title
stringlengths 3
71
| text
stringlengths 691
193k
| relevans
float64 0.76
0.81
| popularity
float64 0.94
1
| ranking
float64 0.74
0.81
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
Emerging technologies | Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized. These technologies are generally new but also include old technologies finding new applications. Emerging technologies are often perceived as capable of changing the status quo.
Emerging technologies are characterized by radical novelty (in application even if not in origins), relatively fast growth, coherence, prominent impact, and uncertainty and ambiguity. In other words, an emerging technology can be defined as "a radically novel and relatively fast growing technology characterised by a certain degree of coherence persisting over time and with the potential to exert a considerable impact on the socio-economic domain(s) which is observed in terms of the composition of actors, institutions and patterns of interactions among those, along with the associated knowledge production processes. Its most prominent impact, however, lies in the future and so in the emergence phase is still somewhat uncertain and ambiguous."
Emerging technologies include a variety of technologies such as educational technology, information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
New technological fields may result from the technological convergence of different systems evolving towards similar goals. Convergence brings previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications) and video together so that they share resources and interact with each other, creating new efficiencies.
Emerging technologies are those technical innovations which represent progressive developments within a field for competitive advantage; converging technologies represent previously distinct fields which are in some way moving towards stronger inter-connection and similar goals. However, the opinion on the degree of the impact, status and economic viability of several emerging and converging technologies varies.
History of emerging technologies
In the history of technology, emerging technologies are contemporary advances and innovation in various fields of technology.
Over centuries innovative methods and new technologies have been developed and opened up. Some of these technologies are due to theoretical research, and others from commercial research and development.
Technological growth includes incremental developments and disruptive technologies. An example of the former was the gradual roll-out of DVD (digital video disc) as a development intended to follow on from the previous optical technology compact disc. By contrast, disruptive technologies are those where a new method replaces the previous technology and makes it redundant, for example, the replacement of horse-drawn carriages by automobiles and other vehicles.
Emerging technology debates
Many writers, including computer scientist Bill Joy, have identified clusters of technologies that they consider critical to humanity's future. Joy warns that the technology could be used by elites for good or evil. They could use it as "good shepherds" for the rest of humanity or decide everyone else is superfluous and push for the mass extinction of those made unnecessary by technology.
Advocates of the benefits of technological change typically see emerging and converging technologies as offering hope for the betterment of the human condition. Cyberphilosophers Alexander Bard and Jan Söderqvist argue in The Futurica Trilogy that while Man himself is basically constant throughout human history (genes change very slowly), all relevant change is rather a direct or indirect result of technological innovation (memes change very fast) since new ideas always emanate from technology use and not the other way around. Man should consequently be regarded as history's main constant and technology as its main variable. However, critics of the risks of technological change, and even some advocates such as transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom, warn that some of these technologies could pose dangers, perhaps even contribute to the extinction of humanity itself; i.e., some of them could involve existential risks.
Much ethical debate centers on issues of distributive justice in allocating access to beneficial forms of technology. Some thinkers, including environmental ethicist Bill McKibben, oppose the continuing development of advanced technology partly out of fear that its benefits will be distributed unequally in ways that could worsen the plight of the poor. By contrast, inventor Ray Kurzweil is among techno-utopians who believe that emerging and converging technologies could and will eliminate poverty and abolish suffering.
Some analysts such as Martin Ford, author of The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future, argue that as information technology advances, robots and other forms of automation will ultimately result in significant unemployment as machines and software begin to match and exceed the capability of workers to perform most routine jobs.
As robotics and artificial intelligence develop further, even many skilled jobs may be threatened. Technologies such as machine learning may ultimately allow computers to do many knowledge-based jobs that require significant education. This may result in substantial unemployment at all skill levels, stagnant or falling wages for most workers, and increased concentration of income and wealth as the owners of capital capture an ever-larger fraction of the economy. This in turn could lead to depressed consumer spending and economic growth as the bulk of the population lacks sufficient discretionary income to purchase the products and services produced by the economy.
Examples of emerging technologies
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the sub intelligence exhibited by machines or software, and the branch of computer science that develops machines and software with animal-like intelligence. Major AI researchers and textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents," where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956, defines it as "the study of making intelligent machines".
The central functions (or goals) of AI research include reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, natural language processing (communication), perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. General intelligence (or "strong AI") is still among the field's long-term goals. Currently, popular approaches include deep learning, statistical methods, computational intelligence and traditional symbolic AI. There is an enormous number of tools used in AI, including versions of search and mathematical optimization, logic, methods based on probability and economics, and many others.
3D printing
See also: Ai CAD libraries
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has been posited by Jeremy Rifkin and others as part of the third industrial revolution.
Combined with Internet technology, 3D printing would allow for digital blueprints of virtually any material product to be sent instantly to another person to be produced on the spot, making purchasing a product online almost instantaneous.
Although this technology is still too crude to produce most products, it is rapidly developing and created a controversy in 2013 around the issue of 3D printed firearms.
Gene therapy
Gene therapy was first successfully demonstrated in late 1990/early 1991 for adenosine deaminase deficiency, though the treatment was somatic – that is, did not affect the patient's germ line and thus was not heritable. This led the way to treatments for other genetic diseases and increased interest in germ line gene therapy – therapy affecting the gametes and descendants of patients.
Between September 1990 and January 2014, there were around 2,000 gene therapy trials conducted or approved.
Cancer vaccines
A cancer vaccine is a vaccine that treats existing cancer or prevents the development of cancer in certain high-risk individuals. Vaccines that treat existing cancer are known as therapeutic cancer vaccines. There are currently no vaccines able to prevent cancer in general.
On April 14, 2009, The Dendreon Corporation announced that their Phase III clinical trial of Provenge, a cancer vaccine designed to treat prostate cancer, had demonstrated an increase in survival. It received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for use in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer patients on April 29, 2010. The approval of Provenge has stimulated interest in this type of therapy.
Cultured meat
Cultured meat, also called in vitro meat, clean meat, cruelty-free meat, shmeat, and test-tube meat, is an animal-flesh product that has never been part of a living animal with exception of the fetal calf serum taken from a slaughtered cow. In the 21st century, several research projects have worked on in vitro meat in the laboratory. The first in vitro beefburger, created by a Dutch team, was eaten at a demonstration for the press in London in August 2013. There remain difficulties to be overcome before in vitro meat becomes commercially available. Cultured meat is prohibitively expensive, but it is expected that the cost could be reduced to compete with that of conventionally obtained meat as technology improves. In vitro meat is also an ethical issue. Some argue that it is less objectionable than traditionally obtained meat because it does not involve killing and reduces the risk of animal cruelty, while others disagree with eating meat that has not developed naturally.
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology (sometimes shortened to nanotech) is the manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale. The earliest widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and molecules for fabrication of macroscale products, also now referred to as molecular nanotechnology. A more generalized description of nanotechnology was subsequently established by the National Nanotechnology Initiative, which defines nanotechnology as the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers. This definition reflects the fact that quantum mechanical effects are important at this scale, and so the definition shifted from a particular technological goal to a research category inclusive of all types of research and technologies that deal with the special properties of matter that occur below the given size threshold.
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing. These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, and/or cognition. A good example of a robot that resembles humans is Sophia, a social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics which was activated on April 19, 2015. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics.
Stem-cell therapy
Stem cell therapy is an intervention strategy that introduces new adult stem cells into damaged tissue in order to treat disease or injury. Many medical researchers believe that stem cell treatments have the potential to change the face of human disease and alleviate suffering. The ability of stem cells to self-renew and give rise to subsequent generations with variable degrees of differentiation capacities offers significant potential for generation of tissues that can potentially replace diseased and damaged areas in the body, with minimal risk of rejection and side effects.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells have raised among other immunotherapies for cancer treatment, being implemented against B-cell malignancies. Despite the promising outcomes of this innovative technology, CAR-T cells are not exempt from limitations that must yet to be overcome in order to provide reliable and more efficient treatments against other types of cancer.
Distributed ledger technology
Distributed ledger or blockchain technology provides a transparent and immutable list of transactions. A wide range of uses has been proposed for where an open, decentralised database is required, ranging from supply chains to cryptocurrencies.
Smart contracts are self-executing transactions which occur when pre-defined conditions are met. The aim is to provide security that is superior to traditional contract law, and to reduce transaction costs and delays. The original idea was conceived by Nick Szabo in 1994, but remained unrealised until the development of blockchains.
Augmented reality
This type of technology where digital graphics are loaded onto live footage has been around since the 20th century, but thanks to the arrival of more powerful computing hardware and the implementation of open source, this technology has been able to do things that we never thought were possible. Some ways in which we have used this technology can be through apps such as Pokémon Go, Snapchat and Instagram filters and other apps that create fictional things in real objects.
Multi-use rockets
This technology can be attributed to Elon Musk and the space company SpaceX, where instead of creating single use rockets that have no purpose after their launch, they are now able to land safely in a pre-specified place where they can recover them and use them again in later launches.
Development of emerging technologies
As innovation drives economic growth, and large economic rewards come from new inventions, a great deal of resources (funding and effort) go into the development of emerging technologies. Some of the sources of these resources are described below.
Research and development
Research and development is directed towards the advancement of technology in general, and therefore includes development of emerging technologies. See also List of countries by research and development spending.
Applied research is a form of systematic inquiry involving the practical application of science. It accesses and uses some part of the research communities' (the academia's) accumulated theories, knowledge, methods, and techniques, for a specific, often state-, business-, or client-driven purpose.
Science policy is the area of public policy which is concerned with the policies that affect the conduct of the science and research enterprise, including the funding of science, often in pursuance of other national policy goals such as technological innovation to promote commercial product development, weapons development, health care and environmental monitoring.
Patents
Patents provide inventors with a limited period of time (minimum of 20 years, but duration based on jurisdiction) of exclusive right in the making, selling, use, leasing or otherwise of their novel technological inventions. Artificial intelligence, robotic inventions, new material, or blockchain platforms may be patentable, the patent protecting the technological know-how used to create these inventions. In 2019, WIPO reported that AI was the most prolific emerging technology in terms of number of patent applications and granted patents, the Internet of things was estimated to be the largest in terms of market size. It was followed, again in market size, by big data technologies, robotics, AI, 3D printing and the fifth generation of mobile services (5G). Since AI emerged in the 1950s, 340000 AI-related patent applications were filed by innovators and 1.6 million scientific papers have been published by researchers, with the majority of all AI-related patent filings published since 2013. Companies represent 26 out of the top 30 AI patent applicants, with universities or public research organizations accounting for the remaining four.
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
DARPA was created in 1958 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Its purpose was to formulate and execute research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, with the aim to reach beyond immediate military requirements.
Projects funded by DARPA have provided significant technologies that influenced many non-military fields, such as the Internet and Global Positioning System technology.
Technology competitions and awards
There are awards that provide incentive to push the limits of technology (generally synonymous with emerging technologies). Note that while some of these awards reward achievement after-the-fact via analysis of the merits of technological breakthroughs, others provide incentive via competitions for awards offered for goals yet to be achieved.
The Orteig Prize was a $25,000 award offered in 1919 by French hotelier Raymond Orteig for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. In 1927, underdog Charles Lindbergh won the prize in a modified single-engine Ryan aircraft called the Spirit of St. Louis. In total, nine teams spent $400,000 in pursuit of the Orteig Prize.
The XPRIZE series of awards, public competitions designed and managed by the non-profit organization called the X Prize Foundation, are intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind. The most high-profile XPRIZE to date was the $10,000,000 Ansari XPRIZE relating to spacecraft development, which was awarded in 2004 for the development of SpaceShipOne.
The Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) to "an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community." It is stipulated that the contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field. The Turing Award is generally recognized as the highest distinction in computer science, and in 2014 grew to $1,000,000.
The Millennium Technology Prize is awarded once every two years by Technology Academy Finland, an independent fund established by Finnish industry and the Finnish state in partnership. The first recipient was Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.
In 2003, David Gobel seed-funded the Methuselah Mouse Prize (Mprize) to encourage the development of new life extension therapies in mice, which are genetically similar to humans. So far, three Mouse Prizes have been awarded: one for breaking longevity records to Dr. Andrzej Bartke of Southern Illinois University; one for late-onset rejuvenation strategies to Dr. Stephen Spindler of the University of California; and one to Dr. Z. Dave Sharp for his work with the pharmaceutical rapamycin.
Role of science fiction
Science fiction has often affected innovation and new technology by presenting creative, intriguing possibilities for technological advancement. For example, many rocketry pioneers were inspired by science fiction. The documentary How William Shatner Changed the World describes a number of examples of imagined technologies that became real.
In the media
The term bleeding edge has been used to refer to some new technologies, formed as an allusion to the similar terms "leading edge" and "cutting edge". It tends to imply even greater advancement, albeit at an increased risk because of the unreliability of the software or hardware. The first documented example of this term being used dates to early 1983, when an unnamed banking executive was quoted to have used it in reference to Storage Technology Corporation.
See also
List of emerging technologies
Foresight
Futures studies
Future of Humanity Institute
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future
Technological change
Differential technological development
Accelerating change
Moore's law
Innovation
Technological revolution
Transhumanism
Technological singularity
Upcoming software
Notes
References
Citations
Further reading
General
Giersch, H. (1982). Emerging technologies: Consequences for economic growth, structural change, and employment : symposium 1981. Tübingen: Mohr.
Jones-Garmil, K. (1997). The wired museum: Emerging technology and changing paradigms. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums.
Kaldis, Byron (2010). "Converging Technologies". Sage Encyclopedia of Nanotechnology and Society, Thousand Oaks: CA, Sage
Law and policy
Branscomb, L. M. (1993). Empowering technology: Implementing a U.S. strategy. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Raysman, R., & Raysman, R. (2002). Emerging technologies and the law: Forms and analysis. Commercial law intellectual property series. New York, N.Y.: Law Journal Press.
Information and learning
Hung, D., & Khine, M. S. (2006). Engaged learning with emerging technologies. Dordrecht: Springer.
Kendall, K. E. (1999). Emerging information technologies: Improving decisions, cooperation, and infrastructure. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.
Illustrated
Other
Cavin, R. K., & Liu, W. (1996). Emerging technologies: Designing low power digital systems. [New York]: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Bioethics
Transhumanism
Technology development | 0.77498 | 0.997463 | 0.773014 |
Hipster (contemporary subculture) | The 21st-century hipster is a subculture (sometimes called hipsterism). Fashion is one of the major markers of hipster identity. Members of the subculture typically do not self-identify as hipsters, and the word hipster is often used as a pejorative for someone who is pretentious or overly concerned with appearing trendy.
The subculture is often associated with indie and alternative music. In the United States and Canada, it is mostly associated with perceived upper-middle-class white young adults who gentrify urban areas. The subculture has been critiqued as lacking authenticity, promoting conformity and embodying a particular ethic of consumption that seeks to commodify the idea of rebellion or counterculture.
The term hipster in its present usage first appeared in the 1990s and became widely used in the late 2000s and early 2010s, being derived from the earlier hipster movements of the 1940s. Hipster culture had become a "global phenomenon" during the early-mid 2010s, before declining from the mainstream by 20162017.
History
In early 2000, both The New York Times and Time Out New York (TONY) ran profiles of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, referring to "bohemians" and "arty East Village types," respectively. By 2003, when The Hipster Handbook was published by Williamsburg resident Robert Lanham, the term hipster (originally referring to the 1940s subculture) had come into widespread use in relation to Williamsburg and similar neighborhoods. The Hipster Handbook described hipsters as young people with "mop-top haircuts, swinging retro pocketbooks, talking on cell phones, smoking European cigarettes... strutting in platform shoes with a biography of Che Guevara sticking out of their bags." Lanham further describes hipsters: "You graduated from a liberal arts school whose football team hasn't won a game since the Reagan administration[,]" and "you have one Republican friend who you always describe as being your 'one Republican friend. Mark Greif dates the initial phase of the revival of the term hipster to refer to this subculture from 1999 to 2003. While hipsters usually come from affluent white families, they can come from a multitude of backgrounds. A running theme of hipsters is having parents who are supporters of former President Ronald Reagan.
A similar phenomenon occurred in the United Kingdom, with young, comparatively affluent workers in the media and digital industries moving into traditionally working class areas of London such as Hoxton, Spitalfields, and, particularly, Shoreditch with the subsequent gentrification of these areas. The subculture was parodied in the magazine Shoreditch Twat (1999) and the television sitcom Nathan Barley (2005). The series, about a self-described "self-facilitating media node," led to the term Nathan Barleys being used pejoratively in London for the subculture it parodied.
In 2008, Utne Reader magazine writer Jake Mohan described "hipster rap" as "consisting of the most recent crop of MCs and DJs who flout conventional hip-hop fashions, eschewing baggy clothes and gold chains for tight jeans, big sunglasses, the occasional keffiyeh, and other trappings of the hipster lifestyle." He notes that the "old-school hip-hop website Unkut, and Jersey City rapper Mazzi" have criticized mainstream rappers whom they deem to be posers "for copping the metrosexual appearances of hipster fashion." Prefix Mag writer Ethan Stanislawski argues that there are racial elements to the rise of hipster rap. He claims that there "have been a slew of angry retorts to the rise of hipster rap," which he says can be summed up as "white kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop...without all the scary black people."
A 2009 Time magazine article described hipsters as follows: "take your grandmother's sweater and Bob Dylan's Wayfarers, add jean shorts, Converse All-Stars and a can of Pabst and bam — hipster."
Slate writer Brandon Stosuy noted that "Heavy metal has recently conquered a new frontier, making an unexpected crossover into the realm of hipsterdom." He argues that the "current revival seems to be a natural mutation from the hipster fascination with post-punk, noise, and no wave," which allowed even the "nerdiest indie kids to dip their toes into jagged, autistic sounds." He argues that a "byproduct" of this development was an "investigation of a musical culture that many had previously feared or fetishized from afar."
In his 2011 book HipsterMattic, author Matt Granfield described hipster culture:
Fashion
Stereotypical fashion elements include vintage clothes, alternative fashion, or a mixture of different fashions, often including skinny jeans, checked shirts, knit beanies, a full beard or deliberately attention-grabbing moustache, and thick-rimmed or lensless glasses.
Fixed-gear bicycles are associated with the hipster subculture. Slate calls the bikes an "increasingly common hipster accessory." An association of hipsters with an increasing popularity of full beards dates from before 2010. In 2016, historian Alun Withey remarked that "The hipster beard, or lumberjack beard, is going to be the defining facial hair of this generation." The undercut hairstyle also became popular among hipsters in the 2010s. Other hipster trends in the 2010s have included knitting, photography, horticulture, urban beekeeping, specialty coffee, craft beer, taxidermy, fedoras, and printing and bookbinding classes.
By region
In 2017, the British logistics and marketing firm MoveHub published a "Hipster Index" for the United States. This first study drew from five data points: microbreweries, thrift stores, vegan restaurants and tattoo parlors, and they compounded this data with cities' rent inflation in the previous year. In the following year, MoveHub came out with a similar study, this time measuring the most Hipster cities in the world. The metrics were slightly different for this study: they measured vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores. For the global study, they also limited their search to larger cities, with populations above 150,000 residents. For this reason, many American cities which ranked highly on the U.S. study in 2017 were not eligible for the 2018 study. iHeartRadio, a media and entertainment company, then took MoveHub's 2018 study, and narrowed it down to the Canadian cities. All three of these tables are referenced in the following sections about regions which have large hipster cultures. Top of the world list is the city of Brighton in the UK, whose MP Caroline Lucas was the sole Green Party MP voted into the British Parliament in the 2010, 2015 and 2017 general elections.
Top cities list
Pacific Northwest
In the above global index put out by MoveHub, three of the ten most hipster-centric cities around the world were listed as being in either Oregon or Washington state: Portland, Seattle, and Spokane. Of the top 20 hipster cities in the U.S., six of them were in the Pacific Northwest. This includes, in order: Vancouver, Washington; Boise, Idaho; Tacoma, Washington; Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington.
While Canada as a whole is often known for their liberal philosophy and openness towards alternative living, some of the listed hipster cities in Canada are in the Canadian province of British Columbia, which is just north of Washington state, and this included three of the five top-ranking cities—Victoria, Kelowna, and Vancouver.
Southwestern U.S.
Young adults (Millennials) are increasingly influencing culture in a number of cities throughout the Southwest and Rocky Mountain region. These cities are gaining a distinctive artsy, alternative atmosphere which is strongly associated with the term "hipster", forming havens for alternative, liberal lifestyles and politics in the midst of regions which normally have a strong association with the GOP and very traditional, conservative values.
One of these cities is Austin, Texas, well known as the home of the South by Southwest Music Festival. Texas is well known for its loyalty to the Republican party, but Austin is one of the few locales in Texas that reliably vote Democratic. There are also several organic foods and cosmetics companies based out of the city. The neighborhood of East Austin is an especially popular neighborhood for hipster-types to live in.
Another example of a liberal enclave in a conservative state is Salt Lake City, Utah. In the 2016 Presidential Election, a majority of voters chose Democrat Hillary Clinton in only two Utah counties, both located right around Salt Lake City. On the aforementioned MoveHub list of the 20 most hipster cities in America, Salt Lake City placed No. 2 in the whole nation. In a state known for its Mormon faith, Salt Lake City has become a favorite residence of LGBT people, and has sprouted an impressive host of microbreweries. The city also has many vegan stores and hiking trails.
Denver is another often-cited example of a famous pilgrimage destination for Millennials. Denver has a burgeoning reputation for its microbreweries. The city is also well known as a hiking and skiing destination. The city reportedly has one of the most active and "fit" populations in the U.S. The city is one of the 10 most dog-friendly cities in America, and has the highest number per-capita of dog walkers and pet sitters. In the music industry, one of the most famous venues for concerts, and one which many bands profess as being their favorite to perform at, is Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Bands sometimes have to book popular dates as far as five years in advance.
Other locales in the Southwest region which made MoveHub's list of the 20 Most Hipster Cities include Tucson, Arizona; Santa Rosa, California; Reno, Nevada; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
New York City
As hipsters—"young creatives" priced out of Bohemian urban neighborhoods in Brooklyn such as Williamsburg, Park Slope, and Greenpoint—moved into suburbs near New York City, The New York Times coined the neologism "Hipsturbia" to describe the hip lifestyle as lived in suburbia. Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, and Tarrytown, all in nearby Westchester County, were cited.
A minor trend of cross acculturation of Chabad Hasidism and Hipster subculture appeared within the New York Jewish community, beginning in the late 2000s. A significant number of members of the Chabad Hasidic community, mostly residing Crown Heights, Brooklyn, appear to now have adopted various cultural affinities as the local hipster subculture. These cross-acculturated Hasidim have been dubbed "Chabad hipsters" or "Hasidic hipsters." The Soho Synagogue, established by Chabad emissaries in SoHo, Manhattan, have branded themselves as a "hipster synagogue." The trend of Chabad Hasidic hipsters stands in contrast to the tensions experienced between the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg and local hipsters.
The 2014 song "Brooklyn Baby" by Lana Del Rey is notable for containing satirical elements targeting the New York hipster subculture: its chorus highlights "a stable of cliches about hipsters, Brooklyn, millennials and other things Del Rey herself is known to idolize." These elements include: having a boyfriend in a band, drug use (of amphetamines and hydroponic marijuana), obsession with Lou Reed and Beat Generation poetry, wearing feathers in hair, collecting jazz records, playing different musical instruments, and self-proclaiming coolness.
There has been a parallel movement within the American Muslim community with members termed "mipsters."
Russia
The Soviet equivalent of the hipster or beatnik, known as stilyagi, first appeared during the mid 1950s and identified with the modern jazz scene. Their outfits were exaggerated caricatures of the costumes worn by western actors and musicians and typically incorporated bright colors, slim-fit pants, thick-soled shoes, vintage clothing from the 1920s and earlier, brightly colored socks, and plaid sportcoats. Following the release of a cult film in 2008, modern hipsters in Moscow and Saint Petersburg revived some aspects of this subculture.
Racism
Hipster racism is engaging in behaviors typically regarded as racist and defending them as being performed ironically or satirically. Rachel Dubrofsky and Megan W. Wood have described it as being supposedly "too hip and self-aware to actually mean the racist stuff one expresses." This might include wearing blackface and other performances of stereotyped African Americans, use of the word nigger, and appropriating cultural dress. Talia Meer argues that hipster racism is rooted in what she calls "hipster exceptionalism," meaning "the idea that something ordinarily offensive or prejudiced is miraculously transformed into something clever, funny and socially relevant, by the assertion that said ordinarily offensive thing is ironic or satirical." As Leslie A. Hahner and Scott J. Varda described it, "those participating in acts of hipster racism understand those acts as racist when practiced by others, but rationalize their own racist performances through a presumed exceptionalism."
Hipsters and neo-Nazism
Nipsters are a right-wing neo-Nazi hipster movement that emerged in 2014. Nipsters have found ways to bypass the inhibition against right-wing extremist recruitment of adolescents in Germany through their indistinguishable similarity to and affiliation with the hipster subculture. The media uses the term nipster (a portmanteau of Nazi and hipster) for people who combine hipster style with right-wing and neo-Nazi extremism.
British neo-Nazi terrorist organisation National Action was said to have been a "mixture of hipsters and skinheads." The National, a Scottish newspaper, described the group as consisting of mostly middle-class hipster neo-fascists.
Sexism
Hipster sexism, also known as everyday sexism, or ironic sexism, is defined by Alissa Quart in New York magazine's fashion blog The Cut as "the objectification of women but in a manner that uses mockery, quotation marks, and paradox." It is a form of self-aware sexism that is deemed acceptable given that its perpetrators are conscious of the inherent sexism and objectification of women in whatever action or statement is being carried out by them. It is rooted in the idea that sexism is an outdated and archaic institution which people do not engage in anymore, thereby making the demonstration of sexism seem satirical and ironic.
Hipster sexism may be presented with derision and expressed as harmless. Quart posits that hipster sexism "is a distancing gesture, a belief that simply by applying quotations, uncool, questionable, and even offensive material about women can be alchemically transformed." She notes this form of sexism as having a particular public admissibility, saying that it perpetuates sexism in general due to a public tolerance based upon reasoning that instances of hipster sexism are humorous. Distinguishing socially critiquing comedy from hipster sexism, feminist discourse discusses hipster sexism as humor which, rather than offering critique, employs an evasive methodology which maintains stereotypes and prejudice. Psychology professor Octavia Calder-Dawe suggests that due to this, the practice of hipster sexism also unconsciously influences the idea that sexism should not be spoken of. Hipster sexism relates to postfeminism in that it downplays sexism at large by casually normalizing it on the basis that sexism has been eradicated and thus is not appropriate for serious consideration or discussion.
A tenet of hipster sexism is the casual use of derogatory words such as "bitch" and "slut," on the basis that such use is intended as ironic. Jessica Wakeman, a contributor to The Frisky, suggests that the label hipster sexism enables casual sexism as a means of being ironic, and thus being seen as an acceptable form of sexism.
Quart coined the term "hipster sexism" in 2012, partly as a comment on "hipster racism," a term coined by Carmen Van Kerckhove circa 2007 which had been popularized earlier in 2012. She differentiated it from "classic sexism," which she describes as being "un-ironic, explicit, violent [and] banal."
Critical analysis
A 2016 literature review in the European Journal of Cultural Studies summarised the hipster culture "as a translocal and layered phenomenon with contextually specific claims to authenticity". While noting that the identity markers realised by hipsters are often localised, it states that Christian Lorentzen of Time Out New York argues that "hipsterism fetishizes the authentic" elements of all of the "fringe movements of the postwar era—Beat, hippie, punk, even grunge," and draws on the "cultural stores of every unmelted ethnicity" and "gay style," and then "regurgitates it with a winking inauthenticity." He claims that this group of "18-to-34-year-olds," who are mostly white, "have defanged, skinned and consumed" all of these influences. Lorentzen says hipsters, "in their present undead incarnation," are "essentially people who think of themselves as being cooler than America," also referring to them as "the assassins of cool." He argues that metrosexuality is the hipster appropriation of gay culture, as a trait carried over from their "Emo" phase. He writes that "these aesthetics are assimilated—cannibalized—into a repertoire of meaninglessness, from which the hipster can construct an identity in the manner of a collage, or a shuffled playlist on an iPod." He also criticizes how the subculture's original menace has long been abandoned and has been replaced with "the form of not-quite-passive aggression called snark."
In a Huffington Post article entitled "Who's a Hipster?," Julia Plevin argues that the "definition of 'hipster' remains opaque to anyone outside this self-proclaiming, highly-selective circle." She claims that the "whole point of hipsters is that they avoid labels and being labeled. However, they all dress the same and act the same and conform in their non-conformity" to an "iconic carefully created sloppy vintage look."
Rob Horning developed a critique of hipsterism in his April 2009 article "The Death of the Hipster" in PopMatters, exploring several possible definitions for the hipster. He muses that the hipster might be the "embodiment of postmodernism as a spent force, revealing what happens when pastiche and irony exhaust themselves as aesthetics," or might be "a kind of permanent cultural middleman in hypermediated late capitalism, selling out alternative sources of social power developed by outsider groups, just as the original 'white negros' evinced by Norman Mailer did to the original, pre-pejorative 'hipsters'—blacks." Horning also proposed that the role of hipsters may be to "appropriat[e] the new cultural capital forms, delivering them to mainstream media in a commercial form and stripping their inventors ... of the power and the glory." Horning argues that the "problem with hipsters" is the "way in which they reduce the particularity of anything you might be curious about or invested in into the same dreary common denominator of how 'cool' it is perceived to be," as "just another signifier of personal identity." Furthermore, he argues that the "hipster is defined by a lack of authenticity, by a sense of lateness to the scene" or the way that they transform the situation into a "self-conscious scene, something others can scrutinize and exploit."
Dan Fletcher in Time seems to support this theory, positing that stores like Urban Outfitters have mass-produced hipster chic, merging hipsterdom with parts of mainstream culture, thus overshadowing its originators' still-strong alternative art and music scene. According to Fletcher, "Hipsters manage to attract a loathing unique in its intensity. Critics have described the loosely defined group as smug, full of contradictions and, ultimately, the dead end of Western civilization."
Elise Thompson, an editor for the LA blog LAist, argues that "people who came of age in the 70s and 80s punk rock movement seem to universally hate 'hipsters'," which she defines as people wearing "expensive 'alternative' fashion[s]," going to the "latest, coolest, hippest bar...[and] listen[ing] to the latest, coolest, hippest band." Thompson argues that hipsters "don't seem to subscribe to any particular philosophy ... [or] ... particular genre of music." Instead, she argues that they are "soldiers of fortune of style" who take up whatever is popular and in style, "appropriat[ing] the style[s]" of past countercultural movements such as punk, while "discard[ing] everything that the style stood for."
Drawing from Pierre Bourdieu's work and Thomas Frank's theories of co-optation, Zeynep Arsel and Craig Thompson argue that in order to segment and co-opt the indie marketplace, mass media and marketers have engaged in commercial "mythmaking" and contributed to the formation of the contemporary discourse about hipsters. They substantiate this argument using a historical discourse analysis of the term and its use in the popular culture, based on Arsel's dissertation that was published in 2007. Their claim is that the contemporary depiction of hipster is generated through mass media narratives with different commercial and ideological interests. In other words, hipster is less of an objective category, and more of a culturally- and ideologically-shaped and mass-mediated modern mythology that appropriates the indie consumption field and eventually turns into a form of stigma. Arsel and Thompson also interview participants of the indie culture (DJs, designers, writers) to better understand how they feel about being labeled as one. Their findings demonstrate three strategies for dissociation from the hipster stereotype: aesthetic discrimination, symbolic demarcation, and proclaiming sovereignty. These strategies, empowered by one's status in the indie field (or their cultural capital) enable these individuals to defend their field dependent cultural investments and tastes from devaluing hipster mythology.
Arsel and Thompson's work seeks to explain why people who are ostensibly fitting the hipster stereotype profusely deny being one: they argue that hipster mythology devalues their tastes and interests and thus they have to socially distinguish themselves from this cultural category and defend their tastes from devaluation. To succeed in denying being a hipster, while looking, acting, and consuming like one, Arsel and Thompson suggest that these individuals demythologize their existing consumption practices by engaging in rhetorics and practices that symbolically differentiate their actions from the hipster stigma.
Mark Greif, a founder of n+1 and an assistant professor at The New School, in a New York Times editorial, states that "hipster" is often used by youth from disparate economic backgrounds to jockey for social position. He questions the contradictory nature of the label, and the way that no one thinks of themselves as a hipster: "Paradoxically, those who used the insult were themselves often said to resemble hipsters—they wore the skinny jeans and big eyeglasses, gathered in tiny enclaves in big cities, and looked down on mainstream fashions and 'tourists'." He believes the much-cited difficulty in analyzing the term stems from the fact that any attempt to do so provokes universal anxiety, since it "calls everyone's bluff." Like Arsel and Thompson, he draws from La Distinction by Pierre Bourdieu to conclude that young, upper-middle-class graduates who move to urban centers are ridiculed as "liberal arts college grads with too much time on their hands"; although "ignored in the urban hierarchy," they have cultural capital. Members of the upper class – ridiculed in turn as "trust fund hipsters" – "convert real capital into 'cultural capital'." At the bottom are the lower-middle-class young, who "seem most authentic but are also often the most socially precarious." Without the capital of the other groups, they depend on their fashion sense to maintain a sense of superiority.
Greif's efforts puts the term "hipster" into a socioeconomic framework rooted in the petit bourgeois tendencies of a youth generation unsure of their future social status. The cultural trend is indicative of a social structure with heightened economic anxiety and lessened class mobility.
In 21st-century society, there are inevitably people who refuse to conform to the dominant culture and seek to do the exact opposite; given enough time, the anti-conformists will become more homogeneous with respect to their own subculture, making their behavior the opposite to any claims of counterculture. This synchronization occurs even if more than two choices are available, such as multiple styles of beard rather than whether or not to have a beard. Mathematician Jonathan Touboul of Brandeis University who studies how information propagation through society affects human behavior calls this the hipster effect.
See also
2010s in fashion
Indie sleaze
Dandy
Lumbersexual
Normcore
Scene (subculture)
Bobo (socio-economic group) (Bourgeois-Bohèmes), also known as "bobos," are most likely the French origin of hipsters.
References
Works cited
External links
Robert Lanham deconstructs hipsters in The Morning News
"The Sad Science of Hipsterism: The Psychology of Indie Bands, PBR and Weird Facial Hair" in Psychology Today
Zev Borow, "Will The Last Hipster Please Turn Out The Lights? New York cool dies its thousandth death. A satire," New York, May 21, 2005
"Selling Out" David McRaney "You Are Not So Smart" April 12, 2010
The New Counterculture's Buying Power
Schiermer, B. (2013), "The late-modern hipsters: new tendencies in popular culture," Acta Sociologica 57(2), 167–181.
1990s fads and trends
2000s fads and trends
2010s fads and trends
2020s fads and trends
Fashion aesthetics
Identity politics in the United States
Pejorative terms for people
Politics and race in the United States
Postmodernism
Social class subcultures
Stereotypes of the middle class
Stereotypes of the upper class
Stereotypes of urban people
Subcultures
Upper middle class
Youth culture
Counterculture of the 1990s
Counterculture of the 2000s
Counterculture of the 2010s
Music and fashion | 0.774103 | 0.998438 | 0.772894 |
Cultural hegemony | In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who shape the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of the ruling class becomes the accepted cultural norm. As the universal dominant ideology, the ruling-class worldview misrepresents the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, and perpetual social conditions that benefit every social class, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
In philosophy and in sociology, the denotations and the connotations of term cultural hegemony derive from the Ancient Greek word hegemonia (ἡγεμονία), which indicates the leadership and the régime of the hegemon. In political science, hegemony is the geopolitical dominance exercised by an empire, the hegemon (leader state) that rules the subordinate states of the empire by the threat of intervention, an implied means of power, rather than by threat of direct rule—military invasion, occupation, and territorial annexation.
Background
Historical
In 1848, Karl Marx proposed that the economic recessions and practical contradictions of a capitalist economy would provoke the working class to proletarian revolution, depose capitalism, restructure social institutions (economic, political, social) per the rational models of socialism, and thus begin the transition to a communist society. Therefore, the dialectical changes to the functioning of the economy of a society determine its social superstructures (culture and politics).
To that end, Antonio Gramsci proposed a strategic distinction between the politics for a War of Position and for a War of Manœuvre. The war of position is an intellectual and cultural struggle wherein the anti-capitalist revolutionary creates a proletarian culture whose native value system counters the cultural hegemony of the bourgeoisie. The proletarian culture will increase class consciousness, teach revolutionary theory and historical analysis, and thus further develop revolutionary organisation among the social classes. After winning the war of position, socialist leaders would then have the necessary political power and popular support to realise the war of manœuvre, the political praxis of revolutionary socialism.
Political economy
As Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony analyses the functions of economic class within the base and superstructure, from which Gramsci developed the functions of social class within the social structures created for and by cultural domination. In the practise of imperialism, cultural hegemony occurs when the working and the peasant classes believe and accept that the prevailing cultural norms of a society (the dominant ideology imposed by the ruling class) realistically describes the natural order of things in society.
In the war for position, the working-class intelligentsia politically educate the working classes to perceive that the prevailing cultural norms are not natural and inevitable social conditions, and to recognize that the social constructs of bourgeois culture function as instruments of socio-economic domination, e.g. the institutions (state, church, and social strata), the conventions (custom and tradition), and beliefs (religions and ideologies), etc. That to realise their own working-class culture the workers and the peasants, by way of their own intellectuals, must perform the necessary analyses of their culture and national history in order for the proletariat to transcend the old ways of thinking about the order of things in a society under the cultural hegemony of an imperial power.
Social domination
Gramsci said that cultural and historical analyses of the "natural order of things in society" established by the dominant ideology, would allow common-sense men and women to intellectually perceive the social structures of bourgeois cultural hegemony. In each sphere of life (private and public) common sense is the intellectualism with which people cope with and explain their daily life within their social stratum within the greater social order; yet the limits of common sense inhibit a person's intellectual perception of the exploitation of labour made possible with cultural hegemony. Given the difficulty in perceiving the status quo hierarchy of bourgeois culture (social and economic classes), most people concern themselves with private matters, and so do not question the fundamental sources of their socio-economic oppression, individual and collective.
Intelligentsia
To perceive and combat ruling-class cultural hegemony, the working class and the peasant class depend upon the moral and political leadership of their native intelligentsia, the scholars, academics, and teachers, scientists, philosophers, administrators et al. from their specific social classes; thus Gramsci's political distinction between the intellectuals of the bourgeoisie and the intellectuals of the working class, respectively, the men and women who are the proponents and the opponents of the cultural status quo:
After Gramsci
German student movement
In 1967, regarding the politics and society of West Germany, the leader of the German Student Movement, Rudi Dutschke, applied Gramsci's analyses of cultural hegemony using the phrase the "Long March through the Institutions" to describe the ideological work necessary to realise the war of position. The allusion to the Long March (1934–35) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army indicates the great work required of the working-class intelligentsia to produce the working-class popular culture with which to replace the dominant ideology imposed by the cultural hegemony of the bourgeoisie.
State apparatuses of ideology
In Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (1970), Louis Althusser describes the complex of social relationships among the different organs of the State that transmit and disseminate the dominant ideology to the populations of a society. The ideological state apparatuses (ISA) are the sites of ideological conflict among the social classes of a society; and, unlike the military and police forces, the repressive state apparatuses (RSA), the ISA exist as a plurality throughout society.
Despite the ruling-class control of the RSA, the ideological apparatuses of the state are both the sites and the stakes (the objects) of class struggle, because the ISA are not monolithic social entities, and exist amongst society. As the public and the private sites of continual class struggle, the ideological apparatuses of the state (ISA) are overdetermined zones of society that are composed of elements of the dominant ideologies of previous modes of production, hence the continual political activity in:
the religious ISA (the clergy)
the educational ISA (the public and private school systems)
the family ISA (patriarchal family)
the legal ISA (police and legal, court and penal systems)
the political ISA (political parties)
the company union ISA
the mass communications ISA (print, radio, television, internet, cinema)
the cultural ISA (literature, the arts, sport, etc.)
The parliamentary structures of the State, by which elected politicians exercise the will of the people also are an ideological apparatus of the State, given the State's control of which populations are allowed to participate as political parties. In itself, the political system is an ideological apparatus, because citizens' participation involves intellectually accepting the ideological "fiction, corresponding to a 'certain' reality, that the component parts of the [political] system, as well as the principle of its functioning, are based on the ideology of the 'freedom' and 'equality' of the individual voters and the 'free choice' of the people's representatives, by the individuals that 'make up' the people".
See also
Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (1990), by James C. Scott
Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985), by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe
"Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (1970), by Louis Althusser
Sheeple
The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (1962), by Jürgen Habermas
References
Further reading
Bessis, Sophie (2003) Western Supremacy: The Triumph of an Idea. Zed Books.
.
External links
.
.
.
.
.
.
Anti-corporate activism
Conflict theory
Antonio Gramsci
Marxist terminology
Marxist theory
Postcolonialism
Postmodern theory
Social concepts
Communism
Socialism | 0.775339 | 0.996788 | 0.772848 |
Maker culture | The maker culture is a contemporary subculture representing a technology-based extension of DIY culture that intersects with hardware-oriented parts of hacker culture and revels in the creation of new devices as well as tinkering with existing ones. The maker culture in general supports open-source hardware. Typical interests enjoyed by the maker culture include engineering-oriented pursuits such as electronics, robotics, 3-D printing, and the use of computer numeric control tools, as well as more traditional activities such as metalworking, woodworking, and, mainly, its predecessor, traditional arts and crafts.
The subculture stresses a cut-and-paste approach to standardized hobbyist technologies, and encourages cookbook re-use of designs published on websites and maker-oriented publications. There is a strong focus on using and learning practical skills and applying them to reference designs. There is also growing work on equity and the maker culture.
Philosophical emphasis
Maker culture emphasizes learning-through-doing (active learning) in a social environment. Maker culture emphasizes informal, networked, peer-led, and shared learning motivated by fun and self-fulfillment. Maker culture encourages novel applications of technologies, and the exploration of intersections between traditionally separate domains and ways of working including metalworking, calligraphy, filmmaking, and computer programming. Community interaction and knowledge sharing are often mediated through networked technologies, with websites and social media tools forming the basis of knowledge repositories and a central channel for information sharing and exchange of ideas, and focused through social meetings in shared spaces such as hackerspaces. Maker culture has attracted the interest of educators concerned about students’ disengagement from STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in formal educational settings. Maker culture is seen as having the potential to contribute to a more participatory approach and create new pathways into topics that will make them more alive and relevant to learners.
Some say that the maker movement is a reaction to the de-valuing of physical exploration and the growing sense of disconnection with the physical world in modern cities. Many products produced by the maker communities have a focus on health (food), sustainable development, environmentalism and local culture, and can from that point of view also be seen as a negative response to disposables, globalised mass production, the power of chain stores, multinationals and consumerism.
In reaction to the rise of maker culture, Barack Obama pledged to open several national research and development facilities to the public. In addition the U.S. federal government renamed one of their national centers "America Makes".
The methods of digital fabrication—previously the exclusive domain of institutions—have made making on a personal scale accessible, following a logical and economic progression similar to the transition from minicomputers to personal computers in the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s. In 2005, Dale Dougherty launched Make magazine to serve the growing community, followed by the launch of Maker Faire in 2006. The term, coined by Dougherty, grew into a full-fledged industry based on the growing number of DIYers who want to build something rather than buy it.
Spurred primarily by the advent of RepRap 3D printing for the fabrication of prototypes, declining cost and broad adoption have opened up new realms of innovation. As it has become cost-effective to make just one item for prototyping (or a small number of household items), this approach can be depicted as personal fabrication for "a market of one person".
Makerspaces
The rise of the maker culture is closely associated with the rise of hackerspaces, fablabs and other "makerspaces", of which there are now many around the world, including over 100 each in Germany and the United States. Hackerspaces allow like-minded individuals to share ideas, tools, and skillsets. Some notable hackerspaces which have been linked with the maker culture include Artisan's Asylum, Dallas Makerspace, Noisebridge, NYC Resistor, Pumping Station: One, and TechShop. In addition, those who identify with the subculture can be found at more traditional universities with a technical orientation, such as MIT and Carnegie Mellon University (specifically around "shop" areas like the MIT Hobby Shop and CMU Robotics Club). As maker culture becomes more popular, hackerspaces and Fab Labs are becoming more common in universities and public libraries. The federal government has started adopting the concept of fully open makerspaces within its agencies, the first of which (SpaceShop Rapid Prototyping Lab) resides at NASA Ames Research Center. In Europe the popularity of the labs is more prominent than in the US: about three times more labs exist there.
Outside Europe and the US, the maker culture is also on the rise, with several hacker or makerspaces being landmarks in their respective cities' entrepreneurial and educational landscape. More precisely:
HackerspaceSG in Singapore has been set up by the team now leading the city-state's (and, arguably, South-East Asia's) most prominent accelerator JFDI.Asia.
Lamba Labs in Beirut is recognized as a hackerspace where people can collaborate freely, in a city often divided by its different ethnic and religious groups.
Xinchejian in Shanghai is China's first hackerspace, which allows for innovation and collaboration in a country known for its strong internet censorship.
With the rise of cities, which will host 60% of the human population by 2030, hackerspaces, fablabs and makerspaces will likely gain traction, as they are places for local entrepreneurs to gather and collaborate, providing local solutions to environmental, social or economical issues. The Institute for the Future has launched in this regard Maker Cities as "an open and collaborative online game, to generate ideas about how citizens are changing work, production, governance, learning, well-being, and their neighborhoods, and what this means for the future".
Tools and hardware
Cloud
Cloud computing describes a family of tools in service of the maker movement, enabling increased collaboration, digital workflow, distributed manufacturing (i.e. the download of files that translate directly into objects via a digitized manufacturing process) and sharing economy. This, combined with the open source movement, initially focused on software, has been expanding into open-source hardware, assisted by easy access to online plans (in the cloud) and licensing agreements.
Some example of cloud-based tools include online project repositories like Appropedia and thingiverse, version-controlled collaborative platforms like GitHub and wevolver, knowledge sharing platforms like instructables, HowToMake, wikipedia and other Wikis, including WikiHow and wikifab and platforms for distributed manufacturing like shapeways and 100k garages.
Computers
Programmable microcontrollers and single-board computers like the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, and Intel's Galileo and Edison, many of which are open source, are easy to program and connect to devices such as sensors, displays, and actuators. This lowers the barrier to entry for hardware development. Combined with the cloud, this technology enables the Internet of Things.
Digital fabrication
Desktop 3D printing is now possible in various plastics and metals. In combination with DIY open-source microelectronics, they can create autoreplicant 3d printers, such as RepRap. Digital fabrication also includes various subtractive fabrication tech, eg. laser cutting, CNC milling, and knitting machines.
To create one's own designs for digital fabrication requires digital design tools, like Solidworks, Autodesk, and Rhinoceros 3D. More recently, less expensive or easier to use software has emerged. Free, open-source software such as FreeCAD can be extremely useful in the design process. Autodesk's Fusion 360 is free for start ups and individuals, and Onshape and Tinkercad are browser-based digital design software.
Online project repositories make many parts available for digital fabrication—even for people who are unable to do their own design work. Opendesk is one example of a company which has made a business by designing and hosting projects for distributed digital fabrication.
Funding platforms
Patreon and Kickstarter are two examples of distributed funding platforms key to the maker movement.
Hand tools
Maker culture is not all about new, digital technologies. Traditional and analog tools remain crucial to the movement. Traditional tools are often more familiar and accessible, which is key to maker culture. In many places and projects where digital fabrication tools are just not suitable, Hand tools are.
Other types of making
Maker culture involves many types of making – this section reviews some of the major types.
Amateur scientific equipment
This involves making scientific instruments for citizen science or open source labs. With the advent of low-cost digital manufacturing it is becoming increasingly common for scientists as well as amateurs to fabricate their own scientific apparatuses from open source hardware designs. Docubricks is a repository of open source science hardware.
Biology, food and composting
Examples of maker culture in food production include baking, homebrewing, winemaking, home roasting coffee, vegoil, pickling, sausage, cheesemaking, yogurt and pastry production.
This can also extend into urban agriculture, composting and synthetic biology.
Clothes
Like many other craft objects, also clothing has traditionally been made at home. But within the maker culture, also clothes has seen a resurgence. Clothes can include sew and no-sew DIY hacks, and pattern-sharing magazines and platforms, such as Burda Style. Especially the open source element has been picked up by a new generation of makers, creating open patterns and platforms for sharing patterns, sewing methods and construction techniques. Hacking has also been a popular reference to DIY clothing and up cycling.
Clothing can also include knitted or crocheted clothing and accessories. Some knitters may use knitting machines with varying degrees of automatic patterning. Fully electronic knitting machines can be interfaced to computers running computer-aided design software. Arduino boards have been interfaced to electronic knitting machines to further automate the process.
Free People, a popular clothing retailer for young women, often hosts craft nights inside the doors of its Anthropologie locations.
Cosmetics
Maker cosmetics include perfumes, creams, lotions, shampoos, and eye shadow.
Tool kits for maker cosmetics can include beakers, digital scales, laboratory thermometers (if possible, from -20 to 110 °C), pH paper, glass rods, plastic spatulas, and spray to disinfect with alcohol.
Perfumes can be created at home using ethanol (96%, or even vodka or everclear), essential oils or fragrance oils, infused oils, even flavour extracts (such as pure vanilla extract), distilled or spring water and glycerine. Tools include glass bottles, glass jar, measuring cup/measuring spoons, a dropper, funnel, and aluminum foil or wrapping paper.
Musical instruments
The concept of homemade and experimental instruments in music has its roots prior to the maker movement, from complicated experiments with figures such as Reed Ghazala and Michel Waisvisz pioneering early circuit bending techniques to simple projects such as the Cigar Box Guitar. Bart Hopkin published the magazine Experimental Musical Instruments for 15 years followed by a series of books about instrument building. Organizations such as Zvex, WORM, STEIM, Death by Audio, and Casper Electronics cater to the do-it-yourself audience, while musicians like Nicolas Collins and Yuri Landman create and perform with custom made and experimental instruments.
Synth DIY
While still living at home Hugh Le Caine began a lifelong interest in electronic music and sound generation. In 1937, he designed an electronic free reed organ, and in the mid-1940s, he built the Electronic Sackbut, now recognised to be one of the first synthesizers. In 1953, Robert Moog produced his own theremin design, and the following year he published an article on the theremin in Radio and Television News. In the same year, he founded RA Moog, selling theremins and theremin kits by mail order from his home. One of his customers, Raymond Scott, rewired Moog's theremin for control by keyboard, creating the Clavivox. John Simonton founded PAiA Electronics in Oklahoma City in 1967 and began offering various small electronics kits through mail order. Starting in 1972 PAiA began producing analog synthesizer kits, in both modular and all-in-one form.
Tool making
Makers can also make or fabricate their own tools. This includes knives, hand tools, lathes, 3-D printers, wood working tools, etc.
Vehicles
A kit car, also known as a "component car", is an automobile that is available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer himself then assembles into a functioning car.
Car tuning can include electric vehicle conversion.
Motorcycle making and conversions are also represented. As examples: Tinker Bike is an open source motorcycle kit adaptable to recycled components; NightShift Bikes is a small, Makerist project in custom, DIY electric motorcycle conversions.
Bicycles, too, have a DIY, Maker-style community. Zenga Bros' Tall Bikes are one example. Community bike workshops are a specific type of makerspaces.
Media
MAKE (a magazine published since 2004 by O'Reilly Media), is considered a "central organ of the Maker Movement," and its founder, Dale Dougherty, is widely considered the founder of the Movement. Other media outlets associated with the movement include Wamungo, Hackaday, Makery, and the popular weblog Boing Boing. Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow has written a novel, Makers, which he describes as being "a book about people who hack hardware, business-models, and living arrangements to discover ways of staying alive and happy even when the economy is falling down the toilet".
In 2016 Intel sponsored a reality TV show—America's Greatest Makers—where 24 teams of makers compete for $1 million.
Maker Faires
Since 2006 the subculture has held regular events around the world, Maker Faire, which in 2012 drew a crowd of 120,000 attendees. Smaller, community driven Maker Faires referred to as Mini Maker Fairs are also held in various places where an O'Reilly-organised Maker Faire has not yet been held. Maker Faire provides a Mini Maker Faire starter kit to encourage the spread of local Maker Faire events.
Following the Maker Faire model, similar events which don't use the Maker Faire brand have emerged around the world.
Maker Film Fest
A Maker Film Festival was announced for August 2014 Powerhouse Science Center in Durango, Colorado, featuring "Films About Makers, and Makers Making Movies."
PPE Production in Response to COVID-19
The Maker movement galvanized in response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with participants initially directing their skills toward designing Open Source ventilators. They subsequently targeted production of Personal protective equipment (PPE). Disruption of supply chains was a mounting problem, particularly in the early days of the pandemic, and compounded with the Shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the medical sectors. The response was largely regional and spread across 86 countries on 6 continents, and coordinated their response, designs and shared insights with each other through intermediary organizations such as Tikkun Olam Makers, the Fab Fouhdation or Open Source Medical Supplies which included more than 70,000 people.
National movements emerged in Germany, Brazil, Romania, France, Spain, India, and the United Kingdom. Said movements used distributed manufacturing methods; some cooperated with local government entities, local police and the national military to help locate supply shortages and manage distribution.
Total production figures sides the maker community exceeded 48.3 million units produced, totaling a market value of about $271 million. The most-produced items included face shields (25 million), medical gowns (8 million) and face masks (6 million). The primary modes of production utilized were familiar tools like 3D printing, laser cutting or sewing machines, but multiple maker organizations scaled their production output by pooling funds to afford high-output methods like die cutting or injection molding.
Criticisms
The maker movement has at times been criticized for not fulfilling its goals of inclusivity and democratization. Evgeny Morozov's Making It in The New Yorker, challenging the movement's potential to actually disrupt or democratize innovation; and Will Holman's The Toaster Paradox, about Thomas Thwaites' the Toaster Project's challenges to the DIY and "Maker impulse."
Critical making can also be seen as an argument against or a comment on maker culture, which has been explored by Garnet Hertz, Eric Paulos, John Maeda, Matt Ratto and others. The primary argument is that maker culture is unnecessarily fascinated with technology, and that projects are improved when they work to critically consider social concerns - borrowing from the more established disciplines of industrial design and media art practice. Others criticize the maker movement as not even being a movement, and posit that fundamental hypocrisy extends to limit the scope and impact of every aspect of the "Movement."
See also
Autonomous building
Bricolage
Craft production
Do-it-yourself biology
Modular design
Open-design movement
Open-source car
SparkFun Electronics
STEAM fields
STEM education
References
External links
Informal crowd-sourced research by the Ananse Group
The Maker Manifiesto.
Maker Movement, P2P Foundation
Subcultures | 0.780451 | 0.990213 | 0.772813 |
Kink (sexuality) | In human sexuality, kinkiness is the use of sexual practices, concepts or fantasies that are not conventional. The term derives from the idea of a "bend" (cf. a "kink") in one's sexual behaviour, to contrast such behaviour with "straight" or "vanilla" sexual mores and proclivities. It is thus a colloquial term for non-normative sexual behaviour. The term "kink" has been claimed by some who practice sexual fetishism as a term or synonym for their practices, indicating a range of sexual and sexualistic practices from playful to sexual objectification and certain paraphilias. In the 21st century the term "kink", along with expressions like BDSM, leather and fetish, has become more commonly used than the term paraphilia. Some universities also feature student organizations focused on kinks, within the context of wider LGBTQ concerns.
Kink sexual practices go beyond what are considered conventional sexual practices as a means of heightening the intimacy between sexual partners. Some draw a distinction between kink and fetishism, defining the former as enhancing partner intimacy, and the latter as replacing it. Because of its relation to conformist sexual boundaries, which themselves vary by time and place, the definition of what is and is not a kink varies widely as well.
Prevalence
In a study published in 2016 it was found that nearly half of respondents reported an interest in some form of paraphilia and about a third had engaged in paraphilic behavior at least once.
See also
Alt porn
Dominance and submission
Exhibitionism
Glossary of BDSM
Group sex
Kink.com
Master/slave (BDSM)
Kink Aware Professionals (KAP)
Risk-aware consensual kink (RACK)
Safe, sane and consensual (SSC)
Sexual roleplay
Sex shop
References
Further reading
Sensual, Erotic, and Sexual Behaviors of Women from the “Kink” Community Sensual, Erotic, and Sexual Behaviors of Women from the "Kink" Community, Articles of Sexual Behavior, International Academy of Sex Research
Kinky - The Sensual Consciousness, The Sultry Revolution of the Senses, Chic Today Magazine
Dossie Easton, Catherine A. Liszt, When Someone You Love Is Kinky, Greenery Press, 2000. .
International Association of Rubberists
Jay Wiseman, SM 101: A Realistic Introduction, Greenery Press, 2000, .
Stephanie Clifford-Smith, Kink: A Straight Girl's Investigation, Allen and Unwin, 2010,
BDSM terminology
Fetish subculture | 0.773096 | 0.999602 | 0.772788 |
Intangible cultural heritage | An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. Intangible heritage consists of nonphysical intellectual wealth, such as folklore, customs, beliefs, traditions, knowledge, and language.
Intangible cultural heritage is considered by member states of UNESCO in relation to the tangible World Heritage focusing on intangible aspects of culture. In 2001, UNESCO made a survey among states and NGOs to try to agree on a definition, and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was drafted in 2003 for its protection and promotion.
Definition
The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage defines the intangible cultural heritage as the practices, representations, expressions, as well as the knowledge and skills (including instruments, objects, artifacts, cultural spaces), that communities, groups, and, in some cases, individuals, recognize as part of their cultural heritage. It is sometimes called living cultural heritage, and is manifested in the following domains, among others:
Oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage;
Performing arts;
Social practices, rituals and festive events;
Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe;
Traditional craftsmanship
Cultural heritage in general consists of the products and processes of a culture that are preserved and passed on through the generations. Some of that heritage takes the form of cultural property, formed by tangible artefacts such as buildings or works of art. Many parts of culture, however are intangible, including song, music, dance, drama, skills, cuisine, sport, crafts, and festivals. These are forms of culture that can be recorded but cannot be touched or stored in physical form, like in a museum, but only experienced through a vehicle giving expression to it. Such cultural vehicles are called "Human Treasures" by the UN. The protection of languages, as the largest and most important intangible cultural heritage, should also be mentioned in this context. According to Karl von Habsburg, President of Blue Shield International, protection of languages is important in the age of identity wars, because language in particular can become a target for attack as a symbolic cultural asset.
According to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) – or living heritage – is the mainspring of humanity's cultural diversity and its maintenance a guarantee for continuing creativity. It is defined as follows:
Intangible Cultural Heritage means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. For the purposes of this Convention, consideration will be given solely to such intangible cultural heritage as is compatible with existing international human rights instruments, as well as with the requirements of mutual respect among communities, groups and individuals, and of sustainable development.
Oral history
Intangible cultural heritage is slightly different from the discipline of oral history, the recording, preservation and interpretation of historical information (specifically, oral tradition), based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker. ICH attempts to preserve cultural heritage 'with' the people or community by protecting the processes that allow traditions and shared knowledge to be passed on while oral history seeks to collect and preserve historical information obtained from individuals and groups.
Food heritage
With sustainable development gaining momentum as a priority of UNESCO heritage policies, an increasing number of food-related nominations are being submitted for inscription on the lists of the convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. The Mediterranean diet, the traditional Mexican cuisine and the Japanese dietary culture of washoku are some examples of this.
Dishes
Thieboudienne
Dance heritage
The UNESCO lists of intangible cultural heritage also include a variety of dance genres, often associated with singing, music and celebrations, from all over the world. The lists include: celebratory and ritual dances such as Ma'di bowl lyre music and Sebiba dance from Algeria and dance from Uganda and Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan from India, and social dances such as Cuban rumba. Also, some dances are localized and practiced mainly in their country of origin, such as Sankirtana, a performing art that includes drumming and singing, from India.
Other dance forms, however, even if they are officially recognized as heritage from their country of origin, are practiced and enjoyed all over the world. For example, flamenco from Spain and tango, from Argentina and Uruguay, have an international dimension. Dance is a complex phenomenon, which involves culture, traditions, the use of human bodies, artefacts (such as costumes and props), as well as a specific use of music, space and sometimes light. As a result, a lot of tangible and intangible elements are combined within dance, making it a challenging but interesting type of heritage to safeguard.
Digital heritage
Digital heritage is a representation of heritage in the digital realm and is a sub-category of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It refers primarily to the use of digital media in the service of preserving cultural or natural heritage.
Sports heritage
Oral continuity
Intangible cultural heritage is passed orally within a community, and while there may be individuals who are known tradition bearers, ICH is often broader than one individual's own skills or knowledge. A 2006 report by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador said, regarding oral culture in their area, "The processes involved in the continuation of this traditional knowledge constitute one of the most interesting aspects of our living heritage. Each member of the community possesses a piece of the shared knowledge. Crucial knowledge is passed on during community activities, frequently without any conscious attention to the process."
Preservation
Prior to the UNESCO Convention, efforts had already been made by a number of states to safeguard their intangible heritage. Japan, with its 1950 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, was the first to introduce legislation to preserve and promote intangible as well as tangible culture: Important Intangible Cultural Properties are designated and "holders" recognized of these craft and performance traditions, known informally as Living National Treasures. Other countries, including South Korea (Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Korea), the Philippines, Ukraine, the United States, Thailand, France, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Poland, have since created similar programs.
In 2003 UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. This went into effect on 20 April 2006. The Convention recommends that countries and scholars develop inventories of ICH in their territory, as well as work with the groups who maintain these ICH to ensure their continued existences; it also provides for funds to be voluntarily collected among UNESCO members and then disbursed to support the maintenance of recognized ICH. UNESCO has also created other intangible culture programs, such as a list called Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This list began in 2001 with 19 items and a further 28 were listed in 2003 and another 43 in 2005. In part, the original list was seen as a way to correct the imbalance in the World Heritage List, since it excluded many Southern Hemisphere cultures which did not produce monuments or other physical cultural manifestations. It was superseded in 2008 by the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.
According to academic Yi Sun publishing in 2024, "China has played an increasingly dynamic role in energizing" the Intangible Cultural Heritage Cooperation program.
Recently there has been much debate over protecting intangible cultural heritage through intellectual property rights, as well as the desirability to do so through this legal framework and the risks of commodification derived from this possibility. The issue still remains open in legal scholarship.
UNESCO lists by country
Note: Each country may maintain its own cultural heritage lists, items of which are not necessarily inscribed into UNESCO lists.
See also
Living human treasure
Non-material culture
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists
References
Further reading
Petrillo Pier Luigi, Biocultural diversity and the Mediterranean Diet, in FAO, Sustainable diets and biodiversity, Rome 2012
Petrillo Pier Luigi, The Legal Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A comparative Perspective, Springer 2020
External links
Definitions of Intangible Cultural Heritage as of States, IGOs and NGOs in 2001
Full text of the Convention
What Is ICH? document from Newfoundland, Canada
Exploring a Model of Living Cultural Heritage New model of Intangible heritage
Culture Quintessence Internationally oriented enterprise dedicated to the protection, appreciation and transmission of Intangible Cultural Heritage
Dédalo. Open source software for management of Cultural Heritage (tangible and intangible) and Oral History
Intangible Spanish heritage
Cultural heritage
Traditions
Cultural anthropology
Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
Traditional knowledge | 0.775538 | 0.996371 | 0.772724 |
Interpersonal relationship | In social psychology, an interpersonal relation (or interpersonal relationship) describes a social association, connection, or affiliation between two or more persons. It overlaps significantly with the concept of social relations, which are the fundamental unit of analysis within the social sciences. Relations vary in degrees of intimacy, self-disclosure, duration, reciprocity, and power distribution. The main themes or trends of the interpersonal relations are: family, kinship, friendship, love, marriage, business, employment, clubs, neighborhoods, ethical values, support and solidarity. Interpersonal relations may be regulated by law, custom, or mutual agreement, and form the basis of social groups and societies. They appear when people communicate or act with each other within specific social contexts, and they thrive on equitable and reciprocal compromises.
Interdisciplinary analysis of relationships draws heavily upon the other social sciences, including, but not limited to: anthropology, linguistics, sociology, economics, political science, communication, mathematics, social work, and cultural studies. This scientific analysis had evolved during the 1990s and has become "relationship science", through the research done by Ellen Berscheid and Elaine Hatfield. This interdisciplinary science attempts to provide evidence-based conclusions through the use of data analysis.
Types
Intimate relationships
Romantic relationships
Romantic relationships have been defined in countless ways, by writers, philosophers, religions, scientists, and in the modern day, relationship counselors. Two popular definitions of love are Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love and Fisher's theory of love. Sternberg defines love in terms of intimacy, passion, and commitment, which he claims exist in varying levels in different romantic relationships. Fisher defines love as composed of three stages: attraction, romantic love, and attachment. Romantic relationships may exist between two people of any gender, or among a group of people, as in polyamory.
On the basis of openness, all romantic relationships are of 2 types: open and closed. Closed relationships are strictly against romantic or sexual activity of partners with anyone else outside the relationships. In an open relationship, all partners remain committed to each other, but allow themselves and their partner to have relationships with others.
On the basis of number of partners, they are of 2 types: monoamorous and polyamorous. A monoamorous relationship is between only two individuals. A polyamorous relationship is among three or more individuals.
Romance
While many individuals recognize the single defining quality of a romantic relationship as the presence of love, it is impossible for romantic relationships to survive without the component of interpersonal communication. Within romantic relationships, love is therefore equally difficult to define. Hazan and Shaver define love, using Ainsworth's attachment theory, as comprising proximity, emotional support, self-exploration, and separation distress when parted from the loved one. Other components commonly agreed to be necessary for love are physical attraction, similarity, reciprocity, and self-disclosure.
Life stages
Early adolescent relationships are characterized by companionship, reciprocity, and sexual experiences. As emerging adults mature, they begin to develop attachment and caring qualities in their relationships, including love, bonding, security, and support for partners. Earlier relationships also tend to be shorter and exhibit greater involvement with social networks. Later relationships are often marked by shrinking social networks, as the couple dedicates more time to each other than to associates. Later relationships also tend to exhibit higher levels of commitment.
Most psychologists and relationship counselors predict a decline of intimacy and passion over time, replaced by a greater emphasis on companionate love (differing from adolescent companionate love in the caring, committed, and partner-focused qualities). However, couple studies have found no decline in intimacy nor in the importance of sex, intimacy, and passionate love to those in longer or later-life relationships. Older people tend to be more satisfied in their relationships, but face greater barriers to entering new relationships than do younger or middle-aged people. Older women in particular face social, demographic, and personal barriers; men aged 65 and older are nearly twice as likely as women to be married, and widowers are nearly three times as likely to be dating 18 months following their partner's loss compared to widows.
Significant other
The term significant other gained popularity during the 1990s, reflecting the growing acceptance of 'non-heteronormative' relationships. It can be used to avoid making an assumption about the gender or relational status (e.g. married, cohabitating, civil union) of a person's intimate partner. Cohabiting relationships continue to rise, with many partners considering cohabitation to be nearly as serious as, or a substitute for, marriage. In particular, LGBTQ people often face unique challenges in establishing and maintaining intimate relationships. The strain of internalized discrimination, socially ingrained or homophobia, transphobia and other forms of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, and social pressure of presenting themselves in line with socially acceptable gender norms can affect their health, quality of life, satisfaction, emotions etc. inside and outside their relationships. LGBTQ youth also lack the social support and peer connections enjoyed by hetero-normative young people. Nonetheless, comparative studies of homosexual and heterosexual couples have found few differences in relationship intensity, quality, satisfaction, or commitment.
Marital relationship
Although nontraditional relationships continue to rise, marriage still makes up the majority of relationships except among emerging adults. It is also still considered by many to occupy a place of greater importance among family and social structures.
Family relationships
Parentchild
In ancient times, parentchild relationships were often marked by fear, either of rebellion or abandonment, resulting in the strict filial roles in, for example, ancient Rome and China. Freud conceived of the Oedipal complex, the supposed obsession that young boys have towards their mothers and the accompanying fear and rivalry with their fathers, and the Electra complex, in which the young girl feels that her mother has castrated her and therefore becomes obsessed with her father. Freud's ideas influenced thought on parentchild relationships for decades.
Another early conception of parent–child relationships was that love only existed as a biological drive for survival and comfort on the child's part. In 1958, however, Harry Harlow's study " The Hot Wire Mother'' comparing rhesus' reactions to wire surrogate "mothers" and cloth "mothers" demonstrated that affection was wanted by any caregiver and not only the surrogate mothers.
The study laid the groundwork for Mary Ainsworth's attachment theory, showing how the infants used their cloth "mothers" as a secure base from which to explore. In a series of studies using the strange situation, a scenario in which an infant is separated from then reunited with the parent, Ainsworth defined three styles of parent-child relationship.
Securely attached infants miss the parent, greet them happily upon return, and show normal exploration and lack of fear when the parent is present.
Insecure avoidant infants show little distress upon separation and ignore the caregiver when they return. They explore little when the parent is present. Infants also tend to be emotionally unavailable.
Insecure ambivalent infants are highly distressed by separation, but continue to be distressed upon the parent's return; these infants also explore little and display fear even when the parent is present.
Some psychologists have suggested a fourth attachment style, disorganized, so called because the infants' behavior appeared disorganized or disoriented.
Secure attachments are linked to better social and academic outcomes and greater moral internalization as research proposes the idea that parent-child relationships play a key role in the developing morality of young children. Secure attachments are also linked to less delinquency for children, and have been found to predict later relationship success.
For most of the late nineteenth through the twentieth century, the perception of adolescent-parent relationships was that of a time of upheaval. G. Stanley Hall popularized the "Sturm und drang", or storm and stress, model of adolescence. Psychological research has painted a much tamer picture. Although adolescents are more risk-seeking and emerging adults have higher suicide rates, they are largely less volatile and have much better relationships with their parents than the storm and stress model would suggest Early adolescence often marks a decline in parent-child relationship quality, which then re-stabilizes through adolescence, and relationships are sometimes better in late adolescence than prior to its onset. With the increasing average age at marriage and more youths attending college and living with parents past their teens, the concept of a new period called emerging adulthood gained popularity. This is considered a period of uncertainty and experimentation between adolescence and adulthood. During this stage, interpersonal relationships are considered to be more self-focused, and relationships with parents may still be influential.
Siblings
Sibling relationships have a profound effect on social, psychological, emotional, and academic outcomes. Although proximity and contact usually decreases over time, sibling bonds continue to have effect throughout their lives. Sibling bonds are one of few enduring relationships humans may experience. Sibling relationships are affected by parent-child relationships, such that sibling relationships in childhood often reflect the positive or negative aspects of children's relationships with their parents.
Other examples of interpersonal relationship
Egalitarian and platonic friendship
Enemy
Frenemy — a person with whom an individual maintains a friendly interaction despite underlying conflict, possibly encompassing rivalry, mistrust, jealousy or competition
Neighbor
Familiar stranger
Official
Queerplatonic relationship
Business is generally held to be distinct from personal relations, a contrasting mode which other than excursions from the norm is based on non-personal interest and rational rather than emotional concerns.
Business relationships
Partnership
Employer and employee
Contractor
Customer
Landlord and tenant
Co-worker
Ways that interpersonal relationships begin
Proximity:
Proximity increases the chance of repeated exposure to the same person. Long-term exposure that can develop familiarity is more likely to trigger like or hate.
Technological advance:
The Internet removes the problem of lack of communication due to long distance. People can communicate with others who live far away from them through video calls or text. Internet is a medium for people to be close to others who are not physically near them.
Similarity:
People prefer to make friends with others who are similar to them because their thoughts and feelings are more likely to be understood.
Stages
Interpersonal relationships are dynamic systems that change continuously during their existence. Like living organisms, relationships have a beginning, a lifespan, and an end. They tend to grow and improve gradually, as people get to know each other and become closer emotionally, or they gradually deteriorate as people drift apart, move on with their lives and form new relationships with others. One of the most influential models of relationship development was proposed by psychologist George Levinger. This model was formulated to describe heterosexual, adult romantic relationships, but it has been applied to other kinds of interpersonal relations as well. According to the model, the natural development of a relationship follows five stages:
Acquaintance and acquaintanceship – Becoming acquainted depends on previous relationships, physical proximity, first impressions, and a variety of other factors. If two people begin to like each other, continued interactions may lead to the next stage, but acquaintance can continue indefinitely. Another example is the association.
Buildup – During this stage, people begin to trust and care about each other. The need for intimacy, compatibility and such filtering agents as common background and goals will influence whether or not interaction continues.
Continuation – This stage follows a mutual commitment to quite a strong and close long-term friendship, romantic relationship, or even marriage. It is generally a long, relatively stable period. Nevertheless, continued growth and development will occur during this time. Mutual trust is important for sustaining the relationship.
Deterioration – Not all relationships deteriorate, but those that do tend to show signs of trouble. Boredom, resentment, and dissatisfaction may occur, and individuals may communicate less and avoid self-disclosure. Loss of trust and betrayals may take place as the downward spiral continues, eventually ending the relationship. (Alternately, the participants may find some way to resolve the problems and reestablish trust and belief in others.)
Ending – The final stage marks the end of the relationship, either by breakups, death or by spatial separation for quite some time and severing all existing ties of either friendship or romantic love.
Terminating a relationship
According to the latest Systematic Review of the Economic Literature on the Factors associated with Life Satisfaction (dating from 2007), stable and secure relationships are beneficial, and correspondingly, relationship dissolution is harmful.
The American Psychological Association has summarized the evidence on breakups. Breaking up can actually be a positive experience when the relationship did not expand the self and when the breakup leads to personal growth. They also recommend some ways to cope with the experience:
Purposefully focusing on the positive aspects of the breakup ("factors leading up to the break-up, the actual break-up, and the time right after the break-up")
Minimizing the negative emotions
Journaling the positive aspects of the breakup (e.g. "comfort, confidence, empowerment, energy, happiness, optimism, relief, satisfaction, thankfulness, and wisdom"). This exercise works best, although not exclusively, when the breakup is mutual.
Less time between a breakup and a subsequent relationship predicts higher self-esteem, attachment security, emotional stability, respect for your new partner, and greater well-being. Furthermore, rebound relationships do not last any shorter than regular relationships. 60% of people are friends with one or more ex. 60% of people have had an off-and-on relationship. 37% of cohabiting couples, and 23% of the married, have broken up and gotten back together with their existing partner.
Terminating a marital relationship implies divorce or annulment. One reason cited for divorce is infidelity. The determinants of unfaithfulness are debated by dating service providers, feminists, academics, and science communicators. According to Psychology Today, women's, rather than men's, level of commitment more strongly determines if a relationship will continue.
Pathological relationships
Research conducted in Iran and other countries has shown that conflicts are common between couples, and, in Iran, 92% of the respondents reported that they had conflicts in their marriages. These conflicts can cause major problems for couples and they are caused due to multiple reasons.
Abusive
Abusive relationships involve either maltreatment or violence such as physical abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional maltreatment. Abusive relationships within the family are very prevalent in the United States and usually involve women or children as victims. Common individual factors for abusers include low self-esteem, poor impulse control, external locus of control, drug use, alcohol abuse, and negative affectivity. There are also external factors such as stress, poverty, and loss which contribute to likelihood of abuse.
Codependent
Codependency initially focused on a codependent partner enabling substance abuse, but it has become more broadly defined to describe a dysfunctional relationship with extreme dependence on or preoccupation with another person. There are some who even refer to codependency as an addiction to the relationship. The focus of codependents tends to be on the emotional state, behavioral choices, thoughts, and beliefs of another person. Often those who are codependent neglect themselves in favor of taking care of others and have difficulty fully developing an identity of their own.
Narcissistic
Narcissists focus on themselves and often distance themselves from intimate relationships; the focus of narcissistic interpersonal relationships is to promote one's self-concept. Generally, narcissists show less empathy in relationships and view love pragmatically or as a game involving others' emotions.
Narcissists are usually part of the personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). In relationships, they tend to affect the other person as they attempt to use them to enhance their self-esteem. Specific types of NPD make a person incapable of having an interpersonal relationship due to their being cunning, envious, and contemptuous.
Importance
Human beings are innately social and are shaped by their experiences with others. There are multiple perspectives to understand this inherent motivation to interact with others.
Need to belong
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, humans need to feel love (sexual/nonsexual) and acceptance from social groups (family, peer groups). In fact, the need to belong is so innately ingrained that it may be strong enough to overcome physiological and safety needs, such as children's attachment to abusive parents or staying in abusive romantic relationships. Such examples illustrate the extent to which the psychobiological drive to belong is entrenched.
Social exchange
Another way to appreciate the importance of relationships is in terms of a reward framework. This perspective suggests that individuals engage in relations that are rewarding in both tangible and intangible ways. The concept fits into a larger theory of social exchange. This theory is based on the idea that relationships develop as a result of cost–benefit analysis. Individuals seek out rewards in interactions with others and are willing to pay a cost for said rewards. In the best-case scenario, rewards will exceed costs, producing a net gain. This can lead to "shopping around" or constantly comparing alternatives to maximize the benefits or rewards while minimizing costs.
Relational self
Relationships are also important for their ability to help individuals develop a sense of self. The relational self is the part of an individual's self-concept that consists of the feelings and beliefs that one has regarding oneself that develops based on interactions with others. In other words, one's emotions and behaviors are shaped by prior relationships. Relational self theory posits that prior and existing relationships influence one's emotions and behaviors in interactions with new individuals, particularly those individuals that remind them of others in their life. Studies have shown that exposure to someone who resembles a significant other activates specific self-beliefs, changing how one thinks about oneself in the moment more so than exposure to someone who does not resemble one's significant other.
Power and dominance
Power is the ability to influence the behavior of other people. When two parties have or assert unequal levels of power, one is termed "dominant" and the other "submissive". Expressions of dominance can communicate an intention to assert or maintain dominance in a relationship. Being submissive can be beneficial because it saves time, limits emotional stress, and may avoid hostile actions such as withholding of resources, cessation of cooperation, termination of the relationship, maintaining a grudge, or even physical violence. Submission occurs in different degrees; for example, some employees may follow orders without question, whereas others might express disagreement but concede when pressed.
Groups of people can form a dominance hierarchy. For example, a hierarchical organization uses a command hierarchy for top-down management. This can reduce time wasted in conflict over unimportant decisions, prevents inconsistent decisions from harming the operations of the organization, maintain alignment of a large population of workers with the goals of the owners (which the workers might not personally share) and, if promotion is based on merit, help ensure that the people with the best expertise make important decisions. This contrasts with group decision-making and systems which encourage decision-making and self-organization by front-line employees, who in some cases may have better information about customer needs or how to work efficiently. Dominance is only one aspect of organizational structure.
A power structure describes power and dominance relationships in a larger society. For example, a feudal society under a monarchy exhibits a strong dominance hierarchy in both economics and physical power, whereas dominance relationships in a society with democracy and capitalism are more complicated.
In business relationships, dominance is often associated with economic power. For example, a business may adopt a submissive attitude to customer preferences (stocking what customers want to buy) and complaints ("the customer is always right") in order to earn more money. A firm with monopoly power may be less responsive to customer complaints because it can afford to adopt a dominant position. In a business partnership a "silent partner" is one who adopts a submissive position in all aspects, but retains financial ownership and a share of the profits.
Two parties can be dominant in different areas. For example, in a friendship or romantic relationship, one person may have strong opinions about where to eat dinner, whereas the other has strong opinions about how to decorate a shared space. It could be beneficial for the party with weak preferences to be submissive in that area because it will not make them unhappy and avoids conflict with the party that would be unhappy.
The breadwinner model is associated with gender role assignments where the male in a heterosexual marriage would be dominant as they are responsible for economic provision.
Relationship satisfaction
Social exchange theory and Rusbult's investment model show that relationship satisfaction is based on three factors: rewards, costs, and comparison levels (Miller, 2012). Rewards refer to any aspects of the partner or relationship that are positive. Conversely, costs are the negative or unpleasant aspects of the partner or their relationship. The comparison level includes what each partner expects of the relationship. The comparison level is influenced by past relationships, and general relationship expectations they are taught by family and friends.
Individuals in long-distance relationships, LDRs, rated their relationships as more satisfying than individuals in proximal relationship, PRs. Alternatively, Holt and Stone (1988) found that long-distance couples who were able to meet with their partner at least once a month had similar satisfaction levels to unmarried couples who cohabitated. Also, the relationship satisfaction was lower for members of LDRs who saw their partner less frequently than once a month. LDR couples reported the same level of relationship satisfaction as couples in PRs, despite only seeing each other on average once every 23 days.
Social exchange theory and the am investment model both theorize that relationships that are high in cost would be less satisfying than relationships that are low in cost. LDRs have a higher level of costs than PRs, therefore, one would assume that LDRs are less satisfying than PRs. Individuals in LDRs are more satisfied with their relationships compared to individuals in PRs. This can be explained by unique aspects of the LDRs, how the individuals use relationship maintenance behaviors, and the attachment styles of the individuals in the relationships. Therefore, the costs and benefits of the relationship are subjective to the individual, and people in LDRs tend to report lower costs and higher rewards in their relationship compared to PRs.
Theories and empirical research
Confucianism
Confucianism is a study and theory of relationships, especially within hierarchies. Social harmony—the central goal of Confucianism—results in part from every individual knowing their place in the social order and playing their part well. Particular duties arise from each person's particular situation in relation to others. The individual stands simultaneously in several different relationships with different people: as a junior in relation to parents and elders; and as a senior in relation to younger siblings, students, and others. Juniors are considered in Confucianism to owe their seniors reverence and seniors have duties of benevolence and concern toward juniors. A focus on mutuality is prevalent in East Asian cultures to this day.
Minding relationships
The mindfulness theory of relationships shows how closeness in relationships may be enhanced. Minding is the "reciprocal knowing process involving the nonstop, interrelated thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of persons in a relationship." Five components of "minding" include:
Knowing and being known: seeking to understand the partner
Making relationship-enhancing attributions for behaviors: giving the benefit of the doubt
Accepting and respecting: empathy and social skills
Maintaining reciprocity: active participation in relationship enhancement
Continuity in minding: persisting in mindfulness
In popular culture
Popular perceptions
Popular perceptions of intimate relationships are strongly influenced by movies and television. Common messages are that love is predestined, love at first sight is possible, and that love with the right person always succeeds. Those who consume the most romance-related media tend to believe in predestined romance and that those who are destined to be together implicitly understand each other. These beliefs, however, can lead to less communication and problem-solving as well as giving up on relationships more easily when conflict is encountered.
Social media
Social media has changed the face of interpersonal relationships. Romantic interpersonal relationships are no less impacted. For example, in the United States, Facebook has become an integral part of the dating process for emerging adults. Social media can have both positive and negative impacts on romantic relationships. For example, supportive social networks have been linked to more stable relationships. However, social media usage can also facilitate conflict, jealousy, and passive-aggressive behaviors such as spying on a partner. Aside from direct effects on the development, maintenance, and perception of romantic relationships, excessive social network usage is linked to jealousy and dissatisfaction in relationships.
A growing segment of the population is engaging in purely online dating, sometimes but not always moving towards traditional face-to-face interactions. These online relationships differ from face-to-face relationships; for example, self-disclosure may be of primary importance in developing an online relationship. Conflict management differs, since avoidance is easier and conflict resolution skills may not develop in the same way. Additionally, the definition of infidelity is both broadened and narrowed, since physical infidelity becomes easier to conceal but emotional infidelity (e.g. chatting with more than one online partner) becomes a more serious offense.
See also
I and Thou
Impact of prostitution on mental health
Interactionism
Interpersonal attraction
Interpersonal tie
Outline of relationships
Relational mobility
Relational models theory
Relationship status
Relationship forming
Social connection
Socionics
Relationship Science
References
Further reading
External links | 0.773633 | 0.998527 | 0.772494 |
Trompenaars's model of national culture differences | Trompenaars's model of national culture differences is a framework for cross-cultural communication applied to general business and management, developed by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner. This involved a large-scale survey of 8,841 managers and organization employees from 43 countries.
This model of national culture differences has seven dimensions. There are five orientations covering the ways in which human beings deal with each other, one which deals with time, and one which deals with the environment.
Universalism vs particularism
Universalism is the belief that ideas and practices can be applied everywhere without modification, while particularism is the belief that circumstances dictate how ideas and practices should be applied. It asks the question, What is more important, rules or relationships? Cultures with high universalism see one reality and focus on formal rules. Business meetings are characterized by rational, professional arguments with a "get down to business" attitude. Trompenaars research found there was high universalism in countries like the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, and Sweden. Cultures with high particularism see reality as more subjective and place a greater emphasis on relationships. It is important to get to know the people one is doing business with during meetings in a particularist environment. Someone from a universalist culture would be wise not to dismiss personal meanderings as irrelevancies or mere small talk during such business meetings. Countries that have high particularism include Venezuela, Indonesia, China, South Korea, and the former Soviet Union.
Individualism vs communitarianism
Individualism refers to people regarding themselves as individuals, while communitarianism refers to people regarding themselves as part of a group. Trompenaars research yielded some interesting results and suggested that cultures may change more quickly than many people realize. It may not be surprising to see a country like the United States with high individualism, but Mexico and the former communist countries of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union were also found to be individualistic in Trompenaars research. In Mexico, the shift from a previously communitarian culture could be explained with its membership in NAFTA and involvement in the global economy. This contrasts with Hofstede's earlier research, which found these countries to be collectivist, and shows the dynamic and complex nature of culture. Countries with high communitarianism include Germany, China, France, Japan, and Singapore.
Neutral vs emotional
A neutral culture is a culture in which emotions are held in check whereas an emotional culture is a culture in which emotions are expressed openly and naturally. Neutral cultures that come rapidly to mind are those of the Japanese and British. Some examples of high emotional cultures are the Netherlands, Mexico, Italy, Israel and Spain. In emotional cultures, people often smile, talk loudly when excited, and greet each other with enthusiasm. So, when people from neutral culture are doing business in an emotional culture they should be ready for a potentially animated and boisterous meeting and should try to respond warmly. As for those from an emotional culture doing business in a neutral culture, they should not be put off by a lack of emotion.
Specific vs diffuse
A specific culture is one in which individuals have a large public space they readily share with others and small private space guard closely and share with only close friends and associates. A diffuse culture is one in which public space and private space are similar in size and individuals guard their public space carefully, because entry into public space affords entry into private space as well. It looks at how separate a culture keeps their personal and public lives. Fred Luthans and Jonathan Doh give the following example which explains this:
An example of these specific and diffuse cultural dimensions is provided by the United States and Germany. A U.S. professor, such as Robert Smith, PhD, generally would be called “Doctor Smith” by students when at his U.S. university. When shopping, however, he might be referred to by the store clerk as “Bob,” and he might even ask the clerk’s advice regarding some of his intended purchases. When golfing, Bob might just be one of the guys, even to a golf partner who happens to be a graduate student in his department. The reason for these changes in status is that, with the specific U.S. cultural values, people have large public spaces and often conduct themselves differently depending on their public role. At the same time, however, Bob has private space that is off-limits to the students who must call him “Doctor Smith” in class. In high-diffuse cultures, on the other hand, a person’s public life and private life often are similar. Therefore, in Germany, Herr Professor Doktor Schmidt would be referred to that way at the university, local market, and bowling alley—and even his wife might address him formally in public. A great deal of formality is maintained, often giving the impression that Germans are stuffy or aloof.
Achievement vs ascription
In an achievement culture, people are accorded status based on how well they perform their functions. In an ascription culture, status is based on who or what a person is. Does one have to prove themself to receive status or is it given to them? Achievement cultures include the US, Austria, Israel, Switzerland and the UK. Some ascription cultures are Venezuela, Indonesia, and China. When people from an achievement culture do business in an ascription culture it is important to have older, senior members with formal titles and respect should be shown to their counterparts. However, for an ascription culture doing business in an achievement culture, it is important to bring knowledgeable members who can prove to be proficient to other group, and respect should be shown for the knowledge and information of their counterparts.
Sequential vs synchronic
A sequential time culture is the one in which the people like events to happen in a chronological order. The punctuality is very appreciated and they base their lives in schedules, plannification and specific and clear deadlines; in this kind of cultures time is very important and they do not tolerate the waste of time. Instead in synchronic cultures, they see specific time periods as interwoven periods, the use to highlight the importance of punctuality and deadlines if these are key to meeting objectives and they often work in several things at a time, they are also more flexible with the distribution of time and commitments.
Internal vs external control
Do we control our environment or are we controlled by it? In inner directed culture, people believe in controlling outcomes and have a dominant attitude toward environment. In outer-directed culture, people believe in letting things take their own course and have a more flexible attitude, characterized by a willingness to compromise and maintain harmony with nature.
See also
Cross-cultural communication
Fons Trompenaars
Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory
References
External links
THT Consulting
Riding the Waves of Culture by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner (book)
Trompenaars' and Hampden-Turner's cultural factors
Riding The waves of commerce: a test of Trompenaars' "model" of national culture differences
Fons Trompenaars' Cultural Dimensions
THE TROMPENAARS’ SEVEN-DIMENSION CULTURAL MODEL
Culture Compass
THT IAP Certification Presentation Day1 6Dec2010
Cross-cultural psychology
Cultural studies
National identity
Organizational culture | 0.783163 | 0.986078 | 0.77226 |
Situationist International | The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution in 1972. The intellectual foundations of the Situationist International were derived primarily from libertarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, particularly Dada and Surrealism. Overall, situationist theory represented an attempt to synthesize this diverse field of theoretical disciplines into a modern and comprehensive critique of mid-20th century advanced capitalism.
Essential to situationist theory was the concept of the spectacle, a unified critique of advanced capitalism of which a primary concern was the progressively increasing tendency towards the expression and mediation of social relations through images. The situationists believed that the shift from individual expression through directly lived experiences, or the first-hand fulfillment of authentic desires, to individual expression by proxy through the exchange or consumption of commodities, or passive second-hand alienation, inflicted significant and far-reaching damage to the quality of human life for both individuals and society. Another important concept of situationist theory was the primary means of counteracting the spectacle; the construction of situations, moments of life deliberately constructed for the purpose of reawakening and pursuing authentic desires, experiencing the feeling of life and adventure, and the liberation of everyday life.
The situationists recognized that capitalism had changed since Karl Marx's formative writings, but maintained that his analysis of the capitalist mode of production remained fundamentally correct; they rearticulated and expanded upon several classical Marxist concepts, such as his theory of alienation. In their expanded interpretation of Marxist theory, the situationists asserted that the misery of social alienation and commodity fetishism were no longer limited to the fundamental components of capitalist society, but had now in advanced capitalism spread themselves to every aspect of life and culture. They rejected the idea that advanced capitalism's apparent successes—such as technological advancement, increased productive capacity, and a raised general quality of life when compared to previous systems, such as feudalism—could ever outweigh the social dysfunction and degradation of everyday life that it simultaneously inflicted.
When the Situationist International was first formed, it had a predominantly artistic focus; emphasis was placed on concepts like unitary urbanism and psychogeography. Gradually, however, that focus shifted more towards revolutionary and political theory. The Situationist International reached the apex of its creative output and influence in 1967 and 1968, with the former marking the publication of the two most significant texts of the situationist movement, The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord and The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem. The expressed writing and political theory of the two aforementioned texts, along with other situationist publications, proved greatly influential in shaping the ideas behind the May 1968 insurrections in France; quotes, phrases, and slogans from situationist texts and publications were ubiquitous on posters and graffiti throughout France during the uprisings.
Etymology and usage
The term "situationist" refers to the construction of situations, one of the early central concepts of the Situationist International; the term also refers to any individuals engaged in the construction of situations, or, more narrowly, to members of the Situationist International. Situationist theory sees the situation as a tool for the liberation of everyday life, a method of negating the pervasive alienation that accompanied the spectacle. The founding manifesto of the Situationist International, Report on the Construction of Situations (1957), defined the construction of situations as "the concrete construction of momentary ambiances of life and their transformation into a superior passional quality." Internationale Situationniste No. 1 (June 1958) defined the constructed situation as "a moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events". The situationists argued that advanced capitalism manufactured false desires; literally in the sense of ubiquitous advertising and the glorification of accumulated capital, and more broadly in the abstraction and reification of the more ephemeral experiences of authentic life into commodities. The experimental direction of situationist activity consisted of setting up temporary environments favorable to the fulfillment of true and authentic human desires in response.
The Situationist International strongly resisted use of the term "situationism", which Debord called a "meaningless term", adding "[t]here is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine for interpreting existing conditions". The situationists maintained a philosophical opposition to all ideologies, conceiving of them as abstract superstructures ultimately serving only to justify the economic base of a given society; accordingly, they rejected "situationism" as an absurd and self-contradictory concept. In The Society of the Spectacle, Debord asserted that ideology was "the abstract will to universality and the illusion thereof" which was "legitimated in modern society by universal abstraction and by the effective dictatorship of illusion".
History
Origins (1945–1955)
The situationist movement had its origins as a left wing tendency within Lettrism, an artistic and literary movement led by the Romanian-born French poet and visual artist Isidore Isou, originating in 1940s Paris. The group was heavily influenced by the preceding avant-garde movements of Dadaism and Surrealism, seeking to apply critical theories based on these concepts to all areas of art and culture, most notably in poetry, film, painting and political theory. Among some of the concepts and artistic innovations developed by the Lettrists were the lettrie, a poem reflecting pure form yet devoid of all semantic content, new syntheses of writing and visual art identified as metagraphics and hypergraphics, as well as new creative techniques in filmmaking. Future situationist Guy Debord, who was at that time a significant figure in the Lettrist movement, helped develop these new film techniques, using them in his Lettrist film Howlings for Sade (1952) as well as later in his situationist film Society of the Spectacle (1972).
By 1950, a much younger and more left-wing part of the Lettrist movement began to emerge. This group kept very active in perpetrating public outrages such as the Notre-Dame Affair, where at the Easter High Mass at Notre Dame de Paris, in front of ten thousand people and broadcast on national TV, their member and former Dominican Michel Mourre posed as a monk, "stood in front of the altar and read a pamphlet proclaiming that God was dead". André Breton prominently came out in support of the action in a letter that spawned a large debate in the newspaper Combat.
In 1952, this left wing of the Lettrist movement, which included Debord, broke off from Isou's group and formed the Letterist International, a new Paris-based collective of avant-garde artists and political theorists. The schism finally erupted when the future members of the radical Lettrists disrupted a Charlie Chaplin press conference for Limelight at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. They distributed a polemic entitled "No More Flat Feet!", which concluded: "The footlights have melted the make-up of the supposedly brilliant mime. All we can see now is a lugubrious and mercenary old man. Go home Mister Chaplin." Isou was upset with this, his own attitude being that Chaplin deserved respect as one of the great creators of the cinematic art. The breakaway group felt that his work was no longer relevant, while having appreciated it "in its own time," and asserted their belief "that the most urgent expression of freedom is the destruction of idols, especially when they claim to represent freedom," in this case, filmmaker Charlie Chaplin.
During this period of the Letterist International, many of the important concepts and ideas that would later be integral in situationist theory were developed. Individuals in the group collaboratively constructed the new field of psychogeography, which they defined as "the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment (whether consciously organized or not) on the emotions and behavior of individuals." Debord further expanded this concept of psychogeography with his theory of the dérive, an unplanned tour through an urban landscape directed entirely by the feelings evoked in the individual by their surroundings, serving as the primary means for mapping and investigating the psychogeography of these different areas. During this period the Letterist International also developed the situationist tactic of détournement, which by reworking or re-contextualizing an existing work of art or literature sought to radically shift its meaning to one with revolutionary significance.
Formation (1956–1957)
In 1956, Guy Debord, a member of the Lettrist International, and Asger Jorn of the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, brought together a group of artistic collectives for the First World Congress of Free Artists in Alba, Italy. The meeting established the foundation for the development of the Situationist International, which was officially formed in July 1957 at a meeting in Cosio di Arroscia, Italy. The resulting International was a fusion of these extremely small avant-garde collectives: the Lettrist International, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus (an offshoot of COBRA), and the London Psychogeographical Association (though, Anselm Jappe has argued that the group pivoted around Jorn and Debord for the first four years). Later, the Situationist International drew ideas from other groups such as Socialisme ou Barbarie.
The most prominent member of the group, Guy Debord, generally became considered the organization's de facto leader and most distinguished theorist. Other members included theorist Raoul Vaneigem, the Dutch painter Constant Nieuwenhuys, the Italo-Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi, the English artist Ralph Rumney (sole member of the London Psychogeographical Association, Rumney suffered expulsion relatively soon after the formation), the Danish artist Asger Jorn (who after parting with the SI also founded the Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism), the architect and veteran of the Hungarian Uprising Attila Kotanyi, and the French writer Michele Bernstein. Debord and Bernstein later married.
In June 1957, Debord wrote the manifesto of the Situationist International, titled Report on the Construction of Situations. This manifesto plans a rereading of Karl Marx's Das Kapital and advocates a cultural revolution in western countries.
Artistic period (1958–1962)
During the first few years of the SI's founding, avant-garde artistic groups began collaborating with the SI and joining the organization. Gruppe SPUR, a German artistic collective, collaborated with the Situationist International on projects beginning in 1959, continuing until the group officially joined the SI in 1961. The role of the artists in the SI was of great significance, particularly Asger Jorn, Constant Nieuwenhuys and Pinot Gallizio.
Asger Jorn, who invented Situgraphy and Situlogy, had the social role of catalyst and team leader among the members of the SI between 1957 and 1961. Jorn's role in the situationist movement (as in COBRA) was that of a catalyst and team leader. Guy Debord on his own lacked the personal warmth and persuasiveness to draw people of different nationalities and talents into an active working partnership. As a prototype Marxist intellectual Debord needed an ally who could patch up the petty egoisms and squabbles of the members. When Jorn's leadership was withdrawn in 1961, many simmering quarrels among different sections of the SI flared up, leading to multiple exclusions.
The first major split was the exclusion of Gruppe SPUR, the German section, from the SI on 10 February 1962. Many different disagreements led to the fracture, for example; while at the Fourth SI Conference in London in December 1960, in a discussion about the political nature of the SI, the Gruppe SPUR members disagreed with the core situationist stance of counting on a revolutionary proletariat; the accusation that their activities were based on a "systematic misunderstanding of situationist theses"; the understanding that at least one Gruppe SPUR member, sculptor Lothar Fischer, and possibly the rest of the group, were not actually understanding and/or agreeing with the situationist ideas, but were just using the SI to achieve success in the art market; and the betrayal, in the Spur #7 issue, of a common agreement on the Gruppe SPUR and SI publications.
The exclusion was a recognition that Gruppe SPUR's "principles, methods and goals" were significantly in contrast with those of the SI. This split however was not a declaration of hostilities, as in other cases of SI exclusions. A few months after the exclusion, in the context of judicial prosecution against the group by the German state, Debord expressed his esteem to Gruppe SPUR, calling it the only significant artist group in (Germany) since World War II, and regarding it at the level of the avant-gardes in other countries.
The next significant split was in 1962, wherein the "Nashists," the Scandinavian section of the SI led by Jørgen Nash, were excluded from the organization. Nash created the 2nd Situationist International.
Political period (1963–1968)
By this point the Situationist International consisted almost exclusively of the Franco-Belgian section, led by Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. These members possessed much more of a tendency towards political theory over the more artistic aspects of the SI. The shift in the intellectual priorities within the SI resulted in more focus on the theoretical, such as the theory of the spectacle and Marxist critical analysis, spending much less time on the more artistic and tangible concepts like unitary urbanism, détournement, and situgraphy.
During this period the SI began having more and more influence on local university students in France. Taking advantage of the apathy of their colleagues, five "Pro-situs", situationist-influenced students, infiltrated the University of Strasbourg's student union in November 1966 and began scandalising the authorities. Their first action was to form an "anarchist appreciation society" called The Society for the Rehabilitation for Karl Marx and Ravachol; next they appropriated union funds to flypost "Return of the Durruti Column", Andre Bertrand's détourned comic strip. They then invited the situationists to contribute a critique of the University of Strasbourg, and On the Poverty of Student Life, written by Tunisian situationist Mustapha/Omar Khayati was the result. The students promptly proceeded to print 10,000 copies of the pamphlet using university funds and distributed them during a ceremony marking the beginning of the academic year. This provoked an immediate outcry in the local, national and international media.
May events (1968)
The Situationists played a preponderant role in the May 1968 uprisings, and to some extent their political perspective and ideas fueled such crisis, providing a central theoretic foundation. While SI's member count had been steadily falling for the preceding several years, the ones that remained were able to fill revolutionary roles for which they had patiently anticipated and prepared. The active ideologists ("enragés" and Situationists) behind the revolutionary events in Strasbourg, Nanterre and Paris, numbered only about one or two dozen persons.
This has now been widely acknowledged as a fact by studies of the period, what is still wide open to interpretation is the "how and why" that happened. Charles de Gaulle, in the aftermath televised speech of 7 June, acknowledged that "This explosion was provoked by groups in revolt against modern consumer and technical society, whether it be the communism of the East or the capitalism of the West."
They also made up the majority in the Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne. An important event leading up to May 1968 was the scandal in Strasbourg in December 1966. The Union Nationale des Étudiants de France declared itself in favor of the SI's theses, and managed to use public funds to publish Mustapha Khayati's pamphlet On the Poverty of Student Life. Thousands of copies of the pamphlet were printed and circulated and helped to make the Situationists well known throughout the nonstalinist left.
Quotations from two key situationist books, Debord's The Society of the Spectacle (1967) and Khayati's On the Poverty of Student Life (1966), were written on the walls of Paris and several provincial cities. This was documented in the collection of photographs published in 1968 by Walter Lewino, L'imagination au pouvoir.
Though the SI were a very small group, they were expert self-propagandists, and their slogans appeared daubed on walls throughout Paris at the time of the revolt. SI member René Viénet's 1968 book Enragés and Situationists in the Occupations Movement, France, May '68 gives an account of the involvement of the SI with the student group of Enragés and the occupation of the Sorbonne.
The occupations of 1968 started at the University of Nanterre and spread to the Sorbonne. The police tried to take back the Sorbonne and a riot ensued. Following this a general strike was declared with up to 10 million workers participating. The SI originally participated in the Sorbonne occupations and defended barricades in the riots. The SI distributed calls for the occupation of factories and the formation of workers' councils, but, disillusioned with the students, left the university to set up The Council for the Maintenance of the Occupations (CMDO) which distributed the SI's demands on a much wider scale. After the end of the movement, the CMDO disbanded.
Aftermath (1968–1972)
By 1972, Gianfranco Sanguinetti and Guy Debord were the only two remaining members of the SI. Working with Debord, in August 1975, Sanguinetti wrote a pamphlet titled Rapporto veridico sulle ultime opportunità di salvare il capitalismo in Italia (The Real Report on the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy), which (inspired by Bruno Bauer) purported to be the cynical writing of "Censor", a powerful industrialist. The pamphlet argued that the ruling class of Italy supported the Piazza Fontana bombing and other covert, false flag mass slaughter for the higher goal of defending the capitalist status quo from communist influence. The pamphlet was mailed to 520 of Italy's most powerful individuals. It was received as genuine and powerful politicians, industrialists and journalists praised its content. After reprinting the tract as a small book, Sanguinetti revealed himself to be the true author. In the outcry that ensued and under pressure from Italian authorities Sanguinetti left Italy in February 1976, and was denied entry to France.
After publishing in the last issue of the magazine, an analysis of the May 1968 revolts and the strategies that will need to be adopted in future revolutions, the SI was dissolved in 1972.
Main concepts
The spectacle and its society
The Spectacle is a central notion in situationist theory, developed by Guy Debord in his 1967 book, The Society of the Spectacle. In its limited sense, spectacle means the mass media, which are "its most glaring superficial manifestation." Debord said that the society of the spectacle came to existence in the late 1920s.
The critique of the spectacle is a development and application of Karl Marx's concept of fetishism of commodities, reification and alienation, and the way it was reprised by György Lukács in 1923. In the society of the spectacle, the commodities rule the workers and the consumers instead of being ruled by them. The consumers are passive subjects that contemplate the reified spectacle.
As early as 1958, in the situationist manifesto, Debord described official culture as a "rigged game", where conservative powers forbid subversive ideas to have direct access to the public discourse. Such ideas get first trivialized and sterilized, and then they are safely incorporated back within mainstream society, where they can be exploited to add new flavors to old dominant ideas. This technique of the spectacle is sometimes called recuperation, and its counter-technique is the détournement.
Détournement
A détournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and consist in "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself," like turning slogans and logos against the advertisers or the political status quo. Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called situationist prank that was reprised by the punk movement in the late 1970s and inspired the culture jamming movement in the late 1980s.
Anti-capitalism
The Situationist International, in the 15 years from its formation in 1957 and its dissolution in 1972, is characterized by a Marxist and surrealist perspective on aesthetics and politics, without separation between the two: art and politics are faced together and in revolutionary terms. The SI analyzed the modern world from the point of view of everyday life. The core arguments of the Situationist International were an attack on the capitalist degradation of the life of people and the fake models advertised by the mass media, to which the Situationist responded with alternative life experiences. The alternative life experiences explored by the Situationists were the construction of situations, unitary urbanism, psychogeography, and the union of play, freedom and critical thinking.
A major stance of the SI was to count on the force of a revolutionary proletariat. This stance was reaffirmed very clearly in a discussion on "To what extent is the SI a political movement?", during the Fourth SI Conference in London. The SI remarked that this is a core Situationist principle, and that those that don't understand it and agree with it, are not Situationist.
Art and politics
The SI rejected all art that separated itself from politics, the concept of 20th-century art that is separated from topical political events. The SI believed that the notion of artistic expression being separated from politics and current events is one proliferated by reactionary considerations to render artwork that expresses comprehensive critiques of society impotent. They recognized there was a precise mechanism followed by reactionaries to defuse the role of subversive artists and intellectuals, that is, to reframe them as separated from the most topical events, and divert from them the taste for the new that may dangerously appeal the masses; after such separation, such artworks are sterilized, banalized, degraded, and can be safely integrated into the official culture and the public discourse, where they can add new flavors to old dominant ideas and play the role of a gear wheel in the mechanism of the society of the spectacle.
According to this theory, artists and intellectuals that accept such compromises are rewarded by the art dealers and praised by the dominant culture. The SI received many offers to sponsor "creations" that would just have a "situationist" label but a diluted political content, that would have brought things back to order and the SI back into the old fold of artistic praxis. The majority of SI continued to refuse such offers and any involvement on the conventional avant-garde artistic plane. This principle was affirmed since the founding of the SI in 1957, but the qualitative step of resolving all the contradictions of having situationists that make concessions to the cultural market, was made with the exclusion of Gruppe SPUR in 1962.
The SI noted how reactionary forces forbid subversive ideas from artists and intellectuals to reach the public discourse, and how they attack the artworks that express comprehensive critique of society, by saying that art should not involve itself into politics.
The construction of situations
The first edition of Internationale Situationniste defines the constructed situation as "a moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events."
As the SI embraced dialectical Marxism, the situation came to refer less to a specific avant-garde practice than to the dialectical unification of art and life more generally. Beyond this theoretical definition, the situation as a practical manifestation thus slipped between a series of proposals. The SI thus were first led to distinguish the situation from the mere artistic practice of the happening, and later identified it in historical events such as the Paris Commune in which it exhibited itself as the revolutionary moment. The SI's interest in the Paris Commune was expressed in 1962 in their fourteen "Theses on the Paris Commune".
Psychogeography
The first edition of Internationale Situationniste defined psychogeography as "the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment (whether consciously organized or not) on the emotions and behavior of individuals." The term was first recognized in 1955 by Guy Debord while still with the Letterist International:The word psychogeography, suggested by an illiterate Kabyle as a general term for the phenomena a few of us were investigating around the summer of 1953, is not too inappropriate. It does not contradict the materialist perspective of the conditioning of life and thought by objective nature. Geography, for example, deals with the determinant action of general natural forces, such as soil composition or climatic conditions, on the economic structures of a society, and thus on the corresponding conception that such a society can have of the world. Psychogeography could set for itself the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. The charmingly vague adjective psychogeographical can be applied to the findings arrived at by this type of investigation, to their influence on human feelings, and more generally to any situation or conduct that seems to reflect the same spirit of discovery.
Dérive
By definition, psychogeography combines subjective and objective knowledge and studies. Debord struggled to stipulate the finer points of this theoretical paradox, ultimately producing "Theory of the Dérive" in 1958, a document which essentially serves as an instruction manual for the psychogeographic procedure, executed through the act of dérive ("drift").
SI engaged in a play-form that was also
practiced by its predecessor organization, the Lettrist International, the art of wandering through urban space, which they termed dérive, whose unique mood is conveyed in Debord's darkly romantic meaning of palindrome. Two excursions organized by Andre Breton serve as the closest cultural precedents to the dérive. The first in 1921, was an excursion to the Church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre with the Parisian Dadaists; the second excursion was on 1 May 1923, when a small group of Surrealists walked toward the countryside outside of Blois. Debord was cautious however to differentiate between the derive and such precedents. He emphasized its active character as "a mode of experimental behavior" that reached to Romanticism, the Baroque, and the age of chivalry, with its tradition of long adventures voyages. Such urban roaming was characteristic of Left Bank bohemianism in Paris.
In the SI's 6th issue, Raoul Vaneigem writes in a manifesto of unitary urbanism, "All space is occupied by the enemy. We are living under a permanent curfew. Not just the cops—the geometry". Dérive, as a previously conceptualized tactic in the French military, was "a calculated action determined by the absence of a greater locus", and "a maneuver within the enemy's field of vision". To the SI, whose interest was inhabiting space, the dérive brought appeal in this sense of taking the "fight" to the streets and truly indulging in a determined operation. The dérive was a course of preparation, reconnaissance, a means of shaping situationist psychology among urban explorers for the eventuality of the situationist city.
Political theory
Major works
Twelve issues of the main French edition of journal Internationale Situationniste were published, each issue edited by a different individual or group, including: Guy Debord, Hadj Mohamed Dahou, Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio, Maurice Wyckaert, Constant Nieuwenhuys, Asger Jorn, Helmut Sturm, Attila Kotanyi, Jørgen Nash, Uwe Lausen, Raoul Vaneigem, Michèle Bernstein, Jeppesen Victor Martin, Jan Strijbosch, Alexander Trocchi, Théo Frey, Mustapha Khayati, Donald Nicholson-Smith, René Riesel, and René Viénet.
Classic Situationist texts include: On the Poverty of Student Life, Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, and The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem.
The first English-language collection of SI writings, although poorly and freely translated, was Leaving The 20th century edited by Christopher Gray. The Situationist International Anthology edited and translated by Ken Knabb, collected numerous SI documents which had previously never been seen in English.
Relationship with Marxism
Rooted firmly in the Marxist tradition, the Situationist International criticized Trotskyism, Marxism–Leninism, Stalinism and Maoism from a position they believed to be further left and more properly Marxist. The situationists possessed a strong anti-authoritarian current, commonly deriding the centralized bureaucracies of China and the Soviet Union in the same breath as capitalism.
Debord's work The Society of the Spectacle (1967) established situationist analysis as Marxist critical theory. The Society of the Spectacle is widely recognized as the main and most influential Situationist essay.
The concept of revolution created by the Situationist International was anti-capitalist, Marxist, Young Hegelian, and from the very beginning in the 50s, remarkably differently from the established Left, anti-Stalinist and against all repressive regimes.
Debord starts his 1967 work with a revisited version of the first sentence with which Marx began his critique of classical political economy, Das Kapital. In a later essay, Debord will argue that his work was the most important social critique since Marx's work. Drawing from Marx, which argued that under a capitalist society the wealth is degraded to an immense accumulation of commodities, Debord argues that in advanced capitalism, life is reduced to an immense accumulation of spectacles, a triumph of mere appearance where "all that once was directly lived has become mere representation". The spectacle, which according to Debord is the core feature of the advanced capitalist societies, has its "most glaring superficial manifestation" in the advertising-mass media-marketing complex.
Elaborating on Marx's argument that under capitalism our lives and our environment are continually depleted, Debord adds that the Spectacle is the system by which capitalism tries to hide such depletion. Debord added that, further than the impoverishment in the quality of life, our psychic functions are altered, we get a degradation of mind and also a degradation of knowledge. In the spectacular society, knowledge is not used anymore to question, analyze, or resolve contradictions, but to assuage reality.
Situationist theorists advocated methods of operation that included democratic workers' councils and workers' self-management, interested in empowering the individual, in contrast to the perceived corrupt bureaucratic states of the Eastern bloc. Their anti-authoritarian interpretation of Marxist theory can be identified with the broader council communist and libertarian Marxist movements, themselves more broadly termed as left communism.
The last issue (1969) of the Situationist International journal, featured an editorial analyzing the events of May 1968. The editorial, written by Guy Debord, was titled The Beginning of an Era, probably as a detournement reference of Nachalo (The Beginning), a Russian Marxist monthly magazine.
According to Greil Marcus, some found similarities between the Situationists and the Yippies.
Former situationists T. J. Clark (art historian) and Donald Nicholson-Smith (British section), argued that the portion of the moderate Left that is the "established Left", and its "Left opinion-makers", usually addressed contemptuously the SI as "hopelessly young-Hegelian".
Relationship with anarchism
The Situationist International was differentiated from both anarchists and Marxists. In spite of this, they have frequently been associated with anarchism. Debord did a critical assessment of the anarchists in his 1967 The Society of the Spectacle. In the final, 12th issue of the journal, the situationists rejected spontaneism and the "mystics of nonorganization," labeling them as a form of "sub-anarchism":
According to situationist Ken Knabb, Debord pointed out the flaws and merits of both Marxism and anarchism. He argued that "the split between Marxism and anarchism crippled both sides. The anarchists rightly criticized the authoritarian and narrowly economistic tendencies in Marxism, but they generally did so in an undialectical, moralistic, ahistorical manner... and leaving Marx and a few of the more radical Marxists with a virtual monopoly on coherent dialectical analysis—until the situationists finally brought the libertarian and dialectical aspects back together again."
Relationship with the established left
The SI poses a challenge to the model of political action of a portion of the left, the "established Left" and "Left opinion-makers". The first challenging aspect is the fueling role that the SI had in the upheavals of the political and social movements of the 1960s, upheavals for which much is still at stake and which many foresee as recurring in the 21st century. The second challenging aspect, is the comparison between the Situationist Marxist theory of the Society of the Spectacle, which is still very topical 30 years later, and the current status of the theories supported by leftist establishments in the same period, like Althusserianism, Maoism, Autonomism, Freudo-Marxism and others.
The response to this challenge has been an attempt to silence and misinterpret, to "turn the SI safely into an art movement, and thereby to minimize its role in the political and social movements of the sixties".
The core aspect of the revolutionary perspectives, and the political theory, of the Situationist International, has been neglected by some commentators, which either limited themselves to an apolitical reading of the situationist avant-garde art works, or dismissed the Situationist political theory. Examples of this are Simon Sadler's The Situationist City, and the accounts on the SI published by the New Left Review.
The concept of revolution created by the Situationist International was anti-capitalist, Marxist, Young Hegelian, and from the very beginning in the 1950s, remarkably differently from the established Left, anti-Stalinist and against all repressive regimes. The SI called in May 1968 for the formation of Workers councils.
There was no separation between the artistic and the political perspectives. For instance, Asger Jorn never believed in a conception of the Situationist ideas as exclusively artistic and separated from political involvement. He was at the root and at the core of the Situationist International project, fully sharing the revolutionary intentions with Debord.
Reception
Criticism
Critics of the Situationists frequently assert that their ideas are not in fact complex and difficult to understand, but are at best simple ideas expressed in deliberately difficult language, and at worst actually nonsensical. For example, anarchist Chaz Bufe asserts in Listen Anarchist! that "obscure situationist jargon" is a major problem in the anarchist movement. Andrea Gibbons argues that the Parisian situationists failed to take on board practically or theoretically the experience of their African members, such as is shown by Abdelhafid Khattib's experience of police harassment while conducting psychogeographic research on Les Halles in 1958. She remarks how little the suppression of Algerians in Paris had impacted their activity and thinking – Bernstein and Debord co-signed the Declaration on the Right to Insubordination in the Algerian War in 1961, which led to them being questioned by the police. She cites a letter written by Jacqueline de Jong, Jorgen Nash, and Ansgar Elde protesting the expulsion of the Spur group in 1962 which highlights the political repression in Paris at that time. Gibbons also criticises the lack of mention of the Algerian situationists in either Debord's or Vaneigem's memoirs.
Influence
Debord's analysis of the spectacle has been influential among people working on television, particularly in France and Italy; in Italy, TV programs produced by situationist intellectuals, like Antonio Ricci's Striscia la notizia, or Carlo Freccero's programming schedule for Italia 1 in the early 1990s.
In the 1960s and 1970s, anarchists, communists, and other leftists offered various interpretations of Situationist concepts in combination with a variety of other perspectives. Examples of these groups include: in Amsterdam, the Provos; in the UK, King Mob, the producers of Heatwave magazine (including Charles Radcliffe who later briefly joined the English Section of the Situationist International), and the Angry Brigade. In the US, groups like Black Mask (later Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers), The Weathermen, and the Rebel Worker group also explicitly employed their ideas.
Anarchist theorists such as Fredy Perlman, Bob Black, Hakim Bey, and John Zerzan, have developed the SI's ideas in various directions away from Marxism. These theorists were predominantly associated with the magazines Fifth Estate, Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed, and Green Anarchy. During the early 1980s, English anarchist Larry Law produced the Spectacular Times pocket-books series, which aimed to make Situationist ideas more easily assimilated into the anarchist movement. Later anarchist theorists such as the CrimethInc. collective also claim Situationist influence.
Situationist urban theory, defined initially by the members of the Lettrist International as "Unitary Urbanism," was extensively developed through the behavioural and performance structures of The Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture during the 1990s. The re-emergence of the London Psychogeographical Association also inspired many new psychogeographical groups including Manchester Area Psychogeographic. The LPA and the Neoist Alliance along with the Luther Blissett Project came together to form a New Lettrist International with a specifically Communist perspective. Around this time, Unpopular Books and the LPA released some key texts including new translations of Asger Jorn's work.
Around this time also, groups such as Reclaim the Streets and Adbusters have, respectively, seen themselves as "creating situations" or practicing detournement on advertisements.
Punk and culture
In cultural terms, Situationist International's influence has arguably been greater, if more diffuse. In the late 1960s, MC5, the Fugs and Hawkwind were radical situationist bands.
Situationist ideas exerted a strong influence on the design language of the punk rock phenomenon of the 1970s. To a significant extent, this was the result of the adoption of the style, aesthetics and slogans employed by the SI. These were often secondhand influences received through British situationist groups such as King Mob whose associates included Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Reid. Factory Records owner Tony Wilson was influenced by situationist urbanism, and Factory band the Durutti Column took their name from Andre Bertrand's collage Le Retour de la Colonne Durutti. (Bertrand, in turn, took his title from the eponymous anarchist army during the Spanish Civil War). American punk group the Feederz have been acclaimed as exhibiting a more direct and conscious influence. Formed in the late 1970s, they became known for extensive use of detournement and their intention to provoke their audience through the exposition of situationist themes. Other musical artists whose lyrics and artwork have referenced situationist concepts include the Clash, Pussy Riot, Crass, Tom Robinson Band, Ian Dury, X-Ray Spex, Sham 69, Buzzcocks, the Fall, Patrik Fitzgerald, Conflict, the Royal Family and the Poor, Angelic Upstarts, Chaos UK, Chaotic Dischord, MDC, Dead Kennedys, Reagan Youth, Chumbawamba and Manic Street Preachers. Situationist theory experienced a vogue in the late '90s hardcore punk scene, when it was referenced by Orchid, His Hero Is Gone and CrimethInc.
Situationist ideas may be found within the development of other avant-garde threads such as unilalianism and neoism, as well as artists such as Mark Divo.
Writers such as Thomas de Zengotita have echoed situationist theories regarding the spectacle of contemporary society.
See also
Anti-art
Bernadette Corporation
Golden Fleet
King Mob
The Right to Be Greedy: Theses on the Practical Necessity of Demanding Everything
Neoism
Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation: an international institution for cultural studies and philosophical research, which archives contains an extensive research collection of the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century, with a focus on documents and works by Situationists, among others
Notes
References
Full text.
Derrida, Jacques (2002) Q&A session at Film Forum, New York City, 23 October 2002, transcript by Gil Kofman. Published in Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering Kofman, Jacques Derrida (2005) Derrida: screenplay and essays on the film
Further reading
Balsebre, Gianluigi. Della critica radicale. Bibliografia ragionata sull'Internazionale situazionista. Con documenti inediti in italiano Grafton edizioni, Bologna, 1995.
Cooper, Sam. The Situationist International in Britain: Modernism, Surrealism, and the Avant-Gardes. Routledge, New York, 2016.
Ford, Simon. The Situationist International: A User's Guide (Black Dog, London, 2004)
Sadler, Simon. The Situationist City. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1998.
Vachon, Marc. L'arpenteur de la ville: L'utopie situationniste et Patrick Straram. Les Éditions Triptyque, Montreal, 2003 .
Wark, McKenzie. 50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist International (Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2008)
Wark, McKenzie. The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International (Verso, New York, 2011)
The Rise and Fall of The Green Mountain Anarchist Collective, 2015.
The Situationist international (1957–1972) In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni. JRP Ringier, Zurich, 2007
External links
Situationist International Online
The Situationist International Text Library
Situationist Cinema at 0xDB
Translations of all twelve issues of Internationale Situationniste
"REVOLUTIONARY ABSENCE" by Ara H. Merjian found in Issue 67 of Cabinet Magazine (2019–20).
1957 establishments in France
1972 disestablishments in France
Anti-capitalism
Anti-consumerist groups
Anti-Stalinist left
Architecture groups
Contemporary French history
Continental philosophy organizations
Critical theory
Culture jamming
Far-left politics in France
Left-wing internationals
Modern art
Organizations established in 1957
Organizations disestablished in 1972
Social philosophy
Socialism
Underground culture
Critics of work and the work ethic | 0.774225 | 0.997461 | 0.77226 |
Sublimation (psychology) | In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defense mechanism, in which socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse.
Sigmund Freud believed that sublimation was a sign of maturity and civilization, allowing people to function normally in culturally acceptable ways. He defined sublimation as the process of deflecting sexual instincts into acts of higher social valuation, being "an especially conspicuous feature of cultural development; it is what makes it possible for higher psychical activities, scientific, artistic or ideological, to play such an 'important' part in civilized life." Wade and Travis present a similar view, stating that sublimation occurs when displacement "serves a higher cultural or socially useful purpose, as in the creation of art or inventions."
Nietzsche
In the opening section of Human, All Too Human entitled "Of first and last things", Nietzsche wrote:
There is, strictly speaking, neither unselfish conduct, nor a wholly disinterested point of view. Both are simply sublimations in which the basic element seems almost evaporated and betrays its presence only to the keenest observation. All that we need and that could possibly be given us in the present state of development of the sciences, is a chemistry of the moral, religious, aesthetic conceptions and feeling, as well as of those emotions which we experience in the affairs, great and small, of society and civilization, and which we are sensible of even in solitude. But what if this chemistry established the fact that, even in its domain, the most magnificent results were attained with the basest and most despised ingredients? Would many feel disposed to continue such investigations? Mankind loves to put by the questions of its origin and beginning: must one not be almost inhuman in order to follow the opposite course?
Freud and psychoanalytic theory
In Freud's psychoanalytical theory, erotic energy is allowed a limited amount of expression, owing to the constraints of human society and civilization itself. It therefore requires other outlets, especially if an individual is to remain psychologically balanced. The ego must act as a mediator between the moral norms of the super-ego, the realistic expectations of reality, and the drives and impulses of the id. One method by which the ego lessens the stress that unacceptably strong urges or emotions can cause is through sublimation.
Sublimation is the process of transforming libido into "socially useful" achievements, including artistic, cultural, and intellectual pursuits. Freud considered this psychical operation to be fairly salutary compared to the others that he identified, such as repression, displacement, denial, reaction formation, intellectualisation, and projection. In The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence (1936), his daughter, Anna, classed sublimation as one of the major 'defence mechanisms' of the psyche.
Freud got the idea of sublimation while reading The Harz Journey by Heinrich Heine. The story is about Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach who cut off the tails of dogs he encountered in childhood and later became a surgeon. Freud concluded that sublimation could be a conflict between the need for satisfaction and the need for security without perturbation of awareness. In an action performed many times throughout one's life, which firstly appears sadistic, thought is ultimately refined into an activity which is of benefit to mankind.
Sexual sublimation
Sexual sublimation was according to Freud a deflection of sexual instincts into non-sexual activity, based upon a principle akin to the conservation of energy in physics. There is a finite amount of activity, and it is converted, in a mechanistic fashion like a mechanical engine, from sexual activity to non-sexual. One such example is the case of Wolf Man, a case in which a young boy's sexual attraction to his father was redirected toward Christianity and eventually led the boy to obsessional neurosis in the form of uncontrollable sacrilegious reverence. Freud travelled to Clark University to speak about instances of sexual sublimation, but he was not wholly convinced of his own theories. 20th century psychological thought by the likes of Melanie Klein has largely relegated the idea and replaced it with subtler ideas. One such idea is that the sexual desires are not made totally non-sexual, but rather transformed into a more appropriate desire.
Although superficially valid, with anecdotal examples from non-psychologists of civilizations at large and specific great achievers repressing sexual urges (e.g. Renoir "painting with his cock", Wayland Young stating that "love's loss is empire's gain", Lawrence Stone's view that Western civilization has achieved so much because of sublimation, and the claims by biographers of many people from Higgins on Rider Haggard to Sinclair on George Grey), it is ill-defined and comes with the caveats that it rarely happens in practice, that many things attributed to it are actually the results of something else, and that it is most definitely not some quasi-physical transfer of some sort of "sexual energy" in the modern psychoanalytical view but rather an internal thought process.
Jung
C. G. Jung argued that Freud's opinion:
...can only be based on the totally erroneous supposition that the unconscious is a monster. It is a view that springs from fear of nature and the realities of life. Freud invented the idea of sublimation to save us from the imaginary claws of the unconscious. But what is real, what actually exists, cannot be alchemically sublimated, and if anything is apparently sublimated it never was what a false interpretation took it to be.
In the same article, Jung went on to suggest that unconscious processes became dangerous only to the extent that people repress them. The more people come to assimilate and recognize the unconscious, the less of a danger it becomes. In this view sublimation requires not repression of drives through will, but acknowledgement of the creativity of unconscious processes and a learning of how to work with them.
This differs fundamentally from Freud's view of the concept. For Freud, sublimation helped explain the plasticity of the sexual instincts (and their convertibility to non-sexual ends) - see libido. The concept also underpinned Freud's psychoanalytical theories, which showed the human psyche at the mercy of conflicting impulses (such as the super-ego and the id). In his private letters, Jung criticized Freud for obscuring the alchemical origins of sublimation and for attempting instead to make the concept appear scientifically credible:
Sublimation is part of the royal art where the true gold is made. Of this Freud knows nothing; worse still, he barricades all the paths that could lead to true sublimation. This is just about the opposite of what Freud understands by sublimation. It is not a voluntary and forcible channeling of instinct into a spurious field of application, but an alchymical transformation for which fire and prima materia are needed. Sublimation is a great mystery. Freud has appropriated this concept and usurped it for the sphere of the will and the bourgeois, rationalistic ethos.
Lacan
Das Ding
The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's exposition of sublimation is framed within a discussion about the relationship of psychoanalysis and ethics within the seventh book of his seminars. Lacanian sublimation is defined with reference to the concept Das Ding (later in his career Lacan termed this objet petit a); Das Ding is German for "the thing" though Lacan conceives it as an abstract notion and one of the defining characteristics of the human condition. Broadly speaking it is the vacuum one experiences as a human being and which one endeavours to fill with differing human relationships, objects and experiences, all of which are used to plug a gap in one's psychical needs. Unfortunately, all attempts to overcome the vacuity of Das Ding are insufficient in wholly satisfying the individual. For this reason, Lacan also considers Das Ding to be a non-Thing or vacuole.
Lacan considers Das Ding a lost object ever in the process of being recuperated by Man. Temporarily the individual will be duped by his or her own psyche into believing that this object, this person or this circumstance can be relied upon to satisfy his needs in a stable and enduring manner when in fact it is in its nature that the object as such is lost—and will never be found again. Something is there while one waits for something better, or worse, but which one wants, and again Das Ding "is to be found at most as something missed. One doesn't find it, but only its pleasurable associations." Human life unravels as a series of detours in the quest for the lost object or the absolute Other of the individual: "The pleasure principle governs the search for the object and imposes detours which maintain the distance to Das Ding in relation to its end."
Lacanian sublimation
Lacanian sublimation centres to a large part on the notion of Das Ding. His general formula for sublimation is that "it raises an object ... to the dignity of The Thing." Lacan considers these objects (whether human, aesthetic, credal, or philosophical) to be signifiers which are representative of Das Ding and that "the function of the pleasure principle is, in effect, to lead the subject from signifier to signifier, by generating as many signifiers as are required to maintain at as low a level as possible the tension that regulates the whole functioning of the psychic apparatus." Furthermore, man is the "artisan of his support system", in other words, he creates or finds the signifiers which delude him into believing he has overcome the emptiness of Das Ding.
Lacan also considers sublimation to be a process of creation ex nihilo (creating out of nothing), whereby an object, human or manufactured, comes to be defined in relation to the emptiness of Das Ding. Lacan's prime example of this is the courtly love of the troubadours and Minnesänger who dedicated their poetic verse to a love-object which was not only unreachable (and therefore experienced as something missing) but whose existence and desirability also centered around a hole (the vagina). For Lacan such courtly love was "a paradigm of sublimation." He affirms that the word 'troubadour' is etymologically linked to the Provençal verb trobar (like the French trouver), "to find". If we consider again the definition of Das Ding, it is dependent precisely on the expectation of the subject to re-find the lost object in the mistaken belief that it will continue to satisfy him (or her).
Lacan maintains that creation ex nihilo operates in other noteworthy fields as well. In pottery for example vases are created around an empty space. They are primitive and even primordial artifacts which have benefited mankind not only in the capacity of utensils but also as metaphors of (cosmic) creation ex nihilo. Lacan cites Heidegger who situates the vase between the earthly (raising clay from the ground) and the ethereal (pointing upwards to receive). In architecture, Lacan asserts, buildings are designed around an empty space and in art paintings proceed from an empty canvas, and often depict empty spaces through perspective.
In myth, Pan pursues the nymph Syrinx who is transformed into hollow reeds in order to avoid the clutches of the god, who subsequently cuts the reeds down in anger and transforms them into what we today call panpipes (both reeds and panpipes rely on their hollowness for the production of sound).
Lacan briefly remarks that religion and science are also based around emptiness. In regard to religion, Lacan refers the reader to Freud, stating that much obsessional religious behavior can be attributed to the avoidance of the primordial emptiness of Das Ding or in the respecting of it. As for the discourse of science this is based on the notion of Verwerfung (the German word for "dismissal") which results in the dismissing, foreclosing or exclusion of the notion of Das Ding presumably because it defies empirical categorisation.
Empirical research
A study by Kim, Zeppenfeld, and Cohen studied sublimation by empirical methods.
These investigators view their research, published 2013 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, as providing "possibly the first experimental evidence for sublimation and [suggesting] a cultural psychological approach to defense mechanisms."
Religious and spiritual views
As espoused in its foundational text , the Tanya, the Chabad Lubavitcher sect of Judaism views sublimation of the animal soul as an essential task in life, wherein the goal is to transform animalistic and earthy cravings for physical pleasure into holy desires to connect with God.
Different schools of thought describe general sexual urges as carriers of spiritual essence, and have the varied names of vital energy, vital winds (prana), spiritual energy, ojas, shakti, tummo, or kundalini.
In fiction
One of the best-known examples in Western literature is in Thomas Mann's novella, Death in Venice, where the protagonist Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous writer, sublimates his desire for an adolescent boy into writing poetry.
In The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, sublimation is presented as the source of the Neo-Victorians' dominance: "...it was precisely their emotional repression that made the Victorians the richest and most powerful people in the world. Their ability to submerge their feelings, far from pathological, was rather a kind of mystical art that gave them nearly magical power over Nature and over the more intuitive tribes. Such was also the strength of the Nipponese."
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Defence mechanisms
Freudian psychology
Human sexuality
Motivation
Psychoanalytic terminology
Mental states | 0.775047 | 0.996289 | 0.772171 |
Visual communication | `
Visual communication is the use of visual elements convey ideas and information which include (but are not limited to) signs, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, advertising, animation, and electronic resources. This style of communication relies on the way one's brain perceives the outside images. These images come together within the human brain making it as if the brain is what is actually viewing the particular image. Visual communication has been proven to be unique when compared to other verbal or written languages because of its more abstract structure. It stands out for its uniqueness, as the interpretation of signs varies on the viewer's field of experience. The brain then tries to find meaning from the interpretation. The interpretation of imagery is often compared to the set alphabets and words used in oral or written languages. Another point of difference found by scholars is that, though written or verbal languages are taught, sight does not have to be learned and therefore people of sight may lack awareness of visual communication and its influence in their everyday life. Many of the visual elements listed above are forms of visual communication that humans have been using since prehistoric times. Within modern culture, there are several types of characteristics when it comes to visual elements, they consist of objects, models, graphs, diagrams, maps, and photographs. Outside the different types of characteristics and elements, there are seven components of visual communication: color, shape, tones, texture, figure-ground, balance, and hierarchy.
Each of these characteristics, elements, and components play an important role in daily lives. Visual communication holds a specific purpose in aspects such as social media, culture, politics, economics, and science. In considering these different aspects, visual elements present various uses and how they convey information. Whether it is advertisements, teaching and learning, or speeches and presentations, they all involve visual aids that communicate a message. In reference to the visual aids, the following are the most common: chalkboard or whiteboard, poster board, handouts, video excerpts, projection equipment, and computer-assisted presentations.
Overview
The debate about the nature of visual communication dates back thousands of years. Visual communication relies on a collection of activities, communicating ideas, attitudes, and values via visual resources, i.e. text, graphics, or video. The evaluation of a good visual communication design is mainly based on measuring comprehension by the audience, not on personal aesthetic and/or artistic preference as there are no universally agreed-upon principles of aesthetics. Visual communication by e-mail, a textual medium, is commonly expressed with ASCII art, emoticons, and embedded digital images. Visual communication has become one of the most important approaches using which people communicate and share information.
The term 'visual presentation' is used to refer to the actual presentation of information through a visible medium such as text or images. Recent research in the field has focused on web design and graphically-oriented usability.
Important figures
Aldous Huxley is regarded as one of the most prominent explorers of visual communication and sight-related theories. Becoming near-blind in his teen years as the result of an illness influenced his approach, and his work includes important novels on the dehumanizing aspects of scientific progress, most famously Brave New World and The Art of Seeing. He described "seeing" as being the sum of sensing, selecting, and perceiving. One of his most famous quotes is "The more you see, the more you know."
Max Wertheimer is said to be the father of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt means form or shape in German, and the study of Gestalt psychology show emphasis in simplicity, as its properties group visuals by similarity in shape or color, continuity, and proximity. Additional laws include closure and figure-ground principles in studied images is also intensively taught.
Image analysis
Visual communication contains image aspects. The interpretation of images is subjective and to understand the depth of meaning, or multiple meanings, communicated in an image requires image analysis. Images can be analyzed through many perspectives, for example these six major perspectives presented by Paul Martin Lester: Personal, Historical, Technical, Ethical, Cultural, and Critical.
Personal perspective: When a viewer has an opinion about an image based on their personal thoughts. Personal response depends on the viewer's thoughts and values, individually. However, this might sometimes conflict with cultural values. Also when a viewer has viewed an image with a personal perspective, it is hard to change the view of the image on the viewer, .
Historical perspective: An image's view can be arising from the history of the use of media. Through times sort images have been changed, because the use of different (new) media. For example: The result of using the computer to edit images (e.g. Photoshop) is quite different when comparing images that are made and edited by craft.
Technical perspective: When the view of an image is influenced by the use of lights, position and the presentation of the image. The right use of light, position and presentation of the image can improve the view of the image. It makes the image looks better than the reality.
Ethical perspective: From this perspective, the maker of the image, the viewer and the image itself must be responsible morally and ethically to the image. This perspective is also categorized in six categories: categorical imperative, utilitarianism, hedonism, golden mean, golden rule, and veil of ignorance.
Cultural perspective: Symbolization is an important definition for this perspective. Cultural perspective involves identity of symbols. The uses of words that are related with the image, the use of heroes in the image, etc. are the symbolization of the image. The cultural perspective can also be seen as the semiotic perspective.
Critical perspective: The view of images in the critical perspective is when the viewers criticize the images, but the critics have been made in interests of the society, although an individual makes the critics. This way this perspective differs from the personal perspective.
Visual aid media: Simple to advanced
Chalkboard or whiteboard: Chalkboards and whiteboards are very useful visual aids, particularly when more advanced types of media are available. They are cheap and also allow for much flexibility. The use of chalkboards or whiteboards is convenient, but they are not a perfect visual aid. Often, using this medium as an aid can create confusion or boredom. Particularly if a student who is not familiar with how to properly use visual aids attempts to draw on a board while they are speaking, they detract time and attention from their actual speech.
Poster board: A poster is a very simple and easy visual aid. Posters can display charts, graphs, pictures, or illustrations. The biggest drawback of using a poster as a visual aid is that often a poster can appear unprofessional. Since a poster board paper is relatively flimsy, often the paper will bend or fall over. The best way to present a poster is to hang it up or tape it to a wall.
Handouts: Handouts can also display charts, graphs, pictures, or illustrations. An important aspect of the use of a handout is that a person can keep a handout with them long after the presentation is over. This can help the person better remember what was discussed. Passing out handouts, however, can be extremely distracting. Once a handout is given out, it might potentially be difficult to bring back your audience's attention. The person who receives the handout might be tempted to read what is on the paper, which will keep them from listening to what the speaker is saying. If using a handout, the speaker distributes the hand out right before you reference it. Distributing handouts is acceptable in a lecture that is an hour or two, but in a short lecture of five to ten minutes, a handout should not be used.
Video excerpts: A video can be a great visual aid and attention grabber, however, a video is not a replacement for an actual speech. There are several potential drawbacks to playing a video during a speech or lecture. First, if a video is playing that includes audio, the speaker will not be able to talk. Also, if the video is very exciting and interesting, it can make what the speaker is saying appear boring and uninteresting. The key to showing a video during a presentation is to make sure to transition smoothly into the video and to only show very short clips.
Projection equipment: There are several types of projectors. These include slide projectors, overhead projectors, and computer projectors. Slide projectors are the oldest form of projector, and are no longer used. Overhead projectors are still used but are somewhat inconvenient to use. In order to use an overhead projector, a transparency must be made of whatever is being projected onto the screen. This takes time and costs money. Computer projectors are the most technologically advanced projectors. When using a computer projector, pictures and slides are easily taken right from a computer either online or from a saved file and are blown up and shown on a large screen. Though computer projectors are technologically advanced, they are not always completely reliable because technological breakdowns are not uncommon of the computers of today.
Computer-assisted presentations: Presentations through presentation software can be an extremely useful visual aid, especially for longer presentations. For five- to ten-minute presentations, it is probably not worth the time or effort to put together a deck of slides. For longer presentations, however, they can be a great way to keep the audience engaged and keep the speaker on track. A potential drawback of using them is that it usually takes a lot of time and energy to put together. There is also the possibility of a computer malfunction, which can mess up the flow of a presentation.
Components
Components of visualization make communicating information more intriguing and compelling. The following components are the foundation for communicating visually. Hierarchy is an important principle because it assists the audience in processing the information by allowing them to follow through the visuals piece by piece. When having a focal point on a visual aid (i.e. Website, Social Media, Poster, etc...), it can serve as a starting point for the audience to guide them. In order to achieve hierarchy, we must take into account the other components: Color, Shape, Tones, Texture, Figure-Ground, Balance.
Colors is the first and most important component when communicating through visuals. Colors displays an in-depth connection between emotions and experiences. Additive and subtractive color models help in visually communicating aesthetically please information. Additive color model, also known as RGB color (Red, Green, Blue) goes from dark to light colors, while subtractive color model is the opposite. The subtractive color model includes the primary CMYK colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) which go from light to dark. Shape is the next fundamental component that assists in creating a symbol that builds a connection with the audience. There are two categories that shapes can fall under: Organic or Biomorphic shapes, and Geometric or Rectilinear shapes. Organic or biomorphic shapes are shapes that depict natural materials (which include curvy lines), while Geometric or Rectilinear shapes are shapes that are created by man (including triangles, rectangles, ovals, and circles).
Tone refers to the difference of color intensity, meaning more light or dark. The purpose of achieving a certain tone is to put a spotlight on a graphical presentation and emphasize the information. Similarly, texture can enhance the viewers optics and creates a more personal feel compared to a corporate feel. Texture refers to the surface of an object, whether is it 2-D or 3-D, that can amplify a user's content.
Figure-ground is the relationship between a figure and the background. In other words, it is the relationship between shapes, objects, types, etc. and the space it is in. We can look at figure as the positive space, and ground as the negative space. In comparison, positive space is the objects that hold dominance visually, while negative space (as mentioned previously) is the background. In addition to creating a strong contrast in color, texture, and tone, figure-ground can highlight different figures. As for balance, it is important to have symmetrical or asymmetrical balance in visual communication. Symmetrical balance holds a stable composition and is proper in conveying informative visual communication. As for asymmetrical balance, the balance of visuals is weighted more to one side. For instance, color is more weighted to one color than the other, while in a symmetrical balance all colors are equally weighted.
Visual literacy
Studies often define visual literacy (or visual competence) as the ability to understand and process what is being seen in order to make sense of the world. Being visually literate has been shown to be an important aspect of life to those with sight. The function of sight itself has mechanisms that must work together in order to transform the lines, shapes, and colors around a person's environment into a cohesive picture that can then hold meaning. These mechanisms are what occur in the human body that allow a person's eye to make sense of what the viewer sees and then the signals that are sent to relay information to their brain to be processed. However, studies conducted state that visual intelligence is not something that is taught but rather observed. It is also noted within this study that this skill often goes unnoticed until it is impaired. This act of processing what is being seen has been shown to happen quickly and oftentimes without the viewer's cognizant awareness.
The effect visual literacy has on a viewer has also been shown to influence aspects of their life such as, attitudes, values, beliefs, as well as cultural views. Scholars have noted how society and culture is often dominated by imagery, especially with the rise of mass technological media. The dominance of visuals in culture such as film, television and social media, have now been used by various companies for their advertisements. Presidential and political candidates have also turned to the media to visually promote their campaigns. With many of these advertisements present in everyday life, the viewers of this content may often be open to influence without being cognizant of it.
Study of symbols
Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of signs and visuals within society that relay meaning. The symbols used in different cultures to convey a meaning also entails the hidden systems and functions that make up the symbols. Logos, gestures, and technological signs such as emoticons, are a few examples of symbols used in culture.
Semiology
The term semiology is the study of signs and symbols and their arrangements as a visual language. The characterization of what is considered a language is the existence of an alphabet that can be arranged to create meaning. An example of signs, or an alphabet, that can be arranged to create meaning are the 26 letters that make up the Modern English Alphabet which can then be used to compose written messages that can then be relayed orally. However, in semiology, the signs that create the alphabet of visual communication are more abstract than a written or verbal languages alphabet. In comparison to the English Alphabet, the visual alphabet is still being studied due to the various channels that may be used to relay visuals. Components of a still graphic compared to film, for instance. Another category of study within the field of semiotics is how the interpretation of visual signs depends on the experiences of the person interpreting the visual components of symbols, commonly referred to as the interpretant.
Theory of semiotics
Collectively, the study of visual imagery and gestures as a language has two major schools of thought. The contributors who are commonly referred to are; Charles Sanders Peirce and his descendants and Ferdinand de Saussure. Peirce's school of thought is the meaning that the interpreter assigns to a particular sign instead of the study of the sign itself. His work focuses on the pragmatics, semantics, and structure of a symbol in visual communication. Saussure, however, focused primarily on the structure and value of a sign and its relation to other symbols within the language system. The school of thought that Saussure curated contributed to the rise of structuralism as well as later theories developed by various scholars in the field of communication.
Prominence and motive
Social media
Social media is one of the most effective ways to communicate. The incorporation of text and images deliver messages quicker and more simplistic through social media platforms. A potential drawback can be there is limited access due to the internet access requirement and certain limitations to the number of characters and image size. Despite the potential drawback, there has been a shift towards more visual images with the rise of YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. In the rise of these platforms, Facebook and Twitter, have followed suit and integrated more visual images into their platform outside the use of written posts. It can be stated that visual images are used in two ways: as additional clarification for spoken or written text, or to create individual meaning (usually incorporating ambiguous meanings). These meanings can assist in creating casual friendships through interactions and either show or fabricate reality. These major platforms are becoming focused on visual images by growing a multi-modal platform with users having the ability to edit or adjust their pictures or videos these platforms. When analyzing the relationship between visual communication and social media, four themes arise:
Emerging genres and practices: The sharing of various visual elements allow for the creation of genres, or new arrangements of socially accepted visual elements (i.e. photographs or GIFs) based on the platforms. These emerging genres are used as self-expression of identity, to feel a sense of belonging of different sub-group of the online community.
Identity construction: Similar to genres, users will use visuals through social media to express their identities. Visual elements can change in meaning over a period of time by the person who shared it, which means that visual elements can be dynamic. This makes visuals uncontrollable since the person may not identify as that specific identity, but rather someone who has evolved.
