Studying Culture: A practical Introduction

This accessible introduction to the study of culture is written specifically for those who are new to the subject. The book includes numerous student–friendly features throughout, encouraging the reader to think analytically about culture and how it can be interpreted. Fully revised and updated, the second edition: Explores key issues and theories on identities, representation, histories, places, and spaces, discussing the various interpretations of culture and cultural studies Incorporates new work on the study of space, place, identity, gender, and cultural history, as well as new sections on cultural studies theories and methodology in each chapter Introduces more complex issues including high and popular culture, subjectivities, consumption, and new technologies, and a fully updated section on new and enduring trends in technology and culture Features useful exercises and activities, selections of readings, author commentaries, and a full set of new case studies with a global emphasis. Cover image by Shelley Clarkson, Installation Artist www.shelleyclarkson.co.uk Cover design by For information, news, and content about Blackwell books and journals in communication please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/communication

List of Figures.

List of Tables.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1. What is Culture?.

Introduction.

The Culture and Civilization Debate.

The Mass Culture Debate.

Social Definitions of Culture.

Culture and Power.

Conclusions.

2. Identity and Difference.

Introduction.

Who am I?.

Social Constructivist Approaches to Identity.

Identity Crisis and the Modern World.

Representing and Narrating Identity.

Conclusions.

3. Representation.

Introduction.

Language and Representation.

Communicating Meaning.

Representation and discourse.

Representation, Discourse and Resistance.

Conclusions.

4. History.

Introduction.

The Past As it Really Was ?.

Challenges to Objectivity: Post–structuralist Theories of History.

The Past and Popular Memory.

History as Heritage .

Conclusions.

5. Location, Location, Location: Cultural Geographies.

Place and Identity: A Brief Introduction.

Mapping Realities?.

Going Shopping.

Case Study: Mapping Los Angeles.

Conclusions.

6. Case Study: Global Tourism.

The Story of Tourism.

Tourism as Social Practice.

Tourist Places.

Tourism and Identities.

Tourism and Heritage.

Cultural Imperialism or Cultural Globalization?.

Conclusions.

7. Cultural Value: High Culture and Popular Culture.

Defining Culture.

Discriminations.

Versions of Literary Culture.

Rereading Literature.

Rereading Texts: The Wind in the Willows (1908) and English Masculinity.

Conclusions.

8. Subjects, Bodies, Selves.

Introduction.

Fragmented or Multiple Selves?.

Language and Subjectivity.

Discourse and the Subject.

Embodied Selves.

Conclusions.

9. Consumption.

Introduction.

What is a Consumer?.

Buying a Newspaper.

My High Street and your High Street.

Theories of Consumption.

Selling Identities.

Agency, Appropriation, and Ethics.

Conclusions.

10. Technology.

The Place of the Personal: Ethnography and the Practice of Cultural Studies.

Twentieth–century Technology: Cultural Studies of TV.

Living with Technology.

Working with the Web.

Conclusions.

Conclusion.

References and Further Reading.

Bibliography.

Index

Professor Judy Giles lectures in Cultural Studies and Literature at York St. John University. She is the author of The Parlour and the Suburb (2004) and co–editor of Writing Englishness 1900 1950 (1995).

Professor Tim Middleton lectures in Literature & Creative Studies at Bath Spa University. He has published on modern and contemporary fiction, masculinity, and national identity and is co–editor of Writing Englishness, 1900 1950 (1995) and editor of Modernism: Cultural & Critical Concepts (2003).

This is an invaluable introduction for students across the humanities and social sciences. A synthesis of carefully weighted comment, readings, images, and activities involves the reader in the pleasures, perils, and multiple meanings of that most complex word, culture .
Mary Eagleton, Leeds Metropolitan University