Culture: Values, Norms, and Symbols

SOCI 1000 -- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e-pFIP2A5EJNxQ6cvEdhxKdMpYa4HkzYcn9Dv-H88rA/edit?tab=t.0

Music

• Helps us understand the complexity of culture.

• It is not only a personal experience but also a multibillion-dollar industry shaped by organizational and technological change.

Culture

• More than survival—includes creativity, communication, self-reflection, and shared values.

• Broadly: Everything humans make and consume, including beliefs, practices, and traditions.

• Usually involves symbols, rituals, beliefs, and values that give communities character.

• Both external (norms, traditions) and internal (strategically adapted).

Émile Durkheim regarding Culture

• Culture works through symbols (objects carrying meaning) and rituals (routinized group activities).

• Ex: Country music festivals use shared symbols (lyrics, imagery like trucks/Red Solo Cups) to build cultural meaning.

  • High vs. popular culture, material vs. symbolic culture, & culture as values vs. practices are key distinctions.

Material Culture

Physical goods (clothing, art, food)

Symbolic Culture

Beliefs, values, language, meaning behind material items.

Collective Representations

• Shared images/symbols (e.g., flags, mascots, mottos) that unify groups.

  • Ex: Athleisure fashion shows the overlap between material (yoga pants) and symbolic (casualization of fashion).

  • Culture evolves through trends and social meaning.

High Culture

Elite goods (opera, fine art, classical music).

Popular Culture

Mass-produced, accessible, pleasure-focused

The Industrial Revolution blurred lines

Mass production made culture more available.

New media (photography, VR, AI) challenges old definitions of art.

• COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digitization and access (virtual tours, online exhibits).

Example of bridging high/low: Beyonce’s Lemonade—conceptual art + mass appeal.

Max Weber & Culture

Viewed culture as values (moral beliefs)

Talcott Parsons & Culture

Unified system of norms/values guiding behavior.

Elijah Anderson & Culture

Code of the Street — Code switching between “street” vs. “decent” culture.

Ann Swidler & Culture

• Culture as a toolkit

  • Beliefs/values/practices strategically used in daily life.

How Culture is Produced

• Production of cultural perspective: Cultural goods created through large-scale industries, not just individuals

Richard Peterson

Country music shaped by laws, technology, markets.

Corporate Consolidation

A few corporations dominate culture (media, film, music).

Diversity Gap in Cultural Industries

#OscarsSoWhite highlights lack of representation

Internships & Temporal Labor

Show inequalities in cultural labor markets.

Consuming Culture

• Thorstein Veblen: Conspicuous consumption (prestige via displaying wealth).

• Luxury goods = $1.1 trillion global industry

• Elizabeth Currid-Halkett: Elites now show wealth through experiences/services (yoga, organic food).

• Janice Radway: Book clubs reinterpret romance novels —> Empowerment instead of oppression.

• Audiences shape meaning; consumption is active, not passive.

Subcultures & Fan Cultures

• Dick Hebdige: Subcultures: Alternative styles (dress, slang, music).

• Subcultures: Reinterpret culture (goth fashion, punk, juggalos).

• Amy Wilkins: Subcultures as “ways of life” (resisting dominant culture).

• Fan cultures repurpose fiction (e.g., Harry Potter fanfiction).

• Subcultures can be co-opted by mainstream (e.g., goth —> Hot Topic

How Culture Works: Inequalities & Boundaries

• Pierre Bourdieu

  • Cultural capital: Non-economic resources (knowledge, style, education).

  • Fields: Social arenas where cultural capital is valued.

  • Habitus: Learned dispositions shaping behavior.

• Inequalities: Dominant culture (elite, White, upper-class) rewarded in education.

• Boundary work: Defining “us vs. them” (sports rivalries, music taste).

• Michele Lamont: Symbolic Boundaries separate groups via style/taste.

The Culture Jam

• Culture moves across boundaries (globalization, diffusion).

• Cultural mashups (Chinese-Mexican food, Vietnamese bánh mì).

Globalization

Global flow of ideas/goods, but led to McDonaldization (standardization).

Cultural Imperialism

Dominant culture overwhelms others.

Cultural Appropriation

Dominant groups profit from others’ culture (e.g., Kooks Burritos, Navajo imagery).

Culture Jamming

Subversive practices challenging corporate control (graffiti, hip-hop lyrics, Naomi Klein’s No Logo).

Global Commodity Chain

Hidden systems linking production and consumption (e.g., Mardi Gras beads factory labor).