitiveness, consumerism

language

language refers to any comprehensive system of words or symbols representing concepts, and it does not necessarily need to be spoken, as the hundreds of different sign languages in use around the world suggest. barbarians = people with no language, uncultured - from the ancient greeks

networked public

one researcher describes the users of social networking sites such as Facebook as constituting a networked public, or online public sphere. networked publics attract participation from teenagers in particular because of things they offer that face-to-face public settings cannot.

group style

one way of thinking about identity in cultural terms is through the concept of group style, for the set of norms and practices that distinguishes one group from another.

culture industry

popular music, movies, and other types of mass culture

multiculturalism

refers to beliefs or polices promoting the equal accommodation of different ethnic or cultural groups within a society

tool kit

so how is it that you choose to act one way at one time and a different way at another? think of culture as a tool kit - a set of symbolic skills or devices that we learn through the cultural environment we live in and apply to practical situations in our own lives. ex) certain situations, like when a friend introduces you to someone new, or when you're on a date.

mainstream culture

some groups deliberately set themselves off from mainstream culture - the most widely shared systems of meaning and cultural tool kits in a society. ex) hippies in the 60s

flow

some ideas, people, and commodities circulate smoothly, and others do not

ethnography

something that could only perceived through careful observation of a place. lengthy and intimate observations of a group

counterpublics

subordinated social groups - or subcultures - have frequently constituted their own counterpublics, alternative public spheres through which they produce and circulate their own values, beliefs, and ideas.

cultural omnivores

the US has a more pervasive mass culture than many other countries, and recent research has suggested that American elites are becoming less snobbish and increasingly behaving as cultural omnivores, or cultural elites who demonstrate their high status through a broad range of cultural consumption, including low-status culture.

taste

the chances are that you know how someone is wealthy and powerful is because of their cultural signs: the way someone dresses, how they speak, the sports they play, the music they like, the kind of things they like to do - their cultural preferences

nationalism

the fact that people think of themselves as inherently members of a nation - was a large-scale cultural transformation, perhaps even a sign of a new global culture. nations are imagined cultural, their members share an assumption of commonality with each other, even though they come from diverse class and ethnic backgrounds, and most will never meet.

symbolic boundary

the kind of distinctions that people make between themselves and others on the basis of taste are just one kind of symbolic boundary. two other important symbolic boundaries are socioeconomic status- the amount of money you make and the kind of job you have- and morality- the moral considerations that guide the way you live (or appear to live) your life. sometimes these three types of symbolic boundaries overlap in peoples thinking about status and class, and sometimes they don't.

framing

the media tells (or trys to tell) the public what to believe, and the message they communicate is a biased one. today, sociologists of the media more commonly argue that the news is slanted because of media framing. reporters cover a diversity of topics, but they tend to do so through certain existing storylines and narratives.

ethnocentrism

the melting pot is an example ethnocentrism: an inability to understand or accept cultural practices different from one's own. perhaps reflecting these realities, the melting pot idea has declined somewhat in mainstream discourse since the twentieth century, although it still thrives in right-wing political discourse particularly with respect to immigration and English-language-use policy.

national culture

the set of shared cultural practices and beliefs within a given nation-state, is an important principle for sociology

culture wars

these days, such culture wars in the US usually refer to arguments over the proper role of family ad religious values in certain questions of state policy; abortion rights, immigration rights, and gay rights are three of the most important.

habitus

we all develop certain sets of assumptions about the world and our place in it: our tastes, preferences, and skills. in the course of growing up and socializing with others, and they become so routine that we don't even realize we are following them. it depends on our upbringing ex) difference between poor and rich

protestant ethic

when applied to an emerging money economy such as 18th century America, encouraged savings and investment instead of luxury and thus had the unexpected consequence of launching the capitalist cycle of investment, production, and reinvestment. when capitalism subsequently spread around the world, in other words, it was not just as economic system that spread but a cultural one as well.

hegemony

when elites gain legitimacy and power from widely shared yet taken-for-granted beliefs about what is right or wrong, proper or improper, valuable or not. for example, its common sense these days that people should work in order to earn money to survive and that people who choose not to work should only be entitled to the bare minimum of financial support, but such common sense ultimately serves the interests of wealthy business owners who need to find hard workers for their businesses.

cultural capital

your education, your attitudes, and your preferences, which collectively confer upon you a higher or lower status in the eyes of others. a serious business