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November 28, 2004

Erving Goffman: "On Face-Work"

Goffman, Erving. 1963. "On Face-Work." Interaction Ritual New York: Anchor Books.

Synopsis:

In "On Face-Work," Goffman articulates how people negotiate face in everyday social interaction. Some definitions are key:

- "Face is an image of self delineated in terms of approved social attributes" (5)
- line - "a pattern of verbal and nonverbal acts by which he expresses his view of the situation and through this his evaluation of the participants, especially himself" (5)
- face-work - "actions taken by a person to make whatever he is doing consistent with face" (12)
- self: 1) "image pieced together from teh expressive implications of the full flow of events in an undertaking" and "kind of player in a ritual game who copes honorably or dishonorably, diplomatically or undiplomatically, with the judgmental contingencies of the situation" (31)

Goffman argues that the flow of events produces face (7). Maintaining face feels good - we have an emotional attachment to the face that we maintain. Disruptions of this, or losing face, result in a loss of the internal emotional support that is protecting oneself in a social situation (9). In order to face-save, one must be socially perceptive (13).

Face saving is not just a process of the social actor, but of the audience as well. There are social protocols for helping someone maintain and save face, most notably avoidance mechanisms, overcompensating and apology.

There is a ritual around correcting the way in which face is managed socially - challenge, offering, acceptance and thanks (22). This helps maintain the "expressive order" (19). Tact is part of helping embarrassing moments of losing face. The language of "hint" is critical to protect tact (30). Of course, all of this is culturally defined and the relationship between tact and face management often collides when different cultures meet. "Trouble is caused by a person who cannot be relied upon to play the face-saving game" (31).

Relevence:

The process of managing face is so critical to everyday social interaction, but this face-work does not translate online. Thus, what are the mechanisms by which we do face-work to help maintain social order? The formalized process of this eliminates "tact" and is part of what makes the digital world appear so autistic in nature. Face-work cannot be simply articulated because so much of it is constructed around hinting. Furthermore, there are easy cultural collisions that complicate everything.

While Goffman doesn't bring Mauss into this conversation, there are deep connections between this and Mauss's notions of gifting.

Category: sociology

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November 26, 2004

Cameron Marlow: "Audience, structure and authority in the weblog community"

Marlow, Cameron. 2004. "Audience, structure and authority in the weblog community" Presented at the International Communication Association Conference. New Orleans, LA.

Synopsis:

Marlow analyzes blogging from the perspective of link structure, considering how authority is manifested within the community through links as a proxy for social structure. He is employing social network analysis as a method for understanding the relationship structure.

"While some of these webloggers identify with the progenitors of the medium, others feel that their practice is distinct from that form." (1)

Measures of authority: popularity (webloggers' public affiliations) and influence (citation of each others' writing).

"Network analysis is well suited for the study of weblogs as many of the socialrelationships between weblog authors are explicitly stated in the form of hypertext links." (2)

Discussion of Clay Shirky's power law curves and assumptions that every weblogger wanted to be recognized as a opinion leader.

"The remainder of this paper will explore thisquestion in depth, namely what a link to a weblog means, the different types of social links that can occur, and how to understand authority in this social environment." (3)

Marlow defines Weblog Social Ties through blogrolls, permalinks, comments and trackbacks before introducing Blogdex methodology and data.

In the bulk of the paper, Marlow discusses various data that he acquired. The key finding shows that older well-known bloggers do not continue to have influence. Although their names are known (and they are regularly blogrolled), what they write is not regularly linked to, indicating a lower influence rate.

Continue reading "Cameron Marlow: "Audience, structure and authority in the weblog community""

Category: blogging

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November 25, 2004

Herring, Scheidt, Bonus & Wright: "Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs"

Herring, Susan; Lois Ann Scheidt; Sabrina Bonus; Elijah Wright. 2004. "Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs". Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science HICSS-37.

Abstract:

Weblogs (blogs)—frequently modified web pages inwhich dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence—are the latest genre of Internet communication to attain widespread popularity, yet their characteristics have not been systematically described. This paper presents the results of a content analysis of 203 randomly-selected weblogs, comparing the empirically observable features of the corpus with popular claims about the nature of weblogs, and finding them to differ in a number of respects. Notably, blog authors, journalists and scholars alike exaggerate the extent to which blogs are interlinked, interactive, and oriented towards external events, and under-estimate the importance of blogs as individualistic, intimate forms of self-expression. Based on the profile generated by the empirical analysis, we consider the likely antecedents of the blog genre, situate it withrespect to the dominant forms of digital communication on the Internet today, and advance predictions about its long-term impacts.

