Cultures and Societies in a Changing World

by Griswold, Wendy

• ISBN13: 9780803990180
• ISBN10: 0803990189
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-02-01
• Publisher: Pine Forge Pr

Summary

Reflecting the dramatic increase in global cultural interaction, Wendy Griswold explores the complex interplay between culture – idea systems, artworks, popular culture, religion beliefs, common sense – and social structure. Within the framework of the "cultural diamond" this book uses a comparative analysis of cultural objects and practices in Nigeria, China, the United States, and other locations around the world to demonstrate how cultural producers and consumers express a changing world through culture and how culture itself contributes to social changes.

Table of Contents

Figures	viii
About the Author	ix
Foreword	xi
Preface	xiii
Culture and the Cultural Diamond	1	(17)
Definitions: Two Ways of Looking at Culture	3	(8)
``The Best That Has Been Thought and Known''	4	(3)
``That Complex Whole''	7	(4)
Connections: The Links Between Culture and Society	11	(5)
The Cultural Object	11	(3)
The Cultural Diamond	14	(2)
Summary	16	(2)
Cultural Meaning	18	(26)
Why Do We Need Meaning?	20	(1)
Culture and Meaning in Reflection Theory	21	(4)
Culture as Mirror	22	(2)
The Greek Background to Reflection Theory	24	(1)
Culture and Meaning in Marxian Sociology	25	(6)
``From Earth to Heaven'': The Materialist Approach to Culture	27	(1)
Historical Materialism	28	(2)
Research Directions From the Marxian Tradition	30	(1)
Culture and Meaning in Functionalist Sociology	31	(4)
Culture and Meaning in Weberian Sociology	35	(5)
The Anxious Protestants and the World They Built	36	(2)
The Cultural Switchman	38	(2)
Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: A Case Study of Reflection Theory	40	(2)
Summary	42	(2)
Culture as a Social Creation	44	(25)
Durkheim and the Social Production of Culture	46	(6)
The Problem of Modern Social Life	46	(1)
Social Bonds: The Role of Religion	47	(4)
Culture as Collective Representation	51	(1)
The Collective Production of Culture	52	(8)
Symbolic Interactionism	53	(3)
Subcultures	56	(4)
Cultural Innovation and Social Change	60	(6)
Cultural Lags and Leads	61	(1)
Cultural Innovations	62	(4)
Summary	66	(3)
The Production, Distribution, and Reception of Culture	69	(24)
The Production of Culture	71	(9)
The Culture Industry System	72	(4)
Cultural Markets	76	(4)
Reception	80	(5)
Audiences and Taste Cultures	81	(2)
Horizons of Expectations	83	(2)
Freedom of Cultural Interpretation: Two Views	85	(7)
Seduction by Mass Culture	87	(2)
Resistance Through Popular Culture	89	(3)
Summary	92	(1)
The Cultural Construction of Social Problems	93	(23)
Making Trouble: The Rise and Fall of Social Problems	94	(6)
From Happening to Event to Social Problem	95	(3)
The Career of a Social Problem	98	(2)
The Cultural Reproduction of Inequality	100	(4)
Race and Ethnicity as Cultural Objects	104	(5)
The Wars of Modernity	109	(4)
Summary	113	(3)
Culture and Organizations: Getting Things Done in a Multicultural World	116	(22)
Organizational Cultures	119	(9)
Culture and Motivation	119	(4)
Cultures of Solidarity and Ambiguity	123	(5)
Organizations in Cultural Contexts	128	(4)
Working Across Cultures	132	(3)
Summary	135	(3)
Technology, Community, and Global Culture	138	(16)
Cultural Technologies and Cultural Communities	139	(8)
Oral Cultures	140	(1)
The Impact of Literacy	141	(2)
Electronic Media	143	(4)
Communities of Meaning in a Global Culture	147	(5)
Postmodernity and Community	148	(3)
Speaking in Tongues	151	(1)
Cultures Without Centers	152	(2)
Appendix: Nigeria and China, Moving Into the Twenty-First Century	154	(3)
References	157	(7)
Index	164