Everyday public/private vernacular practices: This theme presents the difficulty of deciphering what is considered public, or private. Users can post the privacy from their own home, however, their post is interacting with users from the online public.
Transmedia circulation, appropriation, and control: Transmedia circulation refers to visual elements being circulated through different types of media. Visual elements, such as images can be taken from one platform, edited, and posted to another platform without recognizing where it originally came from. The concept of appropriation and ownership can be brought into question, making aware the idea that if a user can appropriate another person work, then that user's work can appropriated, as well.
Culture
Members of different cultures can participate in the exchange of visual imagery based on the idea of universal understandings. The term visual culture allows for all cultures to feel equal, making it the inclusive aspect of every life. When considering visual culture in communication, it is shaped by the values amongst all cultures, especially regarding the concepts of high and low-context. Cultures that are generally more high-context will rely heavily on visual elements that have an implied and implicit meaning. However, cultures that are low-context will rely on visual elements that have a direct meaning and rely more on the textual explanations. Visual communication can be defined in different ways (Volli 1994). An effective one is through opposition with signification (Volli 2010). Whereas visual signification can be unintentional, there is no communication without intentionality. A sunset signifies something, whereas a painting signifies something but also communicates, because culture marks it as product of communicative intentionality. However, imputation of intentionality changes across cultures and epochs. Whereas religion may see a sunset as a divine message, secular observers will attach to it an unintentional meaning of nostalgia.
Politics
Visual communication in politics have become a primary sense of communication, while dialogue and text have become a secondary sense. This may be due to the increased use of televisions, as viewers become more dependent on visuals. Sound bite has become a popular and perfected art among all political figures. Despite it being a favored mode of showcasing a political figure's agenda, it has shown that 25.1% of news coverage displayed image bites - instead of voices, there are images and short videos. Visuals are deemed an essential function in political communication, and behind these visuals are 10 functions for why political figures use them. These functions include:
Argument function: Although images do not indicate any words being said, this function conveys the idea that images can have an association between objects or ideas. Visuals in politics can make arguments about the different aspects of a political figure's character or intentions. When introducing visual imagery with sound, the targeted audience can clarify ambiguous messages that a political figure has said in interviews or news stories.
Agenda setting function: Under this function, it is important that political figures produce newsworthy pictures that will allow for their message to gain coverage. The reason for this is due to the agenda-setting theory, where importance of public agenda is taken into consideration when the media determines the importance of a certain story or issue. With that said, if politicians do not provide an interesting and attention-grabbing picture, there will likely be no news coverage. A way for a politician to gain news coverage, is to provide exclusivity for what the media can capture from a certain event. Despite not having the ability to control whether they receive coverage, they can control if the media gets an interesting and eye-catching visual.
Dramatization function: Similar to agenda setting, the dramatization function targets a specific policy that a political figure wants to advocate for. This function can be seen when Michelle Obama promoted nutrition by hosting a media event of her planting a vegetable garden, or Martin Luther King Jr. producing visuals from his 1963 campaign for racial injustice. In some cases, these images are used as icons for social movements.
Emotional function: Visuals can be used as a way to provoke an emotional response. A study that was performed found that motion pictures and video has more of an emotional impact than still images. On the other hand, research has suggested that the logic and rationality of a viewer is not barred by emotion. In fact, logic and emotion are interrelated meaning that images not only can have emotional arousal, but also influence viewers to think logically.
Image-building function: Imagery gives a viewer a first impression of a candidate when they are running for office. These visuals give voters a sense of who they will be voting for during the elections, regarding their background, personality, or demeanor. They can create their image by appearing be family-oriented, religiously involved, or showing a commonality with the disadvantaged community.
Identification function: Through the identification function, visuals can create an identification between political figures and audiences. In other words, the audience may perceive a type of similarity with the political figure. When a voter finds a similarity with a candidate they are more likely to vote for them. This is the same when a voter notices a candidate who does not have any perceived similarities, then they are less likely to vote for them.
Documentation function: Similar to a stamp on a passport that indicated you have been to a certain country, photographs of a political figure can document that an event had happened and they were there. By documenting an event that occurred, there is evidence and proof for argumentative claims. If a political figure claims one thing, then there is evidence to either back it up or disprove it.
Societal symbol function: This function is used in visuals when political figures use iconic symbols to draw on emotional power. For instance, political figures will stand with American flags, be photographed with military personnel, or even attending a sport. These three areas of societal symbols hold a strong sense of patriotism. In comparison, congressional candidates may be pictured with former or current presidents to gain an implied endorsement. Many places like the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, or the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier can be seen and iconic, societal symbols that hold a sense of emotional power.
Transportation function: The transportation function of using visuals is to transporter the viewer to a different time or place. Visuals can figuratively bring viewers to the past or to an idealized future. Political figures will use this tactic as a way to appeal to the emotional side of their audience and get them to visually relate to the argument that is at hand.
Ambiguity function: Visuals can be used to interpret different meanings without having to add any words. By not adding any words, visuals are normally used for controversial arguments. On the basis that visual claims can be controversial, they are held to a less strict standard compared to other symbols.
Economic
Economics has been built on the foundation of visual elements, such as graphs and charts. Similar to the other aspects of why visual elements are used, graphs are used by economists to clarify complex ideas. Graphs simplify the process of visualizing trends that happen over time. Along the same lines, graphs are able to assist in determining a relationship between two or more variables. The relationship can determine if there is a positive correlation or negative correlation between the variables. A graph that economists rely heavily on is a time-series graph, which measures a particular variable over a period of time. The graph includes time being on the X-axis, while a changing variable is on the Y-axis.
Science and medicine
Science and medicine has shown a need for visual communication to assist in explaining to non-scientific readers. From Bohr's atomic model to NASA's photographs of Earth, these visual elements have served as tools in furthering the understand of science and medicine. More specifically, elements like graphs and slides portray both data and scientific concepts. Patterns that are revealed by those graphs are then used in association with the data to determine a meaningful correlation. As for photographs, they can be useful for physicians to rely on in figuring out visible signs of diseases and illnesses.
However, using visual elements can have a negative effect on the understanding of information. Two major obstacles for non-scientific readers is: 1.) the lack of integration of visual elements in every day scientific language, and 2.) incorrectly identifying the targeted audience and not adjusting to their level of understanding. To tackle these obstacles, one solution is for science communicators must place the user at the center of the design, which is called User-Centered Design. This design focuses on strictly the user and how they can interact with the visual element with minimum stress, but maximum level of efficiency. Another solution could be implemented at the source, which is university-based programs. In these programs, universities need to introduce visual literacy to those in science communication, helping in producing graduates who can accurately interpret, analyze, evaluate, and design visual elements that further the understanding of science and medicine.
See also
Advertising
Art director
Cartography
Graphic design
Illustration
Models of communication
Optical communication
Photography
Swiss Style (design)
Sign industry
Technical geography
Telepresence
Typography
Videoconference
Visual Communication (journal)
Visual culture
Visual design
Visual language
Visual rhetoric
Visual sociology
References
Communication design
Communication studies
Academic disciplines
Graphic design
Optical communications | 0.775432 | 0.995711 | 0.772106 |
MDA framework | In game design the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) framework is a tool used to analyze games. It formalizes the properties of games by breaking them down into three components: Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. These three words have been used informally for many years to describe various aspects of games, but the MDA framework provides precise definitions for these terms and seeks to explain how they relate to each other and influence the player's experience.
Overview
Mechanics are the base components of the game — its rules, every basic action the player can take in the game, the algorithms and data structures in the game engine etc.
Dynamics are the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player input and "cooperating" with other mechanics.
Aesthetics are the emotional responses evoked in the player.
There are many types of aesthetics, including but not limited to the following eight stated by Hunicke, LeBlanc and Zubek:
Sensation (Game as sense-pleasure): Player enjoys memorable audio-visual effects.
Fantasy (Game as make-believe): Imaginary world.
Narrative (Game as drama): A story that drives the player to keep coming back
Challenge (Game as obstacle course): Urge to master something. Boosts a game's replayability.
Fellowship (Game as social framework): A community where the player is an active part of it. Almost exclusive for multiplayer games.
Discovery (Game as uncharted territory): Urge to explore game world.
Expression (Game as self-discovery): Own creativity. For example, creating a playable character resembling player's own appearance.
Submission (Game as pastime): Connection to the game, as a whole, despite constraints.
The paper also mentions a ninth kind of fun competition. The paper seeks to better specify terms such as 'gameplay' and 'fun', and extend the vocabulary of game studies, suggesting a non-exhaustive taxonomy of eight different types of play. The framework uses these definitions to demonstrate the incentivising and disincentivising properties of different dynamics on the eight subcategories of game use.
From the perspective of the designer, the mechanics generate dynamics which generate aesthetics. This relationship poses a challenge for the game designer as they are only able to influence the mechanics and only through them can be produced meaningful dynamics and aesthetics for the player.
The perspective of the player is the other way around. They experience the game through the aesthetics, which the game dynamics provide, which emerged from the mechanics.
Criticism
Despite its popularity, the original MDA framework has been criticized for several potential weaknesses. The eight kinds of fun comprise a rather arbitrary list of emotional targets, which lack fundamentals and how more types of emotional responses can be explored. It also has been challenged for neglecting many design aspects of games while focusing too much on game mechanics, and therefore not suitable for all types of games, including particularly gamified content or any type of experience-oriented design.
References
External links
Gamasutra page: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TuckerAbbott/20101212/88611/MDA_Framework_Unconnected_Connectivity.php
6-11 Framework: https://www.academia.edu/1571687/THE_6-11_FRAMEWORK_A_NEW_METHODOLOGY_FOR_GAME_ANALYSIS_AND_DESIGN
Video game design
Video game development | 0.779431 | 0.99029 | 0.771863 |
Cultural capital | In the field of sociology, cultural capital comprises the social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech, style of dress, social capital, etc.) that promote social mobility in a stratified society. Cultural capital functions as a social relation within an economy of practices (i.e. system of exchange), and includes the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers social status and power; thus cultural capital comprises the material and symbolic goods, without distinction, that society considers rare and worth seeking. There are three types of cultural capital: (i) embodied capital, (ii) objectified capital, and (iii) institutionalised capital.
Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron coined and defined the term cultural capital in the essay "Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction" (1977). Bourdieu then developed the concept in the essay "The Forms of Capital" (1985) and in the book The State Nobility: Élite Schools in the Field of Power (1996) to explain that the education (knowledge and intellectual skills) of a person provides social mobility in achieving a higher social status in society.
Origin
In "Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction" (1977), Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron presented cultural capital to conceptually explain the differences among the levels of performance and academic achievement of children within the educational system of France in the 1960s.
Bourdieu further developed the concept in his essay "The Forms of Capital" (1985) and in his book The State Nobility: Élite Schools in the Field of Power (1996). In the essay, Bourdieu lists cultural capital among two other categories of capital: economic capital, which refers to the command of economic resources (money, assets, property); and social capital, which is the actual and potential resources linked to the possession of a durable network of institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.
Types
There are three types of cultural capital: embodied capital; objectified capital; and institutionalised capital.
Embodied cultural capital
Embodied cultural capital comprises the knowledge that is consciously acquired and passively inherited, by socialization to culture and tradition. Unlike property, cultural capital is not transmissible, but is acquired over time, as it is impressed upon the person's habitus (i.e., character and way of thinking), which, in turn, becomes more receptive to similar cultural influences. Linguistic cultural capital is the mastery of language and its relations. The embodied cultural capital, which is a person's means of communication and self-presentation, is acquired from the national culture.
Habitus and field
The cultural capital of an individual is linked to his or her habitus (i.e., embodied disposition and tendencies) and field (i.e., social positions), which are configured as a social-relation structure.
The habitus of a person is composed of the intellectual dispositions inculcated to him or her by family and the familial environment, and are manifested according to the nature of the person. As such, the social formation of a person's habitus is influenced by family, by objective changes in social class, and by social interactions with other people in daily life; moreover, the habitus of a person also changes when he or she changes social positions within the field.
The field is the place of social position that is constituted by the conflicts that occur when social groups endeavour to establish and define what is cultural capital, within a given social space; therefore, depending upon the social field, one type of cultural capital can simultaneously be legitimate and illegitimate. In that way, the legitimization (societal recognition) of a type of cultural capital can be arbitrary and derived from symbolic capital.
Objectified cultural capital
Objectified cultural capital comprises the person's property (e.g. a work of art, scientific instruments, etc.) that can be transmitted for economic profit (buying-and-selling) and for symbolically conveying the possession of cultural capital facilitated by owning such things. Yet, whilst possessing a work of art (objectified cultural-capital) the person can consume the art (understand its cultural meaning) only with the proper conceptual and historical foundations of prior cultural-capital. As such, cultural capital is not transmitted in the sale of the work of art, except by coincidental and independent causation, when the seller explains the artwork's significance to the buyer.
Institutionalized cultural capital
Institutionalized cultural capital comprises an institution's formal recognition of a person's cultural capital, usually academic credentials or professional qualifications. The greatest social role of institutionalized cultural-capital is in the labor market (a job), wherein it allows the expression of the person's array of cultural capital as qualitative and quantitative measurements (which are compared against the measures of cultural capital of other people). The institutional recognition facilitates the conversion of cultural capital into economic capital, by serving as a heuristic (practical solution) with which the seller can describe his or her cultural capital to the buyer.
Theoretical research
The concept of cultural capital has received widespread attention all around the world, from theorists and researchers alike. It is mostly employed in relation to the education system, but on the odd occasion has been used or developed in other discourses. Use of Bourdieu's cultural capital can be broken up into a number of basic categories. First, are those who explore the theory as a possible means of explanation or employ it as the framework for their research. Second, are those who build on or expand Bourdieu's theory. Finally, there are those who attempt to disprove Bourdieu's findings or to discount them in favour of an alternative theory. The majority of these works deal with Bourdieu's theory in relation to education, only a small number apply his theory to other instances of inequality in society.
Expansion
A number of works expand Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital in a beneficial manner, without deviating from Bourdieu's framework of the different forms of capital. In fact, these authors can be seen to explore unarticulated areas of Bourdieu's theory as opposed to constructing a new theory.
One creative modification of Bourdieu's work is that of Emirbayer & Williams (2005), who use Bourdieu's notion of fields and capital to examine the power relations in the field of social services, particularly homeless shelters. The authors talk of the two separate fields that operate in the same geographic location (the shelter) and the types of capital that are legitimate and valued in each. Specifically they show how homeless people can possess "staff-sanctioned capital" or "client-sanctioned capital" and show how in the shelter, they are both at the same time, desirable and undesirable, valued and disparaged, depending on which of the two fields they are operating in. Although the authors do not clearly define staff-sanctioned and client-sanctioned capital as cultural capital, and state that usually the resources that form these two capitals are gathered from a person's life as opposed to their family, it can be seen how Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital can be a valuable theory in analysing inequality in any social setting.
On the other hand, some have introduced new variables into Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital. The work of Emmison & Frow (1998) centers on an exploration of the ability of Information Technology to be considered a form of cultural capital. The authors state that "a familiarity with, and a positive disposition towards the use of bourgeoisie technologies of the information age can be seen as an additional form of cultural capital bestowing advantage on those families that possess them." Specifically computers are "machines" that form a type of objectified cultural capital, and the ability to use them is an embodied type of cultural capital. This work is useful because it shows the ways in which Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital can be expanded and updated to include cultural goods and practices which are progressively more important in determining achievement both in the school and without.
Dolby (2000) cites the work of Hage, who uses Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital to explore multiculturalism and racism in Australia. Hage's discussion around race is distinct from Bourdieu's treatment of migrants and their amount of linguistic capital and habitus. Hage actually conceives of "whiteness" as being a form of cultural capital. 'White' is not a stable, biologically determined trait, but a "shifting set of social practices." He conceptualizes the nation as a circular field, with the hierarchy moving from the powerful center (composed of 'white' Australians) to the less powerful periphery (composed of the 'others'). The 'others' however are not simply dominated, but are forced to compete with each other for a place closer to the centre. This use of Bourdieu's notion of capital and fields is extremely illuminating to understand how people of non-Anglo ethnicities may try and exchange the cultural capital of their ethnic background with that of 'whiteness' to gain a higher position in the hierarchy. It is especially useful to see it in these terms as it exposes the arbitrary nature of what is "Australian", and how it is determined by those in the dominant position (mainly 'white' Australians). In a path-breaking study, Bauder (2006) uses the notions of habitus and cultural capital to explain the situation of migrants in the labor market and society.
Bourdieu's theory has been expanded to reflect modern forms of cultural capital. For instance, studies conducted by Asaf Nissenbaum and Limor Shifman (2017) on the topic of internet memes, utilising the website 4chan to analyse how these memes can be seen as forms of cultural capital. Discourse demonstrates the different forums and mediums that memes can be expressed through, such as different 'boards' on 4chan. Additionally, scholars have extended Bourdieu's theory to the field of religion where embodied cultural capital allows middle classes for developing distinctive religious styles and tastes. Through these styles and tastes, they draw symbolic class boundaries in opposition to co-believers from lower-class backgrounds.
Education
Sociologist Paul DiMaggio expands on Bourdieu's view on cultural capital and its influence on education: "Following Bourdieu, I measure high school students' cultural capital using self-reports of involvement in art, music, and literature."
Retired teacher John Taylor Gatto, in his article "Against School" (2003), addresses education in modern schooling. The relation of cultural capital can be linked to Alexander Inglis' Principles of Secondary Education (1918), which indicates how American schooling is similar to Prussian schooling in the 1820s. The objective was to divide children into sections, by distributing them by subject, by age, and by test score. Inglis introduces six basic functions for modern schooling; the third, fourth, and fifth basic functions listed by Inglis are related to cultural capital, and describe the manner in which schooling enforces the cultural capital of each child, from a young age:
Diagnosis and direction (function #3):↵School is meant to determine the proper social role of each student, by logging mathematic and anecdotal evidence into cumulative records.
Differentiation (function #4): Once the social role of a student is determined, the children are sorted by role and trained only as merited for his or her social destination.
Selection (function #5): This refers to Darwin's theory of natural selection applied to "the favoured races".
The idea is to help American society by consciously attempting to improve the breeding stock. Schools are meant to tag the socially unfit with poor grades, remedial-schooling placement, and other notable social punishments that their peers will then view and accept them as intellectually inferior, and effectively bar them from the reproductive (sexual, economic, and cultural) sweepstakes of life. That was the purpose of petty humiliation in school: "It was the dirt down the drain." The three functions are directly related to cultural capital, because through schooling children are discriminated by social class and cognitively placed into the destination that will make them fit to sustain that social role. That is the path leading to their determined social class; and, during the fifth function, they will be socially undesirable to the privileged children, and so kept in a low social stratum.
Stanton-Salazar & Dornbusch (1995) examine how those people with the desired types of cultural (and linguistic) capital in a school transform this capital into "instrumental relations" or social capital with institutional agents who can transmit valuable resources to the person, furthering their success in the school. They state that this is simply an elaboration of Bourdieu's theory. Similarly, Dumais (2002) introduces the variable of gender to determine the ability of cultural capital to increase educational achievement. The author shows how gender and social class interact to produce different benefits from cultural capital. In fact in Distinction, Bourdieu states "sexual properties are as inseparable from class properties as the yellowness of lemons is inseparable from its acidity." He simply did not articulate the differences attributable to gender in his general theory of reproduction in the education system.
Cultural omnivores
Extending the theory of cultural capital, Richard A. Peterson and A. Simkus (1992) distinguish the (secondary) analysis of survey data on Americans exclusively. They use the term cultural omnivores as a particular higher status section in the US that has broader cultural engagements and tastes spanning an eclectic range from highbrow arts to popular culture.
Originally, it was Peterson (1992) who coined the term to address an anomaly observed in the evidence revealed by his work with Simkus (1992), which showed that people of higher social status, contrary to elite-mass models of cultural taste developed by French scholars with French data, were not averse to participation in activities associated with popular culture. The work rejected the universal adaptation of the cultural capital theory, especially in the 20th century in advanced post-industrialist societies like the United States.
Science capital
In the UK, Louise Archer and colleagues (2015) developed the concept of science capital. The concept of science capital draws from the work of Bourdieu, particularly his studies focusing on the reproduction of social inequalities in society. Science capital is made up of science-related cultural capital and social capital as well as habitus. It encapsulates the various influences that a young person's life experiences can have on their science identity and participation in science-related activities. The empirical work on science capital builds from a growing body of data into students' aspirations and attitudes to science, including University College London's ASPIRES Research and King's College London's Enterprising Science.
The concept of science capital was developed as a way to understand why these science-related resources, attitudes and aspirations led some children to pursue science, while others did not. The concept provides policy makers and practitioners with a useful framework to help understand what shapes young people's engagement with (and potential resistance to) science.
Criticism
Criticisms of Bourdieu's concept have been made on many grounds, including a lack of conceptual clarity. Perhaps due to this lack of clarity, researchers have operationalised the concept in diverse ways, and have varied in their conclusions. While some researchers may be criticised for using measures of cultural capital which focus only on certain aspects of 'highbrow' culture, this is a criticism which could also be leveled at Bourdieu's own work. Several studies have attempted to refine the measurement of cultural capital in order to examine which aspects of middle-class culture actually have value in the education system.
It has been claimed that Bourdieu's theory, and in particular his notion of habitus, is entirely deterministic, leaving no place for individual agency or even individual consciousness. However, Bourdieu never claimed to have done so entirely, but defined a new approach; that is, Bourdieu's work attempts to reconcile the paradoxical dichotomy of structure and agency.
Some scholars such as John Goldthorpe dismiss Bourdieu's approach:
Bourdieu has also been criticised for his lack of consideration of gender. Kanter (in Robinson & Garnier 1986) points out the lack of interest in gender inequalities in the labour market in Bourdieu's work. However, Bourdieu addressed the topic of gender head-on in his 2001 book Masculine Domination, in which he states on the first page of the prelude that he considers masculine domination to be a prime example of symbolic violence.
See also
Academic capital
Cultural economics
Cultural reproduction
Cultural studies
Culture change
Culture industry
Great British Class Survey
Human capital
Individual capital
References
Citations
Primary sources
Bourdieu, Pierre. [1985] 1986. "The Forms of Capital." Pp. 241–58 in Handbook for Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by J. G. Richardson.
First published: 1983 "Ökonomisches Kapital - Kulturelles Kapital - Soziales Kapital" (in German). Pp. 183–98 in Soziale Ungleichheiten, edited by R. Kreckel.
—— 1996. The State Nobility, translated by Lauretta C. Clough, with foreword by Loïc Wacquant.
2001. Masculine Domination. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Jean Claude Passeron. 1990. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage Publications Inc
Secondary sources
Bauder, Harald. 2006. Labor Movement: How Migration Regulates Labor Markets. New York: Oxford University Press.
De Graaf, Nan Dirk, Paul M. De Graaf, and Gerbert Kraaykamp. 2000. "Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of the Cultural Capital Perspective." Sociology of Education 73(2):92–111. . .
Dolby, N. 2000. "Race, National, State: Multiculturalism in Australia." Arena Magazine (45):48–51.
Dumais, Susan A. 2002. "Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success: The Role of Habitus." Sociology of Education 75(1):44–68. . . .
Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Eva M. Williams. 2005. "Bourdieu and Social Work." Social Service Review 79(4):689–724. . .
Emmison, M., and J. Frow. 1998. "Information Technology as Cultural Capital." Australian Universities Review 1(1998):41-45.
Gorder, K. [1980] 2000. "Understanding School Knowledge: A Critical Appraisal of Basil Bernstein and Pierre Bourdieu." Pp. 218–33 in Pierre Bourdieu Volume II, edited by D. Robbins. London: Sage Publications.
Guillory, John. Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation. 1993. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Harker, R. 1990. "Education and Cultural Capital." In An Introduction to the Work of Pierre Bourdieu: The Practice of Theory, edited by R. Harker, C. Mahar, and C. Wilkes. London: Macmillan Press.
Kalmijn, Matthijs, and Gerbert Kraaykamp. 1996. "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling: An Analysis of Trends in the United States." Sociology of Education 69(1):22–34. . . .
King, A. 2005. "Structure and Agency." Pp. 215–32 in Modern Social Theory: An Introduction, edited by A. Harrington. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kingston, Paul W. 2001. "The Unfulfilled Promise of Cultural Capital Theory." Sociology of Education 74 (extra issue: "Current of Thought: Sociology of Education at the Dawn of the 21st Century"):88–99. . .
Koehrsen, J. 2018. "Religious Tastes and Styles as Markers of Class Belonging." Sociology 53(6):1237–53. .
Martin, B., and I. Szelenyi. [1987] 2000. "Beyond Cultural Capital: Toward a Theory of Symbolic Domination." Pp. 278–302 in Pierre Bourdieu Volume I, edited by D. Robbins. London: Sage Publications.
Robbins, D. 1991. The Work of Pierre Bourdieu: Recognising Society. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Robinson, R., and M. Garnier. [1986] 2000. "Class Reproduction Among Men and Women in France: Reproduction Theory on its Home Ground." Pp. 144–53 in Pierre Bourdieu Volume I, edited by D. Robbins. London: Sage Publications.
Rössel, Jörg, and Claudia Beckert-Zieglschmid. 2002. "Die Reproduktion kulturellen Kapitals [The Reproduction of Cultural Capital]." Zeitschrift für Soziologie 31(6):497–513. . .
Stanton-Salazar, Ricardo D., and Sanford M. Dornbusch. 1995. "Social Capital and the Reproduction of Inequality: Information Networks among Mexican-Origin High School Students." Sociology of Education 68(2):116–35. . .
Sullivan, Alice. 2001. "Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment." Sociology 35(4):893–912. .
—— 2002. "Bourdieu and Education: How Useful is Bourdieu's Theory for Researchers?" Netherlands Journal of Social Sciences 38(2):144–66. . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-12.
Webb, J., T. Schirato, and G. Danaher. 2002. Understanding Bourdieu. London: Sage Publications.
Further reading
Brown, Richard K., ed. Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction Bourdieu and Passeron. In Knowledge, Education and Cultural Change. London: Tavistock.
Farkas, George. 1996. Human Capital Or Cultural Capital?: Ethnicity and Poverty Groups in an Urban School District. Aldine Transaction.
Fowler, Bridget. 1997. Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory. London: Sage Publications Inc. .
Swartz, David (1998), Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, University of Chicago Press
"Les Trois états du capital culturel." Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 30(1979):3–6.
External links
HyperBourdieu World Catalogue — a "comprehensive, contextual and referential bibliography and mediagraphy of all works and public statements by Pierre Bourdieu," compiled by Ingo Mörth and Gerhard Fröhlich.
Capital (economics)
Cultural studies
Community building
Human resource management
Pierre Bourdieu
Capital | 0.775749 | 0.994941 | 0.771824 |
Identity formation | Identity formation, also called identity development or identity construction, is a complex process in which humans develop a clear and unique view of themselves and of their identity.
Self-concept, personality development, and values are all closely related to identity formation. Individuation is also a critical part of identity formation. Continuity and inner unity are healthy identity formation, while a disruption in either could be viewed and labeled as abnormal development; certain situations, like childhood trauma, can contribute to abnormal development. Specific factors also play a role in identity formation, such as race, ethnicity, and spirituality.
The concept of personal continuity, or personal identity, refers to an individual posing questions about themselves that challenge their original perception, like "Who am I?" The process defines individuals to others and themselves. Various factors make up a person's actual identity, including a sense of continuity, a sense of uniqueness from others, and a sense of affiliation based on their membership in various groups like family, ethnicity, and occupation. These group identities demonstrate the human need for affiliation or for people to define themselves in the eyes of others and themselves.
Identities are formed on many levels. The micro-level is self-definition, relations with people, and issues as seen from a personal or an individual perspective. The meso-level pertains to how identities are viewed, formed, and questioned by immediate communities and/or families. The macro-level are the connections among and individuals and issues from a national perspective. The global level connects individuals, issues, and groups at a worldwide level.
Identity is often described as finite and consisting of separate and distinct parts (e.g., family, cultural, personal, professional).
Theories
Many theories of development have aspects of identity formation included in them. Two theories directly address the process of identity formation: Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development (specifically the Identity versus Role Confusion stage), James Marcia's identity status theory, and Jeffrey Arnett's theories of identity formation in emerging adulthood.
Erikson's theory of identity vs. role confusion
Erikson's theory is that people experience different crises or conflicts throughout their lives in eight stages. Each stage occurs at a certain point in life and must be successfully resolved to progress to the next stage. The particular stage relevant to identity formation takes place during adolescence: Identity versus Role Confusion.
The Identity versus Role Confusion stage involves adolescents trying to figure out who they are in order to form a basic identity that they will build on throughout their life, especially concerning social and occupational identities. They ask themselves the existential questions: "Who am I?" and "What can I be?" They face the complexities of determining one's own identity. Erikson stated that this crisis is resolved with identity achievement, the point at which an individual has extensively considered various goals and values, accepting some and rejecting others, and understands who they are as a unique person. When an adolescent attains identity achievement, they are ready to enter the next stage of Erikson's theory, Intimacy versus Isolation, where they will form strong friendships and a sense of companionship with others.
If the Identity versus Role Confusion crisis is not positively resolved, an adolescent will face confusion about future plans, particularly their roles in adulthood. Failure to form one's own identity leads to failure to form a shared identity with others, which can lead to instability in many areas as an adult. The identity formation stage of Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development is a crucial stage in life.
Marcia's identity status theory
Marcia created a structural interview designed to classify adolescents into one of four statuses of identity. The statuses are used to describe and pinpoint the progression of an adolescent's identity formation process. In Marcia's theory, identity is operationally defined as whether an individual has explored various alternatives and made firm commitments to an occupation, religion, sexual orientation, and a set of political values.
The four identity statuses in James Marcia's theory are:
Identity Diffusion (also known as Role Confusion): The opposite of identity achievement. The individual has not resolved their identity crisis yet by failing to commit to any goals or values and establish a future life direction. In adolescents, this stage is characterized by disorganized thinking, procrastination, and avoidance of issues and actions.
Identity Foreclosure: This occurs when teenagers conform to an identity without exploring what suits them best. For instance, teenagers might follow the values and roles of their parents or cultural norms. They might also foreclose on a negative identity, or the direct opposite of their parents' values or cultural norms.
Identity Moratorium: This postpones identity achievement by providing temporary shelter. This status provides opportunities for exploration, either in breadth or in-depth. Examples of moratoria common in American society include college or the military.
Identity Achievement: This status is attained when the person has solved the identity issues by making commitments to goals, beliefs, and values after an extensive exploration of different areas.
Jeffrey Arnett's Theories on Identity Formation in Emerging Adulthood
Jeffrey Arnett's theory states that identity formation is most prominent in emerging adulthood, consisting of ages 18–25. Arnett holds that identity formation consists of indulging in different life opportunities and possibilities to eventually make important life decisions. He believes this phase of life includes a broad range of opportunities for identity formation, specifically in three different realms.
These three realms of identity exploration are:
Love: In emerging adulthood, individuals explore love to find a profound sense of intimacy. While trying to find love, individuals often explore their identity by focusing on questions such as: "Given the kind of person I am, what kind of person do I wish to have as a partner through life?"
Work: Work opportunities that people get involved in are now centered around the idea that they are preparing for careers that they might have throughout adulthood. Individuals explore their identity by asking themselves questions such as: "What kind of work am I good at?", "What kind of work would I find satisfying for the long term", or "What are my chance of getting a job in the field that seems to suit me best?"
Worldviews: It is common for those in the stage of emerging adulthood to attend college. There they may be exposed to different worldviews, compared to those they were raised in, and become open to altering their previous worldviews. Individuals who don't attend college also believe that as adult they should also decide what their beliefs and values are.
Self-concept
Self-concept, or self-identity, is the set of beliefs and ideas an individual has about themselves. Self-concept is different from self-consciousness, which is an awareness of one's self. Components of the self-concept include physical, psychological, and social attributes, which can be influenced by the individual's attitudes, habits, beliefs, and ideas; they cannot be condensed into the general concepts of self-image or self-esteem. Multiple types of identity come together within an individual and can be broken down into the following: cultural identity, professional identity, ethnic and national identity, religious identity, gender identity, and disability identity.
Cultural identity
Cultural identity is formation of ideas an individual takes based on the culture they belong to. Cultural identity relates to but is not synonymous with identity politics. There are modern questions of culture that are transferred into questions of identity. Historical culture also influences individual identity, and as with modern cultural identity, individuals may pick and choose aspects of cultural identity, while rejecting or disowning other associated ideas.
Professional identity
Professional identity is the identification with a profession, exhibited by an aligning of roles, responsibilities, values, and ethical standards as accepted by the profession.
In business, professional identity is the professional self-concept that is founded upon attributes, values, and experiences. A professional identity is developed when there is a philosophy that is manifested in a distinct corporate culture – the corporate personality. A business professional is a person in a profession with certain types of skills that sometimes require formal training or education.
Career development encompasses the total dimensions of psychological, sociological, educational, physical, economic, and chance that alter a person's career practice across the lifespan. Career development also refers to the practices from a company or organization that enhance someone's career or encourages them to make practical career choices.
Training is a form of identity setting, since it not only affects knowledge but also affects a team member's self-concept. On the other hand, knowledge of the position introduces a new path of less effort to the trainee, which prolongs the effects of training and promotes a stronger self-concept. Other forms of identity setting in an organization include Business Cards, Specific Benefits by Role, and Task Forwarding.
Ethnic and national identity
An ethnic identity is an identification with a certain ethnicity, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry. Recognition by others as a distinct ethnic group is often a contributing factor to developing this identity. Ethnic groups are also often united by common cultural, behavioral, linguistic, ritualistic, or religious traits.
Processes that result in the emergence of such identification are summarized as ethnogenesis. Various cultural studies and social theory investigate the question of cultural and ethnic identities. Cultural identity adheres to location, gender, race, history, nationality, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and ethnicity.
National identity is an ethical and philosophical concept where all humans are divided into groups called nations. Members of a "nation" share a common identity and usually a common origin, in the sense of ancestry, parentage, or descent.
Religious identity
A religious identity is the set of beliefs and practices generally held by an individual, involving adherence to codified beliefs and rituals and study of ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, mythology, and faith and mystical experience. Religious identity refers to the personal practices related to communal faith along with rituals and communication stemming from such conviction. This identity formation begins with an association in the parents' religious contacts, and individuation requires that the person chooses the same or different religious identity than that of their parents.
Gender identity
In sociology, gender identity describes the gender with which a person identifies (i.e., whether one perceives oneself to be a man, a woman, outside of the gender binary), but can also be used to refer to the gender that other people attribute to the individual on the basis of what they know from gender role indications (social behavior, clothing, hairstyle, etc.). Gender identity may be affected by a variety of social structures, including the person's ethnic group, employment status, religion or irreligion, and family. It can also be biological in the sense of puberty.
Disability identity
Disability identity refers to the particular disabilities that an individual identifies with. This may be something as obvious as a paraplegic person identifying as such, or something less prominent such as a deaf person regarding themselves as part of a local, national, or global community of Deaf People Culture.
Disability identity is almost always determined by the particular disabilities that an individual is born with, though it may change later in life if an individual later becomes disabled or when an individual later discovers a previously overlooked disability (particularly applicable to mental disorders). In some rare cases, it may be influenced by exposure to disabled people as with body integrity dysphoria.
Political identity
Political identities often form the basis of public claims and mobilization of material and other resources for collective action. One theory that explores how this occurs is social movement theory. According to Charles Tilly, the interpretation of our relationship to others ("stories") create the rationale and construct of political identity. The capacity for action is constrained by material resources and sometimes perceptions that can be manipulated by using communication strategies that support the creation of illusory ties.
Interpersonal identity development
Interpersonal identity development comes from Marcia's Identity Status Theory, and refers to friendship, dating, gender roles, and recreation as tools to maturity in a psychosocial aspect of an individual.
Social relation can refer to a multitude of social interactions regulated by social norms between two or more people, with each having a social position and performing a social role. In a sociological hierarchy, social relation is more advanced than behavior, action, social behavior, social action, social contact, and social interaction. It forms the basis of concepts like social organization, social structure, social movement, and social system.
Interpersonal identity development is composed of three elements:
Categorization: Assigning everyone into categories.
Identification: Associating others with certain groups.
Comparison: Comparing groups.
Interpersonal identity development allows an individual to question and examine various personality elements, such as ideas, beliefs, and behaviors. The actions or thoughts of others create social influences that change an individual. Examples of social influence can be seen in socialization and peer pressure, which can affect a person's behavior, thinking about one's self, and subsequent acceptance or rejection of how other people attempt to influence the individual. Interpersonal identity development occurs during exploratory self-analysis and self-evaluation, and ends at various times to establish an easy-to-understand and consolidative sense of self or identity.
Interaction
During interpersonal identity development, an exchange of propositions and counter-propositions occurs, resulting in a qualitative transformation of the individual. The aim of interpersonal identity development is to resolve the undifferentiated facets of an individual, which are found to be indistinguishable from others. Given this, and with other admissions, the individual is led to a contradiction between the self and others, and forces the withdrawal of the undifferentiated self as truth. To resolve the incongruence, the person integrates or rejects the encountered elements, which results in a new identity. During each of these exchanges, the individual must resolve the exchange before facing future ones. The exchanges are endless since the changing world constantly presents exchanges between individuals and thus allows individuals to redefine themselves constantly.
Collective identity
Collective identity is a sense of belonging to a group (the collective). If it is strong, an individual who identifies with the group will dedicate their lives to the group over individual identity: they will defend the views of the group and take risks for the group, often with little to no incentive or coercion. Collective identity often forms through a shared sense of interest, affiliation, or adversity. The cohesiveness of the collective identity goes beyond the community, as the collective experiences grief from the loss of a member.
Social support
Individuals gain a social identity and group identity from their affiliations in various groups, which include: family, ethnicity, education and occupational status, friendship, dating, and religion.
Family
One of the most important affiliations is that of the family, whether they be biological, extended, or even adoptive families. Each has its own influence on identity through the interaction that takes place between the family members and with the individual. Researchers and theorists state that an individual's identity (more specifically an adolescent's identity) is influenced by the people around them and the environment in which they live. If a family does not have integration, it is likely to cause identity diffusion (one of James Marcia's four identity statuses, where an individual has not made commitments and does not try to make them), and applies to both males and females.
Peer relationships
Morgan and Korobov performed a study in order to analyze the influence of same-sex friendships in the development of one's identity. This study involved the use of 24 same-sex college student friendship triads, consisting of 12 males and 12 females, with a total of 72 participants. Each triad was required to have known each other for a minimum of six months. A qualitative method was chosen, as it is the most appropriate in assessing the development of identity. Semi-structured group interviews took place, where the students were asked to reflect on stories and experiences concerning relationship problems. The results showed five common responses when assessing these relationship problems: joking about the relationship's problems, providing support, offering advice, relating others' experiences to their own similar experiences, and providing encouragement. The results concluded that adolescents actively construct their identities through common themes of conversation between same-sex friendships; in this case, involving relationship issues. The common themes of conversation that close peers seem to engage in helping to further their identity formation in life.
Influences on identity
Cognitive influences
Cognitive development influences identity formation. When adolescents are able to think abstractly and reason logically, they have an easier time exploring and contemplating possible identities. When an adolescent has advanced cognitive development and maturity, they tend to resolve identity issues more so than age mates that are less cognitively developed. When identity issues are solved quicker and better, there is more time and effort put into developing that identity.
Scholastic influences
Adolescents that have a post-secondary education tend to make more concrete goals and stable occupational commitments. Going to college or university can influence identity formation in a productive way. The opposite can also be true, where identity influences education and academics. Education's effect on identity can be beneficial for the individual's identity; the individual becomes educated on different approaches and paths to take in the process of identity formation.
Sociocultural influences
Sociocultural influences are those of a broader social and historical context. For example, in the past, adolescents would likely just adopt the job or religious beliefs that were expected of them or that were akin to their parents. Today, adolescents have more resources to explore identity choices and more options for commitments. This influence is becoming less significant due to the growing acceptance of identity options that were once less accepted. Many of the identity options from the past are becoming unrecognized and less popular today. The changing sociocultural situation is forcing individuals to develop a unique identity based on their own aspirations. Sociocultural influences play a different role in identity formation now than they have in the past.
Parenting influences
The type of relationship that adolescents have with their parents has a significant role in identity formation. For example, when there is a solid and positive relationship between parents and adolescents, they are more likely to feel freedom in exploring identity options for themselves. A study found that for boys and girls, identity formation is positively influenced by parental involvement, specifically in the areas of support, social monitoring, and school monitoring. In contrast, when the relationship is not as close and the fear of rejection or discontentment from the parent or other guardians is present, they are more likely to feel less confident in forming a separate identity from their parents.
Cyber-socializing and the Internet
The Internet is becoming an extension of the expressive dimension of adolescence. On the Internet, youth talk about their lives and concerns, design the content that they make available to others, and assess the reactions of others to it in the form of optimized and electronically mediated social approval. When connected, youth speak of their daily routines and lives. With each post, image or video they upload, they can ask themselves who they are and try out profiles that differ from the ones they practice in the "real" world.
See also
Otium
Poverty
Workism
Self-Schema
Social theory
Social defeat
Lev Vygotsky
Social stigma
Social identity
Self-discovery
Peer pressure
Cultural identity
Erving Goffman
Religious Values
Consumer culture
Moral development
Identity performance
Wishful Identification
George Herbert Mead
In-group and out-group
Symbolic interactionism
Social comparison theory
Identification (psychology)
Identity crisis (psychology)
Genealogical bewilderment
Values (Western philosophy)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
References
Sources
Further reading
A Erdman, A Study of Bisexual Identity Formation. 2006.
A Portes, D MacLeod, What Shall I Call Myself? Hispanic Identity Formation in the Second Generation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1996.
AS Waterman, Identity Formation: Discovery or Creation? The Journal of Early Adolescence, 1984.
AS Waterman, Finding Someone to be: Studies on the Role of Intrinsic Motivation in Identity Formation. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 2004.
A Warde, Consumption, Identity-Formation and Uncertainty. Sociology, 1994.
A Wendt, Collective Identity Formation and the International State. The American Political Science Review, 1994.
CA Willard, 1996 — Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge: A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ; OCLC 260223405
CG Levine, JE Côté, JE Cãotâ, Identity Formation, Agency, and Culture: a social psychological synthesis. 2002.
G Robert, C Bate, C Pope, J Gabbay, A le May, Processes and dynamics of identity formation in professional organizations. 2007.
HL Minton, GJ McDonald, Homosexual identity formation as a developmental process.
MD Berzonsky, Self-construction over the life-span: A process perspective on identity formation. Advances in personal construct theory, 1990.
RB Hall, (Reviewer) Uses of the Other: 'The East' in European Identity Formation (by IB Neumann) University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1999. 248 pages. International Studies Review Vol.3, Issue 1, Pages 101-111
VC Cass, Sexual orientation identity formation: A Western phenomenon. Textbook of homosexuality and mental health, 1996.
External links
A positive approach to the identity formation of biracial children ". ematusov.soe.udel.edu
Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research. "Identity" is the official journal of the Society for Research on Identity Formation.
Social philosophy
Conceptions of self
Career development
Identity (social science) | 0.778435 | 0.99139 | 0.771732 |
Occidentalism | Occidentalism refers to a discipline that discusses the Western world (the Occident). In this context the West becomes the object, while the East is the subject. The West in the context of Occidentalism does not refer to the West in a geographical sense, but to culture or custom, especially covering the fields of thought, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, history, religion, colonialism, war, apartheid, and geography. It is not as popular as Orientalism in the general public and in academic settings.
The term emerged as the reciprocal of the notion of Orientalism popularized by literary critic Edward Said, which refers to Western stereotypes of the Eastern world, the Orient.
Terminologies
Different languages have different terms relating to Occidentalism and Westernization.
In Arabic
In Arabic, is a contemporary psychological, social, and cultural phenomenon. The individuals who embody it are characterized by their inclination toward, attachment to, and emulation of the West. It originated in non-Western societies as a result of the civilizational shock that befell it before and during colonialism.
means the 'science of Westernization' or 'Occidentalism'. It is opposite to the science of Orientalism. Dr. Hassan Hanafi said: "Occidentalism is the unraveling of the double historical knot between the self and the other... It is the elimination of the complex of greatness of the Western other, by transforming it from a subject in itself to a studied object... The task of Orientalism is to eliminate Eurocentrism and show how European consciousness has taken center stage throughout modern history, within its own civilizational environment."
means 'Westernization'. It is "a cultural and political action carried out by officials in the West, most importantly Orientalists and Westernizers, aiming to obscure the features of the religious and cultural life of Islamic and other societies, and to force these societies to imitate the West and revolve in its orbit."
Occidental representations
In China, "Traditions Regarding Western Countries" became a regular part of the Twenty-Four Histories from the 5th century AD, when commentary about The West concentrated upon on an area that did not extend farther than Syria. The extension of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries established, represented, and defined the existence of an "Eastern world" and of a "Western world". Western stereotypes appear in works of Indian, Chinese and Japanese art of those times. At the same time, Western influence in politics, culture, economics and science came to be constructed through an imaginative geography of West and East.
Occidentalism figures
Hassan Hanafi (Cairo)
Mukti Ali (Indonesia)
Adian Husaini (Indonesia)
Occidentalism debated
In Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies (2004), Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit argue that nationalist and nativist resistance to the West replicates Eastern-world responses against the socio-economic forces of modernization, which originated in Western culture, among utopian radicals and conservative nationalists who viewed capitalism, liberalism, and secularism as forces destructive of their societies and cultures. While the early responses to the West were a genuine encounter between alien cultures, many of the later manifestations of Occidentalism betray the influence of Western ideas upon Eastern intellectuals, such as the supremacy of the nation-state, the Romantic rejection of rationality, and the spiritual impoverishment of the citizenry of liberal democracies.
Buruma and Margalit trace that resistance to German Romanticism and to the debates, between the Westernisers and the Slavophiles in 19th-century Russia, and show that like arguments appear in the ideologies of Zionism, Maoism, Islamism, and Imperial Japanese nationalism. Nonetheless, Alastair Bonnett rejects the analyses of Buruma and Margalit as Eurocentric, and said that the field of Occidentalism emerged from the interconnection of Eastern and Western intellectual traditions.
See also
Anti-Western sentiment
Colonialism
Decolonization
Global arrogance
Atlanticism
Indigenism
Islamism
Orient
Orientalism
The War Against the West
References
Further reading
Buruma, I. and Margalit, A., Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism, Atlantic Books, London, 2004. .
Carrier, James G. Occidentalism: Images of the West, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1995. , .
Chen, Xiaomei, Occidentalism: A Theory Of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China, second ed., rev. and expanded. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. .
Cohen, Nick, What's Left?: How the Left Lost its Way, New York, Harper Perennial, 2007. .
Hägerdal, Hans, "Negotiating With the Bogey Man: Perceptions of European-Southeast Asian Relations in Lore and Tradition", HumaNetten 52, 2024, pp. 195-217 https://conferences.lnu.se/index.php/hn/article/view/4310/3801
Hanafi, Hassan, Muqaddimah fi 'ilm al-istighrab (Introduction to Occidentalism), Cairo, Madbuli, 1991.
König, Daniel G., Arabic-Islamic Views of the Latin West. Tracing the Emergence of Medieval Europe, Oxford, OUP, 2015.
Souza, Teotonio R. de, "Orientalism, Occidentosis and Other Viral Strains: Historical Objectivity and Social Responsibilities", in The Portuguese, Indian Ocean and European Bridgeheads, Festschrift in Honour of K.S. Mathew, eds Pius Malekandathil & Jamal Mohammed, Fundação Oriente, India, 2001. . pp. 452–479. https://web.archive.org/web/20160422180612/https://pt.scribd.com/doc/30027278/Orientalism-Occidentosis-and-Other-Viral-Strains-Historical-Objectivity-and-Social-Responsibilities
History of international relations
Western culture
Asiacentrism | 0.781298 | 0.987703 | 0.77169 |
Contemporary art | Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, and it generally refers to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic combination of materials, methods, concepts, and subjects that continue the challenging of boundaries that was already well underway in the 20th century. Diverse and eclectic, contemporary art as a whole is distinguished by the very lack of a uniform, organising principle, ideology, or "-ism". Contemporary art is part of a cultural dialogue that concerns larger contextual frameworks such as personal and cultural identity, family, community, and nationality.
In English, modern and contemporary are synonyms, resulting in some conflation and confusion of the terms modern art and contemporary art by non-specialists.
Scope
The classification of "contemporary art" as a special type of art, rather than a general adjectival phrase, goes back to the beginnings of Modernism in the English-speaking world. In London, the Contemporary Art Society was founded in 1910 by the critic Roger Fry and others, as a private society for buying works of art to place in public museums. A number of other institutions using the term were founded in the 1930s, such as in 1938 the Contemporary Art Society of Adelaide, Australia, and an increasing number after 1945. Many, like the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston changed their names from ones using "Modern art" in this period, as Modernism became defined as a historical art movement, and much "modern" art ceased to be "contemporary". The definition of what is contemporary is naturally always on the move, anchored in the present with a start date that moves forward, and the works the Contemporary Art Society bought in 1910 could no longer be described as contemporary.
Particular points that have been seen as marking a change in art styles include the end of World War II and the 1960s. There has perhaps been a lack of natural break points since the 1960s, and definitions of what constitutes "contemporary art" in the 2010s vary, and are mostly imprecise. Art from the past 20 years is very likely to be included, and definitions often include art going back to about 1970; "the art of the late 20th and early 21st century"; "both an outgrowth and a rejection of modern art"; "Strictly speaking, the term "contemporary art" refers to art made and produced by artists living today"; "Art from the 1960s or [19]70s up until this very minute"; and sometimes further, especially in museum contexts, as museums which form a permanent collection of contemporary art inevitably find this aging. Many use the formulation "Modern and Contemporary Art", which avoids this problem. Smaller commercial galleries, magazines and other sources may use stricter definitions, perhaps restricting the "contemporary" to work from 2000 onwards. Artists who are still productive after a long career, and ongoing art movements, may present a particular issue; galleries and critics are often reluctant to divide their work between the contemporary and non-contemporary.
Sociologist Nathalie Heinich draws a distinction between modern and contemporary art, describing them as two different paradigms which partially overlap historically. She found that while "modern art" challenges the conventions of representation, "contemporary art" challenges the very notion of an artwork. She regards Duchamp's Fountain (which was made in the 1910s in the midst of the triumph of modern art) as the starting point of contemporary art, which gained momentum after World War II with Gutai's performances, Yves Klein's monochromes and Rauschenberg's Erased de Kooning Drawing.
Themes
Contemporary artwork is characterised by diversity: diversity of material, of form, of subject matter, and even time periods. It is "distinguished by the very lack of a uniform organizing principle, ideology, or - ism" that is seen in many other art periods and movements. The focus of Modernism is self-referential. Impressionism looks at our perception of a moment through light and color, as opposed to the attempt to reflect stark reality in Realism. Contemporary art, on the other hand, does not have one, single objective or point of view, so it can be contradictory and open-ended. There are nonetheless several common themes that have appeared in contemporary works, such as identity politics, the body, globalization and migration, technology, contemporary society and culture, time and memory, and institutional and political critique.
Institutions
The functioning of the art world is dependent on art institutions, ranging from major museums to private galleries, non-profit spaces, art schools and publishers, and the practices of individual artists, curators, writers, collectors, and philanthropists. A major division in the art world is between the for-profit and non-profit sectors, although in recent years the boundaries between for-profit private and non-profit public institutions have become increasingly blurred. Most well-known contemporary art is exhibited by professional artists at commercial contemporary art galleries, by private collectors, art auctions, corporations, publicly funded arts organizations, contemporary art museums or by artists themselves in artist-run spaces. Contemporary artists are supported by grants, awards, and prizes as well as by direct sales of their work. Career artists train at art school or emerge from other fields.
There are close relationships between publicly funded contemporary art organizations and the commercial sector. For instance, in 2005 the book Understanding International Art Markets and Management reported that in Britain a handful of dealers represented the artists featured in leading publicly funded contemporary art museums. Commercial organizations include galleries and art fairs.
Corporations have also integrated themselves into the contemporary art world, exhibiting contemporary art within their premises, organizing and sponsoring contemporary art awards, and building up extensive corporate collections. Corporate advertisers frequently use the prestige associated with contemporary art and coolhunting to draw the attention of consumers to luxury goods.
The institutions of art have been criticized for regulating what is designated as contemporary art. Outsider art, for instance, is literally contemporary art, in that it is produced in the present day. However, one critic has argued it is not considered so because the artists are self-taught and are thus assumed to be working outside of an art historical context. Craft activities, such as textile design, are also excluded from the realm of contemporary art, despite large audiences for exhibitions. Art critic Peter Timms has said that attention is drawn to the way that craft objects must subscribe to particular values in order to be admitted to the realm of contemporary art. "A ceramic object that is intended as a subversive comment on the nature of beauty is more likely to fit the definition of contemporary art than one that is simply beautiful."
Public attitudes
Contemporary art can sometimes seem at odds with a public that does not feel that art and its institutions share its values. In Britain, in the 1990s, contemporary art became a part of popular culture, with artists becoming stars, but this did not lead to a hoped-for "cultural utopia". Some critics like Julian Spalding and Donald Kuspit have suggested that skepticism, even rejection, is a legitimate and reasonable response to much contemporary art. Brian Ashbee in an essay called "Art Bollocks" criticizes "much installation art, photography, conceptual art, video and other practices generally called post-modern" as being too dependent on verbal explanations in the form of theoretical discourse. However, the acceptance of non traditional art in museums has increased due to changing perspectives on what constitutes an art piece.
Concerns
A common concern since the early part of the 20th century has been the question of what constitutes art. In the contemporary period (1950 to now), the concept of avant-garde may come into play in determining what art is noticed by galleries, museums, and collectors.
The concerns of contemporary art come in for criticism too. Andrea Rosen has said that some contemporary painters "have absolutely no idea of what it means to be a contemporary artist" and that they "are in it for all the wrong reasons."
Prizes
Some competitions, awards, and prizes in contemporary art are:
Emerging Artist Award awarded by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Factor Prize in Southern Art
Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
John Moore's Painting Prize
Kandinsky Prize for Russian artists under 30
Marcel Duchamp Prize awarded by ADIAF and Centre Pompidou
Ricard Prize for a French artist under 40
Turner Prize for British artists
Participation in the Whitney Biennial
Vincent Award, The Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art in Europe
The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists, awarded by the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery
Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize
Jindřich Chalupecký Award for Czech artists under 35
History
This table lists art movements and styles by decade. It should not be assumed to be conclusive.
See also
Acculturation
Anti-art and Anti-anti-art
Art:21 - Art in the 21st Century (2001-2016), a PBS series
Criticism of postmodernism
Classificatory disputes about art
List of contemporary art museums
List of contemporary artists
Medium specificity
Reductive art
Value theory
Visual arts
Word art
New media art
Notes
References
Further reading
Altshuler, B. (2013). Biennials and Beyond: Exhibitions that Made Art History: 1962-2002. New York, N.Y.: Phaidon Press,
Danto, A. C. (2013). What is art. New Haven: Yale University Press,
Desai, V. N. (Ed.). (2007). Asian art history in the twenty-first century. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,
Fullerton, E. (2016). Artrage! : the story of the BritArt revolution. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd,
Gielen, Pascal (2009). The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude: Global Art, Memory and Post-Fordism. Amsterdam: Valiz,
Gompertz, W. (2013). What Are You Looking At?: The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art (2nd ed.). New York, N.Y.: Plume,
Harris, J. (2011). Globalization and Contemporary Art. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell,
Lailach, M. (2007). Land Art. London: Taschen,
Martin, S. (2006). Video Art. (U. Grosenick, Ed.). Los Angeles: Taschen,
Mercer, K. (2008). Exiles, diasporas & strangers. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press,
Robertson, J., & McDaniel, C. (2012). Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Robinson, H. (Ed.). (2015). Feminism-art-theory : an anthology 1968-2014 (2nd ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell,
Stiles, Kristine and Peter Howard Selz, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, A Sourcebook of Artists's Writings (1996),
Strehovec, J. (2020).Contemporary Art Impacts on Scientific, Social, and Cultural Paradigms: Emerging Research and Opportunities. Hershey, PA: IGIGlobal.
Thompson, D. (2010). The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Griffin,
Thorton, S. (2009). Seven Days in the Art World. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company,
Wallace, Isabelle Loring and Jennie Hirsh, Contemporary Art and Classical Myth. Farnham: Ashgate (2011),
Warr, T. (Ed.). (2012). The Artist’s Body (Revised). New York, N.Y.: Phaidon Press,
Wilson, M. (2013). How to read contemporary art : experiencing the art of the 21st century. New York, N.Y.: Abrams,
External links
Postmodern art
Science fiction themes
Postmodernism
Art by period of creation | 0.77327 | 0.997874 | 0.771626 |
Fundamental rights | Fundamental rights are a group of rights that have been recognized by a high degree of protection from encroachment. These rights are specifically identified in a constitution, or have been found under due process of law. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 17, established in 2015, underscores the link between promoting human rights and sustaining peace.
List of important rights
Some universally recognised rights that are seen as fundamental, i.e., contained in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or the U.N. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, include the following:
Self-determination
Liberty
Due process of law
Freedom of movement
Right to privacy
Freedom of thought
Freedom of conscience
Freedom of religion
Freedom of expression
Freedom of assembly
Freedom of association
Specific jurisdictions
Canada
In Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms outlines four Fundamental Freedoms. These are freedom of:
Conscience and religion
Thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication
Peaceful assembly
Association.
Europe
On a European level, fundamental rights are protected in three laws:
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
The Fundamental Freedoms of the European Union
The European Convention on Human Rights
Japan
In Japan, fundamental rights protected by the Constitution of Japan include:
Civil liberties, including the right to liberty and the right to freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion
Social rights, including the right to receive education and the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living
India
There are six fundamental rights recognized in the Constitution of India:
the right to equality (Articles 14-18):
Article 14: Equality before law
Article 15: Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth
Article 16: Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment
Article 17: Abolition of untouchability
Article 18: Abolition of titles
the right to freedom (Article 19, 22):
Article 19: Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, expression, assembly, association, movement, and residence
Article 20: Protection in respect of conviction for offenses
Article 21: Protection of life and personal liberty
Article 21A: Right to education
the right against exploitation (Articles 23-24):
Article 23: Prohibition of trafficking in human beings and forced labor
Article 24: Prohibition of child labor
the right to freedom of religion (Articles 25-28):
Article 25: Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion
Article 26: Freedom to manage religious affairs
Article 27: Freedom from payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion
Article 28: Freedom from attending religious instruction or worship in certain educational institutions
cultural and educational rights (Articles 29-30):
Article 29: Protection of interests of minorities
Article 30: Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions
the right to constitutional remedies (Article 32 and 226):
Article 32: Right to move the Supreme Court for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights
Article 226: Power of High Courts to issue certain writs for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights
United States
Though many fundamental rights are also widely considered human rights, the classification of a right as "fundamental" invokes specific legal tests courts use to determine the constrained conditions under which the United States government and various state governments may limit these rights. In such legal contexts, courts determine whether rights are fundamental by examining the historical foundations of those rights and by determining whether their protection is part of a longstanding tradition. In particular, courts look to whether the right is "so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental." Individual states may guarantee other rights as fundamental. That is, States may add to fundamental rights but can never diminish and rarely infringe upon fundamental rights by legislative processes. Any such attempt, if challenged, may involve a "strict scrutiny" review in court.
In American constitutional law, fundamental rights have special significance under the U.S. Constitution. Those rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution are recognized as "fundamental" by the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the Supreme Court, enumerated rights that are incorporated are so fundamental that any law restricting such a right must both serve a compelling state purpose and be narrowly tailored to that compelling purpose.
The original interpretation of the United States Bill of Rights was that only the Federal Government was bound by it. In 1835, the U.S. Supreme Court in Barron v. Baltimore unanimously ruled that the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states. During post-Civil War Reconstruction, the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868 to rectify this condition, and to specifically apply the whole of the Constitution to all U.S. states. In 1873, the Supreme Court essentially nullified the key language of the Fourteenth Amendment that guaranteed all "privileges or immunities" to all U.S. citizens, in a series of cases called the Slaughterhouse cases. This decision and others allowed post-emancipation racial discrimination to continue largely unabated.
Later Supreme Court justices found a way around these limitations without overturning the Slaughterhouse precedent: they created a concept called Selective Incorporation. Under this legal theory, the court used the remaining Fourteenth Amendment protections for equal protection and due process to "incorporate" individual elements of the Bill of Rights against the states. "The test usually articulated for determining fundamentality under the Due Process Clause is that the putative right must be 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty', or 'deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition.'" Compare page 267 Lutz v. City of York, Pa., 899 F. 2d 255 - United States Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit, 1990.
This set in motion a continuous process under which each individual right under the Bill of Rights was incorporated, one by one. That process has extended more than a century, with the free speech clause of the First Amendment first incorporated in 1925 in Gitlow v New York. The most recent amendment completely incorporated as fundamental was the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for personal self-defense, in McDonald v Chicago, handed down in 2010 and the Eighth Amendment's restrictions on excessive fines in Timbs v. Indiana in 2019.
Not all clauses of all amendments have been incorporated. For example, states are not required to obey the Fifth Amendment's requirement of indictment by grand jury. Many states choose to use preliminary hearings instead of grand juries. It is possible that future cases may incorporate additional clauses of the Bill of Rights against the states.
The Bill of Rights lists specifically enumerated rights. The Supreme Court has extended fundamental rights by recognizing several fundamental rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution, including but not limited to:
The right to interstate travel
The right to parent one's children
The right to privacy
The right to marriage
Any restrictions a government statute or policy places on these rights are evaluated with strict scrutiny. If a right is denied to everyone, it is an issue of substantive due process. If a right is denied to some individuals but not others, it is also an issue of equal protection. However, any action that abridges a right deemed fundamental, when also violating equal protection, is still held to the more exacting standard of strict scrutiny, instead of the less demanding rational basis test.
During the Lochner era, the right to freedom of contract was considered fundamental, and thus restrictions on that right were subject to strict scrutiny. Following the 1937 Supreme Court decision in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, though, the right to contract became considerably less important in the context of substantive due process and restrictions on it were evaluated under the rational basis standard.
See also
Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union
Inalienable rights
Universal human rights
References
Fundamental rights
Constitutional law
Rights
Civil rights and liberties | 0.773595 | 0.997357 | 0.77155 |
Philistinism | In the fields of philosophy and of aesthetics, the term philistinism describes the attitudes, habits, and characteristics of a person who deprecates art, beauty, spirituality, and intellect. As a derogatory term, philistine describes a person who is narrow-minded and hostile to the life of the mind, whose materialistic and wealth-oriented worldview and tastes indicate an indifference to cultural and aesthetic values.
The contemporary meaning of philistine derives from Matthew Arnold's adaptation to English of the German word Philister, as applied by university students in their antagonistic relations with the townspeople of Jena, early modern Germany, where a riot resulted in several deaths in 1689. Preaching about the riot, Georg Heinrich Götze, the ecclesiastical superintendent, applied the word Philister in his sermon analysing the social class hostilities between students and townspeople. Götze addressed the town-vs-gown matter with an admonishing sermon, "The Philistines Be Upon Thee", drawn from the Book of Judges (Chapt. , Samson vs the Philistines), of the Old Testament.
History
In German usage, university students applied the term Philister (Philistine) to describe a person who was not trained at university; in the social context of early modern Germany, the term identified the man (Philister) and woman (Philisterin) who was not from the university.
In English usage, the term philistine—a person hostile to aesthetic and intellectual discourse—was common British usage by the decade of 1820, and was applied to the bourgeois, materialistic, merchant middle class of the Victorian Era (1837–1901), whose newly acquired social status and wealth rendered some of them hostile to cultural traditions which favored aristocratic power. Regarding the philistines, Matthew Arnold wrote in Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism (1869):
Usages
The denotations and connotations of the terms philistinism and philistine describe people who are hostile to art, culture, and the life of the mind, and, in their stead, favor economic materialism and conspicuous consumption as paramount human activities.
17th century
Whilst involved in a lawsuit, the writer and poet Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), in the slang of his time, described a gruff bailiff as a philistine, someone who is considered a merciless enemy.
18th century
The polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) described the philistine personality, by asking:
Goethe described such men and women, by noting that:
In the comedy of manners play, The Rivals (1775), Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) identifies a violent aristocrat as 'that bloodthirsty Philistine, Sir Lucius O'Trigger'.
19th century
Thomas Carlyle often wrote of gigs and "gigmanity" as a sign of classist materialism; Arnold recognized Carlyle's use of the term as being synonymous with philistine. Carlyle used "philistine" to describe William Taylor in 1831. He also used it in Sartor Resartus (1833–34) and in The Life of John Sterling (1851), remembering conversations where "Philistines would enter, what we call bores, dullards, Children of Darkness".
The composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) created Davidsbündler, a fictional society whose purpose is to fight the philistines. This fight appears in some of his musical pieces, such as Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, and the concluding part of his Carnaval, op. 9, which is titled "Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins".
In The Sickness Unto Death (1849), the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard criticises the spiritlessness of the philistine-bourgeois mentality of triviality and the self-deception of despair.
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) identified the philistine as a person who, for a lack of true cultural unity, can only define style in the negative and through cultural conformity. The essay "David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer" in Untimely Meditations is an extended critique of nineteenth-century German Philistinism.
20th century
In the novel Der Ewige Spießer (The Eternal Philistine, 1930), the Austro–Hungarian writer Ödön von Horváth (1901–38) derided the cultural coarseness of the philistine man and his limited view of the world. The eponymous philistine is a failed businessman, a salesman of used cars, who aspires to the high-life of wealth; to realise that aspiration, he seeks to meet a rich woman who will support him, and so embarks upon a rail journey from Munich to Barcelona to seek her at the World's Fair.
In the Lectures on Russian Literature (1981), in the essay 'Philistines and Philistinism' the writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) describes the philistine man and woman as:
In the Lectures on Literature (1982), in speaking of the novel Madame Bovary (1856), about the bourgeois wife of a country doctor, Nabokov said that philistinism is manifest in the prudish attitude demonstrated by the man or the woman who accuses a work of art of being obscene.
See also
References
External links
V.I. Lenin "Philistinism in Revolutionary Circles" 1906
Anti-intellectualism
Pejorative terms for people
Theories of aesthetics | 0.774429 | 0.996237 | 0.771515 |
Western culture | Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, or Western society, refers to the diverse culture of the Western World. The term "Western" encompasses the social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies primarily rooted in European and Mediterranean histories. A broad concept, "Western culture" does not relate to a region with fixed members or geographical confines. It generally refers to the classical era cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome that expanded across the Mediterranean basin and Europe, and later circulated around the world predominantly through colonization and globalization.
Historically, scholars have closely associated the idea of Western culture with the classical era of Greco-Roman antiquity. However, scholars also acknowledge that other ancient cultures, like Ancient Egypt, the Phoenician city-states, and several Near-Eastern cultures stimulated and fostered Western civilization. The Hellenistic period also promoted syncretism, blending Greek, Roman, and Jewish cultures. Major advances in literature, engineering, and science shaped the Hellenistic Jewish culture from which the earliest Christians and the Greek New Testament emerged. The eventual Christianization of Europe in late-antiquity would ensure that the Christian religion, particularly the Catholic Church, remained a dominant force in Western culture for many centuries to follow.
Western culture continued to develop during the Middle Ages as reforms triggered by the medieval renaissances, the influence of the Islamic world via Al-Andalus and Sicily (including the transfer of technology from the East, and Latin translations of Arabic texts on science and philosophy by Greek and Hellenic-influenced Islamic philosophers), and the Italian Renaissance as Greek scholars fleeing the fall of Constantinople brought ancient Greek and Roman texts back to central and western Europe. Medieval Christianity is credited with creating the modern university, the modern hospital system, scientific economics, and natural law (which would later influence the creation of international law). European culture developed a complex range of philosophy, medieval scholasticism, mysticism and Christian and secular humanism, setting the stage for the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, which fundamentally altered religious and political life. Led by figures like Martin Luther, Protestantism challenged the authority of the Catholic Church and promoted ideas of individual freedom and religious reform, paving the way for modern notions of personal responsibility and governance.
The Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries shifted focus to reason, science, and individual rights, influencing revolutions across Europe and the Americas and the development of modern democratic institutions. Enlightenment thinkers advanced ideals of political pluralism and empirical inquiry, which, together with the Industrial Revolution, transformed Western society. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the influence of Enlightenment rationalism continued with the rise of secularism and liberal democracy, while the Industrial Revolution fueled economic and technological growth. The expansion of rights movements and the decline of religious authority marked significant cultural shifts. Tendencies that have come to define modern Western societies include the concept of political pluralism, individualism, prominent subcultures or countercultures, and increasing cultural syncretism resulting from globalization and immigration.
Terminology
"The West" as a geographical area is unclear and undefined. There is some disagreement about which nations should or should not be included in the category, when, and why. Certainly related conceptual terminology has changed over time in scope, meaning, and use. The term "western" draws on an affiliation with, or a perception of, a shared philosophy, worldview, political, and religious heritage grounded in the Greco-Roman world, the legacy of the Roman Empire, and medieval concepts of Christendom. For example, whether the Eastern Roman Empire (anachronistically/controversially referred to as the Byzantine Empire), or those countries heavily influenced by its legacy, should be counted as "Western" is an example of the possible ambiguity of the term. These questions can be traced back to the affiliatory nature of Roman culture to the culture of Classical Greece, a persistent Greek East and Latin West language-split within the Roman Empire, and an eventual permanent splitting of the Roman Empire in 395 into Western and Eastern halves. And perhaps, at its worst, culminating in Pope Leo III's transfer of the Roman Empire from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Frankish King Charlemagne in the form of the Holy Roman Empire in 800, the Great Schism of 1054, and the devastating Fourth Crusade of 1204. Conversely, traditions of scholarship around Plato, Aristotle, and Euclid had been forgotten in the Catholic west and were rediscovered by Italians from scholars fleeing the 1453 fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. The subsequent Renaissance, a conscious effort by Europeans to revive and surpass the ideas and achievements of the Greco-Roman world, eventually encouraged the Age of Discovery, the Scientific Revolution, Age of Enlightenment, and the subsequent Industrial Revolution. Similarly, complicated relationships between virtually all the countries and regions within a broadly defined "West" can be discussed in the light of a persistently fragmented political landscape resulting in a lack of uniformity and significant diversity between the various cultures affiliating with this shared socio-cultural heritage. Thus, those cultures identifying with the West and with what it means to be "western" change over time as the geopolitical circumstances of a place changes and what is meant by the terminology changes.
It is difficult to determine which individuals or places or trends fit into which category, and the East–West contrast is sometimes criticized as relativistic and arbitrary. Globalization has spread Western ideas so widely that almost all modern cultures are, to some extent, influenced by aspects of Western culture. Stereotypical views of "the West" have been labeled "Occidentalism", paralleling "Orientalism"—the term for the 19th-century stereotyped views of "the East".
Some philosophers have questioned whether Western culture can be considered a historically sound, unified body of thought. For example, Kwame Anthony Appiah pointed out in 2016 that many of the fundamental influences on Western culture - such as those of Greek philosophy - are also shared by the Islamic world to a certain extent. Appiah argues that the origin of the Western and European identity can be traced back to the 8th-century Muslim invasion of Europe via Iberia, when Christians would start to form a common Christian or European identity. Contemporary Latin chronicles from Spain referred to the victors in the Frankish victory over the Umayyads at the 732 Battle of Tours as "Europeans" according to Appiah, denoting a shared sense of identity.
A former, now less-acceptable synonym for "Western civilisation" was "the white race".
As Europeans discovered the extra-European world, old concepts adapted. The area that had formerly been considered the Orient ("the East") became the Near East as the interests of the European powers interfered with Meiji Japan and Qing China for the first time in the 19th century.
Thus the Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895 occurred in the "Far East" while troubles surrounding the decline of the Ottoman Empire occurred simultaneously in the Near East. The term "Middle East" in the mid-19th century included the territory east of the Ottoman Empire but west of China—Greater Persia and Greater India—but is now used synonymously with "Near East" in most languages.
History
The earliest civilizations which influenced the development of Western culture were those of Mesopotamia; the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran: the cradle of civilization. Ancient Egypt similarly had a strong influence on Western culture.
Phoenician mercantilism and the introduction of the Alphabetic script boosted state formation in the Aegean and current-day Italy and current-day Spain, spawning civilizations in the Mediterranean such as Ancient Carthage, Ancient Greece, Etruria, and Ancient Rome.
The Greeks contrasted themselves with both their Eastern neighbours (such as the Trojans in Iliad) as well as their Northern neighbours (who they considered barbarians). Concepts of what is the West arose out of legacies of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. Later, ideas of the West were formed by the concepts of Latin Christendom and the Holy Roman Empire. What is thought of as Western thought today originates primarily from Greco-Roman and Christian traditions, with varying degrees of influence from the Germanic, Celtic and Slavic peoples, and includes the ideals of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Reformation and the Enlightenment.
The West of the Mediterranean Region during the Antiquity
While the concept of a "West" did not exist until the emergence of the Roman Republic, the roots of the concept can be traced back to Ancient Greece. Since Homeric literature (the Trojan Wars), through the accounts of the Persian Wars of Greeks against Persians by Herodotus, and right up until the time of Alexander the Great, there was a paradigm of a contrast between Greeks and other civilizations. Greeks felt they were the most civilized and saw themselves (in the formulation of Aristotle) as something between the advanced civilizations of the Near East (who they viewed as soft and slavish) and the wild barbarians of most of Europe to the north. During this period writers like Herodotus and Xenophon would highlight the importance of freedom in the Ancient Greek world, as opposed to the perceived slavery of the so-called barbaric world.
Alexander's conquests led to the emergence of a Hellenistic civilization, representing a synthesis of Greek and Near-Eastern cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The Near-Eastern civilizations of Ancient Egypt and the Levant, which came under Greek rule, became part of the Hellenistic world. The most important Hellenistic centre of learning was Ptolemaic Egypt, which attracted Greek, Egyptian, Jewish, Persian, Phoenician and even Indian scholars. Hellenistic science, philosophy, architecture, literature and art later provided a foundation embraced and built upon by the Roman Empire as it swept up Europe and the Mediterranean world, including the Hellenistic world in its conquests in the 1st century BCE.
Following the Roman conquest of the Hellenistic world, the concept of a "West" arose, as there was a cultural divide between the Greek East and Latin West. The Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire consisted of Western Europe and Northwest Africa, while the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire consisted of the Balkans, Asia Minor, Egypt and Levant. The "Greek" East was generally wealthier and more advanced than the "Latin" West. With the exception of Italia, the wealthiest provinces of the Roman Empire were in the East, particularly Roman Egypt which was the wealthiest Roman province outside of Italia. Nevertheless, the Celts in the West created some significant literature in the ancient world whenever they were given the opportunity (an example being the poet Caecilius Statius), and they developed a large amount of scientific knowledge themselves (as seen in their Coligny Calendar).
For about five hundred years, the Roman Empire maintained the Greek East and consolidated a Latin West, but an east–west division remained, reflected in many cultural norms of the two areas, including language. Eventually, the empire became increasingly split into a Western and Eastern part, reviving old ideas of a contrast between an advanced East, and a rugged West.
From the time of Alexander the Great (the Hellenistic period), Greek civilization came in contact with Jewish civilization. Christianity would eventually emerge from the syncretism of Hellenic culture, Roman culture, and Second Temple Judaism, gradually spreading across the Roman Empire and eclipsing its antecedents and influences.
The Greek and Roman paganism was gradually replaced by Christianity, first with its legalisation with the Edict of Milan and then the Edict of Thessalonica which made it the State church of the Roman Empire. Catholic Christianity, served as a unifying force in Christian parts of Europe, and in some respects replaced or competed with the secular authorities. The Jewish Christian tradition out of which it had emerged was all but extinguished, and antisemitism became increasingly entrenched or even integral to Christendom. Much of art and literature, law, education, and politics were preserved in the teachings of the Church.
In a broader sense, the Middle Ages, with its fertile encounter between Greek philosophical reasoning and Levantine monotheism was not confined to the West but also stretched into the old East. The philosophy and science of Classical Greece were largely forgotten in Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, other than in isolated monastic enclaves (notably in Ireland, which had become Christian but was never conquered by Rome). The learning of Classical Antiquity was better preserved in the Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis Roman civil law code was created in the East in his capital of Constantinople, and that city maintained trade and intermittent political control over outposts such as Venice in the West for centuries. Classical Greek learning was also subsumed, preserved, and elaborated in the rising Eastern world, which gradually supplanted Roman-Byzantine control as a dominant cultural-political force. Thus, much of the learning of classical antiquity was slowly reintroduced to European civilization in the centuries following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
The birth of European West during the Middle Ages
The Medieval West referred specifically to the Catholic "Latin" West, also called "Frankish" during Charlemagne's reign, in contrast to the Orthodox East, where Greek remained the language of the Byzantine Empire.
After the fall of Rome, much of Greco-Roman art, literature, science and even technology were all but lost in the western part of the old empire. However, this would become the center of a new West. Europe fell into political anarchy, with many warring kingdoms and principalities. Under the Frankish kings, it eventually, and partially, reunified, and the anarchy evolved into feudalism.
Much of the basis of the post-Roman cultural world had been set before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, mainly through the integration and reshaping of Roman ideas through Christian thought. The Eastern Orthodox Church founded many cathedrals, monasteries and seminaries, some of which continue to exist today.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, many of the classical Greek texts were translated into Arabic and preserved in the medieval Islamic world. The Greek classics along with Arabic science, philosophy and technology were transmitted to Western Europe and translated into Latin, sparking the Renaissance of the 12th century and 13th century.
Medieval Christianity is credited with creating the first modern universities. The Catholic Church established a hospital system in Medieval Europe that vastly improved upon the Roman valetudinaria and Greek healing temples. These hospitals were established to cater to "particular social groups marginalized by poverty, sickness, and age," according to the historian of hospitals, Guenter Risse. Christianity played a role in ending practices common among pagan societies, such as human sacrifice, slavery, infanticide and polygamy. Francisco de Vitoria, a disciple of Thomas Aquinas and a Catholic thinker who studied the issue regarding the human rights of colonized natives, is recognized by the United Nations as a father of international law, and now also by historians of economics and democracy as a leading light for the West's democracy and rapid economic development. Joseph Schumpeter, an economist of the twentieth century, referring to the Scholastics, wrote, "it is they who come nearer than does any other group to having been the 'founders' of scientific economics."
Later Middle Ages (Rome and Reformation)
The rediscovery of the Justinian Code in Western Europe early in the 10th century rekindled a passion for the discipline of law, which crossed many of the re-forming boundaries between East and West. In the Catholic or Frankish west, Roman law became the foundation on which all legal concepts and systems were based. Its influence is found in all Western legal systems, although in different manners and to different extents. The study of canon law, the legal system of the Catholic Church, fused with that of Roman law to form the basis of the refounding of Western legal scholarship. During the Reformation and Enlightenment, the ideas of civil rights, equality before the law, procedural justice, and democracy as the ideal form of society began to be institutionalized as principles forming the basis of modern Western culture, particularly in Protestant regions.
In the 14th century, starting from Italy and then spreading throughout Europe, there was a massive artistic, architectural, scientific and philosophical revival, as a result of the Christian revival of Greek philosophy, and the long Christian medieval tradition that established the use of reason as one of the most important of human activities. This period is commonly referred to as the Renaissance. In the following century, this process was further enhanced by an exodus of Greek Christian priests and scholars to Italian cities such as Florence and Venice after the end of the Byzantine Empire with the fall of Constantinople.
From Late Antiquity, through the Middle Ages, and onwards, while Eastern Europe was shaped by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Southern and Central Europe were increasingly stabilized by the Catholic Church which, as Roman imperial governance faded from view, was the only consistent force in Western Europe. In 1054 came the Great Schism that, following the Greek East and Latin West divide, separated Europe into religious and cultural regions present to this day. Until the Age of Enlightenment, Christian culture took over as the predominant force in Western civilization, guiding the course of philosophy, art, and science for many years. Movements in art and philosophy, such as the Humanist movement of the Renaissance and the Scholastic movement of the High Middle Ages, were motivated by a drive to connect Catholicism with Greek and Arab thought imported by Christian pilgrims. However, due to the division in Western Christianity caused by the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment, religious influence—especially the temporal power of the Pope—began to wane.
Expansion of the West: the Era of Colonialism (15th–20th centuries)
Early modern era
From the late 15th century to the 17th century, Western culture began to spread to other parts of the world through explorers and missionaries during the Age of Discovery, and by imperialists from the 17th century to the early 20th century. During the Great Divergence, a term coined by Samuel Huntington the Western world overcame pre-modern growth constraints and emerged during the 19th century as the most powerful and wealthy world civilization of the time, eclipsing Qing China, Mughal India, Tokugawa Japan, and the Ottoman Empire. The process was accompanied and reinforced by the Age of Discovery and continued into the modern period. Scholars have proposed a wide variety of theories to explain why the Great Divergence happened, including lack of government intervention, geography, colonialism, and customary traditions.
The Age of Discovery faded into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, during which cultural and intellectual forces in European society emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. It challenged the authority of institutions that were deeply rooted in society, such as the Catholic Church; there was much talk of ways to reform society with toleration, science and skepticism.
Philosophers of the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Voltaire (1694–1778), Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant, who influenced society by publishing widely read works. Upon learning about enlightened views, some rulers met with intellectuals and tried to apply their reforms, such as allowing for toleration, or accepting multiple religions, in what became known as enlightened absolutism. New ideas and beliefs spread around Europe and were fostered by an increase in literacy due to a departure from solely religious texts. Publications include Encyclopédie (1751–72) that was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. The Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary, 1764) and Letters on the English (1733) written by Voltaire spread the ideals of the Enlightenment.
Coinciding with the Age of Enlightenment was the scientific revolution, spearheaded by Newton. This included the emergence of modern science, during which developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transformed views of society and nature. While its dates are disputed, the publication in 1543 of Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) is often cited as marking the beginning of the scientific revolution, and its completion is attributed to the "grand synthesis" of Newton's 1687 Principia.
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power, and the development of machine tools. These transitions began in Great Britain and spread to Western Europe and North America within a few decades.
The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries. The precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is the pace of economic and social changes. GDP per capita was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern capitalist economy, while the Industrial Revolution began an era of per-capita economic growth in capitalist economies. Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals, plants and fire.
The First Industrial Revolution evolved into the Second Industrial Revolution in the transition years between 1840 and 1870, when technological and economic progress continued with the increasing adoption of steam transport (steam-powered railways, boats, and ships), the large-scale manufacture of machine tools and the increasing use of machinery in steam-powered factories.
Post-Industrial era
Tendencies that have come to define modern Western societies include the concept of political pluralism, individualism, prominent subcultures or countercultures (such as New Age movements) and increasing cultural syncretism resulting from globalization and immigration. Western culture has been heavily influenced by the Renaissance, the Ages of Discovery and Enlightenment and the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions.
In the 20th century, Christianity declined in influence in many Western countries, mostly in the European Union where some member states have experienced falling church attendance and membership in recent years, and also elsewhere. Secularism (separating religion from politics and science) increased. Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western world, where 70% are Christians.
The West went through a series of great cultural and social changes between 1945 and 1980. The emergent mass media (film, radio, television and recorded music) created a global culture that could ignore national frontiers. Literacy became almost universal, encouraging the growth of books, magazines and newspapers. The influence of cinema and radio remained, while televisions became near essentials in every home.
By the mid-20th century, Western culture was exported worldwide, and the development and growth of international transport and telecommunication (such as transatlantic cable and the radiotelephone) played a decisive role in modern globalization. The West has contributed a great many technological, political, philosophical, artistic and religious aspects to modern international culture: having been a crucible of Catholicism, Protestantism, democracy, industrialisation; the first major civilisation to seek to abolish slavery during the 19th century, the first to enfranchise women (beginning in Australasia at the end of the 19th century) and the first to put to use such technologies as steam, electric and nuclear power. The West invented cinema, television, the personal computer, the Internet and video games; developed sports such as soccer, cricket, golf, tennis, rugby, basketball, and volleyball; and transported humans to an astronomical object for the first time with the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
Arts and humanities
While dance, music, visual art, story-telling, and architecture are human universals, they are expressed in the West in certain characteristic ways.
In Western dance, music, plays and other arts, the performers are only very infrequently masked. There are essentially no taboos against depicting a god, or other religious figures, in a representational fashion.
Music
In music, Catholic monks developed the first forms of modern Western musical notation to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide Church, and an enormous body of religious music has been composed for it through the ages. This led directly to the emergence and development of European classical music and its many derivatives. The Baroque style, which encompassed music, art, and architecture, was particularly encouraged by the post-Reformation Catholic Church as such forms offered a means of religious expression that was stirring and emotional, intended to stimulate religious fervor.
The symphony, concerto, sonata, opera, and oratorio have their origins in Italy. Many musical instruments developed in the West have come to see widespread use all over the world; among them are the guitar, violin, piano, pipe organ, saxophone, trombone, clarinet, accordion, and the theremin. In turn, it has been claimed that some European instruments have roots in earlier Eastern instruments that were adopted from the medieval Islamic world. The solo piano, symphony orchestra, and the string quartet are also significant musical innovations of the West.
Painting and photography
Jan van Eyck, among other renaissance painters, made great advances in oil painting, and perspective drawings and paintings had their earliest practitioners in Florence. In art, the Celtic knot is a very distinctive Western repeated motif. Depictions of the nude human male and female in photography, painting, and sculpture are frequently considered to have special artistic merit. Realistic portraiture is especially valued.
Photography and the motion picture as both a technology and basis for entirely new art forms were also developed in the West.
Dance and performing arts
The ballet is a distinctively Western form of performance dance. The ballroom dance is an important Western variety of dance for the elite. The polka, the square dance, the flamenco, and the Irish step dance are very well known Western forms of folk dance.
Greek and Roman theatre are considered the antecedents of modern theatre, and forms such as medieval theatre, Passion Plays, morality plays, and commedia dell'arte are considered highly influential. Elizabethan theatre, with playwrights including William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson, is considered one of the most formative and important eras for modern drama.
The soap opera, a popular culture dramatic form, originated in the United States first on radio in the 1930s, then a couple of decades later on television. The music video was also developed in the West in the middle of the 20th century. Musical theatre was developed in the West in the 19th and 20th Centuries, from music hall, comic opera, and Vaudeville; with significant contributions from the Jewish diaspora, African-Americans, and other marginalized peoples.
Literature
Western literature encompasses the literary traditions of Europe, as well as North America, Oceania and Latin America.
While epic literary works in verse such as the Mahabharata and Homer's Iliad are ancient and occurred worldwide, the prose novel as a distinct form of storytelling, with developed, consistent human characters and, typically, some connected overall plot (although both of these characteristics have sometimes been modified and played with in later times), was popularized by the West in the 17th and 18th centuries. Of course, extended prose fiction had existed much earlier; both novels of adventure and romance in the Hellenistic world and in Heian Japan. Both Petronius' Satyricon (c. 60 CE) and the Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (c. 1000 CE) have been cited as the world's first major novel but they had a very limited long-term impact on literary writing beyond their own day until much more recent times.
The novel, which made its appearance in the 18th century, is an essentially European creation. Chinese and Japanese literature contain some works that may be thought of as novels, but only the European novel is couched in terms of a personal analysis of personal dilemmas.
As in its artistic tradition, European literature pays deep tribute to human suffering. Tragedy, from its ritually and mythologically inspired Greek origins to modern forms where struggle and downfall are often rooted in psychological or social, rather than mythical, motives, is also widely considered a specifically European creation and can be seen as a forerunner of some aspects of both the novel and of classical opera.
The validity of reason was postulated in both Christian philosophy and the Greco-Roman classics. Christianity laid a stress on the inward aspects of actions and on motives, notions that were foreign to the ancient world. This subjectivity, which grew out of the Christian belief that man could achieve a personal union with God, resisted all challenges and made itself the fulcrum on which all literary exposition turned, including the 20th–21st century novels.
Architecture
Important Western architectural motifs include the Doric, Corinthian, and Ionic orders of Greek architecture, and the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Victorian styles, which are still widely recognized and used in contemporary Western architecture. Much of Western architecture emphasizes repetition of simple motifs, straight lines and expansive, undecorated planes. A modern ubiquitous architectural form that emphasizes this characteristic is the skyscraper, their modern equivalent first developed in New York and Chicago. The predecessor of the skyscraper can be found in the medieval towers erected in Bologna.
Cuisine
Western foodways were, until recently, considered to have their roots in the cuisines of Classical Rome and Greece, but the influence of Arab and Near Eastern cuisine on the West has become a topic of research in recent decades. The Crusaders, known mostly for fighting over holy land, settled in the Levant and acclimated to the local culture and cuisine. Fulcher of Chartres said "For we who were occidentals have now become orientals." These cultural experiences, carried back to France by notables like Eleanor of Aquitaine influenced Western European foodways. Many Oriental ingredients were relatively new to the Western lands. Sugar, almonds, pistachios, rosewater, and dried citrus fruits were all novelties to the Crusaders who encountered them in Saracen lands. Pepper, ginger and cinnamon were the most widely used spices of the European courts and noble households. By the end of the Middle Ages, cloves, nutmeg, mastic, galingale, and other imported spices had become part of the Western cuisine.
Saracen influence can be seen in medieval cookbooks. Some recipes retain their Arabic names in Italian translations of the Liber de Coquina. Known as bruet Sarassinois in the cuisine of North France, the concept of sweet and sour sauce is attested to in Greek tradition when Anthimus finishes his stew with vinegar and honey. Saracens combined sweet ingredients like date-juice and honey with pomegranate, lemons and citrus juices, or other sour ingredients. The technique of browning pieces of meat and simmering in liquid with vegetables is used in many recipes from the Baghdad cookery book. The same technique appears in the late-13th century Viandier. Fried pieces of beef simmered in wine with sugar and cloves was called bruet of Sarcynesse in English.
Scientific and technological inventions and discoveries
A notable feature of Western culture is its strong emphasis and focus on innovation and invention through science and technology, and its ability to generate new processes, materials and material artifacts with its roots dating back to the Ancient Greeks. The scientific method as "a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses" was fashioned by the 17th-century Italian Galileo Galilei, with roots in the work of medieval scholars such as the 11th-century Iraqi physicist Ibn al-Haytham and the 13th-century English friar Roger Bacon.
By the will of the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel the Nobel Prizes were established in 1895. The prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were first awarded in 1901. The percentage of ethnically European Nobel prize winners during the first and second halves of the 20th century were respectively 98 and 94 percent.
The West is credited with the development of the steam engine and adapting its use into factories, and for the generation of electric power. The electrical motor, dynamo, transformer, electric light, and most of the familiar electrical appliances, were inventions of the West. The Otto and the Diesel internal combustion engines are products whose genesis and early development were in the West. Nuclear power stations are derived from the first atomic pile constructed in Chicago in 1942.
Communication devices and systems including the telegraph, the telephone, radio, television, communications and navigation satellites, mobile phone, and the Internet were all invented by Westerners. The pencil, ballpoint pen, Cathode ray tube, liquid-crystal display, light-emitting diode, camera, photocopier, laser printer, ink jet printer, plasma display screen and World Wide Web were also invented in the West.
Ubiquitous materials including aluminum, clear glass, synthetic rubber, synthetic diamond and the plastics polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene were discovered and developed or invented in the West. Iron and steel ships, bridges and skyscrapers first appeared in the West. Nitrogen fixation and petrochemicals were invented by Westerners. Most of the elements were discovered and named in the West, as well as the contemporary atomic theories to explain them.
The transistor, integrated circuit, memory chip, first programming language and computer were all first seen in the West. The ship's chronometer, the screw propeller, the locomotive, bicycle, automobile, and airplane were all invented in the West. Eyeglasses, the telescope, the microscope and electron microscope, all the varieties of chromatography, protein and DNA sequencing, computerised tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance, x-rays, and light, ultraviolet and infrared spectroscopy, were all first developed and applied in Western laboratories, hospitals and factories.
In medicine, the pure antibiotics were created in the West. The method of preventing Rh disease, the treatment of diabetes, and the germ theory of disease were discovered by Westerners. The eradication of smallpox, was led by a Westerner, Donald Henderson. Radiography, computed tomography, positron emission tomography and medical ultrasonography are important diagnostic tools developed in the West. Other important diagnostic tools of clinical chemistry, including the methods of spectrophotometry, electrophoresis and immunoassay, were first devised by Westerners. So were the stethoscope, the electrocardiograph, and the endoscope. Vitamins, hormonal contraception, hormones, insulin, beta blockers and ACE inhibitors, along with a host of other medically proven drugs, were first used to treat disease in the West. The double-blind study and evidence-based medicine are critical scientific techniques widely used in the West for medical purposes.
In mathematics, calculus, statistics, logic, vectors, tensors and complex analysis, group theory, abstract algebra and topology were developed by Westerners. In biology, evolution, chromosomes, DNA, genetics and the methods of molecular biology are creations of the West. In physics, the science of mechanics and quantum mechanics, relativity, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics were all developed by Westerners. The discoveries and inventions by Westerners in electromagnetism include Coulomb's law (1785), the first battery (1800), the unity of electricity and magnetism (1820), Biot–Savart law (1820), Ohm's law (1827), and Maxwell's equations (1871). The atom, nucleus, electron, neutron and proton were all unveiled by Westerners.
The world's most widely adopted system of measurement, the International System of Units, derived from the metric system, was first developed in France and evolved through contributions from various Westerners.
In business, economics, and finance, double entry bookkeeping, credit cards, and the charge card were all first used in the West.
Westerners are also known for their explorations of the globe and outer space. The first expedition to circumnavigate the Earth (1522) was by Westerners, as well as the first journey to the South Pole (1911), and the first Moon landing (1969). The landing of robots on Mars (2004 and 2012) and on an asteroid (2001), the Voyager 2 explorations of the outer planets (Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989), Voyager 1s passage into interstellar space (2013), and New Horizons flyby of Pluto (2015) were significant recent Western achievements.
Media
The roots of modern-day Western mass media can be traced back to the late 15th century, when printing presses began to operate throughout wealthy European cities. The emergence of news media in the 17th century has to be seen in close connection with the spread of the printing press, from which the publishing press derives its name.
In the 16th century, a decrease in the preeminence of Latin in its literary use, along with the impact of economic change, the discoveries arising from trade and travel, navigation to the New World, science and arts and the development of increasingly rapid communications through print led to a rising corpus of vernacular media content in European society.
After the launch of the satellite Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union in 1957, satellite transmission technology was dramatically realised, with the United States launching Telstar in 1962 linking live media broadcasts from the UK to the US. The first digital broadcast satellite (DBS) system began transmitting in US in 1975.
Beginning in the 1990s, the Internet has contributed to a tremendous increase in the accessibility of Western media content. Departing from media offered in bundled content packages (magazines, CDs, television and radio slots), the Internet has primarily offered unbundled content items (articles, audio and video files).
Religion
The native religions of Europe were polytheistic but not homogenous – however, they were similar insofar as they were predominantly Indo-European in origin. Roman religion was similar to but not the same as Hellenic religion – likewise for indigenous Germanic polytheism, Celtic polytheism and Slavic polytheism. Before this time many Europeans from the north, especially Scandinavians, remained polytheistic, though southern Europe was predominantly Christian from the 5th century onwards.
Western culture at a fundamental level is influenced by the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions. These cultures had a number of similarities, such as a common emphasis on the individual, but they also embody fundamentally conflicting worldviews. For example, in Judaism and Christianity, God is the ultimate authority, while Greco-Roman tradition considers the ultimate authority to be reason. Christian attempts to reconcile these frameworks were responsible for the preservation of Greek philosophy. Historically, Europe has been the center and cradle of Christian civilization.
According to a survey by Pew Research Center from 2011, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western world where 70–84% are Christians, According to this survey, 76% of Europeans described themselves as Christians, and about 86% of the Americas' population identified themselves as Christians, (90% in Latin America and 77% in North America). 73% in Oceania self-identify as Christian, and 76% in South Africa are Christian.
2012 Eurobarometer polls about religiosity in the European Union in 2012 found that Christianity was the largest religion in the European Union, accounting for 72% of the EU population. Catholics are the largest Christian group, accounting for 48% of the EU citizens, while Protestants make up 12%, Eastern Orthodox make up 8% and other Christians make up 4%. Non-believers/Agnostics account for 16%, atheists account for 7%, and Muslims account for 2%. According to Scholars, in 2017, Europe's population was 77.8% Christian (up from 74.9% 1970), these changes were largely result of the collapse of Communism and switching to Christianity in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries.
At the same there has been an increase in the share of agnostic or atheist residents in Europe; these made up about 18% of the European population in 2012. In particular, over half of the populations of the Czech Republic (79% of the population was agnostic, atheist or irreligious), the United Kingdom (52%), Germany (25–33%), France (30–35%) and the Netherlands (39–44%) are agnostic or atheist.
As in other areas, the Jewish diaspora and Judaism exist in the Western world.
There are also small but increasing numbers of people across the Western world who seek to revive the indigenous religions of their European ancestors; such groups include Germanic, Roman, Hellenic, Celtic, Slavic, and polytheistic reconstructionist movements. Likewise, Wicca, New Age spirituality and other neo-pagan belief systems enjoy notable minority support in Western states.
Sport
Since classical antiquity, sport has been an important facet of Western cultural expression.
A wide range of sports was already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman, instigated the modern revival of the Olympic movement. The first modern Olympic games were held at Athens in 1896.
The Romans built immense structures such as the amphitheatres to house their festivals of sport. The Romans exhibited a passion for blood sports, such as the infamous Gladiatorial battles that pitted contestants against one another in a fight to the death. The Olympic Games revived many of the sports of classical antiquity—such as Greco-Roman wrestling, discus and javelin.
The sport of bullfighting is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, southern France, and some Latin American countries. It traces its roots to prehistoric bull worship and sacrifice and is often linked to Rome, where many human-versus-animal events were held. Bullfighting spread from Spain to its American colonies, and in the 19th century to France, where it developed into a distinctive form in its own right.
Jousting and hunting were popular sports in the European Middle Ages, and the aristocratic classes developed passions for leisure activities. A great number of popular global sports were first developed or codified in Europe. The modern game of golf originated in Scotland, where the first written record of golf is James II's banning of the game in 1457, as an unwelcome distraction to learning archery.
The Industrial Revolution that began in Great Britain in the 18th century brought increased leisure time, leading to more opportunities for citizens to participate in athletic activities and also follow spectator sports. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. The bat and ball sport of cricket was first played in England during the 16th century and was exported around the globe via the British Empire. A number of popular modern sports were devised or codified in the United Kingdom during the 19th century and obtained global prominence; these include ping pong, modern tennis, association football, netball and rugby.
Football (or soccer) remains hugely popular in Europe, but has grown from its origins to be known as the world game. Similarly, sports such as cricket, rugby, and netball were exported around the world, particularly among countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, thus India and Australia are among the strongest cricketing states, while victory in the Rugby World Cup has been shared among New Zealand, Australia, England, and South Africa.
Australian Rules Football, an Australian variation of football with similarities to Gaelic football and rugby, evolved in the British colony of Victoria in the mid-19th century. The United States also developed unique variations of English sports. English migrants took antecedents of baseball to America during the colonial period. The history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football. Many games are known as "football" were being played at colleges and universities in the United States in the first half of the 19th century. American football resulted from several major divergences from rugby, most notably the rule changes instituted by Walter Camp, the "Father of American football". Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith, a Canadian physical education instructor working in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the United States. Volleyball was created in Holyoke, Massachusetts, a city directly north of Springfield, in 1895.
Themes and traditions
Western culture has developed many themes and traditions, the most significant of which are:
Greco-Roman classic letters, arts, architecture, philosophical and cultural tradition, which include the influence of preeminent authors and philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Virgil, and Cicero, as well as a long mythologic tradition.
Christian ethical, philosophical, and mythological tradition, stemming largely from the Christian Bible, particularly the New Testament Gospels.
Monasteries, schools, libraries, books, book making, universities, teaching, education, and lecture halls.
A tradition of the importance of the rule of law.
Secular humanism, rationalism and Enlightenment thought. This set the basis for a new critical attitude and open questioning of religion, favouring freethinking and questioning of the church as an authority, which resulted in open-minded and reformist ideals inside, such as liberation theology, which partly adopted these currents, and secular and political tendencies such as separation of church and state (sometimes termed laicism), agnosticism and atheism.
Generalized usage of some form of the Latin or Greek alphabet, and derived forms, such as Cyrillic, used by those southern and eastern Slavic countries of Christian Orthodox tradition, historically under the Byzantine Empire and later within the Russian czarist or the Soviet area of influence. Other variants of the Latin or Greek alphabets are found in the Gothic and Coptic alphabets, which historically superseded older scripts, such as runes, and the Egyptian Demotic and Hieroglyphic systems.
Natural law, human rights, constitutionalism, parliamentarism (or presidentialism) and formal liberal democracy in recent times—prior to the 19th century, most Western governments were still monarchies.
A large influence, in modern times, of many of the ideals and values developed and inherited from Romanticism.
An emphasis on, and use of, science as a means of understanding the natural world and humanity's place in it.
More pronounced use and application of innovation and scientific developments, as well as a more rational approach to scientific progress (what has been known as the scientific method).
See also
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
Ankerl, Guy (2000). Coexisting Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. INUPRESS, Geneva, 119–244. .
Atle Hesmyr (2013). Civilization, Oikos, and Progress
Barzun, Jacques From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present HarperCollins (2000) .
Daly, Jonathan. "The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization " (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2014). .
Daly, Jonathan. "Historians Debate the Rise of the West" (London and New York: Routledge, 2015). .
Derry, T. K. and Williams, Trevor I. A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900 Dover (1960) .
Duran, Eduardo, Bonnie Dyran Native American Postcolonial Psychology 1995 Albany: State University of New York Press
Hanson, Victor Davis; Heath, John (2001). Who Killed Homer: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, Encounter Books.
Jones, Prudence and Pennick, Nigel A History of Pagan Europe Barnes & Noble (1995) .
Meaney, Thomas "The Return of 'The West'" New York Times March 11, 2022.
Merriman, John Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to the Present W. W. Norton (1996) .
McClellan, James E. III and Dorn, Harold Science and Technology in World History Johns Hopkins University Press (1999) .
Stein, Ralph The Great Inventions Playboy Press (1976) .
Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology: The Lives & Achievements of 1510 Great Scientists from Ancient Times to the Present Revised second edition, Doubleday (1982) .
Pastor, Ludwig von, History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages; Drawn from the Secret Archives of the Vatican and other original sources, 40 vols. St. Louis, B. Herder (1898ff.)
Walsh, James Joseph, The Popes and Science; the History of the Papal Relations to Science During the Middle Ages and Down to Our Own Time, Fordham University Press, 1908, reprinted 2003, Kessinger Publishing. Reviews: p. 462.
Stearns, P.N. (2003). Western Civilization in World History, Routledge, New York.
Thornton, Bruce (2002). Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization, Encounter Books.
Ferguson, Niall, Civilization. The West and the rest, Penguin Press, 2011.
Pinker, Steven, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Penguin Books, 2018.
Henrich, Joseph, The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.
Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, Random House, 2006.
Stark, Rodney, How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2014.
Headley, John M. The Europeanization of the World: On the Origins of Human Rights and Democracy, Princeton University Press, 2007.
Further reading
Barzun, Jacques. From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life : 1500 to the Present. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Hesmyr, Atle Kultorp: Civilization; Its Economic Basis, Historical Lessons and Future Prospects (Telemark: Nisus Publications, 2020).
External links
An overview of the Western Civilization
Cultural anthropology
Sociological terminology | 0.772253 | 0.998891 | 0.771396 |
Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism | Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism is a 1991 book by Fredric Jameson, in which the author offers a critique of modernism and postmodernism from a Marxist perspective. The book began as a 1984 article in the New Left Review. It has been presented as his "most wide-ranging and accessible book".
Overview
Jameson defines postmodernism as the cultural system of a global, financialized stage of capitalist society. Jameson argues that postmodernism is characterized by a "crisis of historicity", a "waning of affect", and a prevalence of pastiche. He traces these characteristics of postmodernism across a variety of fields and media, including film, television, literature, economics, architecture, and philosophy. In one of his most prominent examples, he draws out the differences between modernism and postmodernism by comparing Van Gogh's "Peasant Shoes" with Andy Warhol's "Diamond Dust Shoes". For Jameson, postmodernism, as a form of mass-culture driven by capitalism, pervades every aspect of our daily lives.
Background and analysis of postmodernism
In 1984, during his tenure as Professor of Literature and History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Jameson published an article titled "Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" in the journal New Left Review. This controversial article, which Jameson later expanded into a book, was part of a series of analyses of postmodernism from the dialectical perspective Jameson had developed in his earlier work on narrative. Jameson viewed the postmodern "skepticism towards metanarratives" as a "mode of experience" stemming from the conditions of intellectual labor imposed by the late capitalist mode of production.
Postmodernists claimed that the complex differentiation between "spheres" or fields of life (such as the political, the social, the cultural, the commercial), and between distinct social classes and roles within each field, had been overcome by the crisis of foundationalism and the consequent relativization of truth-claims. For example, in The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979), which helped establish the term "postmodernism", Jean-François Lyotard described a shaken or failed public trust in the promise of enlightenments, faiths, or governments, with their metanarratives of epistemic or historical progress, leaving individuals to their own experiences. This was sometimes criticized as a metanarrative about the end of metanarratives and therefore considered ironic or paradoxical.
Jameson argued against postmodernists, asserting that these phenomena had or could have been understood successfully within a modernist framework; the postmodern failure to achieve this understanding implied an abrupt break in the dialectical refinement of thought. In his view, postmodernity's merging of all discourse into an undifferentiated whole was the result of the colonization of the cultural sphere, which had retained at least partial autonomy during the prior modernist era, by a newly organized corporate capitalism. Following Adorno and Horkheimer's analysis of the culture industry, Jameson discussed this phenomenon in his critical discussion of architecture, film, narrative, and visual arts, as well as in his strictly philosophical work.
Two of Jameson's best-known claims from Postmodernism are that post-modernity is characterized by "pastiche" and a "crisis in historicity". Jameson argues that parody (which implies a moral judgment or a comparison with societal norms) was replaced by pastiche (collage and other forms of juxtaposition without a normative grounding). Jameson recognizes that modernism frequently "quotes" from different cultures and historical periods, but he argues that postmodern cultural texts indiscriminately cannibalize these elements, erasing any sense of critical or historical distance and resulting in pure pastiche. Relatedly, Jameson argues that the postmodern era suffers from a crisis in historicity: "there no longer does seem to be any organic relationship between the American history we learn from schoolbooks and the lived experience of the current, multinational, high-rise, stagflated city of the newspapers and of our own everyday life".
Jameson's analysis of postmodernism attempts to view it as historically grounded; he therefore explicitly rejects any moralistic opposition to postmodernity as a cultural phenomenon, and continued to insist upon a Hegelian immanent critique that would "think the cultural evolution of late capitalism dialectically, as catastrophe and progress all together". His refusal to simply dismiss postmodernism from the onset, however, was misinterpreted by some Marxist intellectuals as an implicit endorsement of postmodern views.
Table of contents
Contents:
The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism: pp. 1–54.
Theories of the Postmodern: 55–66.
Surrealism Without the Unconscious: 67–96.
Spatial Equivalents in the World System: 97–129.
Reading and the Division of Labor: 131–153.
Utopianism After the End of Utopia: 154–180.
Immanence and Nominalism in Postmodern Theoretical Discourse: 181–259.
Postmodernism and the Market: 260–278.
Nostalgia for the Present: 279–296.
Secondary Elaborations: 297–418.
[Source]
See also
Late capitalism
Notes
References
External links
Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, parts of chapter one
1991 non-fiction books
Books about globalization
Books by Fredric Jameson
20th century in philosophy
Continental philosophy literature
Duke University Press books
English-language books
Marxist books
Political philosophy literature
Works about postmodernism | 0.774193 | 0.996085 | 0.771162 |
Stylistics | Stylistics, a branch of applied linguistics, is the study and interpretation of texts of all types, but particularly literary texts, and/or spoken language in regard to their linguistic and tonal style, where style is the particular variety of language used by different individuals and/or in different situations or settings. For example, the vernacular, or everyday language may be used among casual friends, whereas more formal language, with respect to grammar, pronunciation or accent, and lexicon or choice of words, is often used in a cover letter and résumé and while speaking during a job interview.
As a discipline, stylistics links literary criticism to linguistics. It does not function as an autonomous domain on its own, and it can be applied to an understanding of literature and journalism as well as linguistics. Sources of study in stylistics may range from canonical works of writing to popular texts, and from advertising copy to news, non-fiction, and popular culture, as well as to political and religious discourse. Indeed, as recent work in critical stylistics, multimodal stylistics and mediated stylistics has made clear, non-literary texts may be of just as much interest to stylisticians as literary ones. Literariness, in other words, is here conceived as 'a point on a cline rather than as an absolute'.
Stylistics as a conceptual discipline may attempt to establish principles capable of explaining particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language, such as in the literary production and reception of genre, the study of folk art, in the study of spoken dialects and registers, and can be applied to areas such as discourse analysis as well as literary criticism.
Plain language has different features.
Common stylistic features are using dialogue, regional accents and individual idioms (or idiolects). Stylistically, also sentence length prevalence and language register use.
Early twentieth century
The analysis of literary style goes back to the study of classical rhetoric, though modern stylistics has its roots in Russian Formalism and the related Prague School of the early twentieth century.
In 1909, Charles Bally proposed stylistics as a distinct academic discipline to complement Saussurean linguistics. For Bally, Saussure's linguistics by itself couldn't fully describe the language of personal expression. Bally's programme fits well with the aims of the Prague School.
Taking forward the ideas of the Russian Formalists, the Prague School built on the concept of foregrounding, where it is assumed that poetic language is considered to stand apart from non-literary background language, by means of deviation (from the norms of everyday language) or parallelism. According to the Prague School, however, this background language isn't constant, and the relationship between poetic and everyday language is therefore always shifting.
Late twentieth century
Roman Jakobson had been an active member of the Russian Formalists and the Prague School, before emigrating to America in the 1940s. He brought together Russian Formalism and American New Criticism in his Closing Statement at a conference on stylistics at Indiana University in 1958. Published as Linguistics and Poetics in 1960, Jakobson's lecture is often credited with being the first coherent formulation of stylistics, and his argument was that the study of poetic language should be a sub-branch of linguistics. The poetic function was one of six general functions of language he described in the lecture.
Michael Halliday is an important figure in the development of British stylistics. His 1971 study Linguistic Function and Literary Style: An Inquiry into the Language of William Golding's The Inheritors is a key essay. One of Halliday's contributions has been the use of the term register to explain the connections between language and its context. For Halliday register is distinct from dialect. Dialect refers to the habitual language of a particular user in a specific geographical or social context. Register describes the choices made by the user, choices which depend on three variables: field ("what the participants... are actually engaged in doing", for instance, discussing a specific subject or topic), tenor (who is taking part in the exchange) and mode (the use to which the language is being put).
Fowler comments that different fields produce different language, most obviously at the level of vocabulary (Fowler. 1996, 192) The linguist David Crystal points out that Halliday's 'tenor' stands as a roughly equivalent term for 'style', which is a more specific alternative used by linguists to avoid ambiguity (Crystal. 1985, 292). Halliday's third category, mode, is what he refers to as the symbolic organisation of the situation. Downes recognises two distinct aspects within the category of mode and suggests that not only does it describe the relation to the medium: written, spoken, and so on, but also describes the genre of the text (Downes. 1998, 316). Halliday refers to genre as pre-coded language, language that has not simply been used before, but that predetermines the selection of textual meanings. The linguist William Downes makes the point that the principal characteristic of register, no matter how peculiar or diverse, is that it is obvious and immediately recognisable (Downes. 1998, 309).
Literary stylistics
In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Crystal observes that, in practice, most stylistic analysis has attempted to deal with the complex and 'valued' language within literature, i.e. 'literary stylistics'. He goes on to say that in such examination the scope is sometimes narrowed to concentrate on the more striking features of literary language, for instance, its 'deviant' and abnormal features, rather than the broader structures that are found in whole texts or discourses. For example, the compact language of poetry is more likely to reveal the secrets of its construction to the stylistician than is the language of plays and novels (Crystal. 1987, 71).
Poetry
As well as conventional styles of language there are the unconventional – the most obvious of which is poetry. In Practical Stylistics, HG Widdowson examines the traditional form of the epitaph, as found on headstones in a cemetery. For example:
His memory is dear today
As in the hour he passed away.
(Ernest C. Draper 'Ern'. Died 4.1.38)
(Widdowson. 1992, 6)
Widdowson makes the point that such sentiments are usually not very interesting and suggests that they may even be dismissed as 'crude verbal carvings' and crude verbal disturbance (Widdowson, 3). Nevertheless, Widdowson recognises that they are a very real attempt to convey feelings of human loss and preserve affectionate recollections of a beloved friend or family member. However, what may be seen as poetic in this language is not so much in the formulaic phraseology but in where it appears. The verse may be given undue reverence precisely because of the sombre situation in which it is placed. Widdowson suggests that, unlike words set in stone in a graveyard, poetry is unorthodox language that vibrates with inter-textual implications (Widdowson. 1992, 4).
Two problems with a stylistic analysis of poetry are noted by PM Wetherill in Literary Text: An Examination of Critical Methods. The first is that there may be an over-preoccupation with one particular feature that may well minimise the significance of others that are equally important (Wetherill. 1974, 133). The second is that any attempt to see a text as simply a collection of stylistic elements will tend to ignore other ways whereby meaning is produced (Wetherill. 1974, 133).
Implicature
In 'Poetic Effects' from Literary Pragmatics, the linguist Adrian Pilkington analyses the idea of 'implicature', as instigated in the previous work of Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson. Implicature may be divided into two categories: 'strong' and 'weak' implicature, yet between the two extremes there are a variety of other alternatives. The strongest implicature is what is emphatically implied by the speaker or writer, while weaker implicatures are the wider possibilities of meaning that the hearer or reader may conclude.
Pilkington's 'poetic effects', as he terms the concept, are those that achieve most relevance through a wide array of weak implicatures and not those meanings that are simply 'read in' by the hearer or reader. Yet the distinguishing instant at which weak implicatures and the hearer or reader's conjecture of meaning diverge remains highly subjective. As Pilkington says: 'there is no clear cut-off point between assumptions which the speaker certainly endorses and assumptions derived purely on the hearer's responsibility.' (Pilkington. 1991, 53) In addition, the stylistic qualities of poetry can be seen as an accompaniment to Pilkington's poetic effects in understanding a poem's meaning.
Tense
Widdowson points out that in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798), the mystery of the Mariner's abrupt appearance is sustained by an idiosyncratic use of tense. (Widdowson. 1992, 40) For instance, the Mariner 'holds' the wedding-guest with his 'skinny hand' in the present tense, but releases it in the past tense ('...his hands dropt he.'); only to hold him again, this time with his 'glittering eye', in the present (Widdowson. 1992, 41).
The point of poetry
Widdowson notices that when the content of poetry is summarised, it often refers to very general and unimpressive observations, such as 'nature is beautiful; love is great; life is lonely; time passes', and so on (Widdowson. 1992, 9). But to say:
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end ...
William Shakespeare, '60'.
Or, indeed:
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days months, which are the rags of time ...
John Donne, 'The Sun Rising', Poems (1633)
This language gives the reader a new perspective on familiar themes and allows us to look at them without the personal or social conditioning that we unconsciously associate with them (Widdowson. 1992, 9). So, although the reader may still use the same exhausted words and vague terms like 'love', 'heart' and 'soul' to refer to human experience, to place these words in a new and refreshing context allows the poet the ability to represent humanity and communicate honestly. This, in part, is stylistics, and this, according to Widdowson, is the point of poetry (Widdowson. 1992, 76).
See also
Acrolect
Aureation
Basilect
Classical language
Code-switching
Gender role in language
Gianfranco Contini
Internet linguistics
Leo Spitzer
Liturgical language
Media stylistics
Official language
Philology
Poetics and Linguistics Association
Quantitative linguistics
Standard language
Stylometry
Notes
References and related reading
David Crystal. 1998. Language Play (London: Penguin)
ed. David Birch. 1995. Context and Language: A Functional Linguistic Theory of Register (London, New York: Pinter)
Michael Burke. 2010. Literary Reading, Cognition and Emotion: An Exploration of the Oceanic Mind (London and New York: Routledge)
Richard Bradford. 1985. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 2nd edition (Oxford: Basil Blackwell)
Richard Bradford. 1997. Stylistics (London and New York: Routledge)
Richard Bradford. 1997. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Roger Fowler. 1996. Linguistic Criticism, 2nd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
William Downes. 1995. The Language of George Orwell (London: Macmillan Press)
William Downes. 1998. Language and Society, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
A McIntosh and P Simpson. 1964. The Linguistic Science and Language Teaching (London: Longman)
Adrian Pilkington. 1991. 'Poetic Effects', Literary Pragmatics, ed. Roger Sell (London: Routledge)
Brian Lamont. 2005. First Impressions (Edinburgh: Penbury Press)
ed. Jean Jacques Weber. 1996. The Stylistics Reader: From Roman Jakobson to the Present (London: Arnold Hodder)
ed. Thomas A. Sebeok. 1960. Style in Language (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
Geoffrey Leech and Michael H. Short. 1981. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose (London: Longman)
George Orwell. 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four (London: Heinemann)
H. G. Widdowson. 1992. Practical Stylistics (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Katie Wales. 2001. A Dictionary of Stylistics, 2nd edition, (Harlow: Longman)
MAK Halliday. 1964. Inside the Whale and Other Essays (London: Penguin Books)
MAK Halliday. 1978. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning (London: Edward Arnold)
Michael Toolan. 1998. Language in Literature: An Introduction to Stylistics (London: Hodder Arnold)
PM Wetherill. 1974. Literary Text: An Examination of Critical Methods (Oxford: Basil Blackwell)
External links
A CC licensed introductory course to Stylistics from Lancaster University
Checklist of American and British programs in stylistics and literary linguistics
Stylistics – Theoretical issues of stylistics
Stylistics from Scratch: My 'Take' on Stylistics and How to Go About a Stylistic Analysis Professor Mick Short
The Poetics and Linguistics Association
Stylistics
Applied linguistics
Literature | 0.776659 | 0.992849 | 0.771105 |
Separatism | Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greater autonomy are usually not considered separatists. Some discourse settings equate separatism with religious segregation, racial segregation, or sex segregation, while other discourse settings take the broader view that separation by choice may serve useful purposes and is not the same as government-enforced segregation. There is some academic debate about this definition, and in particular how it relates to secessionism, as has been discussed online.
Separatist groups practice a form of identity politics, or political activity and theorizing founded in the shared experiences of the group's members. Such groups believe attempts at integration with dominant groups compromise their identity and ability to pursue greater self-determination. However, economic and political factors usually are critical in creating strong separatist movements as opposed to less ambitious identity movements.
Motivations
Groups may have one or more motivations for separation, including:
Emotional resentment and hatred of rival communities.
Protection from genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Resistance by victims of oppression, including denigration of their language, culture or religion.
Influence and propaganda by those inside and outside the region who hope to gain politically from intergroup conflict and hatred.
Economic and political dominance of one group that does not share power and privilege in an egalitarian fashion.
Economic motivations: seeking to end economic exploitation by more powerful group or, conversely, to escape economic redistribution from a richer to a poorer group.
Preservation of threatened religious, language or other cultural tradition.
Destabilization from one separatist movement giving rise to others.
Geopolitical power vacuum from breakup of larger states or empires.
Continuing fragmentation as more and more states break up.
Feeling that the perceived nation was added to the larger state by illegitimate means.
The perception that the state can no longer support one's own group or has betrayed their interests.
Opposition to political decisions.
Types
Ethnic separatism can be based on cultural, linguistic as well as religious or racial differences. Ethnic separatist movements were relevant since they represented historical delineations between states, or in recent times, were the cause of conflicts between peoples in Europe, Africa and Asia with different ethnic/linguistic origins.
Separatism by continent
List of active separatist movements in Africa
List of active separatist movements in Asia
List of active separatist movements in Europe
List of active separatist movements in North America
List of active separatist movements in Oceania
List of active separatist movements in South America
Gender separatism
The relationship between gender and separatism is complex. Feminist separatism is women's choosing to separate from ostensibly male-defined, male-dominated institutions, relationships, roles and activities. Lesbian separatism advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Some separatist feminists and lesbian separatists have chosen to live apart in intentional community, cooperatives, and on land trusts. Queer nationalism (or "Gay separatism") seeks a community distinct and separate from other social groups. On the other hand, the MGTOW movement is sometimes considered a male-gender separatism, as at the center of this ideology is the notion of male separatism where men should not be a part of a feminist-biased society. Some fringe elements even propose a utopical no-women state.
Geographical and socioeconomic separatism
Some examples include:
Alberta separatism
Berber separatism in North Africa
Bougainville independence movement
Cape Independence
Casamance independence movement
Cascadian separatists
Catalan independence movement
Provisional Revolutionary Government of Cibao
Euskadi (Basque Country) independence movement
Hong Kong independence movement
New England New State Movement
Malaysian Sabah and Sarawak separatists
West Papuan independence
Free South movement
Quebec sovereignty movement
Scottish independence movement
Taiwanese independence movement
Racial separatism
Some separatist groups seek to separate from others along racial lines. They oppose interracial marriage and integration with other races and seek separate schools, businesses, churches and other institutions, and often separate societies, territories, countries, and governments:
Black separatism (also known as black nationalism) is the most prominent wave advancing the concepts of "Black racial identity" in the United States and has been advanced by black leaders like Marcus Garvey and organizations such as the Nation of Islam. Critical race theorists like New York University's Derrick Bell and University of Colorado's Richard Delgado argue that US legal, education and political systems are rife with blatant racism. They support efforts like "all-black" schools and dorms and question the efficacy and merit of government-enforced integration. In 2008 statements by Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright, Jr., revived the issue of the current relevance of black separatism.
Latin American concepts of racial identity such as the bronze race and La Raza Cósmica are found in the small separatist Raza Unida Party. The Chicano Movement (or Chicano nation) in the United States sought to recreate Aztlán, the mythical homeland of the Aztecs comprising the Southwestern United States.
White separatism (also known as white nationalism) in the United States and Western Europe seeks separation of the white race and limits to nonwhite immigration under the argument that these policies are necessary for the white race's survival.
Religious separatism
Religious separatist groups and sects want to withdraw from some larger religious groups and/or believe they should interact primarily with coreligionists:
English Christians in the 16th and 17th centuries who wished to separate from the Church of England and form independent local churches were influential politically under Oliver Cromwell, who was himself a separatist. They were eventually called Congregationalists. The Pilgrims who established the first successful colony in New England were separatists.
Christian separatist groups in Indonesia, India and South Carolina (United States)
Zionism sought the creation of the State of Israel as a Jewish homeland, with separation from gentile Palestinians. Simon Dubnow, who had mixed feelings toward Zionism, formulated Jewish Autonomism, which was adopted in eastern Europe by Jewish political parties such as the Bund and his own Folkspartei before World War II. Zionism can also be seen as somewhat ethnic too, however, as its definition of who is Jewish has often included people of Jewish background who do not practice the Jewish religion. It is further complicated as some who had ancestors who converted to Judaism, such as some Ethiopian Jews, may not share ethnic history with the Jews, however, are considered to be so but not without debate.
The Partition of India and (later Pakistan and Bangladesh) arose as a result of separatism on the part of Muslims.
Sikhs in India sought an independent nation of Khalistan after an agitation in the 1970s and 1980s for implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution (demanding things such as a greater share of river water and autonomy for Punjab) resulted in the storming of the Harimandir Sahib (Golden Temple) by the Government of India troops in 1984. The storming of the temple to flush out Sikh Militants who were gaining momentum in their agitation for greater autonomy for Punjab resulted in Sikhs demanding an independent state for the Sikhs situated in Punjab known as Khalistan. The conflict escalated and led to an assassination of the Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi as a retaliation of an Indian military operation called 'Operation Blue Star' directed against the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, in which many innocent Sikh civilians too died. The revenge murder of Gandhi evoked a Congress Party led backlash in the form of the Sikh genocide, which started in New Delhi and swept India in November 1984. That only further strengthened the Khalistan Movement, but it was largely subdued owing to the efforts of the police in Punjab. The controversial response by the Punjab State reportedly involved the use of human rights violations in the form of unexplained disappearances, faked encounters killings, rape and torture. However, many in the Sikh diaspora in the West and even Sikhs in India, still support the idea of Khalistan, but support has been dying since the 90's due to heavy Anti-Khalistan propaganda pushed by the Indian government, and fear of being targeted or killed for supporting Khalistan.
Muslim separatist groups in the Philippines (Mindanao and other regions: Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Abu Sayyaf), in Thailand (see also South Thailand insurgency), in India (see also Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir), in the People's Republic of China (Xinjiang: East Turkestan Islamic Movement), Tanzania (Zanzibarian separatist movements), in the Central African Republic (Regions that are inhabited by Muslims: Séléka), in Russia (in the Northern Caucasus, especially in Chechnya: Caucasus Emirate), in Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina: Alija Izetbegovic espoused an Islamic inspired separatism)
Governmental responses
How far separatist demands will go toward full independence, and whether groups pursue constitutional and nonviolent action or armed violence, depend on a variety of economic, political, social and cultural factors, including movement leadership and the government's response. Governments may respond in a number of ways, some of which are mutually exclusive. Some include:
accede to separatist demands
improve the circumstances of disadvantaged minorities, be they religious, linguistic, territorial, economic or political
adopt "asymmetric federalism" where different states have different relations to the central government depending on separatist demands or considerations
allow minorities to win in political disputes about which they feel strongly, through parliamentary voting, referendum, etc.
settle for a confederation or a commonwealth relationship where there are only limited ties among states.
See also
Lists
Lists of separatist movements
Lists of active separatist movements
List of active separatist movements recognized by intergovernmental organizations
List of historical separatist movements
List of states with limited recognition
Lists of ethnic groups
List of indigenous peoples
General
Annexation
Autonomism (political doctrine)
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic minority
Ethnocentrism
Homeland
Identity politics
Intersectionality
Kinship
Language secessionism
Micronation
Military occupation
Multiculturalism
Minority group
Nation
Polarization
Partition
Refugee
Secession
Stateless nation
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Orania
Volkstaat
References
Further reading
External links
From Spain to Iraq, states have to see that suppressing secession won't work
Political theories
Politics and race
Religion and politics
Independence movements
Secession
Segregation
Nationalism | 0.773555 | 0.996614 | 0.770935 |
Architectural style | An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, form, size, structural design, and regional character.
Architectural styles are frequently associated with a historical epoch (Renaissance style), geographical location (Italian Villa style), or an earlier architectural style (Neo-Gothic style), and are influenced by the corresponding broader artistic style and the "general human condition". Heinrich Wölfflin even declared an analogy between a building and a costume: an "architectural style reflects the attitude and the movement of people in the period concerned.
The 21st century construction uses a multitude of styles that are sometimes lumped together as a "contemporary architecture" based on the common trait of extreme reliance on computer-aided architectural design (cf. Parametricism).
Folk architecture (also "vernacular architecture") is not a style, but an application of local customs to small-scale construction without clear identity of the builder.
Styles in the history of architecture
The concept of architectural style is studied in the architectural history as one of the approaches ("style and period") that are used to organize the history of architecture (Leach lists five other approaches as "biography, geography and culture, type, technique, theme and analogy"). Style provides an additional relationship between otherwise disparate buildings, thus serving as a "protection against chaos".
The concept of style was foreign to architects until the 18th century. Prior to the era of Enlightenment, the architectural form was mostly considered timeless, either as a divine revelation or an absolute truth derived from the laws of nature, and a great architect was the one who understood this "language". The new interpretation of history declared each historical period to be a stage of growth for the humanity (cf. Johann Gottfried Herder's Volksgeist that much later developed into Zeitgeist). This approach allowed to classify architecture of each age as an equally valid approach, "style" (the use of the word in this sense became established by the mid-18th century).
Style has been subject of an extensive debate since at least the 19th century. Many architects argue that the notion of "style" cannot adequately describe the contemporary architecture, is obsolete and ridden with historicism. In their opinion, by concentrating on the appearance of the building, style classification misses the hidden from view ideas that architects had put into the form. Studying history of architecture without reliance on styles usually relies on a "canon" of important architects and buildings. The lesser objects in this approach do not deserve attention: "A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture" (Nikolaus Pevsner, 1943). Nonetheless, the traditional and popular approach to the architectural history is through chronology of styles, with changes reflecting the evolution of materials, economics, fashions, and beliefs.
Works of architecture are unlikely to be preserved for their aesthetic value alone; with practical re-purposing, the original intent of the original architect, sometimes his very identity, can be forgotten, and the building style becomes "an indispensable historical tool".
Evolution of style
Styles emerge from the history of a society. At any time several styles may be fashionable, and when a style changes it usually does so gradually, as architects learn and adapt to new ideas. The new style is sometimes only a rebellion against an existing style, such as postmodern architecture (meaning "after modernism"), which in 21st century has found its own language and split into a number of styles which have acquired other names.
Architectural styles often spread to other places, so that the style at its source continues to develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist. For instance, Renaissance ideas emerged in Italy around 1425 and spread to all of Europe over the next 200 years, with the French, German, English, and Spanish Renaissances showing recognisably the same style, but with unique characteristics. An architectural style may also spread through colonialism, either by foreign colonies learning from their home country, or by settlers moving to a new land. One example is the Spanish missions in California, brought by Spanish priests in the late 18th century and built in a unique style.
After an architectural style has gone out of fashion, revivals and re-interpretations may occur. For instance, classicism has been revived many times and found new life as neoclassicism. Each time it is revived, it is different. The Spanish mission style was revived 100 years later as the Mission Revival, and that soon evolved into the Spanish Colonial Revival.
History of the concept of architectural style
Early writing on the subjects of architectural history, since the works of Vitruvius in the 1st century B.C., treated architecture as a patrimony that was passed on to the next generation of architects by their forefathers. Giorgio Vasari in the 16th century shifted the narrative to biographies of the great artists in his "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects".
Constructing schemes of the period styles of historic art and architecture was a major concern of 19th century scholars in the new and initially mostly German-speaking field of art history. Important writers on the broad theory of style including Carl Friedrich von Rumohr, Gottfried Semper, and Alois Riegl in his Stilfragen of 1893, with Heinrich Wölfflin and Paul Frankl continued the debate into the 20th century. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among the art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and space. This type of art history is also known as formalism, or the study of forms or shapes in art. Wölfflin declared the goal of formalism as , "art history without names", where an architect's work has a place in history that is independent of its author. The subject of study no longer was the ideas that Borromini borrowed from Maderno who in turn learned from Michelangelo, instead the questions now were about the continuity and changes observed when the architecture transitioned from Renaissance to Baroque.
Semper, Wölfflin, and Frankl, and later Ackerman, had backgrounds in the history of architecture, and like many other terms for period styles, "Romanesque" and "Gothic" were initially coined to describe architectural styles, where major changes between styles can be clearer and more easy to define, not least because style in architecture is easier to replicate by following a set of rules than style in figurative art such as painting. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often subsequently applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to music, literature and the general culture. In architecture stylistic change often follows, and is made possible by, the discovery of new techniques or materials, from the Gothic rib vault to modern metal and reinforced concrete construction. A major area of debate in both art history and archaeology has been the extent to which stylistic change in other fields like painting or pottery is also a response to new technical possibilities, or has its own impetus to develop (the kunstwollen of Riegl), or changes in response to social and economic factors affecting patronage and the conditions of the artist, as current thinking tends to emphasize, using less rigid versions of Marxist art history.
Although style was well-established as a central component of art historical analysis, seeing it as the over-riding factor in art history had fallen out of fashion by World War II, as other ways of looking at art were developing, and a reaction against the emphasis on style developing; for Svetlana Alpers, "the normal invocation of style in art history is a depressing affair indeed". According to James Elkins "In the later 20th century criticisms of style were aimed at further reducing the Hegelian elements of the concept while retaining it in a form that could be more easily controlled".
Practical issues
In the middle of the 19th century мultiple aesthetic and social factors forced architects to design the new buildings using a selection of styles patterned after the historical ones (working "in every style or none"), and style definition became a practical matter. The choice of an appropriate style was subject of elaborate discussions; for example, the Cambridge Camden Society had argued that the churches in the new British colonies should be built in the Norman style, so that the local architects and builders can go through the paces repeating the architectural history of England.
See also
Historicism (architecture)
History of architecture
List of architectural styles
Revivalism (architecture)
Notes
References
"Alpers in Lang": Alpers, Svetlana, "Style is What You Make It", in The Concept of Style, ed. Berel Lang, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987), 137–162, google books.
Elkins, James, "Style" in Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, accessed March 6, 2013, subscriber link
Elsner, Jas, "Style" in Critical Terms for Art History, Nelson, Robert S. and Shiff, Richard, 2nd Edn. 2010, University of Chicago Press, , 9780226571690, google books
Gombrich, E. "Style" (1968), orig. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. D. L. Sills, xv (New York, 1968), reprinted in Preziosi, D. (ed.) The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology (see below), whose page numbers are used.
"Kubler in Lang": Kubler, George, Towards a Reductive Theory of Style, in Lang
Lang, Berel (ed.), The Concept of Style, 1987, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, , 9780801494390, google books; includes essays by Alpers and Kubler
Preziosi, D. (ed.) The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998,
Architectural design
Architectural history | 0.77638 | 0.992948 | 0.770906 |
Didactic method | A didactic method ( didáskein, "to teach") is a teaching method that follows a consistent scientific approach or educational style to present information to students. The didactic method of instruction is often contrasted with dialectics and the Socratic method; the term can also be used to refer to a specific didactic method, as for instance constructivist didactics.
Overview
Didactics is a theory of teaching, and in a wider sense, a theory and practical application of teaching and learning. In demarcation from "mathetics" (the science of learning), didactics refers only to the science of teaching.
This theory might be contrasted with open learning, also known as experiential learning, in which people can learn by themselves, in an unstructured manner (or in an unusually structured manner) as in experiential education, on topics of interest. It can also be contrasted with autodidactic learning, in which one instructs oneself, often from existing books or curricula.
The theory of didactic learning methods focuses on the baseline knowledge students possess and seeks to improve upon and convey this information. It also refers to the foundation or starting point in a lesson plan, where the overall goal is knowledge. A teacher or educator functions in this role as an authoritative figure, but also as both a guide and a resource for students.
Didactics or the didactic method have different connotations in continental Europe and English-speaking countries. Didacticism was indeed the cultural origin of the didactic method but refers within its narrow context usually pejoratively to the use of language to a doctrinal end. The interpretation of these opposing views are theorised to be the result of a differential cultural development in the 19th century when Great Britain and its former colonies went through a renewal and increased cultural distancing from continental Europe. It was particularly the later appearance of Romanticism and Aestheticism in the Anglo-Saxon world which offered these negative and limiting views of the didactic method. On the other hand, in continental Europe those moralising aspects of didactics were removed earlier by cultural representatives of the Age of Enlightenment, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and later specifically related to teaching by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.
The consequences of these cultural differences then created two main didactic traditions: The Anglo-Saxon tradition of curriculum studies on one side and the Continental and North European tradition of didactics on the other. Still today, the science of didactics carries much less weight in much of the English-speaking world..
With the advent of globalisation at the beginning of the 20th century, however, the arguments for such relative philosophical aspects in the methods of teaching started to diminish somewhat. It is therefore possible to categorise didactics and pedagogy as a general analytic theory on three levels:
a theoretical or research level (denoting a field of study)
a practical level (summaries of curricular activities)
a discursive level (implying a frame of reference for professional dialogs)
Nature of didactics and difference with pedagogy
The discipline of didactics is interested in both theoretical knowledge and practical activities related to teaching, learning and their conditions. It is concerned with the content of teaching (the "what"), the method of teaching (the "how") and the historical, cultural and social justifications of curricular choices (the "why"). It focuses on the individual learner, their cognitive characteristics and functioning when they learn a given content and become a knowing subject. The perspective of educational reality in didactics is drawn extensively from cognitive psychology and the theory of teaching, and sometimes from social psychology. Didactics is descriptive and diachronic ("what is" and "what was"), as opposed to pedagogy, the other discipline related to educational theorizing, which is normative or prescriptive and synchronic ("what should or ought to be") in nature. Didactics can be said to provide the descriptive foundation for pedagogy, which is more concerned with educational goal-setting and with the learner's becoming a social subject and their future role in society.
In continental Europe, as opposed to English-speaking research cultures, pedagogy and didactics are distinct areas of study. Didactics is a knowledge-based discipline concerned with the descriptive and rational study of all teaching-related activities before, during and after the teaching of content in the classroom, which includes the "planning, control and regulation of the teaching context" and its objective is to analyze how teaching leads to learning. On the other hand, pedagogy is a practice-oriented discipline concerned with the normative study of the applied aspects of teaching in real teaching contexts, i.e., inside the classroom. Pedagogy draws from didactic research and can be seen as an applied component of didactics.
Didactic transposition
In France, didactics refers to the science that takes the teaching of disciplined knowledge as its object of study. In other words, didactics is concerned with the teaching of specific disciplines to students. One of the central concepts studied in didactics of a specific discipline in France is the concept of "didactic transposition" (La transposition didactique in French). French philosopher and sociologist Michel Verret introduced this concept in 1975, which was borrowed and elaborated further in the 1980s by the French didactician of Mathematics Yves Chevallard. Although Chevallard initially presented this concept regarding the didactics of mathematics, it has since been generalized for other disciplines as well.
Didactic transposition is composed of multiple steps. The first step, called the "external transposition" (transposition externe), is about how the "scholarly knowledge" (savoir savant) produced by the scholars, scientists or specialists of a certain discipline in a research context, i.e., at universities and other academic institutions is transformed into "knowledge to teach" (savoir à enseigner) by precisely selecting, rearranging and defining the knowledge which will be taught (the official curriculum for each discipline) and how it will be taught, so that it becomes an object of learning accessible to the learner. This external didactic transposition is a socio-political construction made possible by different actors working within various educational institutions: education specialists, political authorities, teachers and their associations define the issues of teaching and choose what should be taught under which form. Chevallard called this socio-political context of institutional organization the “noosphere”, which defines the limits, redefines and reorganizes the knowledge in socially, historically or culturally determined contexts.
The second step, called the "internal transposition" (transposition interne) is about how the knowledge to teach is transformed into "taught knowledge" (savoir enseigné), which is the knowledge actually taught through the day-to-day concrete practices of a teacher in a teaching context, e.g. in a classroom, and which depends on their students and the constraints imposed on them (time, exams, conformity to prevailing school rules, etc.).
In the third and final step, the taught knowledge is transformed into "acquired knowledge" (savoir acquis), which is the knowledge as it is actually acquired by students in a learning context. The acquired knowledge can be used as a feedback to the didactic system. Didactic research has to account for all the aforementioned steps of didactic transposition.
Didactic triangle
The teacher is given the knowledge or content to be taught to students in what is called a teaching situation. The teaching or didactic situation is represented by a triangle with three vertices: the knowledge or content to be taught, the teacher, and the student. This is called the "didactic triangle". In this triangle, the teacher-content side is concerned with didactic elaboration, the student-content side is about didactic appropriation, and the teacher-student side is about didactic interaction.
Didactic teaching
Didactic method provides students with the required theoretical knowledge. It is an effective method used to teach students who are unable to organize their work and depend on the teachers for instructions. It is also used to teach basic skills of reading and writing. The teacher or the literate is the source of knowledge and the knowledge is transmitted to the students through didactic method.
Didactic Teaching materials:
The Montessori school had preplanned teaching (Didactic) materials designed, to develop practical, sensory, and formal skills. Lacing and buttoning frames, weights, and packet to be identified by their sound or smell. Because they direct learning in the prepared environment, Montessori educators are called directress rather than teachers.
In Brazil, there has been for more than 80 years the government program called PNLD (National Program of Didactic Book). This program seeks to provide basic education schools with didactic and pedagogical records, expanding access to the book and democratizing access to sources of information and culture. Textbooks, in many cases, are the only sources of information that poor children and young people have access to in a poor country like Brazil. These books are also valuable support to teachers, offering modern learning methodologies and updated concepts and content in the most diverse disciplines
Functions of didactic method
cognitive function: to understand and learn basic concepts
formative-educative function: to develop skills, behavior, abilities, etc.
instrumental function : to achieve educational objectives
normative function : helps to achieve productive learning, attain required results, etc.
Method of teaching
In didactic method of teaching, the teacher gives instructions to the students and the students are mostly passive listeners . It is a teacher-centered method of teaching and is content-oriented. Neither the content nor the knowledge of the teacher are questioned.
The process of teaching involves the teacher who gives instructions, commands, delivers content, and provides necessary information. The pupil activity involves listening and memorization of the content. In the modern education system, lecture method which is one of the most commonly used methods is a form of didactic teaching.
Limitations
Though the didactic method has been given importance in several schools, it does not satisfy the needs and interests of all students. It can be tedious for students to listen to the possible lectures. There is minimum interaction between the students and the teachers. Learning which also involves motivating the students to develop an interest towards the subject may not be satisfied through this teaching method.
It may be a monologue process and experience of the students may not have a significant role in learning.
See also
Guy Brousseau
References
External links
Didactics
Pedagogy | 0.777587 | 0.991336 | 0.77085 |
Political culture | Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture.
Political culture is what the people, the voters, the electorates believe and do based on their understanding of the political system in which they have found themselves. These may be regarded as being bad or good placed side by side with global best practices or norms.
Definition
Gabriel Almond defines it as "the particular pattern of orientations toward political actions in which every political system is embedded".
Lucian Pye's definition is that "Political culture is the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments, which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system".
María Eugenia Vázquez Semadeni defines political culture as "the set of discourses and symbolic practices by means of which both individuals and groups articulate their relationship to power, elaborate their political demands and put them at stake."
Analysis
The limits of a particular political culture are based on subjective identity. The most common form of such identity today is the national identity, and hence nation states set the typical limits of political cultures. The socio-cultural system, in turn, gives meaning to a political culture through shared symbols and rituals (such as a national independence day) which reflect common values. This may develop into a civil religion. The values themselves can be more hierarchical or egalitarian, and will set the limits to political participation, thereby creating a basis for legitimacy. They are transmitted through socialization, and shaped by shared historical experiences which form the collective or national memory. Intellectuals will continue to interpret the political culture through political discourse in the public sphere. Indeed, elite political culture is more consequential than mass-level.
Elements
Trust is a major factor in political culture, as its level determines the capacity of the state to function. Postmaterialism is the degree to which political culture is concerned with issues which are not of immediate physical or material concern, such as human rights and environmentalism. Religion has also an impact on political culture.
Classifications
Different typologies of political culture have been proposed.
Almond & Verba
Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba in The Civic Culture outlined three pure types of political culture based on level and type of political participation and the nature of people's attitudes toward politics:
Parochial – Where citizens are only remotely aware of the presence of central government, and live their lives near enough regardless of the decisions taken by the state, distant and unaware of political phenomena. They have neither knowledge nor interest in politics. This type of political culture is in general congruent with a traditional political structure.
Subject – Where citizens are aware of central government, and are heavily subjected to its decisions with little scope for dissent. The individual is aware of politics, its actors and institutions. It is affectively oriented towards politics, yet it is on the "downward flow" side of the politics. In general congruent with a centralized authoritarian structure.
Participant – Citizens are able to influence the government in various ways and they are affected by it. The individual is oriented toward the system as a whole, to both the political and administrative structures and processes (to both the input and output aspects). In general congruent with a democratic political structure.
Almond and Verba wrote that these types of political culture can combine to create the civic culture, which mixes the best elements of each.
Elazar
Daniel J. Elazar identified three kinds of political culture:
Individualistic culture – In which politics is a marketplace between individuals seeking to maximize their self-interest, with minimal community involvement and opposition to the government, as well as a high degree of patronage. See also: Neopatrimonialism.
Moralistic culture – Whereby government is seen as important and as a way to improve peoples' lives.
Traditionalistic culture – One which seeks to preserve the status quo under which elites have all the power and citizen participation is not expected.
Huntington
Samuel P. Huntington classified political cultures according to civilizations on the basis of geography and history:
Western civilization
Japanese civilization
Islamic civilization
Hindu civilization
Slavic-Orthodox civilization
Latin American civilization
Chinese civilization
African civilization
Inglehart
Ronald Inglehart proposes that political culture can dictate political systems, and points out a correlation between Protestantism (or more generally societies with high Secular-Rational values and high Self Expression values on the Inglehart-Weltzel values map) and stable democratization. However, the recurrent post-elections clashes in largely protestant Sub-Saharan countries, such as Kenya or Uganda, shows that religious affiliations seem to poorly affect the political behaviour of populations.
National political cultures
Russia
Russia is a low-trust society, with even the highest trusted institutions of church and the military having more distrustful than trusting citizens, and with low participation in civil society. This means that Russia has a weak civic political culture. Furthermore, the authoritarian traditions of Russia mean that there is little support for democratic norms such as tolerance of dissent and pluralism. Russia has a history of authoritarian rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin, who have engaged in massive repression of all potential political competitors, from the oprichnina to the Great Purge. The resulting political systems of Tsarist autocracy and Soviet communism had no space for independent institutions.
United States
The political culture of the United States was heavily influenced by the background of its early immigrants, as it is a settler society. Samuel P. Huntington identified American politics as having a "Tudor" character, with elements of English political culture of that period, such as common law, strong courts, local self-rule, decentralized sovereignty across institutions, and reliance on popular militias instead of a standing army, having been imported by early settlers. Another source of political culture was the arrival of Scotch-Irish Americans, who came from a violent region of Britain, and brought with them a strong sense of individualism and support for the right to bear arms. These settlers provided the support for Jacksonian democracy, which was a revolution of its time against the established elites, and remnants of which can still be seen in modern American populism.
