Culture, Society, Sociology September 2, 2014 Culture, Society, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Culture, Society, Sociology

September 2, 2014

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Recap: The Problem of Sorting

Remember the most-to-least-similar problem UNC-CH Rankings:

“Contribution to the Public Good”: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/ rankings-2014/national-universities-rank.php “Happiest Freshmen”: http://www.collegechoice.net/posts/ colleges-with-happiest-freshman/ “Absolutely Everything that Matters”: http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/25/ the-best-52-colleges-in-america-period-when-you-consider-absolutely-

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What are Americans Like?

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America American Exceptionalism Individualistic “A Nation of Joiners” Americans’ “habits of the heart”

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Persistent Trends

Americans remain more likely than others to. . .

Go to church Volunteer in social services agencies Mistrust government Resent taxation Believe wealth is distributed fairly Have opinions

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Culture

“What are Americans Like” is an invitation to discuss American culture What do we mean by culture?

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Culture (cont.)

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Culture (cont.)

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Culture (cont.)

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Culture (cont.)

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The Sociology of Culture

Older conception: the Values of a population Example: Americans value freedom, success, wealth, opportunity Problems:

1

Nobody was ever able to measure these values

2

Very little variation

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The Sociology of Culture (cont.)

• New conception: Repertoire of Interpretive

Strategies Repertoire: A list of dramas, operas, pieces, parts, etc., which a company

• r a person has rehearsed and is prepared to perform

Interpret: To explain or tell the meaning of; to expound; to translate

• rally into intelligible or familiar language or terms; to

decipher; to define; to apprehend and represent by means of art; to show by illustrative representation; as, an actor interprets the character of Hamlet; a musician interprets a sonata; an artist interprets a landscape Strategy: an elaborate and systematic plan of action

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The Sociology of Culture (Cont.)

Ann Swidler (1986): “Culture in Action” Drawing on Tocqueville: Styles, Skills, Habits Culture as Toolbox

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The Sociology of Culture (cont.)

Cultures are cross-cutting and overlapping Cultural membership can be partial Cultures “produce” their members Cultures provide members with the ways they understand their lives and the tools they choose to apply to problems Culture is both constraining and enabling People know more culture than they use (Vaisey)

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Collective Memory

One thing that holds cultures together is what they know in common Obvious, taken for granted, remembered Culture in mind vs. Culture in the world Collected vs. Collective memories

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The Unbuilt Environment

Perrin, Perrin, Caren, Skinner

Does physical environment affect obesity risk?

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Cultural Objects

Art, Music, Food, etc.

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The Nacirema: Cultural Objects

“The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious [6] about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as

• revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small

bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.”

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Example: Watergate

Michael Schudson, Watergate in American Memory: How we Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past Americans “think with” Watergate What other tools does American culture provide?

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Example: Hiroshima

1945 atomic bombing Not commemorated as “Mecca of Peace” until after 1954 Saito H. “Reiterated Commemoration: Hiroshima as National Trauma.” Sociological Theory 24:4 (December 2006)

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Example: Madonna

(Switch to PowerPoint)

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Generations

Karl Mannheim (1893–1947): generations are defined through common experiences e.g, Great Depression, WWII, Kennedy Assassination, Vietnam, Berlin Wall, 9/11 Survey questions: what do people remember when asked? Southern whites of a particular age (born 1929–1956) mention the Civil Rights Movement more than other regions or ages

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Culture: Measurement and Effects

Culture is very tough to measure Big data is one frontier Evidence for culture mattering?

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