Week 3: Popular Culture and Critical Theory/ Race and Racism...

Week 3: Popular Culture and Critical Theory/ Race and Racism

Initial discussion postings should be a minimum of 250 words.

 

Responses to each question should draw on key concepts you have learned during the week’s reading, and to a lesser extent, your personal experience and opinions. You are welcome to incorporate relevant supplemental material (i.e. a news item, website, youtube video, etc.)

NOTE: Anytime you use someone else's ideas (i.e. a definition from the text or paraphrasing), you MUST use APA style citations.

See Appendix A in the syllabus for the grading scale.

 

QUESTION:

What are some of the main claims of critical theorists about popular culture and the media? How does critical theory explain racial and ethnic stereotyping? How/why is stereotyping harmful? Please provide specific examples of racial/ ethnic stereotyping. Post one item of relevant supplemental material.

 

 The Week 3 Forum meets the following course objectives:

·      Describe examples of the different types of norms operative in popular culture, and how these are related to the process of social control.

·      Identify the research methods used to create knowledge about popular culture.

·      Apply key cultural theories and analytical dimensions for examining popular culture.

·      Illustrate diversity in popular culture and concepts of multiculturalism, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism with reference to key stratifying factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, region and sexuality.

·      Analyze culture within individual, social, historical, political, economic, and global contexts.

Society for Cinema & Media Studies
The New Hollywood Racelessness: Only the Fast, Furious, (And Multiracial) Will Survive
Author(s): Mary C. Beltrán
Reviewed work(s):
Source:
CinemaJournal,
Vol. 44, No. 2 (Winter, 2005), pp. 50-67
Published by: University of Texas Press
on behalf of the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3661094
.
Accessed: 08/11/2012 17:54
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
.
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Cinema Journal.
http://www.jstor.org

Bourdieu and Adorno: Converging theories of culture
and inequality
David Gartman
Published online: 25 October 2011
#
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract
The theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno both conceive culture as legitimating the inequalities of modern societies. But they postulate
different mechanisms of legitimation. For Bourdieu, modern culture is a class culture, characterized by socially ranked symbolic differences among classes that make some seem superior to others. For Adorno, modern culture is a mass culture,
characterized by a socially imposed symbolic unity that obscures class differences
behind a facade of leveled democracy. In his later writings, however, Bourdieu
’
s
theory converges with that of Adorno. He too begins to privilege the high culture of
intellectuals over mass culture by employing the universal standard of autonomy
from economic interests. But there remains one vital difference between these
theories. Bourdieu grounds the origins of a critical, autonomous culture in specific
social structures, while Adorno grounds it in technology.
Keywords Culture . Class
. Autonomy
.
Art
.
Market
Arguably the two most powerful and comprehensive theories of culture to emerge
from modern sociology are those authored by Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno. Both share a fundamental focus on the way that the myriad manifestations of culture in modern capitalist society
— art, music, television, film, consumer goods —
are
inextricably linked with the unequal structures of power and wealth. With Adorno,
Bourdieu sees modern society as a structure of domination founded on the unequal distribution of material resources. And for both theories, this structure of economic
domination generates a system of cultural domination that unintentionally legitimates its material inequalities. The cultural theories of Bourdieu and Adorno
also share a critical intent —
they seek not merely to understand the relation between
culture and inequality but also to change it, to break the cozy symbiosis between
Theor Soc (2012) 41:41 – 72
DOI 10.1007/s11186-011-9159-z
D. Gartman ( * )
Sociology Department, University of South Alabama, 307 University Blvd N, Mobile,
AL 36688-0002, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

Lesson 3: Popular Culture and Critical Theory; Race and Racism
This week, we will discuss the foundations of the critical approach, start exploring the concept of
culture industries, and consider the ways in which the culture industries contribute to reproducing
social inequality. We will analyze popular culture as social control. We will also discuss the
representations of race and manifestations of racism in popular culture.
According to the critical approach discussed in chapter 3 of our textbook, the rise of certain kinds of
pop culture can be explained primarily by their ability to reFect and reinforce the enormous economic
and cultural power of the mass media industry. Unlike the functionalist perspective, which claims that pop culture is something that we as a society create for ourselves, this paradigm argues for a top-
down model of popular culture, which it considers a form of domination. In particular, Grazian discusses the power of cultural industries. Advertising and marketing of major brands can be seen everywhere, and has become a very visible part of society. The popularity of cultural aspects such as
food, music, and media serve to increase the pro±ts of mega corporations. These corporations often
outsource to poorer nations where cheap, unfair labor is available, or use intimidation tactics to
control their employees. This side of culture is often hidden from the masses. Popular culture controls
members of society by essentially de±ning how people should live. Under the critical approach, the
only purpose of culture is to generate pro±t and certain kinds of popular culture can be explained
primarily in terms of their ability to reFect and reinforce the enormous economic and cultural power of
the mass media industry. Marx thought that the prevailing ideologies and cultural norms of any
society serve to bene±t its ruling classes and perpetuate their power. The class, which is the ruling
material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. Cultural producers create a
cultural monopoly where companies solidify and maintain their own economic power and social dominance through conglomeration. Media companies stunt the consumers’ power of imagination and spontaneity. Media companies are extremely powerful due to their small numbers and multiple outlets. Cultural hegemony refers to the process of cultural domination of one social group by another
and the use of culture and media as tools aimed at engineering a consensus. The 2012 article by Gartman examines the cultural theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno,
which both conceive culture as legitimating the inequalities of modern societies. The article by Beltran
discusses the casting of multiracial actors as Hollywood action ±lm protagonists. The article by
Martinez discusses rap music as a form of oppositional culture by analyzing the lyrics of 1980s and
1990s of political and gangsta rappers.
Beltrán, M.C. (2005). The New Hollywood Racelessness: Only the ²ast, ²urious, (And
Multiracial) Will Survive. Cinema Journal , 44(2), 50-67.
Grazian, D. (2010). Mix it up: Popular culture, mass media and society . New York, NY: W.W.
Norton & Company.
Gartman, D. (2012). Bourdieu and Adorno: Converging theories of culture and inequality.
Theory and Society , 41, 41-72.
Martinez, T. A. (1997). Popular culture as oppositional culture: Rap as Resistance. Sociological
Perspectives , 40(2), 265-286.

Pacific Sociological Association
Popular Culture as Oppositional Culture: Rap as Resistance
Author(s): Theresa A. Martinez
Reviewed work(s):
Source:
SociologicalPerspectives,
Vol. 40, No. 2 (1997), pp. 265-286
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1389525 .
Accessed: 08/11/2012 17:52
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
.
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]
.
University of California Press and Pacific Sociological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Sociological Perspectives.
http://www.jstor.org