China
The political culture of China is tied closely to political socialization, as children are indoctrinated into the collectivist perspective of the Chinese Communist Party. This inculcation is theorized to explain the delayed growth of secularism in Chinese culture, especially during the Cultural Revolution. Chinese political culture perceives the relationship between government and individuals to be a hierarchy. Because of this, there is little pushback from individuals during policy and regulation change. The political culture also shows a trend against confrontationality, which decreases the quantity and frequency of social conflict. Both of these qualities stem from traditional Chinese values embedded during the age of Confucianism. When the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1948, Mao Zedong unsuccessfully attempted to remove these traits from the culture, instead opting for revolutionary values and priorities.
India
Due to India's colonization by the British Empire, the contemporary political culture has been influenced by western ideas that were not present before. These influences include democracy and parliamentary systems, two institutions that stood ideologically opposite of the caste system that dictated society before. Because of India's multicultural demography, the political culture varies by group and region. India's successful democratization lead to power being given to both the urbanized and well-educated class who focused on national appeal, as well as more traditional, rural, and lower class political actors. In the modern era, the class system of India has begun to break down, and members of lower classes are now entering higher political and economic positions. This is especially true for lower class women, who historically have been excluded from such activities.
See also
Political culture of Canada
Political culture of Germany
Political culture of the United Kingdom
Political culture of the United States
References
Further reading
Almond, Gabriel A., Verba, Sidney The Civic Culture. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1965.
Aronoff, Myron J. “Political Culture,” in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, eds., (Oxford: Elsevier, 2002), 11640.
Axelrod, Robert. 1997. “The Dissemination of Culture: A Model with Local Convergence and Global Polarization.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 41:203-26.
Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
Bednar, Jenna and Scott Page. 2007. “Can Game(s) Theory Explain Culture? The Emergence of Cultural Behavior within Multiple Games” Rationality and Society 19(1):65-97.
Clark, William, Matt Golder, and Sona Golder. 2009. Principles of Comparative Government. CQ Press. Ch. 7
Diamond, Larry (ed.) Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries.
Greif, Avner. 1994. “Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies.” The Journal of Political Economy 102(5): 912-950.
Kertzer, David I. Politics and Symbols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
Kertzer, David I. Ritual, Politics, and Power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.
Kubik, Jan. The Power of Symbols Against The Symbols of Power. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.
Inglehart, Ronald and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Ch. 2
Laitin, David D. Hegemony and Culture. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Igor Lukšič, Politična kultura. Ljubljana: The University of Ljubljana, 2006.
Wilson, Richard "The Many Voices of Political Culture: Assessing Different Approaches," in World Politics 52 (January 2000), 246-73
Gielen, Pascal (ed.), 'No Culture, No Europe. On the Foundation of Politics'. Valiz: Amsterdam, 2015.
Comparative politics
Culture | 0.775836 | 0.993446 | 0.770752 |
Political socialization | Political socialization is the process by which individuals internalize and develop their political values, ideas, attitudes, and perceptions via the agents of socialization. Political socialization occurs through processes of socialization, that can be structured as primary and secondary socialization. Primary socialization agents include the family, whereas secondary socialization refers to agents outside the family. Agents such as family, education, media, and peers influence the most in establishing varying political lenses that frame one's perception of political values, ideas, and attitudes. These perceptions, in turn, shape and define individuals' definitions of who they are and how they should behave in the political and economic institutions in which they live. This learning process shapes perceptions that influence which norms, behaviors, values, opinions, morals, and priorities will ultimately shape their political ideology: it is a "study of the developmental processes by which people of all ages and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes, and behaviors." These agents expose individuals through varying degrees of influence, inducing them into the political culture and their orientations towards political objects. Throughout a lifetime, these experiences influence your political identity and shape your political outlook.
Agents of socialization
Agents of socialization, sometimes called institutions, work together to influence and shape people's political norms and values. In the case of political socialization, the most significant agents include, but are not limited to, families, media, education, and peers. Other agents include religion, the state, and community. These agents shape your understanding of politics by exposing you to political ideas, values, and behaviors.
Family
Across the decades, literature has heavily emphasized that the agent of the family is the most influential, with literature suggesting that family and the transmission of attitudes from parent to child are the most prominent agents of socialization. This claim has found especially strong support for the transmission of voting behaviour, partisanship and religious attitudes. Especially in contexts of high politization and homogeneity in political views, transmissions are argued to be higher. Literature examines how aspects of family structures and dynamics change the varying influence of the offspring's values as a function of the distribution of their parent's attitudes. Families perpetuate values that support political authorities and can heavily contribute to children's initial political ideological views, or party affiliations. Literature suggest that the transmission of intergenerational political attitudes shows a strong lineage concerning their parents and siblings. Families have an effect on "political knowledge, identification, efficacy, and participation", depending on variables such as "family demographics, life cycle, parenting style, parental level of political cynicism", interest and politization, and "frequency of political discussions", as well as the saliency of the issues that are being discussed.
Parents: Earliest literature of the influence of parents suggests that the varying ways parents raise their children become a significant catalyst in influencing their political attitudes, and behaviour. However, the initial view of parent-youth political socialisations studies of the simple inheritance of partisan views from parents to their children has been challenged by various studies, arguing that while the family still plays an important role in the political orientation of their offspring, the intensity is reduced over time and also taking other influential aspects into account. The most frequently found correlation of intergenerational transmission between parents and their children is partisanship and religious beliefs. What has been found is that especially salient and frequently discussed topics are more likely to transmit, and stronger transmissions occur in highly politicised households with homogenous views on political issues. It is further argued that the different methods of raising a child result in the child establishing formative values about all aspects of one's social life, such as religion and cultural traditions. . Especially the parenting style has been argued to be influential, with nurturant parenting resulting in more liberal views, and strict parenting promoting conservatism. This is argued to be due to a state-family heuristic, which assumes that complex phenomena such as politics and the state- society-relationship are understood from what we know from parent-child dynamics. In turn, suggesting that approaching social institutions in this context is vital as they bring a primary influence as opposed to economic or more formative organizations. Literature also suggest that predjudice influence from parents was found to be more influential towards political attitudes rather than economic and social stratification. Ultimately, literature has found it significant in studying the transmission of attitudes from parent to child as parents are generally more conservative, commonly associated with traditional attitudes and pushing towards continuity, opposite of their offspring.
Siblings: The composition of the household in terms of the sex of the siblings has been argued to influence boys in becoming more or less conservative. What has been suggested is that for boys, having sisters influences them to develop more conservative views on gender roles and partisanship. This has been argued to be caused by a different approach to child raising and the division of household chores that varies in families depending if there are sons and daughters, or just sons. Therefore, if brothers do have sisters, they are less likely to be exposed to traditionally feminized household chores, wherefore they might adopt this view on gender roles and in turn also hold more traditional views in politics. Furthermore, literature suggests that children and adolescents are far more successfully socialized with cohort-centric attitudes with siblings close in age. Thus, this cohort-centric difference of multiple generations within the family with parents and siblings supports the idea that siblings who share the core agents of familial socialization develop coherent political attitudes. Linkage to the transmission of political attitudes via siblings include social trust and civic engagement.
Media
Mass media is not only a source of political information; it is an influence on political values and beliefs. The culmination of information gained from entertainment becomes the values and standards by which people judge. Most people choose what media they are exposed to based on their already existing values, and they use information from the media to reaffirm what they already believe. From news coverage and late-night programs, to exposure to social media apps, present varying political stances that are often associated with increasing political participation. However literature suggests that media coverage increasingly motivates users to delve into politics, as media outlets are leaning toward what stories will get them more views and engagement. In turn, suggesting that having more political motives and financial motives presents more partisanship polarization if it means they will have an increase in viewership. These reinforced segments that bring more viewership have been proven to be more likely for individuals to rewatch or pay for reinforcing congruent evidence. Suggesting that reinforced media segments become confirmatory evidence that continuously polarizes biased political information. This has become the perfect environment to enhance partisan polarization among voters through national outlets that reinforce extremist positions. These extremist positions have consistently found their way into partisan positions that have moved both parties towards supporting more extremist values, increasing mass partisan polarization. Ultimately, however, the common core of information, and the interpretation the media applies to it, leads to a shared knowledge and basic values throughout a given entity. Most media entertainment and information does not vary much throughout the country, and it is consumed by all types of audiences. Although there are still disagreements and different political beliefs and party affiliations, generally there are not huge ideological disparities among the population because the media helps create a broad consensus on basic US democratic principles.Overall, the increase in the media market demand for viewership has encouraged more polarized political discourse, and with advancing technologies, our dependency on the Internet and the media's vulnerability will only continue increasing. In turn, making it more vital in addressing the threat misinformation holds to the integrity of democracy.
Print Media: In the case of print media, it is the oldest form of political socialization of media, as this includes books and poems. and newspapers. Until 1900, after the invention of radio, print media was the primary way individuals received information that shaped their political attitudes and beliefs. Studies show two-thirds of newspaper readers do not know their newspaper's position on specific issues- and most media stories are quickly forgotten. Older people read more newspapers than younger people, and people from the ages of twelve to seventeen (although they consume the most media) consume the least amount of news.
Broadcast Media: Media influence in political socialization continues with both fictional and factual media sources. Adults have increased exposure to news and political information embedded in entertainment; fictional entertainment (mostly television) is the most common source of political information. The most common form of broadcast media is television and radio, increasing attention to politics as people become more informed with information and beliefs shaping political attitudes. Studies on public opinion of the Bush administration's energy policies show that the public pays more attention to issues that receive a lot of media coverage and form collective opinions about these issues. This demonstrates that the mass media's attention to an issue affects public opinion. More so, extensive exposure to television has led to "mainstreaming," aligning people's perception of political life and society with television's portrayal of it.
Digital Media: Digital media, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitch, accounted for viewership rates of 27.9 billion hours in 2020. examples of digital media include content created, distributed, and viewed on a given platform that one views from a digital electronic device. In turn, increases political polarization, with the recommended algorithms that confine users to echo chambers and content they agree with and enjoy while also increasing their political polarization.
Social Media: The role of social media in political socialization, from scrolling on TikTok to checking the trending page on Twitter, has increasingly become powerful in presenting news and varying political perspectives. This shows political socialization at the palm of your hand with the constant production of new content, bringing a new variable in its infancy and shaping how people establish their political beliefs. The media has significantly increased the number of users who cover relevant political information, increasing exposure to political discourse. These platforms have created the perfect environment for individuals to be presented with and reinforce their beliefs through the advancing programming of echo chambers. Algorithms are increasingly confining users in a cycle of content-related videos. This gives media outlets an increasing power to manipulate biased presented news as supporting evidence to a partisan issue, reinforcing confirmatory information to potential false realities shaped by misinformation. Exposure to political accountability through the media motivates increasing polarization as it exposes how potential candidates stand on a given issue.
Education
In the numerous years in school, through primary, secondary, and high schools, students are taught vital political principles such as voting, elected representatives, individual rights, personal responsibility, and the political history of their state and country. There is also evidence that education is a significant factor in establishing political attitudes during the crucial period of adolescence, with three central themes examining how civic courses, teachers, and peer groups often provide alternative perspectives to their parent's political attitudes. In turn, identifying that civic influences towards change in an educational setting are vital in establishing generational political differences during socialization during adolescence. Other literature has found that involvement with high school activities provides adolescents with direct experience with political and civic engagement and implementing activist orientations toward one's attitudes with increased political discourse.
Religion
Religious beliefs and practices influence political opinions, priorities, and political participation. The theological and moral perspectives offered by religious institutions shape judgment regarding political attitudes and, ultimately, translate to direct influence on political matters such as "the redistribution of wealth, equality, tolerance for deviance, individual freedom, the severity of criminal punishment, policies relating to family structure, gender roles, abortion, anti-gay rhetoric, and the value of human life."
The State
State governments can control mass media to "inform, misinform, or misinform the press and thus the public '', a strategy referred to as propaganda. The ability to control agents of socialization, such as the media, brings control to the state to serve a political, economic, or personal agenda that benefits the state.
Community
Community mobilization brings significant experiences of political socialization events that could influence one's political attitudes with a collective community goal. An example is how Prop 187 was specifically targeting illegal immigrants in LA County within the state of California. Given the severity of the policy targeting a specific community, this created a mass mobilization of the Latino and immigrant community, creating a voting bloc that prevented the initiative of Prop 187. Harvey Milk was a significant political mobilizing the queer community during the 1978 race for California governor with increasing support for Prop 6, a law that would mandate firing any queer teacher or employee in any California public school. As this threatened the queer community and increased immigration of gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals, specifically in the San Francisco area, Milk was able to mobilize the queer community to gain enough momentum to vote against Prop 6 successfully. This could have been a pivotal introduction to political participation for those in these areas, motivating many to continue voting in future elections. In many cases, the experience of community mobilization is the first introduction to political policies and political participation, starting their political journey connected with their home.
Region
Geographical location also plays a role in one's political media socialization. For example, news outlets on the East Coast tend to cover international affairs in Europe and the Middle East the most, while West Coast news outlets are more likely to cover Asian affairs; this demonstrates that community region affects patterns in political socialization. The region is also significant for specific political attitudes. Living near the Pakistan-India border, an individual will likely have solid political attitudes toward the Pakistan-India tension. Given the socialization of their parents, cousins, grandparents, peers, and education, all have a significant role in teaching their youth about the relationship one has with the other state. Suppose one immigrated from Cuba to the United States. In that case, they will be the political socialization inclination to obtain conservative attitudes in the United States because of the regional movements from a leftist government in Cuba.
Life Stages of Political Socialization
Childhood
Political socialization begins in childhood. It has been found that family is the first main influence, and following social circles are often chosen based on these initial views. Therefore, views are assumed to persist. Research suggest that family and educational environment are the most influential factors in socializing children. In terms of family, in early childhood, indirect exposure, such as parenting styles, or sibling composition might be more relevant, than direct political discussions. However recent literature suggest that increasing influence is coming from mass media such as digital and social media. On average, both young children and teenagers in the United States spend more time a week consuming television and digital media than they spend in school. Young children consume an average of thirty-one hours a week, while teenagers consume forty-eight hours of media a week. Given that childhood is when a human is the most impressionable the influential of agents of socialization is significant as children's brains are "prime for learning", thus more likely to take messages of political attitudes of the world at face value.
Adolescence
With media influence carrying into adolescence, high school students attribute the information that forms their opinions and attitudes about race, war, economics, and patriotism to mass media much more than their friends, family, or teachers. Other literature suggests that political identification and political participation often stem from values and attitudes attained during one's adolescence. The literature argues that pre-adult socialization in both childhood and adolescence has a longstanding and stable catalyzing influence from political events. This political socialization of these catalytic events establishes predispositions that are often felt by mass and collective political socialization. Literature also suggests that adult political participation shows a longitudinal influence from adolescent forces of political socialization, with three models assessing the effects of parental influence in the context of socioeconomic status, political activity, and civic orientation. A decade later, this literature observed a longitudinal impact of socialization that stems from adolescent political socialization. Literature found that parents' socioeconomic status and high school activities impact the most, although the family is an important and stable agent of socialisation, especially if views and stances are consistent, stable, clear, salient and frequently communicated, which favours higher transmission rates. Primary carriers of pre-adult political socialization play a crucial role in later political participation, with the parent political participation model contributing to an understanding of political activity. This literature suggests that political socialization during the adolescent period significantly influences political participation and voting behavior. It is argued that views persist when the initial socialisation in the family has been strong, hence views have been strongly formed when the adolescents enter adulthood.
Adulthood
While political socialization is lifelong process, after adolescence, people's basic values generally do not change. Most people choose what content they are exposed to based on their already existing values, and they use information from a favorable source to simply reaffirm what they already believe. Internal outcomes during adulthood can have far more significant development if these beliefs remain constant over time, especially if an attitude is present for the remainderdisambiguated of one's adolescence, the odds of that belief being consistent during adulthood are very likely.
See also
Agency (sociology)
Cohort effect
Groupthink
Political culture
Political cognition
Public opinion
References
Socialization
Socialization | 0.775389 | 0.993884 | 0.770646 |
Alternative lifestyle | An alternative lifestyle or unconventional lifestyle is a lifestyle perceived to be outside the norm for a given culture. The term alternative lifestyle is often used pejoratively. Description of a related set of activities as alternative is a defining aspect of certain subcultures.
History
Alternative lifestyles and subcultures were first highlighted in the U.S & the Uk some countries did contributed. in the 1920s with the "flapper" movement. Women cut their hair and skirts short (as a symbol of freedom from oppression and the old ways of living). These women were the first large group of females to practice pre-marital sex, dancing, cursing, and driving in modern America without the ostracism that had occurred in earlier instances.
The American press in the 1970s frequently used the term "alternative lifestyle" as a euphemism for homosexuality out of fear of offending a mass audience. The term was also used to refer to hippies, who were seen as a threat to the social order.
Examples
The following is a non-exhaustive list of activities in the U.S. that have been described as alternative lifestyles:
A Stanford University cooperative house, Synergy, was founded in 1972 with the theme of "exploring alternative lifestyles".
Alternative child-rearing, such as homeschooling, coparenting, and home births
Environmentally-conscious ways of eating, such as veganism, freeganism, or raw foodism
Living in non-traditional communities, such as communes, intentional communities, ecovillages, off-the-grid, or the tiny house movement
Traveling subcultures, including lifestyle travellers, digital nomads, housetruckers, and New Age travellers
Countercultural movements and alternative subcultures such as Bohemianism, punk rock, emo, metal music subculture, antiquarian steampunk, hippies, and vampires
Body modification, including tattoos, body piercings, eye tattooing, scarification, non-surgical stretching like ears or genital stretching, and transdermal implants
Nudism and clothing optional lifestyles
Non-normative sexual lifestyles and gender identity-based subcultures, such as BDSM, LGBT culture, cross-dressing, transvestism, polyamory, cruising, swinging, down-low, and certain types of sexual fetishism, roleplays, or paraphilias
Adherents to alternative spiritual and religious communities, such as Freemasons, Ordo Templi Orientis, Thelemites, Satanists, Modern Pagans, and New Age communities
Certain traditional religious minorities, such as Anabaptist Christians (most notably Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, the Bruderhof Communities, and Schwarzenau Brethren) and ultra-Orthodox Jews, who pursue simple living alongside a non-technological or anti-technology lifestyle
Secular anti-technology communities called neo-Luddites
See also
Alternative culture
Alternative housing
Intentional living
Lebensreform
Straight edge
Teetotalism
Temperance movement
Underground culture
References
1920s introductions
Deviance (sociology)
Lifestyle
Philosophy of life
Subcultures | 0.780991 | 0.986676 | 0.770585 |
Cubo-Futurism | Cubo-Futurism or Kubo-Futurizm was an art movement, developed within Russian Futurism, that arose in early 20th century Russian Empire, defined by its amalgamation of the artistic elements found in Italian Futurism and French Analytical Cubism. Cubo-Futurism was the main school of painting and sculpture practiced by the Russian Futurists.
In 1913, the term "Cubo-Futurism" first came to describe works from members of the poetry group "Hylaeans", as they moved away from poetic Symbolism towards Futurism and zaum, the experimental "visual and sound poetry of Kruchenykh and Khlebninkov". Later in the same year the concept and style of "Cubo-Futurism" became synonymous with the works of artists within Ukrainian and Russian post-revolutionary avant-garde circles as they interrogated non-representational art through the fragmentation and displacement of traditional forms, lines, viewpoints, colours, and textures within their pieces. The impact of Cubo-Futurism was then felt within performance art societies, with Cubo-Futurist painters and poets collaborating on theatre, cinema, and ballet pieces that aimed to break theatre conventions through the use of nonsensical zaum poetry, emphasis on improvisation, and the encouragement of audience participation (an example being the 1913 Futurist satirical tragedy Vladimir Mayakovsky).
The coexistence of these differing strands of artistic practice within Cubo-Futurism reflects an ideological preoccupation with collective renewal and deconstruction (a notion born of their post-revolutionary context) with each poet or painter free to create their own aesthetic consciousness based on the concept of revolution and collective action through reinterpretation of artistic and social traditions.
Background
Importance of Post-Revolutionary context
In the context of late Tsarist Russia, society was deeply divided by social class. Russian industrialisation, development, economic growth, and urbanisation fell far behind other Western nations, with the country experiencing high levels of illiteracy, poor health care, and struggling with the limitations of little mass communication outside larger cities. Looking outward at the realities of those from neighbouring countries, artists who would later become members of the Cubo-Futurist movement noticed the impacts of the burgeoning Machine Age on everyday life, recognising the beauty, dynamism, and energy of the utilitarian machine aesthetic leading to a renewed interest in technological modernisation within art, poetry, and life. Ukrainian modernist painter Aleksandr Shevchenko (1883–1948) echoed this sentiment when, in 1913, he stated, "the world has been transformed into a single, monstrous, fantastic, perpetually-moving machine, into a single huge non-animal automatic organism… [this] cannot help but be reflected in our thinking and in our spiritual life: in Art". The "cult of the machine" became an increasingly utopic concept within Cubo-Futurist circles, with artists perceiving the idyllic phenomenon of machine production as the foremost "proletariat creation" due to its ability to help construct an equitable, collective life for all people regardless of class. This ideological conception of utopic perfection through machinery significantly impacted the stylistic elements of the Cubo-Futurist movement, influencing artists to experiment with pure abstraction, geometric shapes, harsh lines and planes, and the deconstruction of organic forms into powerful structures infused with machine symbolism.
Impact of Russian art collectors
At the top of early 20th century Russia’s deep social, political, and class divisions were a small group of elite aristocrats and businessmen. With considerable access to international art markets and dealers, they assembled significant number European masterpieces of the early 20th century for their own personal collections. Collectors and patrons, Sergei Shchukin (1854–1936) and Ivan Morozov (1871–1921), paid special attention to Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Fauvist, Cubist, and Futurist art from all over Europe amassing a large selection of momentous works, and consequently introducing local Russian artists to art movements, techniques, and styles popular around the continent. Shchukin’s collection included a considerable number of Picassos, Matisses, Cezannes, Monets, and Gauguins, thus allowing artists in St. Petersburg and Moscow access to Cubist and Futurist artworks that would later influence the development of the Cubo-Futurist movement.
==='Hylea' and the impact of Marinetti's 'Futurist Manifesto''' ===
While Cubo-Futurism was first named and identified in 1913, the movement can be traced back to a congregation of Russian artists who called themselves Soyuz Molodyozhi ('Union of Youth') in 1910. The group was brought together by the Ukrainian painter and poet David Burliuk (1882–1967) under the name budetlyane (a Russian interpretation of the western term "futurists"), inspired by Italian Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's (1876–1944) 1909 Futurist Manifesto. Marinetti's work espoused the need for creatives (e.g. artists and writers) to abandon the past by moving towards the utilisation of the aesthetic language of machinery, industrialisation, urban living, and utilitarian design. For Marinetti and those that followed him, the futurist movement stood for freedom, collectivity, perfection, and social rejuvenation. Influenced by the Futurist Manifesto, the aesthetics of dislocation and fragmentation became the vocabulary of the Cubo-Futurists in their attempt to interrogate the tireless and repetitive dynamism of technology, and highlight their fantasies of a utopic mechanical modernity. The Cubo-Futurists combined the modernist, cosmopolitan spirit of Marinetti's futurism with the aesthetic characteristics of analytical cubism (e.g. abstracted forms, flatness, fragmentation, geometric shapes, muted and dark colours, combination of various viewpoints) in order to create their own didactic art form designed to display the revolutionary focus of the artistic community.
History
Origin of the term
The term 'Cubo-Futurism' first appeared in a lecture in 1913, originally to refer to the poets who belonged to David and Vladimir Burliuk's literary group, 'Hylaea', also spelt 'Guilée' and 'Gylea'. This term was coined by Korney Chukovsky (1882-1969), a Russian art critic, in reference to the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky, Aleksey Kruchonykh, Velimir Khlebnikov, Benedict Livshits, and Vasily Kamensky, members of the Hylaea group. It was only after aforementioned poets began to display shocking public behaviour (for example wearing absurd clothes), when the writers and the movement in general began to be called simply 'Russian Futurism'. As a result, 'Cubo-Futurism' then began to refer to the artists who were influenced by Cubism and Futurism, though both terms still remain interchangeable.
Development of the movement
The earliest appearances of the Cubo-Futurist art style can be found in the works of Natalia Goncharova, who, as early as 1909, applied Cubist and Futurist means of expression in her paintings.
Thanks to modern technology (transport and telegraphy, for example) and the artists' experience of other countries, the creatives in Russia knew much about the avant-garde events in Europe. Cubo-Futurism as an art style would begin to take its full form in the years 1912 to 1913, though the style of poetry ended when Russian Futurism itself also faded.
One of the first major painters to become a Cubo-Futurist would be Kazimir Malevich, who entered his Cubo-Futurist phase in 1912–13; he termed the works he exhibited at the 1912 'Donkey's Tail' and 1913 'Target' exhibitions as being 'Cubo-Futurist'. For Malevich, Cubo-Futurism would be especially important, because it symbolised the connection between the stillness of conventional Cubism, and the dynamism inherent in Futurism. Rather than simply following the example of painting industrial scenes, set by the Futurists in Italy, or of painting in fairly flat colours, set by the Cubists in France, he placed heavy rural Russian themes on his work; this therefore led to his paintings of traditional village life in a bright, juxtaposing avant-garde style. An example of his Cubo-Futurist work is The Knifegrinder, painted circa 1912–1913.
Natalia Goncharova officially entered her Futurist stage in around 1912 to 1913; soon, Cubo-Futurist influences became apparent in her work. This was not, for her, a dramatic change in her previous style of painting. In 1913, an exhibition of her latest work was held at a Russian art gallery, which received a massive variety of responses. Mikhail Larionov followed suit in the latest avant-garde trend, by publishing two manifestos on his and Goncharova's new art movement, Rayonism, which was inspired by Cubo-Futurism.
Other Cubo-Futurist artists emerged, for example Aleksandra Ekster, who was involved in Ukrainian and Russian Futurist stage design, and Lyubov Popova, who had learned of Cubism during her 1912 stay in Paris, and painted in the Cubo-Futurist style in the years 1913 to 1914. The movement in Russia was notable for having a large percentage of female painters, in contrast to the movement in Italy.
The Cubo-Futurists – both poets and artists – were also notable for their curious activities, both public and artistic: Mayakovsky wore a bright yellow jacket, Ilia Zdanevich ("Iliazd") and Burliuk painted on their faces, and some of the painters attached objects upon their canvases, in such manners that predated the Dada avant-garde movement based in Zurich, Berlin, and Paris, which would begin a few years later.
In 1913, the opera Victory over the Sun – prologue by Khlebnikov, libretti by Kruchenykh, and music by Mikhail Matyushin – was completed. The costume and set designer was Malevich; the opera has since become notable for starring the first appearance of his influential painting Black Square, as part of a design for a stage curtain. The next year, a Russian Futurist book was published: Tango with Cows, written by aviator-poet Vasily Kamensky and illustrated by the Burliuk brothers.
By 1914, the Russian Futurists (many of them Cubo-Futurist) developed a hostility to the Italians. When Marinetti went on a lecture tour of Russia in that year, he was met with general unfriendliness, contrary to the positive reception he had on his previous tour of 1910: Larionov had, for example, a serious argument with a pro-Marinetti cultural figure, the former wishing to greet him with rotten eggs and the latter with flowers, whereas the female Cubo-Futurist painters may have been put off by Marinetti's misogyny. The relations worsened to such an extent that Hylea began to fake the publication dates of their books, as though to state that they were earlier and more Futurist than their colleagues in Italy.
The Russian Futurists were also disgusted with the Ego-Futurists, a rival Russian literary association who had been formed in 1911 by the poet Igor Severyanin. This time, the negative feelings went both ways: Severyanin disapproved of the attitudes of the Cubo-Futurists, whilst they dismissed the Ego-Futurists as being immature, tasteless impostors.
End of Cubo-Futurism
By the year 1915, Cubism and Futurism both began to become exhausted for the painters; nevertheless, in 1915, the first all-Russian Futurist exhibition, called 'Tramway V', opened on March 3; organised by Ivan Puni, Vladimir Tatlin's works became the main focus, and the exhibition led to a succés de scandale. In 1916, another notable Cubo-Futurist book was published: Universal War, by Aleksei Kruchenykh, perhaps in collaboration with his wife Olga Rozanova.
Cubo-Futurism can be said to have ended with the 0,10 Exhibition of 1915–1916, also organised by Puni, and fuelled by the rivalry between Malevich and Tatlin; afterwards, most of the participants of Cubo-Futurism began to direct their energies to other styles of writing or painting, for example Malevich's new art movement Suprematism, which officially began at the 0,10 Exhibition, or with Constructivism.
According to the Italian Futurist painter Gino Severini, who had met and heard first-hand accounts from the Russian Futurist painters Larionov, Puni and Kseniya Boguslavskaya, the movement finished in 1916, though, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the style continued to be in use until roughly 1919.
Art
For Cubo-Futurist artists, this movement represented a shift in stylistic values from a perception of painting as a reflection of their current reality into a portrayal of idealism through depictions of a perfect future defined by equality and an organised collective consciousness.
One such example would be Kazimir Malevich's 1912–13 The Knife Grinder (The Glittering Edge). The flickering of reflective metallic colours creates a dynamic representation of motion and energy, depicting the "mechanical vibration and dynamic rhythm" of modernisation through industrialisation and mechanical harmony. The knife grinder himself is central to the composition, camouflaged within the dense abstracted geometric shapes that surround and encompass him, invoking the idea that the man has fused into the mechanical perfection of a giant organised system. To Malevich and other artists of the Cubo-Futurist movement, works like this acted as a social metaphor highlighting the process of transformation, revolution, social rebuilding, and proletariat collectivism they wished to see in their society's future. Complex abstracted geometric shapes and representations of perfected mechanical society's highlights the revolutionary nature of their work as, "only futurist art is constructed on collective principles… Only futurist art is, at the present time, 'the art of the proletariat'", as painter and sculptor Nathan Altman (1889–1970) once stated.
Cubo-Futurist artists are unique in their independence and autonomy from other members of the group. Non-representational artists experimenting with Cubo-Futurism – such as Kandinsky, Larionov, Malevich, and Tatlin – adopted the distinctive ideals and theoretical background of the movement but followed their own aesthetic path, thus depicting the freedom these artists were given to express their own perceptions of a modernised world.
Artists
The following artists have been associated with Cubo-Futurism:
Alexander Archipenko
Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine
Alexander Bogomazov
David Burliuk
Wladimir Burliuk
Aleksandra Ekster
Natalia Goncharova
Ivan Kliun
Mikhail Larionov
Lyubov Popova
Olga Rozanov
Sonia Terk
Vasyl Yermylov
Alberto Magnelli
Vadym Meller
Aristarkh Lentulov
Oleksandr Bogomazov
Sculpture
Sculpture was a smaller subsect of the Cubo-Futurist movement. Influenced by the work of Italian futurist sculptor and painter Umberto Boccioni, and Pablo Picasso's cubist sculptures, Russian artists began experimenting with the combination of the two styles. Artists who experimented with Cubist and Futurist (or a combination of both) styles within their sculptures all expressed a dislike of traditional, classical artistic traditions, thus highlighting the characteristically Cubo-Futurist interest in transformation, innovation, and rejuvenation.
Cubo-Futurist sculptors included Joseph Chaikov, Boris Korolev and Vera Mukhina, all of whom taught at the Soviet state art school in Moscow, Vkhutemas.
Literature
Poetry
Poets that experimented with Cubo-Futurist ideals pressed the importance of deconstructing the rules and meaning of poetry, systematically attacking the previously popular Russian classical and symbolist poets due to their propensity to examine metaphysical, esoteric ideas that did not resonate with the common populace. Cubo-Futurist artists had a passion for the democratisation of poetry through the use of chaotic, common language (and concepts) that allowed for freedom of expression and interpretation by the average person. Like artists of the same movement, these poets were interested in creating "totally new words and a new way of combining them", transforming and recreating poetry into a literary form that depicted their ideas of a modernised future. Poets of the Cubo-Futurist movement saw writing as a "laboratory or workshop" to renew language and literature, dissecting words and generating neologisms in order to shift contemporary understandings of poetry in order to display their interest in revolution and modernity. This practice is known as "transrational poetry" (or zaum). The purity and dynamism artists of this movement found in mechanisation and technology, literary Cubo-Futurists found in transrational poetry, with this poetic experimentation later developing to involve the deconstruction of language to onomatopoeic forms. One such example of this is Velimir Khlebnikov's sound-paintings in his play Zangezi. Poets of this movement also utilised unorthodox methods during their public poetry recitals, such as painted faces, public clowning, and extravagant clothing in order to gather attention to their work, and highlight their futuristic experimentation.
Theatre
Introduction of Cubo-Futurist theories and ideologies into the realm of theatre production came with widespread scandal among those within the turn-of-the-century Russian society. Similar to those that engaged with Cubo-Futurism within the art world, individuals within the theatre community utilised the movement's characteristic ideology of cultural renewal, transformation, and revolution within their works, expanding futurism from the literary and artistic realm and into theatre. In July 1913, a collection of poets and artists within the Cubo-Futurist movement came together for a meeting entitled Pervyi vserossiiskii sezd Baiachei Budushchego (poetov futuristov) (First-All Russian Congress of Bards of the Future [The Futurist Poets]), establishing that the group would create a "new 'Futurian' theatre" that would be run by their own collective and "transform Russian theatre" into a modern art form. The Cubo-Futurists employed a more aggressive style within their performances, making use of arte-azione'''s (art-in-action) playfulness, provocative or unintelligible language, improvisation, and unpredictability. As stated by Roman Jakobson (1896–1982): "The evenings of the Futurists brought… the public… The public's reaction was various: many came for the scandal, but a broad segment of the student public awaited the new art, wanted the new world".
Effects of Cubo-Futurism
Cubo-Futurism was incredibly significant in the development of art styles like Rayonism, Suprematism, and Constructivism, with the movement acting as a transitionary phase between objective, figurative works and radical non-objective, non-representational abstract art. Cubo-Futurism gave artists the freedom to engage with the limitations of representation and subjectivity, and experiment with use geometric shapes and fragmented forms in order to convey a movement and dynamism that reflected their attempts to reconstruct understandings of their world and their art.
Cubo-Futurism acted as the jumping point for artists Mikhail Larionov (1881–1964) and Natalia Goncharova to develop Rayism (also called Rayonism), one of the first non-objective Russian artistic styles.
It was either Rayism or, once more, Cubism and Futurism (or a mixture of all three) which then later influenced Kazimir Malevich to create Suprematism, an art mode that is now considered one of the most significant modern art movements of the 20th century.
Gallery
See also
Futurism
Cubism
Russian Futurism
Rayonism
Vorticism
Natalia Goncharova
Mikhail Larionov
Modern art (disambiguation) – list of articles associated with the title 'Modern art'
Art period
References
External links
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/glossary/- Museum of Modern Art online dictionary of visual art terms.
https://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/curriculum-resources – Metropolitan Museum of Art curriculum resources page
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/ – free online resources engaging for modern and contemporary art
https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/?=MOOC – glossary of significant art terms
https://www.moma.org/research-and-learning/ – MOMA research and learning online page
https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers – Tate Modern London online journal of research papers and scholarly articles
https://www.oxfordartonline.com/ – Oxford's collection of peer reviewed articles, important dictionary terms, and images
Cubism
Futurist movements
Russian avant-garde
Russian art movements | 0.784986 | 0.981586 | 0.770531 |
Five themes of geography | The five themes of geography are an educational tool for teaching geography. The five themes were published in 1984 and widely adopted by teachers, textbook publishers, and curriculum designers in the United States. Most American geography and social studies classrooms have adopted the five themes in teaching practices, as they provide "an alternative to the detrimental, but unfortunately persistent, habit of teaching geography through rote memorization". They are pedagogical themes that guide how geographic content should be taught in schools.
Themes
Five Themes of geography:
Location
Place
Human-Environment Interaction
Movement
Region
Location
Every point on Earth has a location. Location can be described in two different ways:
Absolute location, a location as described by its latitude and longitude on the Earth. For example, the coordinates of Albany, New York are 42.6525° N, 73.7572° W.
Relative location, a location as described by where it is compared to something else. For example, Albany, New York is roughly 140 miles north of New York City.
Every site on Earth has a unique absolute location, which can be identified with a reference grid (such as latitude and longitude). Maps and globes can be used to find location and can also be used to convey other types of geographical information. Map projections are used to represent the three-dimensional Earth on a two-dimensional map. The Earth's position relative to the Sun affects climate, seasons, and time zones. Location as a theme helps teachers to demonstrate to students that observers have to know and be able to explain where something is before it can be examined geographically. It allows the examination of spatial relationships using spatial ideas such as distance, direction, adjacency, proximity, and enclosure.
Place
A place is an area that is defined by everything in it. It differs from location in that a place is conditions and features, and location is a position in space. Places have physical characteristics, such as landforms and plant and animal life, as well as human characteristics, such as economic activities and languages. All places have features that give them personality and distinguish them from other places. It is a combination of the “features, perceptions, and activities that occur in a given location".
Toponym: a place name, especially one derived from a topographical feature.
Site: an area of ground on which a town, building, or monument is constructed.
Situation: the location and surroundings of a place.
Population: the number of people that live in the area.
Human-environment interaction
This theme describes how people interact with the environment, and how the environment responds, with three key concepts:
Dependency: Humans depend on the environment.
Adaptation: Humans adapt to the environment.
Modification: Humans modify the environment.
Sub-themes include "the earth as an environmental system" (including the role and problems of technology, environmental hazards and limits, and adaptation) and "ethics and values" (differing cultural values and the trade-off between economic development and environmental protection). In the original 1984 Guidelines for Geographic Education: Elementary and Secondary Schools, this was called “relationships within places". It focused on the advantages and disadvantages for human settlement in places. It was later renamed to human-environment interaction. This theme is not exclusive to geography, as it is a goal for many disciplines of study.
Movement
Movement is the travel of people, goods, and ideas from one location to another. Examples of movement include the United States' westward expansion, the Information Revolution, and immigration. New devices such as the airplane and the Internet allow physical and ideological goods to be transferred long distances in short time intervals. A person's travel from place to place, and the actions they perform there are also considered movement.
Places are connected by movement:
Methods of transportation (transportation geography) – public transportation, private transportation, freight transportation
Movement in everyday life
History of movement
Economic factors influencing movement
Energy or mass induced movement – the water cycle, tectonic plates, movements within ecosystems, etc.
Global interdependence
Models of human interaction, including gravity models and central place theory
In the original 1984 Guidelines for Geographic Education: Elementary and Secondary Schools document, movement was called “relationships between places". Transportation routes and telephone lines that link people all over the world are visible examples of relationships between places.
Region
Regions are areas with distinctive characteristics: human characteristics, such as demographics or politics, and physical characteristics, such as climate and vegetation. For example, the US is a political region because it shares one governmental system.
Regions may have clear, well-defined borders or vague boundaries.
Uniform region – "defined by some uniform cultural or physical characteristic", such as the Bible Belt or New England
Functional region – space organized around a focal point, such as a metropolitan area or around the flow of something, like the water of the Amazon Basin, or the flow of travelers in an airport
Cultural diversity – regions are a way to understand human diversity.
Uniform regions and formal regions share a similar definition, with formal regions being “a group of places that have similar conditions". Even in formal regions, it is true that no region is completely homogeneous, as characteristics vary from place to place. While regions all share at least one common trait, it is true that they can have multiple traits that unite them, an example being a region that shares a language and a government.
History
The five themes of geography were published in the 1984 Guidelines for Geographic Education: Elementary and Secondary Schools by the National Council for Geographic Education/Association of American Geographers Joint Committee on Geographic Education. The document was 28 pages, and suggested the themes as a way for teachers to organize content for geography classes. The committee included Salvatore J. Natoli, Richard G. Boehm, James B. Kracht, David A. Lanegran, Janice J. Monk, and Robert W. Morrill. They settled on five themes: location, place, relationships within places (later changed to human-environment interaction), relationships between places (later shortened to movement), and region. The themes were not a "new geography" but rather a conceptual structure for organizing information about geography.
The themes became widespread in American social science education and were used for teacher training by the National Geographic Society's statewide alliances. They also played a role in reestablishing geography in school curricula. When the National Geography Standards were released in 1994, people compared them to the five themes, saying that the themes had a simplicity that the new standards were lacking.
In 1992, a National Assessment of Educational Progress consensus group said that the five themes are useful for teaching, but that for assessment, geography should be divided into the three topics of "space and place", "environment and society", and "spatial dynamic and connections".
The five themes continue to be used as an educational approach in many educational outlets. As of 2012, they are included in the National Council for the Social Studies elementary school standards and in state social studies standards.
Current Usage
The five themes continue to be used as an educational approach in many educational outlets. As of 2012, they are included in the National Council for the Social Studies elementary school standards and in state social studies standards. The influence of the five themes can still be found in many standards, such as the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Standards for elementary grades. With the increase of emphasis placed on standardized testing in the United States, social studies, and thus geography, is receiving less time in elementary classrooms.
References
Geography education
American Association of Geographers
Subfields of geography | 0.775317 | 0.993751 | 0.770472 |
American Realism | American Realism was a movement in art, music and literature that depicted contemporary social realities and the lives and everyday activities of ordinary people. The movement began in literature in the mid-19th century, and became an important tendency in visual art in the early 20th century. Whether a cultural portrayal or a scenic view of downtown New York City, American realist works attempted to define what was real.
In the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century a new generation of painters, writers and journalists were coming of age. Many of the painters felt the influence of older U.S. artists such as Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, J. Alden Weir, Thomas Pollock Anshutz, and William Merritt Chase. However they were interested in creating new and more urbane works that reflected city life and a population that was more urban than rural in the U.S. as it entered the new century.
America in the early 20th century
From the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, the United States experienced huge industrial, economic, social and cultural change. A continuous wave of European immigration and the rising potential for international trade brought increasing growth and prosperity to America. Through art and artistic expression (through all mediums including painting, literature and music), American Realism attempted to portray the exhaustion and cultural exuberance of the figurative American landscape and the life of ordinary Americans at home. Artists used the feelings, textures and sounds of the city to influence the color, texture and look of their creative projects. Musicians noticed the quick and fast-paced nature of the early 20th century and responded with a fresh and new tempo. Writers and authors told a new story about Americans; boys and girls real Americans could have grown up with. Pulling away from fantasy and focusing on the now, American Realism presented a new gateway and a breakthrough—introducing modernism, and what it means to be in the present. The Ashcan School also known as The Eight and the group called Ten American Painters created the core of the new American Modernism in the visual arts.
Ashcan School and The Eight
The Ashcan School was a group of New York City artists who sought to capture the feel of early-20th-century New York City through realistic portraits of everyday life. These artists preferred to depict the richly and culturally textured lower class immigrants, rather than the rich and promising Fifth Avenue socialites. One critic of the time did not like their choice of subjects, which included alleys, tenements, slum dwellers, and in the case of John Sloan, taverns frequented by the working class. They became known as the revolutionary black gang and apostles of ugliness.
George Bellows
George Bellows (1882–1925), painted city life in New York City. His paintings had an expressionist boldness and a willingness to take risks. He had a fascination with violence as seen in his 1909 painting Both Members of This Club, which depicts a gory boxing scene. His 1913 painting Cliff Dwellers depicts a city-scape that is not one particular view but a composite of many views.
Robert Henri
Robert Henri (1865–1921) was an important American Realist and a member of The Ashcan School. Henri was interested in the spectacle of common life. He focused on individuals, strangers, quickly passing in the streets in towns and cities. His was a sympathetic rather than a comic portrayal of people, often using a dark background to add to the warmth of the person depicted. Henri's works were characterized by vigorous brushstrokes and bold impasto which stressed the materiality of the paint. Henri influenced Glackens, Luks, Shinn and Sloan. In 1906, he was elected to the National Academy of Design, but when painters in his circle were rejected for the academy's 1907 exhibition, he accused fellow jurors of bias and walked off the jury, resolving to organize a show of his own. He later referred to the academy as "a cemetery of art".
Everett Shinn
Everett Shinn (1876–1953), a member of the Ashcan School, was famous for his numerous paintings of New York and the theater, and of various aspects of luxury and modern life inspired by his home in New York City. He painted theater scenes from London, Paris and New York. He found interest in the urban spectacle of life, drawing parallels between the theater and crowded seats and life. Unlike Degas, Shinn depicted interaction between the audience and performer.
George Benjamin Luks
George B. Luks (1866–1933) was an Ashcan school artist who lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In Luks' painting Hester Street (1905), he shows children being entertained by a man with a toy while a woman and shopkeeper have a conversation in the background. The viewer is among the crowd rather than above it. Luks puts a positive spin on the Lower East Side by showing two young girls dancing in The Spielers, which is a type of dance among working-class immigrants; despite the poverty, children dance on the street. He looks for the joy and beauty in the life of the poor rather than the tragedy.
William Glackens
Early in his career, William Glackens (1870–1938) painted the neighborhood surrounding his studio in Washington Square Park. He also was a successful commercial illustrator, producing numerous drawings and watercolors for contemporary magazines that humorously portrayed New Yorkers in their daily lives. Later in life, he was much better known as "the American Renoir" for his Impressionist views of the seashore and the French Riviera.
John Sloan
John Sloan (1871–1951) was an early-20th-century Realist of the Ashcan School, whose concerns with American social conditions led him to join the Socialist Party in 1910. Originally from Philadelphia, he worked in New York after 1904. From 1912 to 1916, he contributed illustrations to the socialist monthly The Masses. Sloan disliked propaganda, and in his drawings for The Masses, as in his paintings, he focused on the everyday lives of people. He depicted the leisure of the working class with an emphasis on female subjects. Among his better known works are Picnic Grounds and Sunday, Women Drying Their Hair. He disliked the category of Ashcan School and expressed his annoyance with art historians who identified him as a painter of the American Scene: "Some of us used to paint little rather sensitive comments about the life around us. We didn't know it was the American Scene. I don't like the name...A symptom of nationalism, which has caused a great deal of trouble in this world."
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper (1882–1967) was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. Hopper is the most modern of the American realists and the most contemporary. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. In both his urban and rural scenes, his spare and finely calculated renderings reflected his personal vision of modern American life.
Hopper's teacher Robert Henri encouraged his students to use their art to "make a stir in the world". He also advised his students "It isn’t the subject that counts but what you feel about it" and "Forget about art and paint pictures of what interests you in life". In this manner, Henri influenced Hopper, as well as students George Bellows and Rockwell Kent, and motivated them to render realistic depictions of urban life. Some artists in Henri's circle, including John Sloan, another teacher of Hopper, became members of The Eight, also known as the Ashcan School of American Art. His first existing oil painting to hint at his famous interiors was Solitary Figure in a Theater (c. 1904). During his student years, Hopper also painted dozens of nudes, still lifes, landscapes, and portraits, including his self-portraits.
Other visual artists
Joseph Stella, Charles Sheeler, Jonas Lie, Edward Willis Redfield, Joseph Pennell, Leon Kroll, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Gertrude Käsebier, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, E. J. Bellocq, Philip Koch, David Hanna
Writers
Horatio Alger, Jr.
Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author whose principal output was formulaic rags-to-riches juvenile novels that followed the adventures of bootblacks, newsboys, peddlers, buskers, and other impoverished children in their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of respectable middle-class security and comfort. His novels, of which Ragged Dick is a typical example, were hugely popular in their day.
Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane (1871–1900), born in Newark, New Jersey, had roots going back to the American Revolutionary War era, soldiers, clergymen, sheriffs, judges, and farmers who had lived a century earlier. Primarily a journalist who also wrote fiction, essays, poetry, and plays, Crane saw life at its rawest in slums and on battlefields. His haunting Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage was published to great acclaim in 1895, but he barely had time to bask in the attention before he died at 28, having neglected his health. He has enjoyed continued success since his death—as a champion of the common man, a realist, and a symbolist. Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) is one of the best, if not the earliest, naturalistic American novel. It is the harrowing story of a poor, sensitive girl whose uneducated, alcoholic parents utterly fail her. In love, and eager to escape her violent home, she allows herself to be seduced into living with a young man, who soon deserts her. When her self-righteous mother rejects her, Maggie becomes a prostitute to survive, but soon dies. Crane's earthy subject matter and his objective, scientific style, devoid of moralizing, earmark Maggie as a naturalist work.
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (1837–1920) wrote fiction and essays in the realist mode. His ideas about realism in literature developed in parallel with his socialist attitudes. In his role as editor of the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine, and as the author of books such as A Modern Instance and The Rise of Silas Lapham, Howells exerted a strong opinion and was influential in establishing his theories.
Mark Twain
Samuel Clemens (1835–1910), better known by his pen name of Mark Twain, grew up in the frontier town of Hannibal, Missouri. Early 19th-century American writers tended to be flowery, sentimental, or ostentatious—partially because they were still trying to prove that they could write as elegantly as the English. Ernest Hemingway in Green Hills of Africa wrote that many Romantics "wrote like exiled English colonials from an England of which they were never a part to a newer England that they were making...They did not use the words that people have always used in speech, the words that survive in language." In the same essay, Hemingway stated that all American fiction comes from Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain's style, based on vigorous, realistic, colloquial American speech, gave American writers a new appreciation of their national voice. Twain was the first major author to come from the interior of the country, and he captured its distinctive, humorous slang and iconoclasm. For Twain and other American writers of the late 19th century, realism was not merely a literary technique: It was a way of speaking truth and exploding outworn conventions. Twain is best known for his works Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Sam. R. Watkins
Sam. R. Watkins (1839–1901) was a 19th-century American writer and humorist best known for his memoir Co. Aytch, which recounts his life as a soldier in the Confederate States Army. He "talked in a slow humorous drawl" and demonstrated unusual prowess as a storyteller. One of the book's commendable qualities is its realism. In an age noted for romanticizing "the war" and the men who fought it, he wrote with surprising frankness. The Johnny Rebs of his pages are not all heroes. Soldier life as portrayed by Watkins had more of the dullness and suffering than of excitement and glory. He tells much of the crushing fatigue of long marches; the boredom and discomfort of the long winter lulls; the caprice and harshness of discipline; the incompetency of the officers; the periodic lapses of morale; the uncertainty and meagerness of rations; and the wearying grind of army routine. His accounts of battle make frequent reference to the dreadful screaming of shells, the awful horror of mutilated bodies, and the agonizing cries of the wounded. War as detailed by his pen was a cruel and sordid business.
Others
Other writers of this sort included Edward Eggleston, Theodore Dreiser, Henry James, Jack London, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Margaret Deland, Edith Wharton, Ambrose Bierce, and J. D. Salinger.
Journalism
Jacob Riis
Jacob August Riis (1849–1914), a Danish-American muckraker journalist, photographer, and social reformer, was born in Ribe, Denmark. He is known for his dedication to using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the less fortunate in New York City, which was the subject of most of his prolific writings and photographic essays. He helped with the implementation of "model tenements" in New York with the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller. As one of the early photographers to use flash, he is considered a pioneer in photography.
Art Young
Art Young (1866–1943) was an American cartoonist and writer. He is most famous for his socialist cartoons, especially those drawn for the radical magazine The Masses, of which Young was co-editor, from 1911 to 1917. Young started as generally apolitical, but gradually became interested in left wing ideas, and by 1906 or so, considered himself a socialist. He became politically active; by 1910, racial and sexual discrimination and the injustices of the capitalist system became prevalent themes in his work.
Music
James Allen Bland
James A. Bland (1854–1919) was the first prominent African-American songwriter and is known for his ballad, Carry me Back to Old Virginny. "In the Evening by the Moonlight" and "Golden Slippers" are well-known songs that he wrote, and he wrote other hits of the period, including "In the Morning by the Bright Light" and "De Golden Wedding". Bland wrote most of his songs from 1879 to 1882; in 1881, he left the U.S. for England with Haverly's Genuine Colored Minstrels. Bland found England more rewarding than the United States and stayed there until 1890; either he stopped writing songs during this period or he was unable to find an English publisher.
C.A. White
C.A. White (1829–1892) wrote the hit song "Put Me in My Little Bed" in 1869, establishing him as a major songwriter. White was a songwriter of serious aspirations: Many of his songs were written for vocal quartets. He also made several attempts at opera. As half-owner of the music publishing firm White, Smith & Company, he had a ready outlet for his work, but it was his songs that supported the publishing firm and not the other way around. White did not scorn writing for the popular stage—indeed he wrote a song for the pioneering African-American stage production Out of Bondage—but his principal output was for the parlor singer.
W.C. Handy
W. C. Handy (1873–1958) was a blues composer and musician, often known as the "Father of the Blues". Handy remains among the most influential of American songwriters. Although he was one of many musicians who played the distinctively American form of music known as the blues, he is credited with giving it its contemporary form. While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a not very well known regional music style to one of the dominant forces in American music. Handy was an educated musician who used folk material in his compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from several performers. He loved this folk-musical form and brought a transforming touch to it.
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin (c. 1867/68–1917) was an African-American musician and composer of ragtime music and remains the best-known figure. His music enjoyed a considerable resurgence of popularity and critical respect in the 1970s, especially for his most famous composition "The Entertainer".
See also
Realism (arts) (includes "naturalism")
Armory Show
American modernism
Photo-Secession
Modernism
Ashcan School
Visual arts of Chicago
Social realism
References
Sources
Brooks, Van Wyck (1955). John Sloan. New York: Dutton.
Doezema, Marianne, and Elizabeth Milroy (1998). Reading American Art. New Haven: Yale University Press. (pps. 311) .
Loughery, John (1997). John Sloan: Painter and Rebel. New York: Holt.
Pohl, Frances K. (2002). Framing America: A Social History of American Art. New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson. (pp. 302–312) .
External links
American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a fully digitized 3 volume exhibition catalog
Music: New Generations of Songwriters
Literature: American Realism
Literature: American Realism
Realism (art movement)
American art movements
01
Cultural history of the United States
Modern art
Culture of New York City | 0.776835 | 0.99153 | 0.770255 |
Cultural determinism | Cultural determinism is the belief that the culture in which we are raised determines who we are at emotional and behavioral levels. It contrasts with genetic determinism, the theory that biologically inherited traits and the environmental influences that affect those traits dominate who we are.
Yet another way of looking at the concept of cultural determinism is to contrast it with the idea of environmental determinism. The latter is the idea that the physical world- with all its constraints and potentially life-altering elements-is responsible for the make-up of each existing culture. Contrast this with the idea that we (humans) create our own situations through the power of thought, socialization, and all forms of information circulation.
It is also used to describe the concept that culture determines economic and political arrangements. It is an idea which has recurred in many cultures over human history, from ancient civilizations through the present.
Cultural determinism as a political and economic influence
There are a number of theories of social development that describe culture as the factor that determines all of the others. This is distinct from theories of economic determinism such as that of Marx, namely that an individual or class' role in the means of production determines outlook and cultural roles (although some Marxists reject the label "economic determinism" as an accurate description of Marx's views). Political movements rooted in cultural determinism usually stand opposed to political and economic ideologies or consider them of lesser importance than factors such as religion, race, and nationality. However, cultural determinists do not necessarily disagree with Marx's view of social class as an important determining factor as well. The idea of cultural determinism is extremely common: numerous societies have believed that their habits, ideas and customs were what determined the shape of their political and economic arrangements, and were the source of their uniqueness above all else. This can be seen in adherence to national epics, particular religious customs, and focus on the importance of language as the determiner of national identity.
Examples in history
Romanticism had a large element of cultural determinism, and also shows interest in romantic behaviors drawn from writers such as Goethe, Fichte, August and Friedrich Schlegel. In the context of Romanticism, the geography molded individuals, and over time customs and culture related to that geography arose, and these, being in harmony with the place of the society, were better than arbitrarily imposed laws.
In media theory many writers take the position that political arrangements are determined by the mass media images that people see, and that these, by displacing other forms of culture, determine the economic and political arrangements.
In modern conservatism, individuals such as commentator Patrick Buchanan and economist Robert Barro argue that cultural norms determine the behavior of political arrangements. However, the cultural determinism of Buchanan and like-minded conservatives is currently a source of conflict among American conservatives.
See also
Arnold J. Toynbee
Cultural pessimism
Determinism
Oswald Spengler
Paleoconservatism
Racialism (racial categorization)
Romantic nationalism
Semere
Standard social science model
T. S. Eliot
Tribalism
References
Cultural anthropology
Determinism
Philosophy of history | 0.79509 | 0.968605 | 0.770128 |
Sociocultural perspective | The sociocultural perspective is a theory used in fields such as psychology and education and is used to describe awareness of circumstances surrounding individuals and how their behaviors are affected specifically by their surrounding, social and cultural factors. According to Catherine A. Sanderson (2010) “Sociocultural perspective: A perspective describing people’s behavior and mental processes as shaped in part by their social and/or cultural contact, including race, gender, and nationality.” Sociocultural perspective theory is a broad yet significant aspect in our being. It applies to every sector of our daily lives. How we communicate, understand, relate and cope with one another is partially based on this theory. Our spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, physiological being are all influenced by factors studied by sociocultural perspective theory.
Ideology
Various studies examine topics using the sociocultural perspective in order to account for variability from person to person and acknowledge that social and cultural differences affect these individuals. One example comes from the journal European Psychologist: Investigating Motivation in Context: Developing Sociocultural Perspectives by Richard A. Walker, Kimberley Pressick-kilborn, Bert M. Lancaster, and Erica J. Sainsbury (2004). Recently, however, a renewed interest in the contextual nature of motivation has come about for several reasons. First, the relatively recent influence of the ideas of Vygotsky and his followers (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996; Greeno & The Middle School Through Applications Project, 1998) in educational psychology has led writers in the field (Goodenow, 1992; Pintrich, 1994; Anderman & Anderman, 2000) to acknowledge the importance of context and to call for its greater recognition in educational psychology, and more particularly in motivational research. As both Goodenow (1992) and Hickey (1997) note, in sociocultural theories deriving from Vygotsky, human activities, events, and actions cannot be separated from the context in which they occur so that context becomes an important issue in sociocultural research. Second, researchers concerned with learning and cognition (e.g., Greeno et al., 1998) have come to see these processes also as being situated in particular contexts. While this view, with its emphasis on the distributed nature of learning and cognition, has origins in sociocultural theories".
This theory or perspective is examined in The Modern Language Journal “A Sociocultural Perspective on Language Learning Strategies: The Role of Mediation” by Richard Donato and Dawn McCormick. According to Donato and McCormick (1994) “Sociocultural theory maintains that social interaction and cultural institutions, such as schools, classrooms, etc., have important roles to play in an individual’s cognitive growth and development.” “We believe that this perspective goes beyond current cognitive and social psychological conceptions of strategic language learning, both of which assume that language tasks and contexts are generalizable. The sociocultural perspective, on the other hand, views language learning tasks and contexts as situated activities that are continually under development (22) and that are influential upon individuals’ strategic orientations to classroom learning.”
Health factors
The sociocultural perspective is also used here in order to assess use of mental health services for immigrants: “From a sociocultural perspective, this article reviews causes of mental health service under use among Chinese immigrants and discusses practice implications. Factors explaining service under use among Chinese immigrants are multifaceted, extending across individual, family, cultural and system domains. The first of these is cultural explanation of mental illness. Cultural beliefs, regarding the cause of mental disorders greatly affect service use. The perceived causes of mental illness include moral, religious, or cosmological, physiological, psychological, social and genetic factors”. From Canadian Social Work, “A Sociocultural Perspective of Mental Health Services Use by Chinese Immigrants” by Lin Fang, (2010).
Coping
According to Asian American Journal of Psychology, "Coping with perceived racial and gender discrimination experiences among 11 Asian/Asian American female faculty at various Christian universities" have been examined in this theory. After the study was conducted the results revealed that "ten of the 11 women described experiences where they perceived being treated differently due to race and/or gender. Qualitative analyses of interview data revealed four themes related to coping: Proactive Coping, External Support, Personal Resources, and Spiritual Coping. The resulting themes are discussed in light of existing research, with an emphasis on the importance of understanding cultural and religious values to the study of coping".
Language
Another instance of the sociocultural perspective can be found in language learning literature: “By adopting a sociocultural perspective that highlights the critical role of the social context in cognitive and social development (Vygotsky, 1978), we propose that learners’ actions to facilitate or sometimes constrain their language learning cannot be fully understood without considering the situated contexts in which strategies emerge and develop, as well as the kinds of hierarchies within which studies from diverse backgrounds find themselves in U.S. classrooms (Bourdieu, 1991). From Theory Into Practice, “A Sociocultural Perspective on Second Language Learner Strategies: Focus on the Impact of Social Context.” by Eun-Young Jang and Robert T. Jimenez, 2011.
References
-Kim, C. L., Hall, M., Anderson, T. L., & Willingham, M. M. (2011). Coping with discrimination in academia: Asian-American and Christian perspectives. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 2(4), 291-305.
-Jarrett, C. (2008). Foundations of sand?. The Psychologist, 21(9), 756-759.
-European Psychologist, Vol 9(4), Dec, 2004. Special Section: Motivation in Real-Life, Dynamic, and Interactive Learning Environments. pp. 245–256
-Modern Language Journal, Vol 78(4), Win, 1994. Special issue: Sociocultural theory and second language learning. pp. 453–464.
-Canadian Social Work: “A Sociocultural Perspective of Mental Health Services Use by Chinese Immigrants” by Lin Fang, Autumn 2010, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p152-160, 9p
-Theory Into Practice. A Sociocultural Perspective on Second Language Learner Strategies: Focus on the Impact of Social Context. Eun-Young Jang and Robert T. Jimenez 2011, Vol. 50 Issue 2, p141-148. 8p.
Footnotes
General references
Kim, C. L., Hall, M., Anderson, T. L., & Willingham, M. M. (2011). Coping with discrimination in academia: Asian-American and Christian perspectives. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 2(4), 291-305.
Jarrett, C. (2008). Foundations of sand?. The Psychologist, 21(9), 756-759.
European Psychologist, Vol 9(4), Dec, 2004. Special Section: Motivation in Real-Life, Dynamic, and Interactive Learning Environments. pp. 245–256
Modern Language Journal, Vol 78(4), Win, 1994. Special issue: Sociocultural theory and second language learning. pp. 453–464.
Canadian Social Work: “A Sociocultural Perspective of Mental Health Services Use by Chinese Immigrants” by Lin Fang, Autumn 2010, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p152-160, 9p
Theory Into Practice. A Sociocultural Perspective on Second Language Learner Strategies: Focus on the Impact of Social Context. Eun-Young Jang and Robert T. Jimenez 2011, Vol. 50 Issue 2, p141-148. 8p.
Psychological theories | 0.78184 | 0.985019 | 0.770128 |
Tribalism | Tribalism is the state of being organized by, or advocating for, tribes or tribal lifestyles. Human evolution has primarily occurred in small hunter-gatherer groups, as opposed to in larger and more recently settled agricultural societies or civilizations. With a negative connotation and in a political context, tribalism can also mean discriminatory behavior or attitudes towards out-groups, based on in-group loyalty.
Definition
The word "tribe" can be defined to mean an extended kin group or clan with a common ancestor, or can also be described as a group who share the common interest of mutual survival and preservation of a common culture. The proverb "birds of a feather flock together" describes homophily, the human tendency to form friendship networks with people of similar occupations, interests, and habits. Some tribes can be located in geographically proximate areas, like villages or bands, and although telecommunications in theory could enable groups of people to form tribe-like communities, digital tribes and social networking websites are not quite tribes in that they do not inherently provide the mutual survival of both the individual members of the tribe and for the tribe itself, as tribes do.
In terms of conformity, the word "tribalism" has been co-opted and stripped of its original meaning, and has been defined as a "subjectivity" or "way of being" social frame in which communities are bound socially beyond immediate birth ties by the dominance of various modalities of face-to-face and object integration. Ontologically, tribalism is oriented around the valences of analogy, genealogy and mythology. That means that customary tribes have their social foundations in some variation of these tribal orientations, while often taking on traditional practices (e.g. Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), and modern practices, including monetary exchange, mobile communications, and modern education.
Tribalism in a political sense refers to the strong political solidarity typical of post-truth politics.
Social structure
The social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case. The relatively small size of customary tribes results in a social life which usually involve a relatively few significant political or economic distinctions between individuals. As a result, social hierarchy is uncommon, and deep bonds are made between individual members.
A tribe often refers to itself using its own language's word for "people", and refers to other, neighboring tribes with various words to distinguish them as other. For example, the term "Inuit" translates to "people".
Types
Tribalism implies the possession of a strong cultural or ethnic identity that separates one member of a group from the members of another group. Based on strong relations of proximity and kinship, as well as relations based on the mutual survival of both the individual members of the tribe and for the tribe itself, members of a tribe tend to possess a strong feeling of identity. Objectively, for a customary tribal society to form there needs to be ongoing customary organization, inquiry, and exchange. However, intense feelings of common identity can lead people to feel tribally connected.
The distinction between these two definitions of tribalism, objective and subjective, is an important one because while tribal societies have been pushed to the edges of the Western world, tribalism, by the second definition, is arguably undiminished. A few writers have postulated that the human brain is hard-wired towards tribalism, but that claim is usually linked to equating original questions of sociality with tribalism.
Concept evolution
Tribalism has a very adaptive effect in human evolution. Humans are social animals and ill-equipped to live on their own. Tribalism and social bonding help to keep individuals committed to the group, even when personal relations may fray. That keeps individuals from wandering off or joining other groups. It also leads to bullying when a tribal member is unwilling to conform to the politics of the collective.
Some scholars argue that inclusive fitness in humans involves kin selection and kin altruism, in which groups of an extended family with shared genes help others with similar genes, based on their coefficient of relationship (the amount of genes they have in common). Other scholars argue that fictive kinship is common in human organizations, allowing non-kin members to collaborate in groups like fraternities.
Socially, divisions between groups fosters specialized interactions with others, based on association: altruism (positive interactions with unrelated members), kin-selectivity (positive interactions with related members) and violence (negative interactions). Thus, groups with a strong sense of unity and identity can benefit from kin selection behaviour such as common property and shared resources. The tendencies of members to unite against an outside tribe and the ability to act violently and prejudicially against that outside tribe likely boosted the chances of survival in genocidal conflicts.
Modern examples of tribal genocide rarely reflect the defining characteristics of tribes existing prior to the Neolithic Revolution; for example, small population and close-relatedness.
According to a study by Robin Dunbar at the University of Liverpool, social group size is determined by primate brain size. Dunbar's conclusion was that most human brains can really understand only an average of 150 individuals as fully developed, complex people. That is known as Dunbar's number. In contrast, anthropologist H. Russell Bernard and Peter Killworth have done a variety of field studies in the United States that came up with an estimated mean number of ties, 290, roughly double Dunbar's estimate. The Bernard–Killworth median of 231 is lower because of upward straggle in the distribution, but it is still appreciably larger than Dunbar's estimate.
Malcolm Gladwell expanded on this conclusion sociologically in his book, The Tipping Point, where members of one of his types, Connectors, were successful by their larger-than-average number of close friendships and capacity for maintaining them, which tie together otherwise-unconnected social groups. According to such studies, then, "tribalism" is a hard-to-escape fact of human neurology simply because many human brains are not adapted to working with large populations. Once a person's limit for connection is reached, the human brain resorts to some combination of hierarchical schemes, stereotypes and other simplified models to understand so many people.
Negative outcomes
Anthropologists engage in ongoing debate on the phenomenon of warfare among tribes. While fighting typically and certainly occurs among horticultural tribes, an open question remains whether such warfare is a typical feature of hunter-gatherer life or is an anomaly found only in certain circumstances, such as scarce resources (as with the Inuit or Arabs) or only among food-producing societies.
Certain tribes use forms of subsistence such as horticulture and foraging that cannot yield the same number of absolute calories as agriculture. Those subsistance methods thus limit those tribal populations significantly, especially when compared to agricultural populations. Jesse Mathis writes in War Before Civilization that examples exist with low percentage rates of casualties in tribal battle, and some tribal battles were much more lethal as a percentage of population than, for example, the Battle of Gettysburg. He concludes that no evidence consistently indicates that primitive battles are proportionately less lethal than civilized ones.
The realistic conflict theory is a model of intergroup conflict, arguing that in a real or perceived zero-sum system, conflicts arise over shared interests for finite resources. The 1954 Robbers Cave experiment involved researchers putting 12-year-old boys into groups, where they formed their own ingroups, before then developing hostility and negativity towards the other group during simulated conflict over finite resources in a zero-sum game.
Criticism
Various authors, such as Aidan Southall, have attacked the notion of tribe as a tool of colonial ideology, and identified modern tribalism as a product of colonial governance in Africa. The Africa Policy Information Center describes the term, and tribalism in particular as a byword for ethnic strife, as invoking negative stereotypes of Africa as a land of primitive and territorial peoples.
An April, 2021 article published in The Journal of Hospital Medicine titled "Tribalism: The Good, The Bad, and The Future" by Zahir Kanjee and Leslie Bilello of Harvard Medical School was retracted due to protest from readers over the use of the terms tribe and tribalism. The article was then republished with the title "Leadership and Professional Development: Specialty Silos in Medicine" along with an apology from the editor-in-chief. The revised version of the article substituted the terms groups and medical specialties for tribes, and siloed and factional for tribalism.
See also
References
Further reading
External links
James, Paul; et al., Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Development: Other Paths for Papua New Guinea (2012).
Sow, Adama: "Ethnozentrismus als Katalysator bestehender Konflikte in Afrika südlich der Sahara, am Beispiel der Unruhen in Côte d`Ivoire" at: European University Center for Peace Studies, Stadtschleining 2005 .
"The New Tribalism" by University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer, condemning a "new tribalism" in the traditional sense of "tribalism", not to be confused with "new tribalism".
Steven Pressfield, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100516030351/http://www.stevenpressfield.com/vblog/ It's the Tribes, Stupid] (five part video series)
Episode 1: "It's the Tribes, Stupid"
Episode 2: "The Citizen Vs. The Tribesman"
Episode 3: "Tribes Are Different From You and Me"
Episode 4: "Fighting a Tribal Enemy"
Episode 5: "How to Win in Afghanistan"
Forms of government
Group processes
Political science theories
Sociological terminology
Tribes | 0.77389 | 0.99497 | 0.769998 |
The Interpretation of Cultures | The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays is a 1973 book by the American anthropologist Clifford Geertz. The book is a foundational text in cultural anthropology and represents Geertz’s vision of how culture should be studied and understood. The essays collectively argue for a new approach to anthropology, one that emphasizes the interpretive analysis of culture, which Geertz describes as “webs of significance” spun by humans themselves. The book was listed in the Times Literary Supplement as one of the 100 most important publications since World War Two.
Key Concepts
The key contribution of The Interpretation of Cultures is Geertz's idea of thick description, a method of qualitative research that involves deeply detailed descriptions of cultural activities in their context. This approach goes beyond merely cataloging behaviors or rituals, seeking instead to understand the complex layers of meaning embedded within these activities. Thick description allows researchers to capture the rich detail that brings cultural practices to life, making them comprehensible to outsiders.
Geertz also redefined the concept of culture itself, arguing that culture is not a set of behaviors or practices that can be objectively observed but a system of symbols and meanings that are interpreted and understood differently within each cultural context. He famously stated that humans are “suspended in webs of significance” they themselves have spun, with culture being these webs, and anthropology's role as interpreting their meanings.
Religion and Ideology as Cultural Systems
Geertz’s essays also explore the concept of religion and ideology as cultural systems. He proposes that religion provides a framework for understanding what is “really real” to its adherents, serving to order the world in ways that make life’s ambiguities, puzzles, and paradoxes manageable. In this view, religious symbols function to synthesize a society’s ethos (the moral and aesthetic aspects of life) with their worldview (the existential order).
Similarly, Geertz views ideology as a cultural system that provides individuals with symbolic frameworks for interpreting their social and political environments. Ideologies, according to Geertz, help individuals navigate the complexities of social life, offering selective solutions to specific problems and often simplifying or exaggerating aspects of social reality. This perspective highlights the importance of understanding the symbolic dimensions of ideology in order to grasp its influence on social and political life.
Influence
Geertz was awarded the Sorokin Award in 1974 by the American Sociological Association "for his brilliant essays on The Interpretation of Cultures." The book is considered to be influential within the anthropological discipline, particularly in terms of the discussion of thick description as a construct for examining social phenomena.
The Interpretation of Cultures significantly influenced the field of anthropology by shifting the focus towards a more interpretive approach to understanding cultures. Geertz's work helped to move anthropology away from the search for universal laws of human behavior and towards a more nuanced understanding of how cultural meanings are constructed and maintained within specific contexts.
This book has been highly influential not only in anthropology but also in related fields such as sociology, cultural studies, and literary theory. It introduced a method of analysis that has been widely adopted in qualitative research across the social sciences. The concept of thick description has become a cornerstone of ethnographic research, emphasizing the importance of context in understanding cultural practices.
Geertz’s ideas also laid the groundwork for what would later be known as symbolic or interpretive anthropology, a school of thought that has had a lasting impact on the study of culture.
Reception
Upon its publication, The Interpretation of Cultures was met with critical acclaim and became a foundational text in cultural anthropology. It was praised for its innovative approach and for providing a comprehensive framework for understanding culture through symbols and meanings. However, it has also faced criticism, particularly regarding the complexity and sometimes opaque nature of Geertz’s prose, which some have found difficult to follow.
Editions
The book was first published in 1973 by Basic Books and has since been reprinted several times. A second edition was released in 2000, which includes a new preface by Geertz.
See also
"Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight"
References
1973 non-fiction books
Anthropology books
Basic Books books
English-language books
Ethnographic literature | 0.786705 | 0.978694 | 0.769944 |
Performing arts | The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Performing arts include a range of disciplines which are performed in front of a live audience, including theatre, music, and dance.
Theatre, music, dance, object manipulation, and other kinds of performances are present in all human cultures. The history of music and dance date to pre-historic times whereas circus skills date to at least Ancient Egypt. Many performing arts are performed professionally. Performance can be in purpose-built buildings, such as theatres and opera houses, on open air stages at festivals, on stages in tents such as circuses or on the street.
Live performances before an audience are a form of entertainment. The development of audio and video recording has allowed for private consumption of the performing arts. The performing arts often aims to express one's emotions and feelings.
Performers
Artists who participate in performing arts in front of an audience are called performers. Examples of these include actors, comedians, dancers, magicians, circus artists, musicians, and singers. Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting, choreography and stagecraft. Performers often adapt their appearance, such as with costumes and stage makeup, stage lighting, and sound.
Types
Performing arts may include dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic, illusion, mime, spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, stand-up comedy, improv, professional wrestling and performance art.
There is also a specialized form of fine art, in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. This is called performance art. Most performance art also involves some form of plastic art, perhaps in the creation of props. Dance was often referred to as a plastic art during the modern dance era.
Theatre
Theatre is the branch of performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience, using a combination of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound, and spectacle. Any one or more of these elements is considered performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style of plays, theater takes such forms as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, illusion, mime, classical Indian dance, kabuki, mummers' plays, improvisational theatre, comedy, pantomime, and non-conventional or contemporary forms like postmodern theatre, postdramatic theatre, or performance art.
Dance
In the context of performing arts, dance generally refers to human movement, typically rhythmic and to music, used as a form of audience entertainment in a performance setting. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic, and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to codified, virtuoso techniques such as ballet.
There is one another modern form of dance that emerged in 19th- 20th century with the name of free dance style. This form of dance was structured to create a harmonious personality which included features such as physical and spiritual freedom. Isadora Duncan was the first female dancer who argued about "woman of future" and developed novel vector of choreography using Nietzsche's idea of "supreme mind in free mind".
Dance is a powerful impulse, but the art of dance is that impulse channeled by skillful performers into something that becomes intensely expressive and that may delight spectators who feel no wish to dance themselves. These two concepts of the art of dance—dance as a powerful impulse and dance as a skillfully choreographed art practiced largely by a professional few—are the two most important connecting ideas running through any consideration of the subject. In dance, the connection between the two concepts is stronger than in some other arts, and neither can exist without the other.
Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who practices this art is called a choreographer.
Music
Music is an art form which combines pitch, rhythm, and dynamic to create sound. It can be performed using a variety of instruments and styles and is divided into genres such as folk, jazz, hip hop, pop, and rock, etc. As an art form, music can occur in live or recorded formats, and can be planned or improvised.
As music is a protean art, it easily coordinates with words for songs as physical movements do in dance. Moreover, it has a capability of shaping human behaviors as it impacts our emotions.
History
Western performing arts
Starting in the 6th century BC, the Classical period of performing art began in Greece, ushered in by the tragic poets such as Sophocles. These poets wrote plays which, in some cases, incorporated dance (see Euripides). The Hellenistic period began the widespread use of comedy.
However, by the 6th century AD, Western performing arts had been largely ended as the Dark Ages began. Between the 9th century and 14th century, performing art in the West was limited to religious historical enactments and morality plays, organized by the Church in celebration of holy days and other important events.
Renaissance
In the 15th century performing arts, along with the arts in general, saw a revival as the Renaissance began in Italy and spread throughout Europe plays, some of which incorporated dance, which were performed and Domenico da Piacenza credited with the first use of the term ballo (in De Arte Saltandi et Choreas Ducendi) instead of danza (dance) for his baletti or balli. The term eventually became Ballet. The first Ballet per se is thought to be Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx's Ballet Comique de la Reine (1581).
By the mid-16th century Commedia Dell'arte became popular in Europe, introducing the use of improvisation. This period also introduced the Elizabethan masque, featuring music, dance and elaborate costumes as well as professional theatrical companies in England. William Shakespeare's plays in the late 16th century developed from this new class of professional performance.
In 1597, the first opera, Dafne was performed and throughout the 17th century, opera would rapidly become the entertainment of choice for the aristocracy in most of Europe, and eventually for large numbers of people living in cities and towns throughout Europe.
Modern era
The introduction of the proscenium arch in Italy during the 17th century established the traditional theatre form that persists to this day. Meanwhile, in England, the Puritans forbade acting, bringing a halt to performing arts that lasted until 1660. After that, women began to appear in both French and English plays. The French introduced a formal dance instruction in the late 17th century.
It is also during this time that the first plays were performed in the American Colonies.
During the 18th century, the introduction of the popular opera buffa brought opera to the masses as an accessible form of performance. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni are landmarks of the late 18th century opera.
At the turn of the 19th century, Beethoven and the Romantic movement ushered in a new era that led first to the spectacles of grand opera and then to the musical dramas of Giuseppe Verdi and the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) of the operas of Richard Wagner leading directly to the music of the 20th century.
The 19th century was a period of growth for the performing arts for all social classes, technical advances such as the introduction of gaslight to theatres, burlesque, minstrel dancing, and variety theatre. In ballet, women make great progress in the previously male-dominated art.
Modern dance began in the late 19th century and early 20th century in response to the restrictions of traditional ballet.
The arrival of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (1909–1929) revolutionized ballet and the performing arts generally throughout the Western world, most importantly through Diaghilev's emphasis on collaboration, which brought choreographers, dancers, set designers/artists, composers and musicians together to revitalize and revolutionize ballet. It is extremely complex.
Konstantin Stanislavski's "System" revolutionized acting in the early 20th century, and continues to have a major influence on actors of stage and screen to the current day. Both impressionism and modern realism were introduced to the stage during this period.
With the invention of the motion picture in the late 19th century by Thomas Edison and the growth of the motion picture industry in Hollywood in the early 20th century, film became a dominant performance medium throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
Rhythm and blues, a cultural phenomenon of black America, rose to prominence in the early 20th century, influencing a range of later popular music styles internationally.
In the 1930s Jean Rosenthal introduced what would become modern stage lighting, changing the nature of the stage as the Broadway musical became a phenomenon in the United States.
Postwar
Post-World War II performing arts were highlighted by the resurgence of both ballet and opera in the Western world.
Postmodernism dominated the performing arts during the 1970s and the 1980s.
African performing arts
Indigenous African performance traditions are rooted in ritual, storytelling, movement, and music. Performances were communal with the storytellers and audience interacting and participating in call and response, which is characterized by a vocalist singing a phrase that is then echoed or responded to with a new phrase by the other performers and/or audience. This ancient tradition is rooted in many African cultures.
North Africa
The earliest recorded theatrical event dates back to 2000 BC with the ceremonial plays of Ancient Egypt. The story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization, marking the known beginning of a long relationship between theatre and religion. The Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus, the oldest surviving illustrated papyrus details the performance during the Sed Festival and has been used as evidence of the birth of theatrical tradition, which western scholars often attribute to ancient Greece.
West Africa
A Griot is a West African oral historian who uses storytelling, poetry, and music to express the genealogies and historical narratives of the tribes they represent, often playing instruments such as the kora. This ancient profession is upheld in a position of community leadership.
Eastern performing arts
West Asia
The most popular forms of theater in the medieval Islamic world were puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta'ziya, where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. It commonly refers to passion plays about the battle of Karbala and its prior and subsequent events. Sir Lewis Pelly begins the preface of his book about Ta'zieh maintaining that "If the success of a drama is to be measured by the effects
which it produces upon the people for whom it is composed, or upon the audiences before whom it is represented, no play has ever surpassed the tragedy known in the Mussulman world as that of Hasan and Husain."
Years later Peter Chelkowski, professor of Iranian and Islamic studies at NYU, chooses the same words for the beginning of his book 'Ta`ziyeh, ritual and drama in Iran'.
Live secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta'ziya theater.
Iran
In Iran there are other forms of theatrical events such as Naghali or Naqqāli (story telling), Ta'zieh, ٰRu-Howzi, Siah-Bazi, Parde-Khani, and Mareke giri. Prior to the twentieth century, storytelling was the most recognized form of entertainment, although today, some forms still remain. One form, Naghali, was traditionally performed in coffeehouses where the storytellers, or Naghals (Naqqāls), only recited sections of a story at a time, thus retaining regular cliental. These stories were based on events of historical or religious importance and many referenced poetries from the Shahnameh. These stories were often altered to bond with the atmosphere or mood of the audience.
India
Folk theatre and dramatics can be traced to the religious ritualism of the Vedic peoples in the 2nd millennium BC. This folk theatre of the misty past was mixed with dance, food, ritualism, plus a depiction of events from daily life. The last element made it the origin of the classical theatre of later times. Many historians, notably D. D. Kosambi, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya, etc. have referred to the prevalence of ritualism amongst Indo-Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals, and some others were the hunters. Those who acted as mammals like goats, buffaloes, reindeer, monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters.
Bharata Muni (fl. 5th–2nd century BC) was an ancient Indian writer best known for writing the Natya Shastra of Bharata, a theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, including theatre, dance, acting, and music, which has been compared to Aristotle's Poetics. Bharata is often known as the father of Indian theatrical arts. His Natya Shastra seems to be the first attempt to develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic manner. The Natya Shastra tells us not only what is to be portrayed in a drama, but how the portrayal is to be done. Drama, as Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti). As men and their doings have to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known by the term rupaka, which means portrayal.{{}}
The Ramayana and Mahabharata can be considered the first recognized plays that originated in India. These epics provided the inspiration to the earliest Indian dramatists and they do it even today. Indian dramatists such as Bhāsa in the 2nd century BC wrote plays that were heavily inspired by the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Kālidāsa in the 1st century BC, is arguably considered to be ancient India's greatest dramatist. Three famous romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram (Mālavikā and Agnimitra), Vikramōrvaśīyam (Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi), and Abhijñānaśākuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala). The last was inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German. In comparison to Bhāsa, who drew heavily from the epics, Kālidāsa can be considered an original playwright.
The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century). He is said to have written the following three plays: Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these three, the last two cover between them, the entire epic of Ramayana. The powerful Indian emperor Harsha (606–648) is credited with having written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali, Priyadarsika, and the Buddhist drama Nagananda. Many other dramatists followed during the Middle Ages.
There were many performing art forms in the southern part of India, Kerala is such a state with different such art forms like Koodiyattam, Nangyarkoothu, Kathakali, Chakyar koothu, Thirayattam and there were many prominent artists like Painkulam Raman Chakyar and others.
China
There are references to theatrical entertainments in China as early as 1500 BC during the Shang dynasty; they often involved music, clowning and acrobatic displays.
The Tang dynasty is sometimes known as "The Age of 1000 Entertainments". During this era, Emperor Xuanzong formed an acting school known as the Children of the Pear Garden to produce a form of drama that was primarily musical.
During the Han Dynasty, shadow puppetry first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in China. There were two distinct forms of shadow puppetry, Cantonese southern and Pekingese northern. The two styles were differentiated by the method of making the puppets and the positioning of the rods on the puppets, as opposed to the type of play performed by the puppets. Both styles generally performed plays depicting great adventure and fantasy, rarely was this very stylized form of theatre used for political propaganda. Cantonese shadow puppets were the larger of the two. They were built using thick leather that created more substantial shadows. Symbolic color was also very prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. The rods used to control Cantonese puppets were attached perpendicular to the puppets' heads. Thus, they were not seen by the audience when the shadow was created. Pekingese puppets were more delicate and smaller. They were created out of thin, translucent leather usually taken from the belly of a donkey. They were painted with vibrant paints, thus they cast a very colorful shadow. The thin rods that controlled their movements were attached to a leather collar at the neck of the puppet. The rods ran parallel to the bodies of the puppet then turned at a ninety-degree angle to connect to the neck. While these rods were visible when the shadow was cast, they laid outside the shadow of the puppet; thus, they did not interfere with the appearance of the figure. The rods attached at the necks to facilitate the use of multiple heads with one body. When the heads were not being used, they were stored in a muslin book or fabric lined box. The heads were always removed at night. This was in keeping with the old superstition that if left intact, the puppets would come to life at night. Some puppeteers went so far as to store the heads in one book and the bodies in another, to further reduce the possibility of reanimating puppets. Shadow puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of artistic development in the 11th century before becoming a tool of the government.
In the Song dynasty, there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These developed in the Yuan dynasty into a more sophisticated form with a four- or five-act structure. Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, the best known of which is Beijing Opera, which is still popular today.
Thailand
In Thailand, it has been a tradition from the Middle Ages to stage plays based on plots drawn from Indian epics. In particular, the theatrical version of Thailand's national epic Ramakien, a version of the Indian Ramayana, remains popular in Thailand even today.
Cambodia
In Cambodia, inscriptions dating back to the 6th century AD indicates evidence of dancers at a local temple and using puppetry for religious plays. At the ancient capital Angkor Wat, stories from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have been carved on the walls of temples and palaces. Similar reliefs are found at Borobudur in Indonesia.
Philippines
In the Philippines, the famous epic poem Ibong Adarna, originally titled "Korido at Buhay na Pinagdaanan ng Tatlong Prinsipeng Magkakapatid na anak nina Haring Fernando at Reyna Valeriana sa Kahariang Berbania" (English: "Corrido and Life Lived by the Three Princes, children of King Fernando and Queen Valeriana in the Kingdom of Berbania") from the 16th century was written by José de la Cruz during the Spanish era. Aside from theatrical performances, different films were produced by different film studios/ television productions. The first produced "Ang Ibong Adarna" film was produced by LVN Pictures, the biggest film studio in the history of the Philippines.
Florante at Laura is an "awit" or a poem consisting of 12-syllable quatrains with the full title "Pinagdaanang Buhay ni Florante at ni Laura sa Kahariang Albanya" (English: "The History of Florante and Laura in the Kingdom of Albania") was written by Francisco Balagtas in 1838 during his imprisonment dedicated to his sweetheart Maria Asuncuion Rivera (nicknamed "M.A.R.", referenced to as "Selya"). The poem has a special part entitled "Kay Selya" (English: "For Celia") specially dedicated for Rivera.
The Philippine's national hero, José Rizal who is also a novelist, created the two famous poems in the Philippines, Noli Me Tángere (Latin for "Touch me not", with an acute accent added on the final word in accordance with Spanish orthography) (1887) that describes perceived inequities of the Spanish Catholic friars and the ruling government and El Filibusterismo (translations: The filibusterism; The Subversive or The Subversion, as in the Locsín English translation, are also possible translations, also known by its alternative English title The Reign of Greed) (1891). The novel's dark theme departs dramatically from the previous novel's hopeful and romantic atmosphere, signifying Ibarra's resort to solving his country's issues through violent means, after his previous attempt in reforming the country's system made no effect and seemed impossible with the corrupt attitude of the Spaniards toward the Filipinos. These novels were written during the colonization of the Philippines by the Spanish Empire.
All of these literary pieces were under the curriculum of the K-12 Program for Junior High Schools, Ibong Adarna is under the Grade 7 Curriculum; Florante at Laura (Grade 8); Noli Me Tángere (Grade 9); and El Filibusterismo (Grade 10).
Japan
During the 14th century, there were small companies of actors in Japan who performed short, sometimes vulgar comedies. A director of one of these companies, Kan'ami (1333–1384), had a son, Zeami Motokiyo (1363–1443), who was considered one of the finest child actors in Japan. When Kan'ami's company performed for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408), the of Japan, he implored Zeami to have a court education for his arts. After Zeami succeeded his father, he continued to perform and adapt his style into what is today Noh. A mixture of pantomime and vocal acrobatics, the Noh style of theatre has become one of Japan's most refined forms of theatrical performance.
Japan, after a long period of civil wars and political disarray, was unified and at peace primarily due to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1600–1668). However, alarmed at the increasing numbers of Christians within the country due to the proselytizing efforts of Christian missionaries, he cut off contact from Japan to Europe and China and outlawed Christianity. When peace did come, a flourish of cultural influence and growing merchant class demanded its own entertainment. The first form of theatre to flourish was Ningyō jōruri (commonly referred to as Bunraku). The founder of and main contributor to Ningyō jōruri, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1725), turned his form of theatre into a true art form. Ningyō jōruri is a highly stylized form of theatre using puppets, today about the size of a human. The men who control the puppets train to become master puppeteers, when they can then operate the puppet's head and right arm and choose to show their faces during the performance. The other puppeteers, controlling the less important limbs of the puppet, cover themselves and their faces in a black suit, to imply their invisibility. The dialogue is handled by a single person, who uses varied tones of voice and speaking manners to simulate different characters. Chikamatsu wrote thousands of plays during his lifetime, most of which are still used today.
Kabuki began shortly after Bunraku, legend has it by an actress named Okuni, who lived around the end of the 16th century. Most of kabuki's material came from Noh and Bunraku, and its erratic dance-type movements are also an effect of Bunraku. However, kabuki is less formal and more distant than Noh, yet very popular among the Japanese public. Actors are trained in many varied things including dancing, singing, pantomime, and even acrobatics. Kabuki was first performed by young girls, then by young boys, and by the end of the 16th century, kabuki companies consisted of all men. The men who portrayed women on stage were specifically trained to elicit the essence of a woman in their subtle movements and gestures.
History of performing arts in the Americas
History of performing arts in Oceania
Melanesian dance often exhibits a cultural theme of masculinity where leadership and a unique skill set are important for sharing with the community. These dances demonstrate the soldiery of a man; however they can also represent profitability such as encouraging conflict resolutions or healing. The costumes of impersonating dancers incorporate large masks and unhuman-like characteristics that act to imitate mythical figures. The music can also act as a voice for these magical personas.
See also
Entertainment
Mixed martial arts
Outline of performing arts
Performing arts education
Performing arts presenters
United States copyright law in the performing arts
Persian theatre
Theatre of Japan
Western culture
References
External links
Bibliography of Performing Arts in the East
European Collected Library on Performing Arts
Entertainment | 0.771326 | 0.998205 | 0.769941 |
Neo-futurism | Neo-futurism is a late-20th to early-21st-century movement in the arts, design, and architecture.
Described as an avant-garde movement, as well as a futuristic rethinking of the thought behind aesthetics and functionality of design in growing cities, the movement has its origins in the mid-20th-century structural expressionist work of architects such as Alvar Aalto and Buckminster Fuller.
Futurist architecture began in the 20th century starting with styles such as Art Deco and later with the Googie movement as well as high-tech architecture.
Origins
Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s by architects such as Buckminster Fuller and John C. Portman Jr.; architect and industrial designer Eero Saarinen, Archigram, an avant-garde architectural group (Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton, Michael Webb and David Greene, Jan Kaplický and others); it is considered in part an evolution out of high-tech architecture, developing many of the same themes and ideas.
Although it was never built, the Fun Palace (1961), interpreted by architect Cedric Price as a "giant neo-futurist machine", influenced other architects, notably Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, whose Centre Pompidou extended many of Price's ideas.
Definition
Neo-futurism was in part revitalised in 2007 after the publication of "The Neo-Futuristic City Manifesto" included in the candidature presented to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) and written by innovation designer Vito Di Bari (a former executive director at UNESCO), to outline his vision for the city of Milan at the time of the Universal Expo 2015. Di Bari defined his neo-futuristic vision as the "cross-pollination of art, cutting edge technologies and ethical values combined to create a pervasively higher quality of life"; he referenced the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development Theory and reported that the name had been inspired by the United Nations report Our Common Future.
Soon after Di Bari's manifesto, a collective in the UK called The Neo-Futurist Collective, launched their own version of the Neo-futurist manifesto, written by Rowena Easton, on the streets of Brighton on 20 February 2008, to mark the 99th anniversary of the publication of the Futurist manifesto by FT Marinetti in 1909. The collective's take on Neo-Futurism was much different to Di Bari's, in a sense that it focussed on acknowledging the legacy of the Italian Futurists as well as criticising our current state of despair over climate change and the financial system. On their introduction to their manifesto, The Neo-Futurist Collective noted: “In an age of mass despair over the state of the planet and the financial system, the futurist legacy of optimism for the power of technology uniting with the imagination of humanity has a powerful resonance for our modern age”. This shows an interpretation of Neo-Futurism that is more socially involved – one that speaks directly to its followers rather than denoting certain outlooks through actions (e.g. choice of eco-aware materials in Neo-Futurist architecture).
Jean-Louis Cohen has defined neo-futurism as a corollary to technology, noting that a large amount of the structures built today are byproducts of new materials and concepts about the function of large-scale constructions in society. Etan J. Ilfeld wrote that in the contemporary neo-futurist aesthetic "the machine becomes an integral element of the creative process itself, and generates the emergence of artistic modes that would have been impossible prior to computer technology." Reyner Banham's definition of "une architecture autre" is a call for an architecture that technologically overcomes all previous architectures but possessing an expressive form, as Banham stated about neo-futuristic "Archigram's Plug-in Computerized City, form does not have to follow function into oblivion."
Matthew Phillips defined the Neo-Futurist aesthetic as a "manipulation of time, space, and subject against a backdrop of technological innovation and domination, [that] posits new approaches to the future contrary to those of past avant-gardes and current technocratic philosophies". This definition agrees with the work of Neo-Futurist architects whose approach is situated in the context of technological innovation, but does not mention the ecological mindfulness that stems from architectural Neo-Futurism.
In art and architecture
Neo-futurism was inspired partly by Futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia and pioneered from the early 1960s and the late 1970s by Hal Foster, with architects such as William Pereira, Charles Luckman and Henning Larsen.
People
The relaunch of neo-futurism in the 21st century has been creatively inspired by the Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid and architect Santiago Calatrava.
Neo-futurist architects, designers and artists include people like , Patrick Jouin, Yuima Nakazato, artist Simon Stålenhag and artist Charis Tsevis. Neo-futurism has absorbed some high-tech architectural themes and ideas, incorporating elements of high-tech industry and technology іnto building design: Technology and context has been a focus for some architects such as Buckminster Fuller, Norman Foster, Kenzo Tange, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.
Gallery
See also
Futurist architecture
References
Further reading
Rowena Easton, The NeoFuturist Manifesto, 2008
A History of Neo-Futurism, Erica Anne Milkovich, 2010 - Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
Gunther Berghaus, From Futurism to Neo-Futurism, in Avant-garde/Neo-avant-garde, 2005, published by Dietrich Scheunemann, Rodopi BV
Colin Rowe, Fred Koetter, After the Millennium, in Collage City, 1983, published by Architecture – The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Etan Jonathan Ilfeld, Beyond Contemporary Art, 2012, Vivays Publishing, London
Anthony Vidler, Histories of the immediate present, 2008 MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Reyner Banham, "A Clip-on Architecture," Architectural Design 35, no. 11
Reyner Banham: Historian of the Immediate Future (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002)
Ru Brown, FUTURISM IS DEAD LONG LIVE FUTURISM The legacy of techno-love in contemporary design, 2011, University of Washington – MDes Design Investigations
Gabriel Gyang Dung, Bridget Mlumun Akaakohol, J.C. Akor – The Concept Of Sustainable Development And The Challenges Of Economic Growth And Development In Nigeria – July 2014, Department of Economics, College of Education, Katsina-Ala.
External links
Futurist movements
Contemporary art movements
21st century in art
21st-century architectural styles
Avant-garde art | 0.772463 | 0.996665 | 0.769887 |
Japanese popular culture | Japanese popular culture includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga, video games, music, and doujinshi, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions; many of their themes and styles of presentation can be traced to traditional art forms. Contemporary forms of popular culture, much like the traditional forms, are not only forms of entertainment but also factors that distinguish contemporary Japan from the rest of the modern world. There is a large industry of music, films, and the products of a huge comic book industry, among other forms of entertainment. Game centers, bowling alleys, and karaoke parlors are well-known hangout places for teens while older people may play shogi or go in specialized parlors. Since the end of the US occupation of Japan in 1952, Japanese popular culture has been influenced by American media. However, rather than being dominated by American products, Japan localised these influences by appropriating and absorbing foreign influences into local media industries. Today, Japanese popular culture stands as one of the most prominent and influential popular cultures around the world.
History
In as early as 1920, a discussion revolving around the use of culture and media communication was being used as a strategy to enhance the international understanding of Japan's perspective was set in place. The discussion began when Japan aspired to become an imperial and colonial power, one that was equivalent to their Euro-American counterparts. This idea was interrupted once Japan was defeated in World War II. With the economic struggles Japan faced after the war, the question about using culture and media communication was once again brought up. In order for Japan to reinvent themselves and improve foreigners' impression of them, Japan focused on projecting a selected national image by exporting appealing cultural products including, animation, television programs, popular music, films, and fashion. The public diplomacy wanted to allow other countries to understand their position on various issues by acting directly on the people of foreign countries. With the popularity of television emerging in Asian countries, they produced a show that was supposed to demonstrate the actual lives of Japanese people.
Before the popular television show Oshin aired in Asian countries, Japanese people were perceived as 'culturally odorless.' With this new TV drama, a sense of commonality began to form between Japan and other Asian nations. This show was a testimony to the capability media culture can have on enhancing the international understanding of negative historical memories of Japanese colonialism and the hostility regarding the country's economic exploitation of the region.
The entertainment industry was vital to Japan's postwar reconstruction. The desire to create fantasies was present but, the economy drove the entertainment industry. Technology was the heart of Japan's rebuilding since, they believed it was the only reason they lost the war. Pop culture began to dominate the entertainment industry. For example, Japan used the resources they had in order to make toy cars that ultimately helped them rebuild the economy. After Japan was banned from using metal to make toys, they used old cans instead. In doing so, they were able to produce toys in exchange for food for the school children. The toy industry is just one of the industries that ultimately influenced pop culture during this era.
Prior to World War II Japanese cinema produced films that supported the war efforts and encouraged Japanese citizens to fight for their country. The movie industry produced inspirational patriotic tales that portrayed Japanese militia as victors, heroes, and people who sacrificed themselves for a greater cause. However, the first cinematic blockbuster of the postwar era was Gojira which, did not share the same support as other films. For Japan, this film represented a return to popular entertainment that catered to the move towards technology. Gojira showed the destruction of Tokyo and the atomic bomb that victimized Japan during the war in order to gain opposition towards the war. Japanese cinema was dominated by militaristic storytelling and was controlled by the policies and agendas of Japan's totalitarian state. Films during the postwar era were used to foster new idols and icons in order for Japanese people to begin to reimagine themselves. Japanese cinemas produced films that demonstrated why they should be against the war and all the destruction and casualties that came along with it. As time went on the film industry progressed from targeting adult audiences to targeting children. Since the 1990's, when the Japanese economy suffered a prolonged recession, narratives of psychosocial angst have manifested widely in Japanese popular culture.
Cool Japan
Cool Japan (クールジャパン Kūru Japan) refers to the rise of Japan's soft power and prevalence internationally as a cultural influence. These cultural elements project a message that markets and packages Japan as a nation of commerce and "pop culture diplomacy" as opposed to a militarily focused and driven country. Japan's actions during World War II made it necessary for the nation to rebuild their national image; moving away from a national image of military dominance and into an image of cultural diplomacy. Initiated by the Japanese government, the creation of the "soft power" image emerged, and Japan began to sell its pop culture as its new non-military image in order to promote its own culture and reestablish a healthy and peaceful diplomacy with other nations.
Otaku
Otaku (Japanese: おたくor オタク) is a Japanese term that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. The otaku subculture has continuely grown with the expansion of the Internet and media, as more anime, video games, shows, and comics were created and an increasing number of people now identify themselves as otaku, both in Japan and elsewhere.
Kawaii
The Japanese adjective kawaii can be translated as "cute" or "adorable" and is the drive behind one of Japan's most popular aesthetic cultures. Kawaii culture has its ties to another culture called shōjo, a girl power type movement that has been commodified to sell the image of young girls alongside pop culture and the goods they might be interested in. Shōjo can be seen as Japan's version of "the girl next door" with the cute and innocent aspects of kawaii. It has been associated with fancy goods (frilly and feminine type goods marketed toward young females), character goods (Sanrio, San-X, Studio Ghibli, anime/manga merchandise, etc. marketed to both males and females), entire fashion movements, and idols. As long as a product or person has "cute" elements, it can be seen as kawaii. In 2008, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs moved away from just using traditional cultural aspects to promote their country and started using things like anime and Kawaii Ambassadors as well. The purpose of the Kawaii Ambassadors is to spread Japanese pop culture through their cute personas, using mostly fashion and music. This can also happen at the local level as seen by the mayor of Shibuya designating Kyary Pamyu Pamyu as the "Kawaii Ambassador of Harajuku", famously known as a hub of Japanese fashion, clothing stores, and youth culture.
Mascots
Kawaii in Japan has been a growing trend for many Japanese markets; they have been used in a range of spaces ranging from schools all the way to large enterprises. The use of cute, childish figures representing certain groups allows for those potentially frightened by them to have these playful mascots that represent them to create a sense of humanity between them. An example would be the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department mascot known as Pipo-kun, which is an orange-skinned, elfin creature with rabbit ears that are made to listen to the people and an antenna to stay in tune with what is happening. The use of Kawaii in public relations has been a large factor for many and will continue to be used by those who want to have an optimistic view of them.
One type of mascot in Japan noted for their 'Kawaii-ness' are advertising characters known as 'yuru-kiyara' (mascots representing their respective prefectures). Each year Japan celebrates a new winner; for example, 2011's champion was Kumamon (the Mon Bear) of Kumamoto prefecture, pulling in more than 2.5 billion yen in merchandise sales across the nation that year.
Purikura
Purikura, a Japanese shorthand for "print club", are Japanese digital photo sticker booths. It has roots in Japanese kawaii culture, which involves an obsession with beautifying self-representation in photographic forms, particularly among females. By the 1990s, self-photography developed into a major preoccupation among Japanese schoolgirls, who took photos with friends and exchanged copies that could be pasted into kawaii albums.
Purikura originate from the Japanese video game arcade industry. It was conceived in 1994 by Sasaki Miho, inspired by the popularity of girl photo culture and photo stickers in 1990s Japan. She worked for a Japanese game company, Atlus, where she suggested the idea, but it was initially rejected by her male bosses. Atlus eventually decided to pursue Miho's idea, and developed it with the help of a leading Japanese video game company, Sega, which later became the owner of Atlus. Sega and Atlus introduced the Print Club (Purinto Kurabu), the first purikura, in February 1995, initially at game arcades, before expanding to other popular culture locations such as fast food shops, train stations, karaoke establishments and bowling alleys. The success of the original Sega-Atlus machine led to other Japanese arcade game companies producing their own purikura, including SNK's Neo Print in 1996 and Konami's Puri Puri Campus (Print Print Campus) in 1997.
Purikura produced what would later be called selfies. A purikura is essentially a cross between a traditional license/passport photo booth and an arcade video game, with a computer that is connected to a colour video camera and colour printer, and which allows the manipulation of digital images. It involves users posing in front of a camera within the compact booth, having their images taken, and then printing the photos with various effects designed to look kawaii. It presents a series of choices, such as desired backdrops, borders, insertable decorations, icons, text writing options, hair extensions, twinkling diamond tiaras, tenderized light effects, and predesigned decorative margins. These photographic filters were similar to the Snapchat filters that later appeared in the 2010s. Purikura became a popular form of entertainment among youths in Japan, and then across East Asia, in the 1990s.
Japanese idols
Japanese popular culture is highly surrounded by idealized celebrities who appear on many different forms of mass media. One type of popular celebrity is an Idol. These idols are mostly girls portrayed for their "cuteness" and "innocence"; they are mostly intended to be role models that everyone adores and to promote a desirable image of fantastical happiness. They must maintain a perfect public image and always try to set a good example to young people.
Idols aim to play a wide range of roles as media personalities (tarento), e.g. pop or J-pop singers, panelists of variety programs, bit-part actors, models for magazines and advertisements. Alternative media idols include the emerging net idol, a form of idol in which growing ones popularity on the internet is its base foundation. Many net idol groups create a large standing online before transferring their career towards the professional Music Industry.
Momoiro Clover Z was ranked as the number one female idol group in 2013–2017 surveys. During 2016, about 636 thousand people attended their live concerts, which was the highest record of all female musicians in Japan. The group has been ranked as the most popular female idol group from 2013 to 2017.
The interactions between the Idols and their fans range from live video streaming, concerts, and handshake events. Because of their promotion as Idols, these celebrities appeal to many different demographics throughout Japan. The emotional attraction to cuteness, including the cuteness these idols have, is seen all over the world. However, the cute kawaii culture is openly visible throughout Japanese society both visually in manga, fashion, and stuffed animals and internally in situations such as the relationship between idols and their fans.
Fashion
Japan began to emulate Western fashion during the middle of the 19th century. By the beginning of the 21st century, this emulation has formed street fashion, a fashion style in which the wearer customizes outfits by adopting a mixture of current and traditional trends. Such clothes are generally home-made with the use of material purchased at stores.
At present, there are many styles of dress in Japan, created from a mix of both local and foreign labels. Some of these styles are extreme and avant-garde, similar to the haute couture seen on European catwalks.Though the styles have changed over the years, street fashion is still prominent in Japan today. Young adults can often be found wearing subculture attire in large urban fashion districts such as Harajuku, Ginza, Odaiba, Shinjuku and Shibuya.
Lolita
Cosplay
Geinōkai
Geinōkai (Japanese:芸能界), meaning "entertainment world" or "the world of show business", encompasses a wide variety of Japanese entertainment from movies and television (including talk shows, music shows, variety shows, etc.) to radio and now the Internet. Geinōjin is a term, often used interchangeably with tarento (タレント), which refers to members of the Geinōkai. Talent refers to a rather large group of people who appear on television from night to night, but cannot be quite classified as actors, singers, or models, or comedians (and are thus given the more vague appellation of "talent" instead). Talents usually appear on variety shows or talk shows and may later move into acting or singing if they are successful.
Television
Modern television history
The demand for television had changed by the mid-1980s and the commonly viewed dramas such as family-oriented, historical, or mystery declined in popularity. These changes in demand were seen in national television throughout the world. Japan countered this decrease in demand by bringing in new celebrities known as "tarento" (タレント). These tarento celebrities are individuals whose influence stretches over different forms of entertainment such as contestants or hosts in game shows, commercials, or television dramas.
Japanese tokusatsu superhero shows (also known as sentai shows) have had a significant influence on global popular culture. Examples include the Ultraman franchise, the Super Sentai franchise which was localised as Power Rangers in the Western world, and the Metal Hero franchise where some shows were localised as VR Troopers and Big Bad Beetleborgs in the West.
Television dramas
In the western world, dramas are known to be pieces of literature or plays that have a shocking twist or conflict that causes conflicting endings. However, in Japan, a television drama or "terebi dorama" (テレビドラマ) is commonly thought of as a "Television Show" which can include drama, romance, and or comedy.
Film
The kaiju film genre, which features giant monsters such as Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman, has become one of Japan's most prevalent film genres since the 1950s, around the same time that science fiction films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and The Blob (1958), were booming in the United States. kaiju is a subgenre of tokusatsu, a genre that encompasses all Japanese films using practical special effects, except for films using only computer-generated imagery (CGI). Tokusatsu is credited to Eiji Tsuburaya, who is regarded as one of the most influential special effects directors of all time, having co-created the Godzilla franchise as well as Ultraman.
Japanese cinema also gained international recognition in 1950 with the release of Rashomon, which remains one of the most well-known Japanese films. The film's director, Akira Kurosawa is one of the world's most acclaimed and influential film directors. Several of his subsequent films, such as Seven Samurai (1954) and Ran (1985), are considered among the greatest films ever made. Other noteworthy directors in this era of Japanese cinema include Yasujirō Ozu, Masaki Kobayashi, Kenji Mizoguchi, Kon Ichikawa, Keisuke Kinoshita and Ishirō Honda.
The following Japanese film genres have had a significant influence on global popular culture:
Tokusatsu (Japanese films using special effects)
Kaiju (giant monster films) examples include Godzilla, Gamera and Ultraman
Jidaigeki (Japanese historical fiction)
Samurai cinema (chanbara) examples include Akira Kurosawa films such as Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo
Ninja fiction see Ninjas in popular culture
Anime films see Anime section below
Japanese horror examples include the Ring and Grudge franchises
Anime
Anime (Japanese: アニメ) is a movie or television episode of sorts which utilizes animation as an art style iconic to Japan in order to convey a story. Unlike western cartoons, anime can be distinguished by its detail in character design, large array of facial expressions, in-depth character development, wide target audience and rare use of talking animals. These traits are used in order to better the connection between a viewer and the characters. Most of the time, anime is based on animated comics called manga, which is an ancient form of comic writing which dates back to the 12th century.
The world of animated films in Japanese popular culture has been a growing trend since the 1920s. Influenced by Walt Disney and his animated characters, Osamu Tezuka (1925–1989), also known as "manga no kamisama" (which means, "God of Comics") would begin his forty-year evolution of animation, or anime, that would change the content of Japanese comic books. With the creation of his first animated character Astro Boy that was unlike any other animated character; he found the hearts of the Japanese public with a robotic boy who has spiky hair, eyes as big as fists, with rockets on his feet. Doraemon gained great popularity in Japan with the broadcast of Doraemon on TV Asahi in 1979. In 2008, he was appointed as anime ambassador by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film studio, also contributed to anime's worldwide success through films including My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, and Spirited Away (winner of the Golden Bear award in 2002 and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003). For these works, the studio's current president Hayao Miyazaki is often credited as a visionary in animation.
The success of the Pokémon franchise has been credited by people such as Nissim Otmazgin and sociologist Anne Alison as popularizing anime in the United States. The anime market has also been described as owing greatly to the crucial role of fans as cultural agents, the deterritorializing effects of globalization, the domestication and heavy editing of anime to suit local tastes, and being part of the wider global flow of Japanese pop culture and "soft power". Otmazgin argues that the rise of anime in the United States is a result of the sophisticated graphic quality, a wide thematic diversity, and an inclination to reject the Disney convention of a happy ending. He further states that anime was a tool in which Japan could gain popularity with their pop culture and give Americans a taste of something unique and interesting in the media.
The growing international popularity of anime has led to various animation studios from other countries making their own anime-influenced works.
As anime has grown in its variety of viewers, genres, and themes, the industry has become more prevalent in society. In modern Japan, anime has become so popular that memorable characters have frequently been made into byproducts such as figurines and video games.
Manga
The word manga, when translated directly, means "whimsical drawings". Manga are not typically 'comic books' as the West understands them; rather, they represent pieces of Japanese culture and history. The 'manga' style has an extensive history, beginning sometime in the 10th century; scrolls from that period depict animals as part of the 'upper class', behaving as a typical human would in similar situations. Such scrolls would go on to be known as the Chōjū giga or "The Animal Scrolls".
Scrolls found later on in the 12th century would depict images of religion such as the Gaki Zoshi (Hungry Ghost Scrolls) and the Jigoku Zoshi (Hell Scrolls). While both dealt with various aspects of religion, unlike "The Animal Scrolls", these provided a more instructive viewpoint, rather than a comedic style.
Manga are more significant, culturally, than Western comic books (though many fill the same role). Originally, manga were printed in daily newspapers; in the Second World War, newsprint rationing caused a down-surge in manga popularity. In the post-war 1950s, they made a resurgence in the form of "picture card shows", which were a style of storytelling supplemented by the use of illustrations, and the highly popular "rental manga" that would allow their readers to rent these illustrated books for a period of time.
Since their inception manga have gained a considerable worldwide consumer base.
Doujinshi
Doujinshi is a Japanese word which refers to amateur manga and fanfictions. They follow the same steps of creation that manga have, and are often created by amateur authors who are manga fans. Doujinshi enable fans to create their own amateur manga involving their favorite manga characters in it. Fanfictions are really popular in Japan, where there is a biannual fair dedicated to doujinshi in Tokyo called Comiket.
Video games
Introduction
Video gaming is a major industry all across the world, so much so that in 2012, global revenues were an estimated $67 billion for console and portable hardware and software, as well as games for mobile devices (e.g., tablets and smartphones). The presence and popularity of gaming in daily life in Japan in particular has been present for quite some time, with the earliest examples of this being well known game titles like Pac-Man first appearing in arcades. The beginning of the growth of Japanese game development is often identified with the golden age of video games, a period that is often accredited with saving the industry from what could have been its downfall. This time brought about many highly prominent developer studios in Japan, some of the first include Nintendo under Shigeru Miyamoto and Hiroshi Yamauchi, Sega during the same time period, and other companies such as Taito, Capcom, and Square Enix.
Arcade era
Video games when they first appeared in Japan were during the Arcade Era, which centers on the 1970-1980's. Lists of the most popular and well known arcade games include, but are not limited to, Defender and Galaga, Pac-Man, Frogger, Q*bert, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong, Mario, and many others. Many of these became popular enough that they influenced other industries, such as the film industry when many theaters started installing various arcade cabinets in their lobbies. These also were exported to other countries such as the United States, becoming similar cultural focal points in those regions as well and inspiring the creation of new companies and developers who would be dedicated to making games to try and claim part of this new market.
Console and computer games
Later in the 1980s, specifically in 1985, Nintendo released the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) home gaming console. Nintendo was not the first, Atari released a console earlier in 1977, but because of the video game crash from 1983 to '85, it lost precedence and in that vacuum Nintendo superseded other companies and gained massive influence over the industry. This was a noted development in games history and culture in Japan because, now that there was a hardware system that was reasonably affordable, people did not need to have the finances of a company to be able to afford to buy individual and very expensive game systems to play games. This initial dominance of the video games market by Nintendo continued in large part because of this initial hold they had taken of the market affording them a huge amount of economic and social weight as they were one of the only brands selling video games and, because they were one of the only developers, the globalization of Japanese media and games allowed Japanese industries and by extension culture to shape and control the industries development. While Nintendo since then has not been the penultimate dominating force in the industry, with contenders like Sony pulling ahead after the release of the PlayStation system and especially the PlayStation 2 becoming the most popular and widely sold system in the world, Japanese companies like these have still maintained dominance and popularity in the industry for various reasons, shifting the paradigm from being 'west' dominated to being Japan dominated. Due to this domination of the market and Japanese attitudes towards technology and culture, Japan became the cultural exporter of the video game world and has remained a major participant. Even in current day when there is international competition between companies, Japanese companies have always had at least a central role in the industry and in the advancement and trendsetting in games development.
Current Japanese video game franchises, such as Super Smash Bros., Pokémon, Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Kirby, Star Fox, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Animal Crossing, Kingdom Hearts, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, Resident Evil, Dark Souls, Final Fantasy and Monster Hunter have gained critical acclaim and as a product of their popularity and reception they dominate sectors of the industry and what consumers expect from certain genres of game and how new games are received by players and critics. The Japanese game development engine RPG Maker has also gained popularity, with hundreds of games being created with it and released on Steam by the late 2010s.
Mobile games
Video games in Japan have expanded in number of ways since the times dominated by PC and console gaming. One of the most explosive ways this has occurred in Japan is the introduction and popularization of mobile games. In terms of economic relevance, the games for smartphones have expanded drastically from 2012. As a result, the market size of mobile games has a 70% share in the Japanese game industry. This economic presence is parallel to the social presence mobile games possess, with most people who play video games also playing mobile games as well. One theory for why mobile games are so popular in Japan is because of how they cater to social needs special to Japan. Because people in Japan spend time traveling on public transport so often and mobile games have extremely high portability as a result of being played on phones and other devices and have extremely low entrance costs (usually they are free to download) that download them so there is something to do while on the train is an obvious conclusion. In addition, they can also serve to promote interpersonal interaction and act as an activity that can be performed with friends, or to even introduce oneself and acquire new friends, which again thanks to their low cost can allow them to lower the barrier and anxiety of social interaction, partially alleviating loneliness which is a big social problem that is affecting a lot of the culture and media in Japan. This is why some have argued in their research that because social participation is becoming more online in nature, games like mobile games that are able to facilitate these interactions and relationships are becoming more important and popular as time goes on.
Music
J-pop
J-Pop
J-Pop (Japanese pop) is a music genre originating from Japan. It emerged in the 1950s, blending traditional Japanese music with elements of Western pop. J-Pop has evolved significantly since its inception, adapting to various cultural and technological changes.
Development
J-Pop's development was significantly influenced by the digitalization of global media, which expanded its reach and introduced new forms of musical innovation. The genre has undergone a transition towards a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) music culture, reflecting broader shifts in the global music
Comparison with K-pop
J-pop is distinct from K-pop in its approach to music and cultural expression. While K-pop is often associated with highly choreographed performances and a uniform aesthetic, J-pop is characterized by its diversity and experimentation. This distinction is evident in J-Pop's wide range of musical styles, allowing for greater artistic variation and expression
Gender dynamics
In the area of gender and identity, J-Pop has been the subject of extensive research, particularly regarding its female artists. Ayumi Hamasaki, a prominent figure in J-Pop known for her influence on Japanese music and fashion, is an example of an artist challenging traditional gender norms. Such artists have used J-Pop as a platform to explore and express diverse perspectives on gender and identity, thereby shaping societal views and expectations.
J-Pop's rich history and its impact on contemporary culture illustrate its importance as a genre. It not only reflects the artistic evolution of Japan but also provides insight into the country's changing societal norms and values.
City pop
Visual kei
Visual kei (Japanese: ヴィジュアル系), also known as "visual style", is a prominent wave in Japan's music world that encapsulates bands with androgynous appearances who play a variety of music styles ranging from heavy metal to electronic. Similar to cosplay, visual kei artists typically cross- dress and flaunt very embellished costumes, make-up, and hairstyles. Not many of the bands include female members, however a majority of their audiences are young females.
Starting in the 1980s and rising to popularity in the 1990s, the first generation of visual kei was heavily influenced by western rock and metal musicians such as Kiss. One of the pioneers is a band called X Japan who are still active. Although, the first wave of visual kei came to an end at the time of X Japan's lead guitarists death in 1999. A few years later, the second wave called neo- visual kei transpired and took the genre onto a slightly different path than before.
Internet
Internet in Japan did not take off until 1993 when the nation's government approved and installed its first commercial Internet service provider. Japan was the 14th country in the world to start using the internet; many reasons have been cited as the reason behind its slow movement such as bad timing, the government deeming internet access was more for academic use, fear of change and taking risks, an initial lack of competition in the telecommunications field, the difficulty of using a keyboard with a 2,000+ kanji-based language, and high rates causing hefty bills after just a few hours of internet usage. Until the mid-1990s, it was hard for Japanese society to access the internet and there was not much for them to do once they did get on. Once it did kick off, mobile phones were preferred over PCs or laptop computers, which has shaped how Japan's internet culture is interfaced, having to adapt to smaller screens and having a more leisurely attitude towards it.
Virtual idols
The term "virtual idol" refers to an idol who exists only in the digital realm. The first Virtual Idol, Kyoko Date, was released by talent agency Horipro. Virtual Idols exist in a wide variety from Vocaloids like Hatsune Miku and Virtual YouTubers like Kizuna Ai. Virtual YouTubers, colloquially known as VTubers, are streamers with origins in Japan who use motion capture face tracking technology with their avatar models to move and show change in emotions. Kizuna Ai is regarded as the first VTuber. After debuting in 2016, she has gained over 4.3 million subscribers across two YouTube channels — A.I. channel, and A.I. games. VTubers are different from virtual idols like Hatsune Miku in that behind the model is a real person, whereas Hatsune Miku and other Vocaloid are voicebanks consisting of databases of vocal samples provided by actors and singers. VTubers are generally individually operated(indie) or a part of a VTuber agency such as Nijisanji and Hololive. VTubers who are part of an agency have less control over their work, but are provided a more professional level of support such as professionally commissioned avatars and motion rigging. Currently, some of the most watched Japanese VTubers in the world are Usada Pekora from Hololive. She has accumulated 7.19 million hours watched in the first quarter of 2023. Kuzuha from Nijisanji is just slightly behind with 6.94 million hours watched and is also the most watched and subscribed male VTuber worldwide. Collaborations with product companies are also commonplace, such as the Neox Graphite x Nijisanji collaboration featuring six talents from both Japanese and English branches each having their own themed mechanical pencil and lead.
Internet cafés
Internet cafés in Japan are on the rise in popularity, not just as a place to hang out but as a place to live. These cafes offer internet access in small, private rooms the size of a cubicle with some offering services such as unlimited drinks, doubling as a manga cafe, showers, blankets, and use of the address to those that choose to live there. Internet cafes are now a haven for Net cafe refugees of all ages who would otherwise be homeless; many people can afford to rent out a room at one considering they are not expected to pay other bills that come with an apartment such as deposits, fees, furnishing a living space, and utilities. In 2018 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government conducted a survey using 502 internet and manga cafes in the Tokyo area and found through the information provided that an estimated 15,000 people stay at these cafes during the week with roughly 4,000 of this number being those that are homeless and the rest using the cafe instead of a hotel. A third of the guests claim to have unstable jobs. By age, the bulk of the guests are in their 30s with a smaller but still significant portion of people in their 50s. In 2008, the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry requested the budget for a program that would help internet cafe refugees gain permanent employment by offering a loan program for living expenses as long as they take classes on vocational job skills and training.
Mobile phone culture
Keitai shousetsu (cell phone novel)
Keitai Shousetsu (lit. cell phone novel) was a phenomenon originally unique to Japan but spread quickly to other countries like China, India, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, South Africa, the US, and Brazil. Because of Japan's preference for mobile phones over computers, cell phone novels were an inexpensive way for amateur authors to get their works out into the world either by text message or email, eventually evolving into subscriptions via websites. Deep Love was the first of its kind, written in 2002 by Yoshi; it was adapted into manga series, a television show, and a film. The works were put out in short installments due to the character limit capability of a cell phone which is ideal for commuters to read in between train stops. Oftentimes, these works are put into print; in 2007, Japan saw ten of that year's bestselling novels derived from a cell phone novel. Considering they are mostly written by teenagers and young adults, they center on themes like relationships, drug use, pregnancy, rape, and prostitution. It is a trend that older adults are finding hard to indulge in because of the seemingly violent themes, use of emojis to convey emotion and save space, along with the absence of diverse and lengthy vocabulary.
Selfie
The modern selfie has origins in Japanese kawaii culture, particularly the purikura phenomenon of 1990s Japan. To capitalize on the purikura phenomenon, Japanese mobile phones began including a front-facing camera, which facilitated the creation of selfies, during the late 1990s to early 2000s. The iPhone 4 (2010) adopted the front-facing camera feature from earlier Japanese and Korean camera phones, and helped popularize the selfie internationally outside of East Asia. Photographic features in purikura were later adopted by smartphone apps such as Instagram and Snapchat, including scribbling graffiti or typing text over selfies, adding features that beautify the image, and photo editing options such as cat whiskers or bunny ears.
See also
Akihabara
Culture of Japan
Glocalization
Japanese idol
Japanese pop culture in the United States
Japanese influence on Korean culture
Japanese influence on Chinese culture
Japanophilia
Lolita fashion
Marriage in Japan
Media mix
Otaku
Pachinko
VTuber
References
External links | 0.774289 | 0.994303 | 0.769878 |
Technology and society | Technology, society and life or technology and culture refers to the inter-dependency, co-dependence, co-influence, and co-production of technology and society upon one another. Evidence for this synergy has been found since humanity first started using simple tools. The inter-relationship has continued as modern technologies such as the printing press and computers have helped shape society. The first scientific approach to this relationship occurred with the development of tektology, the "science of organization", in early twentieth century Imperial Russia. In modern academia, the interdisciplinary study of the mutual impacts of science, technology, and society, is called science and technology studies.
The simplest form of technology is the development and use of basic tools. The prehistoric discovery of how to control fire and the later Neolithic Revolution increased the available sources of food, and the invention of the wheel helped humans to travel in and control their environment. Developments in historic times have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale, such as the printing press, telephone, and Internet.
Technology has developed advanced economies, such as the modern global economy, and has led to the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce by-products known as pollution, and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earth's environment. Innovations influence the values of society and raise new questions in the ethics of technology. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics.
Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar reactionary movements criticize the pervasiveness of technology, arguing that it harms the environment and alienates people. However, proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition.
Pre-historical
The importance of stone tools, circa 2.5 million years ago, is considered fundamental in the human development in the hunting hypothesis.
Primatologist, Richard Wrangham, theorizes that the control of fire by early humans and the associated development of cooking was the spark that radically changed human evolution. Texts such as Guns, Germs, and Steel suggest that early advances in plant agriculture and husbandry fundamentally shifted the way that collective groups of individuals, and eventually societies, developed.
Modern examples and effects
Technology has taken a large role in society and day-to-day life. When societies know more about the development in a technology, they become able to take advantage of it. When an innovation achieves a certain point after it has been presented and promoted, this technology becomes part of the society. The use of technology in education provides students with technology literacy, information literacy, capacity for life-long learning, and other skills necessary for the 21st century workplace. Digital technology has entered each process and activity made by the social system. In fact, it constructed another worldwide communication system in addition to its origin.
A 1982 study by The New York Times described a technology assessment study by the Institute for the Future, "peering into the future of an electronic world." The study focused on the emerging videotex industry, formed by the marriage of two older technologies, communications, and computing. It estimated that 40 percent of American households will have two-way videotex service by the end of the century. By comparison, it took television 16 years to penetrate 90 percent of households from the time commercial service was begun.
Since the creation of computers achieved an entire better approach to transmit and store data. Digital technology became commonly used for downloading music and watching movies at home either by DVDs or purchasing it online.
Digital music records are not quite the same as traditional recording media. Obviously, because digital ones are reproducible, portable and free.
Around the globe many schools have implemented educational technology in primary schools, universities and colleges. According to the statistics, in the early beginnings of 1990s the use of Internet in schools was, on average, 2–3%. Continuously, by the end of 1990s the evolution of technology increases rapidly and reaches to 60%, and by the year of 2008 nearly 100% of schools use Internet on educational form. According to ISTE researchers, technological improvements can lead to numerous achievements in classrooms. E-learning system, collaboration of students on project based learning, and technological skills for future results in motivation of students.
Although these previous examples only show a few of the positive aspects of technology in society, there are negative side effects as well. Within this virtual realm, social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat have altered the way Generation Y culture is understanding the world and thus how they view themselves. In recent years, there has been more research on the development of social media depression in users of sites like these. "Facebook Depression" is when users are so affected by their friends' posts and lives that their own jealousy depletes their sense of self-worth. They compare themselves to the posts made by their peers and feel unworthy or monotonous because they feel like their lives are not nearly as exciting as the lives of others.
Technology has a serious effect on youth's health. The overuse of technology is said to be associated with sleep deprivation which is linked to obesity and poor academic performance in the lives of adolescents.
Economics and technological development
In ancient history, economics began when spontaneous exchange of goods and services was replaced over time by deliberate trade structures. Makers of arrowheads, for example, might have realized they could do better by concentrating on making arrowheads and barter for other needs. Regardless of goods and services bartered, some amount of technology was involved—if no more than in the making of shell and bead jewelry. Even the shaman's potions and sacred objects can be said to have involved some technology. So, from the very beginnings, technology can be said to have spurred the development of more elaborate economies. Technology is seen as primary source in economic development.
Technology advancement and economic growth are related to each other. The level of technology is important to determine the economic growth. It is the technological process which keeps the economy moving.
In the modern world, superior technologies, resources, geography, and history give rise to robust economies; and in a well-functioning, robust economy, economic excess naturally flows into greater use of technology. Moreover, because technology is such an inseparable part of human society, especially in its economic aspects, funding sources for (new) technological endeavors are virtually illimitable. However, while in the beginning, technological investment involved little more than the time, efforts, and skills of one or a few men, today, such investment may involve the collective labor and skills of many millions.
Most recently, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of firms employing advanced digital technology in their operations expanded dramatically. It was found that firms that adopted technology were better prepared to deal with the pandemic's disruptions. Adaptation strategies in the form of remote working, 3D printing, and the use of big data analytics and AI to plan activities to adapt to the pandemic were able to ensure positive job growth.
Funding
Consequently, the sources of funding for large technological efforts have dramatically narrowed, since few have ready access to the collective labor of a whole society, or even a large part. It is conventional to divide up funding sources into governmental (involving whole, or nearly whole, social enterprises) and private (involving more limited, but generally more sharply focused) business or individual enterprises.
Government funding for new technology
The government is a major contributor to the development of new technology in many ways. In the United States alone, many government agencies specifically invest billions of dollars in new technology.
In 1980, the UK government invested just over six million pounds in a four-year program, later extended to six years, called the Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP), which was intended to give every school in Britain at least one computer, software, training materials, and extensive teacher training. Similar programs have been instituted by governments around the world.
Technology has frequently been driven by the military, with many modern applications developed for the military before they were adapted for civilian use. However, this has always been a two-way flow, with industry often developing and adopting a technology only later adopted by the military.
Entire government agencies are specifically dedicated to research, such as America's National Science Foundation, the United Kingdom's scientific research institutes, America's Small Business Innovative Research effort. Many other government agencies dedicate a major portion of their budget to research and development.
Private funding
Research and development is one of the smallest areas of investments made by corporations toward new and innovative technology.
Many foundations and other nonprofit organizations contribute to the development of technology. In the OECD, about two-thirds of research and development in scientific and technical fields is carried out by industry, and 98 percent and 10 percent, respectively, by universities and government. But in poorer countries such as Portugal and Mexico the industry contribution is significantly less. The U.S. government spends more than other countries on military research and development, although the proportion has fallen from about 30 percent in the 1980s to less than 10 percent.
The 2009 founding of Kickstarter allows individuals to receive funding via crowdsourcing for many technology related products including both new physical creations as well as documentaries, films, and web-series that focus on technology management. This circumvents the corporate or government oversight most inventors and artists struggle against but leaves the accountability of the project completely with the individual receiving the funds.
Other economic considerations
Appropriate technology, sometimes called "intermediate" technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those that developing nations find most effective to deploy given an excess of labour and scarcity of cash.
Persuasion technology: In economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one or more assumptions about technology's economic influence. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to alternative ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. These, and economics itself, can often be described as technologies, specifically, as persuasion technology.
Technocapitalism
Technological diffusion
Technology acceptance model
Technology life cycle
Technology transfer
Relation to science
The relationship between science and technology can be complex. Science may drive technological development, by generating demand for new instruments to address a scientific question, or by illustrating technical possibilities previously unconsidered. An environment of encouraged science will also produce scientists and engineers, and technical schools, which encourages innovation and entrepreneurship that are capable of taking advantage of the existing science. In fact, it is recognized that "innovators, like scientists, do require access to technical information and ideas" and "must know enough to recognize useful knowledge when they see it." Science spillover also contributes to greater technological diffusion. Having a strong policy contributing to basic science allows a country to have access to a strong a knowledge base that will allow them to be "ready to exploit unforeseen developments in technology," when needed in times of crisis.
For most of human history, technological improvements were arrived at by chance, trial and error, or spontaneous inspiration. Stokes referred to these innovators as improvers of technology'…who knew no science and would not have been helped by it if they had." This idea is supported by Diamond who further indicated that these individuals are "more likely to achieve a breakthrough if [they do] not hold the currently dominant theory in too high regard." Research and development directed towards immediate technical application is a relatively recent occurrence, arising with the Industrial Revolution and becoming commonplace in the 20th century. In addition, there are examples of economies that do not emphasize science research that have been shown to be technological leaders despite this. For example, the United States relied on the scientific output of Europe in the early 20th century, though it was regarded as a leader in innovation. Another example is the technological advancement of Japan in the latter part of the same century, which emphasized more applied science (directly applicable to technology).
Though the link between science and technology has need for more clarity, what is known is that a society without sufficient building blocks to encourage this link are critical. A nation without emphasis on science is likely to eventually stagnate technologically and risk losing competitive advantage. The most critical areas for focus by policymakers are discouraging too many protections on job security, leading to less mobility of the workforce, encouraging the reliable availability of sufficient low-cost capital for investment in R&D, by favorable economic and tax policies, and supporting higher education in the sciences to produce scientists and engineers.
Sociological factors and effects
Values
The implementation of technology influences the values of a society by changing expectations and realities. The implementation of technology is also influenced by values. There are (at least) three major, interrelated values that inform, and are informed by, technological innovations:
Mechanistic world view: Viewing the universe as a collection of parts (like a machine), that can be individually analyzed and understood. This is a form of reductionism that is rare nowadays. However, the "neo-mechanistic world view" holds that nothing in the universe cannot be understood by the human intellect. Also, while all things are greater than the sum of their parts (e.g., even if we consider nothing more than the information involved in their combination), in principle, even this excess must eventually be understood by human intelligence. That is, no divine or vital principle or essence is involved.
Efficiency: A value, originally applied only to machines, but now applied to all aspects of society, so that each element is expected to attain a higher and higher percentage of its maximal possible performance, output, or ability.
Social progress: The belief that there is such a thing as social progress, and that, in the main, it is beneficent. Before the Industrial Revolution, and the subsequent explosion of technology, almost all societies believed in a cyclical theory of social movement and, indeed, of all history and the universe. This was, obviously, based on the cyclicity of the seasons, and an agricultural economy's and society's strong ties to that cyclicity. Since much of the world is closer to their agricultural roots, they are still much more amenable to cyclicity than progress in history. This may be seen, for example, in Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar's modern social cycles theory. For a more westernized version of social cyclicity, see Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (Paperback) by Neil Howe and William Strauss; Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (September 30, 1992); , and subsequent books by these authors.
Institutions and groups
Technology often enables organizational and bureaucratic group structures that otherwise and heretofore were simply not possible. Examples of this might include:
The rise of very large organizations: e.g., governments, the military, health and social welfare institutions, supranational corporations.
The commercialization of leisure: sports events, products, etc. (McGinn)
The almost instantaneous dispersal of information (especially news) and entertainment around the world.
International
Technology enables greater knowledge of international issues, values, and cultures. Due mostly to mass transportation and mass media, the world seems to be a much smaller place, due to the following:
Globalization of ideas
Embeddedness of values
Population growth and control
Environment
Technology can provide understanding of and appreciation for the world around us, enable sustainability and improve environmental conditions but also degrade the environment and facilitate unsustainability.
Some polities may conclude that certain technologies' environmental detriments and other risks to outweigh their benefits, especially if or once substitutive technologies have been or can be invented, leading to directed technological phase-outs such as the fossil fuel phase-out and the nuclear fission power phase-out.
Most modern technological processes produce unwanted byproducts in addition to the desired products, which are known as waste and pollution. While material waste is often re-used in industrial processes, many processes lead to a release into the environment with negative environmental side effects, such as pollution and lack of sustainability.
Development and technologies' implications
Some technologies are designed specifically with the environment in mind, but most are designed first for financial or economic effects such as the free market's profit motive. The effects of a specific technology is often not only dependent on how it is used – e.g. its usage context – but also predetermined by the technology's design or characteristics, as in the theory of "the medium is the message" which relates to media-technologies in specific. In many cases, such predetermined or built-in implications may vary depending on factors of contextual contemporary conditions such as human biology, international relations and socioeconomics. However, many technologies may be harmful to the environment only when used in specific contexts or for specific purposes that not necessarily result from the nature of the technology.
Values
Historically, from the perspective of economic agent-centered responsibility, an increased, as of 2021 commonly theoretic and informal, value of healthy environments and more efficient productive processes may be the result of an increase in the wealth of society. Once people are able to provide for their basic needs, they can – and are often facilitated to – not only afford more environmentally destructive products and services, but could often also be able to put an – e.g. individual morality-motivated – effort into valuing less tangible goods such as clean air and water if product-, alternatives-, consequences- and services-information are adequate.
From the perspective of systems science and cybernetics, economies (systems) have economic actors and sectors make decisions based upon a range of system-internal factors with structures – or sometimes forms of leveraging existing structures – that lead to other outcomes being the result of other architectures – or systems-level configurations of the existing designs – which are considered to be possible in the sense that such could be modeled, tested, priorly assessed, developed and studied.
Negative effects on the environment
The effects of technology on the environment are both obvious and subtle. The more obvious effects include the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources (such as petroleum, coal, ores), and the added pollution of air, water, and land. The more subtle effects may include long-term effects (e.g. global warming, deforestation, natural habitat destruction, coastal wetland loss.)
Pollution and energy requirements
Each wave of technology creates a set of waste previously unknown by humans: toxic waste, radioactive waste, electronic waste, plastic waste, space waste.
Electronic waste creates direct environmental impacts through the production and maintaining the infrastructure necessary for using technology and indirect impacts by breaking barriers for global interaction through the use of information and communications technology. Certain usages of information technology and infrastructure maintenance consume energy that contributes global warming. This includes software-designs such as international cryptocurrencies and most hardware powered by nonrenewable sources.
One of the main problems is the lack of societal decision-making processes – such as the contemporary economy and politics – that lead to sufficient implementation of existing as well as potential efficient ways to remove, recycle and prevent these pollutants on a large scale expediently.
Digital technologies, however, are important in achieving the green transition and specifically, the SDGs and European Green Deal's environmental targets. Emerging digital technologies, if correctly applied, have the potential to play a critical role in addressing environmental issues. A few examples are: smart city mobility, precision agriculture, sustainable supply chains, environmental monitoring, and catastrophe prediction.
Construction and shaping
Choice
Society also controls technology through the choices it makes. These choices not only include consumer demands; they also include:
the channels of distribution, how do products go from raw materials to consumption to disposal;
the cultural beliefs regarding style, freedom of choice, consumerism, materialism, etc.;
the economic values we place on the environment, individual wealth, government control, capitalism, etc.
According to Williams and Edge, the construction and shaping of technology includes the concept of choice (and not necessarily conscious choice). Choice is inherent in both the design of individual artifacts and systems, and in the making of those artifacts and systems.
The idea here is that a single technology may not emerge from the unfolding of a predetermined logic or a single determinant, technology could be a garden of forking paths, with different paths potentially leading to different technological outcomes. This is a position that has been developed in detail by Judy Wajcman. Therefore, choices could have differing implications for society and for particular social groups.
Autonomous technology
In one line of thought, technology develops autonomously, in other words, technology seems to feed on itself, moving forward with a force irresistible by humans. To these individuals, technology is "inherently dynamic and self-augmenting."
Jacques Ellul is one proponent of the irresistibleness of technology to humans. He espouses the idea that humanity cannot resist the temptation of expanding our knowledge and our technological abilities. However, he does not believe that this seeming autonomy of technology is inherent. But the perceived autonomy is because humans do not adequately consider the responsibility that is inherent in technological processes.
Langdon Winner critiques the idea that technological evolution is essentially beyond the control of individuals or society in his book Autonomous Technology. He argues instead that the apparent autonomy of technology is a result of "technological somnambulism," the tendency of people to uncritically and unreflectively embrace and utilize new technologies without regard for their broader social and political effects.
In 1980, Mike Cooley published a critique of the automation and computerisation of engineering work under the title "Architect or Bee? The human/technology relationship". The title alludes to a comparison made by Karl Marx, on the issue of the creative achievements of human imaginative power. According to Cooley ""Scientific and technological developments have invariably proved to be double-edged. They produced the beauty of Venice and the hideousness of Chernobyl; the caring therapies of Rontgen's X-rays and the destruction of Hiroshima,"
Government
Individuals rely on governmental assistance to control the side effects and negative consequences of technology.
Supposed independence of government. An assumption commonly made about the government is that their governance role is neutral or independent. However, some argue that governing is a political process, so government will be influenced by political winds of influence. In addition, because government provides much of the funding for technological research and development, it has a vested interest in certain outcomes. Other point out that the world's biggest ecological disasters, such as the Aral Sea, Chernobyl, and Lake Karachay have been caused by government projects, which are not accountable to consumers.
Liability. One means for controlling technology is to place responsibility for the harm with the agent causing the harm. Government can allow more or less legal liability to fall to the organizations or individuals responsible for damages.
Legislation. A source of controversy is the role of industry versus that of government in maintaining a clean environment. While it is generally agreed that industry needs to be held responsible when pollution harms other people, there is disagreement over whether this should be prevented by legislation or civil courts, and whether ecological systems as such should be protected from harm by governments.
Recently, the social shaping of technology has had new influence in the fields of e-science and e-social science in the United Kingdom, which has made centers focusing on the social shaping of science and technology a central part of their funding programs.
See also
References
Sources
{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pyY5EusnjBcC&pg=PA88 |title=Digital technology and mediation: A challenge to activity theory. Learning and expanding with activity theory'''| last= Rückriem |first= F |year=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521760751}}
Further reading
Bereano, P. (1977). Technology as a Social and Political Phenomenon. Wiley & Sons, .
Dickson, D. (1977). Politics of Alternative Technology. Universe Publisher, .
Easton, T. (2011). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Science, Technology, and Society. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, .
(Google Books preview)
Huesemann, Michael H., and Joyce A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, , 464 pp.
Andrey Korotayev, Artemy Malkov, and Daria Khaltourina. Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Compact Macromodels of the World System Growth ]
MacKenzie, D., and J. Wajcman. (1999). The Social Shaping of Technology. McGraw Hill Education, .
Mesthene, E.G. (1970). Technological Change: Its Impact on Man and Society. Harvard University Press, .
Mumford, L. (2010). Technics and Civilization. University of Chicago Press, .
Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Vintage, .
Sclove, R.E. (1995). Democracy and Technology. The Guilford Press, .
Dan Senor and Saul Singer, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, Hachette Book Group, New York, (2009)
Shaw, Jeffrey M. (2014). Illusions of Freedom: Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on Technology and the Human Condition. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. .
Sicilia, David B.; Wittner, David G. Strands of Modernization: The Circulation of Technology and Business Practices in East Asia, 1850–1920 (University of Toronto Press, 2021) online review
Cited at Technology Chronology (accessed September 11, 2005).
Volti, Rudi (2017). society and technological change''. New York: Worth. p. 3. .
External links
Science, Technology, and Society: An International Journal
Scientists for Global Responsibility
Technology and Society Books and Journal Articles
Technology and Society Book Reviews
The Loka Institute
The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society
Union of Concerned Scientists
Interdisciplinary historical research
Social information processing
Sociological theories
Technological change
Technology
Technology systems | 0.776134 | 0.991934 | 0.769873 |
Rhetorical situation | A rhetorical situation is an event that consists of an issue, an audience, and a set of constraints. A rhetorical situation arises from a given context or exigence. An article by Lloyd Bitzer introduced the model of the rhetorical situation in 1968, which was later challenged and modified by Richard E. Vatz (1973) and Scott Consigny (1974). More recent scholarship has further redefined the model to include more expansive views of rhetorical operations and ecologies.
Theoretical development
In the twentieth century, three influential texts concerning the rhetorical situation were published: Lloyd Bitzer's "The Rhetorical Situation", Richard E. Vatz's "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation", and Scott Consigny's "Rhetoric and Its Situations". Bitzer argues that a situation determines and brings about rhetoric; Vatz proposes that rhetoric creates "situations" by making issues salient; and Consigny explores the rhetor as an artist of rhetoric, creating salience through a knowledge of commonplaces.
Bitzer's definition
Lloyd Bitzer began the conversation in his 1968 piece titled "The Rhetorical Situation". Bitzer wrote that rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation. He defined the rhetorical situation as "a complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence." With any rhetorical discourse, a prior rhetorical situation exists. The rhetorical situation dictates the significant physical and verbal responses as well as the sorts of observations to be made. An example of this would be an activist speaking out on climate change as an apparent global problem. The situation, thus, calls for the activist to use and respond with rhetorical discourse on the climate change issue. In other words, rhetorical meaning is brought about by events. Bitzer especially focuses on the sense of timing (kairos) needed to speak about a situation in a way that can best remedy the exigence.
Three constituent parts make up any rhetorical situation.
The first constituent part is the exigence, or a problem existing in the world. Exigence is rhetorical when it can be affected and changed by human interaction, and when it is capable of positive modification through the act of persuasion. A rhetorical exigence may be strong, unique, or important, or it may be weak, common, or trivial.
The second constituent part is audience. Rhetorical discourse promotes change through influencing an audience's decision and actions.
The third constituent part is the set of constraints. Constraints may be the persons, events, objects, and relations that limit decisions and action. Theorists influenced by Marx would additionally discuss ideological constraints, which produce unconscious limitations for subjects in society, including the social constraints of gender, class, and race. The speaker brings about a new set of constraints through the image of his or her personal character (ethos), logical proofs (logos), and use of emotion (pathos).
