Culture, Identity, Representation12 [Compatibility Mode]

8/13/2019 Culture, Identity, Representation12 [Compatibility Mode]

1/35

CULTURE

REPRESENTATIONIDENTITY

Teorias e Metodologias em Estudos Culturaissetembro 2012 * Gillian Moreira


2/35

CULTURE &

CULTURAL STUDIES


3/35

a whole process [Williams] shifted the whole ground of debate

from a literary-moral to an anthropologicaldefinition of culture. But it defined the latternow as the whole process by means of which

meanings and definitions are sociallyconstructed and historically transformed, withliterature and art as only one, specially

privileged, kind of social communication.Stuart Hall in Culture, Media, Language. p. 19


4/35

Williams theory of culture It is in this context that the theory of culture is

defined as the study of relationships betweenelements in a whole way of life. Culture is notapractice; nor is it simply the descriptive sumof the mores and folkways of societies as it

tended to become in certain kinds ofanthropology. It is threaded through all socialpractices and is the sum of their inter-relationship.

Hall, in Storey, John. What is Cultural Studies?1997, p 34


5/35

cultural studies cultural studies can be defined as

the distinctive approach to culture that resultswhen we stop thinking about culture as particularvalued texts and think about it as a broader

process in which each person has an equal rightto be heard, and each persons voice andreflections about culture are valuable;

that space of equality.Nick Couldry, 2000, p. 2


6/35

production-in-use Culture in cultural studies is defined politically

rather than aesthetically Culture is understood as the texts and

practices of everyday life

Popular culture is central to the project ofcultural studies

Culture is the terrain of conflict and

constestation Culture is production in use

John Storey, 1996


7/35

popular culture is not consumption, it is culture theactive process of generating and circulating meaningsand pleasures within a social system

culture is a living, active process: it can be developed

only from within, it cannot be imposed from without orabove. Popular culture is made by the people, notproduced by the culture industry. All the cultureindustries can do is produce a repertoire of texts or

cultural resources for the various formations of thepeople to use or reject in the ongoing process ofproducing their popular culture.

Fiske, 1989


8/35

Ultimately, the study of popular culture is

concerned with how relations of power arestructured through the practices and textswhich make up the bulk of peoples daily

activity.


9/35

REPRESENTATION AND SHARED

MEANINGS


10/35

Representation is the production of themeaning of the concepts in our minds throughlanguage. It is the link between concepts and

language which enables us to refer to eitherthe real world of objects, people or events, orindeed to imaginary worlds of fictional objects,people and events.

Hall, 1997: 17


11/35

Language is understood to refer, not only to

written and spoken language, but to visualimages, body language, music, fashion codes,

cultural representations are embedded insounds, objects, images in books, popularmagazines, television programmes for

example.


12/35

Half truth: behind every status symbol and luxury badge is a goodproductFull truth: Good is the enemy of great

Truth in Engineering


13/35


14/35

"Este Natal, oferea o que Nacional" aassinatura do Licor Beiro para o Natal,marca que continua a honrar a herana deirreverncia e humor.


15/35

identity as cultural representation

Cultural identity socially and discursively

constructed

Identity does not exist outside of culturalrepresentations and acculturalization theprocess by which we become self-aware,knowledgeable individuals, skilled in the waysof culture.

Barker, 1999


16/35

Process of acculturalization

centred on the family, peer groups, education,media, work organizations, ...


17/35

Identity

not something to be discovered inside ourselves

rather, it is a process of becoming

It is not unique but multiple, reflecting (the

diversification of) social relations and contextsand sites of interaction


18/35

Hybrid Identities

arise out of diversified social relationships andcomplex contexts and sites of interaction, of

increasing social mobility, of global resources


19/35

IMAGINED COMMUNITIES TO

IMAGINED WORLDS


20/35

imagined communities

"In an anthropological spirit, then, I proposethe following definition of the nation: it is animagined political community - - and

imagined as both inherently limited andsovereign.

Anderson, 1991: 5


21/35

New forms of governance? Europeanisation should be regarded as a

process of multi-level governanceincorporating existing cultural systems andcollective identities of both national and sub-

national levels.Moreno, 2002


22/35

A borderless world Some theorists on globalization claim that we

live now in a borderless world, in which thenation-state has become a fiction and wherepoliticians have lost all effective power

Keniche Ohmae, 1995, in Giddens, 1998: 29


23/35

ethnoscapes, technoscapes, financescapes,

mediascapes, ideoscapes

These landscapes are the building blocks ofwhat (extending Benedict Anderson) I wouldlike to call imagined worlds, that is, the

multiple worlds which are constituted by thehistorically situated imaginations of personsand groups spread around the globe.

