A broad set of cultural practices that include approaches, objects, beliefs, aesthetics and text considered to be ‘well-liked’ and ‘widely-favoured’. Due to its reliance on universality, popular culture is also a landscape of social processes reflective of cultural trends and tendencies, local and global alike. As such, it is reflective of dependencies between culture, politics and economy, and their overlapping uses of, and reliance on entertainment, preference, and any standard that merges an individual performance and social practice.
A complex notion that comprises a variety of practices responsible for group or individual identity and lifestyle in society. Culture is represented by (1) achievements (heritage, literature, art etc.), (2) pastimes (sports, cuisine etc), and texts of culture (responsible for the formation and circulation of meaning). For Raymond Williams ‘culture’ is ‘a whole way of life’ (everydayness) and the forms of signification (film, fiction, television, advertising etc.) that organize societies.
A 20th-century style and movement in the arts, criticism and architecture defined by the “playful” recycling of the modern in ways considered new and challenging to the earlier modernist movement. It is known for its deconstructive approach to culture with an aim to question universal truths and objective realities turning to individual judgement about the world. It is also characterized by the hyperrealistic organisation of life reflected in excessive consumption, cultivation of immediate pleasure and simulacrum lifestyles.
A social division into groups representing the same or similar socioeconomic status.
A relationship between signs and life practice, understood as what stands to someone for something and how it works in a social context. Meaning is usually represented by a triad comprising the representant or medium (sign vehicle: word, work of art, cultural content), the interpretant (what a sign renders), and the object (what a sign refers to). Meaning mediates the literal and metaphorical expression by means of intent and context, which impact signification in relation to objects, practices and activities.
A relationship between the complexities of language (semantics and syntax) and the linguistic/discursive environment (wherein content circulates and signification takes shape). Context represents clues for determining and decoding the meaning of specific content (be it a word, a text or other sign vehicle).
Represents complicated ideas, subjects and forms of expression associated with intellectual content and artistic sophistication.
Represents simple and more approachable ideas, subjects and forms of expression associated with universally appreciated content and intellectual naivety.
What preconditions human preferences and choices in the social context. According to Bourdieu, taste is not an innocent, pure ‘ability’ but an effect of many politically, economically, and socially regulated factors that mould human liking and modes of appreciation. It is also what positions an individual in a given social group (or class) and against other groups (or classes). TASTE is, therefore, a means of social stratification whereby an individual becomes identified through the hierarchies of taste that inform about what is considered aesthetically valuable. As such, the notion of TASTE makes people constantly redefine themselves: their sense of social belonging and personal value, by legitimate standards of aesthetic value (legitimate taste) and personal aesthetic pleasure (arbitrary taste). Because it is mostly symbolic, and seemingly situated outside of what we may directly link with aesthetic pleasure, TASTE seems something natural, so does the social stratification it propels.
Signifies cultural products, phenomena and content intended for mass audiences (mass consumption and appreciation), produced and distributed by means of industrialized techniques on a large scale. Mass culture is associated with production means that emerged with the rise of modern technologies and mass media.
A body of works considered to be representative of a particular theme, context or standard (artistic, legal, scientific and other) considered to be emblematic, sophisticated and/or of the highest quality.
A form of expression characterised by the use of derision, exaggeration and irony aimed to paint a caricature of a situation, thing or person.
A state and system of advanced development in a society characterized by complex organisation, high urbanization and a system of communication beyond the natural language.
A structure that organizes the outcomes of cultural practice (text of culture, activities, beliefs, aesthetics, etc.) according to their level of sophistication and advancement based on the established decorum, eligibility, and function.
Socially formed dispositions that structure an individual’s life environment and an individual’s propensities to feel, think and act in specific (pre-determined) ways.
A quality or state of being uniform that is of a similar (or identical) nature; of the same type or kind.
A method of cultural analysis aimed at the criticism of political and economic influences on social standards, especially socio-economic injustices and their related effects. Marxism is founded on materialist interpretation (historical materialism / dialectical materialism) used to unravel the myopia of capitalism and the economic manipulation the capitalist systems entail. As an intellectual trend and philosophical approach, Marxism addresses a number of ethical issues including the value of labour, creative energies and human activity.
This is considered a perception and study of the world in terms of structures, believing in the existence of universal and underlying structures generated by the human mind and manifesting themselves in the form of meaningful units and rules. Structuralism emerged from linguistics and spread into anthropology, psychology and sciences to organize the study of human phenomena.
This is considered a set of intellectual developments in reaction to structuralism founded on the scepticism of universal structures as the object and method of study. It proposed and invested into alternative perspectives dubbed “subjugated knowledges” giving rise to many radical philosophies (feminism, critical Marxism etc.) and putting a play in the centre of study as an indication of a constant change in factors at the foundation of cultural standards and symbols.
In the Marxist view on social organisation, base stands for the economy and modes of production (e.g. feudal, capitalist).
In the Marxist view of social organisation, superstructure represents social, cultural, legal and other arrangements which operate in relation to a particular economic base.
The ultimate goal and effect of the production process based on the acquisition of content, goods or services and their utilization in a predesigned manner. Consumption is believed to be a lifestyle and a form of the social economy characteristic of mass culture and industrialized large-scale production with an impact on meaning formation.
This is believed to be a personal identification of one’s sex in opposition to a person’s natal sex defining people as male, female or intersex. Gender is an individualized approach to sexual identity influenced by the cultural understanding of the sexes and their social roles. Such an understanding may cause both limitations (reducing gender to the male-female binary) and liberations (offering broader interpretations of natal sex, the most common being transgender, non-binary and gender-neutral). Most importantly, gender is reflective of the cultural significations of human biology with regard to social practice and individual psychology.
An approach for analysing the relationship between individuals, groups, and social factors responsible for patterns of social privilege and discrimination. Intersectionality provides a framework to understand the mechanisms of advantage and disadvantage in relation to social identity, and how it is formed by prejudice, entitlement and other favourable or unfavourable social biases. It has been used in the study of racial issues, minority problems and marginalisation.
An anthropological category of human traits based on physical traits and qualities considered representative of a specific group. It is also a category of cultural discrimination and social injustice leading to political conflicts and economic exploitation.
An unfounded prejudice against people of a certain ethnicity, physiognomy, culture or orientation leading to social conflicts and discrimination.
The physical quality of objects responsible for the objects’ affordances and further uses and meanings in cultural environments. It is also a consequence by means of which cultural artifacts interact with social contexts and impact the social organisation.
This stands for the phenomena of the natural world not made by people and an environment uninfluenced by human activity. In cultural studies, it represents opposition to the curated development of the human represented by upbringing, education and other “cultured” influences.
The current geological era ‘notorious’ for human devastating influence on the planet.
The socio-economic period in modern history since 1400s responsible for the systemic and organizational changes in natural environment by means of its specific organization or labour and work system (based on the Industrial Revolution).