Critical responses
Vatz's challenge
An important critique of Bitzer's theory came in 1973 from Richard E. Vatz. Vatz believes that rhetoric defines a situation, because the context and choices of events could be forever described, but the persuader or influencer or rhetor must select which events to make part of the agenda. Choosing certain events and not others, and deciding their relative value or importance, creates a certain presence, or salience. Vatz quotes Chaïm Perelman: "By the very fact of selecting certain elements and presenting them to the audience, their importance and pertinency to the discussion are implied. Indeed such a choice endows these elements with a presence..."
In essence, Vatz claims that the definitive elements of rhetorical efforts are the struggle to create for a chosen audience saliences or agendas, and this creation is then followed by the struggle to infuse the selected situation or facts with meaning or significance. What are we persuaded to talk about? What are we persuaded it means or signifies? These questions are the relevant ones to understand persuasion, not "What does the situation make us talk about?" or "What does it intrinsically mean?". Situations that do not physically make us attend to them are avoided and reflect the significance of subjectivity in framing socio-political realities. Vatz believes that situations are created, for example, when an activist sets an agenda to focus on climate change, thus creating a "rhetorical situation" (a situation determined by rhetoric). The activist (rhetor) enjoys more agency because they are not "controlled" by a situation, but creates the situation by making it salient in language. Vatz emphasizes the social construction of the situation as opposed to Bitzer's realism or objectivism.
While the two opinions have been widely recognized, Vatz has acknowledged that his piece is less recognized than Bitzer's. Vatz admits, while claiming that audience acceptance is not dispositive for measuring validity or predictive for future audience acceptance, that "more articles and professionals in our field cite his situational perspective than my rhetorical perspective." Bitzer's objectivism is clear, and easily taught as a method, despite Vatz's criticism. Vatz claims that portraying rhetoric as situation-based vitiates rhetoric as an important field, while portraying rhetoric as the cause of what people see as pressing situations enhances its significance as a field of study.
Consigny's challenge
Another response to Bitzer and Vatz came from Scott Consigny. Consigny believes that Bitzer's theory gives a rhetorical situation proper particularities, but "misconstrues the situation as being thereby determinate and determining," and that Vatz's theory gives the rhetor a correct character but does not correctly account for limits of a rhetor's ability.
Instead, he proposes the idea of rhetoric as an art. Consigny argues that rhetoric gives the means by which a rhetor can engage with a situation by meeting two conditions.
The first condition is integrity. Consigny argues that the rhetor must possess multiple opinions with the ability to solve problems through those opinions.
The second condition is receptivity. Consigny argues that the rhetor cannot create problems at will, but becomes engaged with particular situations.
Consigny finds that rhetoric which meets the two conditions should be interpreted as an art of topics or commonplaces. Taking after classical rhetoricians, he explains the topic as an instrument and a situation for the rhetor, allowing the rhetor to engage creatively with the situation. As a challenge to both Bitzer and Vatz, Consigny claims that Bitzer has a one-dimensional theory by dismissing the notion of topic as instrument, and that Vatz wrongly allows the rhetor to create problems willfully while ignoring the topic as situation. The intersection of topic as instrument and topic as realm gives the situation both meaning (as a perceptive formal device) and context (as material significance). Consigny concludes:The real question in rhetorical theory is not whether the situation or the rhetor is "dominant," but the extent, in each case, to which the rhetor can discover and control indeterminate matter, using his art of topics to make sense of what would otherwise remain simply absurd.
Other critical responses
Flower and Hayes
In their 1980 article, "The Cognition of Discovery: Defining a Rhetorical Problem", Linda Flower and John R. Hayes expand upon Bitzer's definition of the rhetorical situation. In studying the cognitive processes that induce discovery, Flower and Hayes propose the model of the rhetorical problem. The rhetorical problem consists of two elements: the rhetorical situation (exigence and audience), and the writer's goals involving the reader, persona, meaning, and text. The rhetorical problem model explains how a writer responds to and negotiates a rhetorical situation while addressing and representing his or her goals for a given text.
Biesecker
In response to both Bitzer and Vatz, Barbara Biesecker challenges the idea of the rhetorical situation in her 1989 article "Rethinking the Rhetorical Situation from Within the Thematic of Différance". Biesecker critiques both Bitzer's claim that rhetoric originates from the situation and Vatz's claim that the rhetoric itself creates its own situation. Rather, she proposes a deconstruction of rhetorical analysis, specifically through the lens of Jacques Derrida's thematic of différance. In addition to questioning proposed views of the speaker and the situation, this lens also challenges the view of the audience as a unified, rational concept. Taken together, Biesecker suggests that the thematic of différance allows us to see the rhetorical situation as an event that does not simply convince audiences to believe or act in a certain way or represent the claims put forth by a static speaker or situation. Rather, she argues, this deconstruction reveals the ability of the rhetorical situation to actually create provisional identities and social relationships through articulation.
Garret and Xiao
In their 1993 article, Mary Garrett and Xiaosui Xiao apply Bitzer's rhetorical situation model to the response of the Chinese public to the Opium Wars of the 19th century. Garrett and Xiao propose three major changes to the existing theory of the rhetorical situation:
Elevating the audience as a defining factor of rhetorical situation, rather than the speaker, because of its role in deciding exigency, kairos ("fittingness"), and constraints.
Recognizing the power of discourse traditions within a given culture to influence the audience's perceptions, exigency, kairos, and constraints.
Emphasizing the interactive and dialectical nature of the rhetorical situation.
Rhetorical ecology
Theories leading up to rhetorical ecology
Coe
The first time the concepts of rhetoric and ecology were explored in relation to one another was in 1975 by Richard Coe. In his article, "Eco-Logic for the Composition Classroom", Coe offers up eco-logic as an alternative to traditional analytical logic used in rhetoric and composition studies. The contrast between the two is that analytical logic breaks down wholes into smaller parts to examine them, while eco-logic examines the whole as itself. His primary proof in favor of this type of thinking and approach to rhetoric and composition is that the meaning of the written or spoken word is relative to the context in which it is written or spoken.
Cooper
A more explicit link between rhetoric and ecology was drawn in 1986 by Marilyn Cooper in her article titled "The Ecology of Writing". With an acute focus on the composition classroom, Cooper critiques the notion of writing as a primarily cognitive function, positing that it ignores important social aspects of the writing process. She also argues that a simply contextual perspective of writing is also insufficient; rather, an ecological view of writing extends past the immediate context of a writer and their text to examine the systems that the writer is a part of with other writers. Cooper suggests five different systems that are all intricately interwoven in the actual act of writing: ideas, purposes, interpersonal interactions, cultural norms, and textual forms. Cooper illustrates this ecological model using the metaphor of a web, in that something that impacts one system will inevitably impact all the systems. Cooper also addresses the significant rhetorical concern of audience, claiming that within the ecological model, views of audience are improved as the implication is that there is really communication with a real audience happening, as opposed to an imagined audience, or generalized other. For Cooper, the ecological model allows us to look at people who interact through writing and the systems making up the act of writing itself.
Edbauer's rhetorical ecology
In a 2005 article, "Unframing Models of Public Distribution: From Rhetorical Situation to Rhetorical Ecologies", Jenny Edbauer argued for an understanding of the rhetorical situation beyond the three traditional elements of audience, exigence, and constraints. Edbauer argues that the rhetorical situation lies within larger networks of meaning, or "ecologies". A shift from "rhetorical situations" to "rhetorical ecologies" takes into account the complex, overlapping, and constantly shifting nature of audience, exigence, and constraints, as well as the distribution of public rhetorics. Edbauer argues that viewing rhetorical situations as ecologies shows us that "public rhetorics do not only exist in the elements of their situations, but also in the radius of their neighboring events."
Challenges to rhetorical ecology
Jones
In 2021, Madison Jones published an article titled "A Counterhistory of Rhetorical Ecologies", challenging the rhetorical ecology framework. In the article, he explicitly acknowledges that he is not writing off the theory as something inherently bad; rather, he is observing complications within it and offering up creative new perspectives on the topic. He begins by outlining the various environmental, colonial, and nuclear issues that arise when the metaphor of ecology is invoked. Tying this back to rhetoric, he argues that spatiotemporal issues within the idea of rhetorical ecology (i.e., issues that are related to the location and timing of a rhetorical event) are directly linked back to these historical realities interwoven into the larger idea of ecology. He suggests the framework of field histories as a way to acknowledge the complicated history of the field of ecology as it is used rhetorically. He particularly focuses on the need to employ place-based and community-engaged research to better understand the history of the discipline and work toward shaping a better future.
Other recent theories
Gallagher
John R. Gallagher's 2015 article, "The Rhetorical Template", addresses the rhetorical situation in relation to "Web 2.0" and the templates of social networking sites, such as Facebook. Gallagher defines these Web 2.0 templates as "prefabricated designs that allow writers to create a coherent text." Gallagher contends that rhetorical templates offer a new approach to making meaning within new exigency. Rhetorical templates function within constraints of the genre, but also affect the exigence and purpose by creating how the text is written and read.
Use in teaching writing
The rhetorical situation is a component of some first-year college writing courses, wherein students learn about the rhetorical situation, rhetorical analysis, and awareness of the features they must respond to from their rhetorical situation(s). In this context, the rhetorical situation is taught in several parts:
Writer: the author, speaker, or other generator of the rhetoric under examination
Exigence: the reason the author is writing about their particular subject and why they are writing about it at this moment
Purpose: what the writer wants from the audience
Audience: the intended (and sometimes unintended) recipients of the writer's message
Genre: how the topic is presented by the writer to the audience
Subject: the topic that the writer is discussing
Context: describes the author, where and when the rhetoric is being created and/or received, etc.
Constraints: all of the elements that can limit or alter the message's efficacy; this is sometimes grouped together with context
Though some scholars, such as Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle, have criticized the use of the rhetorical situation as a core component of first-year writing courses, arguing that it would be better to teach students about writing and writing studies than it would be to teach them how to write by responding to rhetorical situations. In response, some others (such as Tara Boyce) have noted that both approaches appear to have their limitations, and that challenges remain regardless of approach. Boyce writes that "students, though aware of and capable of implementing [rhetorical] awareness into writing practices, most often do not. The question remains in how to adapt pedagogy to achieve this awareness and how to measure that achievement."
References
Rhetoric
Writing | 0.781033 | 0.985626 | 0.769807 |
Tradition | A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes (like lawyers' wigs or military officers' spurs), but the idea has also been applied to social norms and behaviors such as greetings etc. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of years— the word tradition itself derives from the Latin word tradere literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. While it is reportedly assumed that traditions have an ancient history, many traditions have been invented on purpose, whether it be political or cultural, over short periods of time. Various academic disciplines also use the word in a variety of ways.
The phrase "according to tradition" or "by tradition" usually means that the information that follows is known only through oral tradition, and is not supported (and perhaps may be refuted) by physical documentation, artifacts, or other reliable evidence. "Tradition" refers to the quality or origin of the information being discussed. For example, "According to tradition, Homer was born on Chios, but many other locales have historically claimed him as theirs." This tradition may never be proven or disproved. In another example, "King Arthur, according to history, a true British king, has inspired many well loved stories." Whether they are documented fact or not does not decrease their value as cultural history and literature.
Traditions are subject of study in several academic fields of learning, especially in the humanities and social sciences, such as anthropology, archaeology, history, and sociology.
The conceptualization of tradition, as the notion of holding on to a previous time, is also found in political and philosophical discourse. For example, it is the basis of the political concept of traditionalism, and also strands of many world religions including traditional Catholicism. In artistic contexts, tradition is used to decide the correct display of an art form. For example, in the performance of traditional genres (such as traditional dance), adherence to guidelines dictating how an art form should be composed are given greater importance than the performer's own preferences. A host of factors can exacerbate the loss of tradition, including industrialization, globalization, and the assimilation or marginalization of specific cultural groups. In response to this, tradition-preservation attempts and initiatives have now been started in many countries around the world, focusing on aspects such as traditional languages. Tradition is usually contrasted with the goal of modernity and should be differentiated from customs, conventions, laws, norms, routines, rules and similar concepts.
Definition
The English word tradition comes from the Latin traditio via French, the noun from the verb tradere (to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping); it was originally used in Roman law to refer to the concept of legal transfers and inheritance. According to Anthony Giddens and others, the modern meaning of tradition evolved during the Enlightenment period, in opposition to modernity and progress.
As with many other generic terms, there are many definitions of tradition. The concept includes a number of interrelated ideas; the unifying one is that tradition refers to beliefs, objects or customs performed or believed in the past, originating in it, transmitted through time by being taught by one generation to the other, and are performed or believed in the present.
Tradition can also refer to beliefs or customs that are Prehistoric, with lost or arcane origins, existing from time immemorial. Originally, traditions were passed orally, without the need for a writing system. Tools to aid this process include poetic devices such as rhyme, epic stories and alliteration. The stories thus preserved are also referred to as tradition, or as part of an oral tradition. Even such traditions, however, are presumed to have originated (been "invented" by humans) at some point. Traditions are often presumed to be ancient, unalterable, and deeply important, though they may sometimes be much less "natural" than is presumed. It is presumed that at least two transmissions over three generations are required for a practice, belief or object to be seen as traditional. Some traditions were deliberately introduced for one reason or another, often to highlight or enhance the importance of a certain institution or truth. Traditions may also be adapted to suit the needs of the day, and the changes can become accepted as a part of the ancient tradition. Tradition changes slowly, with changes from one generation to the other being seen as significant. Thus, those carrying out the traditions will not be consciously aware of the change, and even if a tradition undergoes major changes over many generations, it will be seen as unchanged.
There are various origins and fields of tradition; they can refer to:
the forms of artistic heritage of a particular culture.
beliefs or customs instituted and maintained by societies and governments, such as national anthems and national holidays, such as Federal holidays in the United States.
beliefs or customs maintained by religious denominations and Church bodies that share history, customs, culture, and, to some extent, body of teachings. For example, one can speak of Islam's tradition or Christianity's tradition.
Many objects, beliefs and customs can be traditional. Rituals of social interaction can be traditional, with phrases and gestures such as saying "thank you", sending birth announcements, greeting cards, etc. Tradition can also refer to larger concepts practiced by groups (family traditions at Christmas), organizations (company's picnic) or societies, such as the practice of national and public holidays. Some of the oldest traditions include monotheism (three millennia) and citizenship (two millennia). It can also include material objects, such as buildings, works of art or tools.
Tradition is often used as an adjective, in contexts such as traditional music, traditional medicine, traditional values and others. In such constructions tradition refers to specific values and materials particular to the discussed context, passed through generations.
Invention of tradition
The term "invention of tradition", introduced by E. J. Hobsbawm, refers to situations when a new practice or object is introduced in a manner that implies a connection with the past that is not necessarily present. A tradition may be deliberately created and promulgated for personal, commercial, political, or national self-interest, as was done in colonial Africa; or it may be adopted rapidly based on a single highly publicized event, rather than developing and spreading organically in a population, as in the case of the white wedding dress, which only became popular after Queen Victoria wore a white gown at her wedding to Albert of Saxe-Coburg.
An example of an invention of tradition is the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (location of the British Parliament) in the Gothic style. Similarly, most of the traditions associated with monarchy of the United Kingdom, seen as rooted deep in history, actually date to 19th century. Other examples include the invention of tradition in Africa and other colonial holdings by the occupying forces. Requiring legitimacy, the colonial power would often invent a "tradition" which they could use to legitimize their own position. For example, a certain succession to a chiefdom might be recognized by a colonial power as traditional in order to favour their own candidates for the job. Often these inventions were based in some form of tradition, but were exaggerated, distorted, or biased toward a particular interpretation.
Invented traditions are central components of modern national cultures, providing a commonality of experience and promoting the unified national identity espoused by nationalism. Common examples include public holidays (particularly those unique to a particular nation), the singing of national anthems, and traditional national cuisine (see national dish). Expatriate and immigrant communities may continue to practice the national traditions of their home nation.
In scholarly discourse
In science, tradition is often used in the literature in order to define the relationship of an author's thoughts to that of his or her field. In 1948, philosopher of science Karl Popper suggested that there should be a "rational theory of tradition" applied to science which was fundamentally sociological. For Popper, each scientist who embarks on a certain research trend inherits the tradition of the scientists before them as he or she inherits their studies and any conclusions that superseded it. Unlike myth, which is a means of explaining the natural world through means other than logical criticism, scientific tradition was inherited from Socrates, who proposed critical discussion, according to Popper. For Thomas Kuhn, who presented his thoughts in a paper presented in 1977, a sense of such a critical inheritance of tradition is, historically, what sets apart the best scientists who change their fields is an embracement of tradition.
Traditions are a subject of study in several academic fields in social sciences—chiefly anthropology, archaeology, and biology—with somewhat different meanings in different fields. It is also used in varying contexts in other fields, such as history, psychology and sociology. Social scientists and others have worked to refine the commonsense concept of tradition to make it into a useful concept for scholarly analysis. In the 1970s and 1980s, Edward Shils explored the concept in detail. Since then, a wide variety of social scientists have criticized traditional ideas about tradition; meanwhile, "tradition" has come into usage in biology as applied to nonhuman animals.
Tradition as a concept variously defined in different disciplines should not be confused with various traditions (perspectives, approaches) in those disciplines.
Anthropology
Tradition is one of the key concepts in anthropology; it can be said that anthropology is the study of "tradition in traditional societies". There is however no "theory of tradition", as for most anthropologists the need to discuss what tradition is seems unnecessary, as defining tradition is both unnecessary (everyone can be expected to know what it is) and unimportant (as small differences in definition would be just technical). There are however dissenting views; scholars such as Pascal Boyer argue that defining tradition and developing theories about it are important to the discipline.
Archaeology
In archaeology, the term tradition is a set of cultures or industries which appear to develop on from one another over a period of time. The term is especially common in the study of American archaeology.
Biology
Biologists, when examining groups of non-humans, have observed repeated behaviors which are taught within communities from one generation to the next. Tradition is defined in biology as "a behavioral practice that is relatively enduring (i.e., is performed repeatedly over a period of time), that is shared among two or more members of a group, that depends in part on socially aided learning for its generation in new practitioners", and has been called a precursor to "culture" in the anthropological sense.
Behavioral traditions have been observed in groups of fish, birds, and mammals. Groups of orangutans and chimpanzees, in particular, may display large numbers of behavioral traditions, and in chimpanzees, transfer of traditional behavior from one group to another (not just within a group) has been observed. Such behavioral traditions may have evolutionary significance, allowing adaptation at a faster rate than genetic change.
Musicology and ethnomusicology
In the field of musicology and ethnomusicology tradition refers to the belief systems, repertoire, techniques, style and culture that is passed down through subsequent generations. Tradition in music suggests a historical context with which one can perceive distinguishable patterns. Along with a sense of history, traditions have a fluidity that cause them to evolve and adapt over time.
While both musicology and ethnomusicology are defined by being 'the scholarly study of music' they differ in their methodology and subject of research. 'Tradition, or traditions, can be presented as a context in which to study the work of a specific composer or as a part of a wide-ranging historical perspective.'
Sociology
The concept of tradition, in early sociological research (around the turn of the 19th and 20th century), referred to that of the traditional society, as contrasted by the more modern industrial society. This approach was most notably portrayed in Max Weber's concepts of traditional authority and modern rational-legal authority. In more modern works, One hundred years later, sociology sees tradition as a social construct used to contrast past with the present and as a form of rationality used to justify certain course of action.
Traditional society is characterized by lack of distinction between family and business, division of labor influenced primarily by age, gender, and status, high position of custom in the system of values, self-sufficiency, preference to saving and accumulation of capital instead of productive investment, relative autarky. Early theories positing the simple, unilineal evolution of societies from traditional to industrial model are now seen as too simplistic.
In 1981, Edward Shils in his book Tradition put forward a definition of tradition that became universally accepted. According to Shils, tradition is anything which is transmitted or handed down from the past to the present.
Another important sociological aspect of tradition is the one that relates to rationality. It is also related to the works of Max Weber (see theories of rationality), and were popularized and redefined in 1992 by Raymond Boudon in his book Action. In this context tradition refers to the mode of thinking and action justified as "it has always been that way". This line of reasoning forms the basis of the logical flaw of the appeal to tradition (or argumentum ad antiquitatem), which takes the form "this is right because we've always done it this way." In most cases such an appeal can be refuted on the grounds that the "tradition" being advocated may no longer be desirable, or, indeed, may never have been despite its previous popularity.
Philosophy
The idea of tradition is important in philosophy. Twentieth century philosophy is often divided between an 'analytic' tradition, dominant in Anglophone and Scandinavian countries, and a 'continental' tradition, dominant in German and Romance speaking Europe. Increasingly central to continental philosophy is the project of deconstructing what its proponents, following Martin Heidegger, call 'the tradition', which began with Plato and Aristotle. In contrast, some continental philosophers - most notably, Hans-Georg Gadamer - have attempted to rehabilitate the tradition of Aristotelianism. This move has been replicated within analytic philosophy by Alasdair MacIntyre. However, MacIntyre has himself deconstructed the idea of 'the tradition', instead posing Aristotelianism as one philosophical tradition in rivalry with others.
In political and religious discourse
The concepts of tradition and traditional values are frequently used in political and religious discourse to establish the legitimacy of a particular set of values. In the United States in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the concept of tradition has been used to argue for the centrality and legitimacy of conservative religious values. Similarly, strands of orthodox theological thought from a number of world religions openly identify themselves as wanting a return to tradition. For example, the term "traditionalist Catholic" refers to those, such as Archbishop Lefebvre, who want the worship and practices of the Church to be as they were before the Second Vatican Council of 1962–65. Likewise, Sunni Muslims are referred to as Ahl el-Sunnah wa Al-Jamā‘ah, literally "people of the tradition [of Muhammad] and the community", emphasizing their attachment to religious and cultural tradition.
More generally, tradition has been used as a way of determining the political spectrum, with right-wing parties having a stronger affinity to certain ways of the past than left-wing ones. Here, the concept of adherence tradition is embodied by the political philosophy of traditionalist conservatism (or simply traditionalism), which emphasizes the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, hierarchy and organic unity, agrarianism, classicism and high culture, and the intersecting spheres of loyalty. Traditionalists would therefore reject the notions of individualism, liberalism, modernity, and social progress, but promote cultural and educational renewal, and revive interest in the Church, the family, the State and local community. This view has been criticised for including in its notion of tradition practices which are no longer considered to be desirable, for example, stereotypical views of the place of women in domestic affairs.
In other societies, especially ones experiencing rapid social change, the idea of what is "traditional" may be widely contested, with different groups striving to establish their own values as the legitimate traditional ones. Defining and enacting traditions in some cases can be the means of building unity between subgroups in a diverse society; in other cases, tradition is a means of othering and keeping groups distinct from one another.
In artistic discourse
In artistic contexts, in the performance of traditional genres (such as traditional dance), adherence to traditional guidelines is of greater importance than performer's preferences. It is often the unchanging form of certain arts that leads to their perception as traditional. For artistic endeavors, tradition has been used as a contrast to creativity, with traditional and folk art associated with unoriginal imitation or repetition, in contrast to fine art, which is valued for being original and unique. More recent philosophy of art, however, considers interaction with tradition as integral to the development of new artistic expression.
Relationship to other concepts
In the social sciences, tradition is often contrasted with modernity, particularly in terms of whole societies. This dichotomy is generally associated with a linear model of social change, in which societies progress from being traditional to being modern. Tradition-oriented societies have been characterized as valuing filial piety, harmony and group welfare, stability, and interdependence, while a society exhibiting modernity would value "individualism (with free will and choice), mobility, and progress." Another author discussing tradition in relationship to modernity, Anthony Giddens, sees tradition as something bound to ritual, where ritual guarantees the continuation of tradition. Gusfield and others, though, criticize this dichotomy as oversimplified, arguing that tradition is dynamic, heterogeneous, and coexists successfully with modernity even within individuals.
Tradition should be differentiated from customs, conventions, laws, norms, routines, rules and similar concepts. Whereas tradition is supposed to be invariable, they are seen as more flexible and subject to innovation and change. Whereas justification for tradition is ideological, the justification for other similar concepts is more practical or technical. Over time, customs, routines, conventions, rules and such can evolve into traditions, but that usually requires that they stop having (primarily) a practical purpose. For example, wigs worn by lawyers were at first common and fashionable; spurs worn by military officials were at first practical but now are both impractical and traditional.
Preservation
The legal protection of tradition includes a number of international agreements and national laws. In addition to the fundamental protection of cultural property, there is also cooperation between the United Nations, UNESCO and Blue Shield International in the protection or recording of traditions and customs. The protection of culture and traditions is becoming increasingly important nationally and internationally.
In many countries, concerted attempts are being made to preserve traditions that are at risk of being lost. A number of factors can exacerbate the loss of tradition, including industrialization, globalization, and the assimilation or marginalization of specific cultural groups. Customary celebrations and lifestyles are among the traditions that are sought to be preserved. Likewise, the concept of tradition has been used to defend the preservation and reintroduction of minority languages such as Cornish under the auspices of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Specifically, the charter holds that these languages "contribute to the maintenance and development of Europe's cultural wealth and traditions". The Charter goes on to call for "the use or adoption... of traditional and correct forms of place-names in regional or minority languages". Similarly, UNESCO includes both "oral tradition" and "traditional manifestations" in its definition of a country's cultural properties and heritage. So therefore it works to preserve tradition in countries such as Brazil.
In Japan, certain artworks, structures, craft techniques and performing arts are considered by the Japanese government to be a precious legacy of the Japanese people, and are protected under the Japanese Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. This law also identifies people skilled at traditional arts as "National Living Treasures", and encourages the preservation of their craft.
For native peoples like the Māori in New Zealand, there is conflict between the fluid identity assumed as part of modern society and the traditional identity with the obligations that accompany it; the loss of language heightens the feeling of isolation and damages the ability to perpetuate tradition.
Traditional cultural expressions
The phrase "traditional cultural expressions" is used by the World Intellectual Property Organization to refer to "any form of artistic and literary expression in which traditional culture and knowledge are embodied. They are transmitted from one generation to the next, and include handmade textiles, paintings, stories, legends, ceremonies, music, songs, rhythms and dance."
See also
Folklore
Origin myth
Perennial philosophy
Sacred tradition
References
Citations
Works cited
Hobsbawm, E. J., Introduction: Inventing Traditions, in
Further reading
Sowell, T (1980) Knowledge and Decisions Basic Books.
Polanyi, M (1964) Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy
Pelikan, Jaroslav (1984). The Vindication of Tradition. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. pbk.
Klein, Ernest, A comprehensive etymological dictionary of the English language: Dealing with the origin of words and their sense development thus illustrating the history and civilization of culture, Elsevier, Oxford, 7th ed., 2000.
External links
विविधता में एकता का परिचायक है 'परंपरा- नगर चौरासी'
Political culture
Social agreement
Social philosophy
Sociological terminology | 0.772267 | 0.996758 | 0.769764 |
Neoclassicism | Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was born in Rome, largely due to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann during the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Its popularity expanded throughout Europe as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, eventually competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style endured throughout the 19th, 20th, and into the 21st century.
European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began in opposition to the then-dominant Rococo style. Rococo architecture emphasizes grace, ornamentation and asymmetry; Neoclassical architecture is based on the principles of simplicity and symmetry, which were seen as virtues of the arts of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, and drawn directly from 16th-century Renaissance Classicism. Each "neo"-classicism movement selects some models among the range of possible classics that are available to it, and ignores others. Between 1765 and 1830, Neoclassical proponents—writers, speakers, patrons, collectors, artists and sculptors—paid homage to an idea of the artistic generation associated with Phidias, but sculpture examples they actually embraced were more likely to be Roman copies of Hellenistic sculptures. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of late antiquity. The discovery of ancient Palmyra's "Rococo" art through engravings in Robert Wood's The Ruins of Palmyra came as a revelation. With Greece largely unexplored and considered a dangerous territory of the Ottoman Empire, Neoclassicists' appreciation of Greek architecture was predominantly mediated through drawings and engravings which were subtly smoothed and regularized, "corrected" and "restored" monuments of Greece, not always consciously.
The Empire style, a second phase of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts, had its cultural centre in Paris in the Napoleonic era. Especially in architecture, but also in other fields, Neoclassicism remained a force long after the early 19th century, with periodic waves of revivalism into the 20th and even the 21st centuries, especially in the United States and Russia.
History
Neoclassicism is a revival of the many styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period, which coincided and reflected the developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style. While the movement is often described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism, this is a great over-simplification that tends not to be sustainable when specific artists or works are considered. The case of the supposed main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres, demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology.
The writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. His books Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1750) and Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("History of Ancient Art", 1764) were the first to distinguish sharply between Ancient Greek and Roman art, and define periods within Greek art, tracing a trajectory from growth to maturity and then imitation or decadence that continues to have influence to the present day. Winckelmann believed that art should aim at "noble simplicity and calm grandeur", and praised the idealism of Greek art, in which he said we find "not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which, as an ancient interpreter of Plato teaches us, come from images created by the mind alone". The theory was very far from new in Western art, but his emphasis on close copying of Greek models was: "The only way for us to become great or if this be possible, inimitable, is to imitate the ancients".
The Industrial Revolution saw global transition of human economy towards more efficient and stable manufacturing processes. There was tremendous material advancement and increased prosperity. With the advent of the Grand Tour, a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe. "Neoclassicism" in each art implies a particular canon of a "classical" model.
In English, the term "Neoclassicism" is used primarily of the visual arts; the similar movement in English literature, which began considerably earlier, is called Augustan literature. This, which had been dominant for several decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar. In music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and "Neoclassicism" is used of 20th-century developments. However, the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck represented a specifically Neoclassical approach, spelt out in his preface to the published score of Alceste (1769), which aimed to reform opera by removing ornamentation, increasing the role of the chorus in line with Greek tragedy, and using simpler unadorned melodic lines.
The term "Neoclassical" was not invented until the mid-19th century, and at the time the style was described by such terms as "the true style", "reformed" and "revival"; what was regarded as being revived varying considerably. Ancient models were certainly very much involved, but the style could also be regarded as a revival of the Renaissance, and especially in France as a return to the more austere and noble Baroque of the age of Louis XIV, for which a considerable nostalgia had developed as France's dominant military and political position started a serious decline. Ingres's coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, to the disapproval of critics.
Neoclassicism was strongest in architecture, sculpture and the decorative arts, where classical models in the same medium were relatively numerous and accessible; examples from ancient painting that demonstrated the qualities that Winckelmann's writing found in sculpture were and are lacking. Winckelmann was involved in the dissemination of knowledge of the first large Roman paintings to be discovered, at Pompeii and Herculaneum and, like most contemporaries except for Gavin Hamilton, was unimpressed by them, citing Pliny the Younger's comments on the decline of painting in his period.
As for painting, Greek painting was utterly lost: Neoclassicist painters imaginatively revived it, partly through bas-relief friezes, mosaics and pottery painting, and partly through the examples of painting and decoration of the High Renaissance of Raphael's generation, frescos in Nero's Domus Aurea, Pompeii and Herculaneum, and through renewed admiration of Nicolas Poussin. Much "Neoclassical" painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the relative merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann and his fellow Hellenists generally being on the winning side.
Painting, drawing and printmaking
It is hard to recapture the radical and exciting nature of early Neoclassical painting for contemporary audiences; it now strikes even those writers favourably inclined to it as "insipid" and "almost entirely uninteresting to us"—some of Kenneth Clark's comments on Anton Raphael Mengs' ambitious Parnassus at the Villa Albani, by the artist whom his friend Winckelmann described as "the greatest artist of his own, and perhaps of later times". The drawings, subsequently turned into prints, of John Flaxman used very simple line drawing (thought to be the purest classical medium) and figures mostly in profile to depict The Odyssey and other subjects, and once "fired the artistic youth of Europe" but are now "neglected", while the history paintings of Angelica Kauffman, mainly a portraitist, are described as having "an unctuous softness and tediousness" by Fritz Novotny. Rococo frivolity and Baroque movement had been stripped away but many artists struggled to put anything in their place, and in the absence of ancient examples for history painting, other than the Greek vases used by Flaxman, Raphael tended to be used as a substitute model, as Winckelmann recommended.
The work of other artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style, and form part of the history of both movements. The German-Danish painter Asmus Jacob Carstens finished very few of the large mythological works that he planned, leaving mostly drawings and colour studies which often succeed in approaching Winckelmann's prescription of "noble simplicity and calm grandeur". Unlike Carstens' unrealized schemes, the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable, and taken back by those making the Grand Tour to all parts of Europe. His main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. The somewhat disquieting atmosphere of many of his Vedute (views) becomes dominant in his series of 16 prints of Carceri d'invenzione ("Imaginary Prisons") whose "oppressive cyclopean architecture" conveys "dreams of fear and frustration". The Swiss-born Henry Fuseli spent most of his career in England, and while his fundamental style was based on Neoclassical principles, his subjects and treatment more often reflected the "Gothic" strain of Romanticism, and sought to evoke drama and excitement.
Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the sensational success of Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal government, which David insisted on painting in Rome. David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. The central perspective is perpendicular to the picture plane, made more emphatic by the dim arcade behind, against which the heroic figures are disposed as in a frieze, with a hint of the artificial lighting and staging of opera, and the classical colouring of Nicolas Poussin. David rapidly became the leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of much government patronage in art. He managed to retain his influence in the Napoleonic period, turning to frankly propagandistic works, but had to leave France for exile in Brussels at the Bourbon Restoration.
David's many students included Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, who saw himself as a classicist throughout his long career, despite a mature style that has an equivocal relationship with the main current of Neoclassicism, and many later diversions into Orientalism and the Troubadour style that are hard to distinguish from those of his unabashedly Romantic contemporaries, except by the primacy his works always give to drawing. He exhibited at the Salon for over 60 years, from 1802 into the beginnings of Impressionism, but his style, once formed, changed little.
Sculpture
If Neoclassical painting suffered from a lack of ancient models, Neoclassical sculpture tended to suffer from an excess of them. Although examples of actual Greek sculpture of the "Classical Period" beginning in about 500 BC were then very few; the most highly regarded works were mostly Roman copies. The leading Neoclassical sculptors enjoyed huge reputations in their own day, but are now less regarded, with the exception of Jean-Antoine Houdon, whose work was mainly portraits, very often as busts, which do not sacrifice a strong impression of the sitter's personality to idealism. His style became more classical as his long career continued, and represents a rather smooth progression from Rococo charm to classical dignity. Unlike some Neoclassical sculptors he did not insist on his sitters wearing Roman dress, or being unclothed. He portrayed most of the notable figures of the Enlightenment, and travelled to America to produce a statue of George Washington, as well as busts of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and other founders of the new republic.
Antonio Canova and the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen were both based in Rome, and as well as portraits produced many ambitious life-size figures and groups; both represented the strongly idealizing tendency in Neoclassical sculpture. Canova has a lightness and grace, where Thorvaldsen is more severe; the difference is exemplified in their respective groups of the Three Graces. All these, and Flaxman, were still active in the 1820s, and Romanticism was slow to impact sculpture, where versions of Neoclassicism remained the dominant style for most of the 19th century.
An early Neoclassicist in sculpture was the Swede Johan Tobias Sergel. John Flaxman was also, or mainly, a sculptor, mostly producing severely classical reliefs that are comparable in style to his prints; he also designed and modelled Neoclassical ceramics for Josiah Wedgwood for several years. Johann Gottfried Schadow and his son Rudolph, one of the few Neoclassical sculptors to die young, were the leading German artists, with Franz Anton von Zauner in Austria. The late Baroque Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt turned to Neoclassicism in mid-career, shortly before he appears to have suffered some kind of mental crisis, after which he retired to the country and devoted himself to the highly distinctive "character heads" of bald figures pulling extreme facial expressions. Like Piranesi's Carceri, these enjoyed a great revival of interest during the age of psychoanalysis in the early 20th century. The Dutch Neoclassical sculptor Mathieu Kessels studied with Thorvaldsen and worked almost exclusively in Rome.
Since prior to the 1830s the United States did not have a sculpture tradition of its own, save in the areas of tombstones, weathervanes and ship figureheads, the European Neoclassical manner was adopted there, and it was to hold sway for decades and is exemplified in the sculptures of Horatio Greenough, Harriet Hosmer, Hiram Powers, Randolph Rogers and William Henry Rinehart.
Architecture and the decorative arts
Neoclassical art was traditional and new, historical and modern, conservative and progressive all at the same time.
Neoclassicism first gained influence in Britain and France, through a generation of French art students trained in Rome and influenced by the writings of Winckelmann, and it was quickly adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden, Poland and Russia. At first, classicizing decor was grafted onto familiar European forms, as in the interiors for Catherine the Great's lover, Count Grigory Orlov, designed by an Italian architect with a team of Italian stuccadori: only the isolated oval medallions like cameos and the bas-relief overdoors hint of Neoclassicism; the furnishings are fully Italian Rococo.
A second Neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied (through the medium of engravings) and more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the Napoleonic Empire. In France, the first phase of Neoclassicism was expressed in the "Louis XVI style", and the second in the styles called "Directoire" and Empire. The Rococo style remained popular in Italy until the Napoleonic regimes brought the new archaeological classicism, which was embraced as a political statement by young, progressive, urban Italians with republican leanings.
In the decorative arts, Neoclassicism is exemplified in Empire furniture made in Paris, London, New York, Berlin; in Biedermeier furniture made in Austria; in Karl Friedrich Schinkel's museums in Berlin, Sir John Soane's Bank of England in London and the newly built "United States Capitol" in Washington, D.C.; and in Josiah Wedgwood's bas reliefs and "black basaltes" vases. The style was international; Scots architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine the Great, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Indoors, Neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved a wide audience in the 1760s, with the first luxurious volumes of tightly controlled distribution of Le Antichità di Ercolano (The Antiquities of Herculaneum). The antiquities of Herculaneum showed that even the most classicizing interiors of the Baroque, or the most "Roman" rooms of William Kent were based on basilica and temple exterior architecture turned outside in, hence their often bombastic appearance to modern eyes: pedimented window frames turned into gilded mirrors, fireplaces topped with temple fronts. The new interiors sought to recreate an authentically Roman and genuinely interior vocabulary.
Techniques employed in the style included flatter, lighter motifs, sculpted in low frieze-like relief or painted in monotones en camaïeu ("like cameos"), isolated medallions or vases or busts or bucrania or other motifs, suspended on swags of laurel or ribbon, with slender arabesques against backgrounds, perhaps, of "Pompeiian red" or pale tints, or stone colors. The style in France was initially a Parisian style, the Goût grec ("Greek style"), not a court style; when Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, Marie Antoinette, his fashion-loving Queen, brought the Louis XVI style to court. However, there was no real attempt to employ the basic forms of Roman furniture until around the turn of the century, and furniture-makers were more likely to borrow from ancient architecture, just as silversmiths were more likely to take from ancient pottery and stone-carving than metalwork: "Designers and craftsmen ... seem to have taken an almost perverse pleasure in transferring motifs from one medium to another".
From about 1800 a fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and engravings, gave a new impetus to Neoclassicism, the Greek Revival. At the same time the Empire style was a more grandiose wave of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts. Mainly based on Imperial Roman styles, it originated in, and took its name from, the rule of Napoleon in the First French Empire, where it was intended to idealize Napoleon's leadership and the French state. The style corresponds to the more bourgeois Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States, the Regency style in Britain, and the Napoleon style in Sweden. According to the art historian Hugh Honour "so far from being, as is sometimes supposed, the culmination of the Neoclassical movement, the Empire marks its rapid decline and transformation back once more into a mere antique revival, drained of all the high-minded ideas and force of conviction that had inspired its masterpieces". An earlier phase of the style was called the Adam style in Great Britain.
Neoclassicism continued to be a major force in academic art through the 19th century and beyond—a constant antithesis to Romanticism or Gothic revivals —, although from the late 19th century on it had often been considered anti-modern, or even reactionary, in influential critical circles. The centres of several European cities, notably Saint Petersburg and Munich, came to look much like museums of Neoclassical architecture.
Gothic revival architecture (often linked with the Romantic cultural movement), a style originating in the 18th century which grew in popularity throughout the 19th century, contrasted Neoclassicism. Whilst Neoclassicism was characterized by Greek and Roman-influenced styles, geometric lines and order, Gothic revival architecture placed an emphasis on medieval-looking buildings, often made to have a rustic, "romantic" appearance.
France
Louis XVI style (1760–1789)
It marks the transition from Rococo to Classicism. Unlike the Classicism of Louis XIV, which transformed ornaments into symbols, Louis XVI style represents them as realistic and natural as possible, i.e. laurel branches really are laurel branches, roses the same, and so on. One of the main decorative principles is symmetry. In interiors, the colours used are very bright, including white, light grey, bright blue, pink, yellow, very light lilac, and gold. Excesses of ornamentation are avoided. The return to antiquity is synonymous with above all with a return to the straight lines: strict verticals and horizontals were the order of the day. Serpentine ones were no longer tolerated, save for the occasional half circle or oval. Interior decor also honored this taste for rigor, with the result that flat surfaces and right angles returned to fashion. Ornament was used to mediate this severity, but it never interfered with basic lines and always was disposed symmetrically around a central axis. Even so, ébénistes often canted fore-angles to avoid excessive rigidity.
The decorative motifs of Louis XVI style were inspired by antiquity, the Louis XIV style, and nature. Characteristic elements of the style: a torch crossed with a sheath with arrows, imbricated disks, guilloché, double bow-knots, smoking braziers, linear repetitions of small motifs (rosettes, beads, oves), trophy or floral medallions hanging from a knotted ribbon, acanthus leaves, gadrooning, interlace, meanders, cornucopias, mascarons, Ancient urns, tripods, perfume burners, dolphins, ram and lion heads, chimeras, and gryphons. Greco-Roman architectural motifs are also heavily used: flutings, pilasters (fluted and unfluted), fluted balusters (twisted and straight), columns (engaged and unengaged, sometimes replaced by caryathids), volute corbels, triglyphs with guttae (in relief and trompe-l'œil).
Directoire style (1789–1804)
Empire style (1804–1815)
Neoclassicism was representative for the new French society that exited the revolution, setting the tone in all life fields, including art. The Jacquard machine was invented during this period (which revolutionised the entire sewing system, manual until then). One of the dominant colours was red, decorated with gilt bronze. Bright colours were also used, including white, cream, violet, brown, blue, dark red, with little ornaments of gilt bronze. Interior architecture included wood panels decorated with gilt reliefs (on a white background or a coloured one). Motifs were placed geometrically. The walls were covered in stuccos, wallpaper fabrics. Fireplace mantels were made of white marble, having caryatids at their corners, or other elements: obelisks, sphinxes, winged lions, and so on. Bronze objects were placed on their tops, including mantel clocks. The doors consisted of simple rectangular panels, decorated with a Pompeian-inspired central figure. Empire fabrics are damasks with a blue or brown background, satins with a green, pink or purple background, velvets of the same colors, brooches broached with gold or silver, and cotton fabrics. All of these were used in interiors for curtains, for covering certain furniture, for cushions or upholstery (leather was also used for upholstery).
All Empire ornament is governed by a rigorous spirit of symmetry reminiscent of the Louis XIV style. Generally, the motifs on a piece's right and left sides correspond to one another in every detail; when they do not, the individual motifs themselves are entirely symmetrical in composition: antique heads with identical tresses falling onto each shoulder, frontal figures of Victory with symmetrically arrayed tunics, identical rosettes or swans flanking a lock plate, etc. Like Louis XIV, Napoleon had a set of emblems unmistakably associated with his rule, most notably the eagle, the bee, stars, and the initials I (for Imperator) and N (for Napoleon), which were usually inscribed within an imperial laurel crown. Motifs used include: figures of Victory bearing palm branches, Greek dancers, nude and draped women, figures of antique chariots, winged putti, mascarons of Apollo, Hermes and the Gorgon, swans, lions, the heads of oxen, horses and wild beasts, butterflies, claws, winged chimeras, sphinxes, bucrania, sea horses, oak wreaths knotted by thin trailing ribbons, climbing grape vines, poppy rinceaux, rosettes, palm branches, and laurel. There's a lot of Greco-Roman ones: stiff and flat acanthus leaves, palmettes, cornucopias, beads, amphoras, tripods, imbricated disks, caduceuses of Mercury, vases, helmets, burning torches, winged trumpet players, and ancient musical instruments (tubas, rattles and especially lyres). Despite their antique derivation, the fluting and triglyphs so prevalent under Louis XVI are abandoned. Egyptian Revival motifs are especially common at the beginning of the period: scarabs, lotus capitals, winged disks, obelisks, pyramids, figures wearing nemeses, caryatids en gaine supported by bare feet and with women Egyptian headdresses.
Germany
Neoclassical architecture became widespread as a symbol of wealth and power in Germany, mostly in what was then Prussia. Karl Friedrich Schinkel built many prominent buildings in this style, including the Altes Museum in Berlin. While the city remained dominated by Baroque city planning, his architecture and functional style provided the city with a distinctly neoclassical center.
His Bauakademie is considered one of the forerunners of modern architecture due to its hithertofore relatively streamlined façade of the building
Italy
From the second half of the 18th century through the 19th century, Italy went through a great deal of socio-economic changes, several foreign invasions and the turbulent Risorgimento, which resulted in Italian unification in 1861. Thus, Italian art went through a series of minor and major changes in style.
Italian Neoclassicism was the earliest manifestation of the general period known as Neoclassicism and lasted more than the other national variants of neoclassicism. It developed in opposition to the Baroque style around and lasted until . Neoclassicism began around the period of the rediscovery of Pompeii and spread all over Europe as a generation of art students returned to their countries from the Grand Tour in Italy with rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. It first centred in Rome where artists such as Antonio Canova and Jacques-Louis David were active in the second half of the 18th century, before moving to Paris. Painters of Vedute, like Canaletto and Giovanni Paolo Panini, also enjoyed a huge success during the Grand Tour. Neoclassical architecture was inspired by the Renaissance works of Andrea Palladio and saw in Luigi Vanvitelli the main interpreters of the style.
Classicist literature had a great impact on the Risorgimento movement: the main figures of the period include Vittorio Alfieri, Giuseppe Parini, Vincenzo Monti and Ugo Foscolo, Giacomo Leopardi and Alessandro Manzoni (nephew of Cesare Beccaria), who were also influenced by the French Enlightenment and German Romanticism. The virtuoso violinist Paganini and the operas of Rossini, Donnizetti, Bellini and, later, Verdi dominated the scene in Italian classical and romantic music.
The art of Francesco Hayez and especially that of the Macchiaioli represented a break with the classical school, which came to an end as Italy unified (see Italian modern and contemporary art). Neoclassicism was the last Italian-born style, after the Renaissance and Baroque, to spread to all Western Art.
Romania
During the 19th century, the predominant style in Wallachia and Moldavia, later the Kingdom of Romania, was Classicism which lasted for a long time, until the 20th century, although it coexisted in some short periods with other styles. Foreign architects and engineers were invited here since the first decade of the 19th century. Most of the architects that built during the beginning of the century were foreigners because Romanians did not have yet the instruction needed for designing buildings that were very different compared to the Romanian tradition. Usually using Classicism, they started building together with Romanian artisans, usually prepared in foreign schools or academies. Romanian architects studied in Western European schools as well. One example is Alexandru Orăscu, one of the representatives of Neoclassicism in Romania.
Classicism manifested both in religious and secular architecture. A good example of secular architecture is the Știrbei Palace on Calea Victoriei (Bucharest), built around the year 1835, after the plans of French architect Michel Sanjouand. It received a new level in 1882, designed by Austrian architect Joseph Hartmann
Russia and the Soviet Union
In 1905–1914 Russian architecture passed through a brief but influential period of Neoclassical revival; the trend began with recreation of Empire style of Alexandrine period and quickly expanded into a variety of neo-Renaissance, Palladian and modernized, yet recognizably classical schools. They were led by architects born in the 1870s, who reached creative peak before World War I, like Ivan Fomin, Vladimir Shchuko and Ivan Zholtovsky. When the economy recovered in the 1920s, these architects and their followers continued working in primarily modernist environment; some (Zholtovsky) strictly followed the classical canon, others (Fomin, Schuko, Ilya Golosov) developed their own modernized styles.
With the crackdown on architect's independence and official denial of modernism (1932), demonstrated by the international contest for the Palace of Soviets, Neoclassicism was instantly promoted as one of the choices in Stalinist architecture, although not the only choice. It coexisted with moderately modernist architecture of Boris Iofan, bordering with contemporary Art Deco (Schuko); again, the purest examples of the style were produced by Zholtovsky school that remained an isolated phenomena. The political intervention was a disaster for constructivist leaders yet was sincerely welcomed by architects of the classical schools.
Neoclassicism was an easy choice for the Soviet Union since it did not rely on modern construction technologies (steel frame or reinforced concrete) and could be reproduced in traditional masonry. Thus the designs of Zholtovsky, Fomin and other old masters were easily replicated in remote towns under strict material rationing. Improvement of construction technology after World War II permitted Stalinist architects to venture into skyscraper construction, although stylistically these skyscrapers (including "exported" architecture of Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw and the Shanghai International Convention Centre) share little with the classical models. Neoclassicism and neo-Renaissance persisted in less demanding residential and office projects until 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev put an end to expensive Stalinist architecture.
The United Kingdom
The Adam style was created by two brothers, Adam and James, who published in 1777 a volume of etchings with interior ornamentation. In the interior decoration made after Robert Adam's drawings, the walls, ceilings, doors, and any other surface, are divided into big panels: rectangular, round, square, with stuccos and Greco-Roman motifs at the edges. Ornaments used include festoons, pearls, egg-and-dart bands, medallions, and any other motifs used during the Classical antiquity (especially the Etruscan ones). Decorative fittings such as urn-shaped stone vases, gilded silverware, lamps, and stauettes all have the same source of inspiration, classical antiquity. The Adam style emphasizes refined rectangular mirrors, framed like paintings (in frames with stylised leafs), or with a pediment above them, supporting an urn or a medallion. Another design of Adam mirrors is shaped like a Venetian window, with a big central mirror between two other thinner and longer ones. Another type of mirrors are the oval ones, usually decorated with festoons. The furniture in this style has a similar structure to Louis XVI furniture.
Besides the Adam style, when it comes to decorative arts, England is also known for the ceramic manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), who established a pottery called Etruria. Wedgwood ware is made of a material called jasperware, a hard and fine-grained type of stoneware. Wedgwood vases are usually decorated with reliefs in two colours, in most cases the figures being white and the background blue.
The United States
On the American continent, architecture and interior decoration have been highly influenced by the styles developed in Europe. The French taste has highly marked its presence in the southern states (after the French Revolution some emigrants have moved here, and in Canada a big part of the population has French origins). The practical spirit and the material situation of the Americans at that time gave the interiors a typic atmosphere. All the American furniture, carpets, tableware, ceramic, and silverware, with all the European influences, and sometimes Islamic, Turkish or Asian, were made in conformity with the American norms, taste, and functional requirements. There have existed in the US a period of the Queen Anne style, and an Chippendale one. A style of its own, the Federal style, has developed completely in the 18th and early 19th centuries, which has flourished being influenced by Britannic taste. Under the impulse of Neoclassicism, architecture, interiors, and furniture have been created. The style, although it has numerous characteristics which differ from state to state, is unitary. The structures of architecture, interiors, and furniture are Classicist, and incorporate Baroque and Rococo influences. The shapes used include rectangles, ovals, and crescents. Stucco or wooden panels on walls and ceilings reproduce Classicist motifs. Furniture tend to be decorated with floral marquetry and bronze or brass inlays (sometimes gilded).
Gardens
In England, Augustan literature had a direct parallel with the Augustan style of landscape design. The links are clearly seen in the work of Alexander Pope. The best surviving examples of Neoclassical English gardens are Chiswick House, Stowe House and Stourhead.
Fashion
In fashion, Neoclassicism influenced the much greater simplicity of women's dresses, and the long-lasting fashion for white, from well before the French Revolution, but it was not until after it that thorough-going attempts to imitate ancient styles became fashionable in France, at least for women. Classical costumes had long been worn by fashionable ladies posing as some figure from Greek or Roman myth in a portrait (in particular there was a rash of such portraits of the young model Emma, Lady Hamilton from the 1780s), but such costumes were only worn for the portrait sitting and masquerade balls until the Revolutionary period, and perhaps, like other exotic styles, as undress at home. But the styles worn in portraits by Juliette Récamier, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Thérésa Tallien and other Parisian trend-setters were for going-out in public as well. Seeing Mme Tallien at the opera, Talleyrand quipped that: "Il n'est pas possible de s'exposer plus somptueusement!" ("One could not be more sumptuously undressed"). In 1788, just before the Revolution, the court portraitist Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun had held a Greek supper where the ladies wore plain white Grecian tunics. Shorter classical hairstyles, where possible with curls, were less controversial and very widely adopted, and hair was now uncovered even outdoors; except for evening dress, bonnets or other coverings had typically been worn even indoors before. Thin Greek-style ribbons or fillets were used to tie or decorate the hair instead.
Very light and loose dresses, usually white and often with shockingly bare arms, rose sheer from the ankle to just below the bodice, where there was a strongly emphasized thin hem or tie round the body, often in a different colour. The shape is now often known as the Empire silhouette although it predates the First French Empire of Napoleon, but his first Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais was influential in spreading it around Europe. A long rectangular shawl or wrap, very often plain red but with a decorated border in portraits, helped in colder weather, and was apparently laid around the midriff when seated—for which sprawling semi-recumbent postures were favoured. By the start of the 19th century, such styles had spread widely across Europe.
Neoclassical fashion for men was far more problematic, and never really took off other than for hair, where it played an important role in the shorter styles that finally despatched the use of wigs, and then white hair-powder, for younger men. The trouser had been the symbol of the barbarian to the Greeks and Romans, but outside the painter's or, especially, the sculptor's studio, few men were prepared to abandon it. Indeed, the period saw the triumph of the pure trouser, or pantaloon, over the culotte or knee-breeches of the Ancien Régime. Even when David designed a new French "national costume" at the request of the government during the height of the Revolutionary enthusiasm for changing everything in 1792, it included fairly tight leggings under a coat that stopped above the knee. A high proportion of well-to-do young men spent much of the key period in military service because of the French Revolutionary Wars, and military uniform, which began to emphasize jackets that were short at the front, giving a full view of tight-fitting trousers, was often worn when not on duty, and influenced civilian male styles.
The trouser-problem had been recognised by artists as a barrier to creating contemporary history paintings; like other elements of contemporary dress they were seen as irredeemably ugly and unheroic by many artists and critics. Various stratagems were used to avoid depicting them in modern scenes. In James Dawkins and Robert Wood Discovering the Ruins of Palmyra (1758) by Gavin Hamilton, the two gentleman antiquaries are shown in toga-like Arab robes. In Watson and the Shark (1778) by John Singleton Copley, the main figure could plausibly be shown nude, and the composition is such that of the eight other men shown, only one shows a single breeched leg prominently. However the Americans Copley and Benjamin West led the artists who successfully showed that trousers could be used in heroic scenes, with works like West's The Death of General Wolfe (1770) and Copley's The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 (1783), although the trouser was still being carefully avoided in The Raft of the Medusa, completed in 1819.
Classically inspired male hairstyles included the Bedford Crop, arguably the precursor of most plain modern male styles, which was invented by the radical politician Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford as a protest against a tax on hair powder; he encouraged his friends to adopt it by betting them they would not. Another influential style (or group of styles) was named by the French "coiffure à la Titus" after Titus Junius Brutus (not in fact the Roman Emperor Titus as often assumed), with hair short and layered but somewhat piled up on the crown, often with restrained quiffs or locks hanging down; variants are familiar from the hair of both Napoleon and George IV of the United Kingdom. The style was supposed to have been introduced by the actor François-Joseph Talma, who upstaged his wigged co-actors when appearing in productions of works such as Voltaire's Brutus (about Lucius Junius Brutus, who orders the execution of his son Titus). In 1799 a Parisian fashion magazine reported that even bald men were adopting Titus wigs, and the style was also worn by women, the reporting in 1802 that "more than half of elegant women were wearing their hair or wig à la Titus.
Music
Neoclassicism in music is a 20th-century movement; in this case it is the Classical and Baroque musical styles of the 17th and 18th centuries, with their fondness for Greek and Roman themes, that were being revived, not the music of the ancient world itself. (The early 20th century had not yet distinguished the Baroque period in music, on which Neoclassical composers mainly drew, from what we now call the Classical period.) The movement was a reaction in the first part of the 20th century to the disintegrating chromaticism of late-Romanticism and Impressionism, emerging in parallel with musical Modernism, which sought to abandon key tonality altogether. It manifested a desire for cleanness and simplicity of style, which allowed for quite dissonant paraphrasing of classical procedures, but sought to blow away the cobwebs of Romanticism and the twilit glimmerings of Impressionism in favour of bold rhythms, assertive harmony and clean-cut sectional forms, coinciding with the vogue for reconstructed "classical" dancing and costume in ballet and physical education.
The 17th–18th century dance suite had had a minor revival before World War I but the Neoclassicists were not altogether happy with unmodified diatonicism, and tended to emphasise the bright dissonance of suspensions and ornaments, the angular qualities of 17th-century modal harmony and the energetic lines of countrapuntal part-writing. Ottorino Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances (1917) led the way for the sort of sound to which the Neoclassicists aspired. Although the practice of borrowing musical styles from the past has not been uncommon throughout musical history, art musics have gone through periods where musicians used modern techniques coupled with older forms or harmonies to create new kinds of works. Notable compositional characteristics are: referencing diatonic tonality, conventional forms (dance suites, concerti grossi, sonata forms, etc.), the idea of absolute music untramelled by descriptive or emotive associations, the use of light musical textures, and a conciseness of musical expression. In classical music, this was most notably perceived between the 1920s and the 1950s. Igor Stravinsky is the best-known composer using this style; he effectively began the musical revolution with his Bach-like Octet for Wind Instruments (1923). A particular individual work that represents this style well is Prokofiev's Classical Symphony No. 1 in D, which is reminiscent of the symphonic style of Haydn or Mozart. Neoclassical ballet as innovated by George Balanchine de-cluttered the Russian Imperial style in terms of costume, steps and narrative, while also introducing technical innovations.
Later Neoclassicism and continuations
After the middle of the 19th century, Neoclassicism starts to no longer be the main style, being replaced by Eclecticism of Classical styles. The Palais Garnier in Paris is a good example of this, since despite being predominantly Neoclassical, it features elements and ornaments taken from Baroque and Renaissance architecture. This practice was frequent in late 19th and early 20th century architecture, before World War I. Besides Neoclassicism, the well known for this eclecticism of Classical styles.
Pablo Picasso experimented with classicizing motifs in the years immediately following World War I.
In American architecture, Neoclassicism was one expression of the American Renaissance movement, ca. 1890–1917; its last manifestation was in Beaux-Arts architecture, and its final large public projects were the Lincoln Memorial (highly criticized at the time), the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (also heavily criticized by the architectural community as being backward thinking and old fashioned in its design), and the American Museum of Natural History's Roosevelt Memorial. These were considered stylistic anachronisms when they were finished. In the British Raj, Sir Edwin Lutyens' monumental city planning for New Delhi marks the sunset of Neoclassicism. World War II was to shatter most longing for (and imitation of) a mythical time.
There was an entire 20th-century movement in the non-visual arts which was also called Neoclassicism. It encompassed at least music, philosophy and literature. It was between the end of World War I and the end of World War II. (For information on the musical aspects, see 20th-century classical music and Neoclassicism in music. For information on the philosophical aspects, see Great Books.)
This literary Neoclassical movement rejected the extreme romanticism of (for example) Dada, in favour of restraint, religion (specifically Christianity) and a reactionary political program. Although the foundations for this movement in English literature were laid by T. E. Hulme, the most famous Neoclassicists were T. S. Eliot and Wyndham Lewis. In Russia, the movement crystallized as early as 1910 under the name of Acmeism, with Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelshtam as the leading representatives.
Art Deco
Although it started to be seen as 'dated' after WW1, principles, proportions and other Neoclassical elements were not abandoned yet. Art Deco was the dominant style during the interwar period, and it corresponds with the taste of a bourgeois elite for high class French styles of the past, including the Louis XVI, Directoire and Empire (the period styles of French Neoclassicism). At the same time, the French elite was equally capable of appreciating Modern art, like the works of Pablo Picasso or Amedeo Modigliani. The result of this situation is the early Art Deco style, which uses both new and old elements. The Palais de Tokyo from 1937 in Paris, by André Aubert and Marcel Dastugue, is a good example of this. Although ornaments are not used here, the facade being decorated only with reliefs, the way columns are present here is a strong reminiscence of Neoclassicism. Art Deco design often drew on Neoclassical motifs without expressing them overtly: severe, blocky commodes by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann or Louis Süe & André Mare; crisp, extremely low-relief friezes of damsels and gazelles in every medium; fashionable dresses that were draped or cut on the bias to recreate Grecian lines; the art dance of Isadora Duncan. Conservative modernist architects such as Auguste Perret in France kept the rhythms and spacing of columnar architecture even in factory buildings.
The oscillation of Art Deco between the use of historic elements, shapes and proportions, and the appetite for 'new', for Modernism, is the result of multiple factors. One of them is eclecticism. The complexity and heterogeneity of Art Deco is largely due to the eclectic spirit. Stylized elements from repertoire of Beaux-Arts, Neoclassicism, or of cultures distant in time and space (Ancient Egypt, Pre-Columbian Americas, or Sub-Saharian African art) are put together with references to Modernist avant-guard artists of the early 20th century (Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani or Constantin Brâncuși). The Art Deco phenomenon owes to academic eclecticism and Neoclassicism mainly the existence of a specific architecture. Without the contribution of the Beaux-Arts trained architects, Art Deco architecture would have remained, with the exception of residential buildings, a collection of decorative objects magnified to an urban scale, like the pavilions of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts from 1925, controversial at their time. Another reason for the swinging between historical elements and modernism was consumer culture. Objects and buildings in the puritan International style, devoid of any ornamentation or citation of the past, were too radical for the general public. In interwar France and England, the spirit of the public and much architectural criticism could not conceive a style totally deprived of ornament, like the International style.
The use of historic styles as sources of inspiration for Art Deco starts as far back as the years before WW1, through the efforts of decorators like Maurice Dufrêne, Paul Follot, Paul Iribe, André Groult, Léon Jallot or Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, who relate to the prestigious French artistic and handicraft tradition of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (the Louis XVI, Directoire and Louis Philippe), and who want to bring a new approach to these styles. The neo-Louis XVI style was really popular in France and Romania in the years before WW1, around 1910, and it heavily influenced multiple early Art Deco designs and buildings. A good example of this is the Château de Sept-Saulx in Grand Est, France, by Louis Süe, 1928–1929.
Neoclassicism and Totalitarian regimes
In Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Romania under the rule of Carol II and the Soviet Union, during the 1920s and 1930s, totalitarian regimes chose Neoclassicism for state buildings and art. Architecture was central to totalitarian regimes' expression of their permanence (despite their obvious novelty). The way totalitarian regimes drew from Classicism took many forms. When it comes to state buildings in Italy and Romania, architects attempted to fuse a modern sensibility with abstract classical forms. Two good examples of this are the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome, and the University Rectorate and Law Faculty Building in Bucharest (Bulevardul Mihail Kogălniceanu no. 36–46). In contrast, the Classicism of the Soviet Union, known as Socialist Realism, was bombastic, overloaded with ornaments and architectural sculptures, as an attempt to be in contrast with the simplicity of 'Capitalist' or 'bourgeois' styles like Art Deco or Modernism. The Lomonosov University in Moscow is a good example of this. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader that succeeded Stalin, did not like this pompous Socialist Realist architecture from the reign of his predecessor. Because of the low speed and cost of these Neoclassical buildings, he stated that 'they spent people's money on beauty that no one needs, instead of building simpler, but more'.
In the Soviet Union, Neoclassicism was embraced as a rejection of Art Deco and Modernism, which the Communists saw as being too 'bourgeois' and 'capitalist'. This Communist Neoclassical style is known as Socialist Realism, and it was popular during the reign of Joseph Stalin (1924–1953). In fine art. Generally, it manifested through deeply idealized representations of wiry workers, shown as heroes in collective farms or industrialized cities, political assemblies, achievements of Soviet technology, and through depictions happy children staying around Lenin or Stalin. Both subject matter and representation were carefully monitored. Artistic merit was determined by the degree to which a work contributed to the building of socialism. All artists had to join the state-controlled Union of Soviet Artists and produce work in the accepted style. The three guiding principles of Socialist Realism were party loyalty, presentation of correct ideology and accessibility. Realism, more easily understood by the masses, was the style of choice. At the beginning, in the Soviet Union, multiple competing avant-garde movements were present, notably Constructivism. However, as Stalin consolidated his power towards the end of the 1920s, avant-garde art and architecture were suppressed and eventually outlawed and official state styles were established. After Boris Iofan won the competition for the design of the Palace of the Soviets with a stepped classical tower, surmounted by a giant statue of Lenin, architecture soon reverted to pre-Revolutionary styles of art and architecture, untainted by Constructivism's perceived Western influence. Although Socialist Realism in architecture ended more or less with the death of Stalin and the rise of Nikita Khrushchev, paintings in this style continued to be produced, especially in countries where there was a strong personality cult of the leader in power, like in the case of Mao Zedong's China, Kim Il Sung's North Korea, or Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania.
The Nazis suppressed Germany's vibrant avant-garde culture once they gained control of the government in 1933. Albert Speer was set as Adolf Hitler's architectural advisor in 1934, and he tried to create an architecture that would both reflect the perceived unity of the German people and act as backdrop to the Nazis' expressions of power. The Nazis' approach to architecture was riffled with contradictions: while Hitler and Speer's plans for reordering Berlin aspired to imitate imperial Rome, in rural contexts Nazi buildings took inspiration from local vernaculars, trying to channel an 'authentic' German spirit. When it come to fine art, the Nazis created the term 'Degenerate art' for Modern art, a kind of art which to them was 'un-German', 'Jewish' or 'Communist'. The Nazis hated modern art and linked it to 'Cultural Bolshevism', the conspiracy theory that art (or culture broadly) was controlled by a leftist Jewish cabal seeking to destroy the aryan race. Hitler's war on Modern art mostly consisted of an exhibition that tried to discredit Modern artists, called the 'Degenerate Art exhibition'. This exhibition was displayed next to the Great Exhibition of German Art, which consisted of artworks that the Nazis approved of. This way, the visitors of both exhibitions could compare the art labeled by the regime as 'good' and 'bad'. With a similar atitude, the regime closed in 1931 the Bauhaus, an avant-garde art school in Dessau that was extremely influential post-war. It reopened in Berlin in 1932, but was closed again in 1933.
Compared to Germany and the Soviet Union, in Italy the avant-garde contributed to state architecture. Classical architecture was also an influence, echoing Benito Mussolini's far cruder attempts to create links between his Fascist regime and ancient Rome. Some Italian architects tried to create fusions between Modernism and Classicism, like Marcello Piacentini with the Sapienza University of Rome, or Giuseppe Terragni with Casa del Fascio in Como.
In Romania, towards the late 1930s, influenced by the Autocratic tendency of King Carol II, multiple state buildings were erected. They were Neoclassical, many very similar with what was popular in the same years in Fascist Italy. Examples in Bucharest include the University Rectorate and Law Faculty Building (Bulevardul Mihail Kogălniceanu no. 36–46), the Kretzulescu Apartment Building (Calea Victoriei no. 45), the CFR Building (Bulevardul Dinicu Golescu no. 38) or the Victoria Palace (Piața Victoriei no. 1). The Royal Palace, whose interiors are mostly done in a neo-Adam style, stands out by being more decorated, a little closer to the architecture before World War I.
Postmodernism
An early text questioning Modernism was by architect Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), in which he recommended a revival of the 'presence of the past' in architectural design. He tried to include in his own buildings qualities that he described as 'inclusion, inconsistency, compromise, accommodation, adaptation, superadjacency, equivalence, multiple focus, juxtaposition, or good and bad space.' Robert Venturi's work reflected the broader counter-cultural mood of the 1960s which saw younger generations begin to question and challenge the political, social and racial realities with which they found themselves confronted. This rejection of Modernism is known as Postmodernism. Robert Venturi parodies Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's well-known maxim 'less is more' with 'less is a bore'. During the 1980s and 1990s, some Postmodern architects found a refuge in a sort of Neo-Neoclassicism. Their use of Classicism was not limited only to ornaments, using more or less proportions and other principles too. Post-Modern Classicism had been variously described by some people as 'camp' or 'kitsch'. An architect who has been remarked through Post-Modern Classicism is Ricardo Bofill. His work includes two housing projects of titanic scale near Paris, known as Les Arcades du Lac from 1975 to 1981, and Les Espaces d'Abraxas from 1978 to 1983. A building that stands out through its revivalism is the J. Paul Getty Museum, in Malibu, California, from 1970 to 1975, inspired by the ancient Roman Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. The J. Paul Getty Museum is far closer to 19th century Neoclassicism, like the Pompejanum in Aschaffenburg, Germany, than to Post-Modern Classicism of the 1980s.
Architecture in the 21st century
After a lull during the period of modern architectural dominance (roughly post-World War II until the mid-1980s), Neoclassicism has seen something of a resurgence.
As of the first decade of the 21st century, contemporary Neoclassical architecture is usually classed under the umbrella term of New Classical Architecture. Sometimes it is also referred to as Neo-Historicism or Traditionalism. Also, a number of pieces of postmodern architecture draw inspiration from and include explicit references to Neoclassicism, Antigone District and the National Theatre of Catalonia in Barcelona among them. Postmodern architecture occasionally includes historical elements, like columns, capitals or the tympanum.
For sincere traditional-style architecture that sticks to regional architecture, materials and craftsmanship, the term Traditional Architecture (or vernacular) is mostly used. The Driehaus Architecture Prize is awarded to major contributors in the field of 21st century traditional or classical architecture, and comes with a prize money twice as high as that of the modernist Pritzker Prize.
In the United States, various contemporary public buildings are built in Neoclassical style, with the 2006 Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville being an example.
In Britain, a number of architects are active in the Neoclassical style. Examples of their work include two university libraries: Quinlan Terry's Maitland Robinson Library at Downing College and Robert Adam Architects' Sackler Library.
See also
1795–1820 in Western fashion
American Empire (style)
Antiquization
Nazi architecture
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassicism in France
Neo-Grec, the late Greek-Revival style
Skopje 2014
Notes
References
. Reprinted 1977.
Further reading
Brown, Kevin (2017). Artist and Patrons: Court Art and Revolution in Brussels at the end of the Ancien Regime, Dutch Crossing, Taylor and Francis
Eriksen, Svend. Early Neoclassicism in France (1974)
Friedlaender, Walter (1952). David to Delacroix (originally published in German; reprinted 1980)
Gromort, Georges, with introductory essay by Richard Sammons (2001). The Elements of Classical Architecture (Classical America Series in Art and Architecture)
Harrison, Charles; Paul Wood and Jason Gaiger (eds) (2000; repr. 2003). Art in Theory 1648–1815: An Anthology of Changing Ideas
Hartop, Christopher, with foreword by Tim Knox (2010).
The Classical Ideal: English Silver, 1760–1840, exh. cat. Cambridge: John Adamson .
Irwin, David (1966). English Neoclassical Art: Studies in Inspiration and Taste
Johnson, James William. “What Was Neo-Classicism?” Journal of British Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, 1969, pp. 49–70. online
Rosenblum, Robert (1967). Transformations in Late Eighteenth-Century Art
External links
01
18th century in art
18th century in the arts
19th century in art
19th century in the arts
Age of Enlightenment
Art movements
Decorative arts
Early modern period | 0.770573 | 0.998804 | 0.769652 |
Sociology | Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. Regarded as a part of both the social sciences and humanities, sociology uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. Sociological subject matter ranges from micro-level analyses of individual interaction and agency to macro-level analyses of social systems and social structure. Applied sociological research may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, whereas theoretical approaches may focus on the understanding of social processes and phenomenological method.
Traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, gender, and deviance. Recent studies have added socio-technical aspects of the digital divide as a new focus. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to other subjects and institutions, such as health and the institution of medicine; economy; military; punishment and systems of control; the Internet; sociology of education; social capital; and the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.
The range of social scientific methods has also expanded, as social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-20th century, especially, have led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophical approaches towards the analysis of society. Conversely, the turn of the 21st century has seen the rise of new analytically, mathematically, and computationally rigorous techniques, such as agent-based modelling and social network analysis.
Social research has influence throughout various industries and sectors of life, such as among politicians, policy makers, and legislators; educators; planners; administrators; developers; business magnates and managers; social workers; non-governmental organizations; and non-profit organizations, as well as individuals interested in resolving social issues in general.
History
Sociological reasoning predates the foundation of the discipline itself. Social analysis has origins in the common stock of universal, global knowledge and philosophy, having been carried out from as far back as the time of old comic poetry which features social and political criticism, and ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. For instance, the origin of the survey can be traced back to at least the Domesday Book in 1086, while ancient philosophers such as Confucius wrote about the importance of social roles.
Medieval Arabic writings encompass a rich tradition that unveils early insights into the field of sociology. Some sources consider Ibn Khaldun, a 14th-century Muslim scholar from Tunisia, to have been the father of sociology, although there is no reference to his work in the writings of European contributors to modern sociology. Khaldun's Muqaddimah was considered to be amongst the first works to advance social-scientific reasoning on social cohesion and social conflict.
Etymology
The word sociology derives part of its name from the Latin word socius ('companion' or 'fellowship'). The suffix -logy ('the study of') comes from that of the Greek -λογία, derived from λόγος (, 'word' or 'knowledge').
The term sociology was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès in an unpublished manuscript. Sociology was later defined independently by French philosopher of science Auguste Comte (1798–1857) in 1838 as a new way of looking at society. Comte had earlier used the term social physics, but it had been subsequently appropriated by others, most notably the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet. Comte endeavored to unify history, psychology, and economics through the scientific understanding of social life. Writing shortly after the malaise of the French Revolution, he proposed that social ills could be remedied through sociological positivism, an epistemological approach outlined in the Course in Positive Philosophy (1830–1842), later included in A General View of Positivism (1848). Comte believed a positivist stage would mark the final era in the progression of human understanding, after conjectural theological and metaphysical phases. In observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and having classified the sciences, Comte may be regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.
Marx
Both Comte and Karl Marx set out to develop scientifically justified systems in the wake of European industrialization and secularization, informed by various key movements in the philosophies of history and science. Marx rejected Comtean positivism but in attempting to develop a "science of society" nevertheless came to be recognized as a founder of sociology as the word gained wider meaning. For Isaiah Berlin, even though Marx did not consider himself to be a sociologist, he may be regarded as the "true father" of modern sociology, "in so far as anyone can claim the title."To have given clear and unified answers in familiar empirical terms to those theoretical questions which most occupied men's minds at the time, and to have deduced from them clear practical directives without creating obviously artificial links between the two, was the principal achievement of Marx's theory. The sociological treatment of historical and moral problems, which Comte and after him, Spencer and Taine, had discussed and mapped, became a precise and concrete study only when the attack of militant Marxism made its conclusions a burning issue, and so made the search for evidence more zealous and the attention to method more intense.
Spencer
Herbert Spencer was one of the most popular and influential 19th-century sociologists. It is estimated that he sold one million books in his lifetime, far more than any other sociologist at the time. So strong was his influence that many other 19th-century thinkers, including Émile Durkheim, defined their ideas in relation to his. Durkheim's Division of Labour in Society is to a large extent an extended debate with Spencer from whose sociology Durkheim borrowed extensively.
Also a notable biologist, Spencer coined the term survival of the fittest. While Marxian ideas defined one strand of sociology, Spencer was a critic of socialism, as well as a strong advocate for a laissez-faire style of government. His ideas were closely observed by conservative political circles, especially in the United States and England.
Foundations of the academic discipline
The first formal Department of Sociology in the world was established in 1892 by Albion Small—from the invitation of William Rainey Harper—at the University of Chicago. The American Journal of Sociology was founded shortly thereafter in 1895 by Small as well.
The institutionalization of sociology as an academic discipline, however, was chiefly led by Émile Durkheim, who developed positivism as a foundation for practical social research. While Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte's philosophy, he retained and refined its method, maintaining that the social sciences are a logical continuation of the natural ones into the realm of human activity, and insisting that they may retain the same objectivity, rationalism, and approach to causality. Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux in 1895, publishing his Rules of the Sociological Method (1895). For Durkheim, sociology could be described as the "science of institutions, their genesis and their functioning."
Durkheim's monograph Suicide (1897) is considered a seminal work in statistical analysis by contemporary sociologists. Suicide is a case study of variations in suicide rates among Catholic and Protestant populations, and served to distinguish sociological analysis from psychology or philosophy. It also marked a major contribution to the theoretical concept of structural functionalism. By carefully examining suicide statistics in different police districts, he attempted to demonstrate that Catholic communities have a lower suicide rate than that of Protestants, something he attributed to social (as opposed to individual or psychological) causes. He developed the notion of objective social facts to delineate a unique empirical object for the science of sociology to study. Through such studies he posited that sociology would be able to determine whether any given society is healthy or pathological, and seek social reform to negate organic breakdown, or "social anomie".
Sociology quickly evolved as an academic response to the perceived challenges of modernity, such as industrialization, urbanization, secularization, and the process of rationalization. The field predominated in continental Europe, with British anthropology and statistics generally following on a separate trajectory. By the turn of the 20th century, however, many theorists were active in the English-speaking world. Few early sociologists were confined strictly to the subject, interacting also with economics, jurisprudence, psychology and philosophy, with theories being appropriated in a variety of different fields. Since its inception, sociological epistemology, methods, and frames of inquiry, have significantly expanded and diverged.
Durkheim, Marx, and the German theorist Max Weber are typically cited as the three principal architects of sociology. Herbert Spencer, William Graham Sumner, Lester F. Ward, W. E. B. Du Bois, Vilfredo Pareto, Alexis de Tocqueville, Werner Sombart, Thorstein Veblen, Ferdinand Tönnies, Georg Simmel, Jane Addams and Karl Mannheim are often included on academic curricula as founding theorists. Curricula also may include Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Marianne Weber, Harriet Martineau, and Friedrich Engels as founders of the feminist tradition in sociology. Each key figure is associated with a particular theoretical perspective and orientation.
Further developments
The first college course entitled "Sociology" was taught in the United States at Yale in 1875 by William Graham Sumner. In 1883, Lester F. Ward, who later became the first president of the American Sociological Association (ASA), published Dynamic Sociology—Or Applied social science as based upon statical sociology and the less complex sciences, attacking the laissez-faire sociology of Herbert Spencer and Sumner. Ward's 1,200-page book was used as core material in many early American sociology courses. In 1890, the oldest continuing American course in the modern tradition began at the University of Kansas, lectured by Frank W. Blackmar. The Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago was established in 1892 by Albion Small, who also published the first sociology textbook: An introduction to the study of society. George Herbert Mead and Charles Cooley, who had met at the University of Michigan in 1891 (along with John Dewey), moved to Chicago in 1894. Their influence gave rise to social psychology and the symbolic interactionism of the modern Chicago School. The American Journal of Sociology was founded in 1895, followed by the ASA in 1905.
The sociological canon of classics with Durkheim and Max Weber at the top owes its existence in part to Talcott Parsons, who is largely credited with introducing both to American audiences. Parsons consolidated the sociological tradition and set the agenda for American sociology at the point of its fastest disciplinary growth. Sociology in the United States was less historically influenced by Marxism than its European counterpart, and to this day broadly remains more statistical in its approach.
The first sociology department established in the United Kingdom was at the London School of Economics and Political Science (home of the British Journal of Sociology) in 1904. Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse and Edvard Westermarck became the lecturers in the discipline at the University of London in 1907. Harriet Martineau, an English translator of Comte, has been cited as the first female sociologist. In 1909, the German Sociological Association was founded by Ferdinand Tönnies and Max Weber, among others. Weber established the first department in Germany at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1919, having presented an influential new antipositivist sociology. In 1920, Florian Znaniecki set up the first department in Poland. The Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt (later to become the Frankfurt School of critical theory) was founded in 1923. International co-operation in sociology began in 1893, when René Worms founded the Institut International de Sociologie, an institution later eclipsed by the much larger International Sociological Association (ISA), founded in 1949.
Theoretical traditions
Positivism and anti-positivism
Positivism
The overarching methodological principle of positivism is to conduct sociology in broadly the same manner as natural science. An emphasis on empiricism and the scientific method is sought to provide a tested foundation for sociological research based on the assumption that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only arrive by positive affirmation through scientific methodology.
The term has long since ceased to carry this meaning; there are no fewer than twelve distinct epistemologies that are referred to as positivism. Many of these approaches do not self-identify as "positivist", some because they themselves arose in opposition to older forms of positivism, and some because the label has over time become a pejorative term by being mistakenly linked with a theoretical empiricism. The extent of antipositivist criticism has also diverged, with many rejecting the scientific method and others only seeking to amend it to reflect 20th-century developments in the philosophy of science. However, positivism (broadly understood as a scientific approach to the study of society) remains dominant in contemporary sociology, especially in the United States.
Loïc Wacquant distinguishes three major strains of positivism: Durkheimian, Logical, and Instrumental. None of these are the same as that set forth by Comte, who was unique in advocating such a rigid (and perhaps optimistic) version. While Émile Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte's philosophy, he retained and refined its method. Durkheim maintained that the social sciences are a logical continuation of the natural ones into the realm of human activity, and insisted that they should retain the same objectivity, rationalism, and approach to causality. He developed the notion of objective sui generis "social facts" to serve as unique empirical objects for the science of sociology to study.
The variety of positivism that remains dominant today is termed instrumental positivism. This approach eschews epistemological and metaphysical concerns (such as the nature of social facts) in favour of methodological clarity, replicability, reliability and validity. This positivism is more or less synonymous with quantitative research, and so only resembles older positivism in practice. Since it carries no explicit philosophical commitment, its practitioners may not belong to any particular school of thought. Modern sociology of this type is often credited to Paul Lazarsfeld, who pioneered large-scale survey studies and developed statistical techniques for analysing them. This approach lends itself to what Robert K. Merton called middle-range theory: abstract statements that generalize from segregated hypotheses and empirical regularities rather than starting with an abstract idea of a social whole.
Antipositivism
The German philosopher Hegel criticised traditional empiricist epistemology, which he rejected as uncritical, and determinism, which he viewed as overly mechanistic. Karl Marx's methodology borrowed from Hegelian dialecticism but also a rejection of positivism in favour of critical analysis, seeking to supplement the empirical acquisition of "facts" with the elimination of illusions. He maintained that appearances need to be critiqued rather than simply documented. Early hermeneuticians such as Wilhelm Dilthey pioneered the distinction between natural and social science ('Geisteswissenschaft'). Various neo-Kantian philosophers, phenomenologists and human scientists further theorized how the analysis of the social world differs to that of the natural world due to the irreducibly complex aspects of human society, culture, and being.
In the Italian context of development of social sciences and of sociology in particular, there are oppositions to the first foundation of the discipline, sustained by speculative philosophy in accordance with the antiscientific tendencies matured by critique of positivism and evolutionism, so a tradition Progressist struggles to establish itself.
At the turn of the 20th century, the first generation of German sociologists formally introduced methodological anti-positivism, proposing that research should concentrate on human cultural norms, values, symbols, and social processes viewed from a resolutely subjective perspective. Max Weber argued that sociology may be loosely described as a science as it is able to identify causal relationships of human "social action"—especially among "ideal types", or hypothetical simplifications of complex social phenomena. As a non-positivist, however, Weber sought relationships that are not as "historical, invariant, or generalisable" as those pursued by natural scientists. Fellow German sociologist, Ferdinand Tönnies, theorised on two crucial abstract concepts with his work on "gemeinschaft and gesellschaft". Tönnies marked a sharp line between the realm of concepts and the reality of social action: the first must be treated axiomatically and in a deductive way ("pure sociology"), whereas the second empirically and inductively ("applied sociology").
Both Weber and Georg Simmel pioneered the "Verstehen" (or 'interpretative') method in social science; a systematic process by which an outside observer attempts to relate to a particular cultural group, or indigenous people, on their own terms and from their own point of view. Through the work of Simmel, in particular, sociology acquired a possible character beyond positivist data-collection or grand, deterministic systems of structural law. Relatively isolated from the sociological academy throughout his lifetime, Simmel presented idiosyncratic analyses of modernity more reminiscent of the phenomenological and existential writers than of Comte or Durkheim, paying particular concern to the forms of, and possibilities for, social individuality. His sociology engaged in a neo-Kantian inquiry into the limits of perception, asking 'What is society?' in a direct allusion to Kant's question 'What is nature?'
Classical theory
The contemporary discipline of sociology is theoretically multi-paradigmatic in line with the contentions of classical social theory. Randall Collins' well-cited survey of sociological theory retroactively labels various theorists as belonging to four theoretical traditions: Functionalism, Conflict, Symbolic Interactionism, and Utilitarianism.
Accordingly, modern sociological theory predominantly descends from functionalist (Durkheim) and conflict (Marx and Weber) approaches to social structure, as well as from symbolic-interactionist approaches to social interaction, such as micro-level structural (Simmel) and pragmatist (Mead, Cooley) perspectives. Utilitarianism (also known as rational choice or social exchange), although often associated with economics, is an established tradition within sociological theory.
Lastly, as argued by Raewyn Connell, a tradition that is often forgotten is that of Social Darwinism, which applies the logic of Darwinian biological evolution to people and societies. This tradition often aligns with classical functionalism, and was once the dominant theoretical stance in American sociology, from , associated with several founders of sociology, primarily Herbert Spencer, Lester F. Ward, and William Graham Sumner.
Contemporary sociological theory retains traces of each of these traditions and they are by no means mutually exclusive.
Functionalism
A broad historical paradigm in both sociology and anthropology, functionalism addresses the social structure—referred to as "social organization" by the classical theorists—with respect to the whole as well as the necessary function of the whole's constituent elements. A common analogy (popularized by Herbert Spencer) is to regard norms and institutions as 'organs' that work towards the proper functioning of the entire 'body' of society. The perspective was implicit in the original sociological positivism of Comte but was theorized in full by Durkheim, again with respect to observable, structural laws.
Functionalism also has an anthropological basis in the work of theorists such as Marcel Mauss, Bronisław Malinowski, and Radcliffe-Brown. It is in the latter's specific usage that the prefix "structural" emerged. Classical functionalist theory is generally united by its tendency towards biological analogy and notions of social evolutionism, in that the basic form of society would increase in complexity and those forms of social organization that promoted solidarity would eventually overcome social disorganization. As Giddens states:Functionalist thought, from Comte onwards, has looked particularly towards biology as the science providing the closest and most compatible model for social science. Biology has been taken to provide a guide to conceptualizing the structure and the function of social systems and to analyzing processes of evolution via mechanisms of adaptation. Functionalism strongly emphasizes the pre-eminence of the social world over its individual parts (i.e. its constituent actors, human subjects).
Conflict theory
Functionalist theories emphasize "cohesive systems" and are often contrasted with "conflict theories", which critique the overarching socio-political system or emphasize the inequality between particular groups. The following quotes from Durkheim and Marx epitomize the political, as well as theoretical, disparities, between functionalist and conflict thought respectively:
Symbolic interactionism
Symbolic interaction—often associated with interactionism, phenomenology, dramaturgy, interpretivism—is a sociological approach that places emphasis on subjective meanings and the empirical unfolding of social processes, generally accessed through micro-analysis. This tradition emerged in the Chicago School of the 1920s and 1930s, which, prior to World War II, "had been the center of sociological research and graduate study." The approach focuses on creating a framework for building a theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals. Society is nothing more than the shared reality that people construct as they interact with one another. This approach sees people interacting in countless settings using symbolic communications to accomplish the tasks at hand. Therefore, society is a complex, ever-changing mosaic of subjective meanings. Some critics of this approach argue that it only looks at what is happening in a particular social situation, and disregards the effects that culture, race or gender (i.e. social-historical structures) may have in that situation. Some important sociologists associated with this approach include Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman, George Homans, and Peter Blau. It is also in this tradition that the radical-empirical approach of ethnomethodology emerges from the work of Harold Garfinkel.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is often referred to as exchange theory or rational choice theory in the context of sociology. This tradition tends to privilege the agency of individual rational actors and assumes that within interactions individuals always seek to maximize their own self-interest. As argued by Josh Whitford, rational actors are assumed to have four basic elements:
"a knowledge of alternatives;"
"a knowledge of, or beliefs about the consequences of the various alternatives;"
"an ordering of preferences over outcomes;" and
"a decision rule, to select among the possible alternatives"
Exchange theory is specifically attributed to the work of George C. Homans, Peter Blau and Richard Emerson. Organizational sociologists James G. March and Herbert A. Simon noted that an individual's rationality is bounded by the context or organizational setting. The utilitarian perspective in sociology was, most notably, revitalized in the late 20th century by the work of former ASA president James Coleman.
20th-century social theory
Following the decline of theories of sociocultural evolution in the United States, the interactionist thought of the Chicago School dominated American sociology. As Anselm Strauss describes, "we didn't think symbolic interaction was a perspective in sociology; we thought it was sociology." Moreover, philosophical and psychological pragmatism grounded this tradition. After World War II, mainstream sociology shifted to the survey-research of Paul Lazarsfeld at Columbia University and the general theorizing of Pitirim Sorokin, followed by Talcott Parsons at Harvard University. Ultimately, "the failure of the Chicago, Columbia, and Wisconsin [sociology] departments to produce a significant number of graduate students interested in and committed to general theory in the years 1936–45 was to the advantage of the Harvard department." As Parsons began to dominate general theory, his work primarily referenced European sociology—almost entirely omitting citations of both the American tradition of sociocultural-evolution as well as pragmatism. In addition to Parsons' revision of the sociological canon (which included Marshall, Pareto, Weber and Durkheim), the lack of theoretical challenges from other departments nurtured the rise of the Parsonian structural-functionalist movement, which reached its crescendo in the 1950s, but by the 1960s was in rapid decline.
By the 1980s, most functionalist perspectives in Europe had broadly been replaced by conflict-oriented approaches, and to many in the discipline, functionalism was considered "as dead as a dodo:" According to Giddens:The orthodox consensus terminated in the late 1960s and 1970s as the middle ground shared by otherwise competing perspectives gave way and was replaced by a baffling variety of competing perspectives. This third 'generation' of social theory includes phenomenologically inspired approaches, critical theory, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism, structuralism, post-structuralism, and theories written in the tradition of hermeneutics and ordinary language philosophy.
Pax Wisconsana
While some conflict approaches also gained popularity in the United States, the mainstream of the discipline instead shifted to a variety of empirically oriented middle-range theories with no single overarching, or "grand", theoretical orientation. John Levi Martin refers to this "golden age of methodological unity and theoretical calm" as the Pax Wisconsana, as it reflected the composition of the sociology department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison: numerous scholars working on separate projects with little contention. Omar Lizardo describes the pax wisconsana as "a Midwestern flavored, Mertonian resolution of the theory/method wars in which [sociologists] all agreed on at least two working hypotheses: (1) grand theory is a waste of time; [and] (2) good theory has to be good to think with or goes in the trash bin." Despite the aversion to grand theory in the latter half of the 20th century, several new traditions have emerged that propose various syntheses: structuralism, post-structuralism, cultural sociology and systems theory. Some sociologists have called for a return to 'grand theory' to combat the rise of scientific and pragmatist influences within the tradition of sociological thought (see Duane Rousselle).
Structuralism
The structuralist movement originated primarily from the work of Durkheim as interpreted by two European scholars: Anthony Giddens, a sociologist, whose theory of structuration draws on the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure; and Claude Lévi-Strauss, an anthropologist. In this context, 'structure' does not refer to 'social structure', but to the semiotic understanding of human culture as a system of signs. One may delineate four central tenets of structuralism:
Structure is what determines the structure of a whole.
Structuralists believe that every system has a structure.
Structuralists are interested in 'structural' laws that deal with coexistence rather than changes.
Structures are the 'real things' beneath the surface or the appearance of meaning.
The second tradition of structuralist thought, contemporaneous with Giddens, emerges from the American School of social network analysis in the 1970s and 1980s, spearheaded by the Harvard Department of Social Relations led by Harrison White and his students. This tradition of structuralist thought argues that, rather than semiotics, social structure is networks of patterned social relations. And, rather than Levi-Strauss, this school of thought draws on the notions of structure as theorized by Levi-Strauss' contemporary anthropologist, Radcliffe-Brown. Some refer to this as "network structuralism", and equate it to "British structuralism" as opposed to the "French structuralism" of Levi-Strauss.
Post-structuralism
Post-structuralist thought has tended to reject 'humanist' assumptions in the construction of social theory. Michel Foucault provides an important critique in his Archaeology of the Human Sciences, though Habermas (1986) and Rorty (1986) have both argued that Foucault merely replaces one such system of thought with another. The dialogue between these intellectuals highlights a trend in recent years for certain schools of sociology and philosophy to intersect. The anti-humanist position has been associated with "postmodernism", a term used in specific contexts to describe an era or phenomena, but occasionally construed as a method.
Central theoretical problems
Overall, there is a strong consensus regarding the central problems of sociological theory, which are largely inherited from the classical theoretical traditions. This consensus is: how to link, transcend or cope with the following "big three" dichotomies:
subjectivity and objectivity, which deal with knowledge;
structure and agency, which deal with action;
and synchrony and diachrony, which deal with time.
Lastly, sociological theory often grapples with the problem of integrating or transcending the divide between micro, meso, and macro-scale social phenomena, which is a subset of all three central problems.
Subjectivity and objectivity
The problem of subjectivity and objectivity can be divided into two parts: a concern over the general possibilities of social actions, and the specific problem of social scientific knowledge. In the former, the subjective is often equated (though not necessarily) with the individual, and the individual's intentions and interpretations of the objective. The objective is often considered any public or external action or outcome, on up to society writ large. A primary question for social theorists, then, is how knowledge reproduces along the chain of subjective-objective-subjective, that is to say: how is intersubjectivity achieved? While, historically, qualitative methods have attempted to tease out subjective interpretations, quantitative survey methods also attempt to capture individual subjectivities. Qualitative methods take an approach to objective description known as in situ, meaning that descriptions must have appropriate contextual information to understand the information.
The latter concern with scientific knowledge results from the fact that a sociologist is part of the very object they seek to explain, as Bourdieu explains:
Structure and agency
Structure and agency, sometimes referred to as determinism versus voluntarism, form an enduring ontological debate in social theory: "Do social structures determine an individual's behaviour or does human agency?" In this context, agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and make free choices, whereas structure relates to factors that limit or affect the choices and actions of individuals (e.g. social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, etc.). Discussions over the primacy of either structure or agency relate to the core of sociological epistemology (i.e. "what is the social world made of?", "what is a cause in the social world, and what is an effect?"). A perennial question within this debate is that of "social reproduction": how are structures (specifically, structures producing inequality) reproduced through the choices of individuals?
Synchrony and diachrony
Synchrony and diachrony (or statics and dynamics) within social theory are terms that refer to a distinction that emerged through the work of Levi-Strauss who inherited it from the linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure. Synchrony slices moments of time for analysis, thus it is an analysis of static social reality. Diachrony, on the other hand, attempts to analyse dynamic sequences. Following Saussure, synchrony would refer to social phenomena as a static concept like a language, while diachrony would refer to unfolding processes like actual speech. In Anthony Giddens' introduction to Central Problems in Social Theory, he states that, "in order to show the interdependence of action and structure…we must grasp the time space relations inherent in the constitution of all social interaction." And like structure and agency, time is integral to discussion of social reproduction.
In terms of sociology, historical sociology is often better positioned to analyse social life as diachronic, while survey research takes a snapshot of social life and is thus better equipped to understand social life as synchronized. Some argue that the synchrony of social structure is a methodological perspective rather than an ontological claim. Nonetheless, the problem for theory is how to integrate the two manners of recording and thinking about social data.
Research methodology
Sociological research methods may be divided into two broad, though often supplementary, categories:
Qualitative designs emphasize understanding of social phenomena through direct observation, communication with participants, or analysis of texts, and may stress contextual and subjective accuracy over generality.
Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable evidence, and often rely on statistical analysis of many cases (or across intentionally designed treatments in an experiment) to establish valid and reliable general claims.
Sociologists are often divided into camps of support for particular research techniques. These disputes relate to the epistemological debates at the historical core of social theory. While very different in many aspects, both qualitative and quantitative approaches involve a systematic interaction between theory and data. Quantitative methodologies hold the dominant position in sociology, especially in the United States. In the discipline's two most cited journals, quantitative articles have historically outnumbered qualitative ones by a factor of two. (Most articles published in the largest British journal, on the other hand, are qualitative.) Most textbooks on the methodology of social research are written from the quantitative perspective, and the very term "methodology" is often used synonymously with "statistics". Practically all sociology PhD programmes in the United States require training in statistical methods. The work produced by quantitative researchers is also deemed more 'trustworthy' and 'unbiased' by the general public, though this judgment continues to be challenged by antipositivists.
The choice of method often depends largely on what the researcher intends to investigate. For example, a researcher concerned with drawing a statistical generalization across an entire population may administer a survey questionnaire to a representative sample population. By contrast, a researcher who seeks full contextual understanding of an individual's social actions may choose ethnographic participant observation or open-ended interviews. Studies will commonly combine, or 'triangulate', quantitative and qualitative methods as part of a 'multi-strategy' design. For instance, a quantitative study may be performed to obtain statistical patterns on a target sample, and then combined with a qualitative interview to determine the play of agency.
Sampling
Quantitative methods are often used to ask questions about a population that is very large, making a census or a complete enumeration of all the members in that population infeasible. A 'sample' then forms a manageable subset of a population. In quantitative research, statistics are used to draw inferences from this sample regarding the population as a whole. The process of selecting a sample is referred to as 'sampling'. While it is usually best to sample randomly, concern with differences between specific subpopulations sometimes calls for stratified sampling. Conversely, the impossibility of random sampling sometimes necessitates nonprobability sampling, such as convenience sampling or snowball sampling.
Methods
The following list of research methods is neither exclusive nor exhaustive:
Archival research (or the Historical method): Draws upon the secondary data located in historical archives and records, such as biographies, memoirs, journals, and so on.
Content analysis: The content of interviews and other texts is systematically analysed. Often data is 'coded' as a part of the 'grounded theory' approach using qualitative data analysis (QDA) software, such as Atlas.ti, MAXQDA, NVivo, or QDA Miner.
Experimental research: The researcher isolates a single social process and reproduces it in a laboratory (for example, by creating a situation where unconscious sexist judgements are possible), seeking to determine whether or not certain social variables can cause, or depend upon, other variables (for instance, seeing if people's feelings about traditional gender roles can be manipulated by the activation of contrasting gender stereotypes). Participants are randomly assigned to different groups that either serve as controls—acting as reference points because they are tested with regard to the dependent variable, albeit without having been exposed to any independent variables of interest—or receive one or more treatments. Randomization allows the researcher to be sure that any resulting differences between groups are the result of the treatment.
Longitudinal study: An extensive examination of a specific person or group over a long period of time.
Observation: Using data from the senses, the researcher records information about social phenomenon or behaviour. Observation techniques may or may not feature participation. In participant observation, the researcher goes into the field (e.g. a community or a place of work), and participates in the activities of the field for a prolonged period of time in order to acquire a deep understanding of it. Data acquired through these techniques may be analysed either quantitatively or qualitatively. In the observation research, a sociologist might study global warming in some part of the world that is less populated.
Program Evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about projects, policies and programs, particularly about their effectiveness and efficiency. In both the public and private sectors, stakeholders often want to know whether the programs they are funding, implementing, voting for, or objecting to are producing the intended effect. While program evaluation first focuses on this definition, important considerations often include how much the program costs per participant, how the program could be improved, whether the program is worthwhile, whether there are better alternatives, if there are unintended outcomes, and whether the program goals are appropriate and useful.
Survey research: The researcher gathers data using interviews, questionnaires, or similar feedback from a set of people sampled from a particular population of interest. Survey items from an interview or questionnaire may be open-ended or closed-ended. Data from surveys is usually analysed statistically on a computer.
Computational sociology
Sociologists increasingly draw upon computationally intensive methods to analyse and model social phenomena. Using computer simulations, artificial intelligence, text mining, complex statistical methods, and new analytic approaches like social network analysis and social sequence analysis, computational sociology develops and tests theories of complex social processes through bottom-up modelling of social interactions.
Although the subject matter and methodologies in social science differ from those in natural science or computer science, several of the approaches used in contemporary social simulation originated from fields such as physics and artificial intelligence. By the same token, some of the approaches that originated in computational sociology have been imported into the natural sciences, such as measures of network centrality from the fields of social network analysis and network science. In relevant literature, computational sociology is often related to the study of social complexity. Social complexity concepts such as complex systems, non-linear interconnection among macro and micro process, and emergence, have entered the vocabulary of computational sociology. A practical and well-known example is the construction of a computational model in the form of an "artificial society", by which researchers can analyse the structure of a social system.
Subfields
Culture
Sociologists' approach to culture can be divided into "sociology of culture" and "cultural sociology"—terms which are similar, though not entirely interchangeable. Sociology of culture is an older term, and considers some topics and objects as more or less "cultural" than others. Conversely, cultural sociology sees all social phenomena as inherently cultural. Sociology of culture often attempts to explain certain cultural phenomena as a product of social processes, while cultural sociology sees culture as a potential explanation of social phenomena.
For Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history." While early theorists such as Durkheim and Mauss were influential in cultural anthropology, sociologists of culture are generally distinguished by their concern for modern (rather than primitive or ancient) society. Cultural sociology often involves the hermeneutic analysis of words, artefacts and symbols, or ethnographic interviews. However, some sociologists employ historical-comparative or quantitative techniques in the analysis of culture, Weber and Bourdieu for instance. The subfield is sometimes allied with critical theory in the vein of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and other members of the Frankfurt School. Loosely distinct from the sociology of culture is the field of cultural studies. Birmingham School theorists such as Richard Hoggart and Stuart Hall questioned the division between "producers" and "consumers" evident in earlier theory, emphasizing the reciprocity in the production of texts. Cultural Studies aims to examine its subject matter in terms of cultural practices and their relation to power. For example, a study of a subculture (e.g. white working class youth in London) would consider the social practices of the group as they relate to the dominant class. The "cultural turn" of the 1960s ultimately placed culture much higher on the sociological agenda.
Art, music and literature
Sociology of literature, film, and art is a subset of the sociology of culture. This field studies the social production of artistic objects and its social implications. A notable example is Pierre Bourdieu's Les Règles de L'Art: Genèse et Structure du Champ Littéraire (1992). None of the founding fathers of sociology produced a detailed study of art, but they did develop ideas that were subsequently applied to literature by others. Marx's theory of ideology was directed at literature by Pierre Macherey, Terry Eagleton and Fredric Jameson. Weber's theory of modernity as cultural rationalization, which he applied to music, was later applied to all the arts, literature included, by Frankfurt School writers such as Theodor Adorno and Jürgen Habermas. Durkheim's view of sociology as the study of externally defined social facts was redirected towards literature by Robert Escarpit. Bourdieu's own work is clearly indebted to Marx, Weber and Durkheim.
Criminality, deviance, law and punishment
Criminologists analyse the nature, causes, and control of criminal activity, drawing upon methods across sociology, psychology, and the behavioural sciences. The sociology of deviance focuses on actions or behaviours that violate norms, including both infringements of formally enacted rules (e.g., crime) and informal violations of cultural norms. It is the remit of sociologists to study why these norms exist; how they change over time; and how they are enforced. The concept of social disorganization is when the broader social systems leads to violations of norms. For instance, Robert K. Merton produced a typology of deviance, which includes both individual and system level causal explanations of deviance.
Sociology of law
The study of law played a significant role in the formation of classical sociology. Durkheim famously described law as the "visible symbol" of social solidarity. The sociology of law refers to both a sub-discipline of sociology and an approach within the field of legal studies. Sociology of law is a diverse field of study that examines the interaction of law with other aspects of society, such as the development of legal institutions and the effect of laws on social change and vice versa. For example, an influential recent work in the field relies on statistical analyses to argue that the increase in incarceration in the US over the last 30 years is due to changes in law and policing and not to an increase in crime; and that this increase has significantly contributed to the persistence of racial stratification.
Communications and information technologies
The sociology of communications and information technologies includes "the social aspects of computing, the Internet, new media, computer networks, and other communication and information technologies."
Internet and digital media
The Internet is of interest to sociologists in various ways, most practically as a tool for research and as a discussion platform. The sociology of the Internet in the broad sense concerns the analysis of online communities (e.g. newsgroups, social networking sites) and virtual worlds, meaning that there is often overlap with community sociology. Online communities may be studied statistically through network analysis or interpreted qualitatively through virtual ethnography. Moreover, organizational change is catalysed through new media, thereby influencing social change at-large, perhaps forming the framework for a transformation from an industrial to an informational society. One notable text is Manuel Castells' The Internet Galaxy—the title of which forms an inter-textual reference to Marshall McLuhan's The Gutenberg Galaxy. Closely related to the sociology of the Internet is digital sociology, which expands the scope of study to address not only the internet but also the impact of the other digital media and devices that have emerged since the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Media
As with cultural studies, media study is a distinct discipline that owes to the convergence of sociology and other social sciences and humanities, in particular, literary criticism and critical theory. Though neither the production process nor the critique of aesthetic forms is in the remit of sociologists, analyses of socializing factors, such as ideological effects and audience reception, stem from sociological theory and method. Thus the 'sociology of the media' is not a subdiscipline per se, but the media is a common and often indispensable topic.
Economic sociology
The term "economic sociology" was first used by William Stanley Jevons in 1879, later to be coined in the works of Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel between 1890 and 1920. Economic sociology arose as a new approach to the analysis of economic phenomena, emphasizing class relations and modernity as a philosophical concept. The relationship between capitalism and modernity is a salient issue, perhaps best demonstrated in Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) and Simmel's The Philosophy of Money (1900). The contemporary period of economic sociology, also known as new economic sociology, was consolidated by the 1985 work of Mark Granovetter titled "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness". This work elaborated the concept of embeddedness, which states that economic relations between individuals or firms take place within existing social relations (and are thus structured by these relations as well as the greater social structures of which those relations are a part). Social network analysis has been the primary methodology for studying this phenomenon. Granovetter's theory of the strength of weak ties and Ronald Burt's concept of structural holes are two of the best known theoretical contributions of this field.
Work, employment, and industry
The sociology of work, or industrial sociology, examines "the direction and implications of trends in technological change, globalization, labour markets, work organization, managerial practices and employment relations to the extent to which these trends are intimately related to changing patterns of inequality in modern societies and to the changing experiences of individuals and families the ways in which workers challenge, resist and make their own contributions to the patterning of work and shaping of work institutions."
Education
The sociology of education is the study of how educational institutions determine social structures, experiences, and other outcomes. It is particularly concerned with the schooling systems of modern industrial societies. A classic 1966 study in this field by James Coleman, known as the "Coleman Report", analysed the performance of over 150,000 students and found that student background and socioeconomic status are much more important in determining educational outcomes than are measured differences in school resources (i.e. per pupil spending). The controversy over "school effects" ignited by that study has continued to this day. The study also found that socially disadvantaged black students profited from schooling in racially mixed classrooms, and thus served as a catalyst for desegregation busing in American public schools.
Environment
Environmental sociology is the study of human interactions with the natural environment, typically emphasizing human dimensions of environmental problems, social impacts of those problems, and efforts to resolve them. As with other sub-fields of sociology, scholarship in environmental sociology may be at one or multiple levels of analysis, from global (e.g. world-systems) to local, societal to individual. Attention is paid also to the processes by which environmental problems become defined and known to humans. As argued by notable environmental sociologist John Bellamy Foster, the predecessor to modern environmental sociology is Marx's analysis of the metabolic rift, which influenced contemporary thought on sustainability. Environmental sociology is often interdisciplinary and overlaps with the sociology of risk, rural sociology and the sociology of disaster.
Human ecology
Human ecology deals with interdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. In addition to Environmental sociology, this field overlaps with architectural sociology, urban sociology, and to some extent visual sociology. In turn, visual sociology—which is concerned with all visual dimensions of social life—overlaps with media studies in that it uses photography, film and other technologies of media.
Social pre-wiring
Social pre-wiring deals with the study of fetal social behavior and social interactions in a multi-fetal environment. Specifically, social pre-wiring refers to the ontogeny of social interaction. Also informally referred to as, "wired to be social". The theory questions whether there is a propensity to socially oriented action already present before birth. Research in the theory concludes that newborns are born into the world with a unique genetic wiring to be social.
Circumstantial evidence supporting the social pre-wiring hypothesis can be revealed when examining newborns' behavior. Newborns, not even hours after birth, have been found to display a preparedness for social interaction. This preparedness is expressed in ways such as their imitation of facial gestures. This observed behavior cannot be attributed to any current form of socialization or social construction. Rather, newborns most likely inherit to some extent social behavior and identity through genetics.
Principal evidence of this theory is uncovered by examining Twin pregnancies. The main argument is, if there are social behaviors that are inherited and developed before birth, then one should expect twin foetuses to engage in some form of social interaction before they are born. Thus, ten foetuses were analyzed over a period of time using ultrasound techniques. Using kinematic analysis, the results of the experiment were that the twin foetuses would interact with each other for longer periods and more often as the pregnancies went on. Researchers were able to conclude that the performance of movements between the co-twins were not accidental but specifically aimed.
The social pre-wiring hypothesis was proved correct: The central advance of this study is the demonstration that 'social actions' are already performed in the second trimester of gestation. Starting from the 14th week of gestation twin foetuses plan and execute movements specifically aimed at the co-twin. These findings force us to predate the emergence of social behavior: when the context enables it, as in the case of twin foetuses, other-directed actions are not only possible but predominant over self-directed actions.
Family, gender, and sexuality
Family, gender and sexuality form a broad area of inquiry studied in many sub-fields of sociology. A family is a group of people who are related by kinship ties :- Relations of blood / marriage / civil partnership or adoption. The family unit is one of the most important social institutions found in some form in nearly all known societies. It is the basic unit of social organization and plays a key role in socializing children into the culture of their society. The sociology of the family examines the family, as an institution and unit of socialization, with special concern for the comparatively modern historical emergence of the nuclear family and its distinct gender roles. The notion of "childhood" is also significant. As one of the more basic institutions to which one may apply sociological perspectives, the sociology of the family is a common component on introductory academic curricula. Feminist sociology, on the other hand, is a normative sub-field that observes and critiques the cultural categories of gender and sexuality, particularly with respect to power and inequality. The primary concern of feminist theory is the patriarchy and the systematic oppression of women apparent in many societies, both at the level of small-scale interaction and in terms of the broader social structure. Feminist sociology also analyses how gender interlocks with race and class to produce and perpetuate social inequalities. "How to account for the differences in definitions of femininity and masculinity and in sex role across different societies and historical periods" is also a concern.
Health, illness, and the body
The sociology of health and illness focuses on the social effects of, and public attitudes toward, illnesses, diseases, mental health and disabilities. This sub-field also overlaps with gerontology and the study of the ageing process. Medical sociology, by contrast, focuses on the inner-workings of the medical profession, its organizations, its institutions and how these can shape knowledge and interactions. In Britain, sociology was introduced into the medical curriculum following the Goodenough Report (1944).
The sociology of the body and embodiment takes a broad perspective on the idea of "the body" and includes "a wide range of embodied dynamics including human and non-human bodies, morphology, human reproduction, anatomy, body fluids, biotechnology, genetics". This often intersects with health and illness, but also theories of bodies as political, social, cultural, economic and ideological productions. The ISA maintains a Research Committee devoted to "the Body in the Social Sciences".
Death, dying, bereavement
A subfield of the sociology of health and illness that overlaps with cultural sociology is the study of death, dying and bereavement, sometimes referred to broadly as the sociology of death. This topic is exemplified by the work of Douglas Davies and Michael C. Kearl.
Knowledge and science
The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies. The term first came into widespread use in the 1920s, when a number of German-speaking theorists, most notably Max Scheler, and Karl Mannheim, wrote extensively on it. With the dominance of functionalism through the middle years of the 20th century, the sociology of knowledge tended to remain on the periphery of mainstream sociological thought. It was largely reinvented and applied much more closely to everyday life in the 1960s, particularly by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in The Social Construction of Reality (1966) and is still central for methods dealing with qualitative understanding of human society (compare socially constructed reality). The "archaeological" and "genealogical" studies of Michel Foucault are of considerable contemporary influence.
The sociology of science involves the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing "with the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." Important theorists in the sociology of science include Robert K. Merton and Bruno Latour. These branches of sociology have contributed to the formation of science and technology studies. Both the ASA and the BSA have sections devoted to the subfield of Science, Knowledge and Technology. The ISA maintains a Research Committee on Science and Technology.
Leisure
Sociology of leisure is the study of how humans organize their free time. Leisure includes a broad array of activities, such as sport, tourism, and the playing of games. The sociology of leisure is closely tied to the sociology of work, as each explores a different side of the work–leisure relationship. More recent studies in the field move away from the work–leisure relationship and focus on the relation between leisure and culture. This area of sociology began with Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class.
Peace, war, and conflict
This subfield of sociology studies, broadly, the dynamics of war, conflict resolution, peace movements, war refugees, conflict resolution and military institutions. As a subset of this subfield, military sociology aims towards the systematic study of the military as a social group rather than as an organization. It is a highly specialized sub-field which examines issues related to service personnel as a distinct group with coerced collective action based on shared interests linked to survival in vocation and combat, with purposes and values that are more defined and narrower than within civil society. Military sociology also concerns civilian-military relations and interactions between other groups or governmental agencies. Topics include the dominant assumptions held by those in the military, changes in military members' willingness to fight, military unionization, military professionalism, the increased utilization of women, the military industrial-academic complex, the military's dependence on research, and the institutional and organizational structure of military.
Political sociology
Historically, political sociology concerned the relations between political organization and society. A typical research question in this area might be: "Why do so few American citizens choose to vote?" In this respect questions of political opinion formation brought about some of the pioneering uses of statistical survey research by Paul Lazarsfeld. A major subfield of political sociology developed in relation to such questions, which draws on comparative history to analyse socio-political trends. The field developed from the work of Max Weber and Moisey Ostrogorsky.
Contemporary political sociology includes these areas of research, but it has been opened up to wider questions of power and politics. Today political sociologists are as likely to be concerned with how identities are formed that contribute to structural domination by one group over another; the politics of who knows how and with what authority; and questions of how power is contested in social interactions in such a way as to bring about widespread cultural and social change. Such questions are more likely to be studied qualitatively. The study of social movements and their effects has been especially important in relation to these wider definitions of politics and power.
Political sociology has also moved beyond methodological nationalism and analysed the role of non-governmental organizations, the diffusion of the nation-state throughout the Earth as a social construct, and the role of stateless entities in the modern world society. Contemporary political sociologists also study inter-state interactions and human rights.
Population and demography
Demographers or sociologists of population study the size, composition and change over time of a given population. Demographers study how these characteristics impact, or are impacted by, various social, economic or political systems. The study of population is also closely related to human ecology and environmental sociology, which studies a population's relationship with the surrounding environment and often overlaps with urban or rural sociology. Researchers in this field may study the movement of populations: transportation, migrations, diaspora, etc., which falls into the subfield known as mobilities studies and is closely related to human geography. Demographers may also study spread of disease within a given population or epidemiology.
Public sociology
Public sociology refers to an approach to the discipline which seeks to transcend the academy in order to engage with wider audiences. It is perhaps best understood as a style of sociology rather than a particular method, theory, or set of political values. This approach is primarily associated with Michael Burawoy who contrasted it with professional sociology, a form of academic sociology that is concerned primarily with addressing other professional sociologists. Public sociology is also part of the broader field of science communication or science journalism.
Race and ethnic relations
The sociology of race and of ethnic relations is the area of the discipline that studies the social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. This area encompasses the study of racism, residential segregation, and other complex social processes between different racial and ethnic groups. This research frequently interacts with other areas of sociology such as stratification and social psychology, as well as with postcolonial theory. At the level of political policy, ethnic relations are discussed in terms of either assimilationism or multiculturalism. Anti-racism forms another style of policy, particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
Religion
The sociology of religion concerns the practices, historical backgrounds, developments, universal themes and roles of religion in society. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history. The sociology of religion is distinguished from the philosophy of religion in that sociologists do not set out to assess the validity of religious truth-claims, instead assuming what Peter L. Berger has described as a position of "methodological atheism". It may be said that the modern formal discipline of sociology began with the analysis of religion in Durkheim's 1897 study of suicide rates among Roman Catholic and Protestant populations. Max Weber published four major texts on religion in a context of economic sociology and social stratification: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism (1915), The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism (1915), and Ancient Judaism (1920). Contemporary debates often centre on topics such as secularization, civil religion, the intersection of religion and economics and the role of religion in a context of globalization and multiculturalism.
Social change and development
The sociology of change and development attempts to understand how societies develop and how they can be changed. This includes studying many different aspects of society, for example demographic trends, political or technological trends, or changes in culture. Within this field, sociologists often use macrosociological methods or historical-comparative methods. In contemporary studies of social change, there are overlaps with international development or community development. However, most of the founders of sociology had theories of social change based on their study of history. For instance, Marx contended that the material circumstances of society ultimately caused the ideal or cultural aspects of society, while Weber argued that it was in fact the cultural mores of Protestantism that ushered in a transformation of material circumstances. In contrast to both, Durkheim argued that societies moved from simple to complex through a process of sociocultural evolution. Sociologists in this field also study processes of globalization and imperialism. Most notably, Immanuel Wallerstein extends Marx's theoretical frame to include large spans of time and the entire globe in what is known as world systems theory. Development sociology is also heavily influenced by post-colonialism. In recent years, Raewyn Connell issued a critique of the bias in sociological research towards countries in the Global North. She argues that this bias blinds sociologists to the lived experiences of the Global South, specifically, so-called, "Northern Theory" lacks an adequate theory of imperialism and colonialism.
There are many organizations studying social change, including the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations, and the Global Social Change Research Project.
Social networks
A social network is a social structure composed of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. Social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals. An underlying theoretical assumption of social network analysis is that groups are not necessarily the building blocks of society: the approach is open to studying less-bounded social systems, from non-local communities to networks of exchange. Drawing theoretically from relational sociology, social network analysis avoids treating individuals (persons, organizations, states) as discrete units of analysis, it focuses instead on how the structure of ties affects and constitutes individuals and their relationships. In contrast to analyses that assume that socialization into norms determines behaviour, network analysis looks to see the extent to which the structure and composition of ties affect norms. On the other hand, recent research by Omar Lizardo also demonstrates that network ties are shaped and created by previously existing cultural tastes. Social network theory is usually defined in formal mathematics and may include integration of geographical data into sociomapping.
Social psychology
Sociological social psychology focuses on micro-scale social actions. This area may be described as adhering to "sociological miniaturism", examining whole societies through the study of individual thoughts and emotions as well as behaviour of small groups. One special concern to psychological sociologists is how to explain a variety of demographic, social, and cultural facts in terms of human social interaction. Some of the major topics in this field are social inequality, group dynamics, prejudice, aggression, social perception, group behaviour, social change, non-verbal behaviour, socialization, conformity, leadership, and social identity. Social psychology may be taught with psychological emphasis. In sociology, researchers in this field are the most prominent users of the experimental method (however, unlike their psychological counterparts, they also frequently employ other methodologies). Social psychology looks at social influences, as well as social perception and social interaction.
Stratification, poverty and inequality
Social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into social classes, castes, and divisions within a society. Modern Western societies stratification traditionally relates to cultural and economic classes arranged in three main layers: upper class, middle class, and lower class, but each class may be further subdivided into smaller classes (e.g. occupational). Social stratification is interpreted in radically different ways within sociology. Proponents of structural functionalism suggest that, since the stratification of classes and castes is evident in all societies, hierarchy must be beneficial in stabilizing their existence. Conflict theorists, by contrast, critique the inaccessibility of resources and lack of social mobility in stratified societies.
Karl Marx distinguished social classes by their connection to the means of production in the capitalist system: the bourgeoisie own the means, but this effectively includes the proletariat itself as the workers can only sell their own labour power (forming the material base of the cultural superstructure). Max Weber critiqued Marxist economic determinism, arguing that social stratification is not based purely on economic inequalities, but on other status and power differentials (e.g. patriarchy). According to Weber, stratification may occur among at least three complex variables:
Property (class): A person's economic position in a society, based on birth and individual achievement. Weber differs from Marx in that he does not see this as the supreme factor in stratification. Weber noted how managers of corporations or industries control firms they do not own; Marx would have placed such a person in the proletariat.
Prestige (status): A person's prestige, or popularity in a society. This could be determined by the kind of job this person does or wealth.
Power (political party): A person's ability to get their way despite the resistance of others. For example, individuals in state jobs, such as an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or a member of the United States Congress, may hold little property or status but they still hold immense power.
Pierre Bourdieu provides a modern example in the concepts of cultural and symbolic capital. Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf have noted the tendency towards an enlarged middle-class in modern Western societies, particularly in relation to the necessity of an educated work force in technological or service-based economies. Perspectives concerning globalization, such as dependency theory, suggest this effect owes to the shift of workers to the developing countries.
Urban and rural sociology
Urban sociology involves the analysis of social life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a discipline seeking to provide advice for planning and policy making. After the Industrial Revolution, works such as Georg Simmel's The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903) focused on urbanization and the effect it had on alienation and anonymity. In the 1920s and 1930s The Chicago School produced a major body of theory on the nature of the city, important to both urban sociology and criminology, utilizing symbolic interactionism as a method of field research. Contemporary research is commonly placed in a context of globalization, for instance, in Saskia Sassen's study of the "global city". Rural sociology, by contrast, is the analysis of non-metropolitan areas. As agriculture and wilderness tend to be a more prominent social fact in rural regions, rural sociologists often overlap with environmental sociologists.
Community sociology
Often grouped with urban and rural sociology is that of community sociology or the sociology of community. Taking various communities—including online communities—as the unit of analysis, community sociologists study the origin and effects of different associations of people. For instance, German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies distinguished between two types of human association: gemeinschaft (usually translated as "community") and gesellschaft ("society" or "association"). In his 1887 work, Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, Tönnies argued that Gemeinschaft is perceived to be a tighter and more cohesive social entity, due to the presence of a "unity of will". The 'development' or 'health' of a community is also a central concern of community sociologists also engage in development sociology, exemplified by the literature surrounding the concept of social capital.
Other academic disciplines
Sociology overlaps with a variety of disciplines that study society, in particular social anthropology, political science, economics, social work and social philosophy. Many comparatively new fields such as communication studies, cultural studies, demography and literary theory, draw upon methods that originated in sociology. The terms "social science" and "social research" have both gained a degree of autonomy since their origination in classical sociology. The distinct field of social anthropology or anthroposociology is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and Commonwealth and much of Europe (France in particular), where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In the United States, social anthropology is commonly subsumed within cultural anthropology (or under the relatively new designation of sociocultural anthropology).
Sociology and applied sociology are connected to the professional and academic discipline of social work. Both disciplines study social interactions, community and the effect of various systems (i.e. family, school, community, laws, political sphere) on the individual. However, social work is generally more focused on practical strategies to alleviate social dysfunctions; sociology in general provides a thorough examination of the root causes of these problems. For example, a sociologist might study why a community is plagued with poverty. The applied sociologist would be more focused on practical strategies on what needs to be done to alleviate this burden. The social worker would be focused on action; implementing theses strategies "directly" or "indirectly" by means of mental health therapy, counselling, advocacy, community organization or community mobilization.
Social anthropology is the branch of anthropology that studies how contemporary living human beings behave in social groups. Practitioners of social anthropology, like sociologists, investigate various facets of social organization. Traditionally, social anthropologists analyzed non-industrial and non-Western societies, whereas sociologists focused on industrialized societies in the Western world. In recent years, however, social anthropology has expanded its focus to modern Western societies, meaning that the two disciplines increasingly converge.
Sociocultural anthropology, which includes linguistic anthropology, is concerned with the problem of difference and similarity within and between human populations. The discipline arose concomitantly with the expansion of European colonial empires, and its practices and theories have been questioned and reformulated along with processes of decolonization. Such issues have re-emerged as transnational processes have challenged the centrality of the nation-state to theorizations about culture and power. New challenges have emerged as public debates about multiculturalism, and the increasing use of the culture concept outside of the academy and among peoples studied by anthropology. These times are not "business-as-usual" in the academy, in anthropology, or in the world, if ever there were such times.
Irving Louis Horowitz, in his The Decomposition of Sociology (1994), has argued that the discipline, while arriving from a "distinguished lineage and tradition", is in decline due to deeply ideological theory and a lack of relevance to policy making: "The decomposition of sociology began when this great tradition became subject to ideological thinking, and an inferior tradition surfaced in the wake of totalitarian triumphs." Furthermore: "A problem yet unmentioned is that sociology's malaise has left all the social sciences vulnerable to pure positivism—to an empiricism lacking any theoretical basis. Talented individuals who might, in an earlier time, have gone into sociology are seeking intellectual stimulation in business, law, the natural sciences, and even creative writing; this drains sociology of much needed potential." Horowitz cites the lack of a 'core discipline' as exacerbating the problem. Randall Collins, the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Advisory Editors Council of the Social Evolution & History journal, has voiced similar sentiments: "we have lost all coherence as a discipline, we are breaking up into a conglomerate of specialities, each going on its own way and with none too high regard for each other."
In 2007, The Times Higher Education Guide published a list of 'The most cited authors of books in the Humanities' (including philosophy and psychology). Seven of the top ten are listed as sociologists: Michel Foucault (1), Pierre Bourdieu (2), Anthony Giddens (5), Erving Goffman (6), Jürgen Habermas (7), Max Weber (8), and Bruno Latour (10).
Journals
The most highly ranked general journals which publish original research in the field of sociology are the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review. The Annual Review of Sociology, which publishes original review essays, is also highly ranked. Many other generalist and specialized journals exist.
See also
Bibliography of sociology
Critical juncture theory
Cultural theory
Engaged theory
Historic recurrence
History of the social sciences
List of sociologists
Outline of sociology
Political sociology
Post-industrial society
Social theory
Social psychology
Sociological Francoism
Notes
References
Citations
{{Reflist
|refs =
<ref name="transformation325">Harriss, John. The Second Great Transformation? Capitalism at the End of the Twentieth Century in Allen, T. and Thomas, Alan (eds) Poverty and Development in the 21st Century', Oxford University Press, Oxford. p. 325.</ref>
}}
Sources
Aby, Stephen H. 2005. Sociology: A Guide to Reference and Information Sources (3rd ed.). Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited Inc.
Babbie, Earl R. 2003. The Practice of Social Research (10th ed.). Wadsworth: Thomson Learning.
C. Wright Mills, Intellectual Craftsmanship Advices how to Work for young Sociologist Collins, Randall. 1994. Four Sociological Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coser, Lewis A. 1971. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. .
Giddens, Anthony. 2006. Sociology (5th ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press.
House, J. S., & Mortimer, J. (1990). Social structure and the individual: Emerging themes and new directions. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71–80.
Lipset, Seymour Martin and Everett Carll Ladd. "The Politics of American Sociologists", American Journal of Sociology (1972) 78#1 pp. 67–104
Merton, Robert K. 1959. Social Theory and Social Structure. Toward the codification of theory and research (revised & enlarged ed.). Glencoe, IL.
Mills, C. Wright. 1959. The Sociological Imagination
Nisbet, Robert A. 1967. The Sociological Tradition, London, Heinemann Educational Books.
Ritzer, George, and Douglas J. Goodman. 2004. Sociological Theory (6th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall, eds. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ,
Wallace, Ruth A., and Alison Wolf. 1995. Contemporary Sociological Theory: Continuing the Classical Tradition (4th ed.). Prentice-Hall.
White, Harrison C. 2008. Identity and Control. How Social Formations Emerge (2nd ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Willis, Evan. 1996. The Sociological Quest: An introduction to the study of social life''. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
External links
American Sociological Association (ASA)
Eastern Sociological Society (ESS)
Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
Bangladesh Sociological Society (BSS)
British Sociological Association (BSA)
Canadian Association of French-speaking Sociologists and Anthropologists
Canadian Sociological Association (CSA)
European Sociological Association (ESA)
French Sociological Association
German Sociological Association (DGS)
Guide to the University of Chicago Department of Sociology Interviews 1972 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
Guide to the University of Chicago Department of Sociology Records 1924-2001 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
Indian Sociological Society (ISS)
International Institute of Sociology (IIS)
International Sociological Association (ISA)
Latin American Sociological Association (ALAS)
Observatory of International Research (OOIR): Latest Papers and Trends in Sociology
Portuguese Sociological Association (APS)
Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI)
The Nordic Sociological Association (NSA)
The Swedish Sociological Association(in swedish) | 0.769813 | 0.999715 | 0.769594 |
Otaku | is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in Manga Burikko.
Otaku subculture is a central theme of various anime, manga, documentaries, and academic research. The subculture began in the 1980s as changing social mentalities and the nurturing of otaku traits by Japanese schools combined with the resignation of such individuals to what was then seen as inevitably becoming social outcasts. The subculture's birth coincided with the anime boom after the release of works such as Mobile Suit Gundam, before it branched into Comic Market.
The otaku culture could also be seen as a refuge from the nanpa culture. In 1980, around the Kabuki-chō district of Shinjuku in Tokyo, there was a boom of nyū fūzoku, or new sex services employing female college or vocational school students. The burusera boom and the compensated dating boom in the 1990s were extensions of this. In this sense, the period from 1980 to the mid-1990s was the "age of sexual love". The higher the sexual love boom rose, the more people were disappointed in sexual love for not giving them that comprehensive acceptance. The advent of information technology and databases, first and foremost, enriched the means for the homeostasis of the self, that is, self-defense; and, secondly, it thereby rapidly weakened the sense that "reality" (or embodied communication) is more fruitful than "fiction" (or virtual reality). The otaku subculture grew with the expansion of the Internet and media, as more anime, video games, shows, and comics were created. The definition of subsequently became more complex, and numerous classifications of otaku emerged.
may be used as a pejorative, with its negativity stemming from a stereotypical view of otaku as social outcasts and the media's reporting on Tsutomu Miyazaki, "The Otaku Murderer", in 1989. Otaku discrimination was particularly intense between 1989 (when a serial murder suspect was arrested) and 1996 (when the compensated dating boom was at its peak). According to studies published in 2013, the term has become less negative, and an increasing number of people now identify themselves as otaku, both in Japan and elsewhere. Out of 137,734 teens surveyed in Japan in 2013, 42.2% self-identified as a type of otaku. According to a nationwide U.S. survey conducted by Dentsu in July 2022, 34％ of American Gen-Zs (around 15 million people), acknowledged themselves as anime otaku. In 2005, the Nomura Research Institute divided otaku into twelve groups and estimated the size and market impact of each of these groups. Other institutions have split it further or focused on a single otaku interest. These publications classify distinct groups including anime, manga, camera, automobile, J-idol, and electronics otaku. In 2005, the economic impact of otaku was estimated to be as high as ¥2 trillion ( billion).
Etymology
is derived from a Japanese term for another person's house or family (お宅, ). The word can be used metaphorically as a part of honorific speech in Japanese, as a second-person pronoun. In this usage, its literal translation is "you". It is associated with some dialects of Western Japanese and with housewives, and is less direct and more distant than intimate pronouns, such as anata, and masculine pronouns, such as kimi and omae.
The origin of the pronoun's use among 1980s manga and anime fans is unclear. Science fiction fans were using otaku to address owners of books by the late 1960s (in a sense of "Do[es] [your home] own this book?"). Social critic Eiji Ōtsuka posits that otaku was used because it allowed people meeting for the first time, such as at a convention, to interact from a comfortable distance. One theory posits that otaku was popularized as a pronoun by science fiction author Motoko Arai in a 1981 essay in Variety magazine, and another posits that it was popularized by fans of anime studio Gainax, some of whose founders came from Tottori Prefecture in western Japan (where otaku is commonly used). The pronoun was also used in the popular anime Macross, first aired in 1982, by the characters Hikaru Ichijyo and Lynn Minmay, who address each other as otaku until they get to know each other better.
The modern slang form, which is distinguished from the older usage by being written in hiragana (おたく), katakana (オタク or, less frequently, ヲタク) or rarely in rōmaji, first appeared in public discourse in the 1980s, through the work of humorist and essayist Akio Nakamori. His 1983 series , printed in the lolicon magazine Manga Burikko, applied the term as pejorative for "unpleasant" fans, attacking their supposed poor fashion sense and physical appearance in particular. Nakamori was particularly critical of "manga maniacs" drawn to cute girl characters, and explained his label otaku as the term of address used between junior high school kids at manga and anime conventions.
In 1989, the case of Tsutomu Miyazaki, "The Otaku Murderer", brought the fandom, very negatively, to national attention. Miyazaki, who randomly chose and murdered four girls, had a collection of 5,763 video tapes, some containing anime and slasher films that were found interspersed with videos and pictures of his victims. Later that year, the contemporary knowledge magazine Bessatsu Takarajima dedicated its 104th issue to the topic of otaku. It was called and delved into the subculture of otaku with 19 articles by otaku insiders, among them Akio Nakamori. This publication has been claimed by scholar Rudyard Pesimo to have popularized the term.
Usage
In modern Japanese slang, the term is mostly equivalent to "geek" or "nerd" (both in the broad sense; a technological geek would be a and an academic nerd would be a or ), but in a more derogatory manner than used in the West. It is also applied to any fan of any particular theme, topic, hobby or form of entertainment. "When these people are referred to as , they are judged for their behaviors — and people suddenly see an 'otaku' as a person unable to relate to reality." The term thus has more of a negative association in Japanese society.
The word entered English as a loanword from the Japanese language. It is typically used to refer to a fan of anime and manga, but can also refer to Japanese video games or even Japanese culture in general. The American magazine Otaku USA popularizes and covers these aspects. The usage of the word is a source of contention among some fans, owing to its negative connotations and stereotyping of the fandom. Widespread English exposure to the term came in 1988 with the release of Gunbuster, which refers to anime fans as . Gunbuster was released officially in English in March 1990. The term's usage spread throughout the Usenet group rec.arts.anime with discussions about Otaku no Videos portrayal of otaku before its 1994 English release. Positive and negative aspects, including the pejorative usage, were intermixed. The term was also popularized by William Gibson's 1996 novel Idoru, which references otaku.
Subculture
Kaichirō Morikawa identifies the subculture as distinctly Japanese, a product of the school system and society. Japanese schools have a class structure which functions as a caste system, but clubs are an exception to the social hierarchy. In these clubs, a student's interests will be recognized and nurtured, catering to the interests of otaku. Secondly, the vertical structure of Japanese society identifies the value of individuals by their success. Until the late 1980s, unathletic and unattractive males focused on academics, hoping to secure a good job and marry to raise their social standing. Those unable to succeed socially focused instead on their interests, often into adulthood, with their lifestyle centering on those interests, furthering the creation of the otaku subculture.
Even prior to the coinage of the term, the stereotypical traits of the subculture were identified in a 1981 issue of Fan Rōdo (Fan road) about "culture clubs". These individuals were drawn to anime, a counter-culture, with the release of hard science fiction works such as Mobile Suit Gundam. These works allowed a congregation and development of obsessive interests that turned anime into a medium for unpopular students, catering to obsessed fans. After these fans discovered Comic Market, the term was used as a self-confirming and self-mocking collective identity.
The 1989 "Otaku Murderer" case gave the fandom a negative connotation from which it has not fully recovered. The perception of otaku was again damaged in late 2004 when Kaoru Kobayashi kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered a seven-year-old first-grade student. Japanese journalist Akihiro Ōtani suspected that Kobayashi's crime was committed by a member of the figure moe zoku even before his arrest. Although Kobayashi was not an otaku, the degree of social hostility against otaku increased. Otaku were seen by law enforcement as possible suspects for sex crimes, and local governments called for stricter laws controlling the depiction of eroticism in otaku materials.
Not all attention has been negative. In his book Otaku, Hiroki Azuma observed: "Between 2001 and 2007, the otaku forms and markets quite rapidly won social recognition in Japan", citing the fact that "[i]n 2003, Hayao Miyazaki won the Academy Award for his Spirited Away; around the same time Takashi Murakami achieved recognition for otaku-like designs; in 2004, the Japanese pavilion in the 2004 International Architecture exhibition of the Venice Biennale (Biennale Architecture) featured 'otaku'. In 2005, the word — one of the keywords of the present volume — was chosen as one of the top ten 'buzzwords of the year'." Former Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso has also claimed to be an otaku, using this subculture to promote Japan in foreign affairs. In 2013, a Japanese study of 137,734 people found that 42.2% self-identify as a type of otaku. This study suggests that the stigma of the word has vanished, and the term has been embraced by many. Marie Kondo told ForbesWomen in 2020: "I credit being an otaku with helping me to focus deeply, which definitely contributed to my success."
In the late 1990s, otaku was a popular subculture among Generation Xers in the US. In the early 2000s, the otaku community in the United States often consisted of suburban young people and niche online groups.
Places
The district of Akihabara in Tokyo, where there are maid cafés featuring waitresses who dress up and act like maids or anime characters, is a notable attraction center for otaku. Akihabara also has dozens of stores specializing in anime, manga, retro video games, figurines, card games, and other collectibles. Another popular location is Otome Road in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Students from Nagoya City University started a project to help promote hidden tourist attractions and attract more otaku to Nagoya.
Subtypes
There are specific terms for different types of otaku, including , a self-mockingly pejorative Japanese term for female fans of , which focuses on homosexual male relationships. are female otaku who are interested in Japanese history. Some terms refer to a location, such as ("Akihabara-style"), which applies to those familiar with Akihabara's culture.
Miyadai describes two big subtypes of the otaku type, a world type and a battle royale type. There is a chronological development from the world type of the late 1990s to the battle royale type of the 2000s but they also coexisted. The antagonism between the world type and the battle royale type emerged in the age in which reality and fiction are regarded as equivalent tools for self-defense. He further describes the internet society as a rhizomic structure which invalidates the distinction between "reality" and "fiction". The world type treats fiction as an equivalent of reality (real-ization of fiction), while the battle royale type treats reality as an equivalent of fiction (fictionalization of reality).
Media
Otaku often participate in self-mocking through the production or interest in humor directed at their subculture. Anime and manga otaku are the subject of numerous self-critical works, such as Otaku no Video, which contains a live-interview mockumentary that pokes fun at the otaku subculture and includes Gainax's own staff as the interviewees. Other works depict otaku subculture less critically, such as Genshiken and Comic Party. A well-known light novel, which later received a manga and anime adaptation, is Welcome to the N.H.K., which focuses on otaku subcultures and highlights other social outcasts, such as and NEETs. Works that focus on otaku characters include WataMote, the story of an unattractive and unsociable otome gamer otaku who exhibits delusions about her social status; and No More Heroes, a video game about an otaku assassin named Travis Touchdown and his surrealistic adventures inspired by anime and manga. Media about otaku also exist outside of Japan, such as the American documentary Otaku Unite! which focuses on the American side of the otaku culture, and the Filipino novel Otaku Girl, which tells the story of a virtual reality world where otaku can role-play and use the powers of their favorite anime characters.
Habits
A term used in the otaku fandom is , a type of cheering performed as a group. Another term is , which describes vehicles decorated with fictional characters, especially bishōjo game or eroge characters.
Classification
The Nomura Research Institute (NRI) has made two major studies into otaku, the first in 2004 and a revised study with a more specific definition in 2005. The 2005 study defines twelve major fields of otaku interests. Of these groups:
manga otaku were the largest group, with 350,000 individuals and an ¥83 billion market scale.
Idol otaku were the next largest group, with 280,000 individuals and ¥61 billion.
Travel otaku were third, with 250,000 individuals and ¥81 billion.
PC otaku were fourth, with 190,000 individuals and ¥36 billion.
Video game otaku were fifth, with 160,000 individuals and ¥21 billion.
Automobile otaku were sixth, with 140,000 individuals and ¥54 billion.
Anime otaku were seventh, with 110,000 individuals and ¥20 billion.
The remaining five categories include mobile device otaku, with 70,000 individuals and ¥8 billion; audio-visual equipment otaku, with 60,000 individuals and ¥12 billion; camera otaku, with 50,000 individuals and ¥18 billion; fashion otaku, with 40,000 individuals and ¥13 billion; and railway otaku, with 20,000 individuals and ¥4 billion. These values were partially released with a much higher estimation in 2004, but this definition focused on consumerism and not the "unique psychological characteristics" of otaku used in the 2005 study.
The NRI's 2005 study also put forth five archetypes of otaku:
The first is the family-oriented otaku, who has broad interests and is more mature than other otaku; their object of interest is secretive and they are "closet otaku".
The second is the serious "leaving my own mark on the world" otaku, with interests in mechanical or business personality fields.
The third type is the "media-sensitive multiple interest" otaku, whose diverse interests are shared with others.
The fourth type is the "outgoing and assertive otaku", who gain recognition by promoting their hobby.
The last is the "fan magazine-obsessed otaku", which is predominately female with a small group of males being the "moe type"; their secret hobby is focused on the production or interest in fan works.
The Hamagin Research Institute found that -related content was worth ¥88.8 billion ($807 million) in 2005, and one analyst estimated the market could be as much as ¥2 trillion ($18 billion). Japan-based Tokyo Otaku Mode, a place for news related to otaku, has been liked on Facebook almost 10 million times.
Other classifications of otaku interests include Vocaloid, cosplay, figures, and professional wrestling, as categorized by the Yano Research Institute, which reports and tracks market growth and trends in sectors heavily influenced by otaku consumerism. In 2012, it noted around 30% of growth in dating sim and online gaming otaku, while Vocaloid, cosplay, idols and maid services grew by 10%, confirming its 2011 predictions.
Ōkina otomodachi
is a Japanese phrase that literally translates to "big friend" or "adult friend". Japanese otaku use it to describe themselves as adult fans of an anime, a manga, or a TV show that is originally aimed at children. A parent who watches such a show with their children is not considered an ōkina otomodachi, nor is a parent who buys anime DVDs or manga volumes for their children; ōkina otomodachi are those who consume such content by themselves.
See also
Daicon III and IV Opening Animations
Hentai
Japanification
Japanophilia
Nijikon
References
Works cited
External links
"I'm Alone, but Not Lonely"—An early article about Japanese otaku by Volker Grassmuck, December 1990
"L'éthique otaku : Tous seuls ensemble (la crise de contact et autres troubles des sens) 1999"—Article in French by Maurice Benayoun
The Politics of Otaku—A general commentary on the usage and meanings of "otaku" in Japan and internationally, September 2001
An Introduction to Otaku Movement, paper by Thomas Lamarre
"Meet the Geek Elite", Wired, July 2006
"Otakismus" by Michael Manfé
1983 neologisms
English-language slang
Epithets related to nerd culture
Fandom
Japanese slang
Japanese values | 0.770344 | 0.998956 | 0.76954 |
Conformity | Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, guidance shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others. People often choose to conform to society rather than to pursue personal desires – because it is often easier to follow the path others have made already, rather than forging a new one. Thus, conformity is sometimes a product of group communication. This tendency to conform occurs in small groups and/or in society as a whole and may result from subtle unconscious influences (predisposed state of mind), or from direct and overt social pressure. Conformity can occur in the presence of others, or when an individual is alone. For example, people tend to follow social norms when eating or when watching television, even if alone.
The Asch conformity experiment demonstrates how much influence conformity has on people. In a laboratory experiment, Asch asked 50 male students from Swarthmore College in the US to participate in a 'vision test'. Asch put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates/stooges in a line judgment task. When confronted with the line task, each confederate had already decided what response they would give. The real members of the experimental group sat in the last position, while the others were pre-arranged experimenters who gave apparently incorrect answers in unison; Asch recorded the last person's answer to analyze the influence of conformity. Surprisingly, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation sided with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials. Over the 12 critical trials, about 75% of participants conformed at least once. After being interviewed, subjects acknowledged that they did not actually agree with the answers given by others. The majority of them, however, believe that groups are wiser or do not want to appear as mavericks and choose to repeat the same obvious misconception. It is clear from this that conformity has a powerful effect on human perception and behavior, even to the extent that it can be faked against a person's basic belief system.
Changing one's behaviors to match the responses of others, which is conformity, can be conscious or not. People have an intrinsic tendency to unconsciously imitate other's behaviors such as gesture, language, talking speed, and other actions of the people they interact with. There are two other main reasons for conformity: informational influence and normative influence. People display conformity in response to informational influence when they believe the group is better informed, or in response to normative influence when they are afraid of rejection. When the advocated norm could be correct, the informational influence is more important than the normative influence, while otherwise the normative influence dominates.
People often conform from a desire for security within a group, also known as normative influence—typically a group of a similar age, culture, religion or educational status. This is often referred to as groupthink: a pattern of thought characterized by self-deception, forced manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics, which ignores realistic appraisal of other courses of action. Unwillingness to conform carries the risk of social rejection. Conformity is often associated in media with adolescence and youth culture, but strongly affects humans of all ages.
Although peer pressure may manifest negatively, conformity can be regarded as either good or bad. Driving on the conventionally-approved side of the road may be seen as beneficial conformity. With the appropriate environmental influence, conforming, in early childhood years, allows one to learn and thus, adopt the appropriate behaviors necessary to interact and develop "correctly" within one's society. Conformity influences the formation and maintenance of social norms, and helps societies function smoothly and predictably via the self-elimination of behaviors seen as contrary to unwritten rules. Conformity was found to impair group performance in a variable environment, but was not found to have a significant effect on performance in a stable environment.
According to Herbert Kelman, there are three types of conformity: 1) compliance (which is public conformity, and it is motivated by the need for approval or the fear of disapproval; 2) identification (which is a deeper type of conformism than compliance); 3) internalization (which is to conform both publicly and privately).
Major factors that influence the degree of conformity include culture, gender, age, size of the group, situational factors, and different stimuli. In some cases, minority influence, a special case of informational influence, can resist the pressure to conform and influence the majority to accept the minority's belief or behaviors.