Synposis:

This article begins with a historical review of where blogging came from and what motivates the hype for various parties.

"Our analysis suggests that the blog is neither fundamentally new nor unique, but that it—along with other emergent genres driven by interactive web technologies—occupies a new position in the Internet genre ecology. Specifically, it forms a de facto bridge between multimedia HTML documents and text-based computer-mediated communication, thereby blurring the traditional distinction between these two dominant Internet paradigms, and potentially contributing to its breakdown in the future." (2)

Genre Analysis. Based on Yates & Orlinowski's work on email which uses rhetoric's version of genre theory to classify "typified acts of communication" based on form and substance, communicative purposes and structures, style, content and intended audience (2). [This section includes a great synopsis of using genre theory to analyze the web.]

Previous Definitions. Bloggers construct definition based on the format, frequency, link structure. Introduces Blood's classification (filters, journals, notebooks). Introduces Krishnamurthy's dimensional classification (personal vs. topical, individual vs. community).

Sample. 203 blogs from blo.gs (which pulls from a handful of blog services).

Methodology. Content analysis. Coded for characteristics of the blog authors when possible, purpose of the blog (filter, personal journal, k-log, mixed purpose, other). Did structural analysis of the blogs (links, images, search, adverts, etc.). Coded for temporal information (update recency, interval and age).

Findings:
- Blog authors: young adult males, similar to other public communication environments [note: does not include LJ, indicative of sample]
- Purpose: 70% are writing personal journals (even without LJ/DL/DJ); females and teens are more likely to write personal journals; "the blogs in this sample share a common purpose: to express the author's subjective, often intimate perspective on matters of interest to him or her. In the case of most blogs, the matters of interest concern the authors and their daily lives." (5)
- Temporal: [sampling concerns]
- Structural components: in order: archives, badges, images, comments, , email, ads, search, calendar, guestbook; Blogger, MT, Pitas, Radio Userland; links to websites, other blogs, news, websites about self, webrings
- Entry body features analyzed too, word average, paragraphs, etc.

"Blood's claim about the origins of the blog is based on the assumption that blogs are link-centered filters of Web content. Our findings show that this assumption misrepresents most blogs at the present time." (9)

Notes an off-line antecedent with the diary journal, k-logs and other primary genre types, arguing that it is not a unique web genre (10). Suggests that blogs also share similarities with other digital genres such as homepages for identity representation.

"All of this suggests that blogs, rather than having a single source, are in fact a hybrid of existing genres, rendered unique by the particular features of the source genres they adapt, and by their particular technological affordances." (10)

"Ultimately, we believe that blogs have the potential to change the way we think about the Web and about CMC, by rendering obsolete any hard-and-fast distinction between the two." (11)

Category: blogging

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November 23, 2004

Michelle Gumbrecht: "Blogs as 'Protected Space''"

Gumbrecht, Michelle. 2004. "Blogs as 'Protected Space''" Presented at the Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem: Aggregation, Analysis, and Dynamics: WWW 2004. New York: ACM Press.

Synopsis:

Introduces via PEW and Herring. Method: interviews with 23 people with blogs hosted by or around Stanford.

This paper is primarily a documentation of Gumbrecht's ethnographic exploration of blogging in the Stanford community, with a focus on people who produce content for personal purposes and those who use blogs in an educational setting. Many great quotes.

Findings:

  • "Despite bloggers' freedom to discuss anything and talk about anyone in their blogs, we found that bloggers imposed constraints on themselves." (2)
  • "Our informants were able to selectively filter their audience by tailoring their posts to them." (2) [note: coded language based on common ground allowing for multiple reads depending on emotional proximity]
  • "Some informants within our sample adopted the practice of forewarning their audience about the contents of their blog. ... "includes as many disclaimers as possible" when he blogs about someone. He added that bloggers' posts can have "an edge" but you should not throw a bomb"." (2)
  • "we found that our informants sometimes preferred communicating through their blogs as opposed to other means. ... We found that the majority of our informants used IM as a means of communication, yet would sometimes shun it in favor of blogging" (3)
  • "In blogging, grounding occurs neither cotemporally nor simultaneously. This turned out to be part of the allure for some of our informants to selectively communicate through their blogs." (3)
  • "responses are not expected immediately in this medium. In face-to-face conversation or IM, responses are expected immediately or close to it. As a result, conversational partners may feel ill at ease when trying to broach a sensitive issue in these media. Lara said she would never tell people, "I'm really sad" in IM, yet she would have no qualms about stating it in her blog." (3)
  • "Jack, an avid contributor to listservs, found that he liked blogs better because they are much less "adversarial" and generally more "reflective"." (3)
  • "However, when conflicts do arise over blog content, they tend to be transferred to other, more interactive media." (3)
  • "We found that limited interactivity is a flexible, context-specific notion. In educational, group, and community settings, our bloggers placed a high value on comments and feedback to "create a dialogue"." (4)
  • "However, blogs created for educational purposes do not abide by the same rules as personal blogs. Educational blogs aren't created to share deep, private revelations about oneself." (4)
  • "comments are "the heart of the blog medium - others would contest this - but I think a big part of making it publicly available is to have responses"." (4)
  • "Katie, a graduate student in Electrical Engineering, didn't like having other people post commentaries on her site because she couldn't control what they would say." ... "On the other hand, Harriet, also a graduate student in Electrical Engineering, believed comments are very important because they "enhance the sense of community that you get...it makes you feel good that people are reading it." (4)

Category: blogging

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November 17, 2004

Steven Thorne: "Artifacts and Cultures-of-use in Intercultural Communication"

Thorne, Steven. "Artifacts and Cultures-of-use in Intercultural Communication" in Language Learning & Technology (May 2003), Volume 7, Number 2, 38-67.

Abstract:

This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding how intercultural communication, mediated by cultural artifacts (i.e., Internet communication tools), creates compelling, problematic, and surprising conditions for additional language learning. Three case studies of computer-mediated intercultural engagement draw together correlations between discursive orientation, communicative modality, communicative activity, and emergent interpersonal dynamics. These factors contribute to varying qualities and quantities of participation in the intercultural partnerships. Case one, "Clashing Frames of Expectation -Differing Cultures-of-Use," suggests that the cultures-of-use of Internet communication tools, their perceived existence and on-going construction as distinctive cultural artifacts, differs interculturally just as communicative genre, pragmatics, and institutional context would be expected to differ interculturally. Case two, "Intercultural Communication as Hyperpersonal Engagement," illustrates pragmatic and linguistic development as an outcome of intercultural relationship building. The final case study, "The Wrong Tool for the Right Job?," describes a recent generational shift in communication tool preference wherein an ostensibly ubiquitous tool, e-mail, is shown to be unsuitable for mediating age peer relationships. Taken together, these case studies demonstrate that Internet communication tools are not neutral media. Rather, individual and collective experience is shown to influence the ways students engage in Internet-mediated communication with consequential outcomes for both the processes and products of language development. (38)

Key points:

Using three different case studies, Thorne exposes "the cultural embededness of Internet communication tools and the consequences of this embedding for communicative activity" (38). The article has a narrative structure that tells you about the different cases while simultaneously exposing Thorne's arguments, particularly in noting how communication technologies are deeply affected by the cultures-of-use, thereby arguing that these tools are cultural tools, just as all other human artifacts (38).

There is a section that addresses various aspects of CMC research, including a great quote by Joseph Walther in reference to various studies - "if it's not good for tasks and it's not good for socializing, then just what is CMC good for and why would anyone use it?" (41).

The case studies focus on cross-cultural communication between American students and French students/teachers using various mediation tools.

In the first case study, there is a disconnect between the American student and the French correspondent concerning the style and tone of responses. Thorne notes that these messages are "characterized by different discourse styles that play themselves out on national, institutional and personal levels" (44). There are cultural expectations around how people should communicate in the medium of email. "It seems that the Americans, in their search for understanding the lives of the French, expected trust and solidarity to develop through direct contact with French peers on the basis of shared personal experience. The illusion of proximity afforded by their everyday uses of the Internet informed their expectations of what those exchanges would be like" (46). It is interesting to consider how the geographic cultures affect what is appropriate styles of digital communication.

The second case highlights how significant IM is for American students. The students were required to email with their "keypals" but students who moved to IM to communicate found their conversations and confidence flourish while those who stuck with email found that the conversations were dead. IM allowed for interpersonal relationship building and conversational management.

