Cultural Theory And Cultural Change

p.122-142 mentions Australian patrilineal bands.

Recent years have seen a significant reappraisal of the idea of culture within the social sciences, and a growing integration of theoretical concerns between the social sciences and the humanities. Debates over concepts such as postmodernism and cultural globalization have been symptomatic of a broader interdisciplinary interest in the social context of cultural practice. In this book an international cast of eminent theorists examines a series of key questions on the borders of the cultural and the social. Ranging across a broad canvas, the contributors focus on different elements of cultural theory and cultural process: discourse, lifestyle, the emotions, the intelligentsia, social movements, postmodernism. Linking the chapters is a concern with the central role of European social theory in the current reappraisal of culture, and an assessment of its relation to other international traditions. This book, for an interdisciplinary readership, will serve as an outline of key concerns in cultural theory and an insight into the central insights of Theory, Culture and Society. The book is also published as issue 9.1 of Theory, Culture and Society.

How important are the media? How is culture changing? How is ordinary life being transformed? How do we belong? This ground-breaking book offers a new approach to the understanding of everyday life, the media and cultural change. It explores the social pattern of ordinary life in the context of recent theories and accounts of social and cultural change. Brian Longhurst argues that our social and cultural lives are becoming increasingly audienced and performed and that activities in everyday life are changing due to the ever-growing importance and salience of the media. These changes involve people forging new ways of belonging, where among other things they seek to distinguish themselves from others. In Cultural Change and Ordinary Life, Longhurst evaluates changes in the media and ordinary life in the context of large-scale cultural change, especially with respect to globalization and hybridisation, fragmentation, spectacle and performance, and enthusing or fan-like activities. He makes the case that analysis of the media has to be brought into a more thorough dialogue with other forms of research that have looked at social processes. Cultural Change and Ordinary Life is key reading for students and researchers of sociology, media studies, cultural studies and mass communication.

This authoritative but concise guide describes the most significant cultural theories from the 19th to the 21st century and their originators, as well as the links between them and their mutual influences. This guide explores ideas around what culture is, when and why cultures change over time and whether there are any rules or principles behind culture-related phenomena and processes. For those seeking to answer questions on culture, familiarity with these topics is essential. From refugee movements caused by wars, to the ongoing demographical changes in regions of the world like sub-Saharan Africa or the Indian subcontinent, understanding the underlying mechanisms of culture-related processes has become an immediate and essential task. Covering everything from the processes of cultural change to counterculture and destabilisation, the book explains different ideas in a clear and objective fashion and includes approaches that have been unduly neglected but which have high explanatory value regarding culture and its phenomena. Providing readers with an up-to-date idea of what culture is, and how our understanding of it has been established over the past century, this text is the perfect companion for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers.

Making Culture, Changing Society proposes a challenging new account of the relations between culture and society focused on how particular forms of cultural knowledge and expertise work on, order and transform society. Examining these forms of culture’s action on the social as aspects of a historically distinctive ensemble of cultural institutions, it considers the diverse ways in which culture has been produced and mobilised as a resource for governing populations. These concerns are illustrated in detailed case studies of how anthropological conceptions of the relations between race and culture have shaped – and been shaped by – the relationships between museums, fieldwork and governmental programmes in early twentieth-century France and Australia. These are complemented by a closely argued account of the relations between aesthetics and governance that, in contrast to conventional approaches, interprets the historical emergence of the autonomy of the aesthetic as vastly expanding the range of art’s social uses. In pursuing these concerns, particular attention is given to the role that the cultural disciplines have played in making up and distributing the freedoms through which modern forms of liberal government operate. An examination of the place that has been accorded habit as a route into the regulation of conduct within liberal social, cultural and political thought brings these questions into sharp focus. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, cultural studies, media studies, anthropology, museum and heritage studies, history, art history and cultural policy studies.

Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend, should start with these questions, and the answers, given different historical conditions, should apply equally well to people of all times, places, and walks of life.Taking their cue from the pioneering work of anthropologist Mary Douglas, the authors of Cultural Theory have created a typology of five ways of life?egalitarianism, fatalism, individualism, hierarchy, and autonomy?to serve as an analytic tool in examining people, culture, and politics. They then show how cultural theorists can develop large numbers of falsifiable propositions.Drawing on parables, poetry, case studies, fiction, and the Great Books, the authors illustrate how cultural biases and social relationships interact in particular ways to yield life patterns that are viable, sustainable, and ultimately, changeable under certain conditions. Figures throughout the book show the dynamic quality of these ways of life and specifically illustrate the role of surprise in effecting small- and large-scale change.The authors compare Cultural Theory with the thought of master social theorists from Montesquieu to Stinchcombe and then reanalyze the classic works in the political culture tradition from Almond and Verba to Pye. Demonstrating that there is more to social life than hierarchy and individualism, the authors offer evidence from earlier studies showing that the addition of egalitarianism and fatalism facilitates cross-national comparisons.

Recent years have seen a significant reappraisal of the idea of culture within the social sciences, and a growing integration of theoretical concerns between the social sciences and the humanities. Debates over concepts such as postmodernism and cultural globalization have been symptomatic of a broader interdisciplinary interest in the social context of cultural practice. In this book an international cast of eminent theorists examines a series of key questions on the borders of the cultural and the social. Ranging across a broad canvas, the contributors focus on different elements of cultural theory and cultural process: discourse, lifestyle, the emotions, the intelligentsia, social movements, postmodernism. Linking the chapters is a concern with the central role of European social theory in the current reappraisal of culture, and an assessment of its relation to other international traditions. This book, for an interdisciplinary readership, will serve as an outline of key concerns in cultural theory and an insight into the central insights of Theory, Culture and Society. The book is also published as issue 9.1 of Theory, Culture and Society.