Culture Keywords

Francis Fukuyama

• end of the Cold War marked potential endpoint of mankind’s ideological evolution

• liberal democracy + market economy = the final form of human govt

MNCs

multi-national corporations, companies that operate in more than one country and earn revenue in outside their home country

Meyer

1990s, globalization’s sets of meanings, world polity theory

• exchange (hard): interdependency, fast rates of transaction

• cultural and institutional (soft): cultural consciousness, embeddedness

Ritzer

McDonaldization thesis, hyper-globalist

Barber

Jihad vs McWorld, skeptical

Huntington

The Clash of Civilizations, skeptical

Robertson

acknowledge homogenization but stresses glocalization, transformationalist, world culture theory

• globalization is not in tension with localization

• contemporary conceptions of locality are produced in global terms, but this does not mean they are homogenized

• globalization involves the linking of localities and the intervention/imagination of locality

• Local culture is a modern product manufactured by globalization.

• culture is not institutionalized, not a collection of readymade scripts but a contentious and open-ended process of cultural formation

Lechner and Boli

emergence of world culture but different levels of attachment, transformationalist

Papastergiadis

cultural turbulence, rise of hybridity, deterritorialized belonging, transformationalist

globalization

a period of radical transformations where multidimensional and interlinked changes occur simultaenously

deterritorialization

people feel a sense of belonging without sharing the same territory

→ culture doesn’t need a concrete territory to be practiced

→ this is not a theory, but a framework

dispora communities

the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland (unidirectional, suddenly losing ties with community in homeland)

transnational communities

groups that are established within different national societies, acting on the basis of shared interests and references (territorial, linguistic, religious)

cultural assimilation

1. The process whereby a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture.

2. The merging of cultural traits from distinct cultural groups.

acculturation

1. The modification of the culture of a group or individual as a result of contact with a different culture.

2. The process by which the culture of a particular society is instilled in a human from infancy onward.

transnational social spaces

(virtual) places where transnational individuals cultivate, support, and nurture their transnational activities and identities

deterritorialized discourse

Communication as if participants were at the same time and spacing having a synchronous conversation.

chronotope

(Virtual) shared reality where people from far away act as they were in the same space & time.

mediatization of culture

Hepp, the gathering and diffusion of different forms of talking, and sharing through media communication (e.g. hiphop appropriated in Japan)

culture (4 elements)

the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by all humans as members of society

• symbols: something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention

• language: communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice, gestures, or written symbols

• values: culturally defined standards for what is good and desirable

• norms: culturally defined expectations of behavior

Culture

high culture such as theater, painting, music

cultures (two kinds)

when you contrast each

• national/ethnic culture: the site of a child’s primary socialization (state-based nation-building, a recent invention, played a key role) (shared language, traditions, beliefs)

• secondary/subgroup culture: organizational, professional, religious, etc. (happens in complex international societies)

Clifford

traveling cultures. connection between culture and movement, fluid

Appadurai

traveling cultures. five scapes of how cultures diffuse.

• ethnoscapes (migration, travel)

• technoscapes (technology)

• financescapes (flows of capital)

• ideoscapes (flows of ideas)

• mediascapes (mass media)

• indigenization

indigenization

global culture not only takes over, but is transformed by the area it diffuses in

cultural globalization (the broader one, two theses)

the diffusion of ideas, values, and ways of life, as well as the creation of a global conscience, through technology, media, transportation

homogenization thesis (cultural assimilation)

heterogenization thesis (acculturation)

Geertz

examined the symbolic dimension of culture in Java

Lila Abu-Lughod

“Writing against culture” criticized the ignorance of connections between societies, sociocultural change, contradictions in everyday life

Hannerz

engaged with the idea of cultural diversity. focus on complexity, creolization, innovation or creativity as ongoing tendencies.

cultural studies

an interdisciplinary field in which perspectives from different disciplines can be selectively drawn on to examine the relations of culture and power

McDonaldization thesis

Ritzer, the process where the principles guiding McDonald’s rise to global supremacy dominate not only American society, but also the rest of the world

• efficiency (maximizing profit)

• calculability (the bigger the better)

• predictability (uniform worldwide)

• control (automation of employees)

• irrationality of rationality (shifts labor to consumer, dehumanizing, homogenization, hidden health costs)

※but moving away from mass consumption, cultural complexity exists within homogenizing trends

Wilk

GSCCD Global Structures of Common Cultural Difference

globalization forces us to express our unique cultural differences using the exact same formats, channels, and rules. a form of standardization

standardization, convergence, homogenization, hybridity

If you imagine global culture as a giant kitchen trying to feed the world:

• Standardization is the health code and the exact metrics of the measuring cups that every kitchen must use.

• Convergence is the fact that kitchens all over the world are slowly switching from wood-burning stoves to modern electric induction ovens because it just makes sense.

• Homogenization is a mega-chain corporation buying up every local restaurant in the world and forcing them to sell the exact same corporate hamburger.