Definition and context
Definition
Conformity is the tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behaviors in ways that are consistent with group norms. Norms are implicit, specific rules shared by a group of individuals on how they should behave. People may be susceptible to conform to group norms because they want to gain acceptance from their group.
Peer
Some adolescents gain acceptance and recognition from their peers by conformity. This peer moderated conformity increases from the transition of childhood to adolescence. It follows a U-shaped age pattern wherein conformity increases through childhood, peaking at sixth and ninth grades and then declines. Adolescents often follow the logic that "if everyone else is doing it, then it must be good and right". However, it is found that they are more likely to conform if peer pressure involves neutral activities such as those in sports, entertainment, and prosocial behaviors rather than anti-social behaviors. Researchers have found that peer conformity is strongest for individuals who reported strong identification with their friends or groups, making them more likely to adopt beliefs and behaviors accepted in such circles.
There is also the factor that the mere presence of a person can influence whether one is conforming or not. Norman Triplett (1898) was the researcher that initially discovered the impact that mere presence has, especially among peers. In other words, all people can affect society. We are influenced by people doing things beside us, whether this is in a competitive atmosphere or not. People tend to be influenced by those who are their own age especially. Co-actors that are similar to us tend to push us more than those who are not.
Social responses
According to Donelson Forsyth, after submitting to group pressures, individuals may find themselves facing one of several responses to conformity. These types of responses to conformity vary in their degree of public agreement versus private agreement.
When an individual finds themselves in a position where they publicly agree with the group's decision yet privately disagrees with the group's consensus, they are experiencing compliance or acquiescence. This is also referenced as apparent conformity. This type of conformity recognizes that behavior is not always consistent with our beliefs and attitudes, which mimics Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory. In turn, conversion, otherwise known as private acceptance or "true conformity", involves both publicly and privately agreeing with the group's decision. In the case of private acceptance, the person conforms to the group by changing their beliefs and attitudes. Thus, this represents a true change of opinion to match the majority.
Another type of social response, which does not involve conformity with the majority of the group, is called convergence. In this type of social response, the group member agrees with the group's decision from the outset and thus does not need to shift their opinion on the matter at hand.
In addition, Forsyth shows that nonconformity can also fall into one of two response categories. Firstly, an individual who does not conform to the majority can display independence. Independence, or dissent, can be defined as the unwillingness to bend to group pressures. Thus, this individual stays true to his or her personal standards instead of the swaying toward group standards. Secondly, a nonconformist could be displaying anticonformity or counterconformity which involves the taking of opinions that are opposite to what the group believes. This type of nonconformity can be motivated by a need to rebel against the status quo instead of the need to be accurate in one's opinion.
To conclude, social responses to conformity can be seen to vary along a continuum from conversion to anticonformity. For example, a popular experiment in conformity research, known as the Asch situation or Asch conformity experiments, primarily includes compliance and independence. Also, other responses to conformity can be identified in groups such as juries, sports teams and work teams.
Main experiments
Sherif's experiment (1935)
Muzafer Sherif was interested in knowing how many people would change their opinions to bring them in line with the opinion of a group. In his experiment, participants were placed in a dark room and asked to stare at a small dot of light 15 feet away. They were then asked to estimate the amount it moved. The trick was, there was no movement, it was caused by a visual illusion known as the autokinetic effect. The participants stated estimates ranging from 1–10 inches. On the first day, each person perceived different amounts of movement, but from the second to the fourth day, the same estimate was agreed on and others conformed to it. Over time, the personal estimates converged with the other group members' estimates once discussing their judgments aloud. Sherif suggested this was a simulation for how social norms develop in a society, providing a common frame of reference for people. His findings emphasize that people rely on others to interpret ambiguous stimuli and new situations.
Subsequent experiments were based on more realistic situations. In an eyewitness identification task, participants were shown a suspect individually and then in a lineup of other suspects. They were given one second to identify him, making it a difficult task. One group was told that their input was very important and would be used by the legal community. To the other it was simply a trial. Being more motivated to get the right answer increased the tendency to conform. Those who wanted to be more accurate conformed 51% of the time as opposed to 35% in the other group. Sherif's study provided a framework for subsequent studies of influence such as Solomon Asch's 1955 study.
Asch's experiment (1951)
Solomon E. Asch conducted a modification of Sherif's study, assuming that when the situation was very clear, conformity would be drastically reduced. He exposed people in a group to a series of lines, and the participants were asked to match one line with a standard line. All participants except one were accomplices and gave the wrong answer in 12 of the 18 trials.
The results showed a surprisingly high degree of conformity: 74% of the participants conformed on at least one trial. On average people conformed one third of the time. A question is how the group would affect individuals in a situation where the correct answer is less obvious.
After his first test, Asch wanted to investigate whether the size or unanimity of the majority had greater influence on test subjects. "Which aspect of the influence of a majority is more important – the size of the majority or its unanimity? The experiment was modified to examine this question. In one series the size of the opposition was varied from one to 15 persons." The results clearly showed that as more people opposed the subject, the subject became more likely to conform. However, the increasing majority was only influential up to a point: from three or more opponents, there is more than 30% of conformity.
Besides that, this experiment proved that conformity is powerful, but also fragile. It is powerful because just by having actors giving the wrong answer made the participant to also give the wrong answer, even though they knew it was not correct. It is also fragile, however, because in one of the variants for the experiment, one of the actors was supposed to give the correct answer, being an "ally" to the participant. With an ally, the participant was more likely to give the correct answer than he was before the ally. In addition, if the participant was able to write down the answer, instead of saying out loud, he was also more likely to put the correct answer. The reason for that is because he was not afraid of being different from the rest of the group since the answers were hidden.
Milgram's shock experiment (1961)
This experiment was conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in order to portray obedience to authority. They measured the willingness of participants (men aged 20 to 50 from a diverse range of occupations with different levels of education) to obey the instructions from an authority figure to supply fake electric shocks that would gradually increase to fatal levels. Regardless of these instructions going against their personal conscience, 65% of the participants shocked all the way to 450 volts, fully obeying the instruction, even if they did so reluctantly. Additionally, all participants shocked to at least 300 volts.
In this experiment, the subjects did not have punishments or rewards if they chose to disobey or obey. All they might receive is disapproval or approval from the experimenter. Since this is the case they had no motives to sway them to perform the immoral orders or not. One of the most important factors of the experiment is the position of the authority figure relative to the subject (the shocker) along with the position of the learner (the one getting shocked). There is a reduction in conformity depending on if the authority figure or learner was in the same room as the subject. When the authority figure was in another room and only phoned to give their orders the obedience rate went down to 20.5%. When the learner was in the same room as the subject the obedience rate dropped to 40%.
Stanford prison experiment (August 15–21, 1971)
This experiment, led by psychology professor Philip G. Zimbardo, recruited Stanford students using a local newspaper ad, who he checked to be both physically and mentally healthy. Subjects were either assigned the role of a "prisoner" or "guard" at random over an extended period of time, within a pretend prison setting on the Stanford University Campus. The study was set to be over the course of two weeks but it was abruptly cut short because of the behaviors the subjects were exuding. It was terminated due to the "guards" taking on tyrannical and discriminatory characteristics while "prisoners" showed blatant signs of depression and distress.
In essence, this study showed us a lot about conformity and power imbalance. For one, it demonstrates how situations determines the way our behavior is shaped and predominates over our personality, attitudes, and individual morals. Those chosen to be "guards" were not mean-spirited. But, the situation they were put in made them act accordingly to their role. Furthermore, this study elucidates the idea that humans conform to expected roles. Good people (i.e. the guards before the experiment) were transformed into perpetrators of evil. Healthy people (i.e. the prisoners before the experiment) were subject to pathological reactions. These aspects are also traceable to situational forces. This experiment also demonstrated the notion of the banality of evil which explains that evil is not something special or rare, but it is something that exists in all ordinary people.
Varieties
Harvard psychologist Herbert Kelman identified three major types of conformity.
Compliance is public conformity, while possibly keeping one's own original beliefs for yourself. Compliance is motivated by the need for approval and the fear of being rejected.
Identification is conforming to someone who is liked and respected, such as a celebrity or a favorite uncle. This can be motivated by the attractiveness of the source, and this is a deeper type of conformism than compliance.
Internalization is accepting the belief or behavior and conforming both publicly and privately, if the source is credible. It is the deepest influence on people, and it will affect them for a long time.
Although Kelman's distinction has been influential, research in social psychology has focused primarily on two varieties of conformity. These are informational conformity, or informational social influence, and normative conformity, also called normative social influence. In Kelman's terminology, these correspond to internalization and compliance, respectively. There are naturally more than two or three variables in society influential on human psychology and conformity; the notion of "varieties" of conformity based upon "social influence" is ambiguous and indefinable in this context.
According to Deutsch and Gérard (1955), conformity results from a motivational conflict (between the fear of being socially rejected and the wish to say what we think is correct) that leads to normative influence, and a cognitive conflict (others create doubts in what we think) which leads to informational influence.
Informational influence
Informational social influence occurs when one turns to the members of one's group to obtain and accept accurate information about reality. A person is most likely to use informational social influence in certain situations: when a situation is ambiguous, people become uncertain about what to do and they are more likely to depend on others for the answer; and during a crisis when immediate action is necessary, in spite of panic. Looking to other people can help ease fears, but unfortunately, they are not always right. The more knowledgeable a person is, the more valuable they are as a resource. Thus, people often turn to experts for help. But once again people must be careful, as experts can make mistakes too. Informational social influence often results in internalization or private acceptance, where a person genuinely believes that the information is right.
Normative influence
Normative social influence occurs when one conforms to be liked or accepted by the members of the group. This need of social approval and acceptance is part of our state of humans. In addition to this, we know that when people do not conform with their group and therefore are deviants, they are less liked and even punished by the group. Normative influence usually results in public compliance, doing or saying something without believing in it. The experiment of Asch in 1951 is one example of normative influence. Even though John Turner et al. argued that the post experimental interviews showed that the respondents were uncertain about the correct answers in some cases. The answers might have been evident to the experimenters, but the participants did not have the same experience. Subsequent studies pointed out the fact that the participants were not known to each other and therefore did not pose a threat against social rejection. See: Normative influence vs. referent informational influence
In a reinterpretation of the original data from these experiments Hodges and Geyer (2006) found that Asch's subjects were not so conformist after all: The experiments provide powerful evidence for people's tendency to tell the truth even when others do not. They also provide compelling evidence of people's concern for others and their views. By closely examining the situation in which Asch's subjects find themselves they find that the situation places multiple demands on participants: They include truth (i.e., expressing one's own view accurately), trust (i.e., taking seriously the value of others' claims), and social solidarity (i.e., a commitment to integrate the views of self and others without deprecating). In addition to these epistemic values, there are multiple moral claims as well: These include the need for participants to care for the integrity and well-being of other participants, the experimenter, themselves, and the worth of scientific research.
Deutsch & Gérard (1955) designed different situations that variated from Asch' experiment and found that when participants were writing their answer privately, they were giving the correct one
Normative influence, a function of social impact theory, has three components. The number of people in the group has a surprising effect. As the number increases, each person has less of an impact. A group's strength is how important the group is to a person. Groups we value generally have more social influence. Immediacy is how close the group is in time and space when the influence is taking place. Psychologists have constructed a mathematical model using these three factors and are able to predict the amount of conformity that occurs with some degree of accuracy.
Baron and his colleagues conducted a second eyewitness study that focused on normative influence. In this version, the task was easier. Each participant had five seconds to look at a slide instead of just one second. Once again, there were both high and low motives to be accurate, but the results were the reverse of the first study. The low motivation group conformed 33% of the time (similar to Asch's findings). The high motivation group conformed less at 16%. These results show that when accuracy is not very important, it is better to get the wrong answer than to risk social disapproval.
An experiment using procedures similar to Asch's found that there was significantly less conformity in six-person groups of friends as compared to six-person groups of strangers. Because friends already know and accept each other, there may be less normative pressure to conform in some situations. Field studies on cigarette and alcohol abuse, however, generally demonstrate evidence of friends exerting normative social influence on each other.
Minority influence
Although conformity generally leads individuals to think and act more like groups, individuals are occasionally able to reverse this tendency and change the people around them. This is known as minority influence, a special case of informational influence. Minority influence is most likely when people can make a clear and consistent case for their point of view. If the minority fluctuates and shows uncertainty, the chance of influence is small. However, a minority that makes a strong, convincing case increases the probability of changing the majority's beliefs and behaviors. Minority members who are perceived as experts, are high in status, or have benefited the group in the past are also more likely to succeed.
Another form of minority influence can sometimes override conformity effects and lead to unhealthy group dynamics. A 2007 review of two dozen studies by the University of Washington found that a single "bad apple" (an inconsiderate or negligent group member) can substantially increase conflicts and reduce performance in work groups. Bad apples often create a negative emotional climate that interferes with healthy group functioning. They can be avoided by careful selection procedures and managed by reassigning them to positions that require less social interaction.
Specific predictors
Culture
Stanley Milgram found that individuals in Norway (from a collectivistic culture) exhibited a higher degree of conformity than individuals in France (from an individualistic culture). Similarly, Berry studied two different populations: the Temne (collectivists) and the Inuit (individualists) and found that the Temne conformed more than the Inuit when exposed to a conformity task.
Bond and Smith compared 134 studies in a meta-analysis and found that there is a positive correlation between a country's level of collectivistic values and conformity rates in the Asch paradigm. Bond and Smith also reported that conformity has declined in the United States over time.
Influenced by the writings of late-19th- and early-20th-century Western travelers, scholars or diplomats who visited Japan, such as Basil Hall Chamberlain, George Trumbull Ladd and Percival Lowell, as well as by Ruth Benedict's influential book The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, many scholars of Japanese studies speculated that there would be a higher propensity to conform in Japanese culture than in American culture. However, this view was not formed on the basis of empirical evidence collected in a systematic way, but rather on the basis of anecdotes and casual observations, which are subject to a variety of cognitive biases. Modern scientific studies comparing conformity in Japan and the United States show that Americans conform in general as much as the Japanese and, in some situations, even more. Psychology professor Yohtaro Takano from the University of Tokyo, along with Eiko Osaka reviewed four behavioral studies and found that the rate of conformity errors that the Japanese subjects manifested in the Asch paradigm was similar with that manifested by Americans. The study published in 1970 by Robert Frager from the University of California, Santa Cruz found that the percentage of conformity errors within the Asch paradigm was significantly lower in Japan than in the United States, especially in the prize condition. Another study published in 2008, which compared the level of conformity among Japanese in-groups (peers from the same college clubs) with that found among Americans found no substantial difference in the level of conformity manifested by the two nations, even in the case of in-groups.
Gender
Societal norms often establish gender differences and researchers have reported differences in the way men and women conform to social influence. For example, Alice Eagly and Linda Carli performed a meta-analysis of 148 studies of influenceability. They found that women are more persuadable and more conforming than men in group pressure situations that involve surveillance. Eagly has proposed that this sex difference may be due to different sex roles in society. Women are generally taught to be more agreeable whereas men are taught to be more independent.
The composition of the group plays a role in conformity as well. In a study by Reitan and Shaw, it was found that men and women conformed more when there were participants of both sexes involved versus participants of the same sex. Subjects in the groups with both sexes were more apprehensive when there was a discrepancy amongst group members, and thus the subjects reported that they doubted their own judgments.
Sistrunk and McDavid made the argument that women conformed more because of a methodological bias. They argued that because stereotypes used in studies are generally male ones (sports, cars..) more than female ones (cooking, fashion..), women are feeling uncertain and conformed more, which was confirmed by their results.
Age
Research has noted age differences in conformity. For example, research with Australian children and adolescents ages 3 to 17 discovered that conformity decreases with age. Another study examined individuals that were ranged from ages 18 to 91. The results revealed a similar trend – older participants displayed less conformity when compared to younger participants.
In the same way that gender has been viewed as corresponding to status, age has also been argued to have status implications. Berger, Rosenholtz and Zelditch suggest that age as a status role can be observed among college students. Younger students, such as those in their first year in college, are treated as lower-status individuals and older college students are treated as higher-status individuals. Therefore, given these status roles, it would be expected that younger individuals (low status) conform to the majority whereas older individuals (high status) would be expected not to conform.
Researchers have also reported an interaction of gender and age on conformity. Eagly and Chrvala examined the role of age (under 19 years vs. 19 years and older), gender and surveillance (anticipating responses to be shared with group members vs. not anticipating responses being shared) on conformity to group opinions. They discovered that among participants that were 19 years or older, females conformed to group opinions more so than males when under surveillance (i.e., anticipated that their responses would be shared with group members). However, there were no gender differences in conformity among participants who were under 19 years of age and in surveillance conditions. There were also no gender differences when participants were not under surveillance. In a subsequent research article, Eagly suggests that women are more likely to conform than men because of lower status roles of women in society. She suggests that more submissive roles (i.e., conforming) are expected of individuals that hold low status roles. Still, Eagly and Chrvala's results do conflict with previous research which have found higher conformity levels among younger rather than older individuals.
Size of the group
Although conformity pressures generally increase as the size of the majority increases, Asch's experiment in 1951 stated that increasing the size of the group will have no additional impact beyond a majority of size three. Brown and Byrne's 1997 study described a possible explanation that people may suspect collusion when the majority exceeds three or four. Gerard's 1968 study reported a linear relationship between the group size and conformity when the group size ranges from two to seven people. According to Latane's 1981 study, the number of the majority is one factor that influences the degree of conformity, and there are other factors like strength and immediacy.
Moreover, a study suggests that the effects of group size depend on the type of social influence operating. This means that in situations where the group is clearly wrong, conformity will be motivated by normative influence; the participants will conform in order to be accepted by the group. A participant may not feel much pressure to conform when the first person gives an incorrect response. However, conformity pressure will increase as each additional group member also gives the same incorrect response.
Situational factors
Research has found different group and situation factors that affect conformity. Accountability increases conformity, if an individual is trying to be accepted by a group which has certain preferences, then individuals are more likely to conform to match the group. Similarly, the attractiveness of group members increases conformity. If an individual wishes to be liked by the group, they are increasingly likely to conform.
Accuracy also effects conformity, as the more accurate and reasonable the majority is in their decision than the more likely the individual will be to conform. As mentioned earlier, size also effects individuals' likelihood to conform. The larger the majority the more likely an individual will conform to that majority. Similarly, the less ambiguous the task or decision is, the more likely someone will conform to the group. When tasks are ambiguous people are less pressured to conform. Task difficulty also increases conformity, but research has found that conformity increases when the task is difficult but also important.
Research has also found that as individuals become more aware that they disagree with the majority they feel more pressure, and hence are more likely to conform to the decisions of the group. Likewise, when responses must be made face-face, individuals increasingly conform, and therefore conformity increases as the anonymity of the response in a group decreases. Conformity also increases when individuals have committed themselves to the group making decisions.
Conformity has also been shown to be linked to cohesiveness. Cohesiveness is how strongly members of a group are linked together, and conformity has been found to increase as group cohesiveness increases. Similarly, conformity is also higher when individuals are committed and wish to stay in the group. Conformity is also higher when individuals are in situations involving existential thoughts that cause anxiety, in these situations individuals are more likely to conform to the majority's decisions.
Different stimuli
In 1961 Stanley Milgram published a study in which he utilized Asch's conformity paradigm using audio tones instead of lines; he conducted his study in Norway and France. He found substantially higher levels of conformity than Asch, with participants conforming 50% of the time in France and 62% of the time in Norway during critical trials. Milgram also conducted the same experiment once more, but told participants that the results of the study would be applied to the design of aircraft safety signals. His conformity estimates were 56% in Norway and 46% in France, suggesting that individuals conformed slightly less when the task was linked to an important issue. Stanley Milgram's study demonstrated that Asch's study could be replicated with other stimuli, and that in the case of tones, there was a high degree of conformity.
Neural correlates
Evidence has been found for the involvement of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) in conformity, an area associated with memory and decision-making. For example, Klucharev et al. revealed in their study that by using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on the pMFC, participants reduced their tendency to conform to the group, suggesting a causal role for the brain region in social conformity.
Neuroscience has also shown how people quickly develop similar values for things. Opinions of others immediately change the brain's reward response in the ventral striatum to receiving or losing the object in question, in proportion to how susceptible the person is to social influence. Having similar opinions to others can also generate a reward response.
The amygdala and hippocampus have also been found to be recruited when individuals participated in a social manipulation experiment involving long-term memory. Several other areas have further been suggested to play a role in conformity, including the insula, the temporoparietal junction, the ventral striatum, and the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices.
More recent work stresses the role of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in conformity not only at the time of social influence, but also later on, when participants are given an opportunity to conform by selecting an action. In particular, Charpentier et al. found that the OFC mirrors the exposure to social influence at a subsequent time point, when a decision is being made without the social influence being present. The tendency to conform has also been observed in the structure of the OFC, with a greater grey matter volume in high conformers.
See also
Authoritarian personality
Bandwagon effect
Behavioral contagion
Convention (norm)
Conventional wisdom
Countersignaling
Cultural assimilation
Honne and tatemae
Knowledge falsification
Milieu control
Preference falsification
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes
Spiral of silence
Social inertia
References
External links
Group processes
Organizational behavior
Social influence
Social agreement | 0.772841 | 0.995651 | 0.76948 |
Cultural area | In anthropology and geography, a cultural area, cultural region, cultural sphere, or culture area refers to a geography with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of activities (culture). Such activities are often associated with an ethnolinguistic group and with the territory it inhabits. Specific cultures often do not limit their geographic coverage to the borders of a nation state, or to smaller subdivisions of a state.
History of concept
A culture area is a concept in cultural anthropology in which a geographic region and time sequence (age area) is characterized by shared elements of environment and culture.
A precursor to the concept of culture areas originated with museum curators and ethnologists during the late 1800s as means of arranging exhibits, combined with the work of taxonomy. The American anthropologists Clark Wissler and Alfred Kroeber further developed this version of the concept on the premise that cultural areas represent longstanding cultural divisions. This iteration of the concept is sometimes criticized as arbitrary, but the organization of human communities into cultural areas remains a common practice throughout the social sciences.
Cultural geography also utilizes the concept of culture areas. Cultural geography originated within the Berkeley School, and is primarily associated with Carl O. Sauer and his colleagues. Sauer viewed culture as "an agent within a natural area that was a medium to be cultivated to produce the cultural landscape." Sauer's concept was later criticized as deterministic, and geographer Yi-Fu Tuan and others proposed versions that enabled scholars to account for phenomenological experience as well. This revision became known as humanistic geography. The period within which humanistic geography is now known as the "cultural turn."
The definition of culture areas is enjoying a resurgence of practical and theoretical interest as social scientists conduct more research on processes of cultural globalization.
Types
Allen Noble gave a summary of the concept development of cultural regions using terms such as:
"Cultural hearth" (no origin of this term given),
"Cultural core" by Donald W. Meinig for Mormon culture published in 1970, and
"Source area" by Fred Kniffen (1965) and later Henry Glassie (1968) for house and barn types.
Outside a core area, Glassie used Meinig's use of the terms "domain" (a dominant area) and "sphere" (area influenced but not dominant).
Cultural "spheres of influence" may also overlap or form concentric structures of macrocultures encompassing smaller local cultures. Different boundaries may also be drawn depending on the particular aspect of interest, such as religion and folklore vs dress, or architecture vs language.
Another version of cultural area typology divides cultural areas into three forms:
Formal cultural regions, which are "characterized by cultural homogeneity in a given contiguous geographical area."
Functional cultural regions, which share political, social, and/or cultural functions.
Perceptual, or vernacular, cultural regions, which are based in spatial perception. One example is Braj region of India, which is seen as a spatial whole due to common religious and cultural associations with the specific area.
Cultural boundary
A cultural boundary (also cultural border) in ethnology is a geographical boundary between two identifiable ethnic or ethnolinguistic cultures. A language border is necessarily also a cultural border, as language is a significant part of a society's culture, but it can also divide subgroups of the same ethnolinguistic group along more subtle criteria, such as the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line in German-speaking Switzerland, the Weißwurstäquator in Germany, or the Grote rivieren boundary between Dutch and Flemish culture.
In the history of Europe, the major cultural boundaries are traditionally found:
in Western Europe between Latin Europe, where the legacy of the Roman Empire remained dominant, and Germanic Europe, where it was significantly syncretized with Germanic culture
in the Balkans, the Jireček Line, dividing the area of dominant Latin (Western Roman Empire) from that of dominant Greek (Eastern Roman Empire) influence.
Macro-cultures on a continental scale are also referred to as "worlds", "spheres", or "civilizations", such as the Islamic world.
Specialized terms
Cultural bloc
The term cultural bloc is used by anthropologists to describe culturally and linguistically similar groups (or nations) of Aboriginal peoples of Australia. It may have been coined first by Ronald Berndt in 1959 to describe the Western Desert cultural bloc, a group of peoples in central Australia whose languages comprise around 40 dialects. Other groups described as a cultural bloc include the Noongar people of south-western Australia; the Bundjalung people of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland; the Kuninjku/Bininj Kunwok bloc and the Yolngu cultural bloc in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
Examples of cultural areas
Broad dichotomies
East–West dichotomy: the Western civilization and Western world contrasting with the Orient and Eastern world.
Global North and Global South: the North–South divide is broadly considered a socio-economic and political divide.
Geographic areas
Africa
East Africa
North Africa
Maghreb (western and central North Africa)
Southern Africa
West Africa
Americas [see also Americas (terminology)]
Caribbean
Central America
Mesoamerica
North America
Northern America
South America
Australasia
Pacific islands:
Melanesia
Micronesia
Polynesia
British Isles
Eastern world
Far East
Middle East
Near East
Indian subcontinent
Southeast Asia
Mainland Southeast Asia and Indochina
Maritime Southeast Asia
Language families
Aboriginal Australian languages (with many sub-groups)
Indigenous languages of the Americas
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Native Americans in the United States
Indigenous peoples of South America
Celts and Celtic Europe
English-speaking world (Anglophone)
German language in Europe
Latin Europe
Francophonie
French America
Hispanidad
Hispanic America
Lusophone (Portuguese speakers)
Slavic Europe
Russian world
Baltic Finns, Balts and Baltic Countries
Arab world
Arabic-speaking world
Hindi Belt (Hindi-Urdu Region)
Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area
Sinophone (Chinese-speaking world)
Cultures
Anglosphere
Arab world
Cévennes
Sinosphere (Chinese cultural sphere)
Greater China
Greater India and Indosphere
Greater Iran (Greater Persia)
Greater Middle East
Lusophone
Nordic countries (speaking North Germanic languages)
Russian world
Religious beliefs
Buddhism by country
Christendom (Christian world), in medieval times referred to as res publica Christiana
Christianity by country
Hinduism by country
Muslim world
Islam by country
Music
A music area is a cultural area defined according to musical activity. It may or may not conflict with the cultural areas assigned to a given region. The world may be divided into three large music areas, each containing a "cultivated" or classical musics "that are obviously its most complex musical forms", with, nearby, folk styles which interact with the cultivated, and, on the perimeter, primitive styles.
Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa
based on shared isometric materials, diatonic scales, and polyphony based on parallel thirds, fourths, and fifths.
would usually use the natural major scale and minor scale, and Dorian, Lydian and Mixolydian modes.
North Africa, Southwest Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Indonesia and parts of Southern Europe.
based on shared small intervals in scales, melodies, and polyphony.
would usually use the harmonic minor scale and the Phrygian scale.
American Indian, East Asia, Horn of Africa, Northern Siberian, and Finno-Ugric music
based on shared large steps in pentatonic and tetratonic scales.
See also
Continent
Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas
Cultural landscape
Cultural geography
Cultural tourism
Culture
Deep map
Inglehart–Welzel cultural map of the world
List of Aboriginal Australian group names
List of music areas in the United States
Regionalism (politics)
Social space
Sprachbund, a group of languages that share some characteristics
World language
Footnotes
References
Further reading
Philip V. Bohlman, Marcello Sorce Keller, and Loris Azzaroni (eds.), Musical Anthropology of the Mediterranean: Interpretation, Performance, Identity, Bologna, Edizioni Clueb – Cooperativa Libraria Universitaria Editrice, 2009.
Marcello Sorce Keller, “Gebiete, Schichten und Klanglandschaften in den Alpen. Zum Gebrauch einiger historischer Begriffe aus der Musikethnologie”, in T. Nussbaumer (ed.), Volksmusik in den Alpen: Interkulturelle Horizonte und Crossovers, Zalzburg, Verlag Mueller-Speiser, 2006, pp. 9–18
External links
Cultural anthropology
Cultural geography | 0.775073 | 0.992775 | 0.769473 |
Creative industries | The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They may variously also be referred to as the cultural industries (especially in Europe) or the creative economy, and most recently they have been denominated as the Orange Economy in Latin America and the Caribbean.
John Howkins' creative economy comprises advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, R&D, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games. Some scholars consider that the education industry, including public and private services, are forming a part of the creative industries. There remain, therefore, different definitions of the sector. Last few years delegation from UNESCO want add to Protection of cultural heritage in register .
The creative industries have been seen to become increasingly important to economic well-being, proponents suggesting that "human creativity is the ultimate economic resource", and that "the industries of the twenty-first century will depend increasingly on the generation of knowledge through creativity and innovation".
Definitions
Various commentators have provided varying suggestions on what activities to include in the concept of "creative industries", and the name itself has become a contested issue – with significant differences and overlap between the terms "creative industries", "cultural industries" and "creative economy" l.
Lash and Urry suggest that each of the creative industries has an "irreducible core" concerned with "the exchange of finance for rights in intellectual property". This echoes the UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) definition which describes the creative industries as:
"those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property"
the DCMS definition recognizes nine creative sectors, namely:
Advertising and marketing
Architecture
Crafts
Design: product, graphic and fashion design
Film, TV productions, TV, video, radio and photography
IT, software and computer services
Publishing
Museums, galleries and libraries
Music, performing and visual arts
To this list Howkins would add toys and games, also including the much broader area of research and development in science and technology. It has also been argued that gastronomy belongs in such a list.
The various fields of engineering do not appear on this list, that emerged from the DCMS reports. This was due, probably, to the fact that engineers occupy relevant positions in "non-cultural" corporations, performing activities of project, management, operation, maintenance, risk analysis and supervision, among others. However, historically and presently, several tasks of engineers can be regarded as highly creative, inventive and innovative. The contribution of engineering is represented by new products, processes and services.
Hesmondhalgh reduces the list to what he terms "the core cultural industries" of advertising and marketing, broadcasting, film, internet and music industries, print and electronic publishing, and video and computer games. His definition only includes those industries that create "texts"' or "cultural artefacts" and which engage in some form of industrial reproduction.
The DCMS list has proven influential, and many other nations have formally adopted it. It has also been criticised. It has been argued that the division into sectors obscures a divide between lifestyle business, non-profits, and larger businesses, and between those who receive state subsidies (e.g., film) and those who do not (e.g., computer games). The inclusion of the antiques trade often comes into question, since it does not generally involve production (except of reproductions and fakes). The inclusion of all computer services has also been questioned.
Some areas, such as Hong Kong, have preferred to shape their policy around a tighter focus on copyright ownership in the value chain. They adopt the WIPO's classifications, which divide up the creative industries according to who owns the copyrights at various stages during the production and distribution of creative content.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has denominated them for Latin America and the Caribbean as the Orange Economy which is defined as the "group of linked activities through which ideas are transformed into cultural goods and services whose value is determined by intellectual property."
Others have suggested a distinction between those industries that are open to mass production and distribution (film and video; videogames; broadcasting; publishing), and those that are primarily craft-based and are meant to be consumed in a particular place and moment (visual arts; performing arts; cultural heritage).
How creative workers are counted
The DCMS classifies enterprises and occupations as creative according to what the enterprise primarily produces, and what the worker primarily does. Thus, a company which produces records would be classified as belonging to the music industrial sector, and a worker who plays piano would be classified as a musician.
The primary purpose of this is to quantify – for example it can be used to count the number of firms, and the number of workers, creatively employed in any given location, and hence to identify places with particularly high concentrations of creative activities.
It leads to some complications which are not immediately obvious. For example, a security guard working for a music company would be classified as a creative employee, although not as creatively occupied.
The total number of creative employees is then calculated as the sum of:
All workers employed in creative industries, whether or not creatively occupied (e.g. all musicians, security guards, cleaners, accountants, managers, etc. working for a record company)
All workers that are creatively occupied, and are not employed in creative industries (for example, a piano teacher in a school). This includes people whose second job is creative, for example somebody who does weekend gigs, writes books, or produces artwork in their spare time
Properties or characteristics
According to Richard E. Caves, creative industries are characterized by seven economic properties:
Nobody knows principle: Demand uncertainty exists because the consumers' reaction to a product are neither known beforehand, nor easily understood afterward.
Art for art's sake: Workers care about originality, technical professional skill, harmony, etc. of creative goods and are willing to settle for lower wages than offered by 'humdrum' jobs.
Motley crew principle: For relatively complex creative products (e.g., films), the production requires diversely skilled inputs. Each skilled input must be present and perform at some minimum level to produce a valuable outcome.
Infinite variety: Products are differentiated by quality and uniqueness; each product is a distinct combination of inputs leading to infinite variety options (e.g., works of creative writing, whether poetry, novel, screenplays or otherwise).
A list/B list: Skills are vertically differentiated. Artists are ranked on their skills, originality, and proficiency in creative processes and/or products. Small differences in skills and talent may yield huge differences in (financial) success.
Time flies: When coordinating complex projects with diversely skilled inputs, time is of the essence.
Ars longa: Some creative products have durability aspects that invoke copyright protection, allowing a creator or performer to collect rents.
The properties described by Caves have been criticized for being too rigid (Towse, 2000). Not all creative workers are purely driven by 'art for art's sake'. The 'ars longa' property also holds for certain noncreative products (i.e., licensed products). The 'time flies' property also holds for large construction projects. Creative industries are therefore not unique, but they score generally higher on these properties relative to non-creative industries.
Difference from the 'cultural industries'
There is often a question about the boundaries between creative industries and the similar term of cultural industries. Cultural industries are best described as an adjunct-sector of the creative industries. Cultural industries include industries that focus on cultural tourism and heritage, museums and libraries, sports and outdoor activities, and a variety of 'way of life' activities that arguably range from local pet shows to a host of hobbyist concerns. Thus cultural industries are more concerned about delivering other kinds of value—including cultural wealth and social wealth—rather than primarily providing monetary value. (See also cultural institutions studies.)
The creative class
Some authors, such as the American urban studies theorist Richard Florida, argue for a wider focus on the products of knowledge workers, and judge the 'creative class' (his own term) to include nearly all those offering professional knowledge-based services.
The creative class and diversity
Florida's focus leads him to pay particular attention to the nature of the creative workforce. In a study of why particular US cities such as San Francisco seem to attract creative producers, Florida argues that a high proportion of workers from the 'creative class' provide a key input to creative production, which enterprises seek out. He seeks to quantitatively establish the importance of diversity and multiculturalism in the cities concerned, for example the existence of a significant public gay community, ethnic and religious variety, and tolerance.
Economic contribution
Globally, Creative Industries excluding software and general scientific research and development are said to have accounted for around 4% of the world's economic output in 1999, which is the last year for which comprehensive collated figures are currently available. Estimates of the output corresponding to scientific Research and Development suggest that an additional 4-9% might be attributable to the sector if its definition is extended to include such activities, though the figures vary significantly between different countries.
In 2015, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) assisted in the preparation of national studies that measured the size of over 50 copyright industries around the world. Findings from the recompilation of these studies indicate that the GDP contribution to national economies vary between 2% and 11%.
Taking the UK as an example, in the context of other sectors, the creative industries make a far more significant contribution to output than hospitality or utilities and deliver four times the output due to agriculture, fisheries and forestry. In terms of employment and depending on the definition of activities included, the sector is a major employer of between 4-6% of the UK's working population, though this is still significantly less than employment due to traditional areas of work such as retail and manufacturing.
Within the creative industries sector, and again taking the UK as an example, the three largest sub-sectors are design, publishing, and television and radio. Together these account for around 75% of revenues and 50% of employment.
In economies like Brazil, for example, a 2021 study into the Intellectual Property intensive sectors in the Brazilian economy found that 450 of Brazil's 673 economic classes could be classified as IP-intensive sectors which collectively employed 19,3 million people. The Brazilian creative industry's collective share of GDP between 2014 and 2016, when calculated across these 450 economic classes, totaled R$2,1 trillion Reais or 44,2% of Brazil's GDP.
The complex supply chains in the creative industries sometimes make it challenging to calculate accurate figures for the gross value added by each sub-sector. This is particularly the case for the service-focused sub-sectors such as advertising, whereas it is more straightforward in product-focused sub-sectors such as crafts.
There may be a tendency for publicly funded creative industries development services to inaccurately estimate the number of creative businesses during the mapping process. There is also imprecision in nearly all tax code systems that determine a person's profession, since many creative people operate simultaneously in multiple roles and jobs. Both these factors mean that official statistics relating to the Creative Industries should be treated with caution.
The creative industries in Europe make a significant contribution to the EU economy, creating about 3% of EU GDP – corresponding to an annual market value of billion – and employing about 6 million people. In addition, the sector plays a crucial role in fostering innovation, in particular for devices and networks. The EU records the second highest TV viewing figures globally, producing more films than any other region in the world. In that respect, the newly proposed 'Creative Europe' programme (July 2011) will help preserve cultural heritage while increasing the circulation of creative works inside and outside the EU. The programme will play a consequential role in stimulating cross border co-operation, promoting peer learning and making these sectors more professional. The Commission will then propose a financial instrument run by the European Investment Bank to provide debt and equity finance for cultural and creative industries. The role of the non-state actors within the governance regarding Medias will not be neglected anymore. Therefore, building a new approach extolling the crucial importance of a European level playing field industry may boost the adoption of policies aimed at developing a conducive environment, enabling European companies as well as citizens to use their imagination and creativity – both sources of innovation -, and therefore of competitiveness and sustainability. It supposes to tailor the regulatory and institutional frameworks in supporting private-public collaboration, in particular in the Medias sector. The EU therefore plans to develop clusters, financing instruments as well as foresight activities to support this sector. The European Commission wishes to assist European creators and audiovisual enterprises to develop new markets through the use of digital technology, and asks how policy-making can best help achieve this. A more entrepreneurial culture will have to take hold with a more positive attitude towards risk-taking, and a capacity to innovate anticipating future trends. Creativity plays an important role in human resource management as artists and creative professionals can think laterally. Moreover, new jobs requiring new skills created in the post-crisis economy should be supported by labour mobility to ensure that people are employed wherever their skills are needed.
In the US
In the introduction to a 2013 special issue of Work and Occupations on artists in the US workforce, the guest editors argue that by examining the work lives of artists, one can identify characteristics and actions that help both individual workers and policy makers adapt to changing economic conditions. Elizabeth Lingo and Steven Tepper cite multiple sources to suggest artists' skill sets allow them to "work beyond existing markets and create entirely new opportunities for themselves and others". Specifically, Lingo and Tepper suggest artistic workers are "catalysts of change and innovation" because they "face special challenges managing ambiguity, developing and sustaining a relative identity, and forming community in the context of an individually based enterprise economy" (2013). Because of these adaptive skills, the suggestion is that "studying how artists cope with uncertainty and the factors that influence their success should be relevant for understanding these broader social and economic trends facing today's (and tomorrow's) workforce."
This view of artist-as-change-agent changes the questions researchers ask of creative economies. Old research questions would focus on topics like "skills, work practices, contracts, wage differentials, employment incentives, formal credentials, employment pipelines, and labor flows of differentiated occupational categories". Examples of new questions include:
How do artists both create changes in the labor market itself and the way cultural work is done?
What is their process of innovation and enterprise?
What is the nature of their work and the resources they draw upon?
How do different network structures produce different opportunity spaces?
How do artistic workers create and manage planned serendipity—the spaces and exchanges that produce unexpected collaborations and opportunities?
How do creative workers broker and synthesize across occupational, genre, geographic, and industry boundaries to create new possibilities? (Tepper & Lingo, 2013)
Wider role
As some first world countries struggle to compete in traditional markets such as manufacturing, many now see the creative industry as a key component in a new knowledge economy, capable perhaps of delivering urban regeneration, often through initiatives linked to exploitation of cultural heritage that leads to increased tourism. It is often argued that, in future, the ideas and imagination of countries like the United Kingdom will be their greatest asset; in support of this argument, a number of universities in the UK have started to offer creative entrepreneurship as a specific area for study and research. Indeed, UK government figures reveal that the UK's creative industries account for over a million jobs and brought in billion to the UK economy (DCMS Creative Industries Mapping Document 2001), although the data sets underlying these figures are open to question.
In recent years, creative industries have become 'increasingly attractive to governments outside the developed world'. In 2005, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) XI High Level Panel on Creative Industries and Development commissioned several studies to identify challenges and opportunities facing the growth and development of creative industries in developing industries. As Cunningham et al. (2009) put it, 'the harnessing of creativity brings with it the potential of new wealth creation, the cultivation of local talent and the generation of creative capital, the development of new export markets, significant multiplier effects throughout the broader economy, the utilisation of information communication technologies and enhanced competitiveness in an increasingly global economy'. A key driver of interest in creative industries and development is the acknowledgement that the value of creative production resides in ideas and individual creativity, and developing countries have rich cultural traditions and pools of creative talent which lay a basic foundation for creative enterprises. Reflecting the growing interest in the potential of creative industries in developing countries, in October 2011 a Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy was created within the Indonesian government with well-known economist Mari Pangestu appointed as the first minister to hold the position.
See also
Cognitive-cultural economy
Creative industry in Brazil
Cultural industry
Entertainment industry
Imagination age, a theoretical incipient period in which creativity and imagination will become the primary creators of economic value
Publishing industry
Smart city
Creative services
References
Sources
Buitrago, Pedro & Duque, Iván. The Orange Economy: An Infinite Opportunity. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank 2013
Description and preview.
Parrish, David (2005). T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity, Merseyside ACME.
Pasquinelli, Matteo (2006). . In: Lovink, Geert and Rossiter, Ned (eds). MyCreativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2007.
Towse, Ruth (2002). Book Review of Creative Industries, Journal of Political Economy, 110: 234-237.
Van Heur, Bas (2010) Creative Networks and the City: towards a Cultural Political Economy of Aesthetic Production. Bielefeld: Transcript.
Gielen, Pascal (2013) "Creativity and other Fundamentalisms". Mondriaan: Amsterdam.
Creativity
Economics of the arts and literature
Industries (economics) | 0.776257 | 0.991112 | 0.769358 |
Remodernism | Remodernism is an artistic and philosophical movement aimed at reviving aspects of modernism, particularly in its early form, in a manner that both follows after and contrasts against postmodernism. The movement was initiated in 2000 by stuckists Billy Childish and Charles Thomson, with a manifesto, Remodernism in an attempt to introduce a period of new "spirituality" into art, culture and society to replace postmodernism, which they said was cynical and spiritually bankrupt. In 2002, a remodernism art show in Albuquerque was accompanied by an essay from University of California, Berkeley art professor, Kevin Radley. Adherents of remodernism advocate it as a forward and radical, not reactionary, impetus.
In 2006, the Stedelijk Museum and the University of Amsterdam held a talk on remodernism with Daniel Birnbaum and Alison Gingeras; the introduction to this talked of the revival of painting as a possible return to traditional modernist values, such as authenticity, self-expression and autonomy, as opposed to multimedia practice.
In 2008, London Evening Standard critic, Ben Lewis, applied the term to three Turner Prize nominees and saw them amongst a movement which was reviving the formalism of the early 20th century; he advocated values of an aesthetic informed by modesty, generosity and genuine emotion.
History
Origins and 2000 manifesto
Charles Thomson and Billy Childish, the founders of the stuckism art movement, inaugurated the period of remodernism. Their Remodernism manifesto was published on March 1, 2000 to promote vision, authenticity and self-expression, with an emphasis on painting, and subtitled "towards a new spirituality in art". Its premise is that the potential of the modernist vision has not been fulfilled, that its development has been in the wrong direction and that this vision needs to be reclaimed, redefined and redeveloped. It advocates the search for truth, knowledge and meaning, and challenges formalism.
It has a short introduction, summing up: "Modernism has progressively lost its way, until finally toppling into the bottomless pit of Postmodern balderdash." This is followed by 14 numbered points, stressing bravery, individuality, inclusiveness, communication, humanity and the perennial against nihilism, scientific materialism and the "brainless destruction of convention." Point 7 states:
Point 9 states: "Spiritual art is not religion. Spirituality is humanity's quest to understand itself and finds its symbology through the clarity and integrity of its artists." Point 12 links its use of the word "God" to enthusiasm—from the Greek root en theos (to be possessed by God).
The summary at the end starts, "It is quite clear to anyone of an uncluttered mental disposition that what is now put forward, quite seriously, as art by the ruling elite, is proof that a seemingly rational development of a body of ideas has gone seriously awry," and finds the solution is a spiritual renaissance because "there is nowhere else for art to go. Stuckism's mandate is to initiate that spiritual renaissance now."
Childish and Thomson sent their remodernism manifesto to Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate Gallery, who replied, "You will not be surprised to learn that I have no comment to make on your letter, or your manifesto Remodernism."
Exhibitions (2000 – 2009)
In March 2000 the Stuckists declared themselves to be the first remodernist art group at a show The Resignation of Sir Nicholas Serota. In April, remodernism was quoted in The Gulf News (UAE). In May The Observer newspaper announced a stuckist show: "As the founding group of a self-named art movement called Remodernism, they stand on an art ticket that's against clever conceptualism and in favour of a more emotional and spiritual integrity in art via figurative painting."
In June, Thomson and Childish gave a talk on stuckism and remodernism at the Salon des Arts, Kensington, promoted by the Institute of Ideas. The same month the "Students for Stuckism" also gave "a Remodernist show and talk". The Institute of Remodernism was founded by Khatereh Ahmadi.
In 2001, Thomson stood in the UK general election, stating, "The Stuckist Party aims to bring the ideas of Stuckism and Remodernism into the political arena."
In January 2002, Magnifico Arts presented a show ReMo: ReModernism of graduate students from the University of New Mexico. At an artists' talk, Kevin Radley, an art professor at the University of California, Berkeley said, "Remodernism isn't about going backwards, but about surging forward." In an essay that accompanied the exhibition, Radley wrote:
The show curator, Yoshimi Hayashi, said:
In 2003, an independent group, the Stuckist Photographers, was founded by Andy Bullock and Larry Dunstan with a statement of endorsement for remodernism.
In 2004, the Defastenists, a new group of creatives in Ireland, declared themselves remodernist. A Remodernist art gallery, The Deatrick Gallery was founded in Louisville, Kentucky.
American film makers/photographers Jesse Richards and Harris Smith co-founded a new group remodernist film and photography with an emphasis on emotional meaning and characterised by elements of new-wave, no-wave, expressionist and transcendental film-making.
Stuckist artist Bill Lewis, interviewed by the BBC at the 2004 Liverpool Biennial, said that remodernism was "not a movement as such", but a return to the start of modernism in order to move forward with an art for a new paradigm. To "remodernise" is to go "back to the root again, starting with painting ... and see where it goes". He said that this had been called reactionary, but it was radical "in the true sense of the word". New York stuckist artist, Terry Marks said that remodernism posited that modernism had started in a good direction, but veered from that into "pure idea" and that it was necessary to return to the starting point to take an as-yet unexplored alternative direction: "to pursue art-making that's more concrete and accessible to more people, and find out where that leads us".
In 2004, Luke Heighton wrote in The Future magazine, "Remodernism, it seems, is here to stay whether we like it or not." Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand declared 2004 "a good year for remodernism—for having the gall to suggest that artists can have souls".
In August 2005 an art show Addressing the Shadow and Making Friends with Wild Dogs: Remodernism (a title taken from a line in the stuckist remodernism manifesto) was held at CBGBs 313 gallery in New York City. Artist and blogger Mark Vallen said, "In the mid-1970s punk rock was born in a dank little New York nightclub called CBGB's. It all started when rockers like Television, the Ramones and Patti Smith launched a frontal assault on the monolith of corporate rock 'n roll. Now another artistic revolt, Remodernism, is about to widen its offensive from the birthplace of punk."
On 10 May 2006, the Stedelijk Museum and the University of Amsterdam staged a talk on remodernism by Daniel Birnbaum, contributing editor of Artforum, and Alison Gingeras, Assistant Curator, Guggenheim Museum. The summary is:
In 2006, artist Matt Bray said, "I do not wish to be considered a Stuckist, as I find some of there (sic) antics unnecessary. The Stuckists are however the first and most famous Remodernist group, so for that, and for bringing this particular manifesto to my attention; I thank them." In May 2007, with punk singer Adam Bray, he created the Mad Monk Collective in Folkestone, England, to promote remodernism.
In January 2008, London Evening Standard critic, Ben Lewis, said the year would see "the invention of a new word to describe the modernist revival: 'remodernism,'" which he applied later in the year to Turner Prize nominees Mark Leckey, Runa Islam and Goshka Macuga, as "part of a whole movement reviving early 20th-century formalism", praising Macuga for her "heartfelt, modest and generous-spirited aesthetic", of which he said there was more needed today. In April 2009, he described Catalina Niculescu, a Romanian artist using "nostalgic" 16mm film, as among a significant trend in art of fetishising the offcuts of modernism: "Let's call it Remodernism."
On 27 August 2008, Jesse Richards published a Remodernist Film Manifesto, calling for a "new spirituality in cinema", use of intuition in filmmaking, as well as describing the remodernist film as being a "stripped down, minimal, lyrical, punk kind of filmmaking". The manifesto criticizes Stanley Kubrick, filmmakers who use digital video, and Dogme 95. Point 4 says:
In 2009, Nick Christos and other students from Florida Atlantic University founded the Miami Stuckists group. Christos said,
"Stuckism is a renaissance of modernism—it's re-modernism."
See also
Remodernist film
Neomodern
Post-postmodernism
Neo-minimalism
New Sincerity
New Puritans
Art manifesto
References
Further reading
Ed. Katherine Evans (2000), The Stuckists: The First Remodernist Art Group, Victoria Press,
Ed. Frank Milner (2004), The Stuckists Punk Victorian, National Museums Liverpool,
External links
Remodernism Manifesto (in English, French, German, Persian, Portuguese and Spanish)
Charles Thomson on the writing of the Remodernism manifesto
Remodernism manifesto in the Tate Gallery
Contemporary art movements
Criticism of postmodernism
Modernism
Architectural theory
Architectural styles
Visual arts genres
British art movements
21st century in art | 0.786425 | 0.977977 | 0.769106 |
Classicism | Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthetic attitude dependent on principles based in the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, with the emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, clarity of structure, perfection and restrained emotion, as well as explicit appeal to the intellect. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint and compression we are simply objecting to the classicism of classic art. A violent emphasis or a sudden acceleration of rhythmic movement would have destroyed those qualities of balance and completeness through which it retained until the present century its position of authority in the restricted repertoire of visual images." Classicism, as Clark noted, implies a canon of widely accepted ideal forms, whether in the Western canon that he was examining in The Nude (1956).
Classicism is a force which is often present in post-medieval European and European influenced traditions; however, some periods felt themselves more connected to the classical ideals than others, particularly the Age of Enlightenment, when Neoclassicism was an important movement in the visual arts.
General term
Classicism is a specific genre of philosophy, expressing itself in literature, architecture, art, and music, which has Ancient Greek and Roman sources and an emphasis on society. It was particularly expressed in the Neoclassicism of the Age of Enlightenment.
Classicism is a recurrent tendency in the Late Antique period, and had a major revival in Carolingian and Ottonian art. There was another, more durable revival in the Italian Renaissance when the fall of Byzantium and rising trade with the Islamic cultures brought a flood of knowledge about, and from, the antiquity of Europe. Until that time, the identification with antiquity had been seen as a continuous history of Christendom from the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine I. Renaissance classicism introduced a host of elements into European culture, including the application of mathematics and empiricism into art, humanism, literary and depictive realism, and formalism. Importantly it also introduced Polytheism, or "paganism" , and the juxtaposition of ancient and modern.
The classicism of the Renaissance led to, and gave way to, a different sense of what was "classical" in the 16th and 17th centuries. In this period, classicism took on more overtly structural overtones of orderliness, predictability, the use of geometry and grids, the importance of rigorous discipline and pedagogy, as well as the formation of schools of art and music. The court of Louis XIV was seen as the center of this form of classicism, with its references to the gods of Olympus as a symbolic prop for absolutism, its adherence to axiomatic and deductive reasoning, and its love of order and predictability.
This period sought the revival of classical art forms, including Greek drama and music. Opera, in its modern European form, had its roots in attempts to recreate the combination of singing and dancing with theatre thought to be the Greek norm. Examples of this appeal to classicism included Dante, Petrarch, and Shakespeare in poetry and theatre. Tudor drama, in particular, modeled itself after classical ideals and divided works into Tragedy and Comedy. Studying Ancient Greek became regarded as essential for a well-rounded education in the liberal arts.
The Renaissance also explicitly returned to architectural models and techniques associated with Greek and Roman antiquity, including the golden rectangle as a key proportion for buildings, the classical orders of columns, as well as a host of ornament and detail associated with Greek and Roman architecture. They also began reviving plastic arts such as bronze casting for sculpture, and used the classical naturalism as the foundation of drawing, painting and sculpture.
The Age of Enlightenment identified itself with a vision of antiquity which, while continuous with the classicism of the previous century, was shaken by the physics of Sir Isaac Newton, the improvements in machinery and measurement, and a sense of liberation which they saw as being present in the Greek civilization, particularly in its struggles against the Persian Empire. The ornate, organic, and complexly integrated forms of the baroque were to give way to a series of movements that regarded themselves expressly as "classical" or "neo-classical", or would rapidly be labelled as such. For example, the painting of Jacques-Louis David was seen as an attempt to return to formal balance, clarity, manliness, and vigor in art.
The 19th century saw the classical age as being the precursor of academicism, including such movements as uniformitarianism in the sciences, and the creation of rigorous categories in artistic fields. Various movements of the Romantic period saw themselves as classical revolts against a prevailing trend of emotionalism and irregularity, for example the Pre-Raphaelites. By this point, classicism was old enough that previous classical movements received revivals; for example, the Renaissance was seen as a means to combine the organic medieval with the orderly classical. The 19th century continued or extended many classical programs in the sciences, most notably the Newtonian program to account for the movement of energy between bodies by means of exchange of mechanical and thermal energy.
The 20th century saw a number of changes in the arts and sciences. Classicism was used both by those who rejected, or saw as temporary, transfigurations in the political, scientific, and social world and by those who embraced the changes as a means to overthrow the perceived weight of the 19th century. Thus, both pre-20th century disciplines were labelled "classical" and modern movements in art which saw themselves as aligned with light, space, sparseness of texture, and formal coherence.
In the present day philosophy classicism is used as a term particularly in relation to Apollonian over Dionysian impulses in society and art; that is a preference for rationality, or at least rationally guided catharsis, over emotionalism.
In the theatre
Classicism in the theatre was developed by 17th century French playwrights from what they judged to be the rules of Greek classical theatre, including the "Classical unities" of time, place and action, found in the Poetics of Aristotle.
Unity of time referred to the need for the entire action of the play to take place in a fictional 24-hour period
Unity of place meant that the action should unfold in a single location
Unity of action meant that the play should be constructed around a single 'plot-line', such as a tragic love affair or a conflict between honour and duty.
Examples of classicist playwrights are Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine and Molière. In the period of Romanticism, Shakespeare, who conformed to none of the classical rules, became the focus of French argument over them, in which the Romantics eventually triumphed; Victor Hugo was among the first French playwrights to break these conventions.
The influence of these French rules on playwrights in other nations is debatable. In the English theatre, Restoration playwrights such as William Wycherley and William Congreve would have been familiar with them. William Shakespeare and his contemporaries did not follow this Classicist philosophy, in particular since they were not French and also because they wrote several decades prior to their establishment. Those of Shakespeare's plays that seem to display the unities, such as The Tempest, probably indicate a familiarity with actual models from classical antiquity.
Most famous 18th-century Italian playwright and libretist Carlo Goldoni created a hybrid style of playwriting (combining the model of Molière with the strengths of Commedia dell'arte and his own wit and sincerity).
In literature
The literary classicism drew inspiration from the qualities of proportion of the major works of ancient Greek and Latin literature.
The 17th–18th centuries significant Classical writers (principally, playwrights and poets) include Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, John Dryden, William Wycherley, William Congreve, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Alexander Pope, Voltaire, Carlo Goldoni, and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.
In architecture
Classicism in architecture developed during the Italian Renaissance, notably in the writings and designs of Leon Battista Alberti and the work of Filippo Brunelleschi. It places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and, in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome, of which many examples remained.
Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings. This style quickly spread to other Italian cities and then to France, Germany, England, Russia and elsewhere.
In the 16th century, Sebastiano Serlio helped codify the classical orders and Andrea Palladio's legacy evolved into the long tradition of Palladian architecture. Building off of these influences, the 17th-century architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren firmly established classicism in England.
For the development of classicism from the mid-18th-century onwards, see Neoclassical architecture.
In the fine arts
For Greek art of the 5th century B.C.E., see Classical art in ancient Greece and the Severe style
Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture are marked by their renewal of classical forms, motifs and subjects. In the 15th century Leon Battista Alberti was important in theorizing many of the ideas for painting that came to a fully realized product with Raphael's School of Athens during the High Renaissance. The themes continued largely unbroken into the 17th century, when artists such as Nicolas Poussin and Charles Le Brun represented of the more rigid classicism. Like Italian classicizing ideas in the 15th and 16th centuries, it spread through Europe in the mid to late 17th century.
Later classicism in painting and sculpture from the mid-18th and 19th centuries is generally referred to as Neoclassicism.
Political philosophy
Classicism in political philosophy dates back to the ancient Greeks. Western political philosophy is often attributed to the great Greek philosopher Plato. Although political theory of this time starts with Plato, it quickly becomes complex when Plato's pupil, Aristotle, formulates his own ideas. "The political theories of both philosophers are closely tied to their ethical theories, and their interest is in questions concerning constitutions or forms of government."
However, Plato and Aristotle are not the seedbed but simply the seeds that grew from a seedbed of political predecessors who had debated this topic for centuries before their time. For example, Herodotus sketched out a debate between Theseus, a king of the time, and Creon's messenger. The debate simply shows proponents of democracy, monarchy, and oligarchy and how they all feel about these forms of government. Herodotus' sketch is just one of the beginning seedbeds for which Plato and Aristotle grew their own political theories.
Another Greek philosopher who was pivotal in the development of Classical political philosophy was Socrates. Although he was not a theory-builder, he often stimulated fellow citizens with paradoxes that challenged them to reflect on their own beliefs. Socrates thought "the values that ought to determine how individuals live their lives should also shape the political life of the community." he believed the people of Athens involved wealth and money too much into the politics of their city. He judged the citizens for the way they amassed wealth and power over simple things like projects for their community.
Just like Plato and Aristotle, Socrates did not come up with these ideas alone. Socrates ideals stem back from Protagoras and other 'sophists'. These 'teachers of political arts' were the first to think and act as Socrates did. Where the two diverge is in the way they practiced their ideals. Protagoras' ideals were loved by Athens. Whereas Socrates challenged and pushed the citizens and he was not as loved.
In the end, ancient Greece is to be credited with the foundation of Classical political philosophy.
See also
Classical tradition
Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns
Weimar Classicism
References
Further reading
Essays by various authors on topics related to historical periods, places, and themes. Limited preview online.
External links
Renaissance & Classicism from encyclopedia
Art movements
Movements in aesthetics | 0.771312 | 0.997113 | 0.769085 |
Coquette aesthetic | Coquette aesthetic is a 2020s fashion trend that is characterized by a mix of sweet, romantic, and sometimes playful elements and focuses on femininity through the use of clothes with lace, flounces, pastel colors, and bows, often draws inspiration from historical periods like the Victorian era and the 1950s, with a modern twist.
Significance and history
The word comes from the French word coquette, meaning flirtatious. The aesthetic gained popularity on Tumblr in the early 2020s and TikTok around 2022, but has roots in earlier feminine fashion trends, including Japanese Lolita fashion, often compared to other aesthetics such as Balletcore, Cottagecore, and Princesscore.
This aesthetic has been characterized as both a way to relive and express creativity through childhood fantasies, and a way to "fully escape into...femininity without feeling guilty about it," while ultimately being "self-aware and playful". It allows strong women can also see themselves as feminine, delicate and innocent, moving away from the previous stereotype that female empowerment leads to masculinization. Simultaneously, the coquette aesthetic seeks to defend femininity without sexualization, and to celebrate things that were once a source of ridicule or demonized. Just as it happened in later times to the French Revolution, when society condemned maximalism and the exaltation of the feminine clothing of Marie Antoinette to move on to silhouettes closer to men's fashion, the same thing happens with the coquette aesthetic, that moves away from the power suit of the 1980s and the newest aesthetics of oversize, tomboy core and military core. Proponents of the aesthetic argue it can be understood from a disruptive non-heteronormative interpretation.
Criticism
The coquette aesthetic has been critiqued for reproducing damaging gender roles for women and for its potential appeal for the male gaze. At the same time, the aesthetic primarily derives from "French culture and outdated notions of European femininity," and online images related to this aesthetic almost always portray thin, light-skinned women, which can exclude women who have less hegemonic characteristics. Other criticisms of the coquette aesthetic have also drawn upon similar stances that criticizers of the Lolita fashion subculture and the Lolicon media genre have made, which have stated that the coquette aesthetic as a product of its inspirations and style could result suggestive and problematic in regard to pedophiles. Defenders of the aesthetic affirm that the use of bun, laces and pink-colored clothing should not assume a revictimization for women and these aesthetics are not responsible for misogynistic aggressions.
Inspirations
Among admirers of the coquette aesthetic, inspirations include Victorian, Edwardian, Regency, and Rococo fashion and aesthetics. Pieces of media that serve as inspiration include the novels of Jane Austen and the Brontë Sisters, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Sofia Coppola's films The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and Priscilla, Netflix's Bridgerton, and Greta Gerwig's 2023 film Barbie.
The American singer Lana Del Rey is also considered as an icon of this aesthetic.
See also
Balletcore
Dolly Kei
Fairycore
Lolita fashion
Regencycore
Soft Girl
References
Fashion aesthetics
Femininity
Internet aesthetics | 0.770983 | 0.99732 | 0.768917 |
Environmental sociology | Environmental sociology is the study of interactions between societies and their natural environment. The field emphasizes the social factors that influence environmental resource management and cause environmental issues, the processes by which these environmental problems are socially constructed and define as social issues, and societal responses to these problems.
Environmental sociology emerged as a subfield of sociology in the late 1970s in response to the emergence of the environmental movement in the 1960s. It represents a relatively new area of inquiry focusing on an extension of earlier sociology through inclusion of physical context as related to social factors.
Definition
Environmental sociology is typically defined as the sociological study of socio-environmental interactions, although this definition immediately presents the problem of integrating human cultures with the rest of the environment. Different aspects of human interaction with the natural environment are studied by environmental sociologists including population and demography, organizations and institutions, science and technology, health and illness, consumption and sustainability practices, culture and identity, and social inequality and environmental justice. Although the focus of the field is the relationship between society and environment in general, environmental sociologists typically place special emphasis on studying the social factors that cause environmental problems, the societal impacts of those problems, and efforts to solve the problems. In addition, considerable attention is paid to the social processes by which certain environmental conditions become socially defined as problems. Most research in environmental sociology examines contemporary societies.
History
Environmental sociology emerged as a coherent subfield of inquiry after the environmental movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. The works of William R. Catton, Jr. and Riley Dunlap, among others, challenged the constricted anthropocentrism of classical sociology. In the late 1970s, they called for a new holistic, or systems perspective, which lead to a marked shift in the field’s focus. Since the 1970s, general sociology has noticeably transformed to include environmental forces in social explanations. Environmental sociology has now solidified as a respected, interdisciplinary field of study in academia.
Concepts
Existential dualism
The duality of the human condition rests with cultural uniqueness and evolutionary traits. From one perspective, humans are embedded in the ecosphere and co-evolved alongside other species. Humans share the same basic ecological dependencies as other inhabitants of nature. From the other perspectives, humans are distinguished from other species because of their innovative capacities, distinct cultures and varied institutions. Human creations have the power to independently manipulate, destroy, and transcend the limits of the natural environment.
According to Buttel (2004), there are five major traditions in environmental sociology today: the treadmill of production and other eco-Marxisms, ecological modernization and other sociologies of environmental reform, cultural-environmental sociologies, neo-Malthusianisms, and the new ecological paradigm. In practice, this means five different theories of what to blame for environmental degradation, i.e., what to research or consider as important. These ideas are listed below in the order in which they were invented. Ideas that emerged later built on earlier ideas, and contradicted them.
Neo-Malthusianism
Works such as Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" (1969) reformulated Malthusian thought about abstract population increases causing famines into a model of individual selfishness at larger scales causing degradation of common pool resources such as the air, water, the oceans, or general environmental conditions. Hardin offered privatization of resources or government regulation as solutions to environmental degradation caused by tragedy of the commons conditions. Many other sociologists shared this view of solutions well into the 1970s (see Ophuls). There have been many critiques of this view particularly political scientist Elinor Ostrom, or economists Amartya Sen and Ester Boserup.
Even though much of mainstream journalism considers Malthusianism the only view of environmentalism, most sociologists would disagree with Malthusianism since social organizational issues of environmental degradation are more demonstrated to cause environmental problems than abstract population or selfishness per se. For examples of this critique, Ostrom in her book Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (1990) argues that instead of self-interest always causing degradation, it can sometimes motivate people to take care of their common property resources. To do this they must change the basic organizational rules of resource use. Her research provides evidence for sustainable resource management systems, around common pool resources that have lasted for centuries in some areas of the world.
Amartya Sen argues in his book Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (1980) that population expansion fails to cause famines or degradation as Malthusians or Neo-Malthusians argue. Instead, in documented cases a lack of political entitlement to resources that exist in abundance, causes famines in some populations. He documents how famines can occur even in the midst of plenty or in the context of low populations. He argues that famines (and environmental degradation) would only occur in non-functioning democracies or unrepresentative states.
Ester Boserup argues in her book The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure (1965) from inductive, empirical case analysis that Malthus's more deductive conception of a presumed one-to-one relationship with agricultural scale and population is actually reversed. Instead of agricultural technology and scale determining and limiting population as Malthus attempted to argue, Boserup argued the world is full of cases of the direct opposite: that population changes and expands agricultural methods.
Eco-Marxist scholar Allan Schnaiberg (below) argues against Malthusianism with the rationale that under larger capitalist economies, human degradation moved from localized, population-based degradation to organizationally caused degradation of capitalist political economies to blame. He gives the example of the organized degradation of rainforest areas which states and capitalists push people off the land before it is degraded by organizational means. Thus, many authors are critical of Malthusianism, from sociologists (Schnaiberg) to economists (Sen and Boserup), to political scientists (Ostrom), and all focus on how a country's social organization of its extraction can degrade the environment independent of abstract population.
New Ecological Paradigm
In the 1970s, the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) conception critiqued the claimed lack of human-environmental focus in the classical sociologists and the sociological priorities their followers created. This was critiqued as the Human Exemptionalism Paradigm (HEP). The HEP viewpoint claims that human-environmental relationships were unimportant sociologically because humans are 'exempt' from environmental forces via cultural change. This view was shaped by the leading Western worldview of the time and the desire for sociology to establish itself as an independent discipline against the then popular racist-biological environmental determinism where environment was all. In this HEP view, human dominance was felt to be justified by the uniqueness of culture, argued to be more adaptable than biological traits. Furthermore, culture also has the capacity to accumulate and innovate, making it capable of solving all natural problems. Therefore, as humans were not conceived of as governed by natural conditions, they were felt to have complete control of their own destiny. Any potential limitation posed by the natural world was felt to be surpassed using human ingenuity. Research proceeded accordingly without environmental analysis.
In the 1970s, sociological scholars Riley Dunlap and William R. Catton, Jr. began recognizing the limits of what would be termed the Human Excemptionalism Paradigm. Catton and Dunlap (1978) suggested a new perspective that took environmental variables into full account. They coined a new theoretical outlook for sociology, the New Ecological Paradigm, with assumptions contrary to HEP.
The NEP recognizes the innovative capacity of humans, but says that humans are still ecologically interdependent as with other species. The NEP notes the power of social and cultural forces but does not profess social determinism. Instead, humans are impacted by the cause, effect, and feedback loops of ecosystems. The Earth has a finite level of natural resources and waste repositories. Thus, the biophysical environment can impose constraints on human activity. They discussed a few harbingers of this NEP in 'hybridized' theorizing about topics that were neither exclusively social nor environmental explanations of environmental conditions. It was additionally a critique of Malthusian views of the 1960s and 1970s.
Dunlap and Catton's work immediately received a critique from Buttel who argued to the contrary that classical sociological foundations could be found for environmental sociology, particularly in Weber's work on ancient "agrarian civilizations" and Durkheim's view of the division of labor as built on a material premise of specialization/specialization in response to material scarcity. This environmental aspect of Durkheim has been discussed by Schnaiberg (1971) as well.
Treadmill of Production Theory
The Treadmill of Production is a theory coined and popularized by Schnaiberg as a way to answer for the increase in U.S. environmental degradation post World War II. At its simplest, this theory states that the more product or commodities are created, the more resources will be used, and the higher the impact will be. The treadmill is a metaphor of being caught in the cycle of continuous growth which never stops, demanding more resources and as a result causing more environmental damage.
Eco-Marxism
In the middle of the HEP/NEP debate Neo-Marxist ideas of conflict sociology were applied to environmental conflicts. Therefore, some sociologists wanted to stretch Marxist ideas of social conflict to analyze environmental social movements from the Marxist materialist framework instead of interpreting them as a cultural "New Social Movement", separate from material concerns. So "Eco-Marxism" was developed based on using Neo-Marxist Conflict theories concepts of the relative autonomy of the state and applying them to environmental conflict.
Two people following this school were James O'Connor (The Fiscal Crisis of the State, 1971) and later Allan Schnaiberg.
Later, a different trend developed in eco-Marxism via the attention brought to the importance of metabolic analysis in Marx's thought by John Bellamy Foster. Contrary to previous assumptions that classical theorists in sociology all had fallen within a Human Exemptionalist Paradigm, Foster argued that Marx's materialism lead him to theorize labor as the metabolic process between humanity and the rest of nature. In Promethean interpretations of Marx that Foster critiques, there was an assumption his analysis was very similar to the anthropocentric views critiqued by early environmental sociologists. Instead, Foster argued Marx himself was concerned about the Metabolic rift generated by capitalist society's social metabolism, particularly in industrial agriculture—Marx had identified an "irreparable rift in the interdependent process of social metabolism," created by capitalist agriculture that was destroying the productivity of the land and creating wastes in urban sites that failed to be reintegrated into the land and thus lead toward destruction of urban workers health simultaneously. Reviewing the contribution of this thread of eco-marxism to current environmental sociology, Pellow and Brehm conclude, "The metabolic rift is a productive development in the field because it connects current research to classical theory and links sociology with an interdisciplinary array of scientific literatures focused on ecosystem dynamics."
Foster emphasized that his argument presupposed the "magisterial work" of Paul Burkett, who had developed a closely related "red-green" perspective rooted in a direct examination of Marx's value theory. Burkett and Foster proceeded to write a number of articles together on Marx's ecological conceptions, reflecting their shared perspective
More recently, Jason W. Moore, inspired by Burkett's value-analytical approach to Marx's ecology and arguing that Foster's work did not in itself go far enough, has sought to integrate the notion of metabolic rift with world systems theory, incorporating Marxian value-related conceptions. For Moore, the modern world-system is a capitalist world-ecology, joining the accumulation of capital, the pursuit of power, and the production of nature in dialectical unity. Central to Moore's perspective is a philosophical re-reading of Marx's value theory, through which abstract social labor and abstract social nature are dialectically bound. Moore argues that the emergent law of value, from the sixteenth century, was evident in the extraordinary shift in the scale, scope, and speed of environmental change. What took premodern civilizations centuries to achieve—such as the deforestation of Europe in the medieval era—capitalism realized in mere decades. This world-historical rupture, argues Moore, can be explained through a law of value that regards labor productivity as the decisive metric of wealth and power in the modern world. From this standpoint, the genius of capitalist development has been to appropriate uncommodified natures—including uncommodified human natures—as a means of advancing labor productivity in the commodity system.
Societal-environment dialectic
In 1975, the highly influential work of Allan Schnaiberg transfigured environmental sociology, proposing a societal-environmental dialectic, though within the 'neo-Marxist' framework of the relative autonomy of the state as well. This conflictual concept has overwhelming political salience. First, the economic synthesis states that the desire for economic expansion will prevail over ecological concerns. Policy will decide to maximize immediate economic growth at the expense of environmental disruption. Secondly, the managed scarcity synthesis concludes that governments will attempt to control only the most dire of environmental problems to prevent health and economic disasters. This will give the appearance that governments act more environmentally consciously than they really do. Third, the ecological synthesis generates a hypothetical case where environmental degradation is so severe that political forces would respond with sustainable policies. The driving factor would be economic damage caused by environmental degradation. The economic engine would be based on renewable resources at this point. Production and consumption methods would adhere to sustainability regulations.
These conflict-based syntheses have several potential outcomes. One is that the most powerful economic and political forces will preserve the status quo and bolster their dominance. Historically, this is the most common occurrence. Another potential outcome is for contending powerful parties to fall into a stalemate. Lastly, tumultuous social events may result that redistribute economic and political resources.
In 1980,the highly influential work of Allan Schnaiberg entitled The Environment: From Surplus to Scarcity (1980)
was a large contribution to this theme of a societal-environmental dialectic.
Ecological modernization and reflexive modernization
By the 1980s, a critique of eco-Marxism was in the offing, given empirical data from countries (mostly in Western Europe like the Netherlands, Western Germany and somewhat the United Kingdom) that were attempting to wed environmental protection with economic growth instead of seeing them as separate. This was done through both state and capital restructuring. Major proponents of this school of research are Arthur P.J. Mol and Gert Spaargaren. Popular examples of ecological modernization would be "cradle to cradle" production cycles, industrial ecology, large-scale organic agriculture, biomimicry, permaculture, agroecology and certain strands of sustainable development—all implying that economic growth is possible if that growth is well organized with the environment in mind.
Reflexive modernization
The many volumes of the German sociologist Ulrich Beck first argued from the late 1980s that our risk society is potentially being transformed by the environmental social movements of the world into structural change without rejecting the benefits of modernization and industrialization. This is leading to a form of 'reflexive modernization' with a world of reduced risk and better modernization process in economics, politics, and scientific practices as they are made less beholden to a cycle of protecting risk from correction (which he calls our state's organized irresponsibility)—politics creates ecodisasters, then claims responsibility in an accident, yet nothing remains corrected because it challenges the very structure of the operation of the economy and the private dominance of development, for example. Beck's idea of a reflexive modernization looks forward to how our ecological and social crises in the late 20th century are leading toward transformations of the whole political and economic system's institutions, making them more "rational" with ecology in mind.
Neo-Liberalism
Neo-liberalism includes deregulation, free market capitalism, and aims at reducing government spending. These Neo-liberal policies greatly affect environmental sociology. Since Neo-liberalism includes deregulation and essentially less government involvement, this leads to the commodification and privatization of unowned, state-owned, or common property resources. Diana Liverman and Silvina Vilas mentions that this results in payments for environmental services; deregulation and cuts in public expenditure for environmental management; the opening up of trade and investment; and transfer of environmental management to local or nongovernmental institutions. The privatization of these resources have impacts on society, the economy, and to the environment. An example that has greatly affected society is the privatization of water.
Social construction of the environment
Additionally in the 1980s, with the rise of postmodernism in the western academy and the appreciation of discourse as a form of power, some sociologists turned to analyzing environmental claims as a form of social construction more than a 'material' requirement. Proponents of this school include John A. Hannigan, particularly in Environmental Sociology: A Social Constructionist Perspective (1995). Hannigan argues for a 'soft constructionism' (environmental problems are materially real though they require social construction to be noticed) over a 'hard constructionism' (the claim that environmental problems are entirely social constructs).
Although there was sometimes acrimonious debate between the constructivist and realist "camps" within environmental sociology in the 1990s, the two sides have found considerable common ground as both increasingly accept that while most environmental problems have a material reality they nonetheless become known only via human processes such as scientific knowledge, activists' efforts, and media attention. In other words, most environmental problems have a real ontological status despite our knowledge/awareness of them stemming from social processes, processes by which various conditions are constructed as problems by scientists, activists, media and other social actors. Correspondingly, environmental problems must all be understood via social processes, despite any material basis they may have external to humans. This interactiveness is now broadly accepted, but many aspects of the debate continue in contemporary research in the field.
Events
Modern environmentalism
United States
The 1960s built strong cultural momentum for environmental causes, giving birth to the modern environmental movement and large questioning in sociologists interested in analyzing the movement. Widespread green consciousness moved vertically within society, resulting in a series of policy changes across many states in the U.S. and Europe in the 1970s. In the United States, this period was known as the "Environmental Decade" with the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and passing of the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and amendments to the Clean Air Act. Earth Day of 1970, celebrated by millions of participants, represented the modern age of environmental thought. The environmental movement continued with incidences such as Love Canal.
Historical studies
While the current mode of thought expressed in environmental sociology was not prevalent until the 1970s, its application is now used in analysis of ancient peoples. Societies including Easter Island, the Anaszi, and the Mayans were argued to have ended abruptly, largely due to poor environmental management. This has been challenged in later work however as the exclusive cause (biologically trained Jared Diamond's Collapse (2005); or more modern work on Easter Island). The collapse of the Mayans sent a historic message that even advanced cultures are vulnerable to ecological suicide—though Diamond argues now it was less of a suicide than an environmental climate change that led to a lack of an ability to adapt—and a lack of elite willingness to adapt even when faced with the signs much earlier of nearing ecological problems. At the same time, societal successes for Diamond included New Guinea and Tikopia island whose inhabitants have lived sustainably for 46,000 years.
John Dryzek et al. argue in Green States and Social Movements: Environmentalism in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Norway (2003) that there may be a common global green environmental social movement, though its specific outcomes are nationalist, falling into four 'ideal types' of interaction between environmental movements and state power. They use as their case studies environmental social movements and state interaction from Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany. They analyze the past 30 years of environmentalism and the different outcomes that the green movement has taken in different state contexts and cultures.
Recently and roughly in temporal order below, much longer-term comparative historical studies of environmental degradation are found by sociologists. There are two general trends: many employ world systems theory—analyzing environmental issues over long periods of time and space; and others employ comparative historical methods. Some utilize both methods simultaneously, sometimes without reference to world systems theory (like Whitaker, see below).
Stephen G. Bunker (d. 2005) and Paul S. Ciccantell collaborated on two books from a world-systems theory view, following commodity chains through history of the modern world system, charting the changing importance of space, time, and scale of extraction and how these variables influenced the shape and location of the main nodes of the world economy over the past 500 years. Their view of the world was grounded in extraction economies and the politics of different states that seek to dominate the world's resources and each other through gaining hegemonic control of major resources or restructuring global flows in them to benefit their locations.
The three volume work of environmental world-systems theory by Sing C. Chew analyzed how "Nature and Culture" interact over long periods of time, starting with World Ecological Degradation (2001) In later books, Chew argued that there were three "Dark Ages" in world environmental history characterized by periods of state collapse and reorientation in the world economy associated with more localist frameworks of community, economy, and identity coming to dominate the nature/culture relationships after state-facilitated environmental destruction delegitimized other forms. Thus recreated communities were founded in these so-called 'Dark Ages,' novel religions were popularized, and perhaps most importantly to him the environment had several centuries to recover from previous destruction. Chew argues that modern green politics and bioregionalism is the start of a similar movement of the present day potentially leading to wholesale system transformation. Therefore, we may be on the edge of yet another global "dark age" which is bright instead of dark on many levels since he argues for human community returning with environmental healing as empires collapse.
More case oriented studies were conducted by historical environmental sociologist Mark D. Whitaker analyzing China, Japan, and Europe over 2,500 years in his book Ecological Revolution (2009). He argued that instead of environmental movements being "New Social Movements" peculiar to current societies, environmental movements are very old—being expressed via religious movements in the past (or in the present like in ecotheology) that begin to focus on material concerns of health, local ecology, and economic protest against state policy and its extractions. He argues past or present is very similar: that we have participated with a tragic common civilizational process of environmental degradation, economic consolidation, and lack of political representation for many millennia which has predictable outcomes. He argues that a form of bioregionalism, the bioregional state, is required to deal with political corruption in present or in past societies connected to environmental degradation.
After looking at the world history of environmental degradation from very different methods, both sociologists Sing Chew and Mark D. Whitaker came to similar conclusions and are proponents of (different forms of) bioregionalism.
Related journals
Among the key journals in this field are:
Environmental Sociology
Human Ecology
Human Ecology Review
Nature and Culture
Organization & Environment
Population and Environment
Rural Sociology
Society and Natural Resources
See also
Bibliography of sociology
Ecological anthropology
Ecological design
Ecological economics
Ecological modernization theory
Enactivism
Environmental design
Environmental design and planning
Environmental economics
Environmental policy
Environmental racism
Environmental racism in Europe
Environmental social science
Ethnoecology
Political ecology
Sociology of architecture
Sociology of disaster
Climate change
References
Notes
Dunlap, Riley E., Frederick H. Buttel, Peter Dickens, and August Gijswijt (eds.) 2002. Sociological Theory and the Environment: Classical Foundations, Contemporary Insights (Rowman & Littlefield, ).
Dunlap, Riley E., and William Michelson (eds.) 2002.Handbook of Environmental Sociology (Greenwood Press, )
Freudenburg, William R., and Robert Gramling. 1989. "The Emergence of Environmental Sociology: Contributions of Riley E. Dunlap and William R. Catton, Jr.", Sociological Inquiry 59(4): 439–452
Harper, Charles. 2004. Environment and Society: Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Humphrey, Craig R., and Frederick H. Buttel. 1982.Environment, Energy, and Society. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Humphrey, Craig R., Tammy L. Lewis and Frederick H. Buttel. 2002. Environment, Energy and Society: A New Synthesis. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
Mehta, Michael, and Eric Ouellet. 1995. Environmental Sociology: Theory and Practice, Toronto: Captus Press.
Redclift, Michael, and Graham Woodgate, eds. 1997.International Handbook of Environmental Sociology (Edgar Elgar, 1997; )
Schnaiberg, Allan. 1980. The Environment: From Surplus to Scarcity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Further reading
Hannigan, John, "Environmental Sociology", Routledge, 2014.
Zehner, Ozzie, Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism, University of Nebraska Press, 2012. An environmental sociology text forming a critique of energy production and green consumerism.
External links
ASA Section on Environment and Technology
ESA Environment & Society Research Network
ISA Research Committee on Environment and Society (RC24)
Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) Environment Research Cluster | 0.779407 | 0.986531 | 0.768909 |
Existential crisis | Existential crises are inner conflicts characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning and confusion about one's personal identity. They are accompanied by anxiety and stress, often to such a degree that they disturb one's normal functioning in everyday life and lead to depression. Their negative attitude towards meaning reflects characteristics of the philosophical movement of existentialism. The components of existential crises can be divided into emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects. Emotional components refer to the feelings, such as emotional pain, despair, helplessness, guilt, anxiety, or loneliness. Cognitive components encompass the problem of meaninglessness, the loss of personal values or spiritual faith, and thinking about death. Behavioral components include addictions, and anti-social and compulsive behavior.
Existential crises may occur at different stages in life: the teenage crisis, the quarter-life crisis, the mid-life crisis, and the later-life crisis. Earlier crises tend to be forward-looking: the individual is anxious and confused about which path in life to follow regarding education, career, personal identity, and social relationships. Later crises tend to be backward-looking. Often triggered by the impression that one is past one's peak in life, they are usually characterized by guilt, regret, and a fear of death. If an earlier existential crisis was properly resolved, it is easier for the individual to resolve or avoid later crises. Not everyone experiences existential crises in their life.
The problem of meaninglessness plays a central role in all of these types. It can arise in the form of cosmic meaning, which is concerned with the meaning of life at large or why we are here. Another form concerns personal secular meaning, in which the individual tries to discover purpose and value mainly for their own life. Finding a source of meaning may resolve a crisis, like altruism, dedicating oneself to a religious or political cause, or finding a way to develop one's potential. Other approaches include adopting a new system of meaning, learning to accept meaninglessness, cognitive behavioral therapy, and the practice of social perspective-taking.
Negative consequences of existential crisis include anxiety and bad relationships on the personal level as well as a high divorce rate and decreased productivity on the social level. Some questionnaires, such as the Purpose in Life Test, measure whether someone is currently undergoing an existential crisis. Outside its main use in psychology and psychotherapy, the term "existential crisis" refers to a threat to the existence of something.
Definition
In psychology and psychotherapy, the term "existential crisis" refers to a form of inner conflict. It is characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning and is accompanied by various negative experiences, such as stress, anxiety, despair, and depression. This often happens to such a degree that it disturbs one's normal functioning in everyday life. The inner nature of this conflict sets existential crises apart from other types of crises that are mainly due to outward circumstances, like social or financial crises. Outward circumstances may still play a role in triggering or exacerbating an existential crisis, but the core conflict happens on an inner level. The most common approach to resolving an existential crisis consists in addressing this inner conflict and finding new sources of meaning in life.
The core issue responsible for the inner conflict is the impression that the individual's desire to lead a meaningful life is thwarted by an apparent lack of meaning, also because they feel much confusion about what meaning really is, and are constantly questioning themselves. In this sense, existential crises are crises of meaning. This is often understood through the lens of the philosophical movement known as existentialism. One important aspect of many forms of existentialism is that the individual seeks to live in a meaningful way but finds themselves in a meaningless and indifferent world. The exact term "existential crisis" is not commonly found in the traditional existentialist literature in philosophy. But various closely related technical terms are discussed, such as existential dread, existential vacuum, existential despair, existential neurosis, existential sickness, anxiety, and alienation.
Different authors focus in their definitions of existential crisis on different aspects. Some argue that existential crises are at their core crises of identity. On this view, they arise from a confusion about the question "Who am I?" and their goal is to achieve some form of clarity about oneself and one's position in the world. As identity crises, they involve intensive self-analysis, often in the form of exploring different ways of looking at oneself. They constitute a personal confrontation with certain key aspects of the human condition, like existence, death, freedom, and responsibility. In this sense, the person questions the very foundations of their life. Others emphasize the confrontation with human limitations, such as death and lack of control. Some stress the spiritual nature of existential crises by pointing out how outwardly successful people may still be severely affected by them if they lack the corresponding spiritual development.
The term "existential crisis" is most commonly used in the context of psychology and psychotherapy. But it can also be employed in a more literal sense as a crisis of existence to express that the existence of something is threatened. In this sense, a country, a company, or a social institution faces an existential crisis if political tensions, military threats , high debt, or social changes may have as a result that the corresponding entity ceases to exist.
Components
Existential crises are usually seen as complex phenomena that can be understood as consisting of various components. Some approaches distinguish three types of components belonging to the fields of emotion, cognition, and behavior. Emotional aspects correspond to what it feels like to have an existential crisis. It is usually associated with emotional pain, despair, helplessness, guilt, anxiety, and loneliness. On the cognitive side, the affected are often confronted with a loss of meaning and purpose together with the realization of one's own end. Behaviorally, existential crises may express themselves in addictions and anti-social behavior, sometimes paired with ritualistic behavior, loss of relationships, and degradation of one's health. While manifestations of these three components can usually be identified in every case of an existential crisis, there are often significant differences in how they manifest. Nonetheless, it has been suggested that these components can be used to give a more unified definition of existential crises.
Emotional
On the emotional level, existential crises are associated with unpleasant experiences, such as fear, anxiety, panic, and despair. They can be categorized as a form of emotional pain whereby people lose trust and hope. This pain often manifests in the form of despair and helplessness. The despair may be caused by being unable to find meaning in life, which is associated both with a lack of motivation and the absence of inner joy. The impression of helplessness arises from being unable to find a practical response to deal with the crisis and the associated despair. This helplessness concerns specifically a form of emotional vulnerability: the individual is not just subject to a wide range of negative emotions, but these emotions often seem to be outside the person's control. This feeling of vulnerability and lack of control can itself produce further negative impressions and may lead to a form of panic or a state of deep mourning.
But on the other hand, there is also often an impression in the affected that they are in some sense responsible for their predicament. This is the case, for example, if the loss of meaning is associated with bad choices in the past for which the individual feels guilty. But it can also take the form of a more abstract type of bad conscience as existential guilt. In this case, the agent carries a vague sense of guilt that is free-floating in the sense that it is not tied to any specific wrongdoing by the agent. Especially in existential crises in the later parts of one's life, this guilt is often accompanied by a fear of death. But just as in the case of guilt, this fear may also take a more abstract form as an unspecific anxiety associated with a sense of deficiency and meaninglessness.
As crises of identity, existential crises often lead to a disturbed sense of personal integrity. This can be provoked by the apparent meaninglessness of one's life together with a general lack of motivation. Central to the sense of personal integrity are close relationships with oneself, others, and the world. The absence of meaning usually has a negative impact on these relationships. As a lack of a clear purpose, it threatens one's personal integrity and can lead to insecurity, alienation, and self-abandonment. The negative impact on one's relationships with others is often experienced as a form of loneliness.
Depending on the person and the crisis they are suffering, some of these emotional aspects may be more or less pronounced. While they are all experienced as unpleasant, they often carry within them various positive potentials as well that can push the person in the direction of positive personal development. Through the experience of loneliness, for example, the person may achieve a better understanding of the substance and importance of relationships.
Cognitive
The main cognitive aspect of existential crises is the loss of meaning and purpose. In this context, the term "meaninglessness" refers to the general impression that there is no higher significance, direction, or purpose in our actions or in the world at large. It is associated with the question of why one is doing what one is doing and why one should continue. It is a central topic in existentialist psychotherapy, which has as one of its main goals to help the patient find a proper response to this meaninglessness. In Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, for example, the term existential vacuum is used to describe this state of mind. Many forms of existentialist psychotherapy aim to resolve existential crises by assisting the patient in rediscovering meaning in their life. Closely related to meaninglessness is the loss of personal values. This means that things that seemed valuable to the individual before, like the relation to a specific person or success in their career, may now appear insignificant or pointless to them. If the crisis is resolved, it can lead to the discovery of new values.
Another aspect of the cognitive component of many existential crises concerns the attitude to one's personal end, i.e. the realization that one will die one day. While this is not new information as an abstract insight, it takes on a more personal and concrete nature when one sees oneself confronted with this fact as a concrete reality one has to face. This aspect is of particular relevance for existential crises occurring later in life or when the crisis was triggered by the loss of a loved one or by the onset of a terminal disease. For many, the issue of their own death is associated with anxiety. But it has also been argued that the contemplation of one's death may act as a key to resolving an existential crisis. The reason for this is that the realization that one's time is limited can act as a source of meaning by making the remaining time more valuable and by making it easier to discern the bigger issues that matter in contrast to smaller everyday issues that can act as distractions. Important factors for dealing with imminent death include one's religious outlook, one's self-esteem, and social integration as well as one's future prospects.
Behavioral
Existential crises can have various effects on the individual's behavior. They often lead a person to isolate themself and engage less in social interactions. For example, one's communication to one's housemates may be limited to very brief responses like a simple "yes" or "no" in order to avoid a more extended exchange or the individual reduces various forms of contact that are not strictly speaking necessary. This can result in a long-term deterioration and loss of one's relationships. In some cases, existential crises may also express themselves in overtly anti-social behavior, like hostility or aggression. These negative impulses can also be directed at the person themselves, leading to self-injury and, in the worst case, suicide.
Addictive behavior is also seen in people going through an existential crisis. Some turn to drugs in order to lessen the impact of the negative experiences whereas others hope to learn through the non-ordinary drug experiences to cope with the existential crisis. While this type of behavior can succeed in providing a short-term relief of the effects of the existential crisis, it has been argued that it is usually maladaptive and fails on the long-term level. This way, the crises may even be further exacerbated. For the affected, it is often difficult to distinguish the need for pleasure and power from the need for meaning, thereby leading them on a wrong track in their efforts to resolve the crisis. The addictions themselves or the stress associated with existential crises can result in various health problems, ranging from high blood pressure to long-term organ damage and increased likelihood of cancer.
Existential crises may also be accompanied by ritualistic behavior. In some cases, this can have positive effects to help the affected transition to a new outlook on life. But it might also take the form of compulsive behavior that acts more as a distraction than as a step towards a solution. Another positive behavioral aspect concerns the tendency to seek therapy. This tendency reflects the awareness of the affected of the gravity of the problem and their desire to resolve it.
Types
Different types of existential crises are often distinguished based on the time in one's life when they occur. This approach rests on the idea that, depending on one's stage in life, individuals are faced with different issues connected to meaning and purpose. They lead to different types of crises if these issues are not properly resolved. The stages are usually tied to rough age groups but this correspondence is not always accurate since different people of the same age group may find themselves in different life situations and different stages of development. Being aware of these differences is central for properly assessing the issue at the core of a specific crisis and finding a corresponding response to resolve it.
The most well-known existential crisis is the mid-life crisis and a lot of research is directed specifically at this type of crisis. But researchers have additionally discovered various other existential crises belonging to different types. There is no general agreement about their exact number and periodization. Because of this, the categorizations of different theorists do not always coincide but they have significant overlaps. One categorization distinguishes between the early teenage crisis, the sophomore crisis, the adult crisis, the mid-life crisis, and the later-life crisis. Another focuses only on the sophomore crisis, the adult crisis, and the later-life crisis but defines them in wider terms. The sophomore crisis and the adult crisis are often treated together as forms of the quarter-life crisis.
There is wide agreement that the earlier crises tend to be more forward-looking and are characterized by anxiety and confusion about the path in life one wants to follow. The later crises, on the other hand, are more backward-looking, often in the form of guilt and regrets, while also concerned with the problem of one's own mortality.
These different crises can affect each other in various ways. For example, if an earlier crisis was not properly resolved, later crises may impose additional difficulties for the affected. But even if an earlier crisis was fully resolved, this does not guarantee that later crises will be successfully resolved or avoided altogether.
Another approach distinguishes existential crises based on their intensity. Some theorists use the terms existential vacuum and existential neurosis to refer to different degrees of existential crisis. On this view, an existential vacuum is a rather common phenomenon characterized by the frequent recurrence of subjective states like boredom, apathy, and emptiness. Some people experience this only in their free time but are otherwise not troubled by it. The term "Sunday neurosis" is often used in this context. An existential vacuum becomes an existential neurosis if it is paired with overt clinical neurotic symptoms, such as depression or alcoholism.
Teenage
The early teenage crisis involves the transition from childhood to adulthood and is centered around the issue of developing one's individuality and independence. This concerns specifically the relation to one's family and often leads to spending more time with one's peers instead. Various rebellious and anti-social behavior seen sometimes in this developmental stage, like stealing or trespassing, may be interpreted as attempts to achieve independence. It can also give rise to a new type of conformity concerning, for example, how the teenager dresses or behaves. This conformity tends to be not in relation to one's family or public standards but to one's peer group or adored celebrities. But this may be seen as a temporary step in order to distance oneself from previously accepted standards with later steps emphasizing one's independence also from one's peer group and celebrity influences. A central factor for resolving the early teenage crisis is that meaning and purpose are found in one's new identity since independence without it can result in the feeling of being lost and may lead to depression. Another factor pertains to the role of the parents. By looking for signs of depression, they may become aware that a teenager is going through a crisis. Examples include a change of appetite, sleep behavior is different; sleeps more or less, grades take a dive in a short amount of time, they are less social and more isolated, and start to become easily irritated. If parents regularly talk to their teenagers and ask them questions, it is more likely that they detect the presence of a crisis.
Quarter-life, sophomore, and adult
The term "quarter-life crisis" is often used to refer to existential crises occurring in early adulthood, i.e. roughly during the ages between 18 and 30. Some authors distinguish between two separate crises that may occur at this stage in life: the sophomore crisis and the adult crisis. The sophomore crisis affects primarily people in their late teenage years or their early 20s. It is also referred to as "sophomore slump", specifically when it affects students. It is the first time that serious questions about the meaning of life and one's role in the world are formulated. At this stage, these questions have a direct practical relation to one's future. They apply to what paths one wants to choose in life, like which career to focus on and how to form successful relationships. At the center of the sophomore crisis is the anxiety over one's future, i.e. how to lead one's life and how to best develop and employ one's abilities. Existential crisis often specifically affect high achievers who fear that they do not reach their highest potential since they lack a secure plan for the future. To solve them, it is necessary to find meaningful answers to these questions. Such answers may result in practical commitments and can inform later life decisions. Some people who have already made their career choices at a very early age may never experience a sophomore crisis. But such decisions can lead to problems later on since they are usually mainly informed by the outlook of one's social environment and less by the introspective insight into one's individual preferences. If there turns out to be a big discrepancy between the two, it can provoke a more severe form of the sophomore crisis later on. James Marcia defines this early commitment without sufficient exploration as identity foreclosure.
The adult crisis usually starts in the mid- to late 20s. The issues faced in it overlap to some extent with the ones in the sophomore crisis, but they tend to be more complex issues of identity. As such, they also circle around one's career and one's path in life. But they tend to take more details into account, like one's choice of religion, one's political outlook, or one's sexuality. Resolving the adult crisis means having a good idea of who one is as a person and being comfortable with this idea. It is usually associated with reaching full adulthood, having completed school, working full-time, having left one's home, and being financially independent. Being unable to resolve the adult crisis may result in disorientation, a lack of confidence in one's personal identity, and depression.
Mid-life
Among the different types of existential crises, the mid-life crisis is the one most widely discussed. It often sets in around the age of 40 and can be triggered by the impression that one's personal growth is obstructed. This may be combined with the sense that there is a significant distance between one's achievement and one's aspirations. In contrast to the earlier existential crises, it also involves a backward-looking component: previous choices in life are questioned and their meaning for one's achievements are assessed. This may lead to regrets and dissatisfaction with one's life choices on various topics, such as career, partner, children, social status, or missed opportunities. The tendency to look backward is often connected to the impression that one is past one's peak period in life.
Sometimes five intermediary stages are distinguished: accommodation, separation, liminality, reintegration, and individuation. In these stages, the individual first adapts to changed external demands, then addresses the distance between their innate motives and the external persona, next rejects their previously adaptive persona, later adopts their new persona, and lastly becomes aware of the external consequences associated with these changes.
Mid-life crises can be triggered by specific events such as losing a job, forced unemployment, extramarital affairs, separation, death of a loved one, or health problems. In this sense, the mid-life crisis can be understood as a period of transition or reevaluation in which the individual tries to adapt to their changed situation in life, both in response to the particular triggering event and to the more general changes that come with age.
Various symptoms are associated with mid-life crises, such as stress, boredom, self-doubt, compulsivity, changes in the libido and sexual preferences, rumination, and insecurity. In public discourse, the mid-life crisis is primarily associated with men, often in direct relation to their career. But it affects women just as well. An additional factor here is the limited time left in their reproductive period or the onset of the menopause. Between 8 and 25 percent of Americans over the age of thirty-five have experienced a mid-life crisis.
Both the severity and the length of the mid-life crisis are often affected by whether and how well the earlier crises were resolved. People who managed to resolve earlier crises well tend to feel more fulfilled with their life choices, which also reflects in how their meaningfulness is perceived when looking back on them. But it does not ensure that they still appear meaningful from one's current perspective.
Later-life
The later-life crisis often occurs around one's late 60s. It may be triggered by events such as retirement, the death of a loved one, serious illness, or imminent death. At its core is a backward-looking reflection on how one led one's life and the choices one made. This reflection is usually motivated by a desire to have lived a valuable and meaningful life paired with an uncertainty of one's success. A contemplation of one's past wrongdoings may also be motivated by a desire to find a way to make up for them while one still can. It can also express itself in a more theoretical form as trying to assess whether one's life made a positive impact on one's more immediate environment or the world at large. This is often associated with the desire to leave a positive and influential legacy behind.
Because of its backward-looking nature, there may be less one can do to truly resolve the crisis. This is true especially for people who arrive at a negative assessment of their life. An additional impeding factor in contrast to earlier crises is that individuals are often unable to find the energy and youthfulness necessary to make meaningful changes to their lives. Some suggest that developing an acceptance of the reality of death may help in the process. Other suggestions focus less on outright resolving the crisis but more on avoiding or minimizing its negative impact. Recommendations to this end include looking after one's physical, economic, and emotional well-being as well as developing and maintaining a social network of support. The best way to avoid the crisis as much as possible may be to ensure that one's earlier crises in life are resolved.
Meaninglessness
Most theorists see meaninglessness as the central issue around which existential crises revolve. In this sense, they may be understood as crises of meaning. The issue of meaning and meaninglessness concerns various closely related questions. Understood in the widest sense, it involves the global questions of the meaning of life in general, why we are here, or for what purpose we live. Answers to this question traditionally take the form of religious explanations, for example, that the world was created by God according to His purpose and that each thing is meaningful because it plays a role for this higher purpose. This is sometimes termed cosmic meaning in contrast to the secular personal meaning an individual seeks when asking in what way their particular life is meaningful or valuable. In this personal sense, it is often connected with a practical confusion about how one should live one's life or why one should continue doing what one does. This can express itself in the feeling that one has nothing to live for or to hope for. Sometimes this is even interpreted in the sense that there is no right and wrong or good and evil. While it may be more and more difficult in the contemporary secular world to find cosmic meaning, it has been argued that to resolve the problem of meaninglessness, it is sufficient for the individual to find a secular personal meaning to hold onto.
The issue of meaninglessness becomes a problem because humans seem to have a strong desire or need for meaning. This expresses itself both emotionally and practically since goals and ideals are needed to structure one's life. The other side of the problem is given in the fact that there seems to be no such meaning or that the world is at its bottom contingent and could have existed in a very different way or not at all. The world's contingency and indifference to human affairs are often referred to as the absurd in the existentialist literature. The problem can be summarized through the question "How does a being who needs meaning find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?". Various practitioners of existential psychotherapy have affirmed that the loss of meaning plays a role for the majority of people requiring psychotherapy and is the central issue for a significant number of them. But this loss has its most characteristic expression in existential crises.
Various factors affect whether life is experienced as meaningful, such as social relationships, religion, and thoughts about the past or future. Judgments of meaning are quite subjective. They are a form of global assessment since they take one's life as a whole into consideration. It is sometimes argued that the problem of a loss of meaning is particularly associated with modern society. This is often based on the idea that people tended to be more grounded in their immediate social environment, their profession, and their religion in premodern times.
Sources of meaning
It is usually held that humans have a need for meaning. This need may be satisfied by finding an accessible source of meaning. Religious faith can be a source of meaning and many studies demonstrate that it is associated with self-reported meaning in life. Another important source of meaning is due to one's social relationships. Lacking or losing a source of meaning, on the other hand, often leads to an existential crisis. In some cases, this change is clearly linked to a specific source of meaning that becomes inaccessible. For example, a religious person confronted with the vast extent of death and suffering may find their faith in a benevolent, omnipotent God shattered and thereby lose the ability to find meaning in life. For others, a concrete threat of imminent death, for example, due to the disruption of the social order, can have a similar effect. If the individual is unable to assimilate, reinterpret, or ignore this type of threatening information, the loss of their primary source of meaning may force them to reevaluate their system of meaning in life from the ground up. In this case, the person is entering an existential crisis, which can bring with it the need to question what other sources of meaning are accessible to them or whether there is meaning at all. Many different sources of meaning are discussed in the academic literature. Discovering such a source for oneself is often key to resolving an existential crisis. The sources discussed in the literature can be divided into altruism, dedication to a cause, creativity, hedonism, self-actualization, and finding the right attitude.
Altruism refers to the practice or attitude based on the desire to benefit others. Altruists aim to make the world a better place than they found it. This can happen in various ways. On a small scale, one may try to be kinder to the people in one's immediate social environment. It can include the effort to become aware of their problems and try to help them, directly or indirectly. But the altruistic attitude may also express itself in a less personal form towards strangers, for example, by donating money to charities. Effective altruism is an example of a contemporary movement promoting altruism and providing concrete advice on how to live altruistically. It has been argued that altruism can be a strong source of meaning in one's life. This is also reflected in the fact that altruists tend to enjoy higher levels of well-being as well as increased physical and mental health.
Dedicating oneself to a cause can act as a closely related source of meaning. In many cases, the two overlap, if altruism is the primary motivation. But this is not always the case since the fascination with a cause may not be explicitly linked to the desire to benefit others. It consists in devoting oneself fully to producing something greater than oneself. A diverse set of causes can be followed this way, ranging from religious goals, political movements, or social institutions to scientific or philosophical ventures. Such causes provide meaning to one's life to the extent that one participates in the meaningfulness of the cause by working towards it and realizing it.
Creativity refers to the activity of creating something new and exciting. It can act as a source of meaning even if it is not obvious that the creation serves a specific purpose. This aspect is especially relevant in the field of art, where it is sometimes claimed that the work of art does not need an external justification since it is "its own excuse for being". It has been argued that for many great artists, their keener vision of the existential dilemma of the human condition was the cause of their creative efforts. These efforts in turn may have served them as a form of therapy. But creativity is not limited to art. It can be found and practiced in many different fields, both on a big and a small scale, such as in science, cooking, gardening, writing, regular work, or romantic relationships.
The hedonistic approach can also constitute a source of meaning. It is based on the idea that a life enjoyed to the fullest extent is meaningful even if it lacks any higher overarching purpose. For this perspective, it is relevant that hedonism is not understood in a vulgar sense, i.e. as the pursuit of sensory pleasures characterized by a disregard of the long-term consequences. While such a lifestyle may be satisfying in certain respects, a more refined form of hedonism that includes other forms of pleasures and considers their long-term consequences is more commonly recommended in the academic literature. This wider sense also includes more subtle pleasures such as looking at fine art or engaging in a stimulating intellectual conversation. In this way, life can be meaningful to the individual if it is seen as a gift evoking a sense of astonishment at its miracle and a general appreciation of it.
According to the perspective of self-actualization, each human carries within themselves a potential of what they may become. The purpose of life then is to develop oneself to realize this potential and successfully doing so increases the individual's well-being and sense of meaningfulness. In this sense, just like an acorn has the potential to become an oak, so an infant has the potential to become a fully actualized adult with various virtues and skills based on their inborn talents. The process of self-actualization is sometimes understood in terms of a hierarchy: certain lower potentials have to be actualized before the actualization of higher potentials becomes possible.
Most of the approaches mentioned so far have clear practical implications in that they affect how the individual interacts with the world. The attitudinal approach, on the other hand, identifies different sources of meaning based only on taking the right attitude towards life. This concerns specifically negative situations in which one is faced with a fate that one cannot change. In existential crises, this often expresses itself in the feeling of helplessness. The idea is that in such situations one can still find meaning based on taking a virtuous or admirable attitude towards one's suffering, for example, by remaining courageous.
Whether a certain source of meaning is accessible differs from person to person. It may also depend on the stage in life one finds oneself in, similar to how different stages are often associated with different types of existential crises. It has been argued, for example, that the concern with oneself and one's own well-being found in self-actualization and hedonism tends to be associated more with earlier stages in life. The concern with others or the world at large found in altruism and the dedication to a cause, on the other hand, is more likely found in later stages in life, for example, when an older generation aims to pass on their knowledge and improve the lives of a younger generation.
Consequences, clinical manifestation, and measurement
Going through an existential crisis is associated with a variety of consequences, both for the affected individual and their social environment. On the personal level, the immediate effects are usually negative since experiencing an existential crisis is connected to stress, anxiety, and the formation of bad relationships. This can lead all the way to depression if existential crises are not resolved. On the social level, they cause a high divorce rate and an increased number of people being unable to make significant positive contributions to society, for example, due to a lack of drive resulting from depression. But if resolved properly, they can also have positive effects by pushing the affected to address the underlying issue. Individuals may thereby find new sources of meaning, develop as a person, and thereby improve their way of life. In the sophomore crisis, for example, this can happen by planning ahead and thereby making more conscious choices in how to lead one's life.
Being aware of the symptoms and consequences of existential crises on the personal level is important for psychotherapists so they can arrive at an accurate diagnosis. But this is not always easy since the symptoms usually differ from person to person. In this sense, the lack of meaning at the core of existential crises can express itself in several different ways. For some, it may lead them to become overly adventurous and zealous. In their attempt to wrest themselves free from meaninglessness, they are desperate to indiscriminately dedicate themselves to any cause. They might do so without much concern for the concrete content of the cause or for their personal safety. It has been argued that this type of behavior is present in some hardcore activists. This may be understood as a form of defense mechanism in which the individual engages fanatically in activities in response to a deep sense of purposelessness. It can also express itself in a related but less dramatic way as compulsive activity. This may take various forms, such as workaholism or the obsessive pursuit of prestige, or material acquisitions. This is sometimes referred to as false centering or inauthenticity since the activity is pursued more as a distraction and less because it is in itself fulfilling to the agent. It can provide a temporary alleviation by helping the individual drain their energy and thus distract them from the threat of meaninglessness.
Another response consists in an overt declaration of nihilism characterized by a pervasive tendency to discredit activities purported by others to have meaning. Such an individual may, for example, dismiss altruism out of hand as a disingenuous form of selfishness or see all leaders as motivated by their lust for power rather than inspired by a grand vision. In some more extreme forms of crisis, the individual's behavior may show severe forms of aimlessness and apathy, often accompanied by depression. Being unable to find good reasons for making an effort, such a person remains inactive for extended periods of time, such as staying in bed all day. If they engage in a behavior, they may do so indiscriminately without much concern for what they are doing.
Indirect factors for determining the severeness of an existential crisis include job satisfaction and the quality of one's relationships. For example, physical violence or constant fighting in a relationship may be interpreted as external signs of a serious existential crisis. Various empirical studies have shown that a lack of sense of meaning in life is associated with psychopathology. Having a positive sense of meaning, on the other hand, is associated with deeply held religious beliefs, having a clear life goal, and having dedicated oneself to a cause.
Measurement
Different suggestions have been made concerning how to measure whether someone has an existential crisis, to what degree it is present, and which approach to resolving it might be promising. These methods can help therapists and counselors to understand both whether their client is going through an existential crisis and, if so, how severe their crisis is. But they can also be used by theorists in order to identify how existential crises correlate with other phenomena, such as depression, gender, or poverty.
One way to assess this is through questionnaires focusing on topics like the meaning of life, such as the Purpose in Life Test and the Life Regard Index. The Purpose in Life Test is widely used and consists of 20 items rated on a seven-point scale, such as "In life I have: (1) no goals or aims at all ... (7) very clear goals and aims" or "With regard to death, I am (1) unprepared and frightened ... (7) prepared and unafraid".
Resolution
Since existential crises can have a crippling effect on people, it is important to find ways to resolve them. Different forms of resolution have been proposed. The right approach often depends on the type of crisis experienced. Many approaches emphasize the importance of developing a new stage of intellectual functioning in order to resolve the inner conflict. But others focus more on external changes. For example, crises related to one's sexual identity and one's level of independence may be resolved by finding a partner matching one's character and preferences. Positive indicators of marital success include having similar interests, engaging in common activities, and having a similar level of education. Crises centering around one's professional path may also be approached more externally by finding the right type of career. In this respect, important factors include that the career matches both one's interests and one's skills to avoid a job that is unfulfilling, lacks engagement, or is overwhelming.
But the more common approach aims at changing one's intellectual functioning and inner attitude. Existential psychotherapists, for example, usually try to resolve existential crises by helping the patient to rediscover meaning in their life. Sometimes this takes the form of finding a spiritual or religious purpose in life, such as dedicating oneself to an ideal or discovering God. Other approaches focus less on the idea of discovering meaning and more on the idea of creating meaning. This is based on the idea that meaning is not something independent of the agent out there but something that has to be created and maintained. However, there are also types of existentialist psychotherapy that accept the idea that the world is meaningless and try to develop the best way of coping with this fact. The different approaches to resolving the issue of meaninglessness are sometimes divided into a leap of faith, the reasoned approach, and nihilism. Another classification categorizes possible resolutions as isolation, anchoring, distraction, and sublimation. Methods from cognitive behavior therapy have also been used to treat existential crises by bringing about a change in the individual's intellectual functioning.
Leap of faith, reasoned approach, and nihilism
Since existential crises circle around the idea of being unable to find meaning in life, various resolutions focus on specifically this aspect. Sometimes three different forms of this approach are distinguished. On the one hand, the individual may perform a leap of faith and affirm a new system of meaning without a previous in-depth understanding of how secure it is as a source of meaning. Another method consists in carefully considering all the relevant factors and thereby rebuilding and justifying a new system of meaning. A third approach goes against these two by denying that there is actual meaning. It consists in accepting the meaninglessness of life and learning how to deal with it without the illusion of meaning.
A leap of faith implies committing oneself to something one does not fully understand. In the case of existential crises, the commitment involves the faith that life is meaningful even though the believer lacks a reasoned justification. This leap is motivated by the strong desire that life is meaningful and triggered as a response to the threat posed to the fulfillment of this desire by the existential crisis. For whom this is psychologically possible, this may be the fastest way to bypass an existential crisis. This option may be more available to people oriented toward intuitive processing and less to people who favor a more rational approach since it has less need for a thorough reflection and introspection. It has been argued that the meaning acquired through a leap of faith may be more robust than in other cases. One reason for this is that since it is not based on empirical evidence for it, it is also less vulnerable to empirical evidence against it. Another reason concerns the flexibility of intuition to selectively disregard threatening information on the one hand and to focus instead on validating cues.
More rationally inclined persons tend to focus more on a careful evaluation of the sources of meaning based on solid justification through empirical evidence. If successful, this approach has the advantage of providing the individual with a concrete and realistic understanding of how their life is meaningful. It can also constitute a very robust source of meaning if it is based on solid empirical evidence and thorough understanding. The system of meaning arrived at may be very idiosyncratic by being based on the individual's values, preferences, and experiences. On a practical level, it often leads to a more efficient realization of this meaning since the individual can focus more exclusively on this factor. If someone determines that family life is their main source of meaning, for example, they may focus more intensely on this aspect and take a less involved stance towards other areas in life, such as success at work. In comparison to the leap of faith, this approach offers more room for personal growth due to the cognitive labor in the form of reflection and introspection involved in it and the self-knowledge resulting from this process. One of the drawbacks of this approach is that it can take a considerable amount of time to complete and rid oneself of the negative psychological consequences. If successful, the foundations arrived at this way may provide a solid basis to withstand future existential crises. But success is not certain and even after a prolonged search, the individual might still be unable to identify a significant source of meaning in their life.
If the search for meaning in either way fails, there is still another approach to resolving the issue of meaninglessness in existential crises: to find a way to accept that life is meaningless. This position is usually referred to as nihilism. One can distinguish a local and a global version of this approach, depending on whether the denial of meaningfulness is only directed at a certain area of life or at life as a whole. It becomes necessary if the individual arrives at the justifiable conclusion that life is, after all, meaningless. This conclusion may be intolerable initially, since humans seem to have a strong desire to lead a meaningful life, sometimes referred to as the will to meaning. Some theorists, such as Viktor Frankl, see this desire even as the primary motivation of all individuals. One difficulty with this negative stance towards meaning is that it seems to provide very little practical guidance in how to live one's life. So even if an individual has resolved their existential crises this way, they may still lack an answer to the question of what they should do with their life. Positive aspects of this stance include that it can lead to a heightened sense of freedom by being unbound from any predetermined purpose. It also exemplifies the virtue of truthfulness by being able to acknowledge an inconvenient truth instead of escaping into the convenient illusion of meaningfulness.
Isolation, anchoring, distraction, and sublimation
According to Peter Wessel Zapffe, life is essentially meaningless but this does not mean that we are automatically doomed to unresolvable existential crises. Instead, he identifies four ways of dealing with this fact without falling into an existential depression: isolation, anchoring, distraction, and sublimation. Isolation involves a dismissal of destructive thoughts and feelings from consciousness. Physicians and medical students, for example, may adopt a detached and technical stance in order to better deal with the tragic and disgusting aspects of their vocation. Anchoring involves a dedication to certain values and practical commitments that give the individual a sense of assurance. This often happens collectively, for example, through devotion to a common religion, but it can also happen individually. Distraction is a more temporary form of withdrawing one's attention from the meaninglessness of certain life situations that do not provide any significant contributions to the construction of our self. Sublimation is the rarest of these mechanisms. Its essential characteristic setting it apart from the other mechanisms is that it uses the pain of living and transforms it into a work of art or another creative expression.
Cognitive behavioral therapy and social perspective-taking
Some approaches from the field of cognitive behavioral therapy adjust and employ treatments for depression to resolve existential crises. One fundamental idea in cognitive behavior theory is that various psychological problems arise due to inaccurate core beliefs about oneself, such as beliefs that one is worthless, helpless, or incompetent. These problematic core beliefs may lie dormant for extended periods. But when activated by certain life events, they may express themselves in the form of recurrent negative and damaging thoughts. This can lead, among other things, to depression. Cognitive behavioral therapy then consists in raising the awareness of the affected person in regards to these toxic thought patterns and the underlying core beliefs while training to change them. This can happen by focusing on one's immediate present, being goal-oriented, role-playing, or behavioral experiments.
A closely related method employs the practice of social perspective-taking. Social perspective-taking involves the ability to assess one's situation and character from the point of view of a different individual. This enables the individual to step outside their own immediate perspective while taking into consideration how others see the individual and thus reach a more integral perspective.
Unresolved crises
Existential crises sometimes pass even if the underlying issue is not resolved. This may happen, for example, if the issue is pushed into the background by other concerns and thus remains present only in a masked or dormant state. But even in this state, it may have unconscious effects on how people lead their life, like career choices. It can also increase the likelihood of suffering another existential crisis later on in life and might make resolving these later crises more difficult. It has been argued that many existential crises in contemporary society are not resolved. The reason for this may be a lack of clear awareness of the nature, importance, and possible treatments of existential crises.
Cultural context
In the 19th century, Thomas Carlyle wrote of how the loss of faith in God results in an existential crisis which he called the "Centre of Indifference", wherein the world appears cold and unfeeling and the individual considers himself to be without worth. Søren Kierkegaard considered that angst and existential despair would appear when an inherited or borrowed world-view (often of a collective nature) proved unable to handle unexpected and extreme life-experiences. Friedrich Nietzsche extended his views to suggest that the death of God—the loss of collective faith in religion and traditional morality—created a more widespread existential crisis for the philosophically aware.
Existential crisis has indeed been seen as the inevitable accompaniment of modernism (1890–1945). Whereas Émile Durkheim saw individual crises as the by-product of social pathology and a (partial) lack of collective norms, others have seen existentialism as arising more broadly from the modernist crisis of the loss of meaning throughout the modern world.<ref>M. Hardt/K. Weeks, The Jameson Reader (2000) p. 265</ref> Its twin answers were either a religion revivified by the experience of anomie (as with Martin Buber), or an individualistic existentialism based on facing directly the absurd contingency of human fate within a meaningless and alien universe, as with Sartre and Camus.
Irvin Yalom, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, has made fundamental contributions to the field of existential psychotherapy. Rollo May is another of the founders of this approach.
Fredric Jameson has suggested that postmodernism, with its saturation of social space by a visual consumer culture, has replaced the modernist angst of the traditional subject, and with it the existential crisis of old, by a new social pathology of flattened affect and a fragmented subject.
Historical context
Existential crises are often seen as a phenomenon associated specifically with modern society. One important factor in this context is that various sources of meaning, such as religion or being grounded in one's local culture and immediate social environment, are less important in the contemporary context.
Another factor in modern society is that individuals are faced with a daunting number of decisions to make and alternatives to choose from, often without any clear guidelines on how to make these choices. The high difficulty for finding the best alternative and the importance of doing so are often the cause of anxiety and may lead to an existential crisis. For example, it was very common for a long time in history for a son to simply follow his father's profession. In contrast to this, the modern schooling system presents students with different areas of study and interest, thereby opening a wide range of career opportunities to them. The problem brought about by this increased freedom is sometimes referred to as the agony of choice. The increased difficulty is described in Barry Schwartz's law, which links the costs, time, and energy needed to make a well-informed choice to the number of alternatives available.
See also
Absurdism
Why there is anything at all
Antinatalism
"Dark Night of the Soul"
Depersonalization
Duḥkha
Ego death
Limit situation
Scholarly approaches to mysticism
Positive disintegration
The Sickness unto Death Spiritual crisis
References
Further reading
J. Watson, Caring Science as Sacred Science 2005. Chapter 4: "Existential Crisis in Science and Human Sciences".
T.M. Cousineau, A. Seibring, M.T. Barnard, P-673 Making meaning of infertility: Existential crisis or personal transformation? Fertility and Sterility, 2006.
Sanders, Marc, Existential Depression. How to recognize and cure life-related sadness in gifted people'', 2013.
External links
Alan Watts on meaningless life, and its resolution
Crisis
Personal life
Philosophy of life
Popular psychology
Psychological concepts
Psychotherapy
Religion and mental health
Suffering | 0.769576 | 0.999122 | 0.7689 |
Trash culture | The term "trash culture" entered into common use in the West from the 1980s to indicate artistic or entertainment expressions considered to be of a low cultural profile but able to stimulate and attract the audiences. It refers to books, movies, TV shows, etc. characterized by poor taste, vulgar themes, and subjects chosen to attract the audience through shoddy, low-quality, and culturally impoverished content. In this sense, trash culture is defined as the validation of the voyeuristic sight of the middle class which approaches the popular culture as style of consumption.
The concept of trash culture should not be confused or merged with the concept of "kitsch", even if the two may be related. Kitsch is linked to art in a permanent way, but it is also a social phenomenon which establishes itself as a way of being: in Western society it is characterized by the limitation of the artist's space of creation. Kitsch is essentially multiplication and reachability. It is based on the consumeristic civilization which creates to produce, and produces to consume. It is a repetition whose consequence is a new activity in the relationship between individuals and their environment: consumerism.
In this sense the concept of trash culture can be considered an evolution of the 19th-century concept of kitsch, a development of a consumeristic behavior that, at the beginning, was related to the lowest social classes. Now the phenomenon has embraced a wider range of classes, reaching the contemporary middle class and sometimes the high class. As kitsch was a social phenomenon that established itself as a way of being, so too trash culture can be defined, but in this one the aim of a continuous process of creation and consumption is the externalization and the accentuation of the self being, that can be expressed through the way of dressing, wearing accessories, and through the self social approach.
Trash literature
The popular culture that surrounds the people in daily lives bears a striking similarity to some of the great works of literature of the past. In television, movies, magazines, and advertisements the people are exposed to many of the same stories as those critics who study the great books of literature, but they have simply been encouraged to look at those stories differently.
The great literature and cultural work of the past has been rewritten for today's consumer society, with supermarket tabloids such as the National Enquirer and celebrity gossip magazines like People serving as contemporary versions of the great dramatic tragedies of the past. Today's advertising repeats the tale of the Golden Age, but inverts the value system of a classic utopia; the shopping mall combines bits and pieces of the great garden styles of Western history, and now adds consumer goods; Playboy magazine revises Castiglione's Renaissance courtesy book, The Book of the Courtier; and Cosmopolitan magazine revises the women's coming-of-age novels of Jane Austen, Gustave Flaubert, and Edith Wharton.
Trash TV
The term "trash TV" refers to a branch of TV production that tends to exaggerate and to take themes to an extreme level. The objective of this kind of entertainment is to hit the audience through frenzy, accumulation and the absence of any distinction. Trash TV is very often close to ridiculousness, and exaggerating is the key resource: it exaggerates quantities and proportions, the physical and the body dimensions.
The term entered into everyday language in the 1980s, to indicate artistic expressions considered of low cultural profile, but able to stimulate an audience. Starting from the 80s, in fact, the private broadcasting channels started to be very spread, and this led to new marketing strategies, focused on the possibility of attracting a larger audience paying for more exclusive shows. Now, TV shows have to build up the brand of the TV station, creating content that cannot be found on the public channels or the competitors.
Further reading
References
Popular culture | 0.780701 | 0.984838 | 0.768864 |
Composition (visual arts) | The term composition means "putting together". It can be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art. Composition can apply to any work of art, from music through writing and into photography, that is arranged using conscious thought.
In the visual arts, composition is often used interchangeably with various terms such as design, form, visual ordering, or formal structure, depending on the context. In graphic design for press and desktop publishing, composition is commonly referred to as page layout.
The composition of a picture is different from its subject (what is depicted), whether a moment from a story, a person or a place. Many subjects, for example Saint George and the Dragon, are often portrayed in art, but using a great range of compositions even though the two figures are typically the only ones shown.
Elements of design
The central visual element, known as element of design, formal element, or element of art, constitute the vocabulary with which the visual artist compose. These elements in the overall design usually relate to each other and to the whole art work.
The elements of design are:
Line — the visual path that enables the eye to move within the piece
Shape — areas defined by edges within the piece, whether geometric or organic
Color — hues with their various values and intensities
Texture — surface qualities which translate into tactile illusions
Value — Shading used to emphasize form
Form — 3-D length, width, or depth
Space — the space taken up by (positive) or in between (negative) objects
Line and shape
Lines are optical phenomena that allow the artist to direct the eye of the viewer. The optical illusion of lines does exist in nature, and in visual arts, elements can be arranged to create this illusion. The viewer unconsciously "reads" the image through the continuous arrangement of different elements and subjects at varying distances. Such elements can be of dramatic use in the composition of the image. These could be literal lines such as telephone and power cables or rigging on boats. Lines can also derive from the borders of different colors or contrast, or sequences of discrete elements. Movement is also a source of lines, where the blurred movement renders as a line.
Subject lines contribute to both mood and linear perspective, giving the viewer the illusion of depth. Oblique lines convey a sense of movement, and angular lines generally convey dynamism and possibly tension. Lines can also direct attention towards the main subject of the picture or contribute to the organization by dividing it into compartments. The artist may exaggerate or create lines, perhaps as part of their message to the viewer. Many lines without a clear subject-point suggest chaos in the image, and may conflict with the mood the artist is trying to evoke.
A line's angle and its relationship to the frame's size influence the perspective of the image. Horizontal lines, commonly found in landscape photography, can give the impression of calm, tranquility, and space. An image filled with strong vertical lines tends to have the appearance of height and grandeur. Tightly angled convergent lines give a dynamic, lively, and active effect to the image. Firmly turned, almost diagonal lines produce tension in the picture. The viewpoint of visual art is fundamental because every different perspective views different angled lines. This change of perspective elicits a different response to the image. Changing the air only by some degrees or some centimeters lines in embodiments can vary tremendously, and a distinct feeling can be transported. Straight lines are also strongly influenced by tone, color, and repetition concerning the rest of the image.
Compared to straight lines, curves provide a greater dynamic influence in a picture. They are also generally more aesthetically pleasing, as the viewer associates them with nature and softness. In photography, curved lines can give graduated shadows when paired with soft-directional lighting, which usually results in a very harmonious line structure within the image. There are two main types of curves, a simple "C" curve as well as a more sinuous "S" curve.
Color
There are three properties of color: hue, brightness or chroma, and value. Hue is the name of a color (red, yellow, and blue, etc.). Brightness and chroma refer to the intensity and strength of the color. A high chroma color is more pure and less greyed than a low chroma color. The lightness or darkness to a color is the value. Color also has the ability to work within our emotions. Given that, we can use color to create mood. It can also be used as tone, pattern, light, movement, symbol, form, harmony, and contrast.
Texture
Texture refers to how an object feels or how it looks like it may feel if it were touched. There are two ways we experience texture, physically and optically. Different techniques can be used to create physical texture, which allows qualities of visual art to be seen and felt. This can include surfaces such as metal, sand, and wood. Optical texture is when the illusion of physical texture is created. Photography, paintings, and drawings use visual texture to create a more realistic appearance.
Value
Lightness and darkness are known as value in visual art. Value deals with how light reflects off objects and how we see it. The more light that is reflected, the higher the value. White is the highest or lightest value while black is the lowest or darkest value. Colors also have value; for example, yellow has a high value while blue and red have a low value. If you take a black and white picture of a colorful scene, all you are left with are the values. This important element of design, especially in painting and drawing, allows the artist to create the illusion of light through value contrast.
Form
The term form can mean different things in visual art. Form suggests a three-dimensional object in space. It is also described as the physical nature of the artwork, such as sculptures. It can also be looked at as art form, which can be expressed through fine art. A form encloses volume, has length, width, and height, unlike a shape, which is only two-dimensional. Forms that are mathematical, a sphere, pyramid, cube, cylinder, and cone, are known as geometric forms. Organic forms are typically irregular and asymmetrical. This form can be found in nature, such as flowers, rocks, trees, etc., but can also be seen in architecture.
Forms in drawing and painting convey the illusion of three-dimensional form through lighting, shadows, value, and tone. The more contrast in value, the more pronounced the three-dimensional form is. Forms with little value appear flatter than those with greater variation and contrasting.
Space
Space is the area around, above, and within an object. Photographers can capture space, architects build space, and painters create space. This element is found in each of the visual arts. It can be positive or negative, open or closed, shallow or deep, and two-dimensional or three-dimensional. In drawing or painting, space is not actually there, but the illusion of it is. Positive space is the subject of the piece. The empty spaces around, above, and within, is negative space.
Principles of organization
The artist determines what the center of interest (focus in photography) of the art work will be, and composes the elements accordingly. The gaze of the viewer will then tend to linger over these points of interest, elements are arranged with consideration of several factors (known variously as the principles of organization, principles of art, or principles of design) into a harmonious whole which works together to produce the desired statement – a phenomenon commonly referred to as unity. Such factors in composition should not be confused with the elements of art (or elements of design) themselves. For example, shape is an element; the usage of shape is characterized by various principles.
Some principles of organization affecting the composition of a picture are:
Shape and proportion
Positioning/orientation/balance/harmony among the elements
The area within the field of view used for the picture ("cropping")
The path or direction followed by the viewer's eye when they observe the image.
Negative space
Color
Contrast: the value, or degree of lightness and darkness, used within the picture.
Arrangement: for example, use of the golden mean or the rule of thirds
Lines
Rhythm
Illumination or lighting
Repetition (sometimes building into pattern; rhythm also comes into play, as does geometry)
Perspective
Breaking the rules can create tension or unease, yet it can add interest to the picture if used carefully
Viewpoint (leading with the eye)
The position of the viewer can strongly influence the aesthetics of an image, even if the subject is entirely imaginary and viewed "within the mind's eye". Not only does it influence the elements within the picture, but it also influences the viewer's interpretation of the subject.
For example, if a boy is photographed from above, perhaps from the eye level of an adult, he is diminished in stature. A photograph taken at the child's level would treat him as an equal, and one taken from below could result in an impression of dominance. Therefore, the photographer is choosing the viewer's positioning.
A subject can be rendered more dramatic when it fills the frame. There exists a tendency to perceive things as larger than they actually are, and filling the frame fulfills this psychological mechanism. This can be used to eliminate distractions from the background.
In photography, altering the position of the camera can change the image so that the subject has fewer or more distractions with which to compete. This may be achieved by getting closer, moving laterally, tilting, panning, or moving the camera vertically.
Compositional techniques
There are numerous approaches or "compositional techniques" to achieve a sense of unity within an artwork, depending on the goals of the artist. For example, a work of art is said to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye if the elements within the work are arranged in a balanced compositional way. However, there are artists such as Salvador Dalí who aim to disrupt traditional composition and challenge the viewer to rethink balance and design elements within art works.
Conventional composition can be achieved with a number of techniques:
Rule of thirds
The rule of thirds is a composition guide that states that arranging the important features of an image on or near the horizontal and vertical lines that would divide the image into thirds horizontally and vertically is visually pleasing. The objective is to stop the subjects and areas of interest (such as the horizon) from bisecting the image, by placing them near one of the lines that would divide the image into three equal columns and rows, ideally near the intersection of those lines.
The rule of thirds is thought to be a simplification of the golden ratio. The golden ratio is thought to have been used by artists throughout history as a composition guide, but there is little evidence to support this claim.
Rule of odds
The "rule of odds" suggests that an odd number of subjects in an image is more interesting than an even number. Thus if you have more than one subject in your picture, the suggestion is to choose an arrangement with at least three subjects. An even number of subjects produces symmetries in the image, which can appear less natural for a naturalistic, informal composition.
An image of a person surrounded/framed by two other persons, for instance, where the person in the center is the object of interest in that image/artwork, is more likely to be perceived as friendly and comforting by the viewer, than an image of a single person with no significant surroundings.
Rule of space
The rule of space applies to artwork (photography, advertising, illustration) picturing objects to which the artist wants to apply the illusion of movement, or which is supposed to create a contextual bubble in the viewer's mind.
This can be achieved, for instance, by leaving white space in the direction the eyes of a portrayed person are looking, or, when picturing a runner, adding white space in front of him rather than behind him to indicate movement. Studies with naive participants have confirmed this preference.
Simplification
Images with clutter can distract from the main elements within the picture and make it difficult to identify the subject. By decreasing the extraneous content, the viewer is more likely to focus on the primary objects. Clutter can also be reduced through the use of lighting, as the brighter areas of the image tend to draw the eye, as do lines, squares and colour. In painting, the artist may use less detailed and defined brushwork towards the edges of the picture. Removing the elements to the focus of the object, taking only the needed components.
Shallow depth of field
In photography, and also (via software simulation of real lens limitations) in 3D graphics, one approach to achieving simplification is to use a wide aperture when shooting to limit the depth of field. When used properly in the right setting, this technique can place everything that is not the subject of the photograph out of focus.
A similar approach, given the right equipment, is to take advantage of the Scheimpflug principle to change the plane of focus.
Geometry and symmetry
Related to the rule of odds is the observation that triangles are an aesthetically pleasing implied shape within an image. In a canonically attractive face, the mouth and eyes fall within the corners of the area of an equilateral triangle. Paul Cézanne successfully used triangles in his compositions of still lifes. A triangular format creates a sense of stability and strength.
Creating movement
It is generally thought to be more pleasing to the viewer if the image encourages the eye to move around the image, rather than immediately fixating on a single place or no place in particular. Artists will often strive to avoid creating compositions that feel "static" or "flat" by incorporating movement into the image. In image A the 2 mountains are equally sized and positioned beside each other creating a very static and uninteresting image. In image B the mountains are differently sized and one is placed closer to the horizon, guiding the eye to move from one mountain to the other creating a more interesting and pleasing image. This also feels more natural because in nature objects are rarely the same size and evenly spaced.
Other techniques
There should be a center of interest or focus in the work, to prevent it becoming a pattern in itself
The direction followed by the viewer's eye should lead the viewer's gaze around all elements in the work before leading out of the picture
The subject should not be facing out of the image
Exact bisections of the picture space should be avoided
Small, high contrast, elements have as much impact as larger, duller elements
The prominent subject should be off-centre, unless a symmetrical or formal composition is desired, and can be balanced by smaller satellite elements
The horizon line should not divide the art work in two equal parts but be positioned to emphasize either the sky or ground; showing more sky if painting is of clouds, sun rise/set, and more ground if a landscape
Use of detailed areas and 'rest' areas can help to aid the eye in where to look. Creating a contrast between detail and lack of detail is important
These principles can be means of a good composition yet they cannot be applied separately but should act together to form a good composition.
Also in an artwork, it is suggested that no spaces between the objects should be the same to create a more interesting image.
Example
These paintings all show the same subject, the Raising of Lazarus, and essentially the same figures, but have very different compositions:
See also
Miksang (contemplative photography)
New Epoch Notation Painting (a notation system for painting)
Page layout (graphic design)
List of photographic composition techniques
References
Further reading
External links
Percy Principles of Art and Composition, Goshen College Art Department
Using Detail and why it is important
Artistic techniques
Photographic techniques | 0.773062 | 0.994507 | 0.768815 |
Fine art | In European academic traditions, fine art is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork. In the aesthetic theories developed in the Italian Renaissance, the highest art was that which allowed the full expression and display of the artist's imagination, unrestricted by any of the practical considerations involved in, say, making and decorating a teapot. It was also considered important that making the artwork did not involve dividing the work between different individuals with specialized skills, as might be necessary with a piece of furniture, for example. Even within the fine arts, there was a hierarchy of genres based on the amount of creative imagination required, with history painting placed higher than still life.
Historically, the five main fine arts were painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and poetry. Other "minor or subsidiary arts" were also included, especially performing arts such as theatre and dance, which were counted as "among the most ancient and universal." In practice, outside education, the concept is typically only applied to the visual arts. The old master print and drawing were included as related forms to painting, just as prose forms of literature were to poetry. Today, the range of what would be considered fine arts (in so far as the term remains in use) commonly includes additional modern forms, such as film, photography, and video production/editing, as well as traditional forms made in a fine art setting, such as studio pottery and studio glass, with equivalents in other materials.
One definition of fine art is "a visual art considered to have been created primarily for aesthetic and intellectual purposes and judged for its beauty and meaningfulness, specifically, painting, sculpture, drawing, watercolor, graphics, and architecture." In that sense, there are conceptual differences between the fine arts and the decorative arts or applied arts (these two terms covering largely the same media). As far as the consumer of the art was concerned, the perception of aesthetic qualities required a refined judgment usually referred to as having good taste, which differentiated fine art from popular art and entertainment.
The word "fine" does not so much denote the quality of the artwork in question, but the purity of the discipline according to traditional European canons. Except in the case of architecture, where a practical utility was accepted, this definition originally excluded the "useful" applied or decorative arts, and the products of what were regarded as crafts. In contemporary practice, these distinctions and restrictions have become essentially meaningless, as the concept or intention of the artist is given primacy, regardless of the means through which it is expressed.
The term is typically only used for Western art from the Renaissance onwards, although similar genre distinctions can apply to the art of other cultures, especially those of East Asia. The set of "fine arts" are sometimes also called the "major arts", with "minor arts" equating to the decorative arts. This would typically be for medieval and ancient art.
Origins, history and development
According to some writers, the concept of a distinct category of fine art is an invention of the early modern period in the West. Larry Shiner in his The Invention of Art: A Cultural History (2003) locates the invention in the 18th century:
"There was a traditional "system of the arts" in the West before the eighteenth century. (Other traditional cultures still have a similar system.) In that system, an artist or artisan was a skilled maker or practitioner, a work of art was the useful product of skilled work, and the appreciation of the arts was integrally connected with their role in the rest of life. "Art", in other words, meant approximately the same thing as the Greek word "techne", or in English "skill", a sense that has survived in phrases like "the art of war", "the art of love", and "the art of medicine".
Similar ideas have been expressed by Paul Oskar Kristeller, Pierre Bourdieu, and Terry Eagleton (e.g. The Ideology of the Aesthetic), though the point of invention is often placed earlier, in the Italian Renaissance; Anthony Blunt notes that the term arti di disegno, a similar concept, emerged in Italy in the mid-16th century.
But it can be argued that the classical world, from which very little theoretical writing on art survives, in practice had similar distinctions. The names of artists preserved in literary sources are Greek painters and sculptors, and to a lesser extent the carvers of engraved gems. Several individuals in these groups were very famous, and copied and remembered for centuries after their deaths. The cult of the individual artistic genius, which was an important part of the Renaissance theoretical basis for the distinction between "fine" and other art, drew on classical precedent, especially as recorded by Pliny the Elder. Some other types of object, in particular Ancient Greek pottery, are often signed by their makers or the owner of the workshop, probably partly to advertise their products.
The decline of the concept of "fine art" is dated by George Kubler and others to around 1880. When it "fell out of fashion" as, by about 1900, folk art was also coming to be regarded as significant. Finally, at least in circles interested in art theory, ""fine art" was driven out of use by about 1920 by the exponents of industrial design ... who opposed a double standard of judgment for works of art and for useful objects". This was among theoreticians; it has taken far longer for the art trade and popular opinion to catch up. However, over the same period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the movement of prices in the art market was in the opposite direction, with works from the fine arts drawing much further ahead of those from the decorative arts.
In the art trade the term retains some currency for objects from before roughly 1900 and may be used to define the scope of auctions or auction house departments and the like. The term also remains in use in tertiary education, appearing in the names of colleges, faculties, and courses. In the English-speaking world this is mostly in North America, but the same is true of the equivalent terms in other European languages, such as beaux-arts in French or bellas artes in Spanish.
Cultural perspectives
The conceptual separation of arts and decorative arts or crafts that have often dominated in Europe and the US is not shared by all other cultures. But traditional Chinese art had comparable distinctions, distinguishing within Chinese painting between the mostly landscape literati painting of scholar gentlemen and the artisans of the schools of court painting and sculpture. Although high status was also given to many things that would be seen as craft objects in the West, in particular ceramics, jade carving, weaving, and embroidery, this by no means extended to the workers who created these objects, who typically remained even more anonymous than in the West. Similar distinctions were made in Japanese and Korean art. In Islamic art, the highest status was generally given to calligraphy, architects and the painters of Persian miniatures and related traditions, but these were still very often court employees. Typically they also supplied designs for the best Persian carpets, architectural tiling and other decorative media, more consistently than happened in the West.
Latin American art was dominated by European colonialism until the 20th-century, when indigenous art began to reassert itself inspired by the Constructivist Movement, which reunited arts with crafts based upon socialist principles. In Africa, Yoruba art often has a political and spiritual function. As with the art of the Chinese, the art of the Yoruba is also often composed of what would ordinarily be considered in the West to be craft production. Some of its most admired manifestations, such as textiles, fall in this category.
Visual arts
Two-dimensional works
Painting and drawing
Painting as a fine art means applying paint to a flat surface (as opposed for example to painting a sculpture, or a piece of pottery), typically using several colours. Prehistoric painting that has survived was applied to natural rock surfaces, and wall painting, especially on wet plaster in the fresco technique was a major form until recently. Portable paintings on wood panel or canvas have been the most important in the Western world for several centuries, mostly in tempera or oil painting. Asian painting has more often used paper, with the monochrome ink and wash painting tradition dominant in East Asia. Paintings that are intended to go in a book or album are called "miniatures", whether for a Western illuminated manuscript or in Persian miniature and its Turkish equivalent, or Indian paintings of various types. Watercolour is the western version of painting in paper; forms using gouache, chalk, and similar mediums without brushes are really forms of drawing.
Drawing is one of the major forms of the visual arts, and painters need drawing skills as well. Common instruments include: graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, markers, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint. There are a number of subcategories of drawing, including cartooning and creating comics.
Mosaics
Mosaics are images formed with small pieces of stone or glass, called tesserae. They can be decorative or functional. An artist who designs and makes mosaics is called a mosaic artist or a mosaicist. Ancient Greeks and Romans created realistic mosaics. Mythological subjects, or scenes of hunting or other pursuits of the wealthy, were popular as the centrepieces of a larger geometric design, with strongly emphasized borders. Early Christian basilicas from the 4th century onwards were decorated with wall and ceiling mosaics. The most famous Byzantine basilicas decorated with mosaics are the Basilica of San Vitale from Ravenna (Italy) and Hagia Sophia from Istanbul (Turkey).
Printmaking
Printmaking covers the making of images on paper that can be reproduced multiple times by a printing process. It has been an important artistic medium for several centuries, in the West and East Asia. Major historic techniques include engraving, woodcut and etching in the West, and woodblock printing in East Asia, where the Japanese ukiyo-e style is the most important. The 19th-century invention of lithography and then photographic techniques have partly replaced the historic techniques. Older prints can be divided into the fine art Old Master print and popular prints, with book illustrations and other practical images such as maps somewhere in the middle.
Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each print is considered an original, as opposed to a copy. The reasoning behind this is that the print is not a reproduction of another work of art in a different medium – for instance, a painting – but rather an image designed from inception as a print. An individual print is also referred to as an impression. Prints are created from a single original surface, known technically as a matrix. Common types of matrices include: plates of metal, usually copper or zinc for engraving or etching; stone, used for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts, linoleum for linocuts and fabric in the case of screen-printing. But there are many other kinds. Multiple nearly identical prints can be called an edition. In modern times each print is often signed and numbered forming a "limited edition". Prints may also be published in book form, as artist's books. A single print could be the product of one or multiple techniques.
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner". Modern calligraphy ranges from functional hand-lettered inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the abstract expression of the handwritten mark may or may not compromise the legibility of the letters. Classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may create all of these; characters are historically disciplined yet fluid and spontaneous, improvised at the moment of writing.
Photography
Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography. Photojournalism visually communicates stories and ideas, mainly in print and digital media. Fine art photography is created primarily as an expression of the artist's vision, but has also been important in advancing certain causes.
Depiction of nudity has been one of the dominating themes in fine-art photography.
Three-dimensional works
Architecture
Architecture is frequently considered a fine art, especially if its aesthetic components are spotlighted – in contrast to structural-engineering or construction-management components. Architectural works are perceived as cultural and political symbols and works of art. Historical civilizations often are known primarily through their architectural achievements. Such buildings as the pyramids of Egypt and the Roman Colosseum are cultural symbols, and are important links in public consciousness, even when scholars have discovered much about past civilizations through other means. Cities, regions, and cultures continue to identify themselves with, and are known by, their architectural monuments.
Pottery
With some modern exceptions, pottery is not considered as fine art, but "fine pottery" remains a valid technical term, especially in archaeology. "Fine wares" are high-quality pottery, often painted, moulded or otherwise decorated, and in many periods distinguished from "coarse wares", which are basic utilitarian pots used by the mass of the population, or in the kitchen rather than for more formal purposes.
Even when, as with porcelain figurines, a piece of pottery has no practical purpose, the making of it is typically a collaborative and semi-industrial one, involving many participants with different skills.
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping hard or plastic material, commonly stone (either rock or marble), metal, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by carving; others are assembled, built up and fired, welded, molded, or cast. Because sculpture involves the use of materials that can be moulded or modulated, it is considered one of the plastic arts. The majority of public art is sculpture. Many sculptures together in a garden setting may be referred to as a sculpture garden.
