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Beyond political culture Warsaw, May-June 2009 Lectures Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869) Meanings Resources Interaction (basic unit of the society) Organization(s)/ institutions Comments on the chart: – At the outset of an interaction the participating actors are in symmetrical or asymmetrical (more often) positions: initial power differential. – Interaction actualizes this differential and may change it: final/outcome power differential. – Interaction is ALWAYS an act of communication (meaning). – Interaction is ALWAYS carried our within some (institutional) constraints. – Interaction has ALWAYS (?) an impact on the distribution of resources (sometimes indirectly; see Goodin and Klingemann on this point (1996:7)). – Interaction can be usefully modeled as a game (with rational actors). Signifying element Sender ? Receiver (Political) Field Signified element Definitions of politics: 1. Institutional: 1. “’Politics’ might best be characterized as the constrained use of social power.” 2. The study of politics: “the study of the nature and sources of those constraints and the techniques for the use of social power within those constraints” (7).”[1] 2. Material-institutional: 1. "A conception of politics as decision making and resource allocation is at least as old as Plato and Aristotle" (47); Laswell’s: who gets what when and how.“ 2. "the organizing principle of a political system is the allocation of scarce resources in the face of conflict of interests“ [1] Robert Gooding and Hans-Dieter Klingemann (A New Handbook of Political Science, Oxford, 1996): 7. Definitions of politics: 3. Structural: From: Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly, Dynamics of Contention Definitions of politics: "Although there are exceptions, the modern perspective in political science has generally given primacy to substantive outcomes and either ignored symbolic actions or seen symbols as part of manipulative efforts to control outcomes." /…? These challenges echo another ancient theme of political thought, the idea that politics creates, confirms, or modifies interpretations of life. Through politics, individuals develop their identities, their communities, and the public good" (March, Olsen, 1989:47-48). 4. Cultural-institutional: "Politics is usually conducted as if identity were fixed. The question then becomes, on what basis, at different times in different places, does the nonfixity become temporarily fixed in such a way that individuals and groups can behave as a particular kind of agency, political or otherwise? How do people become shaped into acting subjects, understanding themselves in particular ways? In effect, politics consists of the effort to domesticate the infinitude of identity. It is the attempt to hegemonize identity, to order it into a strong programmatic statement. If identity is decentered, politics is about the attempt to create a center."[1] [1] Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, "Introduction" to Culture/Power/History. 1994, Princeton: Princeton University Press: 32. A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory, Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, editors, Definitions of culture: total/global Total concept of culture: • E.B.Tylor (Primitive Culture, 1871): • Culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Selective definitions: Psycho-social: • Almond and Bingham Powell, Jr., (1966:23): • Culture: "attitudes, beliefs, values and skills which are current in an entire population, as well as those special propensities and patterns which may be found within separate parts of that population." Semiotic: • Clifford Geertz (1973:145): • "Culture is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action; social structure is the form that action takes, the actually existing network of social relations. Culture and social structure are then but different abstractions from the same phenomena." Ann Swidler (1986:273): “Culture consists of such symbolic vehicles of meaning, including beliefs, ritual practices, art forms, and ceremonies, as well as informal cultural practices such as language, gossip, stories, and rituals of daily life. These symbolic forms are the means through which 'social process of sharing modes of behavior and outlook within [a] community' (Hannerz, 1969:184) take place.” Political culture (psycho-social: Almond and Verba (1963:15) Political culture is "a people's predominant beliefs, attitudes, values, ideals, sentiments, and evaluations about the political system of its country, and the role of the self in that system.“ (1963:13): culture: "a set of orientations toward ... social objects“ political culture: "orientations toward specifically political objects" Political culture (semiotic): Gamson (1988:220) "A nonredundant concept of political culture refers to the meaning systems that are culturally available for talking, writing, and thinking about political objects: the myths and metaphors, the language and idea elements, the frames, ideologies, values, and condensing symbols." Six pairs of contrasts: • Psycho-social (culture as attitudes) versus semiotic (culture as texts) • Culture as a constraint (Geertz) versus culture as a resource (utilitarian) (Cohen) • Public (inter-subjective, collective) versus individual level: Hannertz versus Strauss&Quinn • Emic (“native’s point of view”) versus etic (external) • Holism (Huntington) versus individualism (game theory) • Semiotic system (structuralism) versus (social) practice (post-structuralism); Four possible conceptualizations of the elements of culture Elements of culture as constraints Psycho-social (attitudes) Semiotic (signs) Elements of culture as resources Attitudes as constraints (homo sovieticus) Symbols as tools of manipulation Ulf Hannertz: Cultural Complexity: Studies in the Social Organization of Meaning (7). Three dimension of culture: • Ideas and modes of thought as entities and processes of the mind; • Forms of externalization, the different ways in which meaning is made accessible to the senses, made public; • Social distribution, the ways in which the collective inventory of meanings and meaningful external forms - is spread over a population and its social relationship. Approaches to the study of culture and politics POLITICAL CULTURE CULTURE OF POLITICS Main object of analysis: people's attitudes as legacies of past socialization and their impact on political behavior (example: voting). Main object of analysis: models (schemas) of the social and political worlds discernible in political texts, politicians' statements and informing their actions Key concepts: attitudes, values Key method(s): surveys of attitudes Key concepts: representations of politics, root paradigm, cultural scenario, cultural schema Key methods: content analysis Examples of studies: 1. Almond and Verba, The Civic Culture (Revisited); 2. Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Examples of studies: 1. Myron Aronoff, Israeli Visions and Divisions; 2. Murray Edelman, Constructing the Political Spectacle; 3. Victoria Bonnell, Iconography of Power. Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin. 4. John Dryzek and Leslie Holmes, Post-Communist Democratization : Political Discourses Across Thirteen Countries. CULTURAL POLITICS POLITICS OF CULTURE Main object of study: policies and institutions involved in the generation and management of cultural production Main object of analysis: political content (often "hidden" of ostensibly a-political) cultural products; power differential constructed in/through discourse Key concepts: propaganda, indoctrination, censorship Key method(s): institutional analysis, policy analysis Examples of studies: 1. Glenn Jordan and Chris Weedon, Cultural Politics. Class, Gender, Race and the Postmodern World; 2. Jane Curry, The Black Book of Polish Censorship. Key concepts: politics of representation, hegemony, "hidden transcripts," subalternity Key method(s): (critical) content analysis Examples of studies: 1. Cultural Studies: useful summary: Fred Inglis, Cultural Studies; 2. Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power; 3. Subaltern studies: Spivak and Mohanty; 4. Third face of power (Lukes and Gaventa).