This text offers an overview of contemporary cultural theory. Drawing together different approaches and traditions, the author demonstrates the breadth of the field of cultural theory and proposes a multidimensional model for understanding culture in late modernity. The four main issues of contemporary thought that the author discusses are: the analysis of modernity and modernization, including the concepts of late moderntiy and postmodernity; the critique of contemporary societies including the public and private spheres, power and resistance, institutions and social movements, taste hierarchies and subcultures; the interpretation of cultural symbols such as how texts, styles, genres and media work to produce meaning; and the formation of sleves and subjects including socialization, identity, authenticity and reflexivity. The author also discusses the work of among others, Jurgen Habermas, THomas Ziehe, Paul Ricoeur, Pierre Bourdieu, Jean Laplanche and Julia Kristeva.
This text offers an overview of contemporary cultural theory. Drawing together different approaches and traditions, the author demonstrates the breadth of the field of cultural theory and proposes a multidimensional model for understanding culture in late modernity. The four main issues of contemporary thought that the author discusses are: the analysis of modernity and modernization, including the concepts of late moderntiy and postmodernity; the critique of contemporary societies including the public and private spheres, power and resistance, institutions and social movements, taste hierarchies and subcultures; the interpretation of cultural symbols such as how texts, styles, genres and media work to produce meaning; and the formation of sleves and subjects including socialization, identity, authenticity and reflexivity. The author also discusses the work of among others, Jurgen Habermas, THomas Ziehe, Paul Ricoeur, Pierre Bourdieu, Jean Laplanche and Julia Kristeva.
Poised between the commercialism of mass consumption and a questioning of prevailing social norms, youth cultures offer a fascinating insight into the social and cultural state of western societies. This book provides an exploration of such cultures, with all their implicit ironies and contradictions, at the end of the 20th century. The contributors highlight current forms of expression - music, style, fashion, entertainment - and the richness of youth cultures' historical and contemporary variety. Key issues analyzed include: why are young people seen as at risk from popular culture? how does late modernity affect changing shifts in gender relations? how do young people relate to texts, from the literary to the transgressive? how do the young construct alternative social spheres and symbolic forms? At the same time the book outlines the range of approaches to understanding youth culture and subculture and their relations to, or differences from, popular and high culture. This collection should be useful reading for students of cultural studies and communications, and for all those across the humanities and social sciences interested in the nature, formation and dynamics of youth cultures.
Poised between the commercialism of mass consumption and a questioning of prevailing social norms, youth cultures offer a fascinating insight into the social and cultural state of western societies. This book provides an exploration of such cultures, with all their implicit ironies and contradictions, at the end of the 20th century. The contributors highlight current forms of expression - music, style, fashion, entertainment - and the richness of youth cultures' historical and contemporary variety. Key issues analyzed include: why are young people seen as at risk from popular culture? how does late modernity affect changing shifts in gender relations? how do young people relate to texts, from the literary to the transgressive? how do the young construct alternative social spheres and symbolic forms? At the same time the book outlines the range of approaches to understanding youth culture and subculture and their relations to, or differences from, popular and high culture. This collection should be useful reading for students of cultural studies and communications, and for all those across the humanities and social sciences interested in the nature, formation and dynamics of youth cultures.