Sculpture in stone survives far better than works of art in perishable materials, and often represents the majority of the surviving works (other than pottery) from ancient cultures; conversely, traditions of sculpture in wood may have vanished almost entirely. However, most ancient sculpture was brightly painted, and this has been lost.
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns.
The inception of the term in the 1960s referred to a strict and focused practice of idea-based art that often defied traditional visual criteria associated with the visual arts in its presentation as text. However, through its association with the Young British Artists and the Turner Prize during the 1990s, its popular usage, particularly in the UK, developed as a synonym for all contemporary art that does not practice the traditional skills of painting and sculpture.
Performing arts
Music
Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics (loudness and softness), and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture (which are sometimes termed the "color" of a musical sound). Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements.
Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping; there are solely instrumental pieces, solely vocal pieces (such as songs without instrumental accompaniment) and pieces that combine singing and instruments.
The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike, "art of the Muses").
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic, and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.
Dance is also used to describe methods of nonverbal communication (see body language) between humans or animals (bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating dance), motion in inanimate objects ("the leaves danced in the wind"), and certain musical genres. In sports, gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are dance disciplines while the kata of the martial arts are often compared to dances.
Theatre
Modern Western theatre is dominated by realism, including drama and comedy. Another popular Western form is musical theatre. Classical forms of theatre, including Greek and Roman drama, classic English drama (Shakespeare and Marlowe included), and French theater (Molière included), are still performed today. In addition, performances of classic Eastern forms such as Noh and Kabuki can be found in the West, although with less frequency.
Film
Fine arts film is a term that encompasses motion pictures and the field of film as a fine art form. A fine arts movie theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing such movies. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects. Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue.
Cinematography is the discipline of making lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography, though many additional issues arise when both the camera and elements of the scene may be in motion.
Independent filmmaking often takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems. An independent film (or indie film) is a film initially produced without financing or distribution from a major movie studio. Creative, business, and technological reasons have all contributed to the growth of the indie film scene in the late 20th and early 21st century.
Poetry
Poetry (the term derives from a variant of the Greek term ποίησις (poiesis, "to make") is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as sound symbolism, phonaesthetics and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.
Other
Avant-garde music is frequently considered both a performing art and a fine art.
Electronic media – perhaps the newest medium for fine art, since it utilizes modern technologies such as computers from production to presentation. Includes, amongst others, video, digital photography, digital printmaking and interactive pieces.
Textiles, including quilt art and "wearable" or "pre-wearable" creations, frequently reach the category of fine art objects, sometimes like part of an art display.
Western art (or Classical) music is a performing art frequently considered to be fine art.
Origami – The last century has witnessed a renewed interest in understanding the behavior of folding matter with contributions from artists and scientists. Origami is different from other arts: while painting requires the addition of matter, and sculpture involves subtraction, origami does not add or subtract: it transforms. Origami artists are pushing the limits of an art increasingly committed to its time, with a bloodline ending in technology and spacecraft. Its computational aspect and shareable quality (empowered by social networks) are parts of the puzzle that is making origami a paradigmatic art of the 21st century.
Academic study
Africa
Asia
The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts is a Chinese national university based in Guangzhou which provides Fine Arts and Design Doctoral, Master and bachelor's degrees.
Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata is a Fine Art college in the Indian city of Kolkata, West Bengal.
Europe
South America
Brazil: The Institute for the Arts in Brazilia has departments for theater, visual arts, industrial design, and music.
United States
In the United States an academic course of study in fine art may include the Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art, or a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and/or a Master of Fine Arts degree – traditionally the terminal degree in the field. Doctor of Fine Arts degrees —earned, as opposed to honorary degrees— have begun to emerge at some US academic institutions, however.
Major schools of art in the US:
Yale University, New Haven, CT – MFA, BA.
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI – MFA, BFA.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois – MFA in Studio, MFA in Writing.
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA – MFA
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Fordham University, (B.F.A)
Columbia University, MFA, joint JD/MFA degree, PHD.
Juilliard School, New York, NY is a performing arts conservatory established in 1905. It educates and trains undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leading music schools, with some of the most prestigious arts programs.
ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA is a nonprofit, private college founded in 1930. ArtCenter offers undergraduate and graduate programs in a wide variety of art and design fields, as well as public programs for children and high school students. U.S. News & World Report also ranks Art Center's Art, Industrial Design and Media Design Practices programs among the top 20 graduate schools in the U.S.
See also
The arts
Performance art
Visual arts
References
Blunt Anthony, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1600, 1940 (refs to 1985 edn), OUP,
Further reading
Ballard, A. (1898). Arrows; or, Teaching a fine art. New York: A.S. Barnes & Company.
Caffin, Charles Henry. (1901). Photography as a fine art; the achievements and possibilities of photographic art in America. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.
Crane, L., and Whiting, C. G. (1885). Art and the formation of taste: six lectures. Boston: Chautauqua Press. Chapter 4 : Fine Arts
Hegel, G. W. F., and Bosanquet, B. (1905). The introduction to Hegel's Philosophy of fine art. London: K. Paul, Trench &.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1998). Aesthetics: lectures on fine art. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Neville, H. (1875). The stage: its past and present in relation to fine art. London: R. Bentley and Son.
Rossetti, W. M. (1867). Fine art, chiefly contemporary: notices re-printed, with revisions. London: Macmillan.
Shiner, Larry. (2003). "The Invention of Art: A Cultural History". Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Torrey, J. (1874). A theory of fine art. New York: Scribner, Armstrong, and Co.
ALBA (2018). .
Antonio Luis Ramos Molina, La magia de la química fotográfica: El quimigrama. Conceptos, técnicas y procedimientos del quimigrama en la expresión artística, In: Tesis Doctoral, Universidad de Granada 2018.
Concepts in aesthetics
The arts | 0.77029 | 0.997995 | 0.768745 |
Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory | "Cultural Marxism" refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory that misrepresents Western Marxism (especially the Frankfurt School) as being responsible for modern progressive movements, identity politics, and political correctness. The conspiracy theory posits that there is an ongoing and intentional academic and intellectual effort to subvert Western society via a planned culture war that undermines the supposed Christian values of traditionalist conservatism and seeks to replace them with culturally liberal values.
A contemporary revival of the Nazi propaganda term "Cultural Bolshevism", the contemporary version of the conspiracy theory originated in the United States during the 1990s. Originally found only on the far-right political fringe, the term began to enter mainstream discourse in the 2010s and is now found globally. The conspiracy theory of a Marxist culture war is promoted by right-wing politicians, fundamentalist religious leaders, political commentators in mainstream print and television media, and white supremacist terrorists, and has been described as "a foundational element of the alt-right worldview". Scholarly analysis of the conspiracy theory has concluded that it has no basis in fact.
Origins
European reactionaries, following their defeat in the culture wars of the 1960s against liberals and Marxists, split from the mainstream conservatism of the "Old Right", forming a loose intellectual grouping (the "New Right") that criticised the contemporaneous society and attempted to transform cultural norms and values. In the 21st century, The European New Right influenced the US alt-right to focus on nonviolent ways to delegitimize the liberal status quo. This included criticising the perceived decline of Western culture and the influence of pop culture, which they claimed was the result of a collusion between capitalism and what they called "Cultural Marxism".
Michael Minnicino and the LaRouche Movement
Michael Minnicino's 1992 essay New Dark Age: The Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness' has been described as a starting point for the contemporary conspiracy theory in the United States. Minnicino's interest in the subject derived from his involvement in the LaRouche movement. Lyndon LaRouche had begun developing conspiracy theories regarding the Frankfurt School in 1974, when he alleged that Herbert Marcuse and Angela Davis were acting as part of COINTELPRO. Other features of the conspiracy theory had developed across the 1970s and 80s in the movement's magazine, EIR, according to the researcher Andrew Woods.
Minnicino's essay argued that late twentieth-century America had become a "New Dark Age" as a result of the abandonment of Judeo-Christian and Renaissance ideals, which he claimed had been replaced in modern art with a "tyranny of ugliness". He attributed this to an alleged plot to instill cultural pessimism in America, carried out in three stages by Georg Lukács, the Frankfurt School, and elite media figures and political campaigners.
Minnicino asserted there were two aspects of the Frankfurt School plan to destroy Western culture. Firstly, a cultural critique, by Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, to use art and culture to promote alienation and replace Christianity with socialism. This included the development of opinion polling and advertising techniques to brainwash the populace and control political campaigning. Secondly, the plan supposedly included attacks on the traditional family structure by Herbert Marcuse and Erich Fromm to promote women's rights, sexual liberation, and polymorphous perversity to subvert patriarchal authority. Minnicino claimed the Frankfurt School was responsible for elements of the counterculture of the 1960s and a "psychedelic revolution", distributing hallucinogenic drugs to encourage sexual perversion and promiscuity.
After the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway by Anders Breivik, a follower of the conspiracy theory, Minnicino repudiated his own essay. Minnicino wrote, "I still like to think that some of my research was validly conducted and useful. However, I see very clearly that the whole enterprise—and especially the conclusions—was hopelessly deformed by self-censorship and the desire to in some way support Mr. LaRouche's crack-brained world-view."
Paul Weyrich and William Lind
Paul Weyrich and William Lind were prominent figures of cultural conservatism in the United States; Weyrich had co-founded right-wing groups including the Free Congress Foundation, which he led. Weyrich equated political correctness with Cultural Marxism in a speech to the Conservative Leadership Conference of the Civitas Institute in 1998. He argued that "we have lost the culture war" and that "a legitimate strategy for us to follow is to look at ways to separate ourselves from the institutions that have been captured by the ideology of Political Correctness, or by other enemies of our traditional culture."
For the Free Congress Foundation, Weyrich commissioned Lind, a paleoconservative activist, to write a history of Cultural Marxism, defined as "a brand of Western Marxism ... commonly known as 'multiculturalism' or, less formally, Political Correctness." In the 2000 speech The Origins of Political Correctness, Lind wrote, "If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the Hippies and the peace movement, but back to World War I. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with classical Marxism, the parallels are very obvious."
Lind employed the conspiracy theory to argue that leftist and liberal ideologies were alien to the United States. He argued that Lukács and Antonio Gramsci had aimed to subvert Western culture because it was an obstacle to the Marxist goal of proletarian revolution. He alleged that the Frankfurt School under Max Horkheimer had hoped to destroy Western civilization and establish totalitarianism (even though some members had fled Nazi totalitarianism), using four main strategies. First, Lind said, Horkheimer's critical theory would undermine the authority of family and government while segregating society into opposing groups of victims and oppressors. Second, he said, concepts of the authoritarian personality and the F-scale measuring susceptibility to fascism, developed by Adorno, would be used to accuse Americans with right-wing views of having fascist principles. Third, he said, polymorphous perversity would undermine family structure by promoting free love and homosexuality. Fourth, he characterized Herbert Marcuse as saying that left victim-groups should be allowed to speak while groups on the right were silenced. Lind said that Marcuse considered a coalition of "Blacks, students, feminist women, and homosexuals" as a feasible vanguard of cultural revolution in the 1960s. Lind also wrote that Cultural Marxism was an example of fourth-generation warfare.
Pat Buchanan brought more attention among paleoconservatives to Weyrich and Lind's iteration of the conspiracy theory. Jérôme Jamin refers to Buchanan as the "intellectual momentum" of the conspiracy theory, and to Anders Breivik as the "violent impetus". Both of them relied on Lind, who edited a multi-authored work called "Political Correctness: A Short History of an Ideology" that Jamin calls the core text that "has been unanimously cited as 'the' reference since 2004."
Lind and the Free Congress Foundation produced the video Political Correctness: The Frankfurt School in 1999. It was further distributed by the Council of Conservative Citizens, a racist group, which added its own introduction. The film includes decontextualized clips of historian Martin Jay, who was not aware of the nature of the production at the time. Jay has since become a recognized expert on the conspiracy theory. Concerning right-wing exploitation of his statements, Jay wrote, "Those beans I allegedly spilled had been on the plate for a very long time," going on to confirm that the Frankfurt school were Marxists concerned with culture, and that Marcuse promulgated the idea of repressive tolerance. However, the conspiracy theory presents an "improverished cartoon version" of these ideas.
Jay wrote that Lind's documentary was effective Cultural Marxism propaganda because it "spawned a number of condensed, textual versions, which were reproduced on a number of radical, right-wing [web] sites." Jay further writes:
These, in turn, led to a plethora of new videos, now available on YouTube, which feature an odd cast of pseudo-experts regurgitating exactly the same line. The message is numbingly simplistic: All the 'ills' of modern American culture, from feminism, affirmative action, sexual liberation, racial equality, multiculturalism and gay rights to the decay of traditional education, and even environmentalism, are ultimately attributable to the insidious intellectual influence of the members of the Institute for Social Research who came to America in the 1930s.
Lind's documentary also featured Lazlo Pasztor, a former member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party who collaborated with the Nazis, and later served five years in prison for crimes against humanity.
Others
David Solway sees a "master plan" in Marxist revolutionaries and Cultural Marxists advocating for or predicting the dissolution of marriage. The charge is that they have a "'master plan' for the overthrow of Western civilization from within, personified by those members of the Frankfurt School [...]".
Popularization
Rachel Busbridge, Benjamin Moffitt and Joshua Thorburn describe the conspiracy theory as being promoted by the far-right, but that it "has gained ground over the past quarter century" and conclude that "[t]hrough the lens of the Cultural Marxist conspiracy, however, it is possible to discern a relationship of empowerment between mainstream and fringe, whereby certain talking points and tropes are able to be transmitted, taken up and adapted by 'mainstream' figures, thus giving credence and visibility to ideologies that would have previously been constrained to the margins."
Andrew Breitbart, founder of Breitbart News, authored a 2011 book Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World that represents one of the conspiracy theory's moves towards the mainstream. Breitbart's interpretation of the conspiracy is similar in most respects to that of Lind. Breitbart attributes the spread of the ideas of the Frankfurt School from universities to a wider audience to "trickledown intellectualism", and claims that Saul Alinsky introduced cultural Marxism to the masses in his 1971 handbook Rules for Radicals. Woods argues that Breitbart focuses on Alinsky in order to associate cultural Marxism with the modern Democratic Party, and Hillary Clinton. Breitbart claims that George Soros funds the alleged cultural Marxism project. Martin Jay wrote that Breitbart's book displayed "appalling ignorance" of the actual work of the Frankfurt School.
Breitbart News has published the idea that Theodor Adorno's atonal music was an attempt at inducing mental illness on a mass scale. Former Breitbart contributors Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, have promoted the conspiracy theory, especially the claim that Cultural Marxist activity is happening in universities.
In the late 2010s, Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson popularized the term, for example, by blaming "Cultural Marxism" for demanding the use of gender-neutral pronouns as a threat to free speech, thus moving the term into mainstream discourse. Critics state that Peterson misuses postmodernism as a stand-in term for the conspiracy without understanding its antisemitic implications, specifying that "Peterson isn't an ideological anti-Semite; there's every reason to believe that when he re-broadcasts fascist propaganda, he doesn't even hear the dog-whistles he's emitting".
Spencer Sunshine and journalist Ari Paul have criticized traditional media such as The New York Times, New York Magazine and The Washington Post for their coverage of the conspiracy theory, arguing that they have either not clarified the nature of the conspiracy theory or "allow[ed] it to live on their pages." An example is an article in The New York Times by David Brooks, who Paul and Sunshine argue "rebrands cultural Marxism as mere political correctness, giving the Nazi-inspired phrase legitimacy for the American right. It is dropped in or quoted in other stories—some of them lighthearted, like the fashion cues of the alt-right—without describing how fringe this notion is. It's akin to letting conspiracy theories about chem trails or vaccines get unearned space in mainstream press." Another is Andrew Sullivan, who went on "to denounce 'cultural Marxists' for inspiring social justice movements on campuses." Paul and Sunshine argue that failure to highlight the nature of the conspiracy theory "has bitter consequences. 'It is legitimizing the use of that framework, and therefore it's coded antisemitism.'"
Supporters of the conspiracy theory include paleoconservative political philosopher Paul Gottfried. Gottfried was at one time a student of Herbert Marcuse (with whom he disagreed) and edited the academic journal Telos. Under Gottfried's tenure, Telos became far-right in its outlook, writing favorably about Carl Schmitt and Alain de Benoist. Gottfried influenced Richard Spencer and has been called the "godfather" of the alt-right. He defended William Lind against accusations that "Cultural Marxism" has anti-semitic undertones. Gottfried identifies as reactionary and questions the value of political equality. Gottfried defines cultural Marxism as "a particular movement for change that combines some elements of Marxist socialism with a call for sexual and cultural revolution". However, he says that the term "cultural Marxism" is not ideal since the connection with Marxism is tenuous. Gottfried writes that the influence of the Frankfurt School lives on in modern left-wing politics mainly in the form of a tendency to conflate the right wing with fascism.
Aspects
The conspiracy theory states that an elite of Marxist theorists and Frankfurt School intellectuals are subverting Western society. None of the Frankfurt School's members were part of any kind of international conspiracy to destroy Western civilization, and Horkheimer strictly prohibited members of the Frankfurt school from engaging in political activism in the United States. According to Marc Tuters, "the analysis of Marxism proffered by this literature would certainly not stand up to scrutiny by any serious historian of the subject." Conspiracy theorists misrepresent the nature of Theodor Adorno's work on the Princeton Radio Project, wherein Adorno sought to understand the ability of mass media to influence the public, which he saw as a danger to be mitigated, rather than a plan to be implemented.
Conspiracy theorists position themselves as defending "Western civilization", which serves as a floating signifier often focusing on capitalism and freedom of speech. The conspiracy theory is an extreme assessment of political correctness, accusing the latter of being a project to destroy Christianity, nationalism, and the nuclear family. Scholars associated with the Frankfurt School sought to create a better society by warning against patriarchy and capitalist exploitation, goals that could seem threatening to others who have an interest in maintaining the status quo.
The conspiracy theory exaggerates the influence of the Frankfurt School; Stuart Jeffries, discussing it, noted their "negligible real-world impact". According to Joan Braune, Cultural Marxism in the sense referred to by the conspiracy theorists never existed, and does not correspond to any historical school of thought. She also states that Frankfurt School scholars are referred to as "Critical Theorists", not "Cultural Marxists". She points out that, contrary to the claims of the conspiracy theorists, postmodernism tends to be wary of or even hostile towards Marxism, including towards the grand narratives typically supported by Critical Theory.
Antisemitism
The author Matthew Rose wrote that arguments by the American neo-Nazi Francis Parker Yockey after World War II were an early example of the conspiracy theory.
William Lind on one occasion presented his theories at a Holocaust denial conference.
Spencer Sunshine, an associate fellow at the Political Research Associates, stated that "the focus on the Frankfurt School by the right serves to highlight its inherent Jewishness."
According to Samuel Moyn, "[t]he wider discourse around cultural Marxism today resembles nothing so much as a version of the Jewish Bolshevism myth updated for a new age." Maxime Dafaure likewise states that Cultural Marxism is a contemporary update of antisemitic conspiracy theories, such as the Nazi concept of "Cultural Bolshevism", and is directly associated with the concept of "Jewish Bolshevism". According to philosopher Slavoj Žižek, the term Cultural Marxism "plays the same structural role as that of the 'Jewish plot' in anti-Semitism: it projects (or rather, transposes) the immanent antagonism of our socio-economic life onto an external cause: what the conservative alt-right deplores as the ethical disintegration of our lives (feminism, attacks on patriarchy, political correctness, etc.) must have an external cause—because it cannot, for them, emerge out of the antagonisms and tensions of our own societies." Dominic Green wrote a conservative critique of conservatives' complaints about Cultural Marxism in Spectator USA, stating: "For the Nazis, the Frankfurter [sic] School and its vaguely Jewish exponents fell under the rubric of , 'Cultural Bolshevism.'"
Andrew Woods in the essay "Cultural Marxism and the Cathedral: Two Alt-Right Perspectives on Critical Theory" (2019), acknowledges comparisons to Cultural Bolshevism, but argues against the idea the modern conspiracy theory was derived from Nazi propaganda. He writes instead that its antisemitism is "profoundly American". In Commune magazine, Woods detailed a genealogy of the conspiracy theory beginning with the LaRouche movement.
Kevin MacDonald has written several anti-semitic texts centering on the Frankfurt School. MacDonald criticized Breivik's manifesto for not being more hostile to Jews.
Circulation in the alt-right
Neo-Nazi and white supremacists promoted the conspiracy theory and help expand its reach. Websites such as the American Renaissance have run articles with titles like "Cultural Marxism in Action: Media Matters Engineers Cancellation of Vdare.com Conference". The Daily Stormer regularly runs stories about "Cultural Marxism" with titles such as "Jewish Cultural Marxism is Destroying Abercrombie & Fitch", "Hollywood Strikes Again: Cultural Marxism through the Medium of Big Box-Office Movies" and "The Left-Center-Right Political Spectrum of Immigration = Cultural Marxism".
Neo-nazis associated with Stormfront have strategically used the Frankfurt School as a euphemism to refer to Jewish people more generally, in venues where more forthright anti-semitism would be censored or rejected.
Timothy Matthews criticized the Frankfurt School from an explicitly Christian right perspective in the Catholic weekly newspaper The Wanderer. According to Matthews, the Frankfurt School, under the influence of Satan, seeks to destroy the traditional Christian family using critical theory and Marcuse's concept of polymorphous perversity, thereby encouraging homosexuality and breaking down the patriarchal family. Andrew Woods wrote that the plot Matthews describes does not resemble the Frankfurt School so much as the alleged aims of communists in The Naked Communist by W. Cleon Skousen.
Nonetheless, Matthews' account was circulated credulously by right-wing and alt-right news media, as well as in far-right internet forums, such as Stormfront.
Following the 2011 Norway attacks, the conspiracy theory was taken up by a number of far-right outlets and forums, including alt-right websites such as AltRight Corporation, InfoWars and VDARE which have promoted the theory. The AltRight Corporation's website, altright.com, featured articles with titles such as "Ghostbusters and the Suicide of Cultural Marxism", "#3 — Sweden: The World Capital of Cultural Marxism" and "Beta Leftists, Cultural Marxism and Self-Entitlement". InfoWars ran numerous headlines such as "Is Cultural Marxism America's New Mainline Ideology?" VDARE ran similar articles with similar titles such as "Yes, Virginia (Dare) There Is A Cultural Marxism—And It's Taking Over Conservatism Inc."
Richard B. Spencer, head of the National Policy Institute, has promoted the conspiracy theory. Spencer's master's thesis was on the topic of Theodor Adorno.
A combination of homophobia and anti-globalism within the alt-right has produced the concept of "", a variant of "Cultural Marxism" alleging that media and business elites seek to impose a homogeneous "uniculture" on the world, and to weaken populations by promoting feminism, sexual freedom, gender fluidity, liberalism, and immigration. "Globohomo" stands in for global neoliberalism, which is believed to be responsible for replacing a diversity of local cultures (especially white, Western culture) with generic consumerism. The concept was promoted by pick-up artist James C. Weidmann through his blog Chateau Heartiste.
Political violence
On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik murdered 77 people in the 2011 Norway attacks. About 90 minutes before enacting the violence, Breivik e-mailed 1,003 people his manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence and a copy of Political Correctness: A Short History of an Ideology. Cultural Marxism was the primary subject of Breivik's manifesto. Breivik wrote that the "sexually transmitted disease (STD) epidemic in Western Europe is a result of cultural Marxism", that "Cultural Marxism defines Muslims, feminist women, homosexuals, and some additional minority groups, as virtuous, and they view ethnic Christian European men as evil" and that the "European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg is a cultural-Marxist-controlled political entity."
A number of other far-right terrorists have espoused the conspiracy theory. Jack Renshaw, a neo-Nazi child sex offender convicted of plotting the assassination of Labour MP Rosie Cooper, promoted the conspiracy theory in a video for the British National Party. John T. Earnest, the perpetrator of the 2019 Poway synagogue shooting, was inspired by white nationalist ideology. In an online manifesto, Earnest stated that he believed "every Jew is responsible for the meticulously planned genocide of the European race" through the promotion of "cultural Marxism and communism."
Concerning the real-life political violence caused by the conspiracy theory, law professor Samuel Moyn wrote: "That 'cultural Marxism' is a crude slander, referring to something that does not exist, unfortunately does not mean actual people are not being set up to pay the price, as scapegoats, to appease a rising sense of anger and anxiety. And for that reason, 'cultural Marxism' is not only a sad diversion from framing legitimate grievances but also a dangerous lure in an increasingly unhinged moment."
Analysis
Sociologists Julia Lux and John David Jordan argue that the conspiracy theory can be broken down into its key elements: "misogynist anti-feminism, neo-eugenic science (broadly defined as various forms of genetic determinism), genetic and cultural white supremacy, McCarthyist anti-Leftism fixated on postmodernism, radical anti-intellectualism applied to the social sciences, and the idea that a purge is required to restore normality." They go on to say that all of these items are "supported, proselytised and academically buoyed by intellectuals, politicians, and media figures with extremely credible educational backgrounds."
In "Taking On Hate: One NGO's Strategies" (2009), the political scientist Heidi Beirich says the Cultural Marxism theory demonizes the cultural bêtes noires of conservatism such as feminists, LGBT social movements, secular humanists, multiculturalists, sex educators, environmentalists, immigrants and black nationalists.
Jamin writes on the flexibility of the conspiracy theory to serve the rhetorical purposes of different groups with diverse sets of enemies:
Literary scholar Aaron Hanlon says "the objectives of proponents of conspiratorial views about Cultural Marxism were (and are) not to give a current account of Critical Theory, but to advance a conservative version of US liberalism against the scapegoat of global conspiracy theory" and "In short, what Critical Theory provides to those who use 'critical theory' to signal a socialist threat to liberalism is not only a link to Marxist thought, but also a straw man against which to advance neoliberal politics."
Philosophy professor Matthew Sharpe on The Conversation noted that "The last four decades have seen a relative decline of Marxist thought in academia. Its influence has been superseded by 'post-structuralist' (or 'postmodernist') thinkers like Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler and Gilles Deleuze. Post-structuralism is primarily indebted to thinkers of the European 'conservative revolution' led by Nietzsche and Heidegger. Where Marxism is built on hopes for reason, revolution and social progress, post-structuralist thinkers roundly reject such optimistic 'grand narratives'. Post-structuralists are as preoccupied with culture as our conservative news columnists. But their analyses of identity and difference challenge the primacy Marxism affords to economics as much as they oppose liberal or conservative ideas."
By country
Australia
Shortly after the Norway attacks, mainstream right-wing politicians began espousing the conspiracy. In 2013, Cory Bernardi, a member of the ruling Liberal Party, wrote in his book The Conservative Revolution that "cultural Marxism has been one of the most corrosive influences on society over the last century." Five years later, Fraser Anning, former Australian Senator, initially sitting as a member of Pauline Hanson's One Nation and then Katter's Australian Party, declared during his maiden speech in 2018 that "Cultural Marxism is not a throwaway line but a literal truth" and spoke of the need for a "final solution to the immigration problem."
Brazil
In Brazil, the government of Jair Bolsonaro contained a number of administration members who promoted the conspiracy theory, including Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president's son who "enthusiastically described Steve Bannon as an opponent of Cultural Marxism." Jair Bolsonaro sought to expunge the influence of Paulo Freire from Brazilian universities. This had the opposite effect, driving sales of Freire's book Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Cuba
In 2010, former head of state Fidel Castro called attention to a version of the conspiracy theory by Daniel Estulin, which proposed that the Bilderberg Group sought to influence world events via the spread of rock and roll music. Estulin's work was based on Minnicino's 1992 essay which emphasized Adorno's involvement in the Radio Research Project. Martin Jay described Estulin's text as "risible" and explained that, although some in the Frankfurt School wrote about the potential for mass media to pacify labor movements, it was something they lamented rather than planned to implement. Castro invited Estulin to Cuba, where they issued a joint statement claiming Osama bin Laden was a CIA asset and that the United States was planning a nuclear war against Russia. In 2019, Jay wrote that Castro's interest in the conspiracy theory had no long-term consequences.
Hungary
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has invoked a cultural Marxism frame in justifying certain illiberal policies and authoritarian centralization of power. Orbán, who wrote a master's thesis on Antonio Gramsci, references Gramscian cultural hegemony as an impetus to contest left-aligned epistemic institutions, including universities and the media. In alignment with the cultural Marxism frame, Hungarian minister Bence Rétvári said that gender studies should be regarded as ideology rather than science. The Hungarian government withdrew state recognition of gender studies degree programs in 2018.
United Kingdom
During the Brexit debate in 2019, a number of Conservatives and Brexiteers were criticized for using the phrase "cultural Marxism" due to its conspiracy theory connotations.
Suella Braverman, the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), said in a pro-Brexit speech for the Bruges Group, a Eurosceptic think tank, that "[w]e are engaging in many battles right now. As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism, where banning things is becoming de rigueur, where freedom of speech is becoming a taboo, where our universities — quintessential institutions of liberalism — are being shrouded in censorship and a culture of no-platforming." Her usage of the conspiracy theory was condemned as hate speech by other MPs, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the anti-racist organization Hope Not Hate. After meeting with her later, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said that she is "not in any way antisemitic." Braverman was alerted to this connection by journalist Dawn Foster, but she defended using the term. Braverman denied that the term Cultural Marxism is an antisemitic trope, stating during a question and answer session "whether she stood by the term, given its far-right connections. She said: 'Yes, I do believe we are in a battle against cultural Marxism, as I said. We have culture evolving from the far left which has allowed the snuffing out of freedom of speech, freedom of thought.'" Braverman further added that she was "very aware of that ongoing creep of cultural Marxism, which has come from Jeremy Corbyn."
Nigel Farage has promoted the cultural Marxist conspiracy theory, for which he has been condemned by Jewish groups, such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews, as well as a number of Members of Parliament, who said he used it as a dog-whistle code for antisemitism. Farage said that the United Kingdom faced "cultural Marxism", a term described in its report by The Guardian as "originating in a conspiracy theory based on a supposed plot against national governments, which is closely linked to the far right and antisemitism." Farage's spokesman "condemned previous criticism of his language by Jewish groups and others as 'pathetic' and 'a manufactured story.'"
In The War Against the BBC (2020), Patrick Barwise and Peter York write how the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory has been pushed by some on the right as part of an alleged bias of the BBC. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown cites Dominic Cummings, Tim Montgomerie and the right-wing website Guido Fawkes as examples of "relentlessly [complaining] about the institution's 'cultural Marxism' or left-wing bias. This now happens on a near-daily basis."
In November 2020, a letter signed by 28 Conservative MPs, published in The Telegraph, accused the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'". The use of this terminology in the letter was described by the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, Jewish Council for Racial Equality, anti-racist charity Hope Not Hate and the Campaign Against Antisemitism as antisemitic.
United States
Cultural Marxism discourse was found in several strands of U.S. right-wing politics post-2000, including the religious right and the Tea Party movement.
Shortly after the election of Donald Trump, Alex Ross wrote an article in The New Yorker titled, "The Frankfurt School Knew Trump was Coming". It argued that Trump represented the kind of authoritarian identified by Theodor Adorno's F-scale. This idea prompted academic conferences on the same theme at the New School for Social Research and the Leo Baeck Institute. Martin Jay linked election rhetoric of Trump supporters as "deplorables" to Adorno's authoritarian personality concept, saying it "counterproductively forecloses treating those it categorized as anything but objects of contempt." Jay encouraged empathy and dialogue to resolve political polarization.
In 2017, it was reported that advisor Rich Higgins was fired from the United States National Security Council for publishing the memorandum '"POTUS & Political Warfare" that alleged the existence of a left-wing conspiracy to destroy Donald Trump's presidency because "American public intellectuals of Cultural Marxism, foreign Islamicists, and globalist bankers, the news media, and politicians from the Republican and Democratic parties were attacking Trump, because he represents an existential threat to the cultural Marxist memes that dominate the prevailing cultural narrative in the US." Higgins also asserted that the Frankfurt School "sought to deconstruct everything in order to destroy it, giving rise to society-wide nihilism." The memo was read by Donald Trump Jr. who passed on a copy of it to his father.
Matt Shea, a Republican former member of the Washington House of Representatives has also promoted Higgins' memo.
In June 2023, Florida governor and then-candidate for President in the 2024 election Ron DeSantis defined "woke" as a "form of Cultural Marxism". Texas U.S. senator Ted Cruz used both terms in the title of his 2023 book, Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America.
South Korea
National Human Rights Commission of Korea chairperson Ahn Chang-ho stated "Many cultural Marxists declared 'Our fundamental enemy is Christianity' and promoted homosexuality as a means of bringing about a communist revolution.". During nomination hearing he said "I have heard that there are some neo-Marxists who suggest that homosexuality is a key means in a communist revolution." and "[if anti-discrimination law is enacted,] Marxists and fascists operate with impunity in society."
Online harassment
Gamergate was an online harassment campaign beginning in 2014, particularly targeting women, that had the purported aim of promoting ethics in video games journalism. Participants in Gamergate referred to their opposition as cultural Marxists, and cited free-speech grounds to justify harassing their targets. Noted harassment associated with the online movement included doxing, swatting, and threats of rape and death. The Southern Poverty Law Center described the Gamergate campaign as one in a number of examples of male supremacy, which it said views society as "a matriarchy propped up by 'cultural Marxism' meant to eradicate or subjugate men".
See also
Blood libel
Doctors' plot
Great Replacement
Pizzagate conspiracy theory
Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory
QAnon
White genocide conspiracy theory
Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory
Notes
References
Further reading
1992 neologisms
2011 Norway attacks
Alt-right
Anti-Marxism
Antisemitic tropes
Conspiracy theories in Europe
Conspiracy theories involving Jews
Conspiracy theories in the United States
Criticism of multiculturalism
Criticism of political correctness
Fascist propaganda
LaRouche movement
Pseudohistory | 0.76969 | 0.998729 | 0.768711 |
Reflexivity (social theory) | In epistemology, and more specifically, the sociology of knowledge, reflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect, especially as embedded in human belief structures. A reflexive relationship is multi-directional when the causes and the effects affect the reflexive agent in a layered or complex sociological relationship. The complexity of this relationship can be furthered when epistemology includes religion.
Within sociology more broadly—the field of origin—reflexivity means an act of self-reference where existence engenders examination, by which the thinking action "bends back on", refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination. It commonly refers to the capacity of an agent to recognise forces of socialisation and alter their place in the social structure. A low level of reflexivity would result in individuals shaped largely by their environment (or "society"). A high level of social reflexivity would be defined by individuals shaping their own norms, tastes, politics, desires, and so on. This is similar to the notion of autonomy. (See also structure and agency and social mobility.)
Within economics, reflexivity refers to the self-reinforcing effect of market sentiment, whereby rising prices attract buyers whose actions drive prices higher still until the process becomes unsustainable. This is an instance of a positive feedback loop. The same process can operate in reverse leading to a catastrophic collapse in prices.
Overview
In social theory, reflexivity may occur when theories in a discipline should apply equally to the discipline itself; for example, in the case that the theories of knowledge construction in the field of sociology of scientific knowledge should apply equally to knowledge construction by sociology of scientific knowledge practitioners, or when the subject matter of a discipline should apply equally to the individual practitioners of that discipline (e.g., when psychological theory should explain the psychological processes of psychologists). More broadly, reflexivity is considered to occur when the observations of observers in the social system affect the very situations they are observing, or when theory being formulated is disseminated to and affects the behaviour of the individuals or systems the theory is meant to be objectively modelling. Thus, for example, an anthropologist living in an isolated village may affect the village and the behaviour of its citizens under study. The observations are not independent of the participation of the observer.
Reflexivity is, therefore, a methodological issue in the social sciences analogous to the observer effect. Within that part of recent sociology of science that has been called the strong programme, reflexivity is suggested as a methodological norm or principle, meaning that a full theoretical account of the social construction of, say, scientific, religious or ethical knowledge systems, should itself be explainable by the same principles and methods as used for accounting for these other knowledge systems. This points to a general feature of naturalised epistemologies, that such theories of knowledge allow for specific fields of research to elucidate other fields as part of an overall self-reflective process: any particular field of research occupied with aspects of knowledge processes in general (e.g., history of science, cognitive science, sociology of science, psychology of perception, semiotics, logic, neuroscience) may reflexively study other such fields yielding to an overall improved reflection on the conditions for creating knowledge.
Reflexivity includes both a subjective process of self-consciousness inquiry and the study of social behaviour with reference to theories about social relationships.
History
The principle of reflexivity was perhaps first enunciated by the sociologists William I. Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, in their 1928 book The child in America: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences". The theory was later termed the "Thomas theorem".
Sociologist Robert K. Merton (1948, 1949) built on the Thomas principle to define the notion of a self-fulfilling prophecy: that once a prediction or prophecy is made, actors may accommodate their behaviours and actions so that a statement that would have been false becomes true or, conversely, a statement that would have been true becomes false - as a consequence of the prediction or prophecy being made. The prophecy has a constitutive impact on the outcome or result, changing the outcome from what would otherwise have happened.
Reflexivity was taken up as an issue in science in general by Karl Popper (1957), who in his book The poverty of historicism highlighted the influence of a prediction upon the event predicted, calling this the 'Oedipus effect' in reference to the Greek tale in which the sequence of events fulfilling the Oracle's prophecy is greatly influenced by the prophecy itself. Popper initially considered such self-fulfilling prophecy a distinguishing feature of social science, but later came to see that in the natural sciences, particularly biology and even molecular biology, something equivalent to expectation comes into play and can act to bring about that which has been expected. It was also taken up by Ernest Nagel (1961). Reflexivity presents a problem for science because if a prediction can lead to changes in the system that the prediction is made in relation to, it becomes difficult to assess scientific hypotheses by comparing the predictions they entail with the events that actually occur. The problem is even more difficult in the social sciences.
Reflexivity has been taken up as the issue of "reflexive prediction" in economic science by Grunberg and Modigliani (1954) and Herbert A. Simon (1954), has been debated as a major issue in relation to the Lucas critique, and has been raised as a methodological issue in economic science arising from the issue of reflexivity in the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) literature.
Reflexivity has emerged as both an issue and a solution in modern approaches to the problem of structure and agency, for example in the work of Anthony Giddens in his structuration theory and Pierre Bourdieu in his genetic structuralism.
Giddens, for example, noted that constitutive reflexivity is possible in any social system, and that this presents a distinct methodological problem for the social sciences. Giddens accentuated this theme with his notion of "reflexive modernity" – the argument that, over time, society is becoming increasingly more self-aware, reflective, and hence reflexive.
Bourdieu argued that the social scientist is inherently laden with biases, and only by becoming reflexively aware of those biases can the social scientists free themselves from them and aspire to the practice of an objective science. For Bourdieu, therefore, reflexivity is part of the solution, not the problem.
Michel Foucault's The order of things can be said to touch on the issue of Reflexivity. Foucault examines the history of Western thought since the Renaissance and argues that each historical epoch (he identifies three and proposes a fourth) has an episteme, or "a historical a priori", that structures and organises knowledge. Foucault argues that the concept of man emerged in the early 19th century, what he calls the "Age of Man", with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. He finishes the book by posing the problem of the age of man and our pursuit of knowledge- where "man is both knowing subject and the object of his own study"; thus, Foucault argues that the social sciences, far from being objective, produce truth in their own mutually exclusive discourses.
In economics
Economic philosopher George Soros, influenced by ideas put forward by his tutor, Karl Popper (1957), has been an active promoter of the relevance of reflexivity to economics, first propounding it publicly in his 1987 book The alchemy of finance. He regards his insights into market behaviour from applying the principle as a major factor in the success of his financial career.
Reflexivity is inconsistent with general equilibrium theory, which stipulates that markets move towards equilibrium and that non-equilibrium fluctuations are merely random noise that will soon be corrected. In equilibrium theory, prices in the long run at equilibrium reflect the underlying economic fundamentals, which are unaffected by prices. Reflexivity asserts that prices do in fact influence the fundamentals and that these newly influenced sets of fundamentals then proceed to change expectations, thus influencing prices; the process continues in a self-reinforcing pattern. Because the pattern is self-reinforcing, markets tend towards disequilibrium. Sooner or later they reach a point where the sentiment is reversed and negative expectations become self-reinforcing in the downward direction, thereby explaining the familiar pattern of boom and bust cycles. An example Soros cites is the procyclical nature of lending, that is, the willingness of banks to ease lending standards for real estate loans when prices are rising, then raising standards when real estate prices are falling, reinforcing the boom and bust cycle. He further suggests that property price inflation is essentially a reflexive phenomenon: house prices are influenced by the sums that banks are prepared to advance for their purchase, and these sums are determined by the banks' estimation of the prices that the property would command.
Soros has often claimed that his grasp of the principle of reflexivity is what has given him his "edge" and that it is the major factor contributing to his successes as a trader. For several decades there was little sign of the principle being accepted in mainstream economic circles, but there has been an increase of interest following the crash of 2008, with academic journals, economists, and investors discussing his theories.
Economist and former columnist of the Financial Times, Anatole Kaletsky, argued that Soros' concept of reflexivity is useful in understanding China's economy and how the Chinese government manages it.
In 2009, Soros funded the launch of the Institute for New Economic Thinking with the hope that it would develop reflexivity further. The Institute works with several types of heterodox economics, particularly the post-Keynesian branch.
In sociology
Margaret Archer has written extensively on laypeople's reflexivity. For her, human reflexivity is a mediating mechanism between structural properties, or the individual's social context, and action, or the individual's ultimate concerns. Reflexive activity, according to Archer, increasingly takes the place of habitual action in late modernity since routine forms prove ineffective in dealing with the complexity of modern life trajectories.
While Archer emphasises the agentic aspect of reflexivity, reflexive orientations can themselves be seen as being "socially and temporally embedded". For example, Elster points out that reflexivity cannot be understood without taking into account the fact that it draws on background configurations (e.g., shared meanings, as well as past social engagement and lived experiences of the social world) to be operative.
In anthropology
In anthropology, reflexivity has come to have two distinct meanings, one that refers to the researcher's awareness of an analytic focus on his or her relationship to the field of study, and the other that attends to the ways that cultural practices involve consciousness and commentary on themselves.
The first sense of reflexivity in anthropology is part of social science's more general self-critique in the wake of theories by Michel Foucault and others about the relationship of power and knowledge production. Reflexivity about the research process became an important part of the critique of the colonial roots and scientistic methods of anthropology in the "writing cultures" movement associated with James Clifford and George Marcus, as well as many other anthropologists. Rooted in literary criticism and philosophical analysis of the relationship among the anthropologists, the people represented in texts, and their textual representations, this approach has fundamentally changed ethical and methodological approaches in anthropology. As with the feminist and anti-colonial critiques that provide some of reflexive anthropology's inspiration, the reflexive understanding of the academic and political power of representations, analysis of the process of "writing culture" has become a necessary part of understanding the situation of the ethnographer in the fieldwork situation. Objectification of people and cultures and analysis of them only as objects of study has been largely rejected in favor of developing more collaborative approaches that respect local people's values and goals. Nonetheless, many anthropologists have accused the "writing cultures" approach of muddying the scientific aspects of anthropology with too much introspection about fieldwork relationships, and reflexive anthropology have been heavily attacked by more positivist anthropologists. Considerable debate continues in anthropology over the role of postmodernism and reflexivity, but most anthropologists accept the value of the critical perspective, and generally only argue about the relevance of critical models that seem to lead anthropology away from its earlier core foci.
The second kind of reflexivity studied by anthropologists involves varieties of self-reference in which people and cultural practices call attention to themselves. One important origin for this approach is Roman Jakobson in his studies of deixis and the poetic function in language, but the work of Mikhail Bakhtin on carnival has also been important. Within anthropology, Gregory Bateson developed ideas about meta-messages (subtext) as part of communication, while Clifford Geertz's studies of ritual events such as the Balinese cock-fight point to their role as foci for public reflection on the social order. Studies of play and tricksters further expanded ideas about reflexive cultural practices. Reflexivity has been most intensively explored in studies of performance, public events, rituals, and linguistic forms but can be seen any time acts, things, or people are held up and commented upon or otherwise set apart for consideration. In researching cultural practices, reflexivity plays an important role, but because of its complexity and subtlety, it often goes under-investigated or involves highly specialised analyses.
One use of studying reflexivity is in connection to authenticity. Cultural traditions are often imagined as perpetuated as stable ideals by uncreative actors. Innovation may or may not change tradition, but since reflexivity is intrinsic to many cultural activities, reflexivity is part of tradition and not inauthentic. The study of reflexivity shows that people have both self-awareness and creativity in culture. They can play with, comment upon, debate, modify, and objectify culture through manipulating many different features in recognised ways. This leads to the metaculture of conventions about managing and reflecting upon culture.
In international relations
In international relations, the question of reflexivity was first raised in the context of the so-called ‘Third Debate’ of the late 1980s. This debate marked a break with the positivist orthodoxy of the discipline. The post-positivist theoretical restructuring was seen to introduce reflexivity as a cornerstone of critical scholarship. For Mark Neufeld, reflexivity in International Relations was characterized by 1) self-awareness of underlying premises, 2) an acknowledgment of the political-normative dimension of theoretical paradigms, and 3) the affirmation that judgement about the merits of paradigms is possible despite the impossibility of neutral or apolitical knowledge production.
Since the nineties, reflexivity has become an explicit concern of constructivist, poststructuralist, feminist, and other critical approaches to International Relations. In The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson identified reflexivity of one of the four main methodologies into which contemporary International Relations research can be divided, alongside neopositivism, critical realism, and analyticism.
Reflexivity and the status of the social sciences
Flanagan has argued that reflexivity complicates all three of the traditional roles that are typically played by a classical science: explanation, prediction and control. The fact that individuals and social collectivities are capable of self-inquiry and adaptation is a key characteristic of real-world social systems, differentiating the social sciences from the physical sciences. Reflexivity, therefore, raises real issues regarding the extent to which the social sciences may ever be viewed as "hard" sciences analogous to classical physics, and raises questions about the nature of the social sciences.
Methods for the implementation of reflexivity
A new generation of scholars has gone beyond (meta-)theoretical discussion to develop concrete research practices for the implementation of reflexivity. These scholars have addressed the ‘how to’ question by turning reflexivity from an informal process into a formal research practice. While most research focuses on how scholars can become more reflexive toward their positionality and situatedness, some have sought to build reflexive methods in relation to other processes of knowledge production, such as the use of language. The latter has been advanced by the work of Professor Audrey Alejandro in a trilogy on reflexive methods. The first article of the trilogy develops what is referred to as Reflexive Discourse Analysis, a critical methodology for the implementation of reflexivity that integrates discourse theory. The second article further expands the methodological tools for practicing reflexivity by introducing a three-stage research method for problematizing linguistic categories. The final piece of the trilogy adds a further method for linguistic reflexivity, namely the Reflexive Review. This method provides four steps that aim to add a linguistic and reflexive dimension to the practice of writing a literature review.
See also
References
Further reading
Bryant, C. G. A. (2002). "George Soros's theory of reflexivity: a comparison with the theories of Giddens and Beck and a consideration of its practical value", Economy and society, 31 (1), pp. 112–131.
Flanagan, O. J. (1981). "Psychology, progress, and the problem of reflexivity: a study in the epistemological foundations of psychology", Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences, 17, pp. 375–386.
Gay, D. (2009). Reflexivity and development economics. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Grunberg, E. and F. Modigliani (1954). "The predictability of social events", Journal of political economy, 62 (6), pp. 465–478.
Merton, R. K. (1948). "The self-fulfilling prophecy", Antioch Review, 8, pp. 193–210.
Merton, R. K. (1949/1957), Social theory and social structure. Rev. ed. The Free Press, Glencoe, IL.
Nagel, E. (1961), The structure of science: problems in the logic of scientific explanation, Harcourt, New York.
Popper, K. (1957), The poverty of historicism, Harper and Row, New York.
Simon, H. (1954). "Bandwagon and underdog effects of election predictions", Public opinion quarterly, 18, pp. 245–253.
Soros, G (1987) The alchemy of finance (Simon & Schuster, 1988) (paperback: Wiley, 2003; )
Soros, G (2008) The new paradigm for financial markets: the credit crisis of 2008 and what it means (PublicAffairs, 2008)
Soros, G (2006) The age of fallibility: consequences of the war on terror (PublicAffairs, 2006)
Soros, G The bubble of American supremacy: correcting the misuse of American power (PublicAffairs, 2003) (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2004; )
Soros, G George Soros on globalization (PublicAffairs, 2002) (paperback; PublicAffairs, 2005; )
Soros, G (2000) Open society: reforming global capitalism (PublicAffairs, 2001)
Thomas, W. I. (1923), The unadjusted girl : with cases and standpoint for behavior analysis, Little, Brown, Boston, MA.
Thomas, W. I. and D. S. Thomas (1928), The child in America : behavior problems and programs, Knopf, New York.
Tsekeris, C. (2013). "Toward a chaos-friendly reflexivity", Entelequia, 16, pp. 71–89.
Woolgar, S. (1988). Knowledge and reflexivity: new frontiers in the sociology of knowledge. London and Beverly Hills: Sage.
Sociological terminology
Sociological theories
George Soros
Self-reference | 0.772916 | 0.994522 | 0.768681 |
Varieties of criticism | There are many varieties of positive and negative effects of criticism. This article describes common types that occur regularly in everyday life. For other criteria that classify criticisms, see . For more subject-specific information, see the pages on topics such as art, film, literature, theatre, or architecture.
Aesthetic criticism
Aesthetic criticism is a part of aesthetics concerned with critically judging beauty and ugliness, tastefulness and tastelessness, style and fashion, meaning and quality of design—and issues of human sentiment and affect (the evoking of pleasure and pain, likes and dislikes). Most parts of human life have an aesthetic dimension, which means there is plenty potential for criticism. Often architecture criticism is considered the highest form of aesthetic criticism, because architecture combines art, science and technology to build a pleasing home environment, a "living space" that people must inhabit everyday, more or less permanently.
An aesthetic critic however does not simply say "it's beautiful" or "it's ugly." Instead, the aim is to explain the meaning of a work of art, why something is beautiful or ugly, or how the meaning of a design should be interpreted, the stronger and weaker sides of a cultural object, etc. For this purpose, aesthetic critics have a toolkit of criteria they can use in their commentary. These criteria include such things as:
The motive behind creative activity
Total context within which creative activity occurred
Techniques or physical forces used to create the aesthetic effect
Values, sentiments, interests, needs or ideals that a phenomenon communicates
Relationship of an object of criticism to associated objects, themes, traditions, or genres
Interaction between observer and observed, and the overall effect
Function the object of the criticism fulfills
Using these kinds of criteria, which usually assume extensive relevant knowledge, aesthetic critics can inform their audience about the achievements and limitations of the object of aesthetic criticism. In this way, they can draw attention to aesthetic issues most people might have overlooked, educate people in their aesthetic appreciation, and stimulate debate about what kinds of aesthetic expressions are preferable.
In part, aesthetic criticism can genuinely prove aesthetic propositions;– if they concern matters of factual or logical evidence. For example, either an artist had a certain motivation, or s/he did not. But insofar as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", there is always also a subjective element in aesthetic criticism, which is not provable, but expresses a preference, a personal taste. It may be possible to explain that preference, but it may not be possible to compare it meaningfully with other preferences.
Logical criticism
In a logical criticism, an objection is raised about an idea, argument, action or situation on the ground that it does not make rational sense (there is something wrong with it because it is illogical, it does not follow, or it violates basic conventions of meaning. Such an objection usually refers to assumptions, coherence, implications, and intent. Thus, the illogicality may involve something that:
Is being assumed or inferred improperly, without reasonable ground
Is internally inconsistent or self-contradictory in a way that makes it impossible to maintain all its content at once (because it would affirm and negate the same thing)
Has implications or effects that are contrary to itself, or negate itself
Has effects contrary to its own purpose or intent, or contrary to the purpose or intent of someone concerned with it
involves a language that superficially makes sense, but defies logic when examined closely
Logical criticism is rooted in the basic cognitive principles that guide the behavior of humans and other sentient organisms: stimulus identification ("this is the recognized identity of X"), stimulus distinction ("this is different from that"), and stimulus generalization ("this is the same, or like that" or "this is an instance of type X"). The Greek philosopher Aristotle stated the most basic building blocks of logic as the law of identity, the law of non-contradiction and the law of the excluded middle. These are basic conditions for making meaningful sense, and for non-arbitrary representation.
Logical criticism presupposes that people accept at least the most basic rules of logic. If people believe "things mean just what they want them to mean", or if people constantly "change the meaning to suit the moment", logical criticism is not at all effective. Logical criticism assumes that there is a definite, identifiable, discoverable meaning, or at least that something can be proved meaningless (because it lacks any predictable or knowable pattern).
Logical criticism also presupposes that people agree about at least some basic facts and assumptions about the situation, or have in common at least some beliefs. It is not possible to argue about a logical criticism with somebody with whom one does not share any assumptions at all, or who is unwilling to consider at least the possibility that a given proposition might be true (or false). Very often, logical arguments take the form "suppose that X is the case", but if people reject the "suppose" or cannot imagine it, it becomes difficult to get the logical criticism off the ground.
Factual criticism
In a factual (empirical) criticism, an objection is raised about an idea, argument, action or situation on the ground that there is something wrong with the evidence of the known experience relevant to it. Typically,
Relevant purported facts are labeled false or implausible, i.e., not facts at all.
Relevant facts are said not to have been definitely established as true, or the likelihood that they are true, has not been established.
Relevant facts mentioned imply different stories that cannot be reconciled. Accepting a fact would imply another fact that contradicts it in some way (this overlaps with logical criticism).
The presentation of facts is biased. Important relevant facts are missing, or the total factual context is ignored.
Other relevant facts, which have not been mentioned, shed a different light on the issue.
Facts focused upon are not relevant to the purpose of those concerned.
Logical and factual criticism is generally considered important to ensure the consistency, authenticity and predictability of behavior of any kind. Without the presence of the relevant consistency, authenticity and predictability, one cannot make appropriate sense of behavior, which becomes disorienting and creates confusion, and therefore cannot guide behavioral choices effectively.
Philosophers have often debated about "what makes a fact, a fact." The basic problem with facts is that observations, made using the five senses, are never completely free from interpretation – to understand a fact as a fact, requires being able to place its meaning, which in turn requires basic cognitive categorizations not contained in the observed thing itself. A fact is concluded in the interaction between the observer and the observed.
Nevertheless, most people agree there are such things as the stubborn facts, i.e., evidence no one can deny, because everybody experiences the evidence in the same way, under the same conditions. That reality is essential for effective factual criticism. If people regard factual evidence as simply a subjective interpretation of experience, then factual criticism is ineffective. Factual criticism assumes, that people agree there exists a reality beyond their personal experience, that it is possible to obtain reliable information about it, and that people ordinarily experience those facts in the same way.
Positive criticism
A positive criticism draws attention to a good or positive aspect of something that is being ignored or disregarded. People may be able to see only the negative side of something, so that it becomes necessary to highlight the positive side. A positive criticism may also be a type of self-justification or self-defense.
The term "positive criticism" is also used in the sense that the criticism is "well-meant" or "well-intentioned" ("I mean it in a positive way"). Here, the criticism intends to serve a purpose that is constructive, or that the targeted person would approve of.
The basic aim of positive criticism is usually to provide a better orientation, or frame of reference, for behavior. It provides ideas people can act on to improve the situation. At the very least, it provides more choices for behavior, and therefore potentially enlarges behavioral freedom.
A positive criticism can be stated as a positive alternative ("there are good reasons for thinking that we are better off to do Y, instead of X"). It does not necessarily say, that the option criticized is all bad, but rather that an alternative option is better, or preferable.
Negative criticism
Negative criticism means voicing an objection to something, only with the purpose of showing that it is wrong, false, mistaken, nonsensical, objectionable, or disreputable. Generally, it suggests disapproval of something, or disagreement with something – it emphasizes the downsides of something. Negative criticism is also often interpreted as an attack against a person (ad hominem). That may not have been the intention, but it can be interpreted that way.
Negative criticism can have the effect that the people criticized feel attacked or insulted by it, so that they either do not take it seriously, or react badly to it. Much often depends on how much negative criticism there is, and how much criticism is transmitted at once. People can handle some negative criticism, but they may not be able to handle a whole lot of negative criticism, at least not all at once.
The downside of negative criticism is, often, that it tells people what they cannot or should not do or believe, rather than telling them what they can or should do (what possibilities or options there are). So it may be disabling, rather than enabling. People might reply to a negative criticism that "this is all very well, but I cannot do anything with it", or they might say "now what?!". Yet, negative criticism may be necessary at times, to prevent a course of action harmful to the people concerned. If people are afraid to state a negative criticism, the existing problem might get worse.
The upside of negative criticism is that it can explain what the limitations of an idea, an action or a situation are, for the sake of being realistic. Sometimes it is necessary to say "no" to something (and explain why "no" is "no").
In the modern world, negative criticism has acquired the stigma of "being negative", and people who make negative criticisms can be easily exploited or manipulated. For this reason, many people nowadays express their negative criticism simply by not saying anything, not paying attention to something or someone, or by being absent.
Constructive advice
Constructive advice is not really a type of criticism, and extremely close to advising someone. It aims to show that an intent or purpose of something is better served by an alternative approach. In this case, making the criticism is not necessarily deemed wrong, and its purpose is respected; rather, it is claimed that the same goal could be better achieved via a different route. Constructive advices are often suggestions for improvement – how things could be done better or more acceptably. They draw attention to how an identified problem could be solved, or how it could be solved better. Constructive advice is more likely accepted if the advice is timely, clear, specific, detailed and actionable.
Both negative and constructive advice have their appropriate uses, but often it is considered a requirement of criticism that they are combined. Thus, it is often considered that those who find fault with something should also offer an option for putting it right. More generally, any rule for behavior of any kind usually implies both "do's" and "don't s". Doing something usually also implies not doing something else, and, not doing something, often implies doing something else. There is therefore a conscious choice "to do this, or do that", but not both at the same time.
So, to orient behaviour, people need to know both what is "ruled in" and what is "ruled out". If the criticism concerns only one aspect, but not the other, it may supply only incomplete information, which is not really adequate to orient behaviour or guide action. One of the most elementary reasons why a rule is ignored, flouted or subverted is, because either the positive or the negative aspect of what it means is unspecified.
Destructive criticism
Destructive criticism aims to destroy the target of criticism. (e.g., "You should shut up and follow the program."). The aim is to show that the point of view of someone else has no validity at all, or lacks any merit.
In some contexts, destructive criticism is regarded as an undesirable nuisance, a threat, or as completely unjustifiable, especially if it involves personal attacks. Destructive criticism is often criticized because it has a destructive effect, instead of a positive effect (this may also just be an accusation or allegation if there is no proof that the effect actually is destructive).
However, in political and military contexts, destructive criticisms may be essential to save resources or to save lives among one's own group. An idea in itself is not dangerous, but an idea proposed in a particular context can be very dangerous so that people feel that it should be disarmed by mercilessly criticizing it. The ultimate destructive criticism occurs when people and property are physically destroyed.
The term "destructive criticism" is also used to mean that the level, scope, or intensity of criticism is such, that it becomes mainly destructive. In this context, people believe that the criticism is so great, or there is so much criticism, that it only destroys things. For example, a debate or controversy can get out of control, so that everybody is at war with everybody else, and everybody is opposed to everybody else. In that case, it may well be that the criticism is being overdone ("overkill"). What started out as a structured dialogue to identify conflicting aspects of a situation, ends up as chaos in which nobody can agree with anyone else anymore.
Destructive criticism from parents and other authority figures causes psychological harm to children that results in lower levels of self-esteem, social acceptance, scholastic competence, behavioral conduct, global self-worth, and generally poorer self-perception. This is a significant issue. In this study of 144 children from a middle-class environment, only six children (4%) reported that they had never been subject to physical punishment or the target of rejecting, demeaning, terrorizing, destructively criticizing, or perceived insulting statements. Some parents may ask how do you correct a child who is misbehaving if you do not criticize.
Practical criticism
Practical criticism is an objection or appraisal of the type, that something "does or does not work" in practical reality, due to some reason or cause. The focus is on useful effect. Often people say, "That might be fine in theory, but in practice it does not work." Inversely, they might show with experiment that something works well in practice, even although the theory says this is not possible – so that the theory ought to be adjusted.
Practical criticism usually refers to relevant practical experience, to reveal why an action is wrongheaded, or under what conditions it would succeed. When someone proposes an idea, others might first consider if it makes sense – but often raise concerns about practicality and consequences. For example, would relevant people or organizations be better off or worse off? Does it get in the way of other things?
Practical criticisms are effective, if people are concerned with practicalities. If, however, people are purely concerned with what things mean, or ought to mean, they may not care about whether their way of seeing things is "practical" or not. People might hold on to their beliefs or defend them, even if they are not very practical at all, because they feel those beliefs are essential to who they are.
Practical criticism usually succeeds best, if it is made on the basis of the practical experience of the critic. Somebody who has practical experience with an issue, is usually best placed to make a practical criticism.
Theoretical criticism
Theoretical criticism is concerned with the meaning of ideas, including ideas on which a practice is based. It is concerned with the coherence or meaningfulness of a theory, its correspondence to reality, the validity of its purpose, and the limitations of the viewpoint it offers. Theories can be criticized
from the point of view of other theories ("how much sense does it make")
internally "in their own terms" ("is it consistent")
in terms of the experiential evidence there is for those theories ("how well does the theory correspond to the facts")
the usefulness or practical gain of a theory.
the moral implications of the theory for human action and behaviour.
At issue is not simply whether an idea makes sense or is consistent, but whether it makes sense and is consistent in terms of the theoretical framework it is part of. In other words, at issue is the relationship between many linked ideas. What effect does the adoption of one idea have for a lot of related ideas, and how does a theory relate to all the evidence it can be called upon to explain. A theory can consist of one major hypothesis, but usually a theory consists of a series of linked hypotheses. Adopting one hypothesis can have many effects for other related hypotheses.
The merits of theories are usually judged according to three main criteria: their usefulness, their explanatory power and their predictive power. A theory is useful if it can help to guide or orient activity, serves the relevant purpose, or if it helps to make sense of things. A theory with great explanatory power is a theory which is able to account for all the relevant evidence, not just some. If the assumptions made by the theory are well-taken, it can predict effects, outcomes and results quite accurately. If theories are criticized, it is usually on the ground that they are not useful, do not speak to the situation, and fail to explain or predict things properly. Usually, the best theory is the simplest theory that explains the most. A theory that becomes extremely complicated often no longer provides much guidance, because it is no longer clear that anything in particular definitely follows from it. However, theories can also be judged according to their moral implications: if the theory is adopted, how does this affect the values and behaviour of people who subscribe to it?
Theoretical criticism often occurs in the context of eclecticism and intellectual opportunism, when people more or less creatively "cobble together" in one interpretation a bunch of ideas and models that draw from a variety of sources. The criticism might be that those ideas do not belong together, that they are not compatible, or that they produce an elaborate description that fails to explain anything. The theoretical critic then attempts to redress the situation by showing that a consistent theory requires abandoning or changing some ideas, or discarding the whole eclectic combination in favour of a more consistent interpretation.
Public and private criticism
Criticism can be expressed publicly or privately. The most private criticism exists only in the mind of the critic. The most obvious reason why criticisms are not expressed, or only expressed privately, is that the critic believes public knowledge of the criticism would harm the critic or others. People often first express criticisms privately to test their validity, formulation, or reactions to them. It may require courage, conviction, or certainty to express a criticism publicly.
However, the distinction between "private" and "public" itself may be rather vague, or there may be various gradations between "absolutely private" and "definitely public". Yet even if a criticism is publicly accessible already, it may remain relatively unknown, because it is only available in a rather obscure place, or because people are simply not looking for it. The criticism may exist for years, before someone digs it out, and presents it in a forum that makes it widely known.
The degree to which criticisms are made privately or publicly, often depends on customary or legal norms for expressing criticism. Thus, the degree to which a criticism is accessible may be influenced by moral considerations, fear, the human or commercial interests at stake, or authority issues. Criticisms can of course also be expressed anonymously or under a pseudonym, in which case the identity of the critic or the source of the criticism remains unknown. In this case, the criticism exists in public, but where exactly it came from remains private. If a criticism is actively suppressed or censored, then although there may have been an attempt to publicize it, it may not become public knowledge because there was no possibility for making it public. Yet criticisms can also travel very fast "through the grapevine" so that, although they are publicly denied or ignored, everyone knows what they are, because their peers informally communicated the criticism.
Moral criticism
Moral criticism is basically concerned with the rights and wrongs of values, ethics or norms people uphold, what is good and bad about what people do, or the rights and wrongs of the conditions people face. Morality is concerned with what is good and bad for people, and how we know that. There are many forms of moral criticism, such as:
Showing that actions taken are inconsistent or incompatible with certain values being upheld, or values deemed desirable
Counterposing one set of values to another, with the claim that the one set is better than the other
Arguing that certain values are intrinsically objectionable, regardless of any other values that may be relevant
Arguing that certain values ought to be adopted or rejected for some reason
Arguing that, for the sake of integrity, somebody should or shouldn't do something
Rational or civil morality is based on the idea that people should be treated in the same ways, in the same kind of situation; the same norm should apply to all people concerned, in the same relevant situation. The exception that proves the rule implies that there does exist a moral rule, to which it is an exception, for a definite and explicable reason. Such a morality is often assumed because, without it, human behaviour would be unpredictable or arbitrary, and cannot be relied upon; the necessary co-operation between people as social beings would be hindered. Modern jurisprudence and legal systems are, at least in principle, based on this idea. It originates from the two social norms, often expressed in religions, that one should "do unto others as one would like them to do unto oneself" and "not do unto others as one would not like them to do unto oneself." Consistent behaviour in this sense is regarded as most likely to be effective for survival and achievement in the long run, in contrast to chaotic or arbitrary behaviour ("arbitrary" in the sense that one's own interests and needs, or the interests and needs of others are not properly taken into account).
Nevertheless, values people hold often clash, and how "consistency" should be interpreted may be disputed. Hence moral criticism ranges from whether there should be a moral rule at all and the justification of a moral rule, to the interpretation of the meaning of a moral rule, and to how it is in practice applied. The debate can be pursued formally (for example by lawyers, judges, religious authorities and politicians) or informally (by any citizens of a community). Philosophers of ethics aim to shed light on moral disputes by means of critical thinking, often with the aim of clearing up moral confusions, and improving moral behaviour.
Scientific criticism
Scientific criticism is not primarily concerned with moral values, but more with quantitative or categorical values. It focuses on whether an idea can be proven true or false, or what the limits of its valid application are, quite irrespective of whether people like that or not, or what the moral implications are. For this purpose, the scientist employs logic and relevant evidence offered by experience, as well as experimentation, and gives attention to the intent and purpose of relevant activity.
Obviously a scientist is also a moral being with moral biases, but science aims to ensure that moral biases do not prejudice scientific findings (the requirement of objectivity). If scientists would ignore relevant evidence pertaining to a case, for example because of some personal bias, they could be criticized for that.
Scientists can also criticize a specific morality on scientific grounds, but in a scientific capacity they do not do so on the ground that the morality itself is intrinsically objectionable, but rather that it cannot be reconciled with the facts, i.e., it involves assumptions or valuations contrary to known logical and factual evidence.
Science is typically not concerned with judging the desirability of ends in themselves, but rather with the relationship of means and ends.
The question in scientific activity is usually to ascertain – with reasoning, study and experiment – whether the chosen means can or cannot, as a matter of objective fact, produce the envisaged result, and why that is. So a scientist mainly aims to prove with evidence and reasoning, that if one wants to achieve X, then one must do Y, or not do Z. But whether one wants to achieve X or not, may be a separate question, on which a scientist cannot adjudicate, because telling people what they ought to do with themselves falls outside the realm of scientific inquiry. At most a scientist might say that, if X is achieved, it will have specific benefits, and if it is not achieved, it will have certain harmful effects or costs for the people concerned (or vice versa).
When scientists criticize other scientists, the criticism can be very specialized and technical, so that it may not be very easy to understand the meaning – unless one is familiar with the particular scientific discipline. There are some general rules for scientific criticism, but most often each branch of scientific research has its own rules and formats for criticizing. Science is above all a search for truth, and therefore if scientists are dishonest (for example, by faking the evidence), they are not being "scientific", dishonesty then is an obvious target for criticism. Other, more common, criticisms relate to assumptions, sampling bias, methodological error, statistical issues or invalid conclusions.
Religious criticism
Religious criticism is primarily concerned with judging actions and ideas according to whether God (or the Gods, or other divine beings) would regard them as good or bad for human beings (or for the world). Normally a religion has some sacred or holy texts, which serve as an authoritative guide to interpreting actions and ideas as either good or bad. From these, religious authorities derive norms for how people ought to live and act in the world.
However, sacred texts may not always be clear, and may require interpretation. Thus, theologians ask critical questions such as, "How do we know what God wants for human beings?" They try to answer these questions by reasoning based on religious principles, rules, laws, by considering what people experience, and by "divine inspiration" through prayer and meditation.
Religious authorities such as the Pope may criticize how people behave, if the behaviour conflicts with church doctrine. In religious criticism, the motive or intention of the criticism (why somebody is criticizing) is important. Criticism must be offered in the right spirit so that it has a good effect.
Religious criticism is successful if it clarifies exactly what is good and bad, and why that is, in such a way that people are convinced to do what religion says is the "right thing" to do. Religious criticism is often very difficult to do well, because people's spiritual beliefs are very personal and the personal meaning attached to spiritual matters may be rather unusual – it may not be so easy to understand it, it may not be so rational or logical, and it may not conform to a shared framework or shared interpretation. In addition, because it is a very personal matter, it may require a great deal of respectful sensitivity to approach a spiritual issue in a good way.
Scholarly criticism
Criticism is considered "scholarly" only if it conforms to scholarly standards. A scholarly critic probes deeply into a problem, looking at all relevant evidence, the quality of reasoning involved, and the uses or purposes at stake. When he considers a problem, a scholar usually becomes familiar with the relevant background literature. He tries to make sure that he cannot be accused of inconsistent reasoning, that arguments are free from factual error, and that all relevant aims, motives, and purposes are clear. A scholar also conscientiously documents "who said what and when" so that sources for all arguments are clear. Thus, the scholar tries to be as objective and fact-based as possible.
In this way, criticism is much more difficult to ignore or to refute. Most often, a scholarly publication is refereed ("screened") by other knowledgeable scholars, who critically examine the text to find possible faults, and possibly suggest alterations. In this way, scholars always try to ensure the quality of what is said. A scholarly criticism is successful if it provides a proof or refutation that nobody can rationally deny, so that most people accepted it as definitive. Much scholarly criticism does not provide truly spectacular proofs or refutations. That is difficult to do, if many bright minds have worked or are working on the same issue – but a careful, methodically developed criticism can nevertheless contribute valuable and significant information. To substantiate even a small scholarly criticism can take much research, and can require perseverance and patience from the scholar.
A scholarly critic primarily aims to improve understanding of an issue, by means of research and the criticism of research, irrespective of any prejudices about the issue. Scholarly criticism does not mean impartiality or neutrality. Indeed, the very fact that someone has developed a scholarly criticism implies they are taking a partisan position. However, scholars usually submit their own considerations and findings to a public forum that evaluates criticisms on their merits and faults, with the explicit aim to contribute to the search for truth, and with the understanding that the criticism could be wrong. Thus, scholarly criticism involves the attitude that one is open to criticism.
What exactly the applicable "scholarly standards" for criticism are, can be open to debate. Nevertheless, participants in different academic disciplines or scientific specialisms usually operate with a reasonable amount of consensus about what the standards are. In general terms, such things as "lying, cheating, fraud, misinformation and misrepresentation" disqualify a criticism from being "scholarly". Scholarly criticism requires the greatest respect for truth, honesty in presenting a case, and a form of communication acceptable to the scholarly community.
Critical criticism
Critical criticism is "criticism for the sake of criticism", or criticism which voices an objection. The term was made famous by a polemical text written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels entitled The Holy Family. The most popular modern form of critical criticism is contrarianism. The highest positive value of the critical critic is to be critical. To be critical, or to be a dissident is, in this case, a way of life, the highest good. Such a position is itself often criticized for its motivation. People often feel that there should be a good reason for being critical, and that being critical simply for the sake of being critical is not a good reason. Instead, it is seen as a nuisance that can lead to blithe cynicism without constructive result. If everything is demolished by criticism, there may be nothing of value left. If people's only stance is to be critical, they can be accused of only negating things, without affirming anything, which provides no positive orientation for behaviour informing people about "what to do". People don't need talk about what is not possible, they want to know what is possible.
Critical critics might respond to such an accusation, by saying that it is surely always valuable and important to highlight the limitations of ideas and happenings, and that this could not very well occur, if criticism was banned ("in a world gone mad, it makes sense to be critical"). It may be necessary to point out that things are wrong, even if it is not known how to put it right (yet). Critical critics might argue that it is necessary to be "forever on guard" against illusions, and to be "eternally vigilant" against nonsense. Without criticism, things are not relativised, or put in proportion. A typical reply to this argument is, that many illusions in the world cannot be abolished simply by criticizing them. That is, people actually have to do something positively, to establish the truth, and they cannot very well do that, if they only focus on "what is not there", or on "what is wrong". If the whole situation was turned around by taking action, there might be no need anymore for criticism. Criticism would become irrelevant or meaningless in that case.
So the means critics use may not lead to the ends they favour. Sometimes people "just have to be quiet" and take action. In that case, critical criticism itself seems to contain an ultimate limitation: to get rid of the illusion or falsehood, might require getting rid of critical criticism, or going beyond it. To persist forever in critical criticism, might itself perpetuate an illusion, and the critical critics, if they were completely consistent, might not be able to survive their own "critical attitude to everything". Or, at the very least, they would have to be critical of their own critical criticism – they might be defeated by their own stance that there is nothing immune to criticism.
Radical and revolutionary criticism
The word "radical" derives from the Latin word "radix" ("root"). Thus, radical criticism means criticism that goes to the root of things, to the roots of the problem. Revolutionary criticism is criticism that aims to overturn or overthrow an existing idea or state of affairs. Thus, an existing idea may be turned upside down. Revolutionary criticism is sometimes also used in the sense of criticism that is unprecedented, or previously unheard of. Typically these kinds of criticism are associated with the youth, who are the new generation finding their identity in a battle with the older generations.
The radical critic aims to track down the most fundamental assumptions underlying an idea, position or situation in order to show the ultimate reason why it is true or false. The concern is with what something is ultimately based on. For this purpose, radical critics are not satisfied with superficial ideas. They question authority and the status quo. This presupposes the freedom to criticize, and to pursue a train of thought to its ultimate limits. Radical critics keep asking "why, why, why" very thoroughly, until they reach a complete answer to the puzzle of why things appear as they do. Radical criticism may be revolutionary, insofar as its result overthrows previous ideas with a new perspective, but it may also only demolish a particular way of seeing things, or show that an alternative way of seeing things or doing things is possible.
Radical or revolutionary criticism is often equated with political extremism, but this is not necessarily the case at all. This type of criticism may only just prove, in a "devastatingly simple" or even rather innocent way, that something is true or false, contrary to the popular perceptions or cherished beliefs. It may be "extreme", only in the sense that it falls outside the "normal" way of seeing things. If radical critics succeed in proving their case, their idea may in due course become accepted as "normal", and become an ordinary, mainstream idea. Many if not most ideas which people hold nowadays and accept as normal, originally were considered as "extremely radical", "revolutionary" or even "dangerous". It just took a long time before they became generally accepted – the radical thinker, by going beyond the ordinary, was merely ahead of the rest in grasping the essence of the matter.
So the distinction between "radical" and "normal" is, often, really only a relative one; it may have less to do with the content of ideas, than with how much they are accepted or not. Whereas the radical critic may, in his own day, be regarded as an oddball or a maverick, later on he may be hailed as a great thinker or even a genius. But this is not always the case. After all, even although radical critics may try hard, they may fail to prove the root of the matter, and thus they may be forgotten without acclaim. People may regard them only as "troublemakers".
Radical criticism can be a bit of a gamble, even if the criticism is perfectly valid. The reason is that it may open up a "can of worms" and unleash intense controversy, which can get beyond what the radical critic can handle, and which lasts for a long time. People may well know that there is a problem, but they prefer to avoid it, because they know that, if it came out into the open, it would cause a pack of trouble. Thus, when the radical critic exposes the problem or proposes a radical solution to it, people can become very agitated. To state a radical criticism often takes considerable courage, because there can be a powerful backlash to reckon with. Skilled radicals therefore try to make sure they can deal with the consequences of making their criticism. If they don't, they could be defeated by what they said.
Conservative criticism
Conservative criticism is primarily concerned with conformity to a rule or principle, and continuity with the past (a tradition or heritage of some sort). Conservative critics consider that:
everything in the world has its proper and rightful place.
people ought to know what that place is, for their own good.
people ought to stay in their own proper place, because they belong there.
people should not try to leave their proper place in life, or misplace things, because that only causes trouble.
the changes which occur, are only really variations of things which always remain the same in human existence, because "that is how people are" or "that is how society is".
Conservative criticism is therefore not necessarily "narrowminded", because knowing what the proper place of things is, might involve a vast knowledge about how things work. There may be very good reasons for keeping things as they are or were.
The most common forms of conservative criticism are that somebody is breaking with a rule, wrongly rejecting a tradition, or wrongly placing something where, they think, it does not belong. Conservative critics are as concerned with the future as anybody else, it is just that they expect no more from the future, than there has been in the past; and, to tackle the future, they believe only the "tried and tested methods" should be used. Typically conservatism is associated with older people, who "have seen it all and done it all". But conservative criticisms can be made by any kind of person, they are not automatically "conservatives" because they make a conservative criticism.
Conservative criticism has nothing much to do with "left-wing" or "right-wing", because left-wing people are often very conservative, in the defined sense, while right-wing people can also be very radical, in the defined sense. The difference between "radical" and "conservative" has more to do with the belief in whether a change to something genuinely new is really possible and necessary. Radicals typically believe strongly that such change is highly desirable and necessary, and that it can be achieved. Their criticism is that there is not enough change. Conservative critics, by contrast, are very skeptical about any such change, because they feel the change is really "just another form" of something that already exists.
The conservative criticism is typically that there has already been too much change, of the wrong kind, and that this change has led people astray – that people should return to how things were always done in the past. A return to the 'correct' tradition, 'correct' ways of the past, is the only big change many conservative critics are interested in.
Conservative critics may well recognize that important changes do occur, it is merely that whatever the changes, those changes do not and cannot alter the eternal conditions of human existence. "Details" may change, but "in essence" the human predicament remains the same as it has always been. So conservative critics typically emphasize continuity over change. They believe it is just not possible to change human existence very radically, whatever the appearance. Conservative criticism therefore says that, when people claim they are doing something new or have changed things, this is just spurious and superficial, because, in essence, things stay much as they always have been. People may think they are innovating, but in reality most of it has been done before.
A true conservative critic does not think in terms of "living for the moment", but in terms of years, decades, centuries and eternity. He criticizes on the basis of long-lasting principles. The ultimate aim of conservative criticism is to achieve stability, so that things stay in the place where they belong, orderly and peacefully. This is logical, because it fits with the idea that human beings quite simply "are as they are" – and that this will never change. Resistance to this reality, the conservative feels, is not only useless, but also just makes people unhappy; "you can't change human nature".
Conservative criticism can be effective, if it is feasible to keep things the way they are, or to return to a traditional way of doing things. It is usually not effective, if change is absolutely unavoidable and inevitable, or if it is impossible to go back to the way of doing things in the past. However, even if change cannot be avoided, there may be several different options for how to approach it, and conservative critics are then likely to choose a "conservative option".
Liberal criticism
Liberal criticism is primarily concerned with people's rights (including human rights) and freedoms, with whether people are taking responsibility for their choices or not, and with the limits of toleration. Liberal critics believe that:
Interests, needs, and rights of autonomous individuals are most important, not group entities (except if they are groups of recognizable individuals).
People should be free to make their own choices, and should take responsibility for those choices.
People should have equal opportunities in the marketplace.
People should be rewarded according to the merits of what they achieve, not according to their status, or inherited privileges.
People are entitled to a private sphere of their own, i.e., a distinction should be made between private and public life.
Liberal criticism focuses on making sure that all the conditions exist in which individuals can develop, flourish and prosper successfully, as independent people, with a minimum of constraints. Liberals therefore criticize anything that gets in the way of this. People's rights, privacy and choices should be respected as much as possible, and obstacles to a free life should be attacked and removed. Liberals are in favour of pluralism: nobody has a monopoly on the truth, and other, different voices should be heard. At the same time, people should be prevented from interfering too much in other people's lives. If people make the wrong choices, or if they don't take responsibility for their own choices and their own lives, they should be criticized for that. If people are unfairly shut out from opportunities, or if they are unfairly rewarded, liberals often criticize it. Liberal criticism is associated especially with young adults who are starting to make their own way in life, on their own strength.
Liberal criticism can often become extraordinarily complex and subtle, involving very fine distinctions. The reason is that the interests, rights and obligations of individuals constantly have to be weighed against the interests, rights and obligations of other individuals. Rules and principles have to be created so that individuals are not too constrained, but also that they are prevented from interfering unduly in the lives of others. People should be "free, but not too free". People are "too free" when they become irresponsible, anti-social and arbitrary, i.e., when they fail to regulate their own behaviour appropriately, and have to be regulated by others. Liberal criticism is therefore always very concerned with finding the right kind of balance, or the right nuance, which would (ideally) express a situation of harmony among individuals (or expresses the best way to regard something). Liberals accept that conflicts always occur, but conflicts should be kept within certain bounds, and methods should be found to resolve them fairly. Much liberal criticism is devoted to defining exactly "what should be tolerated and what should not be tolerated", and explaining why that is.
At its best, liberal criticism takes a "liberal" view of human beings, meaning that it is sufficiently open-minded to consider issues in a very comprehensive way, from all different angles. It allows people enough freedom to try out something new, tolerates differences of opinion, and lets people learn from their mistakes.
At worst, liberal criticism "misses the wood for the trees" because, by focusing on individuals and individual solutions, it overlooks the "bigger picture", or fails to understand the meaning of people's social coexistence. Liberals often cannot imagine anything beyond individuals, and therefore, when they have to describe the total situation in which individuals have to operate (social systems, macro-realities or collectivities), their perspective may become eclectic, fragmented or particularist.
Generally, liberal critics believe that the world would be better off if everyone is a liberal; but if they are driven into a corner by the criticisms of others, i.e., if they are robbed of their freedom in some sense, they can also become very anti-liberal and despotic – at least until such time as their own liberal way of being is tolerated again.
Liberal criticism typically does not work well, when the interests of the people concerned are mutually exclusive, and cannot be reconciled at all. Liberal criticism usually assumes that people are sufficiently flexible to be willing to discuss, negotiate or compromise about something, i.e., that people have an attitude of "give and take".
Speculative criticism
Speculative criticism is criticism which focuses on what something "might, could, or ought to" mean, or what "might, could, or ought to" follow from it. It might also focus on the "probable" or "likely" meaning of something, or the "probable" or "likely" consequences of it. Speculative criticism usually occurs in the absence of (enough) evidence that would decide an issue. It goes "beyond the facts", because the facts available (if any) are not conclusive. Thus, speculative criticisms usually occur when things are either not certain, definite or fixed (yet), or when multiple different meanings are possible. Since most people have to deal with some uncertainties in their daily lives, and have to interpret things without (yet) knowing the details of the full story, they entertain speculative thoughts as a normal everyday occurrence . For example, if somebody is thinking of buying a used car, he or she might think of what "might" be right or wrong with it, without knowing for sure.
A speculative criticism often takes the form that "if we assumed such-and-such, then it would seem that a consequence (desirable or undesirable) would follow". Yet whether the assumption is valid, remains uncertain. Whether the inference made on the strength of the assumption is valid, may likewise be uncertain. The speculative critic imagines different positive and negative scenarios which could be applicable, if certain conditions are assumed to exist. Or, somebody might say, "intuitively I would object to such a statement", without definite grounds or reliable information being available. Something could be "plausible" (on the face of it, it makes sense), but not (yet) "provable". There could "probably" be something wrong with a thing or idea, without definite proof that it is wrong.
Speculative criticism is often criticized precisely because it is speculative, i.e., because relevant evidence is unavailable, or because the criticism is made before "the evidence is in." In this case, the criticism is considered to lack any solid basis. For example, politicians (or political commentators) might dismiss "speculative newspaper stories" because they believe that these stories are just "spin" based on gossip and hearsay, and not based on any "hard evidence".
Nevertheless, speculative criticism can play an important role (e.g., in research, in art, in hermeneutics and in literary theory), because the same information can be "read" in different ways, and read in different ways by different people. What the information means, is in this case not fixed; it is open to interpretation, it has different meanings, and it may be, that what it means can only be established by interacting with the information. By means of speculative criticism, it is established what the information could possibly mean, perhaps as a prologue to more thorough verification. For example, when archaeologists find some very old bones, they might debate their hunches about the civilization of the people to whom the bones belonged. In all sorts of fields of human endeavour, it can be important and valuable to establish, through criticisms, what the possible significance of something is. Speculative criticism does not necessarily assume that things mean "anything you like". It may only be that the significance of something could be interpreted in a limited number of different ways.
Speculative criticism can be useful and credible, if people have to evaluate situations where there are unknowns, uncertainties, novelties or different possibilities (see also brainstorming). It is not very credible, when a definite answer could easily be obtained, "if only" the speculative critics bothered to do a bit of thinking and fact-finding themselves, and if they verified the claims being made properly.
Foolish criticism
Foolish criticism is unclear about what the motive or purpose of the criticism is, or about what the consequence or effect of the criticism is. Usually it connotes lack of self-insight or a good understanding of the motives or issue involved. The foolish critic often mistakes what his target should be, and therefore, his criticism is really "at the wrong address", it is in some sense misplaced, disingenuous or misjudged ("clutching at straws", "tilting at windmills", "Red herring").
Foolish criticism is not necessarily arbitrary or willy-nilly, but it is "foolish", because it does the critic (or his intended target) no good. Typically it is therefore self-defeating, which might make people wonder why it is being stated at all. People can become terribly obsessed with a criticism, without really being aware of what it is truly about, why it is being made, or what the effect of it is. They might feel they should "pipe in" about an issue, without any awareness of a clear motivation.
Foolish criticism may lack any clear direction, being prompted simply by a grudge or gripe, a feeling of unease, or a sense of dissatisfaction. People often say, "don't criticize, what you don't understand", meaning that first people should understand things and their effects properly, before launching into criticism. If they do not, the criticism might "backfire" and have an effect which is opposite to what is intended. Criticism is truly foolish, if people persist in a criticism regardless, even though it is demonstrably not well-taken.
Foolish criticism is sometimes also interpreted as comical criticism ("critical foolery" or "fooling around with criticism") where the critic aims to entertain with his criticism.
Foolish criticism usually means that the criticism and the critic are not taken seriously by people who understand what the issue is about; thus, the criticism may have no other effect than that it makes people laugh, shrug or feel annoyed. People may acknowledge that a criticism is "brave" (they credit the critic with the courage to make a criticism), but also that it is "foolish" (because, by making it, the critic sacrifices something important which he did not need to do).
Professional criticism
The term "professional criticism" is applied in several ways.
Criticism which is professionally done - this implies that it is expertly done, and could hardly be improved. That usually means that it is so well-designed, that nobody can deny it, and that people feel something necessarily has to be done about it.
Criticism which is offered by a professional, rather than an amateur or layman. Somebody may offer a criticism "in his professional capacity", meaning that he bases himself on his professional experience with the subject of the criticism. This does not, however, automatically mean that the criticism is good.
Somebody is being criticized, because he has flouted a professional standard. Normally, a skilled occupation or a profession has a set of standards, which aims to ensure the quality of work. If the standards were not there, the goods and services supplied would be shoddy, useless or unsafe. Professionals learn what the standard is, through training and education, and they explain relevant aspects of that standard to the people they supervise. The standards can include a code of ethics, rules for behaviour, technical norms and procedures, legal rules, etc. It is expected that people who work in a profession really follow the standards of that profession. If they do not, they can be criticized for this failure. In that case, their behaviour is regarded as "not professional" or "unprofessional".
The criticism of professionals or the criticism of a profession may occur, sometimes in a somewhat humorous, or satirical way. It could be done by professionals themselves, or by amateurs or laypersons. In this case, there is some skepticism about what the status of "being professional" actually adds to solving a problem, or there is skepticism about the claims made by a profession about how it can contribute to solving a problem. It is often implied here, that the standards of professionals do no justice to a specific situation, or that there is a case of professional cretinism: the professional gets it wrong, because he is unable to think outside of his own profession (he is imprisoned in a framework that does not lead to a solution).
Not infrequently, some of these different senses of professional criticism are mixed together, especially when people try to pretend somebody's criticism is authoritative (they seem to have a professional expertise, although they really lack this expertise), or when people try to pretend that somebody's criticism is not authoritative (they are treated as no better than the rest, although in reality they are highly professional, and more competent and experienced than the rest).
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the comparison, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation of works of literature. It is essentially an opinion, supported by evidence, relating to theme, style, setting or historical or political context. It includes discussion of the work’s content along with critic's insights gained from research. This may have a positive or a negative bias and may be a study of an individual piece of literature or an author’s body of work.
Literary criticism is not limited to plot summaries, biographies of authors, or finding faults with the literature. Researching, reading, and writing works of literary criticism helps in making better sense of the work, form judgments about literature, study ideas from different points of view, and determine on an individual level whether a literary work is worth reading.
Popular examples of literary criticism include biographical, comparative, ethical, expressive, historical, mimetic, pragmatic, social, and theoretical among others.
Self-criticism
Self-criticism (or what academics sometimes call "autocritique") refers to the ability to appraise the pros and cons of one's own beliefs, thoughts, actions, behaviour or results, especially from the point of view of how others might regard them. The self-criticism might occur in private, or it might happen in a group discussion. Sometimes the self-criticism is aired publicly, specifically to show people that a person or group no longer believes in something which it formerly did; at other times, the self-criticism remains a hidden secret behind closed doors.
Self-criticism requires a certain flexibility of mind, because it assumes a person is able to call into question his own behaviour and thinking – instead of believing that he "naturally" is the way he is, or that he can "never be wrong". Often it requires that people are able to "step outside themselves", and see themselves from a different perspective. The self-critic is willing to search for, recognize, and accept objections against his own behavior, or his own characteristics; he is willing to accept that he could be wrong, or indeed that he in the wrong.
Self-criticism can be very difficult, for several reasons.
People can be very resistant to admitting they are wrong about something, or that they did (or said) the wrong thing. They like to believe they got it right, even when others disagree. Acknowledging that they got it wrong, could be very embarrassing, confusing or distressing – especially if they personally invested a lot in the wrong idea. Their whole world might crumble.
People might have "blind spots" in their awareness, i.e., they are simply unable to see a part of themselves for what it is (unless others point it out to them). In that case, they are unable to criticize themselves, because they don't know what there is to criticize.
If people did engage in self-criticism, others might interpret it as a sign of weakness ("you got it wrong, so why should I take you seriously?"). Thus, the self-critic might no longer have the same confidence, or become vulnerable to attack from others.
Self-criticism is an essential component of learning. In order to be able to change one's behaviour, improve one's style, and adjust to a new situation, it is necessary to recognize personal errors as errors. Once the errors are known, something can be done about them; a different path can be pursued. One also needs to be able to tell the difference between success and failure, and not mistake one for the other. Only then is it possible to truly "learn from one's mistakes." Often, the most challenging part is to know what exactly the mistake or success consists in. The aim of self-criticism is to find all that out, aided by memory.
People sometimes say, "its about the criticism that gets me". This is especially true of self-criticism. Usually people are only prepared to criticize themselves within certain limits, otherwise it becomes confusing, disorienting, or even lethal. If a person arrives at the conclusion that most of what he is about is wrong, he can be plunged into a disorienting chaos, where he is unable to evaluate things properly anymore. Thus, while most people regard self-criticism as healthy, as a sign of good character, and as necessary for learning, excessive or enforced self-criticism is regarded as unhealthy (as destructive for the individual). The ultimate self-criticism can be a final self-attack through deliberate suicide. Suicidal persons are willing to give up their right to exist, they no longer believe their life is worth living. Thus, it is possible to be "too hard on oneself", leading to self-destructive behaviour.
See also
Critic
Critical theory
Criticism
Critique
List of fallacies
References | 0.778267 | 0.987647 | 0.768653 |
Street style | Street style is fashion that is considered to have emerged not from studios, but from the population at large. Street fashion is generally associated with youth culture, and is most often seen in major urban centers. Magazines and newspapers commonly feature candid photographs of individuals wearing urban, stylish clothing. Mainstream fashion often appropriates street fashion trends as influences. Most major youth subcultures have had an associated street fashion. Street style is different all around the globe.
Description
The "street" approach to style and fashion is often based on individualism, rather than focusing solely on current fashion trends. Using street style methods, individuals demonstrate their multiple, negotiated identities, in addition to utilizing subcultural and intersecting styles or trends. This, in itself, is a performance, as it creates a space where identities can be explored through the act(ion) of dress.
Bill Cunningham for The New York Times pointed street style out as a keen catalogue of ordinary people's clothing. Also, he mentioned that streets tell a great deal about fashion and people, if one listens. According to him the best fashion show is coming to life every day on the streets.
Street style is a viral and instant facet of fashion that has changed many of the ways in which fashion is made and consumed. Its fast characteristic links it also to the term consumerism. Given how styles change over time, it also challenges the use of fast fashion in relation to the purchasing and wearing of clothing, as this conceals the complexities of practice.
Development
Street style has always existed but it has become a phenomenon of 20th century. The increase in the standardization of life after World War II (suburbanization, mass marketing, the spread of television) may be linked to the appeal of "alternative" lifestyles for individuals in search of "identity". Industrial production, particularly in the sphere of fashion, was not only the popularization of stylists' tastes that move from high fashion, through prêt-à-porter, to the peripheries of the system. These were also tastes that originated among economically disfavored, marginal groups, the whole range of metropolitan tribes, that are able to trigger new fashion production and diffusion processes.
Phenomena of this kind have been studied for a long time in England and have revealed the importance of young people's street styles during the post-war period, which may be linked to the generation of baby boomers, who came to represent a new sociocultural category—the "teenager"—who has money to spend and be an important motivation on economic and cultural world.
The history of identity and the history of clothing run on two parallel rails. In this connection, street style works as a facilitator of group identity and subcultural cohesion. Since the close of World War II, Western culture has seen a dramatic decline in the significance of the traditional sociocultural divisions such as race, religion, ethnicity, regionalism, nationalism, in defining and limiting personal identity. The tribe groupings, such as bikers, beats, and teddy boys in the 1950s; mods, hippies, and skinheads in the 1960s; headbangers, punks, and b-boys in the 1970s; and goths, new age travelers and ravers in the 1980s got dressed and unusual body decoration as an expression to create a sense of identity.
In the first half of the twentieth century, although the unaccompanied figure of the woman in the street was seen increasingly in fashion photographs, she often remained bound by the pursuits of a bourgeois existence, with the reality of the street beautified as a fantasy prop for high-end fashion. As an object of gaze, her position contrasted with that of the flâneur and the male privileged code of visual spectatorship. It was not until the post-war period, with the emergence of style-conscious magazines aimed at men, that the image of the flaneur, somewhat melded with the more modern notion of the "man about town", began to be visualized in fashion photography. Masculinity was shown to be influenced by the industrial atmosphere of the metropolis. This is illustrated by Terence Donovan's grainy black-and-white photographs of sharply suited men in "Spy Drama" for the October 1962 issue of Town which became famous as the visual influence for the filmic interpretation of James Bond. In this period, the representation of the woman in the street was radicalized by the emergence of youth as a social category and its claiming of street culture as its primary context.
Influence of sportswear
Street style includes ordinary people who regularly wear sportswear. However, it is influenced by supermodels who work for various sportswear brands. Therefore, it gets easier to influence ordinary people with the sense of sportive clothing.
Skateboarding particularly influenced the forming of certain street styles. The image of the street style follower often corresponds with skateboarding. Skate shoes that keep the feet from slipping on the board have been adopted by people who do not skateboard.
Key sites
Designers, street style activists, trendsetters, bloggers, fashion retailers and models influence a city's representation. These trends can mark shopping areas and entertainment locations. From the interdisciplinary perspective of consumption and consumer practices, city tourism is connected to city branding, through which a city's representation is aimed at attracting visitors and consumers.
Milan
Milan has several important fashion institutions, agencies and events, including Milan Fashion Week. The expression 'capitale della moda' (the capital of fashion) refers to Milan when describing styles, urban life, fashion collections, and designers, motivating other cities to compete for this fashion, branded city status.
Paris
Paris's look can be considered through frameworks of fashion fads, designers, a chic and luxury capital, artists and a bohemian lifestyle. Paris is an example of creating the 'city look', a collective image – certain fashion garments, specifics and lifestyles embody definite urbanity in a city's context. For instance, an image of 'La Parisienne', – the typical Parisian woman – consists not only of clothing but of certain manners, values and behavioural patterns associated with the country and its citizens. One of the most typical associations with Paris is that it is the city of love and fashion, a romantic city full of chic and luxury. The fashion phenomenon can provide strong associations and a clear understanding of Paris as a centre of fashion, love and dreams.
Japan
Japanese fashion has inspired many fashion professionals in the West, starting with Kenzō Takada's appearance in Paris in 1970 followed by Issey Miyake in 1973, Hanae Mori in 1977, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons in 1981. Japan is gradually becoming a country that is a genuine force in the field of fashion. Today's Japanese fashion contributes both to the aesthetics of fashion as well as to how business is made in this industry.
Japanese street fashion sustains multiple simultaneous highly diverse fashion movements at any given time. It does not come from the famous professional Japanese designers, but is led by high school girls who have become extremely influential in controlling fashion trends. These fashion-conscious, or fashion-obsessed, youngsters indirectly and directly dictate this type of Japanese fashion. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are the agents of fashion, who take part in the production and dissemination of fashion. Japanese street fashion emerges from the social networks among different institutions of fashion as well as various street subcultures, each of which is identified with a unique and original look. These teens rely on a distinctive appearance to proclaim their symbolic, subcultural identity. This identity is not political or ideological; it is simply innovative fashion that determines their group affiliation.
London
London is considered a significant fashion capital, but in contrast to Milan and Paris, London's look is closer to the fashion sense of royalty, traditions and strong street style culture. The city was a pioneer in the development and promotion of second-hand markets and underground tendencies in street style. Being a multinational city with a diverse cultural background, London is identified as a space where street style embodies not only the general popular fashion concepts, but also works as a tool to express social and cultural identity.
Other important aspects of London's peculiar image is a recent collaboration between the Duchess of Cambridge and Alexander McQueen fashion brand. Clothes produced for the Duchess can be called revolutionary in a certain sense, as they are woman-friendly, less pretentious and dramatic. This speaks about a certain democratization of the brand, that becomes more affordable for common consumers and perceived as a street style item rather than high fashion royal attribute.
One of the major reasons London has proved itself as a street style centre in Europe is that British fashion players are seen as more open and flexible in terms of innovative approaches to fashion and cooperation with young promising talents. This attitude creates more open-mindedness and affability with regard to street style and promotion of sustainable fashion practices.
New York
The practice of photo shooting models, still in runway makeup, in front of open warehouse spaces and garages or just on the street came from the fashion capital of the United States. Starting with the Gibson Girl of the 1890s, the free-spirited Flapper fashions of the 1920s, and the rugged, masculine work-wear of the 1930s and 40s, American culture has been especially influential in the creation of street style, with music movements like jazz, rock, disco, and hip hop, American sports and recreational pursuits like basketball, baseball, motorcycle riding, surfing and skateboarding, countercultural movements like the hippy movement, punk, grunge and associated "anti-fashion", and image-based cultural industries like Hollywood all having exerted a significant amount of influence on New York's fashion and design.
New York Fashion Week was the world's first fashion week. Historic fashion magazines like Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan have been the world's pre-eminent fashion publications for over a century. Neighborhoods like the East Village, Greenwich Village, and Williamsburg, Brooklyn have been hot spots for street style, the latter having helped give rise to the hipster revival of the 2000s and 2010s.
India
Street style in India is getting on its way by copying this style generally from Hindi cinema. As Indians are always fascinated by fashion, in India, different religions help in achieving this street style.
Effects of social media
Fashion bloggers
Social media channels have become an efficient way in fashion practices to keep in touch with the consumer base as well as increase it through brand exposure. It allows for immediate feedback from users, which makes it possible to stay up-to-date with the latest changes and trends in street fashion. Blogs that focus on fashion brands and products, street style and personal style in particular are the largest categories of the blogs. Fashion blogs, or style blogs, are blogs that focus on fashion and beauty and are produced by bloggers who self-identify as stylists, creating their own authentic looks and exposing them in urban spaces.
As the result of the immense outspread of fashion blogs, the level of engagement between the individual and fashion industry has risen dramatically, the gap between fashion houses, publications, and individuals is narrowing. Within the everyday people can communicate via the blogosphere, sharing their personal, individualized expressions of self.
By utilizing texts, including images and narratives, from fashion blogs, individuals can view, and thus, approach dress from an innovative, individualized perspective. Fashion choices are more visible, accessible, and relatable through the fashion blog space due to these sites’ availability, user-friendliness, and constant change (i.e., uploading of new images and narratives). Blogs, in contrast to traditional fashion practices, represent varied images and bodies. However, it has been found that fashion blog imagery is not that different from those bodies featured in fashion editorials: there is often an emphasis on thinness, height, and whiteness. Yet these sites also include images of women that are raced or gendered, which does present an alternative view, as well as male bodies (not common in mainstream fashion editorials for the female subscriber).
Instagram
Instagram, a leading mobile application for stylizing and sharing photos on the web, has proved popular among street style amateurs and professional street style photographers with large followings.
Instagram is viewed as a relatively cheap, quick, flexible, and widely available platform. It gave life to a specific Instagram-based community of street style photographers and models, who also work as an additional channel of communication from fashion providers and consumers. Consequently, many well-followed photographers started including more street style photography in their portfolios.
Examples
Examples from the 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s include:
Hippies (denim, bohemian style, long hair, flower power and psychedelic imagery, flared trousers)
Teddy Boys (drape jackets, drainpipe trousers, crepe shoes)
Punk fashion (ripped clothing, safety pins, bondage, provocative T-shirt slogans, Mohican hairstyle)
Skinheads (short-cropped hair, fitted jeans, Ben Sherman button-up shirts, Fred Perry polo shirts, Harrington jackets, Dr. Martens boots)
Gothic fashion (black clothing, heavy coats, poet shirts, big boots, makeup)
Preppy (argyle sweaters, chinos, madras, Nantucket Reds, button down Oxford cloth shirts, and boat shoes).
See also ghetto prep for a 21st-century variant influenced by hip-hop fashion.
Hip hop fashion (ultra-baggy pants, ECKO, Tribal Gear, South Pole, Avirex, FUBU, Sean Jean, NIKE)
Hipster or indie (glasses, jeans, beanies, sneakers, ties, suspenders, checked shirts, beards)
Trendies (androgynous big hair, bright neon colors, skinny jeans, printed hoodies, keffiyehs)
Rasta (African-inspired clothing, rastacap, dreadlocks)
Greaser (Levis 501 jeans, T-shirts, leather jackets, sunglasses, Cowboy boots or motorcycle boots, hair gel)
Urban (colorful apparel, large accent jewelry, skinny jeans, jackets, T-shirts)
Feminine (dresses, hats, sunglasses, hand bags, floral prints)
Kawaii (tutu skirts, pastel and pink colors, anime, childish and Gothic Lolita inspired accessories such as wild hair clips or bows)
See also
Bread & Butter (tradeshow)
Consumer Behaviour
Counterculture
Cultural appropriation
Fashion Design
Haute Couture
Streetwear
Subculture
References
External links
"Why Fashion Photographers Are Flocking to Instagram"
"New Zealand Street Style"
"When Politics Became a Fashion Statement"
"Why London Deserves to be the Fashion Capital of the World"
"Letterman jackets" by clothoo
Street fashion | 0.779406 | 0.986063 | 0.768544 |
Visual arts | The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, comics, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines, such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts, also involve aspects of the visual arts, as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts, such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, and decorative art.
Current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as applied or decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist' had for some centuries often been restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the decorative arts, crafts, or applied visual arts media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms. Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts.
The increasing tendency to privilege painting, and to a lesser degree sculpture, above other arts has been a feature of Western art as well as East Asian art. In both regions, painting has been seen as relying to the highest degree on the imagination of the artist and being the furthest removed from manual labour – in Chinese painting, the most highly valued styles were those of "scholar-painting", at least in theory practiced by gentleman amateurs. The Western hierarchy of genres reflected similar attitudes.
Education and training
Training in the visual arts has generally been through variations of the apprentice and workshop systems. In Europe, the Renaissance movement to increase the prestige of the artist led to the academy system for training artists, and today most of the people who are pursuing a career in the arts train in art schools at tertiary levels. Visual arts have now become an elective subject in most education systems.
In East Asia, arts education for nonprofessional artists typically focused on brushwork; calligraphy was numbered among the Six Arts of gentlemen in the Chinese Zhou dynasty, and calligraphy and Chinese painting were numbered among the four arts of scholar-officials in imperial China.
Leading country in the development of the arts in Latin America, in 1875 created the National Society of the Stimulus of the Arts, founded by painters Eduardo Schiaffino, Eduardo Sívori, and other artists. Their guild was rechartered as the National Academy of Fine Arts in 1905 and, in 1923, on the initiative of painter and academic Ernesto de la Cárcova, as a department in the University of Buenos Aires, the Superior Art School of the Nation. Currently, the leading educational organization for the arts in the country is the UNA Universidad Nacional de las Artes.
Drawing
Drawing is a means of making an image, illustration or graphic using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques available online and offline. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface using dry media such as graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers. Digital tools, including pens, stylus, that simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, shading, scribbling, stippling, and blending. An artist who excels at drawing is referred to as a draftsman or draughtsman.
Drawing and painting go back tens of thousands of years. Art of the Upper Paleolithic includes figurative art beginning between about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. Non-figurative cave paintings consisting of hand stencils and simple geometric shapes are even older. Paleolithic cave representations of animals are found in areas such as Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain in Europe, Maros, Sulawesi in Asia, and Gabarnmung, Australia.
In ancient Egypt, ink drawings on papyrus, often depicting people, were used as models for painting or sculpture. Drawings on Greek vases, initially geometric, later developed into the human form with black-figure pottery during the 7th century BC.
With paper becoming common in Europe by the 15th century, drawing was adopted by masters such as Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, who sometimes treated drawing as an art in its own right rather than a preparatory stage for painting or sculpture.
Painting
Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a carrier (or medium) and a binding agent (a glue) to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition, or other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to The Sistine Chapel, to the human body itself.
History
Origins and early history
Like drawing, painting has its documented origins in caves and on rock faces. The finest examples, believed by some to be 32,000 years old, are in the Chauvet and Lascaux caves in southern France. In shades of red, brown, yellow and black, the paintings on the walls and ceilings are of bison, cattle, horses and deer.
Paintings of human figures can be found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. In the great temple of Ramses II, Nefertari, his queen, is depicted being led by Isis. The Greeks contributed to painting but much of their work has been lost. One of the best remaining representations are the Hellenistic Fayum mummy portraits. Another example is mosaic of the Battle of Issus at Pompeii, which was probably based on a Greek painting. Greek and Roman art contributed to Byzantine art in the 4th century BC, which initiated a tradition in icon painting.
The Renaissance
Apart from the illuminated manuscripts produced by monks during the Middle Ages, the next significant contribution to European art was from Italy's renaissance painters. From Giotto in the 13th century to Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael at the beginning of the 16th century, this was the richest period in Italian art as the chiaroscuro techniques were used to create the illusion of 3-D space.
Painters in northern Europe too were influenced by the Italian school. Jan van Eyck from Belgium, Pieter Bruegel the Elder from the Netherlands and Hans Holbein the Younger from Germany are among the most successful painters of the times. They used the glazing technique with oils to achieve depth and luminosity.
Dutch masters
The 17th century witnessed the emergence of the great Dutch masters such as the versatile Rembrandt who was especially remembered for his portraits and Bible scenes, and Vermeer who specialized in interior scenes of Dutch life.
Baroque
The Baroque started after the Renaissance, from the late 16th century to the late 17th century. Main artists of the Baroque included Caravaggio, who made heavy use of tenebrism. Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish painter who studied in Italy, worked for local churches in Antwerp and also painted a series for Marie de' Medici. Annibale Carracci took influences from the Sistine Chapel and created the genre of illusionistic ceiling painting. Much of the development that happened in the Baroque was because of the Protestant Reformation and the resulting Counter Reformation. Much of what defines the Baroque is dramatic lighting and overall visuals.
Impressionism
Impressionism began in France in the 19th century with a loose association of artists including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne who brought a new freely brushed style to painting, often choosing to paint realistic scenes of modern life outside rather than in the studio. This was achieved through a new expression of aesthetic features demonstrated by brush strokes and the impression of reality. They achieved intense color vibration by using pure, unmixed colors and short brush strokes. The movement influenced art as a dynamic, moving through time and adjusting to newfound techniques and perception of art. Attention to detail became less of a priority in achieving, whilst exploring a biased view of landscapes and nature to the artist's eye.
Post-impressionism
Towards the end of the 19th century, several young painters took impressionism a stage further, using geometric forms and unnatural color to depict emotions while striving for deeper symbolism. Of particular note are Paul Gauguin, who was strongly influenced by Asian, African and Japanese art, Vincent van Gogh, a Dutchman who moved to France where he drew on the strong sunlight of the south, and Toulouse-Lautrec, remembered for his vivid paintings of night life in the Paris district of Montmartre.
Symbolism, expressionism and cubism
Edvard Munch, a Norwegian artist, developed his symbolistic approach at the end of the 19th century, inspired by the French impressionist Manet. The Scream (1893), his most famous work, is widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man. Partly as a result of Munch's influence, the German expressionist movement originated in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century as artists such as Ernst Kirschner and Erich Heckel began to distort reality for an emotional effect.
In parallel, the style known as cubism developed in France as artists focused on the volume and space of sharp structures within a composition. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were the leading proponents of the movement. Objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form. By the 1920s, the style had developed into surrealism with Dali and Magritte.
Printmaking
Printmaking is creating, for artistic purposes, an image on a matrix that is then transferred to a two-dimensional (flat) surface by means of ink (or another form of pigmentation). Except in the case of a monotype, the same matrix can be used to produce many examples of the print.
Historically, the major techniques (also called media) involved are woodcut, line engraving, etching, lithography, and screen printing (serigraphy, silk screening) but there are many others, including modern digital techniques. Normally, the print is printed on paper, but other mediums range from cloth and vellum to more modern materials.
European history
Prints in the Western tradition produced before about 1830 are known as old master prints. In Europe, from around 1400 AD woodcut, was used for master prints on paper by using printing techniques developed in the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. Michael Wolgemut improved German woodcut from about 1475, and Erhard Reuwich, a Dutchman, was the first to use cross-hatching. At the end of the century Albrecht Dürer brought the Western woodcut to a stage that has never been surpassed, increasing the status of the single-leaf woodcut.
Chinese origin and practice
In China, the art of printmaking developed some 1,100 years ago as illustrations alongside text cut in woodblocks for printing on paper. Initially images were mainly religious but in the Song dynasty, artists began to cut landscapes. During the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1616–1911) dynasties, the technique was perfected for both religious and artistic engravings.
Development in Japan 1603–1867
Woodblock printing in Japan (Japanese: 木版画, moku hanga) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing illustrated books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867). Although similar to woodcut in western printmaking in some regards, moku hanga differs greatly in that water-based inks are used (as opposed to western woodcut, which uses oil-based inks), allowing for a wide range of vivid color, glazes and color transparency.
After the decline of ukiyo-e and introduction of modern printing technologies, woodblock printing continued as a method for printing texts as well as for producing art, both within traditional modes such as ukiyo-e and in a variety of more radical or Western forms that might be construed as modern art. In the early 20th century, shin-hanga that fused the tradition of ukiyo-e with the techniques of Western paintings became popular, and the works of Hasui Kawase and Hiroshi Yoshida gained international popularity. Institutes such as the "Adachi Institute of Woodblock Prints" and "Takezasado" continue to produce ukiyo-e prints with the same materials and methods as used in the past.
Photography
Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. The light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical shutters or electronically timed exposure of photons into chemical processing or digitizing devices known as cameras.
The word comes from the Greek φως phos ("light"), and γραφις graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη graphê, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing." Traditionally, the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo is an abbreviation; many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to replace photograph. (The term image is traditional in geometric optics.)
Architecture
Architecture is the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings or any other structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.
The earliest surviving written work on the subject of architecture is De architectura, by the Roman architect Vitruvius in the early 1st century AD. According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three principles of firmitas, utilitas, venustas, commonly known by the original translation – firmness, commodity and delight. An equivalent in modern English would be:
Durability – a building should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.
Utility – it should be suitable for the purposes for which it is used.
Beauty – it should be aesthetically pleasing.
Building first evolved out of the dynamics between needs (shelter, security, worship, etc.) and means (available building materials and attendant skills). As human cultures developed and knowledge began to be formalized through oral traditions and practices, building became a craft, and "architecture" is the name given to the most highly formalized and respected versions of that craft.
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a motion-picture, from an initial conception and research, through scriptwriting, shooting and recording, animation or other special effects, editing, sound and music work and finally distribution to an audience; it refers broadly to the creation of all types of films, embracing documentary, strains of theatre and literature in film, and poetic or experimental practices, and is often used to refer to video-based processes as well.
Computer art
Visual artists are no longer limited to traditional visual arts media. Computers have been used as an ever more common tool in the visual arts since the 1960s. Uses include the capturing or creating of images and forms, the editing of those images (including exploring multiple compositions) and the final rendering or printing (including 3D printing).
Computer art is any in which computers played a role in production or display. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation.
Many traditional disciplines now integrate digital technologies, so the lines between traditional works of art and new media works created using computers, have been blurred. For instance, an artist may combine traditional painting with algorithmic art and other digital techniques. As a result, defining computer art by its end product can be difficult. Nevertheless, this type of art is beginning to appear in art museum exhibits, though it has yet to prove its legitimacy as a form unto itself and this technology is widely seen in contemporary art more as a tool, rather than a form as with painting. On the other hand, there are computer-based artworks which belong to a new conceptual and postdigital strand, assuming the same technologies, and their social impact, as an object of inquiry.
Computer usage has blurred the distinctions between illustrators, photographers, photo editors, 3-D modelers, and handicraft artists. Sophisticated rendering and editing software has led to multi-skilled image developers. Photographers may become digital artists. Illustrators may become animators. Handicraft may be computer-aided or use computer-generated imagery as a template. Computer clip art usage has also made the clear distinction between visual arts and page layout less obvious due to the easy access and editing of clip art in the process of paginating a document, especially to the unskilled observer.
Plastic arts
Plastic arts is a term for art forms that involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by moulding or modeling such as sculpture or ceramics. The term has also been applied to all the visual (non-literary, non-musical) arts.
Materials that can be carved or shaped, such as stone or wood, concrete or steel, have also been included in the narrower definition, since, with appropriate tools, such materials are also capable of modulation. This use of the term "plastic" in the arts should not be confused with Piet Mondrian's use, nor with the movement he termed, in French and English, "Neoplasticism."
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard or plastic material, sound, or text and or light, commonly stone (either rock or marble), clay, metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded, or cast. Sculptures are often painted. A person who creates sculptures is called a sculptor.
The earliest undisputed examples of sculpture belong to the Aurignacian culture, which was located in Europe and southwest Asia and active at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. As well as producing some of the earliest known cave art, the people of this culture developed finely-crafted stone tools, manufacturing pendants, bracelets, ivory beads, and bone-flutes, as well as three-dimensional figurines.
Because sculpture involves the use of materials that can be moulded or modulated, it is considered one of the plastic arts. The majority of public art is sculpture. Many sculptures together in a garden setting may be referred to as a sculpture garden. Sculptors do not always make sculptures by hand. With increasing technology in the 20th century and the popularity of conceptual art over technical mastery, more sculptors turned to art fabricators to produce their artworks. With fabrication, the artist creates a design and pays a fabricator to produce it. This allows sculptors to create larger and more complex sculptures out of materials like cement, metal and plastic, that they would not be able to create by hand. Sculptures can also be made with 3-d printing technology.
US copyright definition of visual art
In the United States, the law protecting the copyright over a piece of visual art gives a more restrictive definition of "visual art".
A "work of visual art" is —
(1) a painting, drawing, print or sculpture, existing in a single copy, in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author, or, in the case of a sculpture, in multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of the author; or
(2) a still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only, existing in a single copy that is signed by the author, or in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author.
A work of visual art does not include —
(A)(i) any poster, map, globe, chart, technical drawing, diagram, model, applied art, motion picture or other audiovisual work, book, magazine, newspaper, periodical, data base, electronic information service, electronic publication, or similar publication;
(ii) any merchandising item or advertising, promotional, descriptive, covering, or packaging material or container;
(iii) any portion or part of any item described in clause (i) or (ii);
(B) any work made for hire; or
(C) any work not subject to copyright protection under this title.
See also
Art materials
Asemic writing
Collage
Conservation and restoration of cultural property
Crowdsourcing creative work
Décollage
Environmental art
Found object
Graffiti
History of art
Illustration
Installation art
Interactive art
Landscape art
Mathematics and art
Mixed media
Portraiture
Process art
Recording medium
Sketch (drawing)
Sound art
Vexillography
Video art
Visual arts and Theosophy
Visual impairment in art
Visual poetry
References
External links
ArtLex – online dictionary of visual art terms (archived 24 April 2005)
Calendar for Artists – calendar listing of visual art festivals.
Art History Timeline by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Communication design
Visual arts media | 0.769346 | 0.998897 | 0.768497 |
Landscape design | Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and garden design.
Design scope
Landscape design focuses on both the integrated master landscape planning of a property and the specific garden design of landscape elements and plants within it. The practical, aesthetic, horticultural, and environmental sustainability are also components of landscape design, which is often divided into hardscape design and softscape design. Landscape designers often collaborate with related disciplines such as architecture, civil engineering, surveying, landscape contracting, and artisan specialties.
Design projects may involve two different professional roles: landscape design and landscape architecture.
Landscape design typically involves artistic composition and artisanship, horticultural finesse and expertise, and emphasis on detailed site involvement from conceptual stages through to final construction.
Landscape architecture focuses more on urban planning, city and regional parks, civic and corporate landscapes, large scale interdisciplinary projects, and delegation to contractors after completing designs.
There can be a significant overlap of talent and skill between the two roles, depending on the education, licensing, and experience of the professional. Both landscape designers and landscape architects practice landscape design.
Design approach
The landscape design phase consists of research, gathering ideas, and setting a plan. Design factors include objective qualities such as: climate and microclimates; topography and orientation, site drainage and groundwater recharge; municipal and resource building codes; soils and irrigation; human and vehicular access and circulation; recreational amenities (i.e., sports and water); furnishings and lighting; native plant habitat botany when present; property safety and security; construction detailing; and other measurable considerations.
Design factors also include subjective qualities such as genius loci (the special site qualities to emphasize); client's needs and preferences; desirable plants and elements to retain on site, modify, or replace, and that may be available for borrowed scenery from beyond; artistic composition from perspectives of both looking upon and observing from within; spatial development and definition – using lines, sense of scale, and balance and symmetry; plant palettes; and artistic focal points for enjoyment. There are innumerable other design factors and considerations brought to the complex process of designing a garden that is beautiful, well-functioning, and that thrives over time.
The up-and-coming practice of online landscape design allows professional landscapers to remotely design and plan sites through manipulation of two-dimensional images without ever physically visiting the location. Due to the frequent lack of non-visual, supplementary data such as soil assessments and pH tests, online landscaping necessarily must focus on incorporating only plants which are tolerant across many diverse soil conditions.
Training
Historically, landscape designers trained by apprenticing—such as André Le Nôtre, who apprenticed with his father before designing the Gardens of Versailles—to accomplished masters in the field, with the titular name varying and reputation paramount for a career. The professional section of garden designers in Europe and the Americas went by the name "Landscape Gardener". In the 1890s, the distinct classification of landscape architect was created, with educational and licensing test requirements for using the title legally. Beatrix Farrand, the sole woman in the founding group, refused the title preferring Landscape Gardener. Matching the client and technical needs of a project, and the appropriate practitioner with talent, legal qualifications, and experienced skills, surmounts title nomenclature.
Institutional education in landscape design appeared in the early 20th century. Over time it became available at various levels. Ornamental horticulture programs with design components are offered at community college and universities within schools of agriculture or horticulture, with some beginning to offer garden or landscape design certificates and degrees. Departments of landscape architecture are located within university schools of architecture or environmental design, with undergraduate and graduate degrees offered. Specialties and minors are available in horticultural botany, horticulture, natural resources, landscape engineering, construction management, fine and applied arts, and landscape design history. Traditionally, hand-drawn drawings documented the design and position of features for construction, but Landscape design software is frequently used now.
Other routes of training are through informal apprenticeships with practicing landscape designers, landscape architects, landscape contractors, gardeners, nurseries and garden centers, and docent programs at botanical and public gardens. Since the landscape designer title does not have a college degree or licensing requirements to be used, there is a very wide range of sophistication, aesthetic talent, technical expertise, and specialty strengths to be responsibly matched with specific client and project requirements.
Gardening
Many landscape designers have an interest and involvement with gardening, personally or professionally. Gardens are dynamic and not static after construction and planting are completed, and so in some ways are "never done". Involvement with landscape management and direction of the ongoing garden direction, evolution, and care depend on the professional's and client's needs and inclinations. As with the other interrelated landscape disciplines, there can be an overlap of services offered under the titles of landscape designer or professional gardener.
See also
Landscape design software
Concrete landscape curbing
Landscape assessment
Landscape planning
Space in landscape design
References
Environmental design
Garden design | 0.778667 | 0.986932 | 0.768491 |
Sovereigntism | Sovereigntism, sovereignism or souverainism (from , , meaning "the ideology of sovereignty") is the notion of having control over one's conditions of existence, whether at the level of the self, social group, region, nation or globe. Typically used for describing the acquiring or preserving political independence of a nation or a region, a sovereigntist aims to "take back control" from perceived powerful forces, either against internal subversive minority groups (ethnic, sexual or gender), or from external global governance institutions, federalism and supranational unions. It generally leans instead toward isolationism, and can be associated with certain independence movements, but has also been used to justify violating the independence of other nations.
Classification
Sovereigntism has a cultural as well as political component and can take the form of hostility towards outsiders having different values or different countries or regions of origin. Sovereigntist groups are associated with populism since they typically claim legitimacy for carrying out the sovereign will of the people. While leftist sovereigntists tend to think of their national border as a defensive line against the corrosive effects of neo-liberal economics, right wing sovereigntists see it more as a filter protecting the sovereign people from undesired new members.
Though there are wide differences in ideology and historical context between sovereigntist movements, those of the twenty first century can be thought of as belonging to three separate categories: conservative sovereigntism, archeo-sovereigntism, and neo-sovereigntism. Conservative sovereignism embraces the national Westphalian model of sovereignty seeking to preserve the interstate order with norms promoting global economic order but halting further advances towards political integration. Some vestiges of colonialism remain, with old powers retaining what they see as historical special responsibilities to intervene in former possessions, such as in the case of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Amongst rising powers, neo-sovereigntism is concerned with issues of autonomism, especially against more privileged nations with concentrated power in transnational entities such as the UN security council or G7. It seeks to strengthen norms and agreements protecting the independence of each state, granting their equality, and restraining more powerful states from attempts to influence the behavior of other nations. Archeo-sovereigntism is the most radical, rejecting forces of globalization and restraints on states by transnational bodies, norms and agreements, calling for a return to a pre- World War II order when states were freer from such interference. Examples in Europe include the Front National in France, the Lega Nord in Italy, the Dansk Folk Party in Denmark, and the UKIP in the UK.
In a paper published in the European Review of International Studies outlining these three major tendencies, researchers Alles and Badie summarised them thus:
Sovereigntist populist parties in Europe
In Europe, sovereigntist populisms political movements divide (on the one hand) between those that seek to leave the European Union completely (or oppose joining it) and (on the other), those who aim for a "Europe of the nations", a less integrated Europe respecting the individual characteristics and sovereignty of constituent states. Supporters of these doctrines tend to regard themselves as Euro-realists opposed to the Euro-federalists and call for a more confederal version of a European Union. (The European Union is not a federation but shares many characteristics of one.) Thus, sovereigntism in Europe is opposed to federalism and typically involves nationalism, particularly in the United Kingdom (which withdrew from the EU in 2020) and in France where parties on the left and right margins lean strongly towards it.
European Union
After the 2024 European Parliament election four political groups in the European Parliament have been formed which contain sovereignist parties:
European Conservatives and Reformists
Europe of Sovereign Nations
Patriots for Europe
France
National Rally (right-wing nationalist)
The Patriots (Gaullist and right-wing nationalist)
Germany
Parties with tendencies that could be described also as sovereigntist can be also found in Germany:
Alternative for Germany (right-wing, nationalist, conservative)
Greece
Parties with tendencies that could be described also as sovereigntists can also be found in Greece:
Golden Dawn (ethnic nationalist, neofascist)
Popular Orthodox Rally (ethnic nationalist, religious conservatism)
Hungary
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party, in power since 2010, have increasingly followed a sovereigntist policy against the European Union. On December 12, 2023, the Hungarian National Assembly adopted the Sovereignty Protection Act, which creates a new government agency, called the Sovereignty Protection Office, to be established by February 1, 2024. It will have broad powers to investigate alleged attacks on Hungarian sovereignty, including the activities of civic organizations supported from abroad.
Italy
Five Star Movement (populist, left-wing populism)
Lega Nord (Conservatism, Populism, Euroscepticism)
Lega (Right-wing populism, Federalism)
Brothers of Italy (National conservatism, Right-wing populism)
Russia
Since 2006, Vladimir Putin has espoused the current Russian sovereigntist view of a political, economic, and cultural battle between sovereign peoples of Russia on one side, and on the other- transnational institutions with their neoliberal and cosmopolitan ideologies undermining Russia's sovereignty and cultural existence. In Putinism, the "national wealth" of the multiethnic Russian peoples (its morality, values, memory of its forefathers and its culture) both defines and is protected by its sovereignty. Putin advisor Vladislav Surkov articulated the threat to "sovereign democracy" posed by international organizations serving the interest of NATO, the OSCE, and the unipolar world order controlled by the United States. According to the ideology of Putinism, Georgian and Ukrainian sovereignty could not be respected since it had already been lost due to their color revolutions, seen as a collapse of borders protecting them from being engulfed culturally, economically and politically by Europe and the West. As a cultural and political protector against threatening Western powers, the idea of a sovereign union of multiple peoples under Russia's leadership has been employed as a legitimation theory for imperial expansion. This usage predates the Soviet Union, tracing back to Pan-slavism’s origins in the 16th century, later becoming integrated with Russian nationalism, imperialism and Orthodox messianism in the 19th century.
Catalonia
In the Parliament of Catalonia, parties explicitly supporting independence from Spain are Together for Catalonia (JxCat), heir of the former Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC)); Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), and Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (CUP).
United Kingdom
Parties with policies that could be described as sovereigntist can be also found in United Kingdom; notably by Reform UK and the Johnson-led Conservative Party (UK) (with respect to the European Union through hard Brexit), the Scottish National Party and (Party of Wales), and in Northern Ireland.
North America
Canada
In the Canadian province of Quebec, souverainisme or sovereigntism refers to the Quebec sovereignty movement, which argues for Quebec to separate from Canada and become an independent country. Many leaders in the movement, notably René Lévesque, have preferred the terms "sovereignty" and "sovereigntist" over other common names such as separatist or independentist, although this terminology may be objected to by opponents.
Quebec
Parti Québécois (centre-left, nationalist and social democratic)
Bloc Québécois (centre-left, nationalist and social democratic, represents Quebec separatism in Canada's federal parliament)
Option nationale (centre-left, nationalist and progressive)
Québec solidaire (left-wing, democratic socialist)
United States
Coupled with its history of isolationism and sense of American exceptionalism, US sovereigntism is largely a conservative perspective, celebrating both American self-definition and liberty to engage in unilateral action. Sovereigntism in foreign policy is charactized by opposition to multilateral regimes relating to climate change, war crimes, arms control and international declaration of human rights.
The dominant US sovereigntist perspective is currently that of Trumpism and has three dimensions:
World order and peace is best secured by sovereign states looking after themselves, as opposed to the rules-based international order of interdependent and integrated countries.
The needs of the American people come first before any other concern of government. Any other prioritization violates the sovereignty of the people.
Sovereigntism is used partisan weapon, where anyone who differs with Trumpian formulations of sovereignty are identified as political enemies.
A more extreme conservative view of popular sovereignty involves a radical unwinding of centralized government and an expansion of regional sovereignty, where freedoms are controlled at the local level, not adjudicated at the federal level. From the perspective of the tea party and continuing among followers of Trumpism, the populist concept of the sovereign people refers exclusively to a specifically defined Christian community that "invites people of different backgrounds to unite under a common 'American' sense of self". Similar to the perspective of Putinism, those individuals who maintain a separate minority identity are not only excluded, but are regarded as a threat to the majority's sovereignty, especially when they seek legal redress for violation of their human rights as defined by constitutional and international norms.
See also
References
Sovereignty
Political terminology
Conservatism in France
Politics of Quebec
Political terminology in Canada | 0.778159 | 0.98755 | 0.768471 |
Cultural tourism | Cultural tourism is a type of tourism in which the visitor's essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the cultural attractions and products offered by a tourist destination. These attractions and products relate to the intellectual, spiritual, and emotional features of a society that encompasses arts and architecture, historical and cultural heritage, culinary heritage, literature, music, creative industries as well as the living cultures with their lifestyles, value systems, beliefs and traditions.
Overview
Cultural tourism experiences include, but are not limited to, architectural and archaeological treasures, culinary activities, festivals or events, historic or heritage, sites, monuments and landmarks, museums and exhibitions, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, and religious venues. It includes tourism in urban areas, particularly historic or large cities and their cultural facilities such as theatres, as well as tourism in remote, indigenous regions. In the twenty-first-century United States, national parks and a limited number of Native American councils continue to promote "tribal tourism." The U.S. National Park Service has publicly endorsed this strain of cultural tourism, despite lingering concerns over exploitation and the potential hazards of ecotourism in Native America.
Proponents of cultural tourism say that it gives the local population the opportunity to benefit financially from their cultural heritage and thus to appreciate and preserve it, while giving visitors the opportunity to broaden their personal horizons. Cultural tourism also has negative sides. There may be negative effects on local residents, such as making the local economy unstable, increasing the cost of living for local residents, increasing pollution, or creating environmental problems. Also, the local population is at risk of coming into contact with new ways of life that can disrupt their social fabric.
This form of tourism is becoming generally more popular throughout the world, and a recent OECD report has highlighted the role that cultural tourism can play in regional development in different world regions. Cultural tourism has recently shifted towards meeting the growing desire for cultural "experiences" in particular.
Sectors of cultural tourism can be distinguished both by the destination (urban cultural tourism, rural cultural tourism, etc.) as well as the theme of the trip (heritage tourism, popular culture tourism, etc.). The main subcategories are discussed in more detail below.
Subcategories of Cultural Tourism
Heritage tourism
Archaeological sites
Monuments
Architecture
Museums
Religious Sites
Heritage tourism involves traveling to a site of cultural significance to engage with the heritage of the region and local population. In recent years, more attention has been put on the inclusion and thoughtful representation of the history of marginalized groups for the tourist audience, marked by UNESCO's updates to their World Heritage List, which is a comprehensive list of significant heritage sites.
Arts tourism
Theater
Concerts and music venues
Galleries
Festivals, carnivals and events
Literary sites
Arts tourism involves traveling to the location of an art exhibit, which includes live-performances, museums, and libraries. Arts tourism is a relatively less common form of cultural tourism, due both the historical exclusivity of the arts scene, and the option for artists to go on tour, eliminating the need for tourism. Even so, in recent years, the arts community has put increased emphasis on prioritizing the accessibility of local art and exhibits.
Creative Tourism
Photography
Painting
Pottery
Culinary arts
Language learning
Creative Tourism involves active participation from tourists in cultural experiences specific to each holiday destination. This form of tourism is more recently theorized and defined by Greg Richards and Crispin Raymond in 2000. They defined creative tourism as: "Tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation in courses and learning experiences, which are characteristic of the holiday destination where they are taken." (Richards, Greg et Raymond, Crispin, 2000).
This type of tourism is opposed to mass tourism and allows the destinations to diversify and offer innovative activities different from other destinations.
Similarly, UNESCO launched in 2004 a program entitled Creative Cities Network. This network aims to highlight cities around the world that are putting creativity at the heart of their sustainable urban development plan. Creative cities are organized into seven categories representing seven different creative fields: crafts and folk arts, digital arts, film, design, gastronomy, literature, and music. As of January 2020, the network has 246 members across all categories. In order to promote the development of this new type of tourism, a non-profit organization was created in Barcelona in 2010: Creative Tourism Network. Its missions involve, among others: the promotion of creative tourism, the creation of a network of "Creativefriendly" cities but also awards celebration, The Creative Tourism Awards."
Urban cultural tourism
Historic cities
Regenerated industrial cities
Waterfront development
Arts and heritage attractions
Shopping
Nightlife
Urban cultural tourism involves traveling to urban sites of cultural significance, which often offer a range of both historical and recreational attractions. Certain major urban cities with cultural offerings are listed in UNESCO's world heritage site and have been lauded for their promotion of cross-cultural exchange. Other urban cultural tourist sites are post-industrial cities, who offer tourists a slice of their history alongside modern recreation, such as shopping and nightlife.
Rural cultural tourism
Village, farm or agro-tourism
Eco-museums
National parks
Wine trails
Rural cultural tourism involves traveling to rural sites of cultural significance. Similarly to urban cultural tourist sites, many rural sites are cities whose main industries have declined, that supplement their economies by offering various attractions, such as wine-tasting. Other rural cultural sites have great historical significance, such as national parks.
Indigenous cultural tourism
Hilltribe, desert or mountain trekking
Visits to cultural centers
Arts and crafts (by local artists)
Cultural performances
Festivals
Indigenous cultural tourism is defined as "any service or product that is a) owned and operated at least in part by an Indigenous group and b) results from a means of exchange with outside guests." Most indigenous community have faced historic marginalization, which has led many proponents of cultural tourism to emphasize the need for sensitivity around these cultural events, as well as the importance of the indigenous population's control over how their culture is represented. Experts recognize that "the capitalization of Native identity has been a feature of Native and European interaction since the early colonial period." However, although this legacy is perhaps echoed by modern day indigenous tourism, involvement in the tourism industry allows indigenous populations "[to take] part in the global economy on their own terms."
Popular cultural tourism
Theme parks and themed attractions
Shopping malls
Pop concerts
Sporting events
Media and film sets
Industrial heritage sites
Fashion and design museums
Popular cultural tourism involves any kind of tourist attractions that are modern and mainstream, such as amusement parks or sporting events. Popular cultural tourism has only recently been included under the umbrella of cultural tourism, as recreational activities have gained increasing recognition for their cultural significance.
Environmental Impacts of Cultural Tourism
Negative Impacts
Increased tourist traffic often leads to greater rates of litter and pollution in a given community. This runs a risk for important cultural landscapes to be exposed to significant damage from human-caused wear and tear--"Tourists are in a peculiar position, because they do not live with the consequences of the pollution they help create or the shortages they help cause." In many ancient European cities, such as Rome, Paris, and Florence, the buildup of air pollutants generated by car exhaust and gas-powered motors has caused the white stone to be covered in pollutants and turned to a gray or black color. These toxic exhausts can also accelerate the corrosion of culturally important stone monuments, statues and heritage buildings.
Changing environmental conditions can have large impacts on human environments and heritage sites, as well. Cultural landscapes can be lost to rising waters and increasingly severe storms. This deterioration, and in the worst case, destruction, can be a major issue in coastal communities and low-lying islands. Floods and rising water levels can also be a direct threat to archaeological sites, historic buildings that hold cultural values, and heritage gardens.
Positive Impacts
Tourism can bring communities economic growth from both job creations and tax revenues from ticket sales to festivals, museums, ancient ruins, religious sites and historic hotels. This increase in economic growth is welcomed by heads of conservation sites, as it often a major source of revenue for important cultural sites where government assistance is lacking. "Tourism can act as an impetus for creating public awareness of the need to preserve the built environment. The establishment of national parks, national monuments and other protected areas is often justified by the existence of tourism"
Cultural tourism stimulates economic growth, preserves heritage, and fosters cross-cultural understanding. It promotes sustainable development and community revitalization, contributing to both local economies and global cultural enrichment through the preservation and celebration of diverse traditions.
See also
Archaeological tourism
Cultural diplomacy
Cultural tourism in Egypt
Film tourism
Impacts of tourism
Literary tourism
Overtourism
Sex tourism
Tourist trap
References
Further reading
Bob McKercher and Hilary du Cros, Cultural Tourism: The partnership between tourism and cultural heritage management, Routledge, 2002.
Greg Richards, Cultural Tourism: Global and local perspectives, Routledge, 2007.
Priscilla Boniface, Managing Quality Cultural Tourism, Routledge, 1995.
Milena Ivanovic, Cultural Tourism, Juta and Company Ltd, 2009.
External links
Family Heritage Tourism
Cultural Heritage Tourism
GoUNESCO – Culture and Heritage Travel Challenge
Heritage Tourism from the National Trust
Success factors for museums & non-profit cultural attractions
Sri Lanka Cultural Tour Package
Adventure travel
Types of tourism | 0.774159 | 0.992616 | 0.768443 |
Revue | A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932. Though most famous for their visual spectacle, revues frequently satirized contemporary figures, news or literature. Similar to the related subforms of operetta and musical theatre, the revue art form brings together music, dance and sketches to create a compelling show. In contrast to these, however, revue does not have an overarching storyline. Rather, a general theme serves as the motto for a loosely related series of acts that alternate between solo performances and dance ensembles.
Owing to high ticket prices, ribald publicity campaigns and the occasional use of prurient material, the revue was typically patronized by audience members who earned more and felt even less restricted by middle-class social norms than their contemporaries in vaudeville. Like much of that era's popular entertainments, revues often featured material based on sophisticated, irreverent dissections of topical matter, public personae and fads, though the primary attraction was found in the frank display of the female body.
Etymology
Revue comes from the French word for "review," as in a "show presenting a review of current events."
George Lederer's The Passing Show (1894) is usually held to be the first successful American "review." The English spelling was used until 1907 when Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. popularized the French spelling. "Follies" is now sometimes (incorrectly) employed as an analog for "revue," though the term was proprietary to Ziegfeld until his death in 1932. Other popular proprietary revue names included George White's "Scandals," Earl Carroll's "Vanities" and John Murray Anderson's Greenwich Village Follies.
Origin
Revues are most properly understood as having amalgamated several theatrical traditions within the corpus of a single entertainment. Minstrelsy's olio section provided a structural map of popular variety presentation, while literary travesties highlighted an audience hunger for satire. Theatrical extravaganzas, in particular, moving panoramas, demonstrated a vocabulary of the spectacular. Burlesque, itself a bawdy hybrid of various theatrical forms, lent to classic revue an open interest in female sexuality and the masculine gaze.
Golden age
Revues enjoyed great success on Broadway from the World War I years until the Great Depression, when the stock market crash forced many revues from cavernous Broadway houses into smaller venues. (The shows did, however, continue to infrequently appear in large theatres well into the 1950s.) The high ticket prices of many revues helped ensure audiences distinct from other live popular entertainments during their height of popularity (late 1910s–1940s). In 1914, the Follies charged $5.00 for an opening night ticket ($130 in 2020 dollars); at that time, many cinema houses charged from $0.10 to 0.25, while low-priced vaudeville seats were $0.15. Among the many popular producers of revues, Florenz Ziegfeld played the greatest role in developing the classical revue through his glorification of a new theatrical "type", "the American girl". Famed for his often bizarre publicity schemes and continual debt, Ziegfeld joined Earl Carroll, George White, John Murray Anderson, and the Shubert Brothers as the leading producing figure of the American revue's golden age. Revues also had a presence in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, with films such as "Frau meiner Träume" being made.
Revues took advantage of their high revenue stream to lure away performers from other media, often offering exorbitant weekly salaries without the unremitting travel demanded by other entertainments. Performers such as Eddie Cantor, Anna Held, W. C. Fields, Bert Williams, Ed Wynn, the Marx Brothers and the Fairbanks Twins found great success on the revue stage. One of Cole Porter's early shows was Raymond Hitchcock's revue Hitchy-Koo of 1919. Composers or lyricists such as Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Irving Berlin, and George M. Cohan also enjoyed a tremendous reception on the part of audiences. Sometimes, an appearance in a revue provided a key early entry into entertainment. Largely due to their centralization in New York City and their adroit use of publicity, revues proved particularly adept at introducing new talents to the American theatre. Rodgers and Hart, one of the great composer/lyricist teams of the American musical theatre, followed up their early Columbia University student revues with the successful Garrick Gaieties (1925). Comedian Fanny Brice, following a brief period in burlesque and amateur variety, bowed to revue audiences in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1910. Specialist writers and composers of revues have included Sandy Wilson, Noël Coward, John Stromberg, George Gershwin, Earl Carroll, and the British team Flanders and Swann. In Britain predominantly, Tom Arnold also specialized in promoting series of revues and his acts extended to the European continent and South Africa.
Film revues
With the introduction of talking pictures, in 1927, studios immediately began filming acts from the stage. Such film shorts gradually replaced the live entertainment that had often accompanied cinema exhibition. By 1928, studios began planning to film feature-length versions of popular musicals and revues from the stage. The lavish films, noted by many for a sustained opulence unrivaled in Hollywood until the 1950s epics, reached a breadth of audience never found by the stage revue, all while significantly underpricing the now-faltering theatrical shows. A number of revues were released by the studios, many of which were filmed entirely (or partly) in color. The most notable examples of these are The Show of Shows (Warner Brothers, 1929), The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1929), Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (Fox Film Corporation, 1929), Paramount on Parade (Paramount, 1930), New Movietone Follies of 1930 (Fox, 1930), and King of Jazz (Universal, 1930). Even Britain jumped on the bandwagon and produced expensive revues such as Harmony Heaven (British International Pictures, 1929), Elstree Calling (BIP, 1930), and The Musical Revue Of 1959 (BI
P, 1960).
Contemporary revues
Revues are often common today as student entertainment (with strong traditions in many universities in UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark). These use pastiche, in which contemporary songs are re-written in order to comment on the college or courses in a humorous nature. While most comic songs will only be heard within the revue they were written for, sometimes they become more widely known—such as "A Transport of Delight", about the big red London bus, by Flanders and Swann, who first made their name in a revue titled At the Drop of a Hat.
The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour in the mid-1970s consisting of a traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan, that took place in late 1975 and early 1976.
Towards the end of the 20th century, a subgenre of revue largely dispensed with the sketches, founding narrative structure within a song cycle in which the material is culled from varied works. This type of revue may or may not have identifiable characters and a rudimentary storyline but, even when it does, the songs remain the focus of the show (for example, Closer Than Ever by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire). This type of revue usually showcases songs written by a particular composer or songs made famous by a particular performer. Examples of the former are Side By Side By Sondheim (music/lyrics Stephen Sondheim), Eubie! (Eubie Blake) Tom Foolery (Tom Lehrer), and Five Guys Named Moe (songs made popular by Louis Jordan). The eponymous nature of these later revues suggest a continued embrace of a unifying authorial presence in this seemingly scattershot genre, much as was earlier the case with Ziegfeld, Carrol, et al.
With different artistic emphases, the revue genre is today above all upheld at traditional variety theatres such as the Le Lido, Moulin Rouge and Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, as well as in shows in Las Vegas.
University and Medics' Revues
It is a current and fairly longstanding tradition of medical, dental, engineering, legal and veterinary schools within the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to put on revues each year, combining comedy sketches, songs, parodies, films and sound-bites. One of the most notable and funniest is the Australian National University's "Arts Revue".
As well as performing at their respective universities, shows will often be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Cambridge Medics Revue, St George's Medics Revue, and Birmingham Medics Revues have all performed at the Festival, with St. George's Medics Revue having been performing annually at the Fringe for 18 years and have sold-out their show for the last nine years. The BSMS Medic Revue has performed sellout shows in the Brighton Fringe Festival since 2008. The MDs Comedy Revue performed at the Fringe for the first time in 2015, to a sell-out audience, repeating this feat their second show in 2016 and their third in 2018. The Cambridge clinical school also now run a competing revue to the undergraduates, called variably Revue and Integration or Revue and Imitation.
United Hospitals Comedy Revue - The Moira Stuart Cup
The Moira Stuart Cup is competed for annually at the United Hospitals Comedy Revue, by all five of the University of London Medical Schools. It has been won by all medical schools at least once, with RUMS (UCL Medical School) and St George's Hospital Medical School achieving the most victories, winning the trophy six times each. The cup is not officially endorsed by Moira Stuart herself.
a. In 2019, the judges ironically declared Imperial College School of Medicine the winners, because they could not decide which of The MDs Comedy Revue or The Zebraphiles were the funnier.
b. The 2002 UH Revue was a showcase of each Medical School's Revue societies, with the competition element brought in from 2003.
See also
Cabaret
Wayne Lamb
Capping Show
Revue Studios
References
Bibliography
External links
Theatrical genres | 0.772028 | 0.995304 | 0.768402 |
Art | Art is a diverse range of human activity and its resulting product that involves creative or imaginative talent, generally expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art, and its interpretation has varied greatly throughout history and across cultures. In the Western tradition, the three classical branches of visual art are painting, sculpture, and architecture. Theatre, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, music, film and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of "the arts". Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the fine arts are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, such as the decorative or applied arts.