In the third case studey, Thorne explicitly addresses how American students don't use email and only speak with their friends via IM. "Email is a tool for communication between power levels and generations" (56). Email is assumed to take effort while IM is natural communication.

In his discussion, Thorne notes "the process of becoming a competent member of one digitally mediated speech community may have demonstrable effects on presentation of self and the aesthetics of communicative performativity" (58).

....

The most relevant thing about this article for me is that it is grounded proof of the generation divide between IM and email (although Thorne's discussion about linguistics communities is fascinating).

Category: linguistics

Posted by zephoria at 10:39 PM | TrackBack (0)

November 11, 2004

Christopher Hill: "Levellers and True Levellers"

Hill, Christopher. "Levellers and True Levellers", from The World Turned Upside Down in Cultural Resistance: A Reader ed. Stephen Duncombe (2002): 17-34.

In Duncombe's Introduction to the Reader, he explains the significance of this reprint for this reader. "We open with an archetype: Christopher Hill's account of Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers' seizure of St George's Hill in 1649. Laid out in the Diggers' actions and Winstanley's words are nearly all the possibilities and pitfalls of cultural resistance that will be played out for centuries to come - and explored in the readings that follow" (9).

The article itself is a compelling narrative of resistance brought on by frustration and exasperation during a time of starvation and severe class battles between the poor and the elite. The resistance is pre-empted by a note to Parliament which says, "Necessity dissolves all laws and government, and hunger will break through stone walls" (18). In short, desperate and hungry, a group of people choose to make common property what was privatized so that they could grow food. As it turns out, their efforts are futile since the land is barren, but "the symbolism of taking back as common land what had been enclosed (i.e. privatized) overshadows the negligible material value of planing corn in barren soil" (17).

Functionally, the article serves to introduce the reader to a political and socio-cultural situation in which resistance emerged. While the narrative is quite compelling, it is not necessarily the contents of it that are of value for my purposes, so much as the mindset.

In prefacing the article, Duncombe reminds us that the struggle exposed in this article is "archetypal, exhibiting many of the characteristics - pre-figurative symbolic protests, ideological appropriation of a master text, lack of strategy and organizational structure, spread of idea and ideal - that mark cultural resistance today" (17).

Category: cultural studies

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November 7, 2004

Lauraine Leblanc: "Pretty in Punk"

Leblanc, Lauraine. Pretty in Punk: Girls' Gender Resistance in a Boys' Subculture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999. xii + 286 pp. ISBN 0813526515, $21.95 pbk.

Review:

Analyses of subcultural participation have consistently highlighted masculine resistances, often through accounts of male participation in and formation of subcultures. Media coverage of subcultures perpetuates the impression that the only narrative of subculture identity is that of the males. Furthermore, male domination within the subculture is notable. Subculturally identified females are faced with oppression by both the normative mainstream as well as the male-dominated subculture. As such, their resistances provide an alternate narrative that is critical to understanding the position of subcultures in society.

What attracts girls to male-dominated youth subcultures like the punk movement? What role does the subculture play in their perceptions of themselves, and in their self-esteem? How do girls reconcile a subcultural identity that is deliberately coded "masculine" with the demands of "femininity"? (Leblanc: backcover)

These are the some of the questions that frame Lauraine Leblanc's quest to understand the positioning of females in the punk movement. Pretty in Punk: Girls' Gender Resistance in a Boys' Subculture serves as an ethnographic account of her observations and findings in late-1990's punk culture in Atlanta, Montreal, New Orleans and San Francisco. Using judgmental and snowball sampling, Leblanc interviews and captures the stories of 40 female punks ranging in age from 14 to 37 (ibid: 27). Her approach is a phenomenological one, whereby she approaches the girls from a respectful manner. Her own participation in the punk scene is a valuable asset in interviewing the girls she approaches; many are willing to speak with her because they trust her punk signals.

The primary value of Pretty in Punk is as a feminist ethnographic account of a subculture, documenting the methodological, theoretical and ethical tensions that arrive while working with marginalized populations whose trust of authority is limited. This work serves to challenge and complement earlier depictions of subcultures and resistance while working within the framework that they offer. In particular, Leblanc challenges the Birmingham cultural studies tradition, specifically Stuart Hall who suggests that the only valuable theoretical tool for analyzing subcultures is marxism and class struggle (Hall: 198). Hall's theories on 'culturalism' can "not account for the way in which factors other than class (gender, race and subculture, for example) entered into what looked like far more complex relations of dominance and subordination" (Slack: 116). Leblanc does not disregard the class struggle, but she mixes feminist theory and cultural theory to highlight the complexities brought forward by a gendered and class-driven form of resistance. Siding with feminists, she quietly critiques early researchers by suggesting that the male-dominated analysis of subcultures is rooted in their romanticization and glorification of masculinity as seen through rebellion (Leblanc: 67).