• Hybridization is a local chef taking that corporate hamburger concept, but stuffing it with local spices, traditional meats, and regional sauces to create a brand-new fusion dish that belongs completely to that community.

cultural hybridity/hybridization

the mixing of cultures and the emergence of translocal cultural forms that cannot be designated as either local or global

Burke

media key role in globalization, hybridity more visible with cultural goods

accelerated hybridization: media encourages imitation and adaptation through standardizing certain cultural forms

Bhabha

studied colonizer/colonized relations in India

hybridity: (e.g. jazz (African traditions, European instruments), Mexican corridos, yoga (from anti-market movement to commodification in the west))

mimicry: a form of colonial discourse where the colonized subject is encouraged to imitate the colonizer, resulting in “almost the same, but not quite”

ambivalence: the complex, unstable and simultaneous mix of attraction and repulsion that characterizes colonizer-colonized relationships

glocalization

late 80s, Robertson, 土着化

1. the adaptation of globally distributed goods, services, or publications in order to make them suitable for local needs (changing the products themselves, top-down)

2. the modification of imported cultural practices and ideas to conform with local norms (changing the social meaning of practices, bottom-up)

cultural brokers

a person who facilitates communication, understanding and interaction between individuals or groups of different cultural backgrounds.

Herbert Schiller

cultural imperialism (CI)

Stuart Hall

cultural globalization

active audience reception theory

Nye

soft power theory

Anholt

nation-branding

active audience reception theory, how they affect different classes

media encode messages and audiences decode based on personal background

3 readings:

• dominant (accepts intended meaning)

• negotiated (partly accepts, but modifies meaning)

• oppositional (rejects intended meaning)

non-elite middle-class:

accept only those meanings which can be layered (violence, patriarchy)

elite middle class:

changes in beliefs and values through English

cultural globalization (CG)

the power of people, both on individual and collective levels, to read, appropriate, and use cultural products in creative and often counter-hegemonic fashion

transculturation

cultural forms move through time and space, interact with other cultural forms and settings, influence each other, produce new forms, change cultural settings and produce cultural hybrids

Rantanen

globalization causes worldwide econ/pol/cul/social relations become mediated across time and space

• multi-sited ethnography: ethnographic fieldwork in more than one geographic location

• global mediagraphy: researching different generations of a family about media, identity, education

Kraidy

• AGAINST ci and cg

• hybridity as an active exchange that leads to mutual transformation of both sides

• hegemony isn’t over yet, rather dominance

• culture is synthetic (local and global codependent)

• critical transculturalism: economic/political power rules culture

• cultural reproduction reproduces dominance

world culture

the emergence of values shared by all world societies

Weber

modernization theory

Parsons

modernization theory

Lipset

modernization theory

Wallerstein

world-systems theory/dependence theory

Stanford school

world polity theory

world polity

political structures, associations and culture in the intl. sphere

scripts

products of professional activity in intl. organizations

W6 international cooperation, UN security council and ICC

social movement

any group that gets together with the goal of social transformation, horizontal networks

global injustice symbols

what protests have in common.

commonly perceived transgressions, universalized meanings

transnational activism

groups that mobilize domestic and international resources to 

      advance claims on behalf of/in favor of/against external groups

insiders: local activists exposed to international processes, forging transnational ties

outsiders: local activists who directly target global instit, forging transnational groups

(e.g. labor activists from the South, ecologists, advocacy networks, immigrants)

Tarrow

Gellner

soft constructivism

nationalism: “a principle that the political and national unit should be congruent”

Hobsbawm

soft constructivism

Traditions are recent inventions for certain ideological objectives

(e.g. King Pelayo defeated Arabs in the Covadonga Battle, Spain

  Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the US)

nationalism: what creates nations

Anderson

soft constructivism

nations are “Imagined political communities”. 

                        Every successful revolution becomes national.

      nations not as a political category

nationalism: at its base more similar to religion that to the rationalist institutions 

       of democracy and bureaucracy which legitimize it

Smith

ethnosymbolism

nation

a group of people who share a common identity 

  (e.g. language, religion, ethnicity, history)

state

a human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical  

           force within a given territory - Weber

nation-state

a state in which a single nation predominates and the legal, social, 

                       demographic and geographic boundaries are connected in important 

                       ways to that nation

creole states

 formed by people who share the same language and common descent 

the first to develop conceptions of nation-ness, well before Europe

Why? → tax pressures from metropolis (shift to provinces’ capitals)

 official nationalism

naturalization of Europe’s dynasties with retention of dynastic power

colonial nationalism

mimics the exact territorial shape and administrative structure of the empire that preceded it

unintentionally planted the seeds of its own destruction

• local intelligentsia (westernized, bilingual literacy, creating a shared we-image regardless of original differences)

• spread of modern-style education

ethnicity

aspects of relationships between groups which consider themselves, and are 

     regarded by others, as being culturally distinctive, majorities as well

race

the process whereby social groups categorize other groups as different or inferior on 

          the basis of phenotypical characteristics, cultural markers or national origin

Chicago School

a structural safety net you used to get on your feet before eventually assimilating into the mainstream