The nature of art and related concepts, such as creativity and interpretation, are explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics. The resulting artworks are studied in the professional fields of art criticism and the history of art.
Overview
In the perspective of the history of art, artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind: from early prehistoric art to contemporary art; however, some theorists think that the typical concept of "artistic works" does not fit well outside modern Western societies. One early sense of the definition of art is closely related to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to "skill" or "craft", as associated with words such as "artisan". English words derived from this meaning include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, and military arts. However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology.
Over time, philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Immanuel Kant, among others, questioned the meaning of art. Several dialogues in Plato tackle questions about art, while Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the Phaedrus (265a–c), and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer's great poetic art, and laughter as well. In Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. The dialogue Ion suggests that Homer's Iliad functioned in the ancient Greek world as the Bible does today in the modern Christian world: as divinely inspired literary art that can provide moral guidance, if only it can be properly interpreted.
With regards to the literary art and the musical arts, Aristotle considered epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, Dithyrambic poetry and music to be mimetic or imitative art, each varying in imitation by medium, object, and manner. For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language. The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation—through narrative or character, through change or no change, and through drama or no drama. Aristotle believed that imitation is natural to mankind and constitutes one of mankind's advantages over animals.
The more recent and specific sense of the word art as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art emerged in the early 17th century. Fine art refers to a skill used to express the artist's creativity, or to engage the audience's aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of more refined or finer works of art.
Within this latter sense, the word art may refer to several things: (i) a study of a creative skill, (ii) a process of using the creative skill, (iii) a product of the creative skill, or (iv) the audience's experience with the creative skill. The creative arts (art as discipline) are a collection of disciplines which produce artworks (art as objects) that are compelled by a personal drive (art as activity) and convey a message, mood, or symbolism for the perceiver to interpret (art as experience). Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. Works of art can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. For some scholars, such as Kant, the sciences and the arts could be distinguished by taking science as representing the domain of knowledge and the arts as representing the domain of the freedom of artistic expression.
Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, people will consider it a craft instead of art. Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it may be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are sometimes considered applied art. Some art followers have argued that the difference between fine art and applied art has more to do with value judgments made about the art than any clear definitional difference. However, even fine art often has goals beyond pure creativity and self-expression. The purpose of works of art may be to communicate ideas, such as in politically, spiritually, or philosophically motivated art; to create a sense of beauty (see aesthetics); to explore the nature of perception; for pleasure; or to generate strong emotions. The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent.
The nature of art has been described by philosopher Richard Wollheim as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture". Art has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation. Art as mimesis has deep roots in the philosophy of Aristotle. Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another. Benedetto Croce and R. G. Collingwood advanced the idealist view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in the mind of the creator. The theory of art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Kant, and was developed in the early 20th century by Roger Fry and Clive Bell. More recently, thinkers influenced by Martin Heidegger have interpreted art as the means by which a community develops for itself a medium for self-expression and interpretation. George Dickie has offered an institutional theory of art that defines a work of art as any artifact upon which a qualified person or persons acting on behalf of the social institution commonly referred to as "the art world" has conferred "the status of candidate for appreciation". Larry Shiner has described fine art as "not an essence or a fate but something we have made. Art as we have generally understood it is a European invention barely two hundred years old."
Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), narrative (storytelling), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. During the Romantic period, art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science".
History
A shell engraved by Homo erectus was determined to be between 430,000 and 540,000 years old. A set of eight 130,000 years old white-tailed eagle talons bear cut marks and abrasion that indicate manipulation by neanderthals, possibly for using it as jewelry. A series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old—were discovered in a South African cave. Containers that may have been used to hold paints have been found dating as far back as 100,000 years.
The oldest piece of art found in Europe is the Riesenhirschknochen der Einhornhöhle, dating back 51,000 years and made by Neanderthals.
Sculptures, cave paintings, rock paintings and petroglyphs from the Upper Paleolithic dating to roughly 40,000 years ago have been found, but the precise meaning of such art is often disputed because so little is known about the cultures that produced them.
The first undisputed sculptures and similar art pieces, like the Venus of Hohle Fels, are the numerous objects found at the Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura UNESCO World Heritage Site, where the oldest non-stationary works of human art yet discovered were found, in the form of carved animal and humanoid figurines, in addition to the oldest musical instruments unearthed so far, with the artifacts dating between 43,000 and 35,000 BC, so being the first centre of human art.
Many great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, as well as Inca, Maya, and Olmec. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Because of the size and duration of these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. Some also have provided the first records of how artists worked. For example, this period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty, and anatomically correct proportions.
In Byzantine and Medieval art of the Western Middle Ages, much art focused on the expression of subjects about biblical and religious culture, and used styles that showed the higher glory of a heavenly world, such as the use of gold in the background of paintings, or glass in mosaics or windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms. Nevertheless, a classical realist tradition persisted in small Byzantine works, and realism steadily grew in the art of Catholic Europe.
Renaissance art had a greatly increased emphasis on the realistic depiction of the material world, and the place of humans in it, reflected in the corporeality of the human body, and development of a systematic method of graphical perspective to depict recession in a three-dimensional picture space.
In the east, Islamic art's rejection of iconography led to emphasis on geometric patterns, calligraphy, and architecture. Further east, religion dominated artistic styles and forms too. India and Tibet saw emphasis on painted sculptures and dance, while religious painting borrowed many conventions from sculpture and tended to bright contrasting colors with emphasis on outlines. China saw the flourishing of many art forms: jade carving, bronzework, pottery (including the stunning terracotta army of Emperor Qin), poetry, calligraphy, music, painting, drama, fiction, etc. Chinese styles vary greatly from era to era and each one is traditionally named after the ruling dynasty. So, for example, Tang dynasty paintings are monochromatic and sparse, emphasizing idealized landscapes, but Ming dynasty paintings are busy and colorful, and focus on telling stories via setting and composition. Japan names its styles after imperial dynasties too, and also saw much interplay between the styles of calligraphy and painting. Woodblock printing became important in Japan after the 17th century.
The western Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century saw artistic depictions of physical and rational certainties of the clockwork universe, as well as politically revolutionary visions of a post-monarchist world, such as Blake's portrayal of Newton as a divine geometer, or David's propagandistic paintings. This led to Romantic rejections of this in favor of pictures of the emotional side and individuality of humans, exemplified in the novels of Goethe. The late 19th century then saw a host of artistic movements, such as academic art, Symbolism, impressionism and fauvism among others.
The history of 20th-century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. Thus the parameters of Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc. cannot be maintained very much beyond the time of their invention. Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art. Thus, Japanese woodblock prints (themselves influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense influence on impressionism and subsequent development. Later, African sculptures were taken up by Picasso and to some extent by Matisse. Similarly, in the 19th and 20th centuries the West has had huge impacts on Eastern art with originally western ideas like Communism and Post-Modernism exerting a powerful influence.
Modernism, the idealistic search for truth, gave way in the latter half of the 20th century to a realization of its unattainability. Theodor W. Adorno said in 1970, "It is now taken for granted that nothing which concerns art can be taken for granted any more: neither art itself, nor art in relationship to the whole, nor even the right of art to exist." Relativism was accepted as an unavoidable truth, which led to the period of contemporary art and postmodern criticism, where cultures of the world and of history are seen as changing forms, which can be appreciated and drawn from only with skepticism and irony. Furthermore, the separation of cultures is increasingly blurred and some argue it is now more appropriate to think in terms of a global culture, rather than of regional ones.
In The Origin of the Work of Art, Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher and seminal thinker, describes the essence of art in terms of the concepts of being and truth. He argues that art is not only a way of expressing the element of truth in a culture, but the means of creating it and providing a springboard from which "that which is" can be revealed. Works of art are not merely representations of the way things are, but actually produce a community's shared understanding. Each time a new artwork is added to any culture, the meaning of what it is to exist is inherently changed.
Historically, art and artistic skills and ideas have often been spread through trade. An example of this is the Silk Road, where Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian and Chinese influences could mix. Greco Buddhist art is one of the most vivid examples of this interaction. The meeting of different cultures and worldviews also influenced artistic creation. An example of this is the multicultural port metropolis of Trieste at the beginning of the 20th century, where James Joyce met writers from Central Europe and the artistic development of New York City as a cultural melting pot.
Forms, genres, media, and styles
The creative arts are often divided into more specific categories, typically along perceptually distinguishable categories such as media, genre, styles, and form. Art form refers to the elements of art that are independent of its interpretation or significance. It covers the methods adopted by the artist and the physical composition of the artwork, primarily non-semantic aspects of the work (i.e., figurae), such as color, contour, dimension, medium, melody, space, texture, and value. Form may also include Design principles, such as arrangement, balance, contrast, emphasis, harmony, proportion, proximity, and rhythm.
In general there are three schools of philosophy regarding art, focusing respectively on form, content, and context. Extreme Formalism is the view that all aesthetic properties of art are formal (that is, part of the art form). Philosophers almost universally reject this view and hold that the properties and aesthetics of art extend beyond materials, techniques, and form. Unfortunately, there is little consensus on terminology for these informal properties. Some authors refer to subject matter and content—i.e., denotations and connotations—while others prefer terms like meaning and significance.
Extreme Intentionalism holds that authorial intent plays a decisive role in the meaning of a work of art, conveying the content or essential main idea, while all other interpretations can be discarded. It defines the subject as the persons or idea represented, and the content as the artist's experience of that subject. For example, the composition of Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne is partly borrowed from the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. As evidenced by the title, the subject is Napoleon, and the content is Ingres's representation of Napoleon as "Emperor-God beyond time and space". Similarly to extreme formalism, philosophers typically reject extreme intentionalism, because art may have multiple ambiguous meanings and authorial intent may be unknowable and thus irrelevant. Its restrictive interpretation is "socially unhealthy, philosophically unreal, and politically unwise".
Finally, the developing theory of post-structuralism studies art's significance in a cultural context, such as the ideas, emotions, and reactions prompted by a work. The cultural context often reduces to the artist's techniques and intentions, in which case analysis proceeds along lines similar to formalism and intentionalism. However, in other cases historical and material conditions may predominate, such as religious and philosophical convictions, sociopolitical and economic structures, or even climate and geography. Art criticism continues to grow and develop alongside art.
Skill and craft
Art can connote a sense of trained ability or mastery of a medium. Art can also refer to the developed and efficient use of a language to convey meaning with immediacy or depth. Art can be defined as an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations.
There is an understanding that is reached with the material as a result of handling it, which facilitates one's thought processes.
A common view is that the epithet art, particular in its elevated sense, requires a certain level of creative expertise by the artist, whether this be a demonstration of technical ability, an originality in stylistic approach, or a combination of these two. Traditionally skill of execution was viewed as a quality inseparable from art and thus necessary for its success; for Leonardo da Vinci, art, neither more nor less than his other endeavors, was a manifestation of skill. Rembrandt's work, now praised for its ephemeral virtues, was most admired by his contemporaries for its virtuosity. At the turn of the 20th century, the adroit performances of John Singer Sargent were alternately admired and viewed with skepticism for their manual fluency, yet at nearly the same time the artist who would become the era's most recognized and peripatetic iconoclast, Pablo Picasso, was completing a traditional academic training at which he excelled.
A common contemporary criticism of some modern art occurs along the lines of objecting to the apparent lack of skill or ability required in the production of the artistic object. In conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp's Fountain is among the first examples of pieces wherein the artist used found objects ("ready-made") and exercised no traditionally recognised set of skills. Tracey Emin's My Bed, or Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living follow this example. Emin slept (and engaged in other activities) in her bed before placing the result in a gallery as work of art. Hirst came up with the conceptual design for the artwork but has left most of the eventual creation of many works to employed artisans. Hirst's celebrity is founded entirely on his ability to produce shocking concepts. The actual production in many conceptual and contemporary works of art is a matter of assembly of found objects. However, there are many modernist and contemporary artists who continue to excel in the skills of drawing and painting and in creating hands-on works of art.
Purpose
Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its purpose difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the purpose of art is "vague", but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created. Some of these functions of art are provided in the following outline. The different purposes of art may be grouped according to those that are non-motivated, and those that are motivated (Lévi-Strauss).
Non-motivated functions
The non-motivated purposes of art are those that are integral to being human, transcend the individual, or do not fulfill a specific external purpose. In this sense, Art, as creativity, is something humans must do by their very nature (i.e., no other species creates art), and is therefore beyond utility.
Basic human instinct for harmony, balance, rhythm. Art at this level is not an action or an object, but an internal appreciation of balance and harmony (beauty), and therefore an aspect of being human beyond utility.Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the instinct for 'harmony' and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections of rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude improvisations gave birth to Poetry. – Aristotle
Experience of the mysterious. Art provides a way to experience one's self in relation to the universe. This experience may often come unmotivated, as one appreciates art, music or poetry.The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. – Albert Einstein
Expression of the imagination. Art provides a means to express the imagination in non-grammatic ways that are not tied to the formality of spoken or written language. Unlike words, which come in sequences and each of which have a definite meaning, art provides a range of forms, symbols and ideas with meanings that are malleable.Jupiter's eagle [as an example of art] is not, like logical (aesthetic) attributes of an object, the concept of the sublimity and majesty of creation, but rather something else—something that gives the imagination an incentive to spread its flight over a whole host of kindred representations that provoke more thought than admits of expression in a concept determined by words. They furnish an aesthetic idea, which serves the above rational idea as a substitute for logical presentation, but with the proper function, however, of animating the mind by opening out for it a prospect into a field of kindred representations stretching beyond its ken. – Immanuel Kant
Ritualistic and symbolic functions. In many cultures, art is used in rituals, performances and dances as a decoration or symbol. While these often have no specific utilitarian (motivated) purpose, anthropologists know that they often serve a purpose at the level of meaning within a particular culture. This meaning is not furnished by any one individual, but is often the result of many generations of change, and of a cosmological relationship within the culture.Most scholars who deal with rock paintings or objects recovered from prehistoric contexts that cannot be explained in utilitarian terms and are thus categorized as decorative, ritual or symbolic, are aware of the trap posed by the term 'art'. – Silva Tomaskova
Motivated functions
Motivated purposes of art refer to intentional, conscious actions on the part of the artists or creator. These may be to bring about political change, to comment on an aspect of society, to convey a specific emotion or mood, to address personal psychology, to illustrate another discipline, to (with commercial arts) sell a product, or used as a form of communication.
Communication. Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication. As most forms of communication have an intent or goal directed toward another individual, this is a motivated purpose. Illustrative arts, such as scientific illustration, are a form of art as communication. Maps are another example. However, the content need not be scientific. Emotions, moods and feelings are also communicated through art.[Art is a set of] artefacts or images with symbolic meanings as a means of communication. – Steve Mithen
Art as entertainment. Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood, for the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer. This is often the function of the art industries of motion pictures and video games.
The Avant-Garde. Art for political change. One of the defining functions of early 20th-century art has been to use visual images to bring about political change. Art movements that had this goal—Dadaism, Surrealism, Russian constructivism, and Abstract Expressionism, among others—are collectively referred to as the avant-garde arts.By contrast, the realistic attitude, inspired by positivism, from Saint Thomas Aquinas to Anatole France, clearly seems to me to be hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement. I loathe it, for it is made up of mediocrity, hate, and dull conceit. It is this attitude which today gives birth to these ridiculous books, these insulting plays. It constantly feeds on and derives strength from the newspapers and stultifies both science and art by assiduously flattering the lowest of tastes; clarity bordering on stupidity, a dog's life. – André Breton (Surrealism)
Art as a "free zone", removed from the action of the social censure. Unlike the avant-garde movements, which wanted to erase cultural differences in order to produce new universal values, contemporary art has enhanced its tolerance towards cultural differences as well as its critical and liberating functions (social inquiry, activism, subversion, deconstruction, etc.), becoming a more open place for research and experimentation.
Art for social inquiry, subversion or anarchy. While similar to art for political change, subversive or deconstructivist art may seek to question aspects of society without any specific political goal. In this case, the function of art may be used to criticize some aspect of society. Graffiti art and other types of street art are graphics and images that are spray-painted or stencilled on publicly viewable walls, buildings, buses, trains, and bridges, usually without permission. Certain art forms, such as graffiti, may also be illegal when they break laws (in this case vandalism).
Art for social causes. Art can be used to raise awareness for a large variety of causes. A number of art activities were aimed at raising awareness of autism, cancer, human trafficking, and a variety of other topics, such as ocean conservation, human rights in Darfur, murdered and missing Aboriginal women, elder abuse, and pollution. Trashion, using trash to make fashion, practiced by artists such as Marina DeBris is one example of using art to raise awareness about pollution.
Art for psychological and healing purposes. Art is also used by art therapists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists as art therapy. The Diagnostic Drawing Series, for example, is used to determine the personality and emotional functioning of a patient. The end product is not the principal goal in this case, but rather a process of healing, through creative acts, is sought. The resultant piece of artwork may also offer insight into the troubles experienced by the subject and may suggest suitable approaches to be used in more conventional forms of psychiatric therapy.
Art for propaganda, or commercialism. Art is often used as a form of propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or mood. In a similar way, art that tries to sell a product also influences mood and emotion. In both cases, the purpose of art here is to subtly manipulate the viewer into a particular emotional or psychological response toward a particular idea or object.
Art as a fitness indicator. It has been argued that the ability of the human brain by far exceeds what was needed for survival in the ancestral environment. One evolutionary psychology explanation for this is that the human brain and associated traits (such as artistic ability and creativity) are the human equivalent of the peacock's tail. The purpose of the male peacock's extravagant tail has been argued to be to attract females (see also Fisherian runaway and handicap principle). According to this theory superior execution of art was evolutionarily important because it attracted mates.
The functions of art described above are not mutually exclusive, as many of them may overlap. For example, art for the purpose of entertainment may also seek to sell a product, i.e. the movie or video game.
Steps
Art can be divided into any number of steps one can make an argument for. This section divides the creative process into broad three steps, but there is no consensus on an exact number.
Preparation
In the first step, the artist envisions the art in their mind. By imagining what their art would look like, the artist begins the process of bringing the art into existence. Preparation of art may involve approaching and researching the subject matter. Artistic inspiration is one of the main drivers of art, and may be considered to stem from instinct, impressions, and feelings.
Creation
In the second step, the artist executes the creation of their work. The creation of a piece can be affected by factors such as the artist's mood, surroundings, and mental state. For example, The Black Paintings by Francisco de Goya, created in the elder years of his life, are thought to be so bleak because he was in isolation and because of his experience with war. He painted them directly on the walls of his apartment in Spain, and most likely never discussed them with anyone. The Beatles stated drugs such as LSD and cannabis influenced some of their greatest hits, such as Revolver. Trial and error are considered an integral part of the creation process.
Appreciation
The last step is art appreciation, which has the sub-topic of critique. In one study, over half of visual arts students agreed that reflection is an essential step of the art process. According to education journals, the reflection of art is considered an essential part of the experience. However an important aspect of art is that others may view and appreciate it as well. While many focus on whether those viewing/listening/etc. believe the art to be good/successful or not, art has profound value beyond its commercial success as a provider of information and health in society. Art enjoyment can bring about a wide spectrum of emotion due to beauty. Some art is meant to be practical, with its analysis studious, meant to stimulate discourse.
Public access
Since ancient times, much of the finest art has represented a deliberate display of wealth or power, often achieved by using massive scale and expensive materials. Much art has been commissioned by political rulers or religious establishments, with more modest versions only available to the most wealthy in society.
Nevertheless, there have been many periods where art of very high quality was available, in terms of ownership, across large parts of society, above all in cheap media such as pottery, which persists in the ground, and perishable media such as textiles and wood. In many different cultures, the ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas are found in such a wide range of graves that they were clearly not restricted to a social elite, though other forms of art may have been. Reproductive methods such as moulds made mass-production easier, and were used to bring high-quality Ancient Roman pottery and Greek Tanagra figurines to a very wide market. Cylinder seals were both artistic and practical, and very widely used by what can be loosely called the middle class in the Ancient Near East. Once coins were widely used, these also became an art form that reached the widest range of society.
Another important innovation came in the 15th century in Europe, when printmaking began with small woodcuts, mostly religious, that were often very small and hand-colored, and affordable even by peasants who glued them to the walls of their homes. Printed books were initially very expensive, but fell steadily in price until by the 19th century even the poorest could afford some with printed illustrations. Popular prints of many different sorts have decorated homes and other places for centuries.
In 1661, the city of Basel, in Switzerland, opened the first public museum of art in the world, the Kunstmuseum Basel. Today, its collection is distinguished by an impressively wide historic span, from the early 15th century up to the immediate present. Its various areas of emphasis give it international standing as one of the most significant museums of its kind. These encompass: paintings and drawings by artists active in the Upper Rhine region between 1400 and 1600, and on the art of the 19th to 21st centuries.
Public buildings and monuments, secular and religious, by their nature normally address the whole of society, and visitors as viewers, and display to the general public has long been an important factor in their design. Egyptian temples are typical in that the most largest and most lavish decoration was placed on the parts that could be seen by the general public, rather than the areas seen only by the priests. Many areas of royal palaces, castles and the houses of the social elite were often generally accessible, and large parts of the art collections of such people could often be seen, either by anybody, or by those able to pay a small price, or those wearing the correct clothes, regardless of who they were, as at the Palace of Versailles, where the appropriate extra accessories (silver shoe buckles and a sword) could be hired from shops outside.
Special arrangements were made to allow the public to see many royal or private collections placed in galleries, as with the Orleans Collection mostly housed in a wing of the Palais Royal in Paris, which could be visited for most of the 18th century. In Italy the art tourism of the Grand Tour became a major industry from the Renaissance onwards, and governments and cities made efforts to make their key works accessible. The British Royal Collection remains distinct, but large donations such as the Old Royal Library were made from it to the British Museum, established in 1753. The Uffizi in Florence opened entirely as a gallery in 1765, though this function had been gradually taking the building over from the original civil servants' offices for a long time before. The building now occupied by the Prado in Madrid was built before the French Revolution for the public display of parts of the royal art collection, and similar royal galleries open to the public existed in Vienna, Munich and other capitals. The opening of the Musée du Louvre during the French Revolution (in 1793) as a public museum for much of the former French royal collection certainly marked an important stage in the development of public access to art, transferring ownership to a republican state, but was a continuation of trends already well established.
Most modern public museums and art education programs for children in schools can be traced back to this impulse to have art available to everyone. However, museums do not only provide availability to art, but do also influence the way art is being perceived by the audience, as studies found. Thus, the museum itself is not only a blunt stage for the presentation of art, but plays an active and vital role in the overall perception of art in modern society.
Museums in the United States tend to be gifts from the very rich to the masses. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, for example, was created by John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum.) But despite all this, at least one of the important functions of art in the 21st century remains as a marker of wealth and social status.
There have been attempts by artists to create art that can not be bought by the wealthy as a status object. One of the prime original motivators of much of the art of the late 1960s and 1970s was to create art that could not be bought and sold. It is "necessary to present something more than mere objects" said the major post war German artist Joseph Beuys. This time period saw the rise of such things as performance art, video art, and conceptual art. The idea was that if the artwork was a performance that would leave nothing behind, or was an idea, it could not be bought and sold. "Democratic precepts revolving around the idea that a work of art is a commodity impelled the aesthetic innovation which germinated in the mid-1960s and was reaped throughout the 1970s. Artists broadly identified under the heading of Conceptual art ... substituting performance and publishing activities for engagement with both the material and materialistic concerns of painted or sculptural form ... [have] endeavored to undermine the art object qua object."
In the decades since, these ideas have been somewhat lost as the art market has learned to sell limited edition DVDs of video works, invitations to exclusive performance art pieces, and the objects left over from conceptual pieces. Many of these performances create works that are only understood by the elite who have been educated as to why an idea or video or piece of apparent garbage may be considered art. The marker of status becomes understanding the work instead of necessarily owning it, and the artwork remains an upper-class activity. "With the widespread use of DVD recording technology in the early 2000s, artists, and the gallery system that derives its profits from the sale of artworks, gained an important means of controlling the sale of video and computer artworks in limited editions to collectors."
Controversies
Art has long been controversial, that is to say disliked by some viewers, for a wide variety of reasons, though most pre-modern controversies are dimly recorded, or completely lost to a modern view. Iconoclasm is the destruction of art that is disliked for a variety of reasons, including religious ones. Aniconism is a general dislike of either all figurative images, or often just religious ones, and has been a thread in many major religions. It has been a crucial factor in the history of Islamic art, where depictions of Muhammad remain especially controversial. Much art has been disliked purely because it depicted or otherwise stood for unpopular rulers, parties or other groups. Artistic conventions have often been conservative and taken very seriously by art critics, though often much less so by a wider public. The iconographic content of art could cause controversy, as with late medieval depictions of the new motif of the Swoon of the Virgin in scenes of the Crucifixion of Jesus. The Last Judgment by Michelangelo was controversial for various reasons, including breaches of decorum through nudity and the Apollo-like pose of Christ.
The content of much formal art through history was dictated by the patron or commissioner rather than just the artist, but with the advent of Romanticism, and economic changes in the production of art, the artists' vision became the usual determinant of the content of his art, increasing the incidence of controversies, though often reducing their significance. Strong incentives for perceived originality and publicity also encouraged artists to court controversy. Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, was in part a political commentary on a recent event. Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1863), was considered scandalous not because of the nude woman, but because she is seated next to men fully dressed in the clothing of the time, rather than in robes of the antique world. John Singer Sargent's Madame Pierre Gautreau (Madam X) (1884), caused a controversy over the reddish pink used to color the woman's ear lobe, considered far too suggestive and supposedly ruining the high-society model's reputation.
The gradual abandonment of naturalism and the depiction of realistic representations of the visual appearance of subjects in the 19th and 20th centuries led to a rolling controversy lasting for over a century.
In the 20th century, Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937) used arresting cubist techniques and stark monochromatic oils, to depict the harrowing consequences of a contemporary bombing of a small, ancient Basque town. Leon Golub's Interrogation III (1981), depicts a female nude, hooded detainee strapped to a chair, her legs open to reveal her sexual organs, surrounded by two tormentors dressed in everyday clothing. Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (1989) is a photograph of a crucifix, sacred to the Christian religion and representing Christ's sacrifice and final suffering, submerged in a glass of the artist's own urine. The resulting uproar led to comments in the United States Senate about public funding of the arts.
Theory
Before Modernism, aesthetics in Western art was greatly concerned with achieving the appropriate balance between different aspects of realism or truth to nature and the ideal; ideas as to what the appropriate balance is have shifted to and fro over the centuries. This concern is largely absent in other traditions of art. The aesthetic theorist John Ruskin, who championed what he saw as the naturalism of J. M. W. Turner, saw art's role as the communication by artifice of an essential truth that could only be found in nature.
The definition and evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the 20th century. Richard Wollheim distinguishes three approaches to assessing the aesthetic value of art: the Realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the Objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the Relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans.
Arrival of Modernism
The arrival of Modernism in the late 19th century led to a radical break in the conception of the function of art, and then again in the late 20th century with the advent of postmodernism. Clement Greenberg's 1960 article "Modernist Painting" defines modern art as "the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself". Greenberg originally applied this idea to the Abstract Expressionist movement and used it as a way to understand and justify flat (non-illusionistic) abstract painting:
Realistic, naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; modernism used art to call attention to art. The limitations that constitute the medium of painting—the flat surface, the shape of the support, the properties of the pigment—were treated by the Old Masters as negative factors that could be acknowledged only implicitly or indirectly. Under Modernism these same limitations came to be regarded as positive factors, and were acknowledged openly. After Greenberg, several important art theorists emerged, such as Michael Fried, T. J. Clark, Rosalind Krauss, Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock among others. Though only originally intended as a way of understanding a specific set of artists, Greenberg's definition of modern art is important to many of the ideas of art within the various art movements of the 20th century and early 21st century.
Pop artists like Andy Warhol became both noteworthy and influential through work including and possibly critiquing popular culture, as well as the art world. Artists of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s expanded this technique of self-criticism beyond high art to all cultural image-making, including fashion images, comics, billboards and pornography.
Duchamp once proposed that art is any activity of any kind-everything. However, the way that only certain activities are classified today as art is a social construction. There is evidence that there may be an element of truth to this. In The Invention of Art: A Cultural History, Larry Shiner examines the construction of the modern system of the arts, i.e. fine art. He finds evidence that the older system of the arts before our modern system (fine art) held art to be any skilled human activity; for example, Ancient Greek society did not possess the term art, but techne. Techne can be understood neither as art or craft, the reason being that the distinctions of art and craft are historical products that came later on in human history. Techne included painting, sculpting and music, but also cooking, medicine, horsemanship, geometry, carpentry, prophecy, and farming, etc.
New Criticism and the "intentional fallacy"
Following Duchamp during the first half of the 20th century, a significant shift to general aesthetic theory took place which attempted to apply aesthetic theory between various forms of art, including the literary arts and the visual arts, to each other. This resulted in the rise of the New Criticism school and debate concerning the intentional fallacy. At issue was the question of whether the aesthetic intentions of the artist in creating the work of art, whatever its specific form, should be associated with the criticism and evaluation of the final product of the work of art, or, if the work of art should be evaluated on its own merits independent of the intentions of the artist.
In 1946, William K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley published a classic and controversial New Critical essay entitled "The Intentional Fallacy", in which they argued strongly against the relevance of an author's intention, or "intended meaning" in the analysis of a literary work. For Wimsatt and Beardsley, the words on the page were all that mattered; importation of meanings from outside the text was considered irrelevant, and potentially distracting.
In another essay, "The Affective Fallacy", which served as a kind of sister essay to "The Intentional Fallacy" Wimsatt and Beardsley also discounted the reader's personal/emotional reaction to a literary work as a valid means of analyzing a text. This fallacy would later be repudiated by theorists from the reader-response school of literary theory. Ironically, one of the leading theorists from this school, Stanley Fish, was himself trained by New Critics. Fish criticizes Wimsatt and Beardsley in his 1970 essay "Literature in the Reader".
As summarized by Berys Gaut and Paisley Livingston in their essay "The Creation of Art": "Structuralist and post-structuralists theorists and critics were sharply critical of many aspects of New Criticism, beginning with the emphasis on aesthetic appreciation and the so-called autonomy of art, but they reiterated the attack on biographical criticisms' assumption that the artist's activities and experience were a privileged critical topic." These authors contend that: "Anti-intentionalists, such as formalists, hold that the intentions involved in the making of art are irrelevant or peripheral to correctly interpreting art. So details of the act of creating a work, though possibly of interest in themselves, have no bearing on the correct interpretation of the work."
Gaut and Livingston define the intentionalists as distinct from formalists stating that: "Intentionalists, unlike formalists, hold that reference to intentions is essential in fixing the correct interpretation of works." They quote Richard Wollheim as stating that, "The task of criticism is the reconstruction of the creative process, where the creative process must in turn be thought of as something not stopping short of, but terminating on, the work of art itself."
"Linguistic turn" and its debate
The end of the 20th century fostered an extensive debate known as the linguistic turn controversy, or the "innocent eye debate" in the philosophy of art. This debate discussed the encounter of the work of art as being determined by the relative extent to which the conceptual encounter with the work of art dominates over the perceptual encounter with the work of art.
Decisive for the linguistic turn debate in art history and the humanities were the works of yet another tradition, namely the structuralism of Ferdinand de Saussure and the ensuing movement of poststructuralism. In 1981, the artist Mark Tansey created a work of art titled The Innocent Eye as a criticism of the prevailing climate of disagreement in the philosophy of art during the closing decades of the 20th century. Influential theorists include Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. The power of language, more specifically of certain rhetorical tropes, in art history and historical discourse was explored by Hayden White. The fact that language is a transparent medium of thought had been stressed by a very different form of philosophy of language which originated in the works of Johann Georg Hamann and Wilhelm von Humboldt. Ernst Gombrich and Nelson Goodman in his book Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols came to hold that the conceptual encounter with the work of art predominated exclusively over the perceptual and visual encounter with the work of art during the 1960s and 1970s. He was challenged on the basis of research done by the Nobel prize winning psychologist Roger Sperry who maintained that the human visual encounter was not limited to concepts represented in language alone (the linguistic turn) and that other forms of psychological representations of the work of art were equally defensible and demonstrable. Sperry's view eventually prevailed by the end of the 20th century with aesthetic philosophers such as Nick Zangwill strongly defending a return to moderate aesthetic formalism among other alternatives.
Classification disputes
Disputes as to whether or not to classify something as a work of art are referred to as classificatory disputes about art. Classificatory disputes in the 20th century have included cubist and impressionist paintings, Duchamp's Fountain, the movies, J. S. G. Boggs' superlative imitations of banknotes, conceptual art, and video games. Philosopher David Novitz has argued that disagreement about the definition of art are rarely the heart of the problem. Rather, "the passionate concerns and interests that humans vest in their social life" are "so much a part of all classificatory disputes about art." According to Novitz, classificatory disputes are more often disputes about societal values and where society is trying to go than they are about theory proper. For example, when the Daily Mail criticized Hirst's and Emin's work by arguing "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all" they are not advancing a definition or theory about art, but questioning the value of Hirst's and Emin's work. In 1998, Arthur Danto, suggested a thought experiment showing that "the status of an artifact as work of art results from the ideas a culture applies to it, rather than its inherent physical or perceptible qualities. Cultural interpretation (an art theory of some kind) is therefore constitutive of an object's arthood."
Anti-art is a label for art that intentionally challenges the established parameters and values of art; it is a term associated with Dadaism and attributed to Marcel Duchamp just before World War I, when he was making art from found objects. One of these, Fountain (1917), an ordinary urinal, has achieved considerable prominence and influence on art. Anti-art is a feature of work by Situationist International, the lo-fi Mail art movement, and the Young British Artists, though it is a form still rejected by the Stuckists, who describe themselves as anti-anti-art.
Architecture is often included as one of the visual arts; however, like the decorative arts, or advertising, it involves the creation of objects where the practical considerations of use are essential in a way that they usually are not in a painting, for example.
Value judgment
Somewhat in relation to the above, the word art is also used to apply judgments of value, as in such expressions as "that meal was a work of art" (the cook is an artist), or "the art of deception" (the highly attained level of skill of the deceiver is praised). It is this use of the word as a measure of high quality and high value that gives the term its flavor of subjectivity. Making judgments of value requires a basis for criticism. At the simplest level, a way to determine whether the impact of the object on the senses meets the criteria to be considered art is whether it is perceived to be attractive or repulsive. Though perception is always colored by experience, and is necessarily subjective, it is commonly understood that what is not somehow aesthetically satisfying cannot be art. However, "good" art is not always or even regularly aesthetically appealing to a majority of viewers. In other words, an artist's prime motivation need not be the pursuit of the aesthetic. Also, art often depicts terrible images made for social, moral, or thought-provoking reasons. For example, Francisco Goya's painting depicting the Spanish shootings of 3 May 1808 is a graphic depiction of a firing squad executing several pleading civilians. Yet at the same time, the horrific imagery demonstrates Goya's keen artistic ability in composition and execution and produces fitting social and political outrage. Thus, the debate continues as to what mode of aesthetic satisfaction, if any, is required to define 'art'.
The assumption of new values or the rebellion against accepted notions of what is aesthetically superior need not occur concurrently with a complete abandonment of the pursuit of what is aesthetically appealing. Indeed, the reverse is often true, that the revision of what is popularly conceived of as being aesthetically appealing allows for a re-invigoration of aesthetic sensibility, and a new appreciation for the standards of art itself. Countless schools have proposed their own ways to define quality, yet they all seem to agree in at least one point: once their aesthetic choices are accepted, the value of the work of art is determined by its capacity to transcend the limits of its chosen medium to strike some universal chord by the rarity of the skill of the artist or in its accurate reflection in what is termed the zeitgeist. Art is often intended to appeal to and connect with human emotion. It can arouse aesthetic or moral feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Artists express something so that their audience is aroused to some extent, but they do not have to do so consciously. Art may be considered an exploration of the human condition; that is, what it is to be human.
By extension, it has been argued by Emily L. Spratt that the development of generative artificial intelligence, especially in regard to artificial intelligence art and its uses with images, necessitates a re-evaluation of aesthetic theory in art history today and a reconsideration of the limits of human creativity. Music and artificial intelligence has taken a similar path.
Art and law
An essential legal issue are art forgeries, plagiarism, replicas and works that are strongly based on other works of art.
Intellectual property law plays a significant role in the art world. Copyright protection is granted to artists for their original works, providing them with exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their creations. This safeguard empowers artists to govern the usage of their work and safeguard against unauthorized copying or infringement.
The trade in works of art or the export from a country may be subject to legal regulations. Internationally there are also extensive efforts to protect the works of art created. The UN, UNESCO and Blue Shield International try to ensure effective protection at the national level and to intervene directly in the event of armed conflicts or disasters. This can particularly affect museums, archives, art collections and excavation sites. This should also secure the economic basis of a country, especially because works of art are often of tourist importance. The founding president of Blue Shield International, Karl von Habsburg, explained an additional connection between the destruction of cultural property and the cause of flight during a mission in Lebanon in April 2019: "Cultural goods are part of the identity of the people who live in a certain place. If you destroy their culture, you also destroy their identity. Many people are uprooted, often no longer have any prospects and as a result flee from their homeland." In order to preserve the diversity of cultural identity, UNESCO protects the living human treasure through the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
See also
Artist-in-residence
Artistic freedom
Cultural tourism
Craftivism
List of art media
List of art techniques
Mathematics and art
Outline of the visual arts, a guide to the subject of art presented as a tree structured list of its subtopics.
Visual impairment in art
References
Works cited
Bibliography
Oscar Wilde, Intentions, 1891
Katharine Everett Gilbert and Helmut Kuhn, A History of Esthetics. Edition 2, revised. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1953.
Stephen Davies, Definitions of Art, 1991
Nina Felshin, ed. But is it Art?, 1995
Catherine de Zegher (ed.). Inside the Visible. MIT Press, 1996
Evelyn Hatcher, ed. Art as Culture: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Art, 1999
Noel Carroll, Theories of Art Today, 2000
John Whitehead. Grasping for the Wind, 2001
Michael Ann Holly and Keith Moxey (eds.) Art History Aesthetics Visual Studies. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Shiner, Larry. The Invention of Art: A Cultural History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Arthur Danto, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art. 2003
Dana Arnold and Margaret Iversen, eds. Art and Thought. London: Blackwell, 2003.
Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980, 2005
Further reading
Antony Briant and Griselda Pollock, eds. Digital and Other Virtualities: Renegotiating the image. London and NY: I.B. Tauris, 2010.
Augros, Robert M., Stanciu, George N. The New Story of Science: mind and the universe, Lake Bluff, Ill.: Regnery Gateway, 1984. (this book has significant material on art and science)
Benedetto Croce. Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic, 2002
Botar, Oliver A.I. Technical Detours: The Early Moholy-Nagy Reconsidered. Art Gallery of The Graduate Center, The City University of New York and The Salgo Trust for Education, 2006.
Burguete, Maria, and Lam, Lui, eds. (2011). Arts: A Science Matter. World Scientific: Singapore.
Carol Armstrong and Catherine de Zegher, eds. Women Artists at the Millennium. Massachusetts: October Books/The MIT Press, 2006.
Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols. London: Pan Books, 1978.
E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art. London: Phaidon Press, 1995.
Florian Dombois, Ute Meta Bauer, Claudia Mareis and Michael Schwab, eds. Intellectual Birdhouse. Artistic Practice as Research. London: Koening Books, 2012.
Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, eds. Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986
Kleiner, Gardner, Mamiya and Tansey. Art Through the Ages, Twelfth Edition (2 volumes) Wadsworth, 2004. (vol 1) and (vol 2)
Richard Wollheim, Art and its Objects: An introduction to aesthetics. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.
Will Gompertz. What Are You Looking At?: 150 Years of Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye. New York: Viking, 2012.
Władysław Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics, translated from the Polish by Christopher Kasparek, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1980
External links
Art and Play from the Dictionary of the History of ideas
In-depth directory of art
Art and Artist Files in the Smithsonian Libraries Collection (2005) Smithsonian Digital Libraries
Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) – online collections from UK museums, galleries, universities
RevolutionArt – Art magazines with worldwide exhibitions, callings and competitions
Concepts in aesthetics
The arts
Visual arts | 0.768694 | 0.99958 | 0.768371 |
Formalism (literature) | Formalism is a school of literary criticism and literary theory having mainly to do with structural purposes of a particular text. It is the study of a text without taking into account any outside influence. Formalism rejects or sometimes simply "brackets" (i.e., ignores for the purpose of analysis) notions of culture or societal influence, authorship, and content, and instead focuses on modes, genres, discourse, and forms.
In literary theory
In literary theory, formalism refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text. These features include not only grammar and syntax but also literary devices such as meter and tropes. The formalistic approach reduces the importance of a text's historical, biographical, and cultural context.
Formalism rose to prominence in the early twentieth century as a reaction against Romanticist theories of literature, which centered on the artist and individual creative genius, once again placing the text itself in the spotlight to show how the text was indebted to forms and other works that had preceded it. Two schools of formalist literary criticism developed, Russian formalism, and soon after Anglo-American New Criticism. Formalism was the dominant mode of academic literary study in the US at least from the end of the Second World War through the 1970s, especially as embodied in René Wellek and Austin Warren's Theory of Literature (1948, 1955, 1962).
Beginning in the late 1970s, formalism was substantially displaced by various approaches (often with political aims or assumptions) that were suspicious of the idea that a literary work could be separated from its origins or uses. The term has often had a pejorative cast and has been used by opponents to indicate either aridity or ideological deviance. Some recent trends in academic literary criticism suggest that formalism may be making a comeback.
Pedagogy
William H Thelin criticizes Maxine Hairston's approach to teaching composition from a current-traditional standpoint, which she then mixes with the political. He claims that “No matter how sound the politics … the student would have no choice but to regurgitate that dogma in the clearest terms possible and to shift concentration onto matters of structure and correctness”.
Mary Ann Cain writes that “formalism asserts that the text stands on its own as a complete entity, apart from the writer who produced it”. Moreover, Cain says that “one can regard textual products as teachable and still maintain that being a writer is a "natural" act, one not subject to instruction. Composition, like creative writing, has flourished under the assumption that students are already writers, or have the capacity to learn-and that everyone should be writers. Yet the questions composition tends to pose within this assumption are not so much about which aspects of writing can or cannot be taught, but how writing can be taught and under what conditions.
In regards to formalist composition, one must ask, “to what extent is this ‘need’ for ‘academic discourse’ real – any more than the need for more ‘imaginative writing’ is real-except to perform some function, to get something done?”.
Research
Formalism research involves studying the ways in which students present their writing. Some ways formalism research is conducted involves allowing the text to speak to the readers versus cutting out unintended meaning in a written piece. Respectively, these two methods deal with language as the “master” writer versus a teacher as the “master” writer.
Russian formalism
Russian Formalism refers to the work of the Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OPOYAZ) founded in 1916 in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) by Boris Eichenbaum, Viktor Shklovsky and Yury Tynyanov, and secondarily to the Moscow Linguistic Circle founded in 1914 by Roman Jakobson. (The folklorist Vladimir Propp is also often associated with the movement.) Eichenbaum's 1926 essay "The Theory of the 'Formal Method'" (translated in Lemon and Reis) provides an economical overview of the approach the Formalists advocated, which included the following basic ideas:
The aim is to produce "a science of literature that would be both independent and factual," which is sometimes designated by the term poetics.
Since literature is made of language, linguistics will be a foundational element of the science of literature.
Literature is autonomous from external conditions in the sense that literary language is distinct from ordinary uses of language, not least because it is not (entirely) communicative.
Literature has its own history, a history of innovation in formal structures, and is not determined (as some crude versions of Marxism have it) by external, material history.
What a work of literature says cannot be separated from how the literary work says it, and therefore the form of a work, far from being merely the decorative wrapping of an isolable content, is in fact part of the content of the work.
According to Eichenbaum, Shklovsky was the lead critic of the group, and Shklovsky contributed two of their most well-known concepts: defamiliarization (ostraneniye, more literally, 'estrangement') and the plot/story distinction (syuzhet/fabula). "Defamiliarization" is one of the crucial ways in which literary language distinguishes itself from ordinary, communicative language, and is a feature of how art in general works, namely by presenting the world in a strange and new way that allows us to see things differently. Innovation in literary history is, according to Shklovsky, partly a matter of finding new techniques of defamiliarization. The plot/story distinction separates out the sequence of events the work relates (the story) from the sequence in which those events are presented in the work (the plot). Both of these concepts are attempts to describe the significance of the form of a literary work in order to define its "literariness." For the Russian Formalists as a whole, form is what makes something art to begin with, so in order to understand a work of art as a work of art (rather than as an ornamented communicative act) one must focus on its form.
This emphasis on form, seemingly at the expense of thematic content, was not well-received after the Russian Revolution of 1917. One of the most sophisticated critiques of the Formalist project was Leon Trotsky's Literature and Revolution (1924). Trotsky does not wholly dismiss the Formalist approach, but insists that "the methods of formal analysis are necessary, but insufficient" because they neglect the social world with which the human beings who write and read literature are bound up: "The form of art is, to a certain and very large degree, independent, but the artist who creates this form, and the spectator who is enjoying it, are not empty machines, one for creating form and the other for appreciating it. They are living people, with a crystallized psychology representing a certain unity, even if not entirely harmonious. This psychology is the result of social conditions" (180, 171). The Formalists were thus accused of being politically reactionary because of such unpatriotic remarks as Shklovsky's (quoted by Trotsky) that "Art was always free of life, and its color never reflected the color of the flag which waved over the fortress of the City"(source?)(164). The leaders of the movement suffered political persecution beginning in the 1920s, when Joseph Stalin came to power, which largely put an end to their inquiries. But their ideas continued to influence subsequent thinkers, partly due to Tzvetan Todorov's translations of their works in the 1960s and 1970s, including Todorov himself, Barthes, Genette and Jauss.
The Prague Circle and structuralism
The Moscow Linguistic Circle founded by Jakobson was more directly concerned with recent developments in linguistics than Eichenbaum's group. Jakobson left Moscow for Prague in 1920 and in 1926 co-founded the Prague Linguistic Circle, which embodied similar interests, especially in the work of Ferdinand de Saussure.
See also
I. A. Richards
New Criticism
Stylistics (linguistics)
New Formalism/Neoformalism
References
Further reading
Lemon, Lee T., and Marion J. Reis. Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1965.
Shklovsky, Viktor. Theory of Prose. Trans. Benjamin Sher. Elmwood Park: Dalkey Archive, 1990.
Trotsky, Leon. Literature and Revolution. New York: Russell and Russell, 1957.
Wellek, René, and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. 3rd. rev. ed. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977.
Erlich, Victor. Russian Formalism: History—Doctrine. 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale UP, 1981.
Dowling,William C. Ricoeur on Time and Narrative. Notre Dame UP, 2011.
Literary criticism
Formalism (aesthetics)
Composition (language) | 0.773149 | 0.99382 | 0.768371 |
Text types | Text types in literature form the basic styles of writing. Factual texts merely seek to inform, whereas literary texts seek to entertain or otherwise engage the reader by using creative language and imagery. There are many aspects to literary writing, and many ways to analyse it, but four basic categories are descriptive, narrative, expository, and argumentative.
Narrative text type
Based on perception in time. Narration is the telling of a story; the succession of events is given in chronological order.
Purpose
The basic purpose of narrative is to entertain, to gain and hold readers' interest. However narratives can also be written to teach or inform, to change attitudes / social opinions e.g. soap operas and television dramas that are used to raise topical issues. Narratives sequence people/characters in time and place but differ from recounts in that through the sequencing, the stories set up one or more problems, which must eventually find a way to be resolved.
The common structure or basic plan of narrative text is known as the "story grammar". Although there are numerous variations of the story grammar, the typical elements are:
Settings – when and where the story occurs.
Characters – the most important people or characters in the story.
Plot – the events of the story, consisting of the initiating event--an action or occurrence that establishes a problem and/or goal--one or more attempts by the main character(s) to achieve the goal or solve the problem, and the Resolutions--the outcome of the attempts to achieve the goal.
Conflicts/goal – the focal point around which the whole story is organized.
Theme – the underlying meaning of the story...why the author wrote it...a truth he wants us to learn or realize from the story. Theme isn't specifically stated--it must be discerned.
The graphic representation of these story grammar elements is called a story map. The exact form and complexity of a map depends, of course, upon the unique structure of each narrative and the personal preference of the teacher constructing the map.
Kinds of narrative
There are many kinds of narrative. They can be imaginary, factual or a combination of both. They may include fairy stories, mysteries, science fiction, romances, horror stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, ballads, slice of life, personal experience, or historical.
Features:
Characters with defined personalities/identities.
Dialogue often included - tense may change to the present or the future.
Descriptive language to create images in the reader's mind and enhance the story.
Structure
In a Traditional Narrative the focus of the text is on a series of actions:
Orientation (Introduction) in which the characters, setting, and time of the story are established. Usually answers who? When? Where? E.g. Mr. Wolf went out hunting in the forest one dark gloomy night.
Complication or problem The complication usually involves the main character(s) (often mirroring the complications in real life).
Resolution There needs to be a resolution of the complication. The complication may be resolved for better or worse/happily or unhappily. Sometimes there are a number of complications that have to be resolved. These add and sustain interest and suspense for the reader.
Further more, when there is plan for writing narrative texts, the focus should be on the following characteristics:
Plot: What is going to happen?
Setting: Where will the story take place? When will the story take place?
Characterization: Who are the main characters? What do they look like?
Structure: How will the story begin? What will be the problem? How is the problem going to be resolved?
Theme: What is the theme / message the writer is attempting to communicate?
Expository text type
It aims at explanation or procedure, i.e. the cognitive analysis and subsequent syntheses of complex facts. Example: An essay on "Rhetoric: What is it and why do we study it?"
There is a chance that your work may fall flat if you have not chosen one of the really good expository essay topics. Not all topics out there are interesting or meaty enough to be thoroughly investigated within a paper. Make sure you put effort into choosing a topic that has a lot of material to cover it and pique the interest of readers!
Trending Topics: Are there any hot issues that deserve some deep discussion? If so, consider educating people on this seemingly new occurrence through the use of a well-written essay.
Example: Cultural and Historical Shifts.
A topic close to your heart: It is easy much easier to defend a thesis if you find yourself passionately thinking about the topic. If you have an advocacy and want to inform others, choose this path and you might be able to sway beliefs!
Argumentative text type
Based on the evaluation and the subsequent subjective judgement in answer to a problem. It refers to the reasons advanced for or against a matter. The writer usually argues with another side to convince the reader to join a certain side.
Comparing the past and the present is a good way of framing an argument, especially if a lot has been written about it.
Literature
A literary text is a piece of writing, such as a book or poem, that has the purpose of telling a story or entertaining, as in a fictional novel. Its primary function as a text is usually aesthetic, but it may also contain political messages or beliefs. American schoolchildren and their parents are taught that literary texts contrast with informational texts that have the purpose of providing information rather than entertainment. Informational texts, such as science briefs and history books, are increasingly receiving emphasis in public school curricula as part of the Common Core State Standards. As a result, many parents have challenged the idea that literary texts are of less pedagogical value than informational one.
See also
Conflation of Readings
Text linguistics
References
External links
Writing | 0.772136 | 0.995101 | 0.768354 |
South-up map orientation | South-up map orientation is the orientation of a map with south up, at the top of the map, amounting to a 180-degree rotation of the map from the standard convention of north-up. Maps in this orientation are sometimes called upside down maps or reversed maps.
Other maps with non-standard orientation include T and O maps, polar maps, and Dymaxion maps.
Psychological significance
Research suggests that north-south positions on maps have psychological consequences. In general, north is associated with richer people, more expensive real estate, and higher altitude, while south is associated with poorer people, cheaper prices, and lower altitude (the "north-south bias"). When participants were presented with south-up oriented maps, this north-south bias disappeared.
Researchers posit that the observed association between map-position and goodness/badness (north=good; south=bad) is caused by the combination of
the convention of consistently placing north at the top of maps, and
a much more general association between vertical position and goodness/badness (up=good, down=bad), which has been documented in numerous contexts (e.g. power/status, profits/prices, affect/emotion, and even the divine).
Common English idioms support the notion that many English speakers conflate or associate north with up and south with down (e.g. "heading up north", "down south", Down Under), a conflation that can only be understood as learned by repeated exposure to a particular map-orientation convention (i.e. north put at the top of maps). Related idioms used in popular song lyrics provide further evidence for the pervasiveness of "north-south bias" among English speakers, in particular with regard to wealth. Examples include using "Uptown" to mean "high class or rich" (as in "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel), or using "Downtown" to convey lower socioeconomic status (as in "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce).
Cultural diversity education
Cultural diversity and media literacy educators use south-up oriented world maps to help students viscerally experience the frequently disorienting effect of seeing something familiar from a different perspective. Having students consider the privileged position given to the Northern hemisphere (especially Europe and North America) on most world maps can help students confront their more general potential for culturally biased perceptions.
History of south-up oriented maps as political statements
Throughout history, maps have been made with varied orientations, and reversing the orientation of maps is technically very easy to do. As such, some cartographers maintain that the issue of south-up map orientation is itself trivial. More noteworthy than the technical matter of orientation, per se, is the history of explicitly using south-up map orientation as a political statement, that is, creating south-up oriented maps with the express rationale of reacting to the north-up oriented world maps that have dominated map publication during the modern age.
The history of south-up map orientation as political statement can be traced back to the early 1900s. Joaquín Torres García, a Uruguayan modernist painter, created one of the first maps to make a political statement related to north-south map positions entitled "América Invertida". "Torres-García placed the South Pole at the top of the earth, thereby suggesting a visual affirmation of the importance of the (South American) continent."
A popular example of a south-up oriented map designed as a political statement is "McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World" (1979). An insert on this map explains that the Australian, Stuart McArthur, sought to confront "the perpetual onslaught of 'downunder' jokes—implications from Northern nations that the height of a country's prestige is determined by its equivalent spatial location on a conventional map of the world". McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World (1979) has sold over 350,000 copies to date.
In popular culture
South-up maps are commonly available as novelties or sociopolitical statements in southern hemisphere locales, particularly Australia. A south-up oriented world map appears in episode "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail" of The West Wing, and issues of cultural bias are discussed in relation to it. The cartoon strip Mafalda by Argentine cartoonist Quino once posed the question "Why are we down?" American cartoonist Leo Cullum published a cartoon in The New Yorker titled, "Happy penguin looking at upside-down globe; Antarctica is on top" (April 20, 1992).
The computer strategy game Neocolonialism developed by Esther Alter uses a south-up map, with the developer stating it is intended to "evoke discomfort" and to "exemplify the north-south dichotomy of the world, wherein the southern hemisphere is generally poorer than the northern hemisphere."
See also
Map projection
North–South divide
Notes
Sources
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
External links
The Upsidedown Map Page A collection of world maps with south-up orientation.
Jesse Levine's A New World Of Understanding Map.
Alverto Rios' Upside-down Map of the World (Van der Grinten projection).
Boston Public Library educational resources
Map types | 0.773541 | 0.993273 | 0.768337 |
Sexuality in China | Sexuality in China has undergone dramatic changes throughout time. These changes can be categorized as "sexual revolution". Chinese sexual attitudes, behaviors, ideology, and relations have especially gone through dramatic shifts in the past four decades due to reform and opening up of the country. Many of these changes have found expression in the public forum through a variety of behaviors and ideas. These include, but are not limited to the following cultural shifts: a separation of sex and marriage, such as pre- and extramarital sex; a separation of sex from love and child-bearing such as internet sex and one-night stands; an increase in observable sexual diversity such as homo- and bisexual behavior and fetishism; an increase in socially acceptable displays and behaviors of female sexual desire; a boom in the sex industry; and a more open discussion of sex topics, including sex studies at colleges, media reports, formal publications, online information, extensive public health education, and public displays of affection.
As can be seen by these developments, China no longer exerts strict control over personal sexual behavior. Sex is increasingly considered something personal and can now be differentiated from a traditional system that featured legalized marital sex and legal controls over childbirth. The reduction in controls on sexual behavior has initiated a freer atmosphere for sexual expression. More and more people now regard sexual rights as basic human rights, so that everyone has the right and freedom to pursue his or her own sexual bliss.
Change in the field of sexuality reveals not only a change of sexual attitudes and behaviors but also a series of related social changes via the process of social transformation. From the sociological perspective, there have been several main factors that have created the current turning point in the contemporary Chinese social context.
Contemporary history
Since the early 1980s sex and sexuality have become prominent themes of public debate in China, after three decades of Maoist rule during which discourses on sexuality were subject to stringent ideological controls.
Market reform and opening-up policy
The denial of the ideals of the Cultural Revolution, during which sex was used as a political tool to control people, is an influential factor in making changes in Chinese society. During the Cultural Revolution, individual sexual preferences were supposed to give way to lofty revolutionary ideals. Extramarital affairs were portrayed as a degenerate lifestyle, and consensual pre-marital sex was immoral. Homosexuality was illegal and would be punished under the statutes for hooliganism. A person had to be sexually well-behaved in order to get a promotion or advance in his or her career.
Reforms in the area of sexuality show a lessening amount of government control over individuals' private life. Many sex-related issues and personal lifestyles are no longer relegated to the field of politics and thus exempt from severe legal punishment or moral condemnation. Sex has been returned to the personal sphere under the domain of self-management. These changes can be seen in the weakened interference and control of the government in sex-related areas, strengthened sexual resources in the open market, a diversity of sexual lifestyles, and a strong appeal for sexual rights as human rights.
For instance, the government's control of personal lives has gradually retreated since the passing of the new marriage registration principles in October 2003, which again simplified the processes of marriage and divorce. The committed parties no longer need certification or confirmation from their place of work or the local Resident Committee to get married or divorced. The pre-marital physical, which among other things once contained an indication of the woman's virginity, is no longer obligatory. The new principles reflect a greater respect for human rights, a protection of marital freedom, and a change in the governmental function with regards to sexual issues.
At the same time, some major social policies have also played an important part. For example, the side effect of the family planning policy is to promote a separation of sexual behavior from reproductive purposes. If a couple can give birth to one child only, sexual behavior is no longer solely practiced to produce babies but also for pleasure. Changes in the legal code have reflected this while also publicly acknowledging sex as a pursuit of happiness.
Stable economic development and consumerism
Under recent policies, the social economy has seen stable and sustainable growth, especially in big cities. Material wealth and an increase in quality of life have brought optimism and consumerism which continually send messages to the individual that it is acceptable to seek sexual happiness.
The pursuit of profit may well push sexual minorities such as gays and lesbians to appeal for their rights not just for legal reasons but also to tap into their particular market niches. In a stable, developing economy and consumer culture, an emphasis on individual enjoyment and a respect for differentiation and diversity are now well established and perhaps even flourishing in an atmosphere of confidence and optimism.
Growth of the middle class
One very important factor driving the social change in contemporary China is the great changes in and reorganization of social stratification. One of the most important features is white collar workers — the rise of the new middle class in China. The new middle class tends to stress their personal happiness and pay more attention to their own quality of life. Goods such as lifestyle magazines are priced according to the income of the target audience. These include pinwei magazines which market high quality or luxury goods, men's health magazines which promote muscled physiques, and erotic magazines depicting both men and women.
Based on observations, all the visible changes in sexual discourse — including those in gay culture — can be considered a part of middle class culture. Most of the related website owners and participants belong to the white collar workers group. The new lifestyle in sexuality fields such as the DINK — "double income, no kids"—family, single groups, and cohabitating couples who violate the traditional sex norms are led by middle-class people. They are also the target groups for most gay bars, dating parties, so-called "dating on Saturday" programs, and sports groups, among others, in cities.
The rise and growth of this middle class has the potential to produce various sexual emancipation discourses, including homosexuality, to break the silence in Chinese society.
Globalization
Since China adopted the policies of opening up and market reform, globalization has meant that there have been many people traveling across countries and from one region to another in China. It means information sharing, product sharing, capital flow, and value sharing, which increasingly includes some basic understanding of sexual rights, gender equality, and human rights. The country's various projects on sexuality, reproductive health, and AIDS prevention each have raised people's awareness of sexuality. Some non-profit international or national organizations are also working in China, while at the same time the international academic community, together with Chinese scholars, is sponsoring workshops and conferences for research on sexuality.
Popularization of higher education
Popularization of higher education has become one of the major changes in Chinese education. According to recent statistics publicized by the Shanghai Education Commission, the gross entrance rate into higher education in Shanghai is 55 percent, ranking first in the country. Beijing comes a close second, at 53 percent. In the same year, the nation's gross entrance rate into higher education has not yet reached 19 percent. More than half of the population aged 18 to 22 in Shanghai and Beijing can get access to some form of higher education.
The impact of higher education has been significant. The younger generation may adopt a different sexual ideology from the older generation because they have more opportunities to get exposure to humanities and social sciences. They are more geared toward the pursuit of equality, freedom, and self-realization. At the same time, society pays more and more attention to elite intellectuals such as professors, researchers, lawyers, and policy-making consultants. Their opinions and ideas are expressed to the public in media reports and at conferences. The spreading of knowledge has been the most influential way to eliminate sex discrimination and sex inequality.
Feminist discourse in China
The Fourth UN Conference on Women was held in Beijing in 1995.
Mainstream feminist discourse in China tends to ignore sexuality issues, considering those topics either unimportant or as stirring up unnecessary trouble. Nevertheless, the critical thinking of feminist discourse has challenged stereotyped gender roles, including sexuality roles. The latter especially has influenced many young people.
Feminist discourse in sexuality has aimed to redefine women's roles in sexual contexts. It has critiqued traditional double standards governing sexual behavior, challenging norms that prescribe men to be assertive and proactive while portraying women as passive and inert. These include expectations of men having stronger sexual desires compared to women, and societal norms around sexual experience and virginity. Feminist discourse also addresses inequalities in sexual expectations, advocating for women to assert their desires and prioritize their own satisfaction in sexual encounters. The critical feminist discourse is also rewriting the gender views in Chinese society. Some feminist scholars have started to emphasize women's sexual rights and the diversity of sexuality among Chinese women. Thus China's sexual revolution is also women's sexual revolution, as evidenced by these trends.
While women in previous generations were expected to marry in their twenties, many highly educated women are deciding to hold off on marriage into their 30s or longer. Their increased economic power has given them autonomy so they don't need to rely on a spouse. But the Chinese media has still given them a derogatory name, shengnu (剩女) or "leftover women".
In 2005, China added new provisions to the Law on Women's Right Protection to include sexual harassment. In 2006 "The Shanghai Supplement" was drafted to help further define sexual harassment in China.
Role of the media and the Internet
The media is the catalytic agent of sexual revolution in China. The Internet, too, is one of the most prominent agents wielding important influence among the Chinese people through promoting alliances, sharing knowledge, and providing a platform where various voices can be heard. There are numerous individuals who come to accept their sexual identity mainly because of the Internet. The Internet is a powerful channel for people to find sexual partners, to organize off-line activities, or just simply to have access to sexual knowledge and sex-related information.
The Internet has also been a great proponent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) identity in China. Since the late 1990s, members of the LGBT community have used the Internet to access and share information, form relationships, and cultivate queer identities and communities. However, despite the seemingly unconstrained development of the LGBT community in the global cyberspace, there are constraints. Some constraints are informed by socio-economic factors. There are some gay, lesbian and queer people who cannot afford a computer and access to the Internet at home and therefore are obliged to use Internet cafes, where they may be compelled to avoid certain websites for fear of being monitored by other people. Some constraints are politically informed. Gay and lesbian-oriented websites tend to be short-lived due to Internet regulations and controls of the government. Furthermore, despite an online proliferation of the LGBT identity, the community remains subordinate to China's hegemonic discourse on sexuality. Rarely do traditional Chinese media outlets recognise LGBT identity, let alone embrace and validate the community.
Sexual revolution
In Chinese language, xingkaifang is the phrase to describe the sexual opening-up, "a globalizing sexual culture prevailing China."
Urbanization in China has been accelerating the sexual revolution by providing people with more private space and freedom to enjoy sex, as compared with what was afforded by the traditional countryside way of life. The Internet provides even more powerful support and makes it possible for many people to remain anonymous, to surf the Internet from one website to another, to write their own blogs, and to express what they want in an environment where there is much less prying by co-workers, neighbors, or other peer groups and less judgments put upon their behavior.
However, Internet censorship in China does remain an issue. Chinese government has successfully blocked activists from participating political discourse on the internet.
Government interventions
The "Group Licentiousness" law
The PRC Government still regulates sexuality to a greater degree than the governments of Western countries. In 2010, Ma Xiaohai, a 53-year-old computer science professor, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for organising wife-swapping events, breaking the "group licentiousness law" (聚众淫乱罪).
Opposition to the Love Land theme park in Chongqing
The proposed Love Land sex theme park in Chongqing, southwest China, was never opened due to government pressure. The PRC Government suspended its construction in May 2009 and ordered it demolished for being vulgar and explicit. The park was to include displays of giant genitalia and naked bodies, and host an exhibition on the history of human sexuality along with sex technique workshops. The closure is a reflection of the conservatism with regard to sex in China. The theme park was originally due to be opened in October 2009, but was demolished earlier that year, since it was deemed to be a negative influence on Chinese society.
AIDS and sexuality
The importance of AIDS prevention in China has been stressed by both the global society and the Chinese government. Such an increase in concern can be a double-edged sword for the sexual revolution in China. It provides both opportunities and risks. Sexuality has to be openly discussed because of AIDS concerns. For example, in the summer of 2005, China Central Television discussed the topic of AIDS under the title "Homosexuality: Confronting is Better than Evading." Scholars and activists have gained the legitimacy to talk publicly about the so-called "high risk" groups such as gay men and sex workers and have been developing strategies to work together with the government, replacing strategies of attacking the "evil" with models for caring for those at risk.
Sexuality, including homosexuality, has started to enter the public forum. The whole process is still ongoing, but it is breaking the silence on sexuality taboos. AIDS concerns also bring funding, and many organizations are working to fight the illness. The related knowledge and information on sexuality is spreading continuously among Chinese people, and it also strongly helps people to overcome the stereotypes, bias and ignorance regarding AIDS and sexual health issues.
See also
Homosexuality and transgender in China
Prostitution in China
HIV/AIDS in China
Feminism in China
Love Land (China)
Taoist sexual practices
Back-up partner
Pornography in China
Further reading
Evans Harriet (1997) Women and Sexuality in China: Dominant Discourses of Female Sexuality and Gender Since 1949.
Elaine Jeffreys (editor) (2006) Sex and Sexuality in China.
References | 0.775706 | 0.990472 | 0.768314 |
Hypermodernity | Hypermodernity (supermodernity) is a type, mode, or stage of society that reflects an inversion of modernity. Hypermodernism stipulates a world in which the object has been replaced by its own attributes. The new attribute-driven world is driven by the rise of technology and aspires to a convergence between technology and biology and more importantly information and matter. Hypermodernism finds its validation in emphasis on the value of new technology to overcome natural limitations. It rejects essentialism and instead favours postmodernism. In hypermodernism the function of an object has its reference point in the form of an object rather than function being the reference point for form. In other words, it describes an epoch in which teleological meaning is reversed from the standpoint of functionalism in favor of constructivism.
Hypermodernity
Hypermodernity emphasizes a hyperbolic separation between past and present due to the fact that:
The past oriented attributes and their functions around objects.
Objects that do exist in the present are only extant due to some useful attribute in the hypermodern era.
Hypermodernity inverts modernity to allow the attributes of an object to provide even more individuality than modernism. Modernity trapped form within the bounds of limited function; hypermodernity posits that function is now evolving so rapidly, it must take its reference point from form itself. Both positive and negative societal changes occur due to hyper-individualism and increased personal choice.
Postmodernity rejected the idea of the past as a reference point and curated objects from the past for the sole purpose of freeing form from function. In postmodernism, truth was ephemeral as the focus was to avoid non-falsifiable tenets. Postmodernity described a total collapse of modernity and its faith in progress and improvement in empowering the individual.
Supermodernity
If distinguished from hypermodernity, supermodernity is a step beyond the ontological emptiness of postmodernism and relies upon plausible heuristic truths. Whereas modernism focused upon the creation of great truths (or what Lyotard called "master narratives" or "metanarratives"), and postmodernity was intent upon their destruction (deconstruction); supermodernity operates extraneously of meta-truth. Instead, attributes are extracted from objects of the past based on their present relevance. Since attributes are both true and false, a truth value is not necessary including falsifiability. Supermodernity curates useful attributes from modern and postmodern objects in order to escape nihilistic postmodern tautology. Related authors are Terry Eagleton After Theory, and Marc Augé Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity.
See also
Altermodern
Hypermodernism
Hypermodernism (chess)
Metamodernism
Bibliography
S. Charles and G. Lipovetsky, Hypermodern Times, Polity Press, 2006.
S. Charles, Hypermodern Explained to Children, Liber, 2007 (in French).
R. Colonna, L'essere contro l'umano. Preludi per una filosofia della surmodernità, Edises, Napoli, 2010 (in Italian).
F. Schoumacher, Eidolon: simulacre et hypermodernité, Paris, Balland, 2024.
External links
Gilles Lypovetsky interviewed by Denis Failly for his book "le bonheur paradoxal"
Modernity
Criticism of postmodernism | 0.78921 | 0.973492 | 0.76829 |
Mindset | A mindset refers to an established set of attitudes of a person or group concerning culture, values, philosophy, frame of reference, outlook, or disposition. It may also arise from a person's worldview or beliefs about the meaning of life.
Some scholars claim that people can have multiple types of mindsets. Some of these types include a growth mindset, fixed mindset, poverty mindset, abundance mindset, and positive mindset among others that make up a person's overall mindset.
More broadly, scholars have found that mindset is associated with a range of functional effects in different areas of people's lives. This includes influencing a person's capacity for perception by functioning like a filter, a frame of reference, a meaning-making system, and a pattern of perception. Mindset is described as shaping a person's capacity for development by being associated with passive or conditional learning, incremental or horizontal learning, and transformative or vertical learning. Mindset is also believed to influence a person's behavior, having deliberative or implemental action phases, as well as being associated with technical or adaptive approaches to leadership.
A mindset could create an incentive to adopt (or accept) previous behaviors, choices, or tools, sometimes known as cognitive inertia or groupthink. When a prevailing mindset is limiting or inappropriate, it may be difficult to counteract the grip of mindset on analysis and decision-making.
In cognitive psychology, a mindset is the cognitive process activated in a task. In addition to the field of cognitive psychology, the study of mindset is evident in the social sciences and other fields (such as positive psychology). Characteristic of this area of study is its fragmentation among academic disciplines.
History
Numerous scholars have identified mindset history as being a critical gap in contemporary literature and also in current approaches to mindset education and training.
The first dedicated review of mindset history found that mindset psychology has a century-long history of explicit research and practice, with its origin phase taking place between 1908 and 1939, early inquiries occurring between 1940 and 1987, and contemporary bodies of work emerging in and beyond 1988. This review also identified some of the traditions of research and practice that are closely related to the origins and history of mindset psychology, some of which span back hundreds and thousands of years. Then, there are the lineages of research and practice that did not explicitly use the term mindset, but which bear some resemblance to it and are in some way related to this history. Peter Gollwitzer conducted explorations of mindset since the 1990s. Gollwitzer's contributions include his theory of mindset and the mindset theory of action phases.
Politics
A political example is the "Cold War mindset" in the U.S. and the USSR, which included belief in game theory, in a chain of command in control of nuclear materials, and in the mutual assured destruction of both in a nuclear war. This mindset prevented an attack by either country, but deterrence theory has made assessments of the Cold War mindset a subject of controversy.
Modern military theory attempts to challenge entrenched mindsets in asymmetric warfare, terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These threats are "a revolution in military affairs", requiring rapid adaptation to new threats and circumstances.
Systems theory
Building on Magoroh Maruyama's concept of mindscape, mindset includes a cultural and social orientation: hierarchical and egalitarian individualism, hierarchical and egalitarian collectivism, hierarchic and egalitarian synergism, and hierarchical and egalitarian populism.
Collective mindset
Collective mindsets are described in Edwin Hutchins's Cognition in the Wild (1995) and Maximilian Senges' Knowledge Entrepreneurship in Universities (2007). Hutchins analyzed a team of naval navigators as a cognitive unit or computational system, and Senges explained how a collective mindset is part of university strategy and practice.
Parallels exist in collective intelligence and the wisdom of the crowd. Zara said that since collective reflection is more explicit, discursive, and conversational, it needs a good Gestell.
Erik H. Erikson's analysis of group-identities and what he calls a "life-plan" is relevant to a collective mindset. Erikson cites Native Americans who were meant to undergo a reeducation process to instill a modern "life-plan" which advocated housing and wealth; the natives' collective historic identity as buffalo hunters was oriented around such fundamentally different motivations that communication about life plans was difficult.
An institution is related to collective mindset; an entrepreneurial mindset refers to a person who "values uncertainty in the marketplace and seeks to continuously identify opportunities with the potential to lead to important innovations". An institution with an entrepreneurial philosophy will have entrepreneurial goals and strategies. It fosters an entrepreneurial milieu, allowing each entity to pursue emerging opportunities. A collective mindset fosters values which lead to a particular practice. Hitt cites the five dimensions of an entrepreneurial mindset as "autonomy, innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness".
Theories
The study of mindsets includes definition, measurement, and categorization. Scholars in the same discipline differ.
Mindset agency
Sagiv and Schwarts defined cultural values to explain the nature, functions, and variables which characterize mindset agency. They posited three bipolar dimensions of culture, based on values: cognitive (embedded or autonomous), figurative (mastery or harmony), and operative (hierarchical or egalitarian).
Mindscape theory
The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) measures psychological functions which, paired with social attitudes, combine to generate personality types that may be evaluated by exploring individual preferences. Maruyama's mindscape theory measures individuals on a scale of characteristics and places them into one of four personality categories.
Fixed and growth mindsets
According to Carol Dweck, individuals can be placed on a continuum according to their views of where ability originate, from a fixed to a growth mindset. An individual's mindset affects the "motivation to practice and learn".
People with a fixed mindset believe that "intelligence is static", and little can be done to improve ability. Feedback is seen as "evaluation of their underlying ability" and success is seen as a result of this ability, not any effort expended. Failure is intimidating, since it "suggests constraints or limits they would not be able to overcome". Those with a fixed mindset tend to avoid challenges, give up easily, and focus on the outcome. They believe that their abilities are fixed, and effort has little value.
Those with a growth mindset believe that "intelligence can be developed", and their abilities can be increased by learning. They tend to embrace challenges, persevere in the face of adversity, accept and learn from failure, focus on process rather than outcome, and see abilities as skills which are developed through effort. Feedback and failure are seen as opportunities to increase ability, signaling the "need to pay attention, invest effort, apply time to practice, and master the new learning opportunity".
Grit, a personality trait combining determination and perseverance, is related to a growth mindset. Keown and Bourke discussed the importance of a growth mindset and grit. Their 2019 study found that people with lower economic status had a greater chance of success if they had a growth mindset and were willing to work through tribulation.
Much of Dweck's research was related to the effect of a student's mindset on classroom performance. For students to develop a growth mindset, a nurturing classroom culture must be established with appropriate praise and encouragement. According to Dweck, "Praising students for the process they have engaged in—the effort they applied, the strategies they used, the choices they made, the persistence they displayed, and so on—yields more long-term benefits than telling them they are 'smart' when they succeed". Teachers need to design meaningful learning activities for their students: "The teacher should portray challenges as fun and exciting, while portraying easy tasks as boring and less useful for the brain".
A second strategy to promote a growth mindset in the classroom is more explicit, establishing personal goals, and having students "write about and share with one another something they used to be poor at and now are very good at." Hinda Hussein studied the positive effect of reflective journal writing on students' growth mindset; journaling can improve a student's conceptual knowledge and enhance the understanding of their thoughts. Dweck has identified the word "yet" as a valuable tool to assess learning. If a teacher hears students saying that they are not good at something or cannot do something, they should interject "not yet" to reinforce the idea that ability and motivation are fluid.
Dweck and Jo Boaler indicate a fixed mindset can lead to sex differences in education, which can partially explain low achievement and participation by minority and female students. Boaler builds on Dweck's research to show that "gender differences in mathematics performance only existed among fixed mindset students". Boaler and Dweck say that people with growth mindsets can gain knowledge. Boaler said, "The key growth mindset message was that effort changes the brain by forming new connections, and that students control this process. The growth mindset intervention halted the students' decline in grades and started the students on a new pathway of improvement and high achievement".
L. S. Blackwell presented research in 2015 exploring whether growth mindsets can be promoted in minority groups. Blackwell builds on Dweck's research, observing minority groups and finding that "students with a growth mindset had stronger learning goals than the fixed mindset students." These students "had much more positive attitudes toward effort, agreeing that 'when something is hard, it just makes me want to work more on it, not less. Students with a fixed mindset were more likely to say that "if you're not good at a subject, working hard won't make you good at it” and “when I work hard at something, it makes me feel like I'm not very smart".
Dweck's research on growth and fixed mindsets is useful in intervening with at-risk students, dispelling negative stereotypes in education held by teachers and students, understanding the impacts of self-theories on resilience, and understanding how praise can foster a growth mindset and positively impact student motivation. There has also been movement towards the application of Dweck's mindset research in non-academic environments, such as the workplace. Other scholars have conducted research building on her findings. A 2018 study by Rhew et al. suggested that a growth-mindset intervention can increase the motivation of adolescent special-education participants. A 2019 study by Wang et al. suggested that substance use has adverse effects on adolescent reasoning. Developing a growth mindset in these adolescents was shown to reduce this adverse effect. These studies illustrate how educators can intervene, encouraging a growth mindset, by allowing students to see that their behavior can be changed with effort. Criticism has been directed at "growth mindset" and related research, however. Moreau et al. (2019) suggest "that overemphasizing the malleability of abilities and other traits can have negative consequences for individuals, science, and society."
Follow up research after the release of her book has led Dweck to be quoted as saying "Nobody has a growth mindset in everything all the time." along with the acknowledgement of the reality of the false growth mindset, and the truer growth mindset. One of Dweck's concerns being that educators were giving praise based on effort alone, when the results gained did not she believe merit praise. Researchers noted adults within a study "who agree with growth mindset, but do not behave as though they believe ability can change" as holding a false growth mindset.
Students and teachers
Elements of personality (such as sensitivity to mistakes and setbacks) may predispose toward a particular mindset, which can be developed and reshaped through interactions. In a number of studies, Dweck and her colleagues noted that alterations in mindset could be achieved through "praising the process through which success was achieved", "having [college aged students] read compelling scientific articles that support one view or the other", or teaching junior-high-school students "that every time they try hard and learn something new, their brain forms new connections that, over time, make them smarter."
Much research in education focuses on a student's ability to adopt a growth mindset, and less attention is paid to teachers' mindsets and their influence on students. Hattie writes, "Differing mindsets, or assumptions, that teachers possess about themselves and their students play a significant role in determining their expectations, teaching practices, and how students perceive their own mindset."
A study by Patrick and Joshi explored how teachers explain growth and fixed mindsets, with two major findings in 150 semi-structured interviews. First, they found that teachers' prior beliefs about learning and students influenced how they engaged with their mindsets. Second, they found that many teachers oversimplified growth and fixed mindsets as positive and negative traits.
A study conducted by Fiona S. Seaton (2018) examined the impact of teacher training to influence mindset. The teachers in this study had six training sessions, and Seaton found that the sessions had an impact on their mindsets which was sustained three months afterward. The results of this study suggest that adult mindsets are malleable, and can shift with appropriate supports.
Benefit mindset
In 2015, Ashley Buchanan and Margaret L. Kern proposed a benefit mindset: an evolution of the fixed and growth mindsets. The benefit mindset describes society's leaders, who promote individual and collective well-being: people who discover their strengths to contribute to causes greater than the self. They question why they do what they do, positioning their actions within a purposeful context.
Global mindset
Originating from the study of organizational leadership and coinciding with the growth of multinational corporations during the 1980s, organizations observed that executive effectiveness did not necessarily translate cross-culturally. A global mindset emerged as an explanation. Cross-cultural leaders were hypothesized to need an additional skill, ability, or proficiency (a global mindset) to be effective regardless of culture or context. Cultural agility refers to such a need. A defining characteristic of the study of global mindset is the variety with which scholars define it, but they typically agree that global mindset and its development increase global effectiveness for individuals and organizations.
Abundance and scarcity
People with an abundance mindset believe that there are enough resources for everyone, and see the glass as half-full; those with a scarcity mindset believe that there is a limited number of resources, and see the glass as half-empty. Mehta and Zhu found that an "abundance mindset makes people think beyond established functionalities to explore broadly for solutions, thereby heightening creativity. In contrast, a scarcity mindset induces functional fixedness, thereby reducing creativity."
Productive and defensive mindsets
According to Chris Argyris, organizations have two dominant mindsets: productive and defensive. The productive mindset is hinged in logic, focused on knowledge and its certifiable resultsa decision-making mindset which is transparent and auditable.
The defensive mindset is closed, self-protective and self-deceptive. It does not see the greater good, but centers on individual defense; truth, if perceived as harmful to the person concerned, would be denied. This may allow personal growth, but no organizational growth or development.
Deliberative and implemental mindsets
The deliberative and implemental mindsets are part of the decision making process in goal setting and goal striving. When someone has a deliberative mindset, they are considering a variety of actions and have not yet settled on what they are going to do. This person will tend to be open to alternative options when presented and will explore ideas until they have decided upon a course of action. This mindset is connected to the idea of goal setting.
After someone narrows down their options and makes a commitment to follow a particular path, they will have an implemental mindset. People with an implemental mindset are less open to alternative courses of action because they have already decided what they are going to do and now focus more energy on goal striving, rather than goal setting.
The deliberative mindset has been recognized as important for coming to conclusions in order to make a well-planned goal, but it has negative consequences for goal striving once a goal is already in place. On the other hand, the implemental mindset helps people to focus their behavior in a particular direction; this can be detrimental for someone who has not spent sufficient time with a deliberative mindset.
Promotion and prevention mindsets
The promotion and prevention mindsets are motivational orientations that are focused on the outcomes or consequences of behavior. People with a promotion mindset focus on achievement and accomplishment. Those with a prevention mindset pay closer attention to avoiding negative outcomes. They act more out of a sense of obligation and the fulfillment of duty than to seek any sort of reward. Both of these mindsets can be caused or influenced by individual disposition or by environmental stimuli. Those who are dispositionally in a promotion mindset seek to make good things happen, and situations that encourage a promotion mindset are those in which there is a promise of gain. Those with a dispositional prevention mindset believe that they need to keep bad things from happening, and situations conducive to the prevention mindset are those in which the idea of duty is emphasized.
Those with a promotion mindset are characterized as being eager and quick to act. They take initiative and move to cause improvements towards their ideal state. People with a prevention mindset are characterized as being cautious and careful, avoiding risks and any course of action that could potentially cause failure in reaching a goal.
Criticism
In 2019 a larger randomized controlled trial by the Education Endowment Foundation for growth mindset training showed no significant increase in numeracy or literacy. A 2024 study showed that growth mindset scales by Carol Dweck have psychometric comparability, however this study showed no connection between growth mindset and goal achievement.
See also
Dual mentality
Bounded rationality
Elitism
Ethical egoism
Game theory
Good and evil
Property dualism
Rational irrationality
Notes
Cognitive biases | 0.771896 | 0.995278 | 0.768252 |
Political polarization | Political polarization (spelled polarisation in British English, African and Caribbean English, and New Zealand English) is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes. Scholars distinguish between ideological polarization (differences between the policy positions) and affective polarization (an emotional dislike and distrust of political out-groups).
Most discussions of polarization in political science consider polarization in the context of political parties and democratic systems of government. In two-party systems, political polarization usually embodies the tension of its binary political ideologies and partisan identities. However, some political scientists assert that contemporary polarization depends less on policy differences on a left and right scale but increasingly on other divisions such as religious against secular, nationalist against globalist, traditional against modern, or rural against urban. Polarization is associated with the process of politicization.
Definitions and measurements
Polarization itself is typically understood as "a prominent division or conflict that forms between major groups in a society or political system and that is marked by the clustering and radicalisation of views and beliefs at two distant and antagonistic poles." as defined by the Institute for Integrated Transitions and Ford Foundation.
Political scientists typically distinguish between two levels of political polarization: elite and mass. "Elite polarization" focuses on the polarization of the political elites, like party organizers and elected officials. "Mass polarization" (or popular polarization) focuses on the polarization of the masses, most often the electorate or general public.
Elite polarization
Elite polarization refers to polarization between the party-in-government and the party-in-opposition. Polarized political parties are internally cohesive, unified, programmatic, and ideologically distinct; they are typically found in a parliamentary system of democratic governance.
In a two-party system, a polarized legislature has two important characteristics: first, there is little-to-no ideological overlap between members of the two parties; and second, almost all conflict over legislation and policies is split across a broad ideological divide. This leads to a conflation of political parties and ideologies (i.e., Democrat and Republican become nearly perfect synonyms for liberal and conservative) and the collapse of an ideological center. However, using a cross-national design that covers 25 European countries, a recent study shows that it is not the number of parties itself, but the way a party interreacts with another that influences the magnitude and nature of affective polarization.
The vast majority of studies on elite polarization focus on legislative and deliberative bodies. For many years, political scientists measured polarization in the US by examining the ratings of party members published by interest groups, but now, most analyze roll-call voting patterns to investigate trends in party-line voting and party unity. Gentzkow, Shapiro, and Taddy used the text of the Congressional Record to document differences in speech patterns between Republicans and Democrats as a measure of polarization, finding a dramatic increase in polarized speech patterns starting in 1994.
Mass polarization
Mass polarization, or popular polarization, occurs when an electorate's attitudes towards political issues, policies, celebrated figures, or other citizens are neatly divided along party lines. At the extreme, each camp questions the moral legitimacy of the other, viewing the opposing camp and its policies as an existential threat to their way of life or the nation as a whole.
There are multiple types or measures of mass polarization. Ideological polarization refers to the extent to which the electorate has divergent beliefs on ideological issues (e.g., abortion or affirmative action) or beliefs that are consistently conservative or liberal across a range of issues (e.g., having a conservative position on both abortion and affirmative action even if those positions are not "extreme"). Partisan sorting refers to the extent to which the electorate "sorts" or identifies with a party based on their ideological, racial, religious, gender, or other demographic characteristics. Affective polarization refers to the extent to which the electorate "dislikes" or "distrusts" those from other parties.
Political scientists who study mass polarization generally rely on data from opinion polls and election surveys. They look for trends in respondents' opinions on a given issue, their voting history, and their political ideology (conservative, liberal, moderate, etc.), and they try to relate those trends to respondents' party identification and other potentially polarizing factors (like geographic location or income bracket). Political scientists typically limit their inquiry to issues and questions that have been constant over time, in order to compare the present day to what the political climate has historically been. Some of recent studies also use decision-making games to measure the extent to which ingroup members discriminate outgroup members relative to their group members.
Recent academic work suggests that intolerance at the ideological extremes can lead to polarization with opinions more polarized than identities, intolerance among moderates improves cohesion.
Some political scientists argue that polarization requires divergence on a broad range of issues, while others argue that only a few issues are required.
Affective polarization
Affective polarization refers to the phenomenon where individuals' feelings and emotions towards members of their own political party or group become more positive, while their feelings towards members of the opposing party or group become more negative. This can lead to increased hostility and a lack of willingness to compromise or work together with people who hold different political views. This phenomenon can be seen in both online and offline settings, and has been on the rise in several countries in recent years. Affective polarization has been estimated via a variety of methods, including the Affective Polarization Scale.
Affective polarization may lead to aggressive attitudes and behaviors toward members of other ideological groups within the same country. Extreme affective polarization may even lead to dangerous consequences like societal disintegration. Affective polarization can be reduced by various means, such as feeling sadness together as a group (which often happens during Memorial Days). A high prevalence of respectful discussions with political others may also reduce affective polarization by increasing political tolerance and inter-party trust. High salience of a national common identity may also reduce affective polarization, as members of other parties are suddenly seen as in-group members.
Causes
There are various causes of political polarization and these include political parties, redistricting, the public's political ideology, the mass media, and political context.
Party polarization
Some scholars argue that diverging parties has been one of the major driving forces of polarization as policy platforms have become more distant. This theory is based on recent trends in the United States Congress, where the majority party prioritizes the positions that are most aligned with its party platform and political ideology. The adoption of more ideologically distinct positions by political parties can cause polarization among both elites and the electorate. For example, after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the number of conservative Democrats in Congress decreased, while the number of conservative Republicans increased. Within the electorate during the 1970s, Southern Democrats shifted toward the Republican Party, showing polarization among both the elites and the electorate of both main parties. In this sense, political polarization could be a top-down process, in which elite polarization leads to—or at least precedes—popular polarization. However, polarization among elites does not necessarily produce polarization within the electorate, and polarized electoral choices can often reflect elite polarization rather than voters' preferences.
Political scientists have shown politicians have an incentive to advance and support polarized positions. These argue that during the early 1990s, the Republican Party used polarizing tactics to become the majority party in the United States House of Representatives—which political scientists Thomas E. Mann and Norman Ornstein refer to as Newt Gingrich's "guerrilla war." What political scientists have found is that moderates are less likely to run than are candidates who are in line with party doctrine, otherwise known as "party fit." Other theories state politicians who cater to more extreme groups within their party tend to be more successful, helping them stay in office while simultaneously pulling their constituency toward a polar extreme. A study by Nicholson (2012) found voters are more polarized by contentious statements from leaders of the opposing party than from the leaders of their own party. As a result, political leaders may be more likely to take polarized stances.
With regards to multiparty systems, Giovanni Sartori (1966, 1976) claims the splitting of ideologies in the public constituency causes further divides within the political parties of the countries. He theorizes that the extremism of public ideological movement is the basis for the creation of highly polarized multiparty systems. Sartori named this polarizing phenomenon polarized pluralism and claimed it would lead to further polarization in many opposing directions (as opposed to in simply two directions, as in a polarized two-party system) over policy issues. Polarization in multiparty systems can also be defined along two ideological extremes, like in the case of India in the 1970s. Ideological splits within a number of India's major parties resulted in two polarized coalitions on the right and left, each consisting of multiple political parties.
Political fund-raisers and donors can also exert significant influence and control over legislators. Party leaders are expected to be productive fund-raisers, in order to support the party's campaigns. After Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, special interests in the U.S. were able to greatly impact elections through increased undisclosed spending, notably through Super political action committees. Some, such as Washington Post opinion writer Robert Kaiser, argued this allowed wealthy people, corporations, unions, and other groups to push the parties' policy platforms toward ideological extremes, resulting in a state of greater polarization. Other scholars, such as Raymond J. La Raja and David L. Wiltse, note that this does not necessarily hold true for mass donors to political campaigns. These scholars argue a single donor who is polarized and contributes large sums to a campaign does not seem to usually drive a politician toward political extremes.
The public
In democracies and other representative governments, citizens vote for the political actors who will represent them. Some scholars argue that political polarization reflects the public's ideology and voting preferences. Dixit and Weibull (2007) claim that political polarization is a natural and regular phenomenon. Party loyalism is a strong element of voters' thinking. Individuals who have higher political knowledge will not be influenced by anything a politician says. The polarization is merely a reflection of the party that the voter belongs to, and whichever direction it moves in. They argue that there is a link between public differences in ideology and the polarization of representatives, but that an increase in preference differences is usually temporary and ultimately results in compromise. Fernbach, Rogers, Fox and Sloman (2013) argue that it is a result of people having an exaggerated faith in their understanding of complex issues. Asking people to explain their policy preferences in detail typically resulted in more moderate views. Simply asking them to list the reasons for their preferences did not result in any such moderation.
Studies undertaken in the U.S. (2019) and the UK (2022) have found that political polarization is generally less acute among the public than is portrayed in the media. Moreover, non-nuanced reporting by the media about poll data and public opinions can even aggravate political polarization.
Morris P. Fiorina (2006, 2008) posits the hypothesis that polarization is a phenomenon which does not hold for the public, and instead is formulated by commentators to draw further division in government. Fiorina connects this phenomenon to what he describes as "party sorting", which is where political ideologies tend to associate with specific political parties (conservatives with the Republican Party and liberals with the Democratic party). Other studies indicate that cultural differences focusing on ideological movements and geographical polarization within the United States constituency is correlated with rises in overall political polarization between 1972 and 2004.
Religious, ethnic, and other cultural divides within the public have often influenced the emergence of polarization. According to Layman et al. (2005), the ideological split between U.S. Republicans and Democrats also crosses into the religious cultural divide. They claim that Democrats have generally become more moderate in religious views whereas Republicans have become more traditionalist. For example, political scientists have shown that in the United States, voters who identify as Republican are more likely to vote for a strongly evangelical candidate than Democratic voters. This correlates with the rise in polarization in the United States. Another theory contends that religion does not contribute to full-group polarization, but rather, coalition and party activist polarization causes party shifts toward a political extreme.
In some post-colonial countries, the public may be polarized along ethnic divides that remain from the colonial regime. In South Africa in the late 1980s, members of the conservative, pro-apartheid National Party were no longer supportive of apartheid, and, therefore, no longer ideologically aligned with their party. Dutch Afrikaners, white English, and native Africans split based on racial divisions, causing polarization along ethnic lines.
Economic inequality can also motivate the polarization of the public. For example, in post-World War I Germany, the Communist Workers Party, and the National Socialists, a fascist party, emerged as the dominant political ideologies and proposed to address Germany's economic problems in drastically different ways. In Venezuela, in the late 20th century, presidential candidate Hugo Chávez used economic inequality in the country to polarize voters, employing a popular and aggressive tone to gain popularity.
The media
Also stated by Sheena Peckham, Algorithms used by social media to operate creates an echo-chamber for the user causing selective exposure and thus leading to online hate, misinformation, malinformation and more (Peckham, 2023). A number of techniques were employed by the researchers and social scientist to trace the relationship between internet usage. Lelkes, along with his colleagues, use state Right-of-way laws, which affect the cost of internet infrastructure, as an instrument used for internet access in their country (Lelkes et al. 2017) and discovered a positive relation between internet access and affective polarization in the country. At the same time, (Alcot et al. 2021) conducted another experiment in which individuals in the US. were asked to deactivate their Facebook account for a $102 incentive, prior to the US. midterm election. It was found that those who deactivated their accounts and did not use Facebook were less polarized as compared to those individuals whose accounts were still activated during the experiment.
In addition, Boxell assess ANEX data from 1972-2016 by age cohorts analyzing their likelihood of using social media. He was shocked to found that the largest polarization index over time was occurred among oldest cohort, which was less likely to use social media (Boxell et al., 2017). Thus, he found a small or negative relation between internet usage and polarization. Also, Markus Prior in his article tried to trace the causal link between social media and affective polarization but he found no evidence that partisan media are making ordinary American voter more partisan, thus negating the role of partisan media as a cause of affective polarization (Prior, 2013).
The mass media has grown as an institution over the past half-century. Political scientists argue that this has particularly affected the voting public in the last three decades, as previously less partisan viewers are given more polarized news media choices. The mass media's current, fragmented, high-choice environment has induced a movement of the audience from more even-toned political programming to more antagonistic and one-sided broadcasts and articles. These programs tend to appeal to partisan viewers who watch the polarized programming as a self-confirming source for their ideologies.
Countries with less diversified but emerging media markets, such as China and South Korea, have become more polarized due to the diversification of political media. In addition, most search engines and social networks (e.g., Google, Facebook) now utilize computer algorithms as filters, which personalize web content based on a user's search history, location, and previous clicking patterns, creating more polarized access to information. This method of personalizing web content results in filter bubbles, a term coined by digital activist Eli Pariser that refers to the polarized ideological bubbles that are created by computer algorithms filtering out unrelated information and opposing views.
A 2011 study found ideological segregation of online news consumption is lower than the segregation of most offline news consumption and lower than the segregation of face-to-face interactions. This suggests that the filter bubbles effects of online media consumption are exaggerated. Other research also shows that online media does not contribute to the increased polarization of opinions. Solomon Messing and Sean J. Westwood state that individuals do not necessarily become polarized through media because they choose their own exposure, which tends to already align with their views. For instance, in an experiment where people could choose the content they wanted, people did not start to dislike their political opponents more after selecting between pro or anti immigration content. People did, however, start to counterargue the content.
Academic studies found that providing people with impartial, objective information has the potential to reduce political polarization, but the effect of information on polarization is highly sensitive to contextual factors. Specifically, polarization over government spending was reduced when people were provided with a "Taxpayer Receipt," but not when they were also asked how they wanted the money to be spent. This suggests that subtle factors like the mood and tone of partisan news sources may have a large effect on how the same information is interpreted. This is confirmed by another study that shows that different emotions of messages can lead to polarization or convergence: joy is prevalent in emotional polarization, while sadness and fear play significant roles in emotional convergence. These findings can help to design more socially responsible algorithms by starting to focus on the emotional content of algorithmic recommendations.
Research has primarily focused on the United States, a country with high polarization that has also increased over time. In Sweden, on the other hand, there is a stable ideological polarization over time. Experiments and surveys from Sweden also give limited support to the idea of increased ideological or affective polarization due to media use.
The political context
Some of recent studies emphasize the role of electoral context and the way parties interact with each other. For example, a recent study shows that coalition partnership can moderate the extent of affective polarization over parties. However, this study does not find evidence that the number of political parties and district magnitude that captures the proportionality of electoral systems would influence the extent of affective polarization. Also, electoral context, such as electoral salience, involvement in elections, elite polarization, and the strength of Eurosceptic parties, can intensify the divide.
The impact of redistricting—potentially through gerrymandering or the manipulation of electoral borders to favor a political party—on political polarization in the United States has been found to be minimal in research by leading political scientists. Ranked-choice voting has also been put forward as a solution to political polarization.
When politicians repeatedly favor partisan media outlets, they reinforce their supporters' existing biases, which can further fuel political polarization within the public.
Consequences
The implications of political polarization "are not entirely clear and may include some benefits as well as detrimental consequences." Polarization can be benign, natural, and democratizing, or it can be pernicious, having long term malignant effects on society and congesting essential democratic functions. Where voters see the parties as less divergent, they are less likely to be satisfied with how their democracy works. While its exact effects are disputed, it clearly alters the political process and the political composition of the general public.
Pernicious polarization
In political science, pernicious polarization occurs when a single political cleavage overrides other divides and commonalities to the point it has boiled into a single divide which becomes entrenched and self-reinforcing. Unlike most types of polarization, pernicious polarization does not need to be ideological. Rather, pernicious polarization operates on a single political cleavage, which can be partisan identity, religious vs secular, globalist vs nationalist, urban vs rural, etc. This political divide creates an explosion of mutual group distrust which hardens between the two political parties (or coalitions) and spreads beyond the political sphere into societal relations. People begin to perceive politics as "us" vs "them." The office of Ombudsman of Argentina has been vacant since 2009, along with a companion Public Defender's office, allegedly because of pernicious polarization.
Causes
According to Carothers & O'Donohue (2019), pernicious polarization is a process most often driven by a single political cleavage dominating an otherwise pluralistic political life, overriding other cleavages. On the other hand, Slater & Arugay (2019) have argued that it's not the depth of a single social cleavage, but the political elite's process for removing a leader which best explains whether or not polarization truly becomes pernicious. Lebas & Munemo (2019) have argued pernicious polarization is marked by both deeper societal penetration and segregation than other forms of political polarization, making it less amenable to resolution. It is agreed, however, that pernicious polarization reinforces and entrenches itself, dragging the country into a downward spiral of anger and division for which there are no easy remedies.
Effect on governance
Pernicious polarization makes compromise, consensus, interaction, and tolerance increasingly costly and tenuous for individuals and political actors on both sides of the divide. Pernicious polarization routinely weakens respect for democratic norms, corrodes basic legislative processes, undermines the nonpartisan nature of the judiciary and fuels public disaffection with political parties. It exacerbates intolerance and discrimination, diminishes societal trust, and increases violence throughout the society. As well as potentially leading to democratic backsliding. In country-by-country instances of pernicious polarization, it is common to see the winner exclude the loser from positions of power or using means to prevent the loser from becoming a threat in the future. In these situations, the loser typically questions the legitimacy of the institutions allowing the winner to create a hegemony, which causes citizens to grow cynical towards politics. In these countries, politics is often seen as a self-referential power game that has nothing to do with people.
Effect on public trust
Perniciously polarized societies often witness public controversies over factually provable questions. During this process, facts and moral truths increasingly lose their weight, as more people conform to the messages of their own bloc. Social and political actors such as journalists, academics, and politicians either become engaged in partisan storytelling or else incur growing social, political, and economic costs. Electorates lose confidence in public institutions. Support for norms and democracy decline. It becomes increasingly difficult for people to act in a morally principled fashion by appealing to the truth or acting in line with one's values when it conflicts with one's party interests. Once pernicious polarization takes hold, it takes on a life of its own, regardless of earlier intentions.
Benefits of polarization
Several political scientists have argued that most types of political polarization are beneficial to democracy, as well as a natural feature. The simplifying features of polarization can help democratization. Strategies which depend on opposition and exclusion are present in all forms of observed politics. Political polarization can help transform or disrupt the status quo, sometimes addressing injustices or imbalances in a popular vs. oligarchic struggle.
Political polarization can serve to unify, invigorate, or mobilize potential allies at the elite and mass levels. It can also help to divide, weaken, or pacify competitors. Even the most celebrated social movements can be described as a "group of people involved in a conflict with clearly defined opponents having a conflictual orientation toward an opponent and a common identity."
Political polarization can also provide voting heuristics to help voters choose among candidates, enabling political parties to mobilize supporters and provide programmatic choices. Polarizing politics can also help to overcome internal differences and frame a common identity, based in part on a common opposition to those resisting reforms. Still, polarization can be a risky political tool even when intended as an instrument of democratization, as it risks turning pernicious and self-propagating.
US perspective
See also
Bipolarisation
Civil war
Contentious politics
Cultural pluralism, in contrast
False dilemma
Hate speech
Ideocracy
Left–right politics
Moral foundations theory
Multi-party system
Social polarization
State collapse
References
Further reading
Region-specific
Hahm, Hyeonho, David Hilpert and Thomas König (2023) "Divided We Unite: The Nature of Partyism and the Role of Coalition Partnership in Europe". American Political Science Review, DOI: 10.1017/S0003055423000266
Hahm, Hyeonho, David Hilpert and Thomas König (2022) "Divided by Europe: Affective Polarisation in the Context of European Elections". West European Politics, DOI: 10.1080/01402382.2022.2133277
Politics
Political science
Political terminology
Sectarianism | 0.771603 | 0.99565 | 0.768246 |
Mod (subculture) | Mod, from the word modernist, is a subculture that began in late 1950s London and spread throughout Great Britain, eventually influencing fashions and trends in other countries. It continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and fashion, the subculture has its roots in a small group of stylish London-based young men and women in the late 1950s who were termed modernists because they listened to modern jazz. Elements of the mod subculture include fashion (often tailor-made suits); music (including soul, rhythm and blues, ska and mainly jazz) and motor scooters (usually Lambretta or Vespa). In the mid-1960s when they started to fade out, the subculture listened to rock groups with jazz and blues influences such as the Who and Small Faces. The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night jazz dancing at clubs.
During the early to mid-1960s, as mod grew and spread throughout Britain, certain elements of the mod scene became engaged in well-publicised clashes with members of a rival subculture: rockers. The mods and rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to use the term "moral panic" in his study about the two youth subcultures, in which he examined media coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s.
By 1965, conflicts between mods and rockers began to subside and mods increasingly gravitated towards pop art and psychedelia. London became synonymous with fashion, music, and pop culture in these years, a period often referred to as "Swinging London". During this time, mod fashions spread to other countries; mod was then viewed less as an isolated subculture, but as emblematic of the larger youth culture of the era.
As mod became more cosmopolitan during the "Swinging London" period, some working class "street mods" splintered off, forming other groups such as the skinheads. In the late 1970s, there was a mod revival in Britain which attempted to replicate the "scooter" period look and styles of the early to mid-1960s. It was followed by a similar mod revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in southern California.
Etymology and usage
The term mod derives from modernist, a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans. This usage contrasted with the term trad, which described traditional jazz players and fans. The 1959 novel Absolute Beginners describes modernists as young modern jazz fans who dress in sharp modern Italian clothes. The novel may be one of the earliest examples of the term being written to describe young British style-conscious modern jazz fans. This usage of the word modernist should not be confused with modernism in the context of literature, art, design and architecture. From the mid-to-late 1960s onwards, the mass media often used the term mod in a wider sense to describe anything that was believed to be popular, fashionable or modern.
Paul Jobling and David Crowley argued that the definition of mod can be difficult to pin down, because throughout the subculture's original era, it was "prone to continuous reinvention." They claimed that since the mod scene was so pluralist, the word mod was an umbrella term that covered several distinct sub-scenes. Terry Rawlings argued that mods are difficult to define because the subculture started out as a "mysterious semi-secret world", which the Who's manager Peter Meaden summarised as "clean living under difficult circumstances."
History 1958–1969
George Melly wrote that mods were initially a small group of clothes-focused English working class young men insisting on clothes and shoes tailored to their style, who emerged during the modern jazz boom of the late 1950s. Early mods watched French and Italian art films and read Italian magazines to look for style ideas. They usually held semi-skilled manual jobs or low grade white-collar positions such as a clerk, messenger or office boy. According to Dick Hebdige, mods created a parody of the consumer society that they lived in.
Early 1960s
According to Hebdige, by around 1963, the mod subculture had gradually accumulated the identifying symbols that later came to be associated with the scene, such as scooters, amphetamine pills and R&B music. While clothes were still important at that time, they could be ready-made. Dick Hebdige wrote the term mod covered a number of styles including the emergence of Swinging London, though to him it defined Melly's working class clothes-conscious teenagers living in London and south England in the early to mid-1960s.
Mary Anne Long argued that "first hand accounts and contemporary theorists point to the Jewish upper-working or middle-class of London's East End and suburbs." Simon Frith asserted that the mod subculture had its roots in the 1950s beatnik coffee bar culture, which catered to art school students in the radical Bohemian scene in London. Steve Sparks, whose claim is to be one of the original mods, agrees that before mod became commercialised, it was essentially an extension of the beatnik culture: "It comes from 'modernist', it was to do with modern jazz and to do with Sartre" and existentialism. Sparks argued that "Mod has been much misunderstood ... as this working-class, scooter-riding precursor of skinheads."
Coffee bars were attractive to British youth because, in contrast to typical pubs, which closed at about 11 pm, they were open until the early hours of the morning. Coffee bars had jukeboxes, which in some cases reserved space in the machines for the customers' own records. In the late 1950s, coffee bars were associated with jazz and blues, but in the early 1960s, they began playing more R&B music. Frith noted that although coffee bars were originally aimed at middle-class art school students, they began to facilitate an intermixing of youth from different backgrounds and classes. At these venues, which Frith called the "first sign of the youth movement", young people met collectors of R&B and blues records.
As the mod subculture grew in London during the early-to-mid-1960s, tensions arose between the mods, often riding highly decorated motor scooters, and their main rivals, the rockers, a British subculture who favoured rockabilly, early rock'n'roll, motorcycles and leather jackets, and considered the mods effeminate because of their interest in fashion. There were some violent clashes between the two groups. This period was later immortalised by songwriter Pete Townshend, in the Who's 1973 concept album, Quadrophenia. After 1964, clashes between the two groups largely subsided, as mod expanded and came to be accepted by the larger youth generation throughout the UK as a symbol of all that was new. During this time London became a mecca for rock music, with popular bands such as the Who and Small Faces appealing to a largely mod audience, as well as the preponderance of hip fashions, in a period often referred to as Swinging London.
Mid-late 1960s
Swinging London
As numerous British rock bands of the mid-1960s began to adopt a mod look and following, the scope of the subculture grew beyond its original confines and the focus began to change. By 1966, proletarian aspects of the scene in London had waned as fashion and pop-culture elements continued to grow, not only in England, but elsewhere.
This period, portrayed by Alberto Sordi's film in Thank you very much, and in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup, was typified by pop art, Carnaby Street boutiques, live music, and discothèques. Many associate this era with fashion model Twiggy, miniskirts, and bold geometrical patterns on brightly coloured clothes. During these years, it exerted a considerable influence on the worldwide spread of mod.
United States and elsewhere
As mod was going through transformation in England, it became all the rage in the United States and around the world, as many young people adopted its look. However, the worldwide experience differed from that of the early scene in London in that it was based mainly on the pop culture aspect, influenced by British rock musicians. By now, mod was thought of more as a general youth-culture style rather than as a separate subgroup among different contentious factions.
American musicians, in the wake of the British Invasion, adopted the look of mod clothes, longer hairstyles, and Beatle boots. The exploitation documentary Mondo Mod provides a glimpse at mod's influence on the Sunset Strip and West Hollywood scene of late 1966. Mod increasingly became associated with psychedelic rock and the early hippie movement, and by 1967 more exotic looks, such as Nehru jackets and love beads came into vogue. Its trappings were reflected on popular American TV shows such as Laugh-In and The Mod Squad.
Decline
Dick Hebdige argued that the subculture lost its vitality when it became commercialised and stylised to the point that mod clothing styles were being created "from above" by clothing companies and by TV shows like Ready Steady Go!, rather than being developed by young people customising their clothes and combining different fashions.
As psychedelic rock and the hippie subculture grew more popular in the United Kingdom, much of mod, for a time, seemed intertwined with those movements. However, it dissipated after 1968, as tastes began to favor a less style-conscious, denim and tie-dyed look, along with a decreased interest in nightlife. Bands such as the Who and Small Faces began to change and, by the end of the decade, moved away from mod. Additionally, the original mods of the early 1960s were coming to the age of marriage and child-rearing, which meant many of them no longer had the time or money for their youthful pastimes of club-going, record-shopping, and buying clothes.
Later developments 1969–present
Offshoots
Some street-oriented mods, usually of lesser means, sometimes referred to as hard mods, remained active well into the late 1960s, but tended to become increasingly detached from the Swinging London scene and the burgeoning hippie movement. By 1967, they considered most of the people in the Swinging London scene to be "soft mods" or "peacock mods", as styles, there, became increasingly extravagant, often featuring highly ruffled, brocaded, or laced fabrics in Day-Glo colours.
Many of the hard mods lived in the same economically depressed areas of South London as West Indian immigrants, so these mods favoured a different kind of attire, that emulated the rude boy look of Trilby hats and too-short trousers. These Mods listened to Jamaican ska and mingled with black rude boys at West Indian nightclubs like Ram Jam, A-Train and Sloopy's. Hebdige claimed that the hard mods were drawn to black culture and ska music in part because the educated, middle-class hippie movement's drug-orientated and intellectual music did not have any relevance for them. He argued that the hard mods were attracted to ska because it was a secret, underground, non-commercialised music that was disseminated through informal channels such as house parties and clubs.
By the end of the 1960s, the hard mods had become known as skinheads, who, in their early days, would be known for the same love of soul, rocksteady and early reggae. Because of their fascination with black culture, the early skinheads were, except in isolated situations, largely devoid of the overt racism and fascism that would later become associated with whole wings of the movement in the mid to late 1970s. The early skinheads retained basic elements of mod fashion—such as Fred Perry and Ben Sherman shirts, Sta-Prest trousers and Levi's jeans—but mixed them with working class-orientated accessories such as braces and Dr. Martens work boots. Hebdige claimed that as early as the Margate and Brighton brawls between mods and rockers, some mods were seen wearing boots and braces and sporting close cropped haircuts (for practical reasons, as long hair was a liability in industrial jobs and street fights).
Mods and ex-mods were also part of the early northern soul scene, a subculture based on obscure 1960s and 1970s American soul records. Some mods evolved into, or merged with, subcultures such as individualists, stylists, and scooterboys.
Revivals and later influence
A mod revival started in the late 1970s in the United Kingdom, with thousands of mod revivalists attending scooter rallies in locations such as Scarborough and the Isle of Wight. This revival was partly inspired by the 1979 film Quadrophenia, which explores the original 1960s movement, and by mod-influenced bands such as the Jam, Secret Affair, the Lambrettas, Purple Hearts, the Specials and the Chords, who drew on the energy of new wave music.
The British mod revival was followed by a revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in Southern California, led by bands such as the Untouchables. The mod scene in Los Angeles and Orange County was partly influenced by the 2 Tone ska revival in England, and was unique in its racial diversity, with black, white, Hispanic and Asian participants. The 1990s Britpop scene featured noticeable mod influences on bands such as Oasis, Blur, Ocean Colour Scene and the Bluetones. Popular 21st century musicians Miles Kane and Jake Bugg are also followers of the mod subculture.
Characteristics
Dick Hebdige argued that when trying to understand 1960s mod culture, one has to try and "penetrate and decipher the mythology of the mods". Terry Rawlings argued that the mod scene developed when British teenagers began to reject the "dull, timid, old-fashioned, and uninspired" British culture around them, with its repressed and class-obsessed mentality and its "naffness". Mods rejected the "faulty pap" of 1950s pop music and sappy love songs. They aimed at being "cool, neat, sharp, hip, and smart" by embracing "all things sexy and streamlined", especially when they were new, exciting, controversial or modern. Hebdige claimed that the mod subculture came about as part of the participants' desire to understand the "mysterious complexity of the metropolis" and to get close to black culture of the Jamaican rude boy, because mods felt that black culture "ruled the night hours" and that it had more streetwise "savoir faire". Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss argued that at the "core of the British Mod rebellion was a blatant fetishising of the American consumer culture" that had "eroded the moral fiber of England." In doing so, the mods "mocked the class system that had gotten their fathers nowhere" and created a "rebellion based on consuming pleasures".
The influence of British newspapers on creating the public perception of mods as having a leisure-filled club-going lifestyle can be seen in a 1964 article in The Sunday Times. The paper interviewed a 17-year-old mod who went out clubbing seven nights a week and spent Saturday afternoons shopping for clothes and records. However, few British teens and young adults would have had the time and money to spend this much time going to nightclubs. Paul Jobling and David Crowley argued that most young mods worked 9 to 5 at semi-skilled jobs, which meant that they had much less leisure time and only a modest income to spend during their time off.
Fashion
Paul Jobling and David Crowley called the mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults who lived in metropolitan London or the new towns of the south. Due to the increasing affluence of post-war Britain, the youths of the early 1960s were one of the first generations that did not have to contribute their money from after-school jobs to the family finances. As mod teens and young adults began using their disposable income to buy stylish clothes, the first youth-targeted boutique clothing stores opened in London in the Carnaby Street and King's Road districts. The streets' names became symbols of, one magazine later stated, "an endless frieze of mini-skirted, booted, fair-haired angular angels". Newspaper accounts from the mid-1960s focused on the mod obsession with clothes, often detailing the prices of the expensive suits worn by young mods, and seeking out extreme cases such as a young mod who claimed that he would "go without food to buy clothes".
Two youth subcultures helped pave the way for mod fashion by breaking new ground: the beatniks, with their Bohemian image of berets and black turtlenecks, and the Teddy Boys, from whom mod fashion inherited its "narcissistic and fastidious [fashion] tendencies" and the immaculate dandy look. The Teddy Boys paved the way for making male interest in fashion socially acceptable. Prior to the Teddy Boys, male interest in fashion in Britain was often associated with underground homosexuals' subculture and dressing style.
Jobling and Crowley argued that for working class mods, the subculture's focus on fashion and music was a release from the "humdrum of daily existence" at their jobs. Jobling and Crowley noted that while the subculture had strong elements of consumerism and shopping, mods were not passive consumers; instead they were very self-conscious and critical, customising "existing styles, symbols and artefacts" such as the Union flag and the Royal Air Force roundel, and putting them on their jackets in a pop art-style, and putting their personal signatures on their style. Mods adopted new Italian and French styles in part as a reaction to the rural and small-town rockers, with their 1950s-style leather motorcycle clothes and American greaser look.
Male mods adopted a smooth, sophisticated look that included tailor-made suits with narrow lapels (sometimes made of mohair), thin ties, button-down collar shirts, wool or cashmere jumpers (crewneck or V-neck), Chelsea or Beatle boots, loafers, Clarks desert boots, bowling shoes, and hairstyles that imitated the look of French Nouvelle Vague film actors. A big part of the Mod look was borrowed from the Ivy League collegiate style from the United States. A few male mods went against gender norms by using eye shadow, eye-pencil or even lipstick. Mods chose scooters over motorbikes partly because they were a symbol of Italian style and because their body panels concealed moving parts and made them less likely to stain clothes with oil or road dust. Many mods wore ex-military parkas while driving scooters to keep their clothes clean.
Many female mods dressed androgynously, with short haircuts, men's trousers or shirts, flat shoes, and little makeup – often just pale foundation, brown eye shadow, white or pale lipstick and false eyelashes. British fashion designer Mary Quant, who helped popularize the miniskirt, is credited for popularizing mod subculture. Miniskirts became progressively shorter between the early and mid-1960s. As female mod fashion became more mainstream, slender models like Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy began to exemplify the mod look. Maverick fashion designers emerged, such as Quant, who was known for her miniskirt designs, and John Stephen, who sold a line named "His Clothes" and whose clients included bands such as Small Faces. The television programme Ready Steady Go! helped spread awareness of mod fashions to a larger audience. Mod-culture continues to influence fashion, with the ongoing trend for mod-inspired styles such as 3-button suits, Chelsea boots and mini dresses. The Mod Revival of the 1980s and 1990s led to a new era of mod-inspired fashion, driven by bands such as Madness, the Specials and Oasis. The popularity of the This Is England film and TV series also kept mod fashion in the public eye. Today's mod icons include Miles Kane (frontman of the Last Shadow Puppets), cyclist Bradley Wiggins and Paul Weller, 'The ModFather'.
Music
The early mods listened to the "sophisticated smoother modern jazz" of musicians such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dave Brubeck and the Modern Jazz Quartet, as well as the American rhythm and blues (R&B) of artists such as Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. The music scene of the Mods was a mix of modern jazz, R&B, psychedelic rock and soul. Terry Rawlings wrote that mods became "dedicated to R&B and their own dances." Black American servicemen, stationed in Britain during the early part of the Cold War, brought over R&B and soul records that were unavailable in Britain, and they often sold these to young people in London. Starting around 1960, mods embraced the off-beat, Jamaican ska music of artists such as the Skatalites, Owen Gray, Derrick Morgan and Prince Buster on record labels such as Melodisc, Starlite and Bluebeat.
The original mods gathered at all-night clubs such as The Flamingo and The Marquee in London to hear the latest records and show off their dance moves. As the mod subculture spread across the United Kingdom, other clubs became popular, including Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester.
The British R&B/rock bands the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and the Kinks all had mod followings, and other bands emerged that were specifically mod-oriented. These included the Who, Small Faces, the Creation, the Action, the Smoke and John's Children. The Who's early promotional material tagged them as playing "maximum rhythm and blues", and a name change in 1964 from The Who to The High Numbers was an attempt to cater even more to the mod market. After the commercial failure of the single "Zoot Suit/I'm the Face", the band changed its name back to The Who. Although the Beatles dressed like mods for a while (after dressing like rockers earlier), their beat music was not as popular as British R&B among mods.
Amphetamines
A notable part of the mod subculture was recreational amphetamine use, which was used to fuel all-night dances at clubs. Newspaper reports described dancers emerging from clubs at 5 a.m. with dilated pupils. Some mods consumed a combined amphetamine/barbiturate called Drinamyl, nicknamed "purple hearts". Due to this association with amphetamines, Pete Meaden's "clean living" aphorism about the mod subculture may seem contradictory, but the drug was still legal in Britain in the early 1960s, and mods used the drug for stimulation and alertness, which they viewed as different from the intoxication caused by alcohol and other drugs. Andrew Wilson argued that for a significant minority, "amphetamines symbolised the smart, on-the-ball, cool image" and that they sought "stimulation not intoxication ... greater awareness, not escape" and "confidence and articulacy" rather than the "drunken rowdiness of previous generations".
Wilson argued that the significance of amphetamines to the mod culture was similar to that of LSD and cannabis within the subsequent hippie counterculture. Dick Hebdige argued that mods used amphetamines to extend their leisure time into the early hours of the morning and as a way of bridging the gap between their hostile and daunting everyday work lives and the "inner world" of dancing and dressing up in their off-hours.
Scooters
Many mods drove motor scooters, usually Vespas or Lambrettas. Scooters were a practical and affordable form of transportation for 1960s teens, since until the early 1970s, public transport stopped relatively early in the night. For teens with low-paying jobs, scooters were cheaper and easier to park than cars, and they could be bought through newly available hire purchase plans.
Mods also treated scooters as a fashion accessory. Italian scooters were preferred due to their clean-lined, curving shapes and gleaming chrome, with sales driven by close associations between dealerships and clubs, such as the Ace of Herts.
For young mods, Italian scooters were the "embodiment of continental style and a way to escape the working-class row houses of their upbringing". Mods customised their scooters by painting them in "two-tone and candyflake and overaccessorized [them] with luggage racks, crash bars, and scores of mirrors and fog lights". Some mods added four, ten, or as many as 30 mirrors to their scooters. They often put their names on the small windscreen. They sometimes took their engine side panels and front bumpers to electroplating shops to get them covered in highly reflective chrome.
Hard mods (who later evolved into the skinheads) began riding scooters more for practical reasons. Their scooters were either unmodified or cutdown, which was nicknamed a "skelly". Lambrettas were cutdown to the bare frame, and the unibody (monocoque)-design Vespas had their body panels slimmed down or reshaped.
After the seaside resort brawls, the media began to associate Italian scooters with violent mods. Much later, writers described groups of mods riding scooters together as a "menacing symbol of group solidarity" that was "converted into a weapon". With events like the 6 November 1966, "scooter charge" on Buckingham Palace, the scooter, along with the mods' short hair and suits, began to be seen as a symbol of subversion.
Gender roles
Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson argued in 1993 that compared to other youth subcultures, the mod scene gave young women high visibility and relative autonomy. They wrote that this status may have been related both to the attitudes of the mod young men, who accepted the idea that a young woman did not have to be attached to a man, and to the development of new occupations for young women, which gave them an income and made them more independent. Hall and Jefferson noted the increasing number of jobs in boutiques and women's clothing stores, which, while poorly paid and lacking opportunities for advancement, gave young women disposable income, status and a glamorous sense of dressing up and going into town to work.
Hall and Jefferson argued that the presentable image of female mod fashions meant it was easier for young mod women to integrate with the non-subculture aspects of their lives (home, school and work) than for members of other subcultures. The emphasis on clothing and a stylised look for women demonstrated the "same fussiness for detail in clothes" as their male mod counterparts.
Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss claimed that the emphasis in the mod subculture on consumerism and shopping was the "ultimate affront to male working-class traditions" in the United Kingdom, because in the working-class tradition, shopping was usually done by women. They argued that British mods were "worshipping leisure and money ... scorning the masculine world of hard work and honest labour" by spending their time listening to music, collecting records, socialising, and dancing at all-night clubs.
Conflicts with rockers
In early-1960s Britain, the two main youth subcultures were mods and rockers. Mods were described in 2012 as "effeminate, stuck-up, emulating the middle classes, aspiring to a competitive sophistication, snobbish, [and] phony", and rockers as "hopelessly naive, loutish, [and] scruffy", emulating the motorcycle gang members in the film The Wild One, by wearing leather jackets and riding motorcycles. Dick Hebdige claimed in 2006 that the "mods rejected the rocker's crude conception of masculinity, the transparency of his motivations, his clumsiness"; the rockers viewed the vanity and obsession with clothes of the mods as immasculine.
Scholars debate how much contact the two subcultures had during the 1960s. Hebdige argued that mods and rockers had little contact with each other because they tended to come from different regions of England (mods from London and rockers from rural areas), and because they had "totally disparate goals and lifestyles". Mark Gilman, however, claimed that both mods and rockers could be seen at football matches.
John Covach wrote that in the United Kingdom, rockers were often engaged in brawls with mods. BBC News stories from May 1964 stated that mods and rockers were jailed after riots in seaside resort towns on the south and east coasts of England, such as Margate, Brighton, Bournemouth and Clacton. The "mods and rockers" conflict was explored as an instance of "moral panic" by sociologist Stanley Cohen in his study Folk Devils and Moral Panics, which examined media coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s. Although Cohen acknowledged that mods and rockers had some fights in the mid-1960s, he argued that they were no different from the evening brawls that occurred between non-mod and non-rocker youths throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, both at seaside resorts and after football games.
Newspapers of the time were eager to describe the mod and rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labelled mods and rockers as "sawdust Caesars", "vermin" and "louts". Newspaper editorials fanned the flames of hysteria, such as a Birmingham Post editorial in May 1964 which warned that mods and rockers were "internal enemies" in the United Kingdom who would "bring about disintegration of a nation's character". The magazine Police Review argued that the mods and rockers' purported lack of respect for law and order could cause violence to "surge and flame like a forest fire". As a result of this media coverage, two British members of parliament travelled to the seaside areas to survey the damage, and MP Harold Gurden called for a resolution for intensified measures to control youth hooliganism. One of the prosecutors in the trial of some of the Clacton brawlers argued that mods and rockers were youths with no serious views, who lacked respect for law and order.
See also
1960s in fashion
Freakbeat
Bōsōzoku, a similar subculture in Japan
References
Further reading
Anderson, Paul. Mods: The New Religion, Omnibus Press (2014),
Bacon, Tony. London Live, Balafon (1999),
Baker, Howard. Sawdust Caesar Mainstream (1999),
Baker, Howard. Enlightenment and the Death of Michael Mouse Mainstream (2001),
Barnes, Richard.Mods!, Eel Pie (1979),
Cohen, S. (1972 ). Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of Mods and Rockers, Oxford: Martin Robertson.
Deighton, Len. Len Deighton's London Dossier, (1967)
Elms, Robert. The Way We Wore,
Feldman, Christine Jacqueline. "We Are the Mods": A Transnational History of a Youth Subculture. Peter Lang (2009).
Fletcher, Alan. Mod Crop Series, Chainline (1995),
Green, Jonathan. Days in the Life,
Green, Jonathan. All Dressed Up
Hamblett, Charles and Jane Deverson. Generation X (1964)
Hewitt, Paolo. My Favourite Shirt: A History of Ben Sherman Style (Paperback). Ben Sherman (2004),
Hewitt, Paolo. The Sharper Word; A Mod Anthology Helter Skelter Publishing (2007),
Hewitt, Paolo. The Soul Stylists: Forty Years of Modernism (1st edition). Mainstream (2000),
MacInnes, Colin. England, Half English (2nd edition), Penguin (1966, 1961)
MacInnes, Colin. Absolute Beginners
Newton, Francis. The Jazz Scene,
Rawlings, Terry. Mod: A Very British Phenomenon
Scala, Mim. Diary Of A Teddy Boy. Sitric (2000),
Verguren, Enamel . This Is a Modern Life: The 1980s London Mod Scene, Enamel Verguren. Helter Skelter (2004),
Weight, Richard. Mod: A Very British Style. Bodley Head (2013)
External links
Revolution in Men' s Clothes: Mod Fashions from Britain are Making a Smash in the U.S., Life Magazine, 13 May. 1966, pg. 82–90 – Cover story about mod boom in America
OnThisDay 4 April 1964 BBC Panorama Reported on Mods and Rockers. Can't we all just get along
Mods Of Your Generation UNDERSTANDING THE SNOBBERY BETWEEN ORIGINAL MODS, REVIVALISTS, AND MILLENNIAL MODS
1960s fads and trends
1960s fashion
1970s fads and trends
1980s fads and trends
Fashion
Modernism
Motorcycling subculture in the United Kingdom
Musical subcultures
Working-class culture in the United Kingdom
Youth culture in the United Kingdom
Subcultures
Counterculture of the 1960s
Counterculture of the 1970s | 0.768997 | 0.998994 | 0.768223 |
Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory | Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural psychology, developed by Geert Hofstede. It shows the effects of a society's culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior, using a structure derived from factor analysis.
Hofstede developed his original model as a result of using factor analysis to examine the results of a worldwide survey of employee values by IBM between 1967 and 1973. It has been refined since. The original theory proposed four dimensions along which cultural values could be analyzed: individualism-collectivism; uncertainty avoidance; power distance (strength of social hierarchy) and masculinity-femininity (task-orientation versus person-orientation). The Hofstede Cultural Dimensions factor analysis is based on extensive cultural preferences research conducted by Gert Jan Hofstede and his research teams. Hofstede based his research on national cultural preferences rather than individual cultural preferences. Hofstede included six key aspects of national culture country comparison scales, including: the power distance index (PDI), individualism vs. collectivism (IDV), motivation towards achievement and success (MAS, formerly masculinity versus femininity), uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), long term orientation versus short term normative orientation (LTO), and indulgence versus restraint (IVR). The PDI describes the degree to which authority is accepted and followed. The IDV measures the extent to which people look out for each other as a team or look out for themselves as an individual. MAS represents specific values that a society values. The UAI describes to what extent nations avoid the unknown. LTO expresses how societies either prioritize traditions or seek for the modern in their dealings with the present and the future. The IVR index is a comparison between a country's willingness to wait for long-term benefits by holding off on instant gratification, or preferences to no restraints on enjoying life at the present.
Independent research in Hong Kong led Hofstede to add a fifth dimension, long-term orientation, to cover aspects of values not discussed in the original paradigm. In 2010, Hofstede added a sixth dimension, indulgence versus self-restraint. Hofstede's work established a major research tradition in cross-cultural psychology and has also been drawn upon by researchers and consultants in many fields relating to international business and communication. The theory has been widely used in several fields as a paradigm for research, particularly in cross-cultural psychology, international management, and cross-cultural communication. It continues to be a major resource in cross-cultural fields.
History
In 1965 Hofstede founded the personnel research department of IBM Europe (which he managed until 1971). Between 1967 and 1973, he executed a large survey study regarding national values differences across the worldwide subsidiaries of this multinational corporation: he compared the answers of 117,000 IBM matched employees samples on the same attitude survey in different countries. He first focused his research on the 40 largest countries, and then extended it to 50 countries and 3 regions, "at that time probably the largest matched-sample cross-national database available anywhere." The theory was one of the first quantifiable theories that could be used to explain observed differences between cultures.
This initial analysis identified systematic differences in national cultures on four primary dimensions: power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), uncertainty avoidance (UAI) and masculinity (MAS), which are described below. As Hofstede explains on his academic website, these dimensions regard "four anthropological problem areas that different national societies handle differently: ways of coping with inequality, ways of coping with uncertainty, the relationship of the individual with her or his primary group, and the emotional implications of having been born as a girl or as a boy". Geert Hofstede created the cultural dimensions theory in 1980. In 1984 he published Culture's Consequences, a book which combines the statistical analysis from the survey research with his personal experiences.
In order to confirm the early results from the IBM study and to extend them to a variety of populations, six subsequent cross-national studies were successfully conducted between 1990 and 2002. Covering between 14 and 28 countries each, the samples included commercial airline pilots, students, civil service managers, 'up-market' consumers and 'elites'. The combined research established value scores on the four dimensions for a total of 76 countries and regions.
In 1991 Michael Harris Bond and colleagues conducted a study among students in 23 countries, using a survey instrument developed with Chinese employees and managers. The results from this study led Hofstede to add a new fifth dimension to his model: long-term orientation (LTO), initially called Confucian dynamism. In 2010, the scores for this dimension were extended to 93 countries thanks to the research of Michael Minkov, who used data from the recent World Values Survey. Further research has refined some of the original dimensions, and introduced the difference between country-level and individual-level data in analysis.
Finally, Minkov's World Values Survey data analysis of 93 representative samples of national populations also led Geert Hofstede to identify a sixth last dimension: indulgence versus restraint.
Dimensions of national cultures
Power distance index (PDI): The power distance index is defined as "the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally". A higher degree of the Index indicates that hierarchy is clearly established and executed in society, without doubt or reason. A lower degree of the Index signifies that people question authority and attempt to distribute power.
Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV): This index explores the "degree to which people in a society are integrated into groups". Individualistic societies have loose ties that often only relate an individual to his/her immediate family. They emphasize the "I" versus the "we". Its counterpart, collectivism, describes a society in which tightly integrated relationships tie extended families and others into in-groups. These in-groups are laced with undoubted loyalty and support each other when a conflict arises with another in-group.
Uncertainty avoidance (UAI): The uncertainty avoidance index is defined as "a society's tolerance for ambiguity", in which people embrace or avert an event of something unexpected, unknown, or away from the status quo. Societies that score a high degree in this index opt for stiff codes of behavior, guidelines, laws, and generally rely on absolute truth, or the belief that one lone truth dictates everything and that people know what it is. A lower degree in this index shows more acceptance of differing thoughts or ideas. Society tends to impose fewer regulations, ambiguity is more accustomed to, and the environment is more free-flowing.
Motivation towards Achievement and Success (formerly Masculinity vs. femininity). MAS: In this dimension, masculinity is defined as "a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material rewards for success." Its counterpart represents "a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak, and quality of life." Women in the respective societies tend to display different values. In feminine societies, they share modest and caring views equally with men. In more masculine societies, women are somewhat assertive and competitive, but notably less than men. In other words, they still recognize a gap between male and female values. This dimension is frequently viewed as taboo in highly masculine societies. The name of this dimension was changed by Hofstede Insights around late 2023 or early 2024 as "not timely anymore" as it "caused discomfort among some of our customers and website visitors for treating gender as a binary concept".
Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation (LTO): This dimension associates the connection of the past with the current and future actions/challenges. A lower degree of this index (short-term) indicates that traditions are honored and kept, while steadfastness is valued. Societies with a high degree in this index (long-term) view adaptation and circumstantial, pragmatic problem-solving as a necessity. A poor country that is short-term oriented usually has little to no economic development, while long-term oriented countries continue to develop to a level of prosperity.
Indulgence vs. restraint (IND): This dimension refers to the degree of freedom that societal norms give to citizens in fulfilling their human desires. Indulgence is defined as "a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun". Its counterpart is defined as "a society that controls gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms".
Differences between cultures on the values dimensions
Putting together national scores (from 1 for the lowest to 100 for the highest), Hofstede's six-dimensions model allows international comparison between cultures, also called comparative research:
Power distance index shows very high scores for Latin American and Asian countries, African areas and the Arab world. On the other hand, Germanic countries, including Anglophone countries, have a lower power distance (only 11 for Austria and 18 for Denmark).
For example, the United States has a 40 on the cultural scale of Hofstede's analysis. Compared to Guatemala where the power distance is very high (95) and Austria where it is very low (11), the United States is in the middle.
Germany scores a high UAI (65) and Belgium even more (94) compared to Sweden (29) or Denmark (23) despite their geographic proximity. However, few countries have very low UAI.
Motivation towards Achievement & Success is extremely low in Nordic countries: Norway scores 8 and Sweden only 5. In contrast, MAS is very high in Japan (95), and in European countries like Hungary, Austria and Switzerland influenced by German culture. In the Anglo world, MAS scores are relatively high with 66 for the United Kingdom for example. Latin American countries present contrasting scores: for example Venezuela has a 73-point score whereas Chile's is only 28.
High long-term orientation scores are typically found in East Asia, with South Korea having the highest possible score of 100, Taiwan 93 and Japan 88. They are moderate in Eastern and Western Europe, and low in the Anglo countries, Africa and in Latin America. However, there is less data about this dimension.
Individualism (IDV) is high in the US (91), Australia (90), and Great Britain (89). Contrarily Hong Kong and Serbia (25), Malaysia (26), and Portugal (27) are considered to be collectivists.
There is even less data about the sixth dimension. Indulgence scores are highest in Latin America, parts of Africa, the Anglo world and Nordic Europe; restraint is mostly found in East Asia and Eastern Europe.
Correlations of values with other country differences
Researchers have grouped some countries together by comparing countries' value scores with other country difference such as geographical proximity, shared language, related historical background, similar religious beliefs and practices, common philosophical influences, and identical political systems; in other words, everything which is implied by the definition of a nation's culture. For example, low power distance is associated with consultative political practices and income equity, whereas high power distance is correlated with unequal income distribution, as well as bribery and corruption in domestic politics. Individualism is positively correlated with social mobility, national wealth, or the quality of government. As a country becomes richer, its culture becomes more individualistic.
Another example of correlation was drawn by the Sigma Two Group in 2003, who presented a correlation between countries' cultural dimensions and their predominant religion. "Predominant" is here defined as over 50% of the country's population identifying as a member of that religion, based on the World Factbook 2002. On average, predominantly Catholic countries show very high uncertainty avoidance, relatively high power distance, moderate masculinity and relatively low individualism, whereas predominantly atheist countries (not to be confused with Atheism) have low uncertainty avoidance, very high power distance, moderate masculinity, and very low individualism. Coelho (2011) found inverse correlations between rates of specific kinds of innovation in manufacturing companies and the percentage of large companies per country as well as the employment of a specific kind of manufacturing strategy.
The quantification of cultural dimensions enables people to make cross-regional comparisons and form an image of the differences between not just countries but entire regions. For example, the cultural model of the Mediterranean countries is dominated by high levels of acceptance of inequalities, with uncertainty aversion influencing their choices. With regard to individualism, Mediterranean countries tend to be characterized by moderate levels of individualistic behavior. The same applies to masculinity. Future orientation places Mediterranean countries in a middle ranking, and they show a preference for indulgence values.
Power distance index is positively correlated with the ratio of companies with process innovation only over the companies with any of the three types of innovation considered in the country (determinant of correlation: 28%). Hence in countries with higher power distance, innovative manufacturing companies are somewhat more bound to resort to process innovations. Power distance index occurs more often in technological societies with a representative government and a good basic education system, whereas high PDI is associated with economic inequality.
Applications of the model
Importance of cultural-difference awareness
Instead of the convergence phenomena experts expected with information technology proliferation (the "global village culture"), cultural differences are still significant today and diversity has tended to increase. So, in order to be able to have respectful cross-cultural relations, we have to be aware of these cultural differences.
With this model, Geert Hofstede shed light on these differences. The tool can be used to give a general overview and an approximate understanding of other cultures, what to expect from them and how to behave towards groups from other countries.
Practical applications of theory
Geert Hofstede is perhaps the best known sociologist of culture and anthropologist in the context of applications for understanding international business. Many articles and research papers refer to his publications, with over 26,000 citations to his 2001 book Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations (which is an updated version of his first publication). The five dimensions model is widely used in many domains of human social life, and particularly in the field of business. Practical applications were developed almost immediately.
International communication
In business it is commonly agreed that communication is one of the primary concerns. So, for professionals who work internationally; people who interact daily with other people from different countries within their company or with other companies abroad; Hofstede's model gives insights into other cultures. In fact, cross-cultural communication requires being aware of cultural differences because what may be considered perfectly acceptable and natural in one country, can be confusing or even offensive in another. All the levels in communication are affected by cultural dimensions: verbals (words and language itself), non-verbals (body language, gestures) and etiquette do's and don'ts (clothing, gift-giving, dining, customs and protocol). This is also valid for written communication, as explained in William Wardrobe's essay Beyond Hofstede: Cultural applications for communication with Latin American Businesses.
International negotiation
In international negotiations, communication style, expectation, issue ranking and goals will change according to the negotiators' countries of origin. If applied properly, an understanding of cultural dimensions should increase success in negotiations and reduce frustration and conflicts. For example, in a negotiation between Chinese and Canadians, the Canadian negotiators may want to reach an agreement and sign a contract, whereas the Chinese negotiators may want to spend more time for non-business activities, small-talk and hospitality with preferences for protocol and form in order to first establish the relationship.
"When negotiating in Western countries, the objective is to work toward a target of mutual understanding and agreement and 'shake-hands' when that agreement is reached – a cultural signal of the end of negotiations and the start of 'working together'.
In Middle Eastern countries much negotiation takes place leading into the 'agreement', signified by shaking hands. However, the deal is not complete in the Middle Eastern culture. In fact, it is a cultural sign that 'serious' negotiations are just beginning."
International management
These considerations are also true in international management and cross-cultural leadership. Decisions taken have to be based on the country's customs and values.
When working in international companies, managers may provide training to their employees to make them sensitive to cultural differences, develop nuanced business practices, with protocols across countries. Hofstede's dimensions offer guidelines for defining culturally acceptable approaches to corporate organizations.
Applying Hofstede's dimensions of culture, one can tailor management strategies in international settings by recognizing the spectrum of individualism and collectivism. For example, in collectivist societies, leaders who promote team unity and collective effort are likely to see better performance. In contrast, management that values and encourages individual initiative and responsibility aligns well with individualistic cultures, leading to greater effectiveness in those settings.
As a part of the public domain, Geert Hofstede's work is used by numerous consultancies worldwide.
International marketing
The six-dimension model is very useful in international marketing because it defines national values not only in business context but in general. Marieke de Mooij has studied the application of Hofstede's findings in the field of global branding, advertising strategy and consumer behavior. As companies try to adapt their products and services to local habits and preferences they have to understand the specificity of their market.
For example, if you want to market cars in a country where the uncertainty avoidance is high, you should emphasize their safety, whereas in other countries you may base your advertisement on the social image they give you.
Cell phone marketing is another interesting example of the application of Hofstede's model for cultural differences: if you want to advertise cell phones in China, you may show a collective experience whereas in the United States you may show how an individual uses it to save time and money.
The variety of application of Hofstede's abstract theory is so wide that it has even been translated in the field of web designing in which you have to adapt to national preferences according to cultures' values.
Incorporating Hofstede's Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) into international marketing, particularly in the travel and tourism sector, helps in crafting culturally congruent strategies. For regions exhibiting high UAI, tourism promotions could focus on structured travel experiences like guided tours and fixed itineraries to appeal to the local preference for predictability. Conversely, in low UAI cultures, advertisements may showcase more spontaneous and flexible travel options, catering to their comfort with ambiguity. This application of Hofstede's research ensures that marketing messages align with cultural norms, potentially increasing their effectiveness.
International transportation
The application of Hofstede's cultural dimensions extends to the field of international transportation, influencing how transportation systems cater to urban travel behaviors. The Individualism/Collectivism scale is particularly insightful in this context. In societies that lean towards individualism, there is a tendency to design urban planning frameworks that favor the use of personal vehicles, often resulting in the development of expansive road networks. On the other hand, collectivist societies tend to prioritize the establishment of public transportation networks that facilitate group travel. By incorporating an understanding of these cultural tendencies, urban planners and policymakers can create transportation infrastructures that are not only efficient but also culturally attuned. This approach is instrumental for cities aiming to enhance traffic flow and mitigate congestion, ensuring that the transportation systems reflect the societal values and preferences.
Limitations of Hofstede's model
Even though Hofstede's model is generally accepted as the most comprehensive framework of national cultures' values by those studying business culture, its validity and its limitations have been extensively criticized.
The most cited critique is McSweeney. Hofstede replied to that critique and McSweeney responded. Also Ailon deconstructed Hofstede's book Culture's Consequences by mirroring it against its own assumptions and logic. Ailon finds inconsistencies at the level of both theory and methodology and cautions against an uncritical reading of Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Hofstede replied to that critique and Ailon responded.
Questionable choice of national level
Aside from Hofstede's six cultural dimensions, there are other factors on which culture can be analyzed. There are other levels for assessing culture besides the level of the nation-state. These levels are overlooked often because of the nature of the construction of these levels. There is sampling discrepancy that disqualifies the survey from being authoritative on organizations, or societies, or nations as the interviews involved sales and engineering personnel with few, if any, women and undoubtedly fewer social minorities participating (Moussetes, 2007). Even if country indices were used to control for wealth, latitude, population size, density and growth; privileged males working as engineers or sales personnel in one of the elite organizations of the world, pioneering one of the first multinational projects in history, cannot be claimed to represent their nations.
Individual level: cultural dimensions versus individual personalities
Hofstede acknowledges that the cultural dimensions he identified, as culture and values, are social constructions, which are the ideas in the world developed by people, and can differ between the different groups and change as time goes by(Burr & Dick, 2017). They are tools meant to be used in practical applications. Generalizations about one country’s culture are helpful, but they have to be regarded just as guidelines, and they do not necessarily apply to everyone. They are group-level dimensions which describe national averages which apply to the population in its entirety. For example, a Japanese person can be very comfortable in changing situations whereas on average, Japanese people have high uncertainty avoidance. There are still exceptions to the rule. Hofstede's theory can be contrasted with its equivalence at individual level: the trait theory about human personality.
Variations on the typologies of collectivism and individualism have been proposed (Triandis, 1995; Gouveia and Ros, 2000). Self-expression and individualism usually increase with economic growth (Inglehart, 1997) independent of any culture, and can help small populations faced with outside competition for resources. (Some examples do exist of collectivist cultures that experienced rapid economic growth yet held on to their collectivist culture, such as the citizens of United Arab Emirates "United Arab Emirates Hofstede Insights". Retrieved 8 June 2020. and other GCC nations). Entitled individuals in positions of power embrace autonomy even if they live in a "collective" culture. Therefore, they might not really inform us at all about any particular organizational dynamic, nor do they inform about the organizational and individual variations within similar socio-economic circumstances. Individual aggregate needs careful separation from nation aggregate (Smith et al., 2008). Whereas individuals are the basic subject of psychological analysis (Smith, 2004), the socialization of individuals and their interaction with society is a matter to be studied at the level of families, peers, neighborhoods, schools, cities, and nations each with its own statistical imprint of culture (Smith, 2004). S. Schwartz controlled his theory “Schwartz theory of basic values,” which indicates that ten personal values are influenced by individual’s inner motivation(Schwartz, 2022), with GNP and a social index, leading to his proposal of differentiated individual and nation indices of itemized values (Schwartz, 1992; 1994) for cross-cultural comparison. The assumed "isomorphism of constructs" has been central to deciding how to use and understand culture in the managerial sciences (Van de Vijver et al. 2008; Fischer, 2009). As no individual can create his/her discourse and sense-making process in isolation to the rest of society, individuals are poor candidates for cultural sense-making. Postmodern criticism rejects the possibility of any self-determining individual because the unitary, personal self is an illusion of contemporary society evidenced by the necessary reproductions and simulations in language and behavior that individuals engage in to sustain membership in any society (Baudrillard, 1983; Alvesson & Deetz, 2006).