As a native to punk culture, Leblanc uses her privileged position to craft an insider's view of punk's history, offering both the media narrative as well as the undercurrents involved. She is able to situate her contemporary observations within the larger history of punk and the public perspectives articulated by other women in punk. Her historical account of punk is exceptionally vibrant, revealing the complicated relationship between consumption, production and identity for punks of different political persuasions. For example, much of the punk DIY (do it yourself) aesthetic stems from turning mainstream consumer culture into some absurd, using the present fashion against itself. Yet, this inversion was immediately commoditized by Sex, a British store that produced the Sex Pistols to promote its merchandise (ibid: 37).

The punk value system is grounded in rejecting a society that had already rejected them by challenging the rules through mockery, irony and parody (ibid: 41). What emerged from this was a subculture that simultaneously challenged and magnified particular aspects of mainstream culture, such as violence and misogyny. Frequently, the punk philosophy does not coincide with punk actions. It is within these conflicts that Leblanc reveals the complexities of female roles, as both a victim and a perpetuator of the hyper-masculinized punk scene. In doing so, she weaves a story of abuse, resistance and self-realization amongst female punks.

Leblanc is aware that she is challenging all conceptions of punk and subcultures by cultural theorists, sociologists, feminists and parents. In her final chapter entitled "Nonacademic Conclusions," she addresses each of these communities from her framework.

The greatest weakness of this work stems from Leblanc's focus on the most noticeable of female punks. She sought girls who both identify as and are perceived as punks. While these women are arguably the most embedded in the subculture, their perception of the subculture is through this radical participation. Leblanc never addresses the girls who sit in the margins of participation, the girls that some of her informants call "safety girls" (ibid: 111). While her informants speak of girls who are ostracized from the scene for not being masculine enough, Leblanc never interviews these girls either. Thus, the stories of resistance she conveys are from the most public and consistently resistant girls.

Leblanc's familiarity with the punk scene is sometimes a hindrance to the writing because she sometimes fails to describe the significance of certain people and particular details. An example would be when she relies on the significance of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen's relationship to discuss abusive relationships (ibid: 125). Without knowing that Vicious killed Spungen (thanks to Wikipedia), the argument makes no sense.

Pretty in Punk is a critical supplement to current texts on subcultures. Leblanc gives a voice to the struggle of female punks by capturing their complicated, and sometimes disturbing relationship to their families, authorities and fellow punks. She reveals the significance of these girls' resistance to mainstreams culture in order to find identity and meaning, in spite of their second-class citizenship in punk culture. In doing so, Leblanc opens up subcultural studies, paving the way to move beyond Marxism to analyze subcultures. Her work also serves to convey the importance of a feminist reading of earlier (sub)cultural texts.

Further work in subcultural studies must address the overlooked populations and narratives, particularly those who are marginalized within those communities. Although Leblanc makes a passing reference to race and sexuality issues within subcultures, a proper treatment of their marginalized positions is necessary. Leblanc's passing reference to queercore makes it clear that there are other punk narratives. Future research should also consider the interrelationships between different subcultures and how individuals move between them. While Leblanc addresses how some punks came from the skater scene, she does not address how individual identity formation is affected by these changes and what prompts the move. It would also be beneficial to consider the transition between mainstream identity and subcultural identity for those individuals who do not become radical in their involvement and for those who leave the subcultural identity behind. Finally, as digital technology pervades youth culture, it would be interesting to consider how technologies such as mobile phones, instant messaging and blogging get used in the production and maintenance of subcultural identities.

Hall, Stuart. 2002. Notes on Deconstructing the 'Popular'. In Cultural Resistance Reader, 442-53. New York: Verso.

Slack, Jennifer Daryl. 1996. The theory and method of articulation in cultural studies. In Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies, 112-127. New York: Routledge.

Category: subcultures

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November 5, 2004

Max Weber: "Science as a Vocation"

Weber, Max. "Science as a Vocation" in H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (Translated and edited), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, pp. 129-156, New York: Oxford University Press, 1946.

