Download Sociological classics and cultures

Sociological classics and cultures
Beata Bellandiová
Zuzana Barboríková
Goal:
• Present several sociologists and their theories
about cultures , mass media, metropolis and
people.
Sociology
• Sociology is the scientific study of society. It is a
social science which uses various methods of
empirical investigation and critical analysis to
develop a body of knowledge about human social
activity.
Culture
• Can mean the cultivation associated with
“civilized” habits of mind.
• Creative products associated with the arts, or the
entire way of life associated with a group.
• Among sociologists, “culture” refers to the
beliefs that people hold about reality, the norms
that guide their behavior, the values that orient
their moral commitments, or the symbols
through which these beliefs, norms, and values
are communicated.
Georg Simmel
• One of the first generation of German
sociologists.
• The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903)
• Blasé attitude
The Metropolis and Mental Life
• ,,The deepest problems of modern life flow from
the attempt of the individual to maintain the
independence and individuality of his existence
against the sovereign powers of society, against
the weight of the historical heritage and the
external culture and technique of life“.
Blasé attitude
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Lack of emotions
Life is more intellectual
People are enslaved to time
Quantity over quality
„Blasé" – boring, superficiality, grayness,
indifference and alienation
• On the other hand, Simmel describes the
metropolis as a place of liberation from the
binding mentality of the small community, thus
granting the individual more space and freedom
to independently define himself.
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno
• Key members of Frankfurt school
• The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass
Deception
• Influenced by Karl Marx
• The Culture Industry is characterized by three
specific ideas: Monopoly, Mass Production, and
Technology.
• This industry is unique in that it does not reflect
economic processes and essentially becomes
homogenous thus, variation is meaningless.
• Films, radio and magazines make up a system
which is uniform as a whole and in every part
Edward Shills
• Center and Periphery
• Central zone in the structure of society
• Every society has an ,,official“ religion
3 central aspects
• central value system
• institutions that are the realm of action and
exercise authority
• elites that are equated with authority
Raymond Williams
• Base and Superstructure
• Meaning and values are determined by some
more objective material reality.
Clifford Geertz
• Thick Description: Toward and Interpretive
Theory of Culture
• Influenced by Gilbert Ryle
• Winks upon winks upon winks
Object of ethnography
• Difference between ,,thin description“ and
,,thick description“
Pierre Bourdieu
• Extended the idea of capital to 3 categories
• Social space
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