Appadurai, 1996


24/35

We are functioning in a world fundamentally

characterized by objects in motion. Theseobjects include ideas and ideologies, peopleand goods, images and messages,

technologies and techniques. This is a world offlows.

Appadurai, 2001, in Pennycook, 2007


25/35

Globalization- "the compression ofthe world and the intensification of

consciousness of the world as awhole"

Robertson, 1992: 8


26/35

In thought and action, it [globalization] makesthe world a single place. What it means to live inthis place, and how it must be ordered, becomeuniversal questions. These questions receivedifferent answers from individuals and societiesthat define their position in relation to both asystem of societies and the shared properties ofhumankind from very different perspectives. Theconfrontation of their world views means that

globalization involves comparative interactionof different forms of life.Robertson, 1992: 27


27/35

A planetary consciousness

If we are to cope with the problems that

face us today and in coming years, theconsciousness of todays women andmen must rise from the ego- and nation-centered dimension to a global and

planet-centered one.Laszlo, 2005


28/35

A planetary consciousness (cont)

Having a consciousness that is in tune with

our times means evolving it to the dimensionwhere we can understand as well as feel ournew, more embracing relations with each other

and with nature. It calls for a planetaryconsciousness.

Laszlo, 2005


29/35

Merkel says German

multicultural society has failed

Attempts to build a multicultural society inGermany have "utterly failed", ChancellorAngela Merkel says.

She said the so-called "multikulti" concept -where people would "live side-by-side" happily- did not work, and immigrants needed to domore to integrate - including learning German.

17th October 2010


30/35

MUNICH, Germany Prime Minister David

Cameron, in a speech attended by worldleaders, on Saturday criticized his countryslongstanding policy of multiculturalism, saying

it was an outright failure and partly to blame forfostering Islamist extremism.

He said the U.K. needs a stronger national

identity to prevent people turning to extremism.February 2011


31/35

Italian Prime Minister and French President

Nicolas Sarkozy ... said the Schengen treaty,which removes many European Union bordercontrols, should be modified temporarily to

allow countries to deal with exceptionalcircumstances. The flow of migrants tosouthern Italy had raised tensions between thetwo countries in the lead up to this summit.

We want Schengen to live, but for Schengen

to live it must be reformed, President Sarkozytold reporters.

April 2011


32/35


33/35

the imagined community of millions seems

more real as a team of eleven named people Hobsbawn (1990)

Football - role model for a new world order Der Spiegel (2006)

Would youpass the cricket test?


34/35

References and further reading

Benedict Anderson (1983/91) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Originand Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

Chris Barker (1999) Television, Globalization and Cultural Identities. Buckingham:Open University Press.

Ulrich Beck (2008) Nation-state politics can only fail the problems of the modernworld in The Guardian, 15th January 2008

Nick Couldry (2000). Inside Culture Re-imagining the Method of Cultural Studies.

London: Sage Publications John Fiske (1989) Understanding Popular Culture. Unwin Hyman: Boston.

Anthony Giddens (1998). The Third Way. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Stuart Hall (ed) (1997) Representation Cultural Representations and SignifyingPractices. London: Sage Publications.

S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P Willis, (eds) (1980). Culture, Media, Language.London: Unwin Hyman. (Part I)

E.J.Hobsbawm (1990). Nations and Nationalism since 1780. Cambridge: CUP.


35/35

Ervin Laszlo (2005). Planetary Consciousness: our next evolutionary step.

Journal of Conscious Evolution, 2005 cejournal.org.http://www.cejournal.org/GRD/Laszlo.pdf.

Hugh Mackay (1997). Consumption and Everyday Life. London:Sage Publications.

R. Robertson (1996). Globalization: social theory and global

Culture. London: Sage Publications. Anthony Smith (1995). Nations and Nationalisms in a Global Era.

Cambridge: Polity Press.

John Storey,(1996) Cultural Studies & The Study of Popular Culture Theories and Methods. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia

Press. (Chapter 1) John Storey (ed) (1997) What is Cultural Studies? A Reader.

London: Arnold. (Chapters 1 & 2)

John Storey (2003) Inventing Popular Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.

Culture, Identity, Representation12 [Compatibility Mode]

Documents