Synopsis:

"The task of the teacher is to serve the students with his knowledge and scientific exposure and not to imprint upon them his personal political views" (146).

Speaking to students at Munich University in 1918, Max Weber addresses “Science as a Vocation." Weber begins by explaining what it means to have a vocation in science, comparing the trajectories in Germany and America. This section is ripe with messages that a vocation in science is a miserable task, full of all sorts of grief. He challenges anyone who suggests that they have a calling for science, explaining that they will never overcome the grief without the intoxication of a "personal experience" of science and the passion to pursue it. He continues on to address the personality of one pursuing science, explaining that while those in science are measured and evaluated on their teaching, only few possess the ability to succeed at teaching and research. Weber's depiction of the scientist is almost pitiful, but the descriptive, reflective nature of the speech makes it quite thought provoking.

Weber's next move is to consider the meaning of science as a vocation, pointing out the illusory notion of all considered meanings of science as: "the 'way to true being,' the 'way to true art,' the 'way to true nature,' the 'way to true God,' the 'way to true happiness'" (143). Due to the political culture of his time, science as a vocation can only have value if it answers, "What shall we do and how shall we live?" (143). Weber argues that science as vocation fails all of the internal presuppositions, but it not because science is actually free from presuppositions. Quite the contrary, one critical presupposition underlies all notions of science: that something is 'worth being known' (143). "Whether life is worth living and when - this question is not asked by medicine... Aesthetics does not ask whether there should be works of art... Whether there should be law and whether one should establish just these rules - such questions jurisprudence does not answer" (144). Those engaged in science do not have to explain whether it is worthwhile.

Given this presupposition that Weber argues that, "the prophet and the demagogue do not belong on the academic platform" (146). The role of the teacher is to teach facts, not to address the value of things; doing so is akin to being political. In the remainder of the speech, he admonishes teachers for engaging in political discourse in the classroom. To be political is to take advantage of one's power. While students may seek a leader, a teacher is not a leader. Likewise, he speaks to students, asking them not to value a teacher based on his skills as a leader (150). Removing the political and leadership-related qualities from teaching does not destroy the value of a teacher. Science contributes to the technology of controlling life, methods of thinking, tools and training for thought, and a process with which one can gain clarity. This is what students should be seeking when they seek out science.

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Category: sociology

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November 1, 2004

concept: Thanatos

In greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death. In Freudian psychology, Thanatos refers to the "death instinct."

By wishing to be dead while alive, one is always challenging death, inviting it to play. This plays into the human desire to be doing what is not always best for living, making a goal out of being on the brink of death.

Category: concepts

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Stuart Hall: "Cultural Studies: two paradigms"

Hall, Stuart. "Cultural Studies: two paradigms" in Media, Culture and Society 2 (1980): 57-72.

Synopsis:

Hall opens with a reminder that Cultural Studies emerged as a response to a particular state of affairs in Britain in the 50s, referencing early New Left agenda that positioned "'politics of intellectual work' squarely at the centre of Cultural Studies from the beginning" (58).

He then draws out two different notions of 'culture' that underscore Raymond Williams' Long Revolution:

  • Def 1: Culture is "the sum of the available descriptions through which societies make sense of and reflect their common experiences" (59). This definition allows us to talk about democratization of culture.
  • Def 2: Coming from an anthropological perspective, culture "refers to social practices" and "the study of relationships between elements in a whole way of life" (60). In other words, threaded through all social practices is culture which is the "sum of their inter-relationships" (60).

Hall then moves to discuss culture in Williams' text before broadly speaking of the historical situation around Cultural Studies that permitted this, referencing a structuralist and culturalist schism and moving to the likes of Marx, Althusser, Gramsci, Durkheim, and Levi-Strauss to complicate the concept of culture from the schism. Hall suggests that culturalism "would correct for the hyper-structrualism ... by restoring the unified subject" while "discourse theory" (?poststructuralism?) "restores the decentered subject, the contradictory subject, as a set of positions in language and knowledge, from which culture can appear to be enunciated" (70).

For Hall, Cultural Studies "thinks forwards from the best elements in the structuralist and culturalist enterprises" (72). Individually, neither will do but between them, they address the core issues of Cultural Studies.

Continue reading "Stuart Hall: "Cultural Studies: two paradigms""

Category: cultural studies

Posted by zephoria at 4:54 PM