Manchester School

urbanization didn't make people "less ethnic." Instead, it made them invent new urban subsystems to perform and exaggerate their ethnic identity as a way to navigate a world full of strangers

Park

Chicago school

cities are a kind of ecological system with its own internal 

          dynamic, creating diverse opportunities and constraints for 

            different individuals and groups

ethnic identity change

Eidhem, Samis and Norwegians

subject of discrimination, not a single community

only recognized as “indigenous people” in 1990

Eidhem found no cultural traits (locals always showing off “Norwegianness”)

no engagement in ethnicity in public by Samis

Mountain Sami: ethnic incorporation, organizing themselves politically on 

  ethnic basis

Coastal Sami: moved towards assimilation, gradually losing their markers of 

distinctiveness and merging into the majority population, becoming full Norwegians

a real, practical possibility of removing the stigma imposed by dominant pop.

because not physically very different from the Norwegians

Eidhem

ethnic identity change, Samis and Norwegians

we-hood vs us-hood

• We-hood (We-Identity): Emphasizes collectivism, internal bonding, and a shared sense of "we" against outside influences. It is often linked to localized community cohesion.

  • Us-hood (Us-Identity): Similar to we-hood, it is used to describe the formation of in-group solidarity, though it may sometimes be used to differentiate from a broader "them," frequently in studies focusing on regional, national, or organizational belonging.

traditional migration

family- and community-based strategies of economic survival

non-traditional migration:

results from individual-based strategies and may

reflect all kinds of motivations.

migrant

: someone who does not live in the country in which he/she was born

(2nd gens not included)

integration

a simultaneous attachment to the heritage culture and the adoption of the host culture, preferred and practiced strategy by immigrants

connotation of assimilation, but can refer to any combination of adaptation and cultural maintenance 

acculturation (two dimensions, caveats)

cultural change of any kind. the dual process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual members

• cultural dimension: group, changes in social structures, institutions, cultural norms

• psychological dimension: individual, changes in people’s behavioral repertoires 

1. Acculturation may happen without ‘continuous first-hand’ contact (culture may be

deterritorialized through media and others)

2. It takes places over the long term (lifetime of an individual or in few generations)

3. Acculturation is increasingly complex (increasing cultural diversity of national

societies, no longer one single dominant group, more frequent and varied

intercultural contacts)

these two dimensions should be kept separate because:

• individual human behavior interacts with the cultural context 

• individuals’ approaches vary

integration hypothesis

when individuals are multiply engaged, they will be more successful in their lives

• multiculturalism hypothesis: when people feel secure in their own cultures, more willing to accept differences

• contact hypothesis: intercultural contact will promote mutual acceptance under certain conditions, especially when the groups are considered as equal

racism

the belief that individual characteristics are linked with hereditary ones, which differ systematically between races

new racism

talks of cultural difference instead of inherited characteristics but uses it for the same purposes

Balibar

• 1870-1914: nationalism inventing nations that created racism as a political tool

• discourse of race first applied to the working classes who were perceived as a threat

British new racism based on cultural differences. New Right

French Nouvelle Droite, racism of the era of decolonization and the reversal of populations between the old colonies and the old metropolises

Modood

multi-racist approaches (being racist but incorporating their cultures)

the rise of cultural racism

• color-racism became negligible, but was possible to operate in conjunction with cultural racism

• EU integration/migration has recently and only partially blurred this distinction

Modood argues that racialized groups (phenotypical racism) which have a distinctive cultural identity or a community life defined as ‘alien’ will suffer an additional dimension of discrimination and prejudice

multiculturalism

can refer to 

• demographic features (plural and poly-ethnic composition of a society)

• psychological aspects (individuals’ acceptance and support for a plural composition of society as well as appreciation of diversity)

• policy issues (shared citizenship and community bonds in ethnically diverse societies)

• education/counseling

Kymlicka

other list

liberal pluralism

absence, even prohibition, of any minority group having separate standing before the law or govt

corporate pluralism

recognition of minority groups as legally constituted entities, on the basis of which, (depending on their size and influence) distinctions exist on a non-discrimination and corporatist or group rights model

check interculturalism, slides

tourism

 the act of traveling for leisure, recreation, or business, and the commercial industry of providing services like transportation, lodging, and entertainment to travelers 

• emerged alongside industrialization, the separation of work and leisure

• a way to accumulate symbolic capital

  • both reflects and reinforces globalization processes

the tourist gaze

the way of looking at the world through particular ideas etc. framed by social class, gender, nationality, age, education, historical period, constructed through signs (semiotic meaning)

• global flows often dominated, structured by wealthy Western tourists

• resembles cultural domination (tourists as observers, locals as spectacles)

staged authenticity

MacCanell and Urry

even seemingly genuine cultural experiences may be constructed performances, but (Urry) the distinction between real and fake is irrelevant to enjoyment

MacCanell/Urry

staged authenticity

Crick

study of host-guest interactions, socio-cultural impacts, representation

Nash

 tourism as acculturation/development, personal transition, social superstructure