Organizational level
Within and across countries, individuals are also parts of organizations such as companies. Hofstede acknowledges that "the […] dimensions of national cultures are not relevant for comparing organizations within the same country". In contrast with national cultures embedded in values, organizational cultures are embedded in practices.
From 1985 to 1987, Hofstede's institute IRIC (Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation) has conducted a separate research project in order to study organizational culture. Including 20 organizational units in two countries (Denmark and the Netherlands), six different dimensions of practices, or communities of practice have been identified:
Process-Oriented vs. Results-Oriented
Employee-Oriented vs. Job-Oriented
Parochial vs. Professional
Open System vs. Closed System
Loose Control vs. Tight Control
Pragmatic vs. Normative
Managing international organizations involves understanding both national and organizational cultures. Communities of practice across borders are significant for multinationals in order to hold the company together.
Occupational level
Within the occupational level, there is a certain degree of values and convictions that people hold with respect to the national and organizational cultures they are part of. The culture of management as an occupation has components from national and organizational cultures. This is an important distinction from the organizational level.
Gender level
When describing culture, gender differences are largely not taken into consideration. However, there are certain factors that are useful to analyze in the discussion of cross-cultural communication. According to Hofstede's model, men's culture differs greatly from women's culture within each society. Although men and women can often perform the same duties from a technical standpoint, there are often situations to which each gender has a different response. In situations where one gender responds in an alternative manner to their prescribed roles, the other sex may not even accept their deviant gender role. The level of reactions experienced by people exposed to foreign cultures can be compared similarly to the reactions of gender behaviors of the opposite sex. The degree of gender differentiation in a country depends primarily on the culture within that nation and its history.
Hofstede's masculine-feminine dichotomy divides organizations into those exhibiting either compassion, solidarity, collectivism and universalism, or competition, autonomy, merit, results and responsibility. The bipolar model follows typical distinctions made between liberal or socialist political philosophy for Hofstede. Although liberal economies value assertiveness, autonomy, materialism, aggression, money, competition and rationalism, welfare socialism seeks protection and provision for the weak, greater involvement with the environment, an emphasis on nature and well-being, and a strong respect for quality of life and collective responsibilities. According to Gilligan, this dimension is eurocentric and sexist. During the period of Hofstede's study, 'masculine' societies (USA, Japan, Germany) happened to be the most successful economically, while the successful 'feminine' societies (Scandinavia, Costa Rica, France, Thailand) had smaller populations, less economic scale, and/or strong collective or welfare philosophies.
See also
Cross-cultural communication
Cultural relativism
GLOBE study on Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness
Intercultural communication
Group cohesiveness
National character studies
Trompenaars's model of national culture differences
Uncertainty reduction theory
References
Further reading
, Read it
Alvesson, M. & Deetz, S. (2006). Critical Theory and Postmodernism Approaches to Organizational Studies. In S. Clegg, C. Hardy, T. Lawrence, W. Nord (Eds.). The Sage Handbook of Organization Studies (2nd ed). London: Sage, 255–283.
Coelho, D. A. (2011). A study on the relation between manufacturing strategy, company size, country culture and product and process innovation in Europe. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 7(2), 152–165.
Fischer, R. (2009). Where is Culture in Cross-Cultural Research?: An Outline of a Multilevel Research Process for Measuring Culture as a Shared Meaning System. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 9: 25–48.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Inglehart, Ronald (1997). Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Inglehart, Ronald & Miguel Basanez, Jaime Diez-Medrano, Loek Halman and Ruud Luijkx (2004) (eds.) Human Beliefs and Values: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook based on the 1999–2002 values surveys. Mexico, Siglo Beintiuno editors.
Moussetes, A. (2007). The absence of women's voices in Hofstede's Cultural Consequences: A postcolonial reading. Women in Management Review, 22, 443–445.
Schwartz, S.H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In M.Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, New York: Academic Press, 25, 1–65.
Schwartz S.H. (1994). Beyond Individualism and Collectivism: New Cultural Dimensions of Values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S., Choi, C. & Yoon, G. (Eds.), Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Method and application. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, 85–119.
Schwartz, S.H. (2007). Value Orientations: Measurement, Antecedents and Consequences across Nations. In J. Jowell, C. Roberts, R. Fitzgerald, G. Eva (Eds.), Measuring Attitudes Cross-Nationally: Lessons from the European Social Survey. London: Sage.
Smith, P.B. (2004). Nations, Cultures and Individuals : New Perspectives on Old Dilemmas. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 6–12.
Smith, P. (2008). Indigenous Aspects of Management. In P. Smith, Peterson, M., Thomas, D. (Eds.), The Handbook of Cross-Cultural Management Research. Sage, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, 319–332.
Smith, P., Peterson, M., Thomas, D. (Eds.). (2008). The Handbook of Cross-Cultural Management Research. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.
Triandis, H.C. (1995). Individualism and Collectivism. Boulder CO: Westview Press.
Van de Vijver, F.J.R., van Hemert, D.A., Poortinga, Y.H. (Eds.). (2008). Individuals and Cultures in Multilevel Analysis. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
External links
Geert Hofstede's academic website
The Hofstede Centre
Cross-cultural psychology
Organizational culture | 0.769028 | 0.998801 | 0.768106 |
Cultural history | Cultural history records and interprets past events involving human beings through the social, cultural, and political milieu of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors. Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) helped found cultural history as a discipline. Cultural history studies and interprets the record of human societies by denoting the various distinctive ways of living built up by a group of people under consideration. Cultural history involves the aggregate of past cultural activity, such as ceremony, class in practices, and the interaction with locales. It combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience.
Description
Many current cultural historians claim it to be a new approach, but cultural history was already referred to by nineteenth-century historians, notably the Swiss scholar of Renaissance history Jacob Burckhardt.
Cultural history overlaps in its approaches with the French movements of histoire des mentalités (Philippe Poirrier, 2004) and the so-called new history, and in the U.S. it is closely associated with the field of American studies. As originally conceived and practiced in the 19th century by Burckhardt, in relation to the Italian Renaissance, cultural history was oriented to the study of a particular historical period in its entirety, with regard not only to its painting, sculpture, and architecture, but to the economic basis underpinning society, and to the social institutions of its daily life. Echoes of Burkhardt's approach in the 20th century can be seen in Johan Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages (1919).
Most often the focus is on phenomena shared by non-elite groups in a society, such as: carnival, festival, and public rituals; performance traditions of tale, epic, and other verbal forms; cultural evolutions in human relations (ideas, sciences, arts, techniques); and cultural expressions of social movements such as nationalism. Cultural history also examines main historical concepts as power, ideology, class, culture, cultural identity, attitude, race, perception and new historical methods as narration of body. Many studies consider adaptations of traditional culture to mass media (television, radio, newspapers, magazines, posters, etc.), from print to film and, now, to the Internet (culture of capitalism). Its modern approaches come from art history, Annales, Marxist school, microhistory and new cultural history.
Common theoretical touchstones for recent cultural history have included: Jürgen Habermas's formulation of the public sphere in The Structural Transformation of the Bourgeois Public Sphere; Clifford Geertz's notion of 'thick description' (expounded in The Interpretation of Cultures); and the idea of memory as a cultural-historical category, as discussed in Paul Connerton's How Societies Remember.
Historiography and the French Revolution
The area where new-style cultural history is often pointed to as being almost a paradigm is the "revisionist" history of the French Revolution, dated somewhere since François Furet's massively influential 1978 essay Interpreting the French Revolution. The "revisionist interpretation" is often characterized as replacing the allegedly dominant, allegedly Marxist, "social interpretation" which locates the causes of the Revolution in class dynamics. The revisionist approach has tended to put more emphasis on "political culture". Reading ideas of political culture through Habermas' conception of the public sphere, historians of the Revolution in the past few decades have looked at the role and position of cultural themes such as gender, ritual, and ideology in the context of pre-revolutionary French political culture.
Historians who might be grouped under this umbrella are Roger Chartier, Robert Darnton, Patrice Higonnet, Lynn Hunt, Keith Baker, Joan Landes, Mona Ozouf, and Sarah Maza. Of course, these scholars all pursue fairly diverse interests, and perhaps too much emphasis has been placed on the paradigmatic nature of the new history of the French Revolution. Colin Jones, for example, is no stranger to cultural history, Habermas, or Marxism, and has persistently argued that the Marxist interpretation is not dead, but can be revivified; after all, Habermas' logic was heavily indebted to a Marxist understanding. Meanwhile, Rebecca Spang has also recently argued that for all its emphasis on difference and newness, the 'revisionist' approach retains the idea of the French Revolution as a watershed in the history of (so-called) modernity and that the problematic notion of modernity has itself attracted scant attention.
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic discipline popular among a diverse group of scholars. It combines political economy, geography, sociology, social theory, literary theory, film/video studies, cultural anthropology, philosophy, and art history/criticism to study cultural phenomena in various societies. Cultural studies researchers often concentrate on how a particular phenomenon relates to matters of ideology, nationality, ethnicity, social class, and/or gender. The term was coined by Richard Hoggart in 1964 when he founded the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. It has since become strongly associated with Stuart Hall, who succeeded Hoggart as Director.
Cultural history in popular culture
The BBC has produced and broadcast a number of educational television programmes on different aspects of human cultural history: in 1969 Civilisation, in 1973 The Ascent of Man, in 1985 The Triumph of the West and in 2012 Andrew Marr's History of the World.
See also
Collective unconscious
Ethnohistory
History of mentalities
Human history
References
Further reading
Arcangeli, Alessandro. (2011) Cultural History: A Concise Introduction (Routledge, 2011)
Burke, Peter. (2004). What is Cultural History?. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Cook, James W., et al. The Cultural Turn in U. S. History: Past, Present, and Future (2009) excerpt; 14 topical essays by scholars
Ginzburg "challenges us all to retrieve a cultural and social world that more conventional history does not record." -Back Cover
Green, Anna. (2008). Cultural History. Theory and History. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Hérubel, Jean-Pierre V.M. (2010, January). "Observations on an Emergent Specialization: Contemporary French Cultural History. Significance for Scholarship." Journal of Scholarly Publishing 41#2 pp. 216–240.
Kelly, Michael. "Le regard de l'étranger: What French cultural studies bring to French cultural history." French Cultural Studies (2014) 25#3–4 pp: 253–261.
Kırlı, Cengiz. "From Economic History to Cultural History in Ottoman Studies." International Journal of Middle East Studies (2014) 46#2 pp: 376–378.
Laqueur, Walter, ed. Weimar: A cultural history (Routledge, 2017); Germany in 1920s.
McCaffery, Peter Gabriel, and Ben Marsden, eds. The Cultural History Reader (Routledge, 2014)
Melching, W., & Velema, W. (1994). Main trends in cultural history: ten essays. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Moore, Alison M. "Historicising Historical Theory's History of Cultural Historiography" . Cosmos & History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 12 (1), February 2016, 257–291.
Moore, Alison, "What Became of Cultural Historicism in the French Reclamation of Strasbourg After World War One?" French History and Civilization 5, 2014, 1–15
Morris, I. Archaeology as Cultural History: Words and Things in Iron Age Greece. (Blackwell Publishing, 1999).
Munslow, Alun. Deconstructing History (Routledge, 1997). .
Picón-Salas, Mariano. A cultural history of Spanish America (U of California Press, 2020).
Poirrier, Philippe (2004), Les Enjeux de l'histoire culturelle, Seuil.
Poster, M. (1997). Cultural history and postmodernity: disciplinary readings and challenges. New York: Columbia University Press.
Rickard, John. Australia: A cultural history (Monash University Publishing, 2017).
Rietbergen, Peter. Europe: a cultural history (Routledge, 2020).
Ritter, H. Dictionary of concepts in history. (Greenwood Press, 1986)
Salmi, H. "Cultural History, the Possible, and the Principle of Plenitude." History and Theory 50 (May 2011), 171–187.
Schlereth, T. J. Cultural history and material culture: everyday life, landscapes, museums. American material culture and folklife. (Ann Arbor, Mich: UMI Research Press, 1990).
Schwarz, Georg, Kulturexperimente im Altertum, Berlin: SI Symposion, 2010.
Spang, Rebecca. (2008). "Paradigms and Paranoia: how modern is the French Revolution?" American Historical Review, in JSTOR
Van Young, Eric. "The New Cultural History Comes to Old Mexico." in Writing Mexican History (Stanford UP, 2020) pp. 223–264.
External links
International Society for Cultural History
Web Portal on Historical Culture and Historiography
Cultural history
Cultural studies
Fields of history | 0.774676 | 0.99141 | 0.768021 |
Culture of Asia | The culture of Asia encompasses the collective and diverse customs and traditions of art, architecture, music, literature, lifestyle, philosophy, food, politics and religion that have been practiced and maintained by the numerous ethnic groups of the continent of Asia since prehistory. Identification of a specific culture of Asia or universal elements among the colossal diversity that has emanated from multiple cultural spheres and three of the four ancient River valley civilizations is complicated. However, the continent is commonly divided into six geographic sub-regions, that are characterized by perceivable commonalities, like culture, religion, language and relative ethnic homogeneity. These regions are Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Asia.
As the largest, most populous continent and rich in resources, Asia is home to several of the world's oldest civilizations, that produced the majority of the great religious systems, the oldest known recorded myths and codices on ethics and morality.
However, Asia's enormous size separates the various civilizations by great distances and hostile environments, such as deserts and mountain ranges. Yet by challenging and overcoming these distances, trade and commerce gradually developed a truly universal, Pan-Asian character. Inter-regional trade was the driving and cohesive force, by which cultural elements and ideas spread to the various sub-regions, via the vast road network and the many sea routes.
History
Multiple cultural regions
Asia's various modern cultural and religious spheres correspond roughly with the principal centers of civilization.
West Asia (or Southwest Asia as Ian Morrison puts it, or sometimes referred to as the Middle East) has their cultural roots in the pioneering civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia, spawning the Persian, Arab, Ottoman empires, as well as the Abrahamic religions of Judaism and later Islam. According to Morrison, in his book Why the West Rules--For Now, these original civilizations of the Hilly Flanks are so far (by archaeological evidence) the oldest (first evidence of farming c9000 BC). The Hilly flanks is also the birthplace of his definition of the west (which groups the Middle East with Europe). According to his definition this would make Asia the origin of western culture. Not everybody agrees with him though.
South Asia, India and the Indosphere emanate from the Indus Valley civilisation.
The East Asian cultural sphere developed from the Yellow River civilization. Southeast Asia's migration waves of more varied ethnic groups are relatively recent. Commercial interaction with South Asia eventually lead to the adoption of culture from India and China (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism). The region later absorbed influences from Islam as well, and the Malays are currently the largest Islamic population in the world. North Asia's (otherwise known as Siberia) harsh climate and unfavorable soil proved to be unsuited to permanently support large urban settlements and only permits the presence of a pastoral and nomadic population, spread over large areas. Nonetheless, North Asian religious and spiritual traditions eventually diffused into more comprehensive systems such as Tibetan Buddhism that developed its own unique characteristics (e.g. Mongolian Buddhism). For these reasons it is becoming more unconventional to separate it from the rest of East Asian cultures.
Central Asia has also absorbed influences from both West Asia and East Asia (including Persia and Mongolia), making it another melting pot of cultures.
The cultural spheres are not mutually disjoint and can even overlap, representing the innate diversity and syncretism of human cultures and historical influences.
East Asia
The term East Asian cultural sphere defines the common cultural sphere of China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea in East Asia and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. Ethnic and linguistic similarities, shared artistic traditions, written language and moral values suggest that most East Asian people are descendants of the Yellow River civilization, that emerged in the flood plains of northern China around 10.000 years B.P. People within this sphere are sometimes referred to as East Eurasian, and the major languages of this region (including Sino-Tibetan, Austroasiatic, Altaic, Austronesian, Kra-Dai) are thought to have originated from regions in China (see East Asian cultural sphere#historical linguistics).
Historically, China occupied the prominent, central role in East Asia for a long time in recorded history, as it "deeply influenced the culture of the peripheral countries and also drew them into a "China-centered" [...] international order", that was briefly interrupted by the 20th century. Nations within its orbit from Central Asia to Southeast Asia paid to the Chinese tributary system (also see List of tributaries of China). The Imperial Chinese Tributary System is based on the Confucian religious and philosophical idea of submission to celestial harmony was also recognized by nations beyond, in Southeast Asia in particular. Ceremonies were presided over by the Emperor of China as the Son of Heaven and curator of the Mandate of Heaven. In elaborate ceremonies both, the tributary state and the various Chinese dynasties agreed to mutually favorable economic co-operation and beneficial security policies.
Some of defining East Asian cultural characteristics are the Chinese language and traditional writings systems of Hanzi as well as shared religious and ethical ideas, that are represented by the Three teachings Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The Chinese script is one of the oldest continuously used writing systems in the world, and has been a major unifying force and medium for conveying Chinese culture in East Asia. Classical Chinese was the literary language of elites and bureaucrats. Historically used throughout the region, it is still in use by Chinese diaspora communities around the world, as well as in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and pockets of Southeast Asia.
However, as Chinese writing concepts were passed on to Korea, Japan and Vietnam, these nations developed their own characteristic writing systems to complement Hanzi. Vietnam invented their own Chữ Nôm glyphs, Japan invented Kana, and Korea invented their own alphabet Hangul. To this day, Vietnam mostly writes in Chữ Quốc ngữ (a modified Latin alphabet) but there is also a resurgence of Hán-Nôm (a type of writing that combines both Chữ Hán and Chữ Nôm) as well. Sino cognates compose a vast majority of the vocabulary of these languages (see Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary, Sino-Korean vocabulary, Sino-Japanese vocabulary). In the 20th century, China has also re-borrowed terms from Japan to represent western concepts known as Wasei-kango.
Apart from the unifying influence of Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese characters and numerous other Chinese cultural influences, East Asian national customs, architecture, literature, cuisines, traditional music, performing arts and crafts also have developed from many independent and local concepts, they have grown and diversified as many rank among the most refined expressions of aesthetic, artistic and philosophical ideas in the world. Notable among others are Japanese gardens and landscape planning, Heian literature, Vietnamese Water puppetry and the artifacts of the Đông Sơn culture. Modern research has also focused on the several nations pivotal role on the collective body of East Asian Buddhism and the Korean influence on Japanese culture as well as Japanese influence on Korean culture.
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia divides into Mainland Southeast Asia, that encompasses Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and West Malaysia, and Maritime Southeast Asia, that includes Indonesia, East Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Christmas Island. At the crossroads of the Indian and East Asian maritime trade routes since around 500 B.C., the region has been greatly influenced by the culture of India and China. Most of the influence of India came in the era of the Chola dynasty spreading Tamil and Hindu cultures across present south east Asian countries and even expanding and establishing Hindu kingdoms in the region. The term Indianised Kingdoms is a designation for numerous Southeast Asian political units, that had to a varying degree adopted most aspects of India's statecraft, administration, art, epigraphy, writing and architecture. The religions Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam gradually diffused into local cosmology. Nonetheless, the Southeast Asian nations have very diversely adapted to these cultural stimuli and evolved their distinct sophisticated expression in lifestyle, the visual arts and most notably in architectural accomplishments, such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Borobudur in Indonesia.
Buddhist culture has a lasting and significant impact in mainland Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam); most Buddhists in Indochina practice Theravada Buddhism. In the case of Vietnam, it is also influenced much by Confucianism and the culture of China. Myanmar has also been exposed to Indian cultural influences. Before the 14th century, Hinduism and Buddhism were the dominant religions of Southeast Asia. Thereafter, Islam became dominant in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Southeast Asia has also had a lot of Western influence due to the lasting legacy of colonialism. One example is the Philippines which has been heavily influenced by the United States and Spain, with Christianity (Catholicism) as the dominant religion. East Timor also demonstrates Portuguese influence through colonialism, as is also a predominantly Christian nation.
A common feature found around the region are stilt houses. These houses are elevated on stilts so that water can easily pass below them in case of a flood. Another shared feature is rice paddy agriculture, which originated in Southeast Asia thousands of years ago. Dance drama is also a very important feature of the culture, utilizing movements of the hands and feet perfected over thousands of years. Furthermore, the arts and literature of Southeast Asia is very distinctive as some have been influenced by Indian (Hindu), Chinese, Buddhist, and Islamic literature.
South Asia
Evidence of Neolithic culture has been found throughout the modern states Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka that represent South Asia (also known as the Indian subcontinent). Since 3,300 B.C. in modern-day northeastern Afghanistan, in Pakistan and northwestern India a sophisticated Bronze Age cultural tradition emerged, that after only a few centuries fully flourished in urban centers. Due to the high quality of its arts, crafts, metallurgy and buildings, the accomplishments in urban planning, governance, trade and technology etc. it has been classified as one of the principal Cradles of civilization. Referred to as the Indus Valley civilisation or Harappan Civilisation it thrived for almost 2.000 years until the onset of the Vedic period (c. 1500 – c. 600 B.C.). The great significance of the Vedic texts (that don't mention cities or urban life) for South Asian culture, their impact on family, societal organisation, religion, morale, literature etc. has never been contested. The Indus Valley Civilisation on the other hand has only come to light by means of 20th century archaeology. Scholars, who employ several periodization models argue over whether South Asian tradition is consciously committed to the Harappan culture.
Declining climatic conditions, (aridification) and population displacement (Indo-Aryan migration) are regarded as to have caused the fatal disruption of the Harappa culture, that was superseded by the rural Vedic culture.
Following the Indo-Aryan settlement in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the establishment of the characteristic social groups (Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras) in the caste system based on the Jāti model in the Varna order, the tribal entities variously consolidated into oligarchic chiefdoms or kingdoms (the 16 Mahajanapadas), beginning in the sixth century B.C. The late Vedic political progress results in urbanization, strict social hierarchy, commercial and military rivalries among the settlers, that have spread all over the entire sub-continent. The large body of Vedic texts and literature, supported by the archaeological sequence allows researchers to reconstruct a rather accurate and detailed image of the Vedic culture and political organisation. The Vedas constitute the oldest work of Sanskrit literature and form the basis of religious, ethic and philosophic ideas in South Asia. They are widely, but not exclusively regarded the basics and scriptural authority on worship, rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge for the future Hindu and Buddhist cosmology. Commentaries and discussions also focus on the development of valid political ideas and concepts of societal progress and ethic conformity.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are major religions of South Asia. After a long and complex history of cosmological and religious development, adoption and decline, the Hindu-synthesis and the late but thorough introduction of Islam about 80% of modern-day Indians and Nepalis identify as Hindus. In Sri Lanka and Bhutan most people adhere to various forms of Buddhism. Islam is the predominant religion in Afghanistan, the Maldives (99%), Pakistan (96%) and Bangladesh (90%).
Afghanistan and Pakistan are situated at the western periphery of South Asia, where the cultural character has been made by both the Indosphere and Persia. Pakistan is split with its two western regions of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sharing a greater Iranic heritage due to the native Pashtuns and Baloch people of the regions. Its two eastern regions of Punjab and Sindh share cultural links to Northwest India. Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal share a common heritage and culture based on the Bengali language. The Culture of India is diverse and a complex mixture of many influences. Nepal is culturally linked to both India and Tibet and the varied ethnic groups of the country share many of the festivals and cultural traditions used and celebrated in North and East India and Tibet. Nepali, the dominant language of Nepal uses the Devanagari alphabet which is also used to write many North Indian languages. Bhutan is a culturally linked to Tibet and India. Tibetan Buddhism is the dominant religion in Bhutan and the Tibetan alphabet is used to write Dzongkha, the dominant language of Bhutan. There is a cultural and linguistic divide between North and South India. Sri Lanka is culturally tied to both India and Southeast Asia. Sinhala, the dominant language in the country is written in Sinhala script which is derived from the Kadamba-Pallava alphabet, certain cultural traditions, and aspects of its cuisine, for example, show South Indian influences. Cultural festivals, aspects of its cuisine and Theravada Buddhism, the dominant religion in Sri Lanka, show a Southeast Asian affinity.
Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sinhala of Sri Lanka and most of North, West and East India and Nepal. Dravidian languages namely Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam languages are spoken across South India and in Sri Lanka by the Tamil community. Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in Nepal, Bhutan, and North & North East India. Iranic Languages are spoken in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in PakistanThe main languages of Afghanistan are Pashto and Dari.
Central Asia
Central Asia, in between the Caspian Sea and East Asia, envelops five former Soviet Socialist Republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. However, Afghanistan is sometimes included. Its strategic and historic position around the east–west axis and the major trading routes such as the Silk Road has made it a theatre a steady exchange of ideas and east–west conflicts such as the Battle of Talas. The region was conquered and dominated by a variety of cultures, such as the Chinese, Greeks, Mongols, Persians, Tatars, Russians, and Sarmatians. As some Central Asian areas have been inhabited by nomadic people, numerous urban centers have developed in a distinct local character.
This region was mainly dominated by Russians in the Soviet era and even after its dissolution in 1991. Even now the region is dominated by them.
North Asia
For the most part, North Asia (more widely known as Siberia) is considered to be made up of the Asian part of Russia solely. The geographic region of Siberia was the historical land of the Tatars in the Siberia Khanate. However Russian expansion essentially undermined this and thus today it is under Russian rule. Other ethnic groups that inhabit Siberia include the Buryats, Evenks, and Yakuts. There are roughly 40 million people living in North Asia and the majority consists now of Ethnic Russians. However, many East Asians also inhabit the region, and historically they have been the majority before Russia's expansion east.
West Asia
West Asia must be distinguished from the Middle East, a more recent Eurocentric term, that also includes parts of Northern Africa. West Asia consists of Turkey, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen. Cyprus is frequently considered to be part of the region but it has ethnic and cultural ties to Europe as well. The Israelite/Jewish civilization of the Fertile Crescent would have a profound impact on the rest of West Asia, giving birth to the 3 Abrahamic faiths. In addition, the Jewish origins of Christianity, along with the many cultural contributions from both Jews and Arabs in Europe, meant that West Asian culture had left a lasting impact on Western civilization as well. Other indigenous West Asian religions include Zoroastrianism, Yazidism, Alevism, Druze and the Baháʼí Faith.
Today, almost 93% of West Asia's inhabitants are Muslim and is characterized by political Islamic, with the exception of Israel, a Jewish state. At its north-western end, Armenia and Georgia have an unmistakable Christian tradition, while Lebanon shares a large Christian and a large Muslim community. Ethnically, the region is dominated by Arab, Persian, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, and Turkish people. Among them smaller indigenous groups are the Jews, Assyrians, Druze, Samaritans, Yazidis and Mandeans. Many Middle Eastern countries encompass huge deserts where nomadic people live to this day. In great contrast, modern cities like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Amman, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Doha and Muscat have developed on the coastal lands of the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and at the periphery of the Arabian Desert.
West Asian cuisine is immensely rich and diverse. The literature is also immensely rich with Arabic, Jewish, Persian, and Turkish dominating.
Architecture
Asia is home to countless grandiose and iconic historic constructions, usually religious structures, castles and fortifications or palaces. However, after several millennia, many of the greatest buildings have been destroyed or dismantled such as the Ziggurats of Mesopotamia, most of the Great Wall of China, Greek and Hellenistic temples or the royal cities of Persia.
China
Chinese architecture has taken shape in East Asia over many centuries as the structural principles have remained largely unchanged, the main changes being only the decorative details. An important feature in Chinese architecture is its emphasis on articulation and bilateral symmetry, which signifies balance. Bilateral symmetry and the articulation of buildings are found everywhere in China, from palace complexes to humble farmhouses. Since the Tang dynasty, Chinese architecture has had a major influence on the architectural styles of Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.
India
Indian architecture is that vast tapestry of production of the Indian Subcontinent that encompasses a multitude of expressions over space and time, transformed by the forces of history considered unique to the sub-continent, sometimes destroying, but most of the time absorbing. The result is an evolving range of architectural production that nonetheless retains a certain amount of continuity across history. Being few architectures brought by Mughals in Northern India. Dravidian architecture in Southern India flourished under chola's, vijayanagara, satavahana and many other south India's flourished kingdoms until the Mughals occupation and followed by Britishers in India.
Korea
Korean architecture refers to an architectural style that developed over centuries in Korea. Just like in the case of other Korean arts, architecture tends to be naturalistic, favors simplicity, avoids the extremes and is economical with shapes.
Indonesia
The Indonesian architecture reflects the diversity of cultural, historical and geographic influences that have shaped Indonesia as a whole. It ranges from native vernacular architecture, Hindu-Buddhist temples, colonial architecture, to modern architecture.
Indonesian vernacular architecture is called rumah adat. The houses hold social significance in society and demonstrate local ingenuity in their relations to environment and spatial organisation. Notable examples include Rumah Gadang, Tongkonan, Balinese houses and Javanese Joglo. Hindu-Buddhist temple monument called candi, with the best example are Borobudur massive stone mandala-stupa and Prambanan Hindu temple dedicated to Trimurti gods. By the 16th century, the Portuguese followed by the Dutch colonize Indonesian archipelago, and developed European architecture technique and developed colonial architecture.
Japan
Japanese architecture is distinctive in that it reflects a deep ″understanding of the natural world as a source of spiritual insight and an instructive mirror of human emotion″. Attention to aesthetics and the surroundings is given, natural materials are preferred and artifice is generally being avoided. Impressive wooden castles and temples, some of them 2000 years old, stand embedded in the natural contours of the local topography. Notable examples include the Hōryū Temple complex (6th century), Himeji Castle (14th century), Hikone Castle (17th century) and Osaka Castle.
The architecture of any country is a marker of its culture, history and tradition. The materials used, the shape, the lines, curves and colours all come together to present a masterpiece that is unique and beautiful. Vietnamese architecture is no different. From vernacular stilt houses to extravagant palaces and concrete towers, the country's building is an ode to its rich past and its promising future.
Nepal
Vietnam
Traditional houses in Vietnam were characterized by wooden structures topped by steep roofs. The roofs would be covered with fish-scale tiles and curve outwards, while beams and rafters held up the main building. In some places, stilt houses were built and the houses usually had an odd number of rooms. However, the coming of various dynasties shaped cultural landmarks in the country in different ways. Palaces, pagodas and citadels flourished in Vietnam for over 500 years.
The Lý dynasty of the 11th century, for example, was deeply influenced by Buddhism and incorporated intricate reliefs and motifs into their architecture. In 1031, a staggering 950 pagodas were constructed by the reigning monarch Lý Thái Tông. During this period, rounded statues, door-steps, decorated roofs and bannisters were common features of Vietnamese architecture. The Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long, a UNESCO world heritage site now, is a must-visit for tourists looking to experience Vietnamese heritage up close. Located in present-day Hanoi, the citadel was the political Centre of the region for 13 centuries consecutively and will delight history buffs in particular. This magnificent structure is a fine example of Vietnamese architecture from the medieval era.
Trần dynasty, which gained a foothold in the 13th century, brought its own set of beliefs and customs that made its mark in Vietnam's architectural history. Buildings became more complex and demarcated, and gardens became a part of temples and places of worship. Tower-temples also emerged at this time; The Phổ Bình Tower in Nam Định province and Bình Sơn Tower in Vĩnh Phúc province are relics from the Trần dynasty.
Malay Peninsula
Various cultural influences, notably Chinese, Indian and Europeans, played a major role in forming Malay architecture. Until recent time, wood was the principal material used for all Malay traditional buildings. However, numerous stone structures were also discovered particularly the religious complexes from the time of Srivijaya and ancient isthmian Malay kingdoms.
West Asia
The ancient architecture of the region of the Tigris–Euphrates River system dates back to the 10th millennium BC and lead to the development of urban planning, the courtyard house, and ziggurats. The basic and dominant building material was the mudbrick, which is still in use in the region for the construction of residential structures. Kiln-burnt bricks were coated with a vitreous enamel for purposes of decoration and bitumen functioned as cement. Palaces or temples were constructed on terraces as rooms usually grouped round quadrangles, with large doorways and the roofs rested on richly ornamented columns.
Art
Middle Eastern dance has various styles and has spread to the West in the form known as bellydancing. In the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, bhangra dance is very popular. The bhangra is a celebration of the harvest. The people dance to the beat of a drum while singing and dancing.
In Southeast Asia, dance is an integral part of the culture; the styles of dance vary from region to region and island to island. Traditional styles of dance have evolved in Thailand and Burma. The Philippines have their own styles of dance such as Cariñosa and Tinikling; during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines, practitioners of Filipino martial arts hid fighting movements into their dances to keep the art alive despite the fact that it was banned by the occupiers.
Martial arts
Martial arts figure prominently in many Asian cultures, and the first known traces of martial arts date from the Xia dynasty of ancient China from over 4000 years ago. Some of the best known styles of martial arts in the world were developed in East Asia, such as Karate from Okinawa, Judo from Japan, Taekwondo from Korea and the various styles of Chinese martial arts known collectively as kung fu. Ancient India was home to many martial arts that were mentioned in the Vedas such as Khadgavidya, Dhanurvidya, Gadayuddha, and Malla-yuddha. These various martial arts and communities flourished after the Vedic period. Many other styles of martial arts originated in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian boxing from Indochina, Vovinam from Vietnam, Arnis from the Philippines, and Pencak Silat from Indonesia. In addition, popular styles of wrestling have originated in Turkey and Mongolia.
Development of Asian martial arts continues today as newer styles are created. Modern hybrid martial arts systems such as Jeet Kune Do and Krav Maga often incorporate techniques from traditional East Asian martial arts. Asian martial arts are highly popular in the Western world and many have become international sports. Karate alone has 50 million practitioners worldwide.
Cinema
Cinema is prominent in South Asia, where the Bollywood (representing the most-spoken language in the region of Hindi) and South Indian film industries vie for dominance. Pakistan's Lollywood also is growing, while historically, Bengali cinema was highly acclaimed by international film circles, with the movies of Satyajit Ray still praised today.
China's cinema has grown in recent decades, with the country also influencing the content of Hollywood productions by virtue of its large market. Hong Kong cinema was historically very influential, with kung fu films a major cultural export of the city for decades.
Japanese and Korean productions have become very popular recently; Japanese anime and manga have supplemented each other and become a part of world culture, while Korean films, dramas, and music (K-pop) have grown with much support from the Korean government. The 2019 Korean film Parasite was the first Asian film to win an Academy Award.
Languages
Asia is a continent with great linguistic diversity, and is home to various language families and many language isolates. In fact, Asia contains almost every major language family except the Bantu languages. A majority of Asian countries have more than one language that is natively spoken. For instance, according to Ethnologue over 600 languages are spoken in Indonesia while over 100 are spoken in the Philippines. The census of India of 2001 recorded 30 languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000 people, with hundreds of other, smaller languages. Korea, on the other hand, is home to only one language.
The main languages found in Asia, along with examples of each, are:
Afro-Asiatic: Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew
Altaic languages (not accepted to be a family but a convenient grouping): Japonic: Japanese, Ryukyuan; Korean; Mongolic: Buryat, Mongolian; Turkic: Azeri, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen; Tungusic: Manchu
Austroasiatic: Khasi, Khmer, Mon, Santali, Vietnamese, Wa
Austronesian: Bicolano, Cham, Ilocano, Javanese, Kapampangan, Kedayan, Malay (Indonesian & Malaysian), Minangkabau, Pangasinan, Sundanese, Tagalog, Tetum, Visayan (Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray)
Chinese or Sino-Tibetan: Hakka, Hokkien (Taiwanese), Mandarin, Wu (Shanghainese), Yue (Cantonese), Burmese, Dzongkha, Lepcha, Meitei, Nepal Bhasa, Tibetan, Tshangla; Miao–Yao: Hmong, Iu Mien; Tai–Kadai: Bouyei, Isan, Kam, Lao, Shan, Thai, Zhuang
Circassian: Kabardian
Dagestanian: Chechen, Ingush
Dravidian: Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and relatively less spoken languages such as Tulu, Kodagu etc...
Georgian
Indo-European: Armenian, Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Dhivehi, Gujarati, Hindustani (Hindi, Urdu), Kashmiri, Kurdish, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Pashto, Persian (Tajik and Dari), Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Sinhala, Russian, Greek; as well as Romance-based creoles: Chavacano, Macanese
Uralic: Khanty, Mari, Nenets, Permics
Literature
Arabic
Arabic literature is the writing, both prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. One of the most famous literary works of West Asia is One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.
Chinese
In Tang and Song dynasty China, famous poets such as Li Bai authored works of great importance. They wrote shī (Classical Chinese: 詩) poems, which have lines with equal numbers of characters, as well as cí (詞) poems with mixed line varieties.
Hebrew and Diaspora Jewish
Jewish literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings by Jews, both in their original homeland and in the diaspora. A sizable amount of it is written in the Hebrew language, although there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Without doubt, the most important such work is the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). Many other ancient works of Hebrew literature survive, including religious and philosophical works, historical records, and works of fiction.
Indian
The famous poet and playwright Kālidāsa wrote two epics: Raghuvamsham (Dynasty of Raghu) and Kumarasambhavam (Birth of Kumar Kartikeya); they were written in Classical Sanskrit rather than Epic Sanskrit some other examples of his plays are Abhigyanam Shakuntala . Other examples of works written in Classical Sanskrit include the Pānini's Ashtadhyayi which standardized the grammar and phonetics of Classical Sanskrit. The Laws of Manu is an important text in Hinduism. Kālidāsa is often considered to be the greatest playwright in Sanskrit literature, and one of the greatest poets in Sanskrit literature, whose Recognition of Shakuntala and Meghaduuta are the most famous Sanskrit plays. He occupies the same position in Sanskrit literature that Shakespeare occupies in English literature. Some other famous plays were Mricchakatika by Shudraka, Svapna Vasavadattam by Bhasa, and Ratnavali by Sri Harsha. Later poetic works include Geeta Govinda by Jayadeva. Some other famous works are Chanakya's and Vatsyayana's Kamasutra.
Japanese
In the early eleventh century, court lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote Tale of the Genji considered the masterpiece of Japanese literatures and an early example of a work of fiction in the form of a novel.
Early-Modern Japanese literature (17th–19th centuries) developed comparable innovations such as haiku, a form of Japanese poetry that evolved from the ancient hokku (Japanese language: 発句) mode. Haiku consists of three lines: the first and third lines each have five morae (the rough phonological equivalent of syllables), while the second has seven. Original haiku masters included such figures as Edo period poet Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉); others influenced by Bashō include Kobayashi Issa and Masaoka Shiki.
Korean
Korean literature begins in the Three Kingdoms period, and continues through the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties to the modern day. Examples of Korean poetric forms include sijo and gasa, with Jeong Cheol and Yun Seon-do considered to be the supreme Korean poets. Examples of renowned Korean prose masterpieces include the Memoirs of Lady Hyegyeong, The Cloud Dream of the Nine and the Chunhyangjeon.
Nepali
Pakistani
Pakistani literature has a rich history, and draws influences from both Persian, Muslim and Indian literary traditions. The country has produced a large number of famed poets especially in the national Urdu language. The famous Muhammad Iqbal, regarded as the national poet, was often called "The Poet of the East" (Shair-e-Mashriq). Pakistani people wear their traditional and Islamic dress known as Shalwar Qameez.
Their Urdu poetry is widely famous in the whole world. Many times "Mushairas" are held. Pakistani women mostly prefer veil in normal routine days when going out somewhere and wear traditional "Burqa" or "Abaya".
Persian
Turkish
Indonesian
Vietnamese
The earliest surviving literature by Vietnamese writers is written in Chữ Hán or Văn ngôn (Classical Chinese). Almost all of the official documents in Vietnamese history were written in Chữ Hán, as were the first poems. Not only is the Chữ Hán foreign to modern Vietnamese speakers nowadays, these works are mostly unintelligible even when directly transliterated from Chinese into the modern Quốc ngữ script due to their Chinese syntax and vocabulary. As a result, these works must be translated into colloquial Vietnamese in order to be understood by the general public. These works include official proclamations by Vietnamese emperors, royal histories, and declarations of independence from China, as well as Vietnamese poetry. In chronological order notable works include:
Thiên đô chiếu (遷都詔) 1010, Edict on transfer the capital of Đại Cồ Việt from Hoa Lư (modern Ninh Bình) to Đại La (modern Hanoi).
Nam quốc sơn hà (南國山河) 1077, Mountains and rivers of the Southern country, poem by General Lý Thường Kiệt.
Đại Việt sử ký (大越史記) Annals of Đại Việt by Lê Văn Hưu, 1272.
Dụ chư tì tướng hịch văn 諭諸裨將檄文, Proclamation to the Officers, General Trần Hưng Đạo, 1284.
An Nam chí lược (安南志略) Abbreviated Records of Annam, anon. 1335
Gia huấn ca (家訓歌 The Family Training Ode), a 976-line Confucian morality poem attributed to Nguyễn Trãi 1420s
Lĩnh Nam chích quái (嶺南摭怪) "The wonderful tales of Lĩnh Nam" 14th century, edited Vũ Quỳnh (1452–1516)
Đại Việt sử lược (大越史略) Abbreviated History of Đại Việt, anon. 1377
Việt điện u linh tập (越甸幽靈集), Spirits of the Departed in the Viet Realm, Lý Tế Xuyên 1400
Bình Ngô đại cáo (平吳大誥), Great Proclamation upon the Pacification of the Wu Forces, Nguyễn Trãi 1428
Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (大越史記全書) Complete Annals of Đại Việt, Ngô Sĩ Liên 1479.
Truyền kỳ mạn lục (傳奇漫錄, Collection of Strange Tales, partly by Nguyễn Dữ, 16th century
Hoàng Lê nhất thống chí (皇黎一統志) Unification Records of the Le Emperor, historical novel ending with Gia Long. anon.
Chinh phụ ngâm (征婦吟) "Lament of the soldier's wife", the original Chữ Hán version by Đặng Trần Côn d.1745
Đại Việt thông sử (大越通史) history by Lê Quý Đôn 1749
Vân đài loại ngữ (芸臺類語) encyclopedia Lê Quý Đôn 1773
Phủ biên tạp lục (撫邊雜錄) Frontier Chronicles Lê Quý Đôn 1776
Việt Nam vong quốc sử (越南亡國史), by Phan Bội Châu in Japan in 1905
Works written in chữ Nôm - a locally invented script based on chữ Hán - was developed for writing the spoken Vietnamese language from the 13th century onwards. For the most part, these chữ Nôm texts can be directly transliterated into the modern chữ Quốc ngữ and be readily understood by modern Vietnamese speakers. However, since chữ Nôm was never standardized, there are ambiguities as to which words are meant when a writer used certain characters. This resulted in many variations when transliterating works in chữ Nôm into chữ Quốc ngữ. Some highly regarded works in Vietnamese literature were written in chữ Nôm, including Nguyễn Du's Truyện Kiều, Đoàn Thị Điểm's chữ Nôm translation of the poem Chinh Phụ Ngâm Khúc (征婦吟曲 - Lament of a Warrior Wife) from the Classical Chinese poem composed by her friend Đặng Trần Côn (famous in its own right), and poems by the renowned poet Hồ Xuân Hương.
Other notable works include
Chinh phụ ngâm (征婦吟) "Lament of the soldier's wife", translations from Chữ Hán into vernacular chữ Nôm by several translators including Phan Huy Ích and Đoàn Thị Điểm
Cung oán ngâm khúc (宮怨吟曲) "Lament of the Concubine" by Nguyễn Gia Thiều d.1798
Truyện Kiều (傳翹) "Tale of Kiều" epic poem by the blind poet Nguyễn Du
Hạnh Thục ca (行蜀歌) "Song of Exile to Thục" Nguyễn Thị Bích, 1885
Lục súc tranh công (六畜爭功) "The Quarrel of the Six Beasts"
Lục Vân Tiên (蓼雲仙傳) epic poem by the blind poet Nguyễn Đình Chiểu d.1888
Nhị độ mai (貳度梅) "The Plum Tree Blossoms Twice"
Phạm Công – Cúc Hoa (范公菊花) Tale of Phạm Công and Cúc Hoa
Phạm Tải – Ngọc Hoa (范子玉花) Tale of the orphan Phạm Tải and princess Ngọc Hoa
Phan Trần (潘陳) The clan of Phan and the clan of Trần
Quốc âm thi tập (國音詩集) "National pronunciation poetry collection" attributed to Nguyễn Trãi after retirement
Thạch Sanh tân truyện (石生新傳) anon. 18th century
Tống Trân and Cúc Hoa (宋珍菊花) Tale of Tống Trân and his wife Cúc Hoa
Trinh thử (貞鼠) "The Virgin Mouse"
Hoa tiên (花箋) The Flowered Letter
Modern literature
While created in the seventeenth century, chữ Quốc ngữ was not widely used outside of missionary circles until the early 20th century, when the French colonial government mandated its use in French Indochina. During the early years of the twentieth century, many periodicals in chữ Quốc ngữ flourished and their popularity helped popularize chữ Quốc ngữ. While some leaders resisted the popularity of chữ Quốc ngữ as an imposition from the French, others embraced it as a convenient tool to boost literacy. After declaring independence from France in 1945, Empire of Vietnam's provisional government adopted a policy of increasing literacy with chữ Quốc ngữ. Their efforts were hugely successful, as the literacy rate jumped overnight.
In those early years, there were many variations in orthography and there was no consensus on how to write certain words. After some conferences, the issues were mostly settled, but some still linger to this day. By the mid-20th century, all Vietnamese works of literature are written in chữ Quốc ngữ, while works written in earlier scripts are transliterated into chữ quốc ngữ for accessibility to modern Vietnamese speakers. The use of the earlier scripts is now limited to historical references.
Works in modern Vietnamese include
Việt Nam sử lược (越南史略) by Trần Trọng Kim 1921
Số đỏ by Vũ Trọng Phụng 1936
Modern literature
The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer from India, became in 1913 the first Asian Nobel laureate. He won his Nobel Prize in Literature for notable impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literature of Europe and the Americas. He also wrote Jana Gana Mana the national anthem of India as well as Amar Sonar Bangla the national anthem of Bangladesh. Moreover, translation of his another song “Namo Namo Matha" is the national anthem of Sri Lanka. This song was collected by his student Mr. Ananda Samarakoon and M. Nallathamby translated in Tamil language. Other Asian writers won Nobel Prizes in literature, including Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1966), and Kenzaburō Ōe (Japan, 1994). Yasunari Kawabata wrote novels and short stories distinguished by their elegant and spartan diction such as the novels Snow Country and The Master of Go.
Family
Families have very great importance in Asian cultures. They teach their kids that the family is their protection and the major source of their identity. They expect loyalty from their children. Parents define the law and the children are expected to obey them. This is called filial piety, the respect for one's parents and elders, and it is a concept that originated in China as 孝 (xiao) with Confucian's teachings. They are expected to have self-control, thus making it hard for them to express emotions, they are also expected to show respect through their motions and the way they speak. Children are expected to look after their parents when they grow older. Sons are expected to stay home, while daughters go and live with their husband's family. In Chinese culture, sometimes children are expected to care for their elders (赡养), and in various diaspora communities one may find Chinese children living with even their grandparents.
The practice of matrilocality in Korea started in the Goguryeo period, continued through the Goryeo period and ended in the early Joseon period. The Korean saying that when a man gets married, he is "entering jangga" (the house of his father-in-law), stems from the Goguryeo period.
Philosophy
Asian philosophical traditions originated in India and China, and has been classified as Eastern philosophy covering a large spectrum of philosophical thoughts and writings, including those popular within India and China. The Indian philosophy include Jain philosophy, Hindu and Buddhist philosophies. They include elements of non-material pursuits, whereas another school of thought Cārvāka, which originated in India, and was propounded by Charvak around 2500 years before, preached the enjoyment of material world. Middle Eastern philosophy includes Islamic philosophy as well as Jewish and Iranian philosophy.
During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two dramatically different political philosophies took shape. Mahatma Gandhi gave a new meaning to Ahimsa, and redefined the concepts of nonviolence and nonresistance. During the same period, Mao Zedong's communist philosophy was crystallized.
Religions
Asia is the birthplace of many religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Druze, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Mandaeism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, Yazdânism, and Zoroastrianism. All major religious traditions are practiced in the region and new forms are constantly emerging. The largest religions in Asia are Islam and Hinduism, both with approximately 1.1 billion adherents. In 2010, the Pew Research Center found five of the ten most religiously diverse regions in the world to be in Asia.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated in India, a country of South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and Japan, Confucianism, Taoism, Zen Buddhism and Shinto took shape. Other religions of Asia include the Baháʼí Faith, Shamanism practiced in Siberia, and Animism practiced in the eastern parts of the Indian subcontinent.
Over 60% of the global Muslim population is in Asia. About 25% of Muslims live in the South Asian region, mainly in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and the Maldives. If Afghanistan is counted, this number is even higher. The world's largest single Muslim community (within the bounds of one nation) is in Indonesia. There are also significant Muslim populations in the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, China, Russia, Central Asia and West Asia.
Christianity is a widespread religion in Asia with more than 286 million adherents according to Pew Research Center in 2010, and nearly 364 million according to Britannica Book of the Year 2014. In the Philippines and East Timor, Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion; it was introduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, respectively. In Russia, Georgia, and Armenia, Orthodox Christianity is the predominant religion. Eastern Christian sects are the most dominant denomination in Asia, having adherents in portions of the Middle East (the Levant Anatolia and Fars) and South Asia. Eastern churches include Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Maronite Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Chaldean Catholic Church and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, among others. Significant Christian communities also found in Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. Judaism is the major religion of Israel.
Religions founded in Asia and with a majority of their contemporary adherents in Asia include:
Festivals and celebrations
Asia has a variety of festivals and celebrations. In China, Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Moon Festival are traditional holidays, while National Day is a holiday of the People's Republic of China.
In Japan, Japanese New Year, National Foundation Day, Children's Day, O-bon, The Emperor's Birthday and Christmas are popular. According to Japanese syncretism, most Japanese celebrate Buddhism's O-bon in midsummer, Shinto's Shichi-Go-San in November, and Christmas and Hatsumoude in winter together.
In India, Republic Day and Independence Day are important national festivals celebrated by people irrespective of faith. Major Hindu festivals of India include Diwali, Dussehra or Daserra, Holi, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Mahashivratri, Ugadi, Navratri, Ramanavami, Baisakhi, Onam, Rathayatra, Ganesh Chaturthi and Krishna Janmaashtami. Islamic festivals such as Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha, Sikh festivals such as Vaisakhi, and Christian festivals such as Christmas, are also celebrated in India.
The Philippines is also tagged as the "Fiesta Country" because of its all-year-round celebrations nationwide. There is a very strong Spanish influence in their festivals, thus making the Philippines distinctively "Western", yet retaining its native Asian characteristics. Fiesta is the term used to refer to a festival. Most of these fiestas are celebrated in honor of a patron saint. To summarize it all, at least every city or municipality has a fiesta. Some prime examples include Sinulog from Cebu and Dinagyang of Iloilo. Other famous Philippine festivals include the MassKara Festival of Bacolod and Panagbenga Festival of Baguio.
In Indonesia, the Independence Day and the birthday of Pancasila are important. This Muslim majority country also celebrates Islamic celebrations and festivals, such as Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha, Mawlid, Islamic New Year, Ashura, Tabuik, and Tasyrik day.
Sports
Due to the vastness of Asia, popularity of sports varies greatly across the continent.
Association football is widely popular in Asia. Boxing, badminton, and table tennis are very popular in East Asia. Baseball is popular in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Cricket is especially popular in South Asia, having mainly been played in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and more recently, in Nepal and Afghanistan. Traditional sports such as kabaddi and kho-kho also are watched to a significant extent in South Asia.
Cuisine
In many parts of Asia, rice is a staple food, and it is mostly served steamed or as a porridge known as congee. China is the world largest producer and consumer of rice. While grain flatbread were consumed in the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent.
Traditionally, it is a common practice in Central, South, and West Asia to eat using their bare hand. However, Western cutlery such as spoons and forks are currently being used increasingly and have also become widely available. With the advent of western cutlery, it may be viewed as rude in these nations to eat using the bare hands in some public places. In Indonesia and the Philippines, people usually use western cutlery such as the spoon, fork, and knife. While in China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Vietnam, people usually use chopsticks to eat traditional food, but the shape of chopsticks are different in these countries. For example, Chinese chopsticks are long and square; Vietnamese chopsticks are long, being thick at one end and then gradually getting thinner at the other end, and are made of wood or bamboo; Japanese chopsticks are rounder, short, and spiral, having been designed to eat bony fish easily; Taiwanese chopsticks are made of materials such as bamboo, wood, and metal; Korean chopsticks are short, flat, and made of metal. It is said that wood is rarer than metal on the Korean Peninsula and that metal chopsticks can prevent poisoning. Fresh raw fish cuisines, such as sushi and sashimi are very popular in East Asia (especially Japan). These raw fish dishes were influenced by two major cultures: Chinese and Japanese.
In India, people often eat food with their hands, and many spices such as cardamom, cumin, and fennel seeds are used in every dish. Most spices originated within the Indian subcontinent. Durians are a common fruit in Southeast Asia, which, Alfred Russel Wallace, attested to its delicious flavor as worth the entire cost of his trip there.
The cuisine of Indonesia possess rich and diverse collection of dishes and recipes with regional cooking tradition flourished, such as Minang Sundanese to Balinese. Most Indonesians consume steamed rice with flavorful meat, fish, and vegetables in one serving such as in Nasi Padang and nasi campur. Other notable example include rendang, satay, soto, and nasi goreng.
In Filipino banquet, many unique dishes have arisen because of the country's long years of colonization and interactions with other neighboring cultures and nations; it has inherited Latin, Malay, Chinese, and American influences to its people's local blend.
Cultural spheres
The culture of Asia is divided into several overlapping cultural spheres, including:
Sinosphere
Indosphere
Persosphere
Arabsphere
Culture by people
Afghan people
Arab people
Armenian people
Assyrian people
Aryan
Azerbaijani people
Baloch people
Bangladeshi people
Bengali people
Betawi people
Bihari people
Buginese people
Burmese people
Chinese people
Cambodian people
Dravidian people
Filipino people
Georgian people
Hadhrami people
Haryanvi people
Hmong people
Hong Kong people
Iranian people
Indian people
Indonesian people
Igorot people
Israeli people
Japanese people
Jat people
Jewish people
Korean people
Kurdish people
Lao people
Macanese people
Malay people
Malaysian people
Miao people
Minangkabau people
Mongolian people
Moro people
Marathi people
Punjabi people
Pakistani people
Pashtun People
Peranakan people
Tibetan people
Rajasthani people
Rohingya people
Romani people
Russian people
Sindhi people
Tajik people
Turkic peoples
Taiwanese people
Thai people
Vietnamese people
See also
Culture of Africa
Culture of Europe
Culture of North America
Culture of Oceania
Culture of South America
Notes
John Lindley (1889), Treasury of Botany vol 1. p. 435. Longmans, Green, & Co; New and rev. ed edition (1889)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code
External links
Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home showcases Chinese culture through a detailed examination of a family residence located in the Anhui province of East China.
Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize was established to honor the outstanding work of individuals or groups/organizations to preserve and create unique and diverse cultures of Asia.
Asian cultural art and antique showcases the cultural ornaments used by the tribes in south east Asia during ancient time. | 0.773512 | 0.9929 | 0.76802 |
Folklore | Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as tales, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also includes material culture, such as traditional building styles common to the group. Folklore also encompasses customary lore, taking actions for folk beliefs, and the forms and rituals of celebrations such as Christmas, weddings, folk dances, and initiation rites.
Each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact or traditional cultural expression. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next. Folklore is not something one can typically gain from a formal school curriculum or study in the fine arts. Instead, these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another, either through verbal instruction or demonstration.
The academic study of folklore is called folklore studies or folkloristics, and it can be explored at the undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. levels.
Overview
The word folklore, a compound of folk and lore, was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms, who contrived the term as a replacement for the contemporary terminology of "popular antiquities" or "popular literature". The second half of the word, lore, comes from Old English lār 'instruction'. It is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, frequently passed along by word of mouth.
The concept of folk has varied over time. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor and illiterate peasants. A more modern definition of folk is a social group that includes two or more people with common traits who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. "Folk is a flexible concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family." This expanded social definition of folk supports a broader view of the material, i.e., the lore, considered to be folklore artifacts. These now include all "things people make with words (verbal lore), things they make with their hands (material lore), and things they make with their actions (customary lore)". Folklore is no longer considered to be limited to that which is old or obsolete. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, and always in multiple variants. The folk group is not individualistic; it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. "As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, computer programmers". In direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within a common social group.
Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, and objects for the group, since these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group. That meaning can, however, shift and morph; for example, the Halloween celebration of the 21st century is not the All Hallows' Eve of the Middle Ages and even gives rise to its own set of urban legends independent of the historical celebration; the cleansing rituals of Orthodox Judaism were originally good public health in a land with little water, but now these customs signify for some people identification as an Orthodox Jew. By comparison, a common action such as tooth brushing, which is also transmitted within a group, remains a practical hygiene and health issue and does not rise to the level of a group-defining tradition. Tradition is initially remembered behavior; once it loses its practical purpose, there is no reason for further transmission unless it has been imbued with meaning beyond the initial practicality of the action. This meaning is at the core of folkloristics, the study of folklore.
With the increasing theoretical sophistication of the social sciences, it has become evident that folklore is a naturally occurring and necessary component of any social group; it is indeed all around us. Folklore does not have to be old or antiquated; it continues to be created and transmitted, and in any group, it is used to differentiate between "us" and "them".
Origin and development of folklore studies
Folklore began to distinguish itself as an autonomous discipline during the period of romantic nationalism, in Europe. A particular figure in this development was Johann Gottfried von Herder, whose writings in the 1770s presented oral traditions as organic processes grounded in locale. After the German states were invaded by Napoleonic France, Herder's approach was adopted by many of his fellow Germans, who systematized the recorded folk traditions, and used them in their process of nation building. This process was enthusiastically embraced by smaller nations, like Finland, Estonia, and Hungary, which were seeking political independence from their dominant neighbors.
Folklore, as a field of study, further developed among 19th century European scholars, who were contrasting tradition with the newly developing modernity. Its focus was the oral folklore of the rural peasant populations, which were considered as residue and survivals of the past that continued to exist within the lower strata of society. The "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" of the Brothers Grimm (first published 1812) is the best known but by no means only collection of verbal folklore of the European peasantry of that time. This interest in stories, sayings and songs continued throughout the 19th century and aligned the fledgling discipline of folkloristics with literature and mythology. By the turn into the 20th century the number and sophistication of folklore studies and folklorists had grown both in Europe and North America. Whereas European folklorists remained focused on the oral folklore of the homogenous peasant populations in their regions, the American folklorists, led by Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict, chose to consider Native American cultures in their research, and included the totality of their customs and beliefs as folklore. This distinction aligned American folkloristics with cultural anthropology and ethnology, using the same techniques of data collection in their field research. This divided alliance of folkloristics between the humanities in Europe and the social sciences in America offers a wealth of theoretical vantage points and research tools to the field of folkloristics as a whole, even as it continues to be a point of discussion within the field itself.
The term folkloristics, along with the alternative name folklore studies, became widely used in the 1950s to distinguish the academic study of traditional culture from the folklore artifacts themselves. When the American Folklife Preservation Act (Public Law 94-201) was passed by the U.S. Congress in January 1976, to coincide with the Bicentennial Celebration, folkloristics in the United States came of age.
"…[Folklife] means the traditional expressive culture shared within the various groups in the United States: familial, ethnic, occupational, religious, regional; expressive culture includes a wide range of creative and symbolic forms such as custom, belief, technical skill, language, literature, art, architecture, music, play, dance, drama, ritual, pageantry, handicraft; these expressions are mainly learned orally, by imitation, or in performance, and are generally maintained without benefit of formal instruction or institutional direction."
Added to the extensive array of other legislation designed to protect the natural and cultural heritage of the United States, this law also marks a shift in national awareness. It gives voice to a growing understanding that cultural diversity is a national strength and a resource worthy of protection. Paradoxically, it is a unifying feature, not something that separates the citizens of a country. "We no longer view cultural difference as a problem to be solved, but as a tremendous opportunity. In the diversity of American folklife we find a marketplace teeming with the exchange of traditional forms and cultural ideas, a rich resource for Americans". This diversity is celebrated annually at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and many other folklife fests around the country.
There are numerous other definitions. According to William Bascom major article on the topic there are "four functions to folklore":
Folklore lets people escape from repressions imposed upon them by society.
Folklore validates culture, justifying its rituals and institutions to those who perform and observe them.
Folklore is a pedagogic device which reinforces morals and values and builds wit.
Folklore is a means of applying social pressure and exercising social control.
Definition of "folk"
The folk of the 19th century, the social group identified in the original term "folklore", was characterized by being rural, illiterate and poor. They were the peasants living in the countryside, in contrast to the urban populace of the cities. Only toward the end of the century did the urban proletariat (on the coattails of Marxist theory) become included with the rural poor as folk. The common feature in this expanded definition of folk was their identification as the underclass of society.
Moving forward into the 20th century, in tandem with new thinking in the social sciences, folklorists also revised and expanded their concept of the folk group. By the 1960s it was understood that social groups, i.e. folk groups, were all around us; each individual is enmeshed in a multitude of differing identities and their concomitant social groups. The first group that each of us is born into is the family, and each family has its own unique family folklore. As a child grows into an individual, its identities also increase to include age, language, ethnicity, occupation, etc. Each of these cohorts has its own folklore, and as one folklorist points out, this is "not idle speculation… Decades of fieldwork have demonstrated conclusively that these groups do have their own folklore." In this modern understanding, folklore is a function of shared identity within any social group.
This folklore can include jokes, sayings and expected behavior in multiple variants, always transmitted in an informal manner. For the most part it will be learned by observation, imitation, repetition or correction by other group members. This informal knowledge is used to confirm and reinforce the identity of the group. It can be used both internally within the group to express their common identity, for example in an initiation ceremony for new members. Or it can be used externally to differentiate the group from outsiders, like a folkdance demonstration at a community festival. Significant to folklorists here is that there are two opposing but equally valid ways to use this in the study of a group: you can start with an identified group in order to explore its folklore, or you can identify folklore items and use them to identify the social group.
Beginning in the 1960s, a further expansion of the concept of folk began to unfold through the study of folklore. Individual researchers identified folk groups that had previously been overlooked and ignored. One notable example of this is found in an issue of the Journal of American Folklore, published in 1975, which is dedicated exclusively to articles on women's folklore, with approaches that had not come from a man's perspective. Other groups that were highlighted as part of this broadened understanding of the folk group were non-traditional families, occupational groups, and families that pursued the production of folk items over multiple generations.
Folklorist Richard Dorson explained in 1976 that the study of folklore is "concerned with the study of traditional culture, or the unofficial culture" that is the folk culture, "as opposed to the elite culture, not for the sake of proving a thesis but to learn about the mass of [humanity] overlooked by the conventional disciplines".
Folklore genres
Individual folklore artifacts are commonly classified as one of three types: material, verbal or customary lore. For the most part self-explanatory, these categories include physical objects (material folklore), common sayings, expressions, stories and songs (verbal folklore), and beliefs and ways of doing things (customary folklore). There is also a fourth major subgenre defined for children's folklore and games (childlore), as the collection and interpretation of this fertile topic is particular to school yards and neighborhood streets. Each of these genres and their subtypes is intended to organize and categorize the folklore artifacts; they provide common vocabulary and consistent labeling for folklorists to communicate with each other.
That said, each artifact is unique; in fact one of the characteristics of all folklore artifacts is their variation within genres and types. This is in direct contrast to manufactured goods, where the goal in production is to create identical products and any variations are considered mistakes. It is however just this required variation that makes identification and classification of the defining features a challenge. And while this classification is essential for the subject area of folkloristics, it remains just labeling, and adds little to an understanding of the traditional development and meaning of the artifacts themselves.
Necessary as they are, genre classifications are misleading in their oversimplification of the subject area. Folklore artifacts are never self-contained, they do not stand in isolation but are particulars in the self-representation of a community. Different genres are frequently combined with each other to mark an event. So a birthday celebration might include a song or formulaic way of greeting the birthday child (verbal), presentation of a cake and wrapped presents (material), as well as customs to honor the individual, such as sitting at the head of the table, and blowing out the candles with a wish. There might also be special games played at birthday parties which are not generally played at other times. Adding to the complexity of the interpretation, the birthday party for a seven-year-old will not be identical to the birthday party for that same child as a six-year-old, even though they follow the same model. For each artifact embodies a single variant of a performance in a given time and space. The task of the folklorist becomes to identify within this surfeit of variables the constants and the expressed meaning that shimmer through all variations: honoring of the individual within the circle of family and friends, gifting to express their value and worth to the group, and of course, the festival food and drink as signifiers of the event.
Verbal tradition
The formal definition of verbal lore is words, both written and oral, that are "spoken, sung, voiced forms of traditional utterance that show repetitive patterns." Crucial here are the repetitive patterns. Verbal lore is not just any conversation, but words and phrases conforming to a traditional configuration recognized by both the speaker and the audience. For narrative types by definition have consistent structure, and follow an existing model in their narrative form. As just one simple example, in English the phrase "An elephant walks into a bar…" instantaneously flags the following text as a joke. It might be one you have already heard, but it might be one that the speaker has just thought up within the current context. Another example is the child's song Old MacDonald Had a Farm, where each performance is distinctive in the animals named, their order and their sounds. Songs such as this are used to express cultural values (farms are important, farmers are old and weather-beaten) and teach children about different domesticated animals.
Verbal folklore was the original folklore, the artifacts defined by William Thoms as older, oral cultural traditions of the rural populace. In his 1846 published call for help in documenting antiquities, Thoms was echoing scholars from across the European continent to collect artifacts of verbal lore. By the beginning of the 20th century these collections had grown to include artifacts from around the world and across several centuries. A system to organize and categorize them became necessary. Antti Aarne published a first classification system for folktales in 1910. This was later expanded into the Aarne–Thompson classification system by Stith Thompson and remains the standard classification system for European folktales and other types of oral literature. As the number of classified oral artifacts grew, similarities were noted in items that had been collected from very different geographic regions, ethnic groups and epochs, giving rise to the Historic–Geographic Method, a methodology that dominated folkloristics in the first half of the 20th century.
When William Thoms first published his appeal to document the verbal lore of the rural populations, it was believed these folk artifacts would die out as the population became literate. Over the past two centuries this belief has proven to be wrong; folklorists continue to collect verbal lore in both written and spoken form from all social groups. Some variants might have been captured in published collections, but much of it is still transmitted orally and indeed continues to be generated in new forms and variants at an alarming rate.
Below is listed a small sampling of types and examples of verbal lore.
Aloha
Ballads
Blessings
Bluegrass
Chants
Charms
Cinderella
Country music
Cowboy poetry
Creation stories
Curses
English similes
Epic poetry
Fable
Fairy tale
Folk belief
Folk etymologies
Folk metaphors
Folk poetry
Folk music
Folksongs
Folk speech
Folktales of oral tradition
Ghostlore
Greetings
Hog-calling
Insults
Jokes
Keening
Latrinalia
Legends
Limericks
Lullabies
Myth
Oaths
Leave-taking formulas
Fakelore
Place names
Prayers at bedtime
Proverbs
Retorts
Riddle
Roasts
Sagas
Sea shanties
Street vendors
Superstition
Tall tale
Taunts
Toasts
Tongue-twisters
Urban legends
Word games
Yodeling
Material culture
The genre of material culture includes all artifacts that can be touched, held, lived in, or eaten. They are tangible objects with a physical or mental presence, either intended for permanent use or to be used at the next meal. Most of these folklore artifacts are single objects that have been created by hand for a specific purpose; however, folk artifacts can also be mass-produced, such as dreidels or Christmas decorations. These items continue to be considered folklore because of their long (pre-industrial) history and their customary use. All of these material objects "existed prior to and continue alongside mechanized industry. … [They are] transmitted across the generations and subject to the same forces of conservative tradition and individual variation" that are found in all folk artifacts. Folklorists are interested in the physical form, the method of manufacture or construction, the pattern of use, as well as the procurement of the raw materials. The meaning to those who both make and use these objects is important. Of primary significance in these studies is the complex balance of continuity over change in both their design and their decoration.
In Europe, prior to the Industrial Revolution, everything was made by hand. While some folklorists of the 19th century wanted to secure the oral traditions of the rural folk before the populace became literate, other folklorists sought to identify hand-crafted objects before their production processes were lost to industrial manufacturing. Just as verbal lore continues to be actively created and transmitted in today's culture, so these handicrafts can still be found all around us, with possibly a shift in purpose and meaning. There are many reasons for continuing to handmake objects for use, for example these skills may be needed to repair manufactured items, or a unique design might be required which is not (or cannot be) found in the stores. Many crafts are considered as simple home maintenance, such as cooking, sewing and carpentry. For many people, handicrafts have also become an enjoyable and satisfying hobby. Handmade objects are often regarded as prestigious, where extra time and thought is spent in their creation and their uniqueness is valued. For the folklorist, these hand-crafted objects embody multifaceted relationships in the lives of the craftspeople and the users, a concept that has been lost with mass-produced items that have no connection to an individual craftsperson.
Many traditional crafts, such as ironworking and glass-making, have been elevated to the fine or applied arts and taught in art schools; or they have been repurposed as folk art, characterized as objects whose decorative form supersedes their utilitarian needs. Folk art is found in hex signs on Pennsylvania Dutch barns, tin man sculptures made by metalworkers, front yard Christmas displays, decorated school lockers, carved gun stocks, and tattoos. "Words such as naive, self-taught, and individualistic are used to describe these objects, and the exceptional rather than the representative creation is featured." This is in contrast to the understanding of folklore artifacts that are nurtured and passed along within a community.
Many objects of material folklore are challenging to classify, difficult to archive, and unwieldy to store. The assigned task of museums is to preserve and make use of these bulky artifacts of material culture. To this end, the concept of the living museum has developed, beginning in Scandinavia at the end of the 19th century. These open-air museums not only display the artifacts, but also teach visitors how the items were used, with actors reenacting the everyday lives of people from all segments of society, relying heavily on the material artifacts of a pre-industrial society. Many locations even duplicate the processing of the objects, thus creating new objects of an earlier historic time period. Living museums are now found throughout the world as part of a thriving heritage industry.
This list represents just a small sampling of objects and skills that are included in studies of material culture.
Autograph books
Bunad
Embroidery
Folk art
Folk costume
Folk medicines
Food recipes and presentation
Foodways
Common handicrafts
Handmade toys
Haystacks
Hex signs
Decorative ironworks
Pottery
Quilting
Stone sculpting
Tipis
Traditional fences
Vernacular architecture
Weather vanes
Woodworking
Customs
Customary culture is remembered enactment, i.e. re-enactment. It is the patterns of expected behavior within a group, the "traditional and expected way of doing things" A custom can be a single gesture, such as thumbs down or a handshake. It can also be a complex interaction of multiple folk customs and artifacts as seen in a child's birthday party, including verbal lore (Happy Birthday song), material lore (presents and a birthday cake), special games (Musical chairs) and individual customs (making a wish as you blow out the candles). Each of these is a folklore artifact in its own right, potentially worthy of investigation and cultural analysis. Together they combine to build the custom of a birthday party celebration, a scripted combination of multiple artifacts which have meaning within their social group.
Folklorists divide customs into several different categories. A custom can be a seasonal celebration, such as Thanksgiving or New Year's. It can be a life cycle celebration for an individual, such as baptism, birthday or wedding. A custom can also mark a community festival or event; examples of this are Carnival in Cologne or Mardi Gras in New Orleans. This category also includes the Smithsonian Folklife Festival celebrated each summer on the Mall in Washington, DC. A fourth category includes customs related to folk beliefs. Walking under a ladder is just one of many symbols considered unlucky. Occupational groups tend to have a rich history of customs related to their life and work, so the traditions of sailors or lumberjacks. The area of ecclesiastical folklore, which includes modes of worship not sanctioned by the established church tends to be so large and complex that it is usually treated as a specialized area of folk customs; it requires considerable expertise in standard church ritual in order to adequately interpret folk customs and beliefs that originated in official church practice.
Customary folklore is always a performance, be it a single gesture or a complex of scripted customs, and participating in the custom, either as performer or audience, signifies acknowledgment of that social group. Some customary behavior is intended to be performed and understood only within the group itself, so the handkerchief code sometimes used in the gay community or the initiation rituals of the Freemasons. Other customs are designed specifically to represent a social group to outsiders, those who do not belong to this group. The St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York and in other communities across the continent is a single example of an ethnic group parading their separateness (differential behavior), and encouraging Americans of all stripes to show alliance to this colorful ethnic group.
These festivals and parades, with a target audience of people who do not belong to the social group, intersect with the interests and mission of public folklorists, who are engaged in the documentation, preservation, and presentation of traditional forms of folklife. With a swell in popular interest in folk traditions, these community celebrations are becoming more numerous throughout the western world. While ostensibly parading the diversity of their community, economic groups have discovered that these folk parades and festivals are good for business. All shades of people are out on the streets, eating, drinking and spending. This attracts support not only from the business community, but also from federal and state organizations for these local street parties. Paradoxically, in parading diversity within the community, these events have come to authenticate true community, where business interests ally with the varied (folk) social groups to promote the interests of the community as a whole.
This is just a small sampling of types and examples of customary lore.
Amish
Barn raising
Birthday
Cakewalk
Cat's cradle
Chaharshanbe Suri
Christmas
Crossed fingers
Folk dance
Folk drama
Folk medicine
Giving the finger
Halloween
Hoodening
Gestures
Groundhog Day
Louisiana Creole people
Mime
Native Hawaiians
Ouiji board
Powwows
Practical jokes
Saint John's Eve
Shakers
Symbols
Thanksgiving
Thumbs down
Trick or Treating
Yo-yos
Childlore and games
Childlore is a distinct branch of folklore that deals with activities passed on by children to other children, away from the influence or supervision of an adult. Children's folklore contains artifacts from all the standard folklore genres of verbal, material, and customary lore; it is however the child-to-child conduit that distinguishes these artifacts. For childhood is a social group where children teach, learn and share their own traditions, flourishing in a street culture outside the purview of adults. This is also ideal where it needs to be collected; as Iona and Peter Opie demonstrated in their pioneering book Children's Games in Street and Playground. Here the social group of children is studied on its own terms, not as a derivative of adult social groups. It is shown that the culture of children is quite distinctive; it is generally unnoticed by the sophisticated world of adults, and quite as little affected by it.
Of particular interest to folklorists here is the mode of transmission of these artifacts; this lore circulates exclusively within an informal pre-literate children's network or folk group. It does not include artifacts taught to children by adults. However children can take the taught and teach it further to other children, turning it into childlore. Or they can take the artifacts and turn them into something else; so Old McDonald's farm is transformed from animal noises to the scatological version of animal poop. This childlore is characterized by "its lack of dependence on literary and fixed form. Children…operate among themselves in a world of informal and oral communication, unimpeded by the necessity of maintaining and transmitting information by written means". This is as close as folklorists can come to observing the transmission and social function of this folk knowledge before the spread of literacy during the 19th century.
As we have seen with the other genres, the original collections of children's lore and games in the 19th century was driven by a fear that the culture of childhood would die out. Early folklorists, among them Alice Gomme in Britain and William Wells Newell in the United States, felt a need to capture the unstructured and unsupervised street life and activities of children before it was lost. This fear proved to be unfounded. In a comparison of any modern school playground during recess and the painting of "Children's Games" by Pieter Breugel the Elder we can see that the activity level is similar, and many of the games from the 1560 painting are recognizable and comparable to modern variations still played today.
These same artifacts of childlore, in innumerable variations, also continue to serve the same function of learning and practicing skills needed for growth. So bouncing and swinging rhythms and rhymes encourage development of balance and coordination in infants and children. Verbal rhymes like Peter Piper picked... serve to increase both the oral and aural acuity of children. Songs and chants, accessing a different part of the brain, are used to memorize series (Alphabet song). They also provide the necessary beat to complex physical rhythms and movements, be it hand-clapping, jump roping, or ball bouncing. Furthermore, many physical games are used to develop strength, coordination and endurance of the players. For some team games, negotiations about the rules can run on longer than the game itself as social skills are rehearsed. Even as we are just now uncovering the neuroscience that undergirds the developmental function of this childlore, the artifacts themselves have been in play for centuries.
Below is listed just a small sampling of types and examples of childlore and games.
Buck buck
Counting rhymes
Dandling rhymes
Finger and toe rhymes
Counting-out games
Dreidel
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
Games
Traditional games
London Bridge Is Falling Down
Lullabies
Nursery rhymes
Playground songs
Ball-bouncing rhymes
Rhymes
Riddles
Ring a Ring o Roses
Jump-rope rhymes
Stickball
Street games
Folk history
A case has been made for considering folk history as a distinct sub-category of folklore, an idea that has received attention from such folklorists as Richard Dorson. This field of study is represented in The Folklore Historian, an annual journal sponsored by the History and Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society and concerned with the connections of folklore with history, as well as the history of folklore studies.
Folklore performance in context
Lacking context, folklore artifacts would be uninspiring objects without any life of their own. It is only through performance that the artifacts come alive as an active and meaningful component of a social group; the intergroup communication arises in the performance and this is where transmission of these cultural elements takes place. American folklorist Roger D. Abrahams has described it thus: "Folklore is folklore only when performed. As organized entities of performance, items of folklore have a sense of control inherent in them, a power that can be capitalized upon and enhanced through effective performance." Without transmission, these items are not folklore, they are just individual quirky tales and objects.
This understanding in folkloristics only occurred in the second half of the 20th century, when the two terms "folklore performance" and "text and context" dominated discussions among folklorists. These terms are not contradictory or even mutually exclusive. As borrowings from other fields of study, one or the other linguistic formulation is more appropriate to any given discussion. Performance is frequently tied to verbal and customary lore, whereas context is used in discussions of material lore. Both formulations offer different perspectives on the same folkloric understanding, specifically that folklore artifacts need to remain embedded in their cultural environment if we are to gain insight into their meaning for the community.
The concept of cultural (folklore) performance is shared with ethnography and anthropology among other social sciences. The cultural anthropologist Victor Turner identified four universal characteristics of cultural performance: playfulness, framing, the use of symbolic language, and employing the subjunctive mood. In viewing the performance, the audience leaves the daily reality to move into a mode of make-believe, or "what if?" It is self-evident that this fits well with all types of verbal lore, where reality has no place among the symbols, fantasies, and nonsense of traditional tales, proverbs, and jokes. Customs and the lore of children and games also fit easily into the language of a folklore performance.
Material culture requires some moulding to turn it into a performance. Should we consider the performance of the creation of the artifact, as in a quilting party, or the performance of the recipients who use the quilt to cover their marriage bed? Here the language of context works better to describe the quilting of patterns copied from the grandmother, quilting as a social event during the winter months, or the gifting of a quilt to signify the importance of the event. Each of these—the traditional pattern chosen, the social event, and the gifting—occur within the broader context of the community. Even so, when considering context, the structure and characteristics of performance can be recognized, including an audience, a framing event, and the use of decorative figures and symbols, all of which go beyond the utility of the object.
Backstory
Before the Second World War, folk artifacts had been understood and collected as cultural shards of an earlier time. They were considered individual vestigial artifacts, with little or no function in the contemporary culture. Given this understanding, the goal of the folklorist was to capture and document them before they disappeared. They were collected with no supporting data, bound in books, archived and classified more or less successfully. The Historic–Geographic Method worked to isolate and track these collected artifacts, mostly verbal lore, across space and time.
Following the Second World War, folklorists began to articulate a more holistic approach toward their subject matter. In tandem with the growing sophistication in the social sciences, attention was no longer limited to the isolated artifact, but extended to include the artifact embedded in an active cultural environment. One early proponent was Alan Dundes with his essay "Texture, Text and Context", first published 1964. A public presentation in 1967 by Dan Ben-Amos at the American Folklore Society brought the behavioral approach into open debate among folklorists. In 1972 Richard Dorson called out the "young Turks" for their movement toward a behavioral approach to folklore. This approach "shifted the conceptualization of folklore as an extractable item or 'text' to an emphasis on folklore as a kind of human behavior and communication. Conceptualizing folklore as behavior redefined the job of folklorists..."
Folklore became a verb, an action, something that people do, not just something that they have. It is in the performance and the active context that folklore artifacts get transmitted in informal, direct communication, either verbally or in demonstration. Performance includes all the different modes and manners in which this transmission occurs.
Tradition-bearer and audience
Transmission is a communicative process requiring a binary: one individual or group who actively transmits information in some form to another individual or group. Each of these is a defined role in the folklore process. The tradition-bearer is the individual who actively passes along the knowledge of an artifact; this can be either a mother singing a lullaby to her baby, or an Irish dance troupe performing at a local festival. They are named individuals, usually well known in the community as knowledgeable in their traditional lore. They are not the anonymous "folk", the nameless mass without of history or individuality.
The audience of this performance is the other half in the transmission process; they listen, watch, and remember. Few of them will become active tradition-bearers; many more will be passive tradition-bearers who maintain a memory of this specific traditional artifact, in both its presentation and its content.
There is active communication between the audience and the performer. The performer is presenting to the audience; the audience in turn, through its actions and reactions, is actively communicating with the performer. The purpose of this performance is not to create something new but to re-create something that already exists; the performance is words and actions which are known, recognized and valued by both the performer and the audience. For folklore is first and foremost remembered behavior. As members of the same cultural reference group, they identify and value this performance as a piece of shared cultural knowledge.
Framing the performance
To initiate the performance, there must be a frame of some sort to indicate that what is to follow is indeed performance. The frame brackets it as outside of normal discourse. In customary lore such as life cycle celebrations (ex. birthday) or dance performances, the framing occurs as part of the event, frequently marked by location. The audience goes to the event location to participate. Games are defined primarily by rules, it is with the initiation of the rules that the game is framed. The folklorist Barre Toelken describes an evening spent in a Navaho family playing string figure games, with each of the members shifting from performer to audience as they create and display different figures to each other.
In verbal lore, the performer will start and end with recognized linguistic formulas. An easy example is seen in the common introduction to a joke: "Have you heard the one...", "Joke of the day...", or "An elephant walks into a bar". Each of these signals to the listeners that the following is a joke, not to be taken literally. The joke is completed with the punch line of the joke. Another traditional narrative marker in English is the framing of a fairy tale between the phrases "Once upon a time" and "They all lived happily ever after." Many languages have similar phrases which are used to frame a traditional tale. Each of these linguistic formulas removes the bracketed text from ordinary discourse, and marks it as a recognized form of stylized, formulaic communication for both the performer and the audience.
In the subjunctive voice
Framing as a narrative device serves to signal to both the story teller and the audience that the narrative which follows is indeed a fiction (verbal lore), and not to be understood as historical fact or reality. It moves the framed narration into the subjunctive mood, and marks a space in which "fiction, history, story, tradition, art, teaching, all exist within the narrated or performed expressive 'event' outside the normal realms and constraints of reality or time." This shift from the realis to the irrealis mood is understood by all participants within the reference group. It enables these fictional events to contain meaning for the group, and can lead to very real consequences.
Anderson's law of auto-correction
The theory of self-correction in folklore transmission was first articulated by the folklorist Walter Anderson in the 1920s; this posits a feedback mechanism which would keep folklore variants closer to the original form. This theory addresses the question about how, with multiple performers and multiple audiences, the artifact maintains its identity across time and geography. Anderson credited the audience with censoring narrators who deviated too far from the known (traditional) text.
Any performance is a two-way communication process. The performer addresses the audience with words and actions; the audience in turn actively responds to the performer. If this performance deviates too far from audience expectations of the familiar folk artifact, they will respond with negative feedback. Wanting to avoid more negative reaction, the performer will adjust his performance to conform to audience expectations. "Social reward by an audience [is] a major factor in motivating narrators..." It is this dynamic feedback loop between performer and audience which gives stability to the text of the performance.
In reality, this model is not so simplistic; there are multiple redundancies in the active folklore process. The performer has heard the tale multiple times, he has heard it from different story tellers in multiple versions. In turn, he tells the tale multiple times to the same or a different audience, and they expect to hear the version they know. This expanded model of redundancy in a non-linear narrative process makes it difficult to innovate during any single performance; corrective feedback from the audience will be immediate. "At the heart of both autopoetic self-maintenance and the 'virality' of meme transmission... it is enough to assume that some sort of recursive action maintains a degree of integrity [of the artifact] in certain features ... sufficient to allow us to recognize it as an instance of its type."
Context of material lore
For material folk artifacts, it becomes more fruitful to return to the terminology of Alan Dundes: text and context. Here the text designates the physical artifact itself, the single item made by an individual for a specific purpose. The context is then unmasked by observation and questions concerning both its production and its usage. Why was it made, how was it made, who will use it, how will they use it, where did the raw materials come from, who designed it, etc. These questions are limited only by the skill of the interviewer.
In his study of southeastern Kentucky chair makers, Michael Owen Jones describes production of a chair within the context of the life of the craftsman. For Henry Glassie in his study of Folk Housing in Middle Virginia, the investigation concerns the historical pattern he finds repeated in the dwellings of this region: the house is planted in the landscape just as the landscape completes itself with the house. The artisan in his roadside stand or shop in the nearby town wants to make and display products which appeal to customers. There is "a craftsperson's eagerness to produce 'satisfactory items' due to a close personal contact with the customer and expectations to serve the customer again." Here the role of consumer "... is the basic force responsible for the continuity and discontinuity of behavior."
In material culture the context becomes the cultural environment in which the object is made (chair), used (house), and sold (wares). None of these artisans is "anonymous" folk; they are individuals making a living with the tools and skills learned within and valued in the context of their community.
Toelken's conservative-dynamic continuum
No two performances are identical. The performer attempts to keep the performance within expectations, but this happens despite a multitude of changing variables. He has given this performance one time more or less, the audience is different, the social and political environment has changed. In the context of material culture, no two hand-crafted items are identical. Sometimes these deviations in the performance and the production are unintentional, just part of the process. But sometimes these deviations are intentional; the performer or artisan want to play with the boundaries of expectation and add their own creative touch. They perform within the tension of conserving the recognized form and adding innovation.
The folklorist Barre Toelken identifies this tension as "a combination of both changing ('dynamic') and static ('conservative') elements that evolve and change through sharing, communication and performance." Over time, the cultural context shifts and morphs: new leaders, new technologies, new values, new awareness. As the context changes, so must the artifact, for without modifications to map existing artifacts into the evolving cultural landscape, they lose their meaning. Joking as an active form of verbal lore makes this tension visible as joke cycles come and go to reflect new issues of concern. Once an artifact is no longer applicable to the context, transmission becomes a nonstarter; it loses relevancy for a contemporary audience. If it is not transmitted, then it is no longer folklore and becomes instead an historic relic.
In the electronic age
Folklorists have begun to identify how the advent of electronic communications will modify and change the performance and transmission of folklore artifacts. It is clear that the internet is modifying folkloric process, not killing it, as despite the historic association between folklore and anti-modernity, people continue to use traditional expressive forms in new media, including the internet. Jokes and joking are as plentiful as ever both in traditional face-to-face interactions and through electronic transmission. New communication modes are also transforming traditional stories into many different configurations. The fairy tale Snow White is now offered in multiple media forms for both children and adults, including a television show and video game.
Yeh et al. (2023) suggest that user-generated content (UGC) should be considered as folklore, especially in mental health communities, because it conveys informal, unofficial knowledge through first-hand stories of treatment experiences. These narratives, often shared on YouTube, serve to educate and transmit culture, much like traditional folklore. They provide insight into mental health consumers' experiences with antidepressants, highlighting where they obtain information, gaps in their knowledge, and obstacles to seeking or continuing treatment. UGC in the form of YouTube reviews reflects dynamic, recurring expressions that function as a modern-day method of passing on informal knowledge.
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
in .
in .
Further reading
Further reading
External links
Folklore Indonesia
1840s neologisms
Articles containing video clips | 0.768636 | 0.999198 | 0.76802 |
Sexual diversity | Sexual diversity or gender and sexual diversity (GSD), refers to all the diversities of sex characteristics, sexual orientations and gender identities, without the need to specify each of the identities, behaviors, or characteristics that form this plurality.
Overview
In the Western world, generally simple classifications are used to describe sexual orientation (heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals), gender identity (transgender and cisgender), and related minorities (intersex), gathered under the acronyms LGBTQ or LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender/transsexual people, and sometimes intersex people); however, other cultures have other ways of understanding the sex and gender systems. Over the last few decades, some sexology theories have emerged, such as Kinsey theory and queer theory, proposing that this classification is not enough to describe the sexual complexity in human beings and, even, in other animal species.
For example, some people may feel an intermediate sexual orientation between heterosexual and bisexual (heteroflexible) or between homosexual and bisexual (homoflexible). It may vary over time, too (sexual fluidity), or include attraction not only towards women and men, but to all the spectrum of sexes and genders (pansexual). In other words, within bisexuality there exists a huge diversity of typologies and preferences that vary from an exclusive heterosexuality to a complete homosexuality (Kinsey scale).
Sexual diversity includes intersex people, those born with a variety of intermediate features between women and men. It also includes transgender and transsexed people, genderfluid people, and so on.
Lastly, sexual diversity also includes asexual people, who feel disinterest in sexual activity; and all those who consider that their identity cannot be defined, such as queer people.
Socially, sexual diversity is claimed as the acceptance of being different but with equal rights, liberties, and opportunities within the Human Rights framework. In many countries, visibility of sexual diversity is vindicated during Pride Parades.
See also
References
LGBTQ | 0.781634 | 0.982523 | 0.767974 |
Cultural sensitivity | Cultural sensitivity, also referred to as cross-cultural sensitivity or cultural awareness, is the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of other cultures and others' cultural identities. It is related to cultural competence (the skills needed for effective communication with people of other cultures, which includes cross-cultural competence), and is sometimes regarded as the precursor to the achievement of cultural competence, but is a more commonly used term. On the individual level, cultural sensitivity is a state of mind regarding interactions with those different from oneself. Cultural sensitivity enables travelers, workers, and others to successfully navigate interactions with a culture other than their own.
Cultural diversity includes demographic factors (such as race, gender, and age) as well as values and cultural norms. Cultural sensitivity counters ethnocentrism, and involves intercultural communication, among relative skills. Most countries' populations include minority groups comprising indigenous peoples, subcultures, and immigrants who approach life from a different perspective and mindset than that of the dominant culture. Workplaces, educational institutions, media, and organizations of all types are becoming more mindful of being culturally sensitive to all stakeholders and the population at large. Increasingly, training of cultural sensitivity is being incorporated into workplaces and students' curricula at all levels. The training is usually aimed at the dominant culture, but in multicultural societies may also be taught to migrants to teach them about other minority groups. The concept is also taught to expatriates working in other countries to ingratiate them into other customs and traditions.
Definitions and aims
There are a variety of definitions surrounding cultural sensitivity. All of these definitions revolve around the idea that it is the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of other cultures. It includes "the willingness, ability and sensitivity required to understand people with different backgrounds", and the acceptance of diversity. Crucially, it "refers to being aware that cultural differences and similarities between people exist without assigning them a value." Definitions also include the skill set acquired by this learning. Cultural awareness is having the knowledge of the existence of multiple different cultures with different attitudes and worldviews, while cultural sensitivity means the acceptance of those differences and accepting that one's own culture is not superior.
In 2008, cultural sensitivity was found to be a widely used term in a literature search of global databases, both popular and scholarly. Based on this literature, cultural sensitivity is defined as "employing one's knowledge, consideration, understanding, [and] respect, and tailoring [it] after realizing awareness of self and others, and encountering a diverse group or individual".
There are many different types of cultural diversity in any society, including factors such as marginalized or socially excluded groups; ethnicity; sexual orientation; disability; values and cultural norms. Cultural sensitivity is relevant to all of these.
Support of cultural sensitivity is based on ideological or practical considerations. Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, advocated cultural sensitivity as an essential value in the modern world:
Factors for cultural awareness
Certain factors that affect cultural sensitivity include religion, ethnicity, race, national origin, language, or gender. Others areas to look at include age, education, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and mental/physical challenges.
Cultural competence
Awareness and understanding of other cultures is a key factor of cultural sensitivity. Cultural Competence relies on the ability of both parties involved to have a pleasant and successful interaction. The term "cultural competence" is often used to describe those skills acquired to embody cultural sensitivity, particularly in the workplace. Cultural sensitivity requires flexibility. Louise Rasmussen and Winston Sieck led studies consisting of members of the U.S. Military that identified 12 Core Aspects (consisting of four subgroups) of successful cross-cultural interactions. These aspects rely on the subjects of the study being able to remain diplomatic and learn from intercultural interactions.
The 12 Core Aspects Include:
A diplomatic stance
Maintaining a Mission Orientation
Understanding Self in Social Context
Managing Attitude Towards Culture
Cultural Learning
Self-Directed Learning of Cultures
Developing Reliable Information Sources
Learning New Cultures Efficiently
Cultural Reasoning
Coping with Cultural Surprises
Developing Cultural Explanations of Behavior
Cultural Perspective Taking
Intercultural Interaction
Intercultural Communication Planning
Disciplined Self Presentation
Reflection and Feedback
In the dominant culture
Cultural awareness and sensitivity help to overcome inherent ethnocentrism by learning about other cultures and how various modes and expectations may differ between those cultures. These differences range from ethical, religious, and social attitudes to body language and other nonverbal communication. Cultural sensitivity is just one dimension of cultural competence, and has an impact on ethnocentrism and other factors related to culture. The results of developing cultural sensitivity are considered positive: communication is improved, leading to more effective interaction between the people concerned, and improved outcome or interventions for the client or customer.
The concept is taught in many workplaces, as it is an essential skill for managing and building teams in a multicultural society. Intercultural communication has been cited as one of the two biggest challenges within the workplace, along with internal communications (mission statement, meetings, etc.).
In healthcare
Cultural sensitivity training in health care providers can improve the satisfaction and health outcomes of patients from different minority groups. Because standard measures for diagnosis and prognosis relate to established norms, cultural sensitivity is essential. A person's norms are defined by their culture, and these may differ significantly from the treating medical professional. Language barriers, beliefs, and trust are just a few of the factors to consider when treating patients of other cultural groups. Understanding cultural beliefs regarding health and care can give healthcare professionals a better idea of how to proceed with providing care.
It is important to understand the concept behind the buzzword in the healthcare setting, as cultural sensitivity can increase nurses' appreciation of and communication with other professionals as well as patients. Part of providing culturally sensitive care is to develop cultural competence as an ongoing process. Nurses and employers should be committed to educating themselves about different patients' beliefs, values, and perspectives.
In therapy
In a study on narrative theory in therapy, Cynthia C. Morris concluded that culture in made up of the collected stories of a group of people. In the practice of therapy, understanding a patient's point of view is vital to the clinician. Cultural Sensitivity allows for a clinician to get a more well-rounded understanding of where the client is coming from, why they may think about things in a certain way, or their approach to thought in general. Culturally Sensitive Therapy approaches psychotherapy by emphasizing how the clinician understands the client's race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion and any other aspects that relate to culture and identity. Culturally sensitive therapists will help their patients feel more seen and understood, while those without cultural sensitivity may turn away patients from the practice of therapy altogether.
Working and travelling abroad
On the individual level, cultural sensitivity allows travelers and expatriate workers to successfully navigate a different culture with which they are interacting. It can increase the security of travelers because it helps them understand interactions from the perspective of the native culture. One individual's understanding of another's culture can increase respect for the other individual, allowing for more effective communication and interactions. For managers as well as employees, cultural sensitivity is increasingly more vital in business or government jobs.
This cross-cultural sensitivity can lead to both competitiveness and success when working with or within organizations located in a different country. These benefits highlight the consideration of how two societies and cultures operate, particularly with respect to how they are similar and different from each other. Being able to determine these in terms of thoughts, behavior beliefs, and expressions among others makes it possible to solve problems meaningfully and act in a manner that is acceptable to all stakeholders.
Lacking awareness of foreign cultures can also have adverse consequences. These can be as severe as reaching the point of legal action. Similarly, certain etiquettes in one country can be considered violations of business codes in another.
Tourism
Tourism is a major opportunity to experience and interact with other cultures. It is therefore one of the most vital times to be culturally sensitive. There are major faux pas to be aware of regarding the locals. Ensuring awareness of table manners, common phrases, local dress, etiquette at holy sites, and other immersions into the culture are great ways to be sensitive to the destination and engage with it.
Tourism to areas with Indigenous people requires more awareness and cultural sensitivity. Many of these areas have been colonized and turned into tourist attractions that put on display the culture that is being erased. These kinds of attractions lead to stereotyping that negatively impacts the culture rather than exposing others to it. These displays can often turn the culture into an exotic aesthetic that leads to inauthentic portrayals of the culture and furthers stereotypes. This cultural insensitivity happens when cultural practices and products are sold by another cultural group without consent. Due to this, culturally sensitive tourism is an up and coming industry that aims to engage with a culture rather than exoticized.
Models
Bennett scale
Milton Bennett was the first to create a model or framework designed to help comprehension of various stages of intercultural sensitivity. This became known as the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), otherwise referred to as the Bennett scale. This scale has been adapting and developing since 1986 and is included in The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication (2017).
Bennett developed the framework of the model to show the intercultural sensitivity a person may experience. Intercultural sensitivity is defined as an individual's ability to develop emotion towards understanding and appreciating cultural differences that promotes appropriate and effective behavior in intercultural communication"
According to Bennett, “As one’s perceptual organization of cultural difference becomes more complex, one’s experience of culture becomes more sophisticated and the potential for exercising competence in intercultural relations increases." By recognizing how cultural difference is being experienced, predictions about the effectiveness of intercultural communication can be made.
Bennett describes a continuum, which moves from ethnocentrism to "ethnorelativism". The model includes six stages of experiencing difference.
The six stages explained in the model include:
Denial - when people fail to recognize distinctions among cultures or consider them to be irrelevant
Defense - people perceive other cultures in a competitive way, or in an us-against-them way
Minimization - people assume that their distinct cultural worldview is shared by others, or when they perceive their culture's values as fundamental or universal human values that apply to everyone.
Acceptance - recognize that different beliefs and values are shaped by culture,
Adaptation - when people are able to adopt the perspective of another culture,
Integration - someone's identity or sense of self evolves to incorporate the values, beliefs, perspectives, and behaviors of other cultures.
Community Tool Box
The Community Tool Box was developed by the University of Kansas' Center for Community Health and Development, a designated World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Community Health and Development. The Centre's idea of "Building Culturally Competent Organizations," is a guide for diversity and inclusion training in the workplace. The Tool Box refers to three levels leading up to the fourth, the end goal:
cultural knowledge
cultural awareness
cultural sensitivity
cultural competence
Each step builds on the previous one, with the final one, cultural competence, being the stage where the organization has effectively enabled better outcomes in a multicultural workforce.
Competence training
Training to achieve cultural competence or cultural sensitivity is undertaken in schools, workplaces, in healthcare settings
See also
Cross-cultural communication
Cultural assimilation
Cultural behavior
Cultural diversity
Cultural identity
Cultural intelligence
Cultural pluralism
Cultural relativism
Intercultural learning
Intercultural therapy
Multiculturalism
Social identity
References
Further reading
Cultural Sensitivity: A Concept Analysis
Intercultural Sensitivity and Conflict Management Styles in Cross-Cultural Organizational Situations
Cross-cultural competency tools
Cross-cultural studies
Cultural competence | 0.775489 | 0.990266 | 0.76794 |
Aesthetics | Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and the nature of taste and, in a broad sense, incorporates the philosophy of art. Aesthetics examines the philosophy of aesthetic value, which is determined by critical judgments of artistic taste; thus, the function of aesthetics is the "critical reflection on art, culture and nature".
Aesthetics studies natural and artificial sources of experiences and how people form a judgment about those sources of experience. It considers what happens in our minds when we engage with objects or environments such as viewing visual art, listening to music, reading poetry, experiencing a play, watching a fashion show, movie, sports or exploring various aspects of nature.
The philosophy of art specifically studies how artists imagine, create, and perform works of art, as well as how people use, enjoy, and criticize art. Aesthetics considers why people like some works of art and not others, as well as how art can affect our moods and our beliefs. Both aesthetics and the philosophy of art try to find answers to what exactly is art and what makes good art.
Etymology
The word aesthetic is derived from the Ancient Greek (, "perceptive, sensitive, pertaining to sensory perception"), which in turn comes from (, "I perceive, sense, learn") and is related to (, "perception, sensation"). Aesthetics in this central sense has been said to start with the series of articles on "The Pleasures of the Imagination", which the journalist Joseph Addison wrote in the early issues of the magazine The Spectator in 1712.
The term aesthetics was appropriated and coined with new meaning by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten in his dissertation Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus in 1735; Baumgarten chose "aesthetics" because he wished to emphasize the experience of art as a means of knowing. Baumgarten's definition of aesthetics in the fragment Aesthetica (1750) is occasionally considered the first definition of modern aesthetics.
The term was introduced into the English language by Thomas Carlyle in his Life of Friedrich Schiller (1825).
History of aesthetics
The history of the philosophy of art as aesthetics covering the visual arts, the literary arts, the musical arts and other artists forms of expression can be dated back at least to Aristotle and the ancient Greeks. Aristotle writing of the literary arts in his Poetics stated that epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, painting, sculpture, music, and dance are all fundamentally acts of mimesis, each varying in imitation by medium, object, and manner. Aristotle applies the term mimesis both as a property of a work of art and also as the product of the artist's intention and contends that the audience's realisation of the mimesis is vital to understanding the work itself.
Aristotle states that mimesis is a natural instinct of humanity that separates humans from animals and that all human artistry "follows the pattern of nature". Because of this, Aristotle believed that each of the mimetic arts possesses what Stephen Halliwell calls "highly structured procedures for the achievement of their purposes." For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language.
The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation – through narrative or character, through change or no change, and through drama or no drama. Erich Auerbach has extended the discussion of history of aesthetics in his book titled Mimesis.
Aesthetics and the philosophy of art
Some writers distinguish aesthetics from the philosophy of art, claiming that the former is the study of beauty and taste while the latter is the study of works of art. Slater holds that the "full field" of aesthetics is broad, but in a narrow sense it can be limited to the theory of beauty, excluding the philosophy of art. Aesthetics typically considers questions of beauty as well as of art. It examines topics such as art works, aesthetic experience, and aesthetic judgment.
Aesthetic experience refers to the sensory contemplation or appreciation of an object (not necessarily a work of art), while artistic judgment refers to the recognition, appreciation or criticism of art in general or a specific work of art. In the words of one philosopher, "Philosophy of art is about art. Aesthetics is about many things—including art. But it is also about our experience of breathtaking landscapes or the pattern of shadows on the wall opposite your office.
Philosophers of art weigh a culturally contingent conception of art versus one that is purely theoretical. They study the varieties of art in relation to their physical, social, and cultural environments. Aesthetic philosophers sometimes also refer to psychological studies to help understand how people see, hear, imagine, think, learn, and act in relation to the materials and problems of art. Aesthetic psychology studies the creative process and the aesthetic experience.
Aesthetic judgment, universals, and ethics
Aesthetic judgment
Aesthetics examines affective domain response to an object or phenomenon. Judgements of aesthetic value rely on the ability to discriminate at a sensory level. However, aesthetic judgments usually go beyond sensory discrimination.
For David Hume, delicacy of taste is not merely "the ability to detect all the ingredients in a composition", but also the sensitivity "to pains as well as pleasures, which escape the rest of mankind." Thus, sensory discrimination is linked to capacity for pleasure.
For Immanuel Kant (Critique of Judgment, 1790), "enjoyment" is the result when pleasure arises from sensation, but judging something to be "beautiful" has a third requirement: sensation must give rise to pleasure by engaging reflective contemplation. Judgements of beauty are sensory, emotional and intellectual all at once. Kant observed of a man "if he says that 'Canary wine is pleasant,' he is quite content if someone else corrects his expression and remind him that he ought to say instead: 'It is pleasant to me,'" because "every one has his own [sense of] taste". The case of "beauty" is different from mere "pleasantness" because "if he gives out anything as beautiful, he supposes in others the same satisfaction—he judges not merely for himself, but for every one, and speaks of beauty as if it were a property of things."
Viewer interpretations of beauty may on occasion be observed to possess two concepts of value: aesthetics and taste. Aesthetics is the philosophical notion of beauty. Taste is a result of an education process and awareness of elite cultural values learned through exposure to mass culture. Bourdieu examined how the elite in society define the aesthetic values like taste and how varying levels of exposure to these values can result in variations by class, cultural background, and education. According to Kant, beauty is subjective and universal; thus certain things are beautiful to everyone. In the opinion of Władysław Tatarkiewicz, there are six conditions for the presentation of art: beauty, form, representation, reproduction of reality, artistic expression and innovation. However, one may not be able to pin down these qualities in a work of art.
The question of whether there are facts about aesthetic judgments belongs to the branch of metaphilosophy known as meta-aesthetics.
Factors involved in aesthetic judgment
Aesthetic judgment is closely tied to disgust. Responses like disgust show that sensory detection is linked in instinctual ways to facial expressions including physiological responses like the gag reflex. Disgust is triggered largely by dissonance; as Darwin pointed out, seeing a stripe of soup in a man's beard is disgusting even though neither soup nor beards are themselves disgusting. Aesthetic judgments may be linked to emotions or, like emotions, partially embodied in physical reactions. For example, the awe inspired by a sublime landscape might physically manifest with an increased heart-rate or pupil dilation.
As seen, emotions are conformed to 'cultural' reactions, therefore aesthetics is always characterized by 'regional responses', as Francis Grose was the first to affirm in his Rules for Drawing Caricaturas: With an Essay on Comic Painting (1788), published in W. Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, Bagster, London s.d. (1791? [1753]), pp. 1–24. Francis Grose can therefore be claimed to be the first critical 'aesthetic regionalist' in proclaiming the anti-universality of aesthetics in contrast to the perilous and always resurgent dictatorship of beauty. 'Aesthetic Regionalism' can thus be seen as a political statement and stance which vies against any universal notion of beauty to safeguard the counter-tradition of aesthetics related to what has been considered and dubbed un-beautiful just because one's culture does not contemplate it, e.g. Edmund Burke's sublime, what is usually defined as 'primitive' art, or un-harmonious, non-cathartic art, camp art, which 'beauty' posits and creates, dichotomously, as its opposite, without even the need of formal statements, but which will be 'perceived' as ugly.
Likewise, aesthetic judgments may be culturally conditioned to some extent. Victorians in Britain often saw African sculpture as ugly, but just a few decades later, Edwardian audiences saw the same sculptures as beautiful. Evaluations of beauty may well be linked to desirability, perhaps even to sexual desirability. Thus, judgments of aesthetic value can become linked to judgments of economic, political, or moral value. In a current context, a Lamborghini might be judged to be beautiful partly because it is desirable as a status symbol, or it may be judged to be repulsive partly because it signifies over-consumption and offends political or moral values.
The context of its presentation also affects the perception of artwork; artworks presented in a classical museum context are liked more and rated more interesting than when presented in a sterile laboratory context. While specific results depend heavily on the style of the presented artwork, overall, the effect of context proved to be more important for the perception of artwork than the effect of genuineness (whether the artwork was being presented as original or as a facsimile/copy).
Aesthetic judgments can often be very fine-grained and internally contradictory. Likewise aesthetic judgments seem often to be at least partly intellectual and interpretative. What a thing means or symbolizes is often what is being judged. Modern aestheticians have asserted that will and desire were almost dormant in aesthetic experience, yet preference and choice have seemed important aesthetics to some 20th-century thinkers. The point is already made by Hume, but see Mary Mothersill, "Beauty and the Critic's Judgment", in The Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics, 2004. Thus aesthetic judgments might be seen to be based on the senses, emotions, intellectual opinions, will, desires, culture, preferences, values, subconscious behaviour, conscious decision, training, instinct, sociological institutions, or some complex combination of these, depending on exactly which theory is employed.
A third major topic in the study of aesthetic judgments is how they are unified across art forms. For instance, the source of a painting's beauty has a different character to that of beautiful music, suggesting their aesthetics differ in kind. The distinct inability of language to express aesthetic judgment and the role of social construction further cloud this issue.
Aesthetic universals
The philosopher Denis Dutton identified six universal signatures in human aesthetics:
Expertise or virtuosity. Humans cultivate, recognize, and admire technical artistic skills.
Nonutilitarian pleasure. People enjoy art for art's sake, and do not demand that it keep them warm or put food on the table.
Style. Artistic objects and performances satisfy rules of composition that place them in a recognizable style.
Criticism. People make a point of judging, appreciating, and interpreting works of art.
Imitation. With a few important exceptions like abstract painting, works of art simulate experiences of the world.
Special focus. Art is set aside from ordinary life and made a dramatic focus of experience.
Artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn have indicated that there are too many exceptions to Dutton's categories. For example, Hirschhorn's installations deliberately eschew technical virtuosity. People can appreciate a Renaissance Madonna for aesthetic reasons, but such objects often had (and sometimes still have) specific devotional functions. "Rules of composition" that might be read into Duchamp's Fountain or John Cage's 4′33″ do not locate the works in a recognizable style (or certainly not a style recognizable at the time of the works' realization). Moreover, some of Dutton's categories seem too broad: a physicist might entertain hypothetical worlds in his/her imagination in the course of formulating a theory. Another problem is that Dutton's categories seek to universalize traditional European notions of aesthetics and art forgetting that, as André Malraux and others have pointed out, there have been large numbers of cultures in which such ideas (including the idea "art" itself) were non-existent.
Aesthetic ethics
Aesthetic ethics refers to the idea that human conduct and behaviour ought to be governed by that which is beautiful and attractive. John Dewey has pointed out that the unity of aesthetics and ethics is in fact reflected in our understanding of behaviour being "fair"—the word having a double meaning of attractive and morally acceptable. More recently, James Page has suggested that aesthetic ethics might be taken to form a philosophical rationale for peace education.
Beauty
Beauty is one of the main subjects of aesthetics, together with art and taste. Many of its definitions include the idea that an object is beautiful if perceiving it is accompanied by aesthetic pleasure. Among the examples of beautiful objects are landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty is a positive aesthetic value that contrasts with ugliness as its negative counterpart.
Different intuitions commonly associated with beauty and its nature are in conflict with each other, which poses certain difficulties for understanding it. On the one hand, beauty is ascribed to things as an objective, public feature. On the other hand, it seems to depend on the subjective, emotional response of the observer. It is said, for example, that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". It may be possible to reconcile these intuitions by affirming that it depends both on the objective features of the beautiful thing and the subjective response of the observer. One way to achieve this is to hold that an object is beautiful if it has the power to bring about certain aesthetic experiences in the perceiving subject. This is often combined with the view that the subject needs to have the ability to correctly perceive and judge beauty, sometimes referred to as "sense of taste". Various conceptions of how to define and understand beauty have been suggested. Classical conceptions emphasize the objective side of beauty by defining it in terms of the relation between the beautiful object as a whole and its parts: the parts should stand in the right proportion to each other and thus compose an integrated harmonious whole. Hedonist conceptions, on the other hand, focus more on the subjective side by drawing a necessary connection between pleasure and beauty, e.g. that for an object to be beautiful is for it to cause disinterested pleasure. Other conceptions include defining beautiful objects in terms of their value, of a loving attitude towards them or of their function.
New Criticism and "The Intentional Fallacy"
During the first half of the twentieth century, a significant shift to general aesthetic theory took place which attempted to apply aesthetic theory between various forms of art, including the literary arts and the visual arts, to each other. This resulted in the rise of the New Criticism school and debate concerning the intentional fallacy. At issue was the question of whether the aesthetic intentions of the artist in creating the work of art, whatever its specific form, should be associated with the criticism and evaluation of the final product of the work of art, or, if the work of art should be evaluated on its own merits independent of the intentions of the artist.
In 1946, William K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley published a classic and controversial New Critical essay entitled "The Intentional Fallacy", in which they argued strongly against the relevance of an author's intention, or "intended meaning" in the analysis of a literary work. For Wimsatt and Beardsley, the words on the page were all that mattered; importation of meanings from outside the text was considered irrelevant, and potentially distracting.
In another essay, "The Affective Fallacy," which served as a kind of sister essay to "The Intentional Fallacy", Wimsatt and Beardsley also discounted the reader's personal/emotional reaction to a literary work as a valid means of analyzing a text. This fallacy would later be repudiated by theorists from the reader-response school of literary theory. One of the leading theorists from this school, Stanley Fish, was himself trained by New Critics. Fish criticizes Wimsatt and Beardsley in his essay "Literature in the Reader" (1970).
As summarized by Berys Gaut and Livingston in their essay "The Creation of Art": "Structuralist and post-structuralists theorists and critics were sharply critical of many aspects of New Criticism, beginning with the emphasis on aesthetic appreciation and the so-called autonomy of art, but they reiterated the attack on biographical criticisms' assumption that the artist's activities and experience were a privileged critical topic." These authors contend that: "Anti-intentionalists, such as formalists, hold that the intentions involved in the making of art are irrelevant or peripheral to correctly interpreting art. So details of the act of creating a work, though possibly of interest in themselves, have no bearing on the correct interpretation of the work."
Gaut and Livingston define the intentionalists as distinct from formalists stating that: "Intentionalists, unlike formalists, hold that reference to intentions is essential in fixing the correct interpretation of works." They quote Richard Wollheim as stating that, "The task of criticism is the reconstruction of the creative process, where the creative process must in turn be thought of as something not stopping short of, but terminating on, the work of art itself."
Derivative forms of aesthetics
A large number of derivative forms of aesthetics have developed as contemporary and transitory forms of inquiry associated with the field of aesthetics which include the post-modern, psychoanalytic, scientific, and mathematical among others.
Post-modern aesthetics and psychoanalysis
Early-twentieth-century artists, poets and composers challenged existing notions of beauty, broadening the scope of art and aesthetics. In 1941, Eli Siegel, American philosopher and poet, founded Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy that reality itself is aesthetic, and that "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites."
Various attempts have been made to define Post-Modern Aesthetics. The challenge to the assumption that beauty was central to art and aesthetics, thought to be original, is actually continuous with older aesthetic theory; Aristotle was the first in the Western tradition to classify "beauty" into types as in his theory of drama, and Kant made a distinction between beauty and the sublime. What was new was a refusal to credit the higher status of certain types, where the taxonomy implied a preference for tragedy and the sublime to comedy and the Rococo.
Croce suggested that "expression" is central in the way that beauty was once thought to be central. George Dickie suggested that the sociological institutions of the art world were the glue binding art and sensibility into unities. Marshall McLuhan suggested that art always functions as a "counter-environment" designed to make visible what is usually invisible about a society. Theodor Adorno felt that aesthetics could not proceed without confronting the role of the culture industry in the commodification of art and aesthetic experience. Hal Foster attempted to portray the reaction against beauty and Modernist art in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Arthur Danto has described this reaction as "kalliphobia" (after the Greek word for beauty, κάλλος kallos). André Malraux explains that the notion of beauty was connected to a particular conception of art that arose with the Renaissance and was still dominant in the eighteenth century (but was supplanted later). The discipline of aesthetics, which originated in the eighteenth century, mistook this transient state of affairs for a revelation of the permanent nature of art. Brian Massumi suggests to reconsider beauty following the aesthetical thought in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. Walter Benjamin echoed Malraux in believing aesthetics was a comparatively recent invention, a view proven wrong in the late 1970s, when Abraham Moles and Frieder Nake analyzed links between beauty, information processing, and information theory. Denis Dutton in "The Art Instinct" also proposed that an aesthetic sense was a vital evolutionary factor.
Jean-François Lyotard re-invokes the Kantian distinction between taste and the sublime. Sublime painting, unlike kitsch realism, "... will enable us to see only by making it impossible to see; it will please only by causing pain."
Sigmund Freud inaugurated aesthetical thinking in Psychoanalysis mainly via the "Uncanny" as aesthetical affect. Following Freud and Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Lacan theorized aesthetics in terms of sublimation and the Thing.
The relation of Marxist aesthetics to post-modern aesthetics is still a contentious area of debate.
Aesthetics and science
The field of experimental aesthetics was founded by Gustav Theodor Fechner in the 19th century. Experimental aesthetics in these times had been characterized by a subject-based, inductive approach. The analysis of individual experience and behaviour based on experimental methods is a central part of experimental aesthetics. In particular, the perception of works of art, music, sound, or modern items such as websites or other IT products is studied. Experimental aesthetics is strongly oriented towards the natural sciences. Modern approaches mostly come from the fields of cognitive psychology (aesthetic cognitivism) or neuroscience (neuroaesthetics).
Truth in beauty and mathematics
Mathematical considerations, such as symmetry and complexity, are used for analysis in theoretical aesthetics. This is different from the aesthetic considerations of applied aesthetics used in the study of mathematical beauty. Aesthetic considerations such as symmetry and simplicity are used in areas of philosophy, such as ethics and theoretical physics and cosmology to define truth, outside of empirical considerations. Beauty and Truth have been argued to be nearly synonymous, as reflected in the statement "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" in the poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats, or by the Hindu motto "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" (Satya (Truth) is Shiva (God), and Shiva is Sundaram (Beautiful)). The fact that judgments of beauty and judgments of truth both are influenced by processing fluency, which is the ease with which information can be processed, has been presented as an explanation for why beauty is sometimes equated with truth. Recent research found that people use beauty as an indication for truth in mathematical pattern tasks. However, scientists including the mathematician David Orrell and physicist Marcelo Gleiser have argued that the emphasis on aesthetic criteria such as symmetry is equally capable of leading scientists astray.
Computational approaches
Computational approaches to aesthetics emerged amid efforts to use computer science methods "to predict, convey, and evoke emotional response to a piece of art. In this field, aesthetics is not considered to be dependent on taste but is a matter of cognition, and, consequently, learning. In 1928, the mathematician George David Birkhoff created an aesthetic measure as the ratio of order to complexity.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Max Bense, Abraham Moles and Frieder Nake were among the first to analyze links between aesthetics, information processing, and information theory. Max Bense, for example, built on Birkhoff's aesthetic measure and proposed a similar information theoretic measure , where is the redundancy and the entropy, which assigns higher value to simpler artworks.
In the 1990s, Jürgen Schmidhuber described an algorithmic theory of beauty. This theory takes the subjectivity of the observer into account and postulates that among several observations classified as comparable by a given subjective observer, the most aesthetically pleasing is the one that is encoded by the shortest description, following the direction of previous approaches. Schmidhuber's theory explicitly distinguishes between that which is beautiful and that which is interesting, stating that interestingness corresponds to the first derivative of subjectively perceived beauty. He supposes that every observer continually tries to improve the predictability and compressibility of their observations by identifying regularities like repetition, symmetry, and fractal self-similarity.
Since about 2005, computer scientists have attempted to develop automated methods to infer aesthetic quality of images. Typically, these approaches follow a machine learning approach, where large numbers of manually rated photographs are used to "teach" a computer about what visual properties are of relevance to aesthetic quality. A study by Y. Li and C. J. Hu employed Birkhoff's measurement in their statistical learning approach where order and complexity of an image determined aesthetic value. The image complexity was computed using information theory while the order was determined using fractal compression. There is also the case of the Acquine engine, developed at Penn State University, that rates natural photographs uploaded by users.
There have also been relatively successful attempts with regard to chess and music. Computational approaches have also been attempted in film making as demonstrated by a software model developed by Chitra Dorai and a group of researchers at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. The tool predicted aesthetics based on the values of narrative elements. A relation between Max Bense's mathematical formulation of aesthetics in terms of "redundancy" and "complexity" and theories of musical anticipation was offered using the notion of Information Rate.
Evolutionary aesthetics
Evolutionary aesthetics refers to evolutionary psychology theories in which the basic aesthetic preferences of Homo sapiens are argued to have evolved in order to enhance survival and reproductive success. One example being that humans are argued to find beautiful and prefer landscapes which were good habitats in the ancestral environment. Another example is that body symmetry and proportion are important aspects of physical attractiveness which may be due to this indicating good health during body growth. Evolutionary explanations for aesthetical preferences are important parts of evolutionary musicology, Darwinian literary studies, and the study of the evolution of emotion.
Applied aesthetics
As well as being applied to art, aesthetics can also be applied to cultural objects, such as crosses or tools. For example, aesthetic coupling between art-objects and medical topics was made by speakers working for the US Information Agency. Art slides were linked to slides of pharmacological data, which improved attention and retention by simultaneous activation of intuitive right brain with rational left. It can also be used in topics as diverse as cartography, mathematics, gastronomy, fashion and website design.
Other approaches
Guy Sircello has pioneered efforts in analytic philosophy to develop a rigorous theory of aesthetics, focusing on the concepts of beauty, love and sublimity. In contrast to romantic theorists, Sircello argued for the objectivity of beauty and formulated a theory of love on that basis.
British philosopher and theorist of conceptual art aesthetics, Peter Osborne, makes the point that "'post-conceptual art' aesthetic does not concern a particular type of contemporary art so much as the historical-ontological condition for the production of contemporary art in general ...". Osborne noted that contemporary art is 'post-conceptual' in a public lecture delivered in 2010.
Gary Tedman has put forward a theory of a subjectless aesthetics derived from Karl Marx's concept of alienation, and Louis Althusser's antihumanism, using elements of Freud's group psychology, defining a concept of the 'aesthetic level of practice'.
Gregory Loewen has suggested that the subject is key in the interaction with the aesthetic object. The work of art serves as a vehicle for the projection of the individual's identity into the world of objects, as well as being the irruptive source of much of what is uncanny in modern life. As well, art is used to memorialize individuated biographies in a manner that allows persons to imagine that they are part of something greater than themselves.
Criticism
The philosophy of aesthetics as a practice has been criticized by some sociologists and writers of art and society. Raymond Williams, for example, argues that there is no unique and or individual aesthetic object which can be extrapolated from the art world, but rather that there is a continuum of cultural forms and experience of which ordinary speech and experiences may signal as art. By "art" we may frame several artistic "works" or "creations" as so though this reference remains within the institution or special event which creates it and this leaves some works or other possible "art" outside of the frame work, or other interpretations such as other phenomenon which may not be considered as "art".
Pierre Bourdieu disagrees with Kant's idea of the "aesthetic". He argues that Kant's "aesthetic" merely represents an experience that is the product of an elevated class habitus and scholarly leisure as opposed to other possible and equally valid "aesthetic" experiences which lay outside Kant's narrow definition.
Timothy Laurie argues that theories of musical aesthetics "framed entirely in terms of appreciation, contemplation or reflection risk idealizing an implausibly unmotivated listener defined solely through musical objects, rather than seeing them as a person for whom complex intentions and motivations produce variable attractions to cultural objects and practices".
See also
Aestheticism
Aesthetics of science
Art and Theosophy
Art periods
Esthesic and poietic
Everyday Aesthetics
History of aesthetics before the 20th century
Japanese aesthetics
Medieval aesthetics
Mise en scène
Theological aesthetics
Theory of art
References
Sources
Further reading
Mario Perniola, 20th Century Aesthetics. Towards A Theory of Feeling, translated by Massimo Verdicchio, London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2013, .
Handbook of Phenomenological Aesthetics. Edited by Hans Rainer Sepp and Lester Embree. (Series: Contributions To Phenomenology, Vol. 59) Springer, Dordrecht / Heidelberg / London / New York, 2010.
Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature, New York, New York: New American Library, 1971.
Derek Allan, Art and the Human Adventure, Andre Malraux's Theory of Art, Rodopi, 2009.
Derek Allan. Art and Time, Cambridge Scholars, 2013.
Augros, Robert M., Stanciu, George N., The New Story of Science: mind and the universe, Lake Bluff, Illinois: Regnery Gateway, 1984. (has significant material on Art, Science and their philosophies)
John Bender and Gene Blocker, Contemporary Philosophy of Art: Readings in Analytic Aesthetics 1993.
René Bergeron. L'Art et sa spiritualité. Québec, QC.: Éditions du Pelican, 1961.
Christine Buci-Glucksmann (2003), Esthétique de l'éphémère, Galilée. (French)
Ralf van Bühren, ed. (2024). Writing: what for and for whom. The joys and travails of the artist. Roma: EDUSC.
Noël Carroll (2000), Theories of Art Today, University of Wisconsin Press.
Mario Costa (1999) (in Italian), L'estetica dei media. Avanguardie e tecnologia, Milan: Castelvecchi, .
Benedetto Croce (1922), Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic.
E.S. Dallas (1866), The Gay Science, 2 volumes, on the aesthetics of poetry.
Danto, Arthur (2003), The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art, Open Court.
Stephen Davies (1991), Definitions of Art.
Terry Eagleton (1990), The Ideology of the Aesthetic. Blackwell.
Susan L. Feagin and Patrick Maynard (1997), Aesthetics. Oxford Readers.
Penny Florence and Nicola Foster (eds.) (2000), Differential Aesthetics. London: Ashgate.
Berys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes (eds.), Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. 3rd ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2013.
Annemarie Gethmann-Siefert (1995), Einführung in die Ästhetik, Munich, W. Fink.
David Goldblatt and Lee B. Brown, ed. (2010), Aesthetics: A Reader in the Philosophy of the Arts. 3rd ed. Pearson Publishing.
Theodore Gracyk (2011), The Philosophy of Art: An Introduction. Polity Press.
Greenberg, Clement (1960), "Modernist Painting", The Collected Essays and Criticism 1957–1969, The University of Chicago Press, 1993, 85–92.
Evelyn Hatcher (ed.), Art as Culture: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Art. 1999
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1975), Aesthetics. Lectures on Fine Art, trans. T.M. Knox, 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hans Hofmann and Sara T Weeks; Bartlett H Hayes; Addison Gallery of American Art; Search for the real, and other essays (Cambridge, Massachusetts, M.I.T. Press, 1967)
Michael Ann Holly and Keith Moxey (eds.), Art History and Visual Studies. Yale University Press, 2002.
Carol Armstrong and Catherine de Zegher (eds.), Women Artists at the Millennium. Massachusetts: October Books/MIT Press, 2006.
Kant, Immanuel (1790), Critique of Judgement, Translated by Werner S. Pluhar, Hackett Publishing Co., 1987.
Kelly, Michael (Editor in Chief) (1998) Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 4 vol. pp. xvii–521, pp. 555, pp. 536, pp. 572; 2224 total pages; 100 b/w photos; . Covers philosophical, historical, sociological, and biographical aspects of Art and Aesthetics worldwide.
Søren Kierkegaard (1843), Either/Or, translated by Alastair Hannay, London, Penguin, 1992
Peter Kivy (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics. 2004
Carolyn Korsmeyer (ed.), Aesthetics: The Big Questions. 1998
Lyotard, Jean-François (1979), The Postmodern Condition, Manchester University Press, 1984.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1969), The Visible and the Invisible, Northwestern University Press.
David Novitz (1992), The Boundaries of Art.
Mario Perniola, The Art and Its Shadow, foreword by Hugh J. Silverman, translated by Massimo Verdicchio, London-New York, Continuum, 2004.
Griselda Pollock, "Does Art Think?" In: Dana Arnold and Margaret Iverson (eds.) Art and Thought. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2003. 129–174. .
Griselda Pollock, Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum: Time, Space and the Archive. Routledge, 2007. .
Griselda Pollock, Generations and Geographies in the Visual Arts. Routledge, 1996. .
George Santayana (1896), The Sense of Beauty. Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory. New York, Modern Library, 1955.
Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just. Princeton, 2001.
Friedrich Schiller, (1795), On the Aesthetic Education of Man. Dover Publications, 2004.
Alan Singer and Allen Dunn (eds.), Literary Aesthetics: A Reader. Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2000.
Jadranka Skorin-Kapov, The Intertwining of Aesthetics and Ethics: Exceeding of Expectations, Ecstasy, Sublimity. Lexington Books, 2016.
Władysław Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics, The Hague, 1980.
Władysław Tatarkiewicz, History of Aesthetics, 3 vols. (1–2, 1970; 3, 1974), The Hague, Mouton.
Markand Thakar Looking for the 'Harp' Quartet: An Investigation into Musical Beauty. University of Rochester Press, 2011.
Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art?, Penguin Classics, 1995.
Roger Scruton, Beauty: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Roger Scruton, The Aesthetic Understanding: Essays in the Philosophy of Art and Culture (1983)
The London Philosophy Study Guide offers many suggestions on what to read, depending on the student's familiarity with the subject: Aesthetics
John M. Valentine, Beginning Aesthetics: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art. McGraw-Hill, 2006.
von Vacano, Diego, "The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche and the Making of Aesthetic Political Theory," Lanham MD: Lexington: 2007.
Thomas Wartenberg, The Nature of Art. 2006.
John Whitehead, Grasping for the Wind. 2001.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures on aesthetics, psychology and religious belief, Oxford, Blackwell, 1966.
Richard Wollheim, Art and its objects, 2nd edn, 1980, Cambridge University Press,
Gino Zaccaria, The Enigma of Art. On the Provenance of Artistic Creation, 2021, Brill,
Ben Shneiderman, The Power of Aesthetic: Enhancing Visual Appeal in Your Designs , Ben, 1968.
Jean-Marc Rouvière, Au prisme du readymade, incises sur l'identité équivoque de l'objet préface de Philippe Sers et G. Litichevesky, Paris L'Harmattan 2023
Indian aesthetics
External links
Aesthetics in Continental Philosophy article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Medieval Theories of Aesthetics article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Revue online Appareil
Postscript 1980 – Some Old Problems in New Perspectives
Aesthetics in Art Education: A Look Toward Implementation
More about Art, culture and Education
The Concept of the Aesthetic
Aesthetics entry in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Philosophy of Aesthetics entry in the Philosophy Archive
Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges: Introduction to Aesthetics
Beauty , BBC Radio 4 discussion with Angie Hobbs, Susan James & Julian Baggini (In Our Time, 19 May 2005)
Aesthetics
1730s neologisms
Humanities | 0.76846 | 0.999266 | 0.767897 |
High culture | In a society, high culture encompasses cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteems as being exemplary works of art, and the intellectual works of literature and music, history and philosophy, which a society considers representative of their culture.
In popular usage, the term high culture identifies the culture either of the upper class (an aristocracy) or of a status class (the intelligentsia); high culture also identifies a society’s common repository of broad-range knowledge and tradition (folk culture) that transcends the social-class system of the society. Sociologically, the term high culture is contrasted with the term low culture, which comprises the forms of popular culture characteristic of the less-educated social classes, such as the barbarians, the Philistines, and hoi polloi (the masses), though very often also enjoyed by the upper classes.
Matthew Arnold introduced the term high culture in the book Culture and Anarchy (1869). The Preface defines culture as "the disinterested endeavour after man’s perfection" pursued, obtained, and achieved by effort to "know the best that has been said and thought in the world". Such a literary definition of high culture also includes philosophy. Moreover, the philosophy of aesthetics proposed in high culture is a force for moral and political good. Critically, the term "high culture" is contrasted with the terms "popular culture" and "mass culture".
In Notes Towards the Definition of Culture (1948), T. S. Eliot said that high culture and popular culture are necessary and complementary parts of the culture of a society. In The Uses of Literacy (1957), Richard Hoggart presents the sociologic experience of the working-class man and woman in acquiring the cultural literacy, at university, which facilitates social upward mobility. In the U.S., Harold Bloom and F. R. Leavis pursued the definition of high culture, by way of the Western canon of literature.
Media theorist Steven Johnson writes that, unlike popular culture, "the classics—and soon to be classics—are in their own right descriptions and explanations of the cultural systems that produced them." He says that "a crucial way in which mass culture differs from high art" is that individual works of mass culture are less interesting than the broader cultural trends which produced them.
History in the West
The high culture of the West originated in the classical-world traditions of intellectual and aesthetic life in Ancient Greece (from c. 8th century BC – AD 147) and Ancient Rome (753 BC – AD 476). In the classical Greco-Roman tradition, the ideal mode of language was published and preserved in works of elevated style (correct grammar, syntax, and diction). Certain forms of language used by authors in valorized epochs were held up in antiquity and the Renaissance as eternal valid models and normative standards of excellence; e.g. the Attic dialect of ancient Greek spoken and written by the playwrights and philosophers of Periclean Athens (fifth century BC); and the form of classical Latin used in the "Golden Age" of Roman culture (c. 70 B.C. – AD 18) represented by such figures as Cicero and Virgil. This form of education was known to the Greeks as παιδεία, which was translated by the Romans into Latin as humanitas since it reflected a form of education aiming at the refinement of human nature, rather than the acquisition of technical or vocational skills. Indeed, the Greco-Roman world tended to see such manual, commercial, and technical labor as subordinate to purely intellectual activities.
From the idea of the "free" man with sufficient leisure to pursue such intellectual and aesthetic refinement, arose the classical distinction between the "liberal" arts which are intellectual and done for their own sake, as against the "servile" or "mechanical" arts which were associated with manual labor and done to earn a living. This implied an association between high culture and the upper classes whose inherited wealth provided such time for intellectual cultivation. The leisured gentleman not weighed down by the necessity of earning a living, was free to devote himself to activities proper to such a "free man" – those deemed to involve true excellence and nobility as opposed to mere utility.
During the Renaissance, the classical intellectual values of the fully rediscovered Greco–Roman culture were the cultural capital of the upper classes (and the aspiring), and aimed at the complete development of human intellectual, aesthetic, and moral faculties. This ideal associated with humanism (a later term derived from the humanities or studia humanitatis), was communicated in Renaissance Italy through institutions such as the Renaissance court schools. Renaissance humanism soon spread through Europe becoming much of the basis of upper class education for centuries. For the socially ambitious man and woman who means to rise in society, The Book of the Courtier (1528), by Baldasare Castiglione, instructs the reader to acquire and possess knowledge of the Greco–Roman Classics, being education integral to the social-persona of the aristocrat. A key contribution of the Renaissance was the elevation of painting and sculpture to a status equal to the liberal arts (hence the visual arts lost for elites any lingering negative association with manual artisanship). The early Renaissance treatises of Leon Battista Alberti were instrumental in this regard.
The evolution of the concept of high culture initially was defined in educational terms largely as critical study and knowledge of the Greco–Roman arts and humanities which furnished much of the foundation for European cultures and societies. However, aristocratic patronage through most of the modern era was also pivotal to the support and creation of new works of high culture across the range of arts, music, and literature. The subsequent prodigious development of the modern European languages and cultures meant that the modern definition of the term "high culture" embraces not only Greek and Latin texts, but a much broader canon of select literary, philosophical, historical, and scientific books in both ancient and modern languages. Of comparable importance are those works of art and music considered to be of the highest excellence and broadest influence (e.g. the Parthenon, the painting and sculpture of Michelangelo, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, etc). Together these texts and art works constitute the exemplary artifacts representing the high culture of the Western world.
Cultural traditions
In the Western and some East Asian traditions, art that demonstrates the imagination of the artist is accorded the status of high art. In the West this tradition began in Ancient Greece, was reinforced in the Renaissance, and by Romanticism, which eliminated the hierarchy of genres within the fine arts, which was established in the Renaissance. In China there was a distinction between the literati painting by the scholar-officials and the work produced by common artists, working in largely different styles, or the decorative arts such as Chinese porcelain, which were produced by unknown craftsmen working in large factories. In both China and the West the distinction was especially clear in landscape painting, where for centuries imaginary views, produced from the imagination of the artist, were considered superior works.
Cultural capital
In socially-stratified Europe and the Americas, a first-hand immersion to the high culture of the West, the Grand Tour of Europe, was a rite of passage that complemented and completed the book education of a gentleman, from the nobility, the aristocracy, and the bourgeoisie, with a worldly perspective of society and civilisation. The post-university tour of the cultural centres of Europe was a social-class benefit of the cultural capital transmitted through the high-status institutions (schools, academies, universities) meant to produce the ideal gentleman of that society.
The European concept of high culture included cultivation of refined etiquette and manners; the education of taste in the fine arts such as sculpture and painting; an appreciation of classical music and opera in its diverse history and myriad forms; knowledge of the humane letters (literae humaniores) represented by the best Greek and Latin authors, and more broadly of the liberal arts traditions (e.g. philosophy, history, drama, rhetoric, and poetry) of Western civilisation, as well as a general acquaintance with important concepts in theology, science, and political thought.
High art
Much of high culture consists of the appreciation of what is sometimes called "high art". This term is rather broader than Arnold's definition and besides literature includes music, visual arts (especially painting), and traditional forms of the performing arts (including some cinema). The decorative arts would not generally be considered high art.
The cultural products most often regarded as forming part of high culture are most likely to have been produced during periods of high civilization, for which a large, sophisticated, and wealthy urban-based society provides a coherent and conscious aesthetic framework, and a large-scale milieu of training, and, for the visual arts, sourcing materials and financing work. Such an environment enables artists, as near as possible, to realize their creative potential with as few as possible practical and technical constraints, though many more could be found on the cultural and economic side. Although the Western concept of high culture concentrates on the Greco-Roman tradition, and its resumption from the Renaissance onwards, such conditions existed in other places at other times.
Art music
Art music (or serious music, classical music, cultivated music, canonical music or erudite music) is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition. The notion of art music is a frequent and well-defined musicological distinction – musicologist Philip Tagg, for example, refers to art music as one of an "axiomatic triangle consisting of 'folk', 'art' and 'popular' musics". He explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria, with high cultural music often performed to an audience whilst folk music would traditionally be more participatory, high culture music is small scale and performed at the local level rather than as a mass produced pop music,
it is stored in written form rather than non-written, it's often made for a diverse group of people as opposed to a heterogeneous socioculturally audience, non-industrious high art music spreads in many locales rather than pop music which is possible in industrious economies only, it's made not to compete in the free market place of music. In this regard, "art music" frequently occurs as a contrasting term to "popular music" and to "traditional" or "folk music".
Art film
Art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an "art film" using a "...canon of films and those formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films", which includes, among other elements: a social realism style; an emphasis on the authorial expressivity of the director or writer; and a focus on the thoughts and dreams of characters, rather than presenting a clear, goal-driven story. According to the film scholar David Bordwell, "art cinema itself is a film genre, with its own distinct conventions."
Promotion
The term has always been susceptible to attack for elitism, and, in response, many proponents of the concept devoted great efforts to promoting high culture among a wider public than the highly educated bourgeoisie whose natural territory it was supposed to be. There was a drive, beginning in the 19th century, to open museums and concert halls to give the general public access to high culture. Figures such as John Ruskin and Lord Reith of the BBC in Britain, Leon Trotsky and others in Communist Russia, and many others in America and throughout the western world have worked to widen the appeal of elements of high culture such as classical music, art by old masters and the literary classics.
With the widening of access to university education, the effort spread there, and all aspects of high culture became the objects of academic study, which with the exception of the classics had not often been the case until the late 19th century. University liberal arts courses still play an important role in the promotion of the concept of high culture, though often now avoiding the term itself.
Especially in Europe, governments have been prepared to subsidize high culture through the funding of museums, opera and ballet companies, orchestras, cinema, public broadcasting stations such as BBC Radio 3, ARTE, and in other ways. Organizations such as the Arts Council of Great Britain, and in most European countries, whole ministries administer these programs. This includes the subsidy of new works by composers, writers and artists. There are also many private philanthropic sources of funding, which are especially important in the US, where the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting also funds broadcasting. These may be seen as part of the broader concept of official culture, although often a mass audience is not the intended market.
The New York Times "Arts & Leisure" section, from 1962 to 1988, featured articles on high culture which usually outranked popular culture. But by 1993, articles on pop culture (49%) soon outranked the ones on high culture (39%) thanks to advertising effecting editorial coverage (mostly on the latest motion pictures). Advertising on literature, however, has been prominent since the novel became a popular literary genre in the 19th century. Authors like Charles Dickens, Henry James and James Joyce worked in advertisement before their literary careers and/or had used ads on their novels.
Theories
The relations between high culture and mass culture are concerns of cultural studies, media studies, critical theory, sociology, Postmodernism and Marxist philosophy. In the essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1936), Walter Benjamin explored the relations of value of the arts (high and mass) when subjected to industrial reproduction. The critical theoreticians Theodor W. Adorno and Antonio Gramsci interpreted the high-art and mass-art cultural relations as an instrument of social control, with which the ruling class maintain their cultural hegemony upon society.
For the Orientalist Ernest Renan and for the rationalist philosopher Ernest Gellner, high culture was conceptually integral to the politics and ideology of nationalism, as a requisite part of a healthy national identity. Gellner expanded the conceptual scope of the phrase in Nations and Nationalism (1983) stating that high art is "a literate, codified culture, which permits context-free communication" among cultures.
In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979), the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu proposed that aesthetic taste (cultural judgement) is in large part derived from social class. Social class establishes the definitions of high art, e.g. in social etiquette, gastronomy, oenology, military service. In such activities of aesthetic judgement, the ruling-class person uses social codes unknown to middle-class and lower-class persons in the pursuit and practice of activities of taste.
See also
References
Citations
Sources
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London: University of Texas Press.
Gans, Herbert J. Popular Culture and High Culture: an Analysis and Evaluation of Taste. New York: Basic Books, 1974. xii, 179 pages. .
Ross, Andrew. No Respect: Intellectuals & Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 1989. ix, 269 pages. (pbk.).
External links
Full text of Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy online
Memory and modernity:reflections on Ernest Gellner's theory of nationalism - Lecture text by Anthony D Smith
The arts
Academic culture
Social class subcultures
Culture | 0.771281 | 0.995587 | 0.767877 |
Metonymy | Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words metonymy and metonym come ; , a suffix that names figures of speech, .
Background
Metonymy and related figures of speech are common in everyday speech and writing. Synecdoche and metalepsis are considered specific types of metonymy. Polysemy, the capacity for a word or phrase to have multiple meanings, sometimes results from relations of metonymy. Both metonymy and metaphor involve the substitution of one term for another. In metaphor, this substitution is based on some specific analogy between two things, whereas in metonymy the substitution is based on some understood association or contiguity.
American literary theorist Kenneth Burke considers metonymy as one of four "master tropes": metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. He discusses them in particular ways in his book A Grammar of Motives. Whereas Roman Jakobson argued that the fundamental dichotomy in trope was between metaphor and metonymy, Burke argues that the fundamental dichotomy is between irony and synecdoche, which he also describes as the dichotomy between dialectic and representation, or again between reduction and perspective.
In addition to its use in everyday speech, metonymy is a figure of speech in some poetry and in much rhetoric. Greek and Latin scholars of rhetoric made significant contributions to the study of metonymy.
Meaning relationships
Metonymy takes many different forms.
Synecdoche uses a part to refer to the whole, or the whole to refer to the part.
Metalepsis uses a familiar word or a phrase in a new context. For example, "lead foot" may describe a fast driver; lead is proverbially heavy, and a foot exerting more pressure on the accelerator causes a vehicle to go faster (in this context unduly so). The figure of speech is a "metonymy of a metonymy".
Many cases of polysemy originate as metonyms: for example, "chicken" means the meat as well as the animal; "crown" for the object, as well as the institution.
Versus metaphor
Metonymy works by the contiguity (association) between two concepts, whereas the term "metaphor" is based upon their analogous similarity. When people use metonymy, they do not typically wish to transfer qualities from one referent to another as they do with metaphor. There is nothing press-like about reporters or crown-like about a monarch, but "the press" and "the crown" are both common metonyms.
Some uses of figurative language may be understood as both metonymy and metaphor; for example, the relationship between "a crown" and a "king" could be interpreted metaphorically (i.e., the king, like his gold crown, could be seemingly stiff yet ultimately malleable, over-ornate, and consistently immobile). In the phrase "lands belonging to the crown", the word "crown" is a metonymy. The reason is that monarchs by and large indeed wear a crown, physically. In other words, there is a pre-existent link between "crown" and "monarchy". On the other hand, when Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that the Israeli language is a "phoenicuckoo cross with some magpie characteristics", he is using metaphors. There is no physical link between a language and a bird. The reason the metaphors "phoenix" and "cuckoo" are used is that on the one hand hybridic "Israeli" is based on Hebrew, which, like a phoenix, rises from the ashes; and on the other hand, hybridic "Israeli" is based on Yiddish, which like a cuckoo, lays its egg in the nest of another bird, tricking it to believe that it is its own egg. Furthermore, the metaphor "magpie" is employed because, according to Zuckermann, hybridic "Israeli" displays the characteristics of a magpie, "stealing" from languages such as Arabic and English.
Two examples using the term "fishing" help clarify the distinction. The phrase "to fish pearls" uses metonymy, drawing from "fishing" the idea of taking things from the ocean. What is carried across from "fishing fish" to "fishing pearls" is the domain of metonymy. In contrast, the metaphorical phrase "fishing for information" transfers the concept of fishing into a new domain. If someone is "fishing" for information, we do not imagine that the person is anywhere near the ocean; rather, we transpose elements of the action of fishing (waiting, hoping to catch something that cannot be seen, probing, and most importantly, trying) into a new domain (a conversation). Thus, metaphors work by presenting a target set of meanings and using them to suggest a similarity between items, actions, or events in two domains, whereas metonymy calls up or references a specific domain (here, removing items from the sea).
Sometimes, metaphor and metonymy may both be at work in the same figure of speech, or one could interpret a phrase metaphorically or metonymically. For example, the phrase "lend me your ear" could be analyzed in a number of ways. One could imagine the following interpretations:
Analyze "ear" metonymically first – "ear" means "attention" (because people use ears to pay attention to each other's speech). Now, when we hear the phrase "Talk to him; you have his ear", it symbolizes he will listen to you or that he will pay attention to you. Another phrase "lending an ear (attention)", we stretch the base meaning of "lend" (to let someone borrow an object) to include the "lending" of non-material things (attention), but, beyond this slight extension of the verb, no metaphor is at work.
Imagine the whole phrase literally – imagine that the speaker literally borrows the listener's ear as a physical object (and the person's head with it). Then the speaker has temporary possession of the listener's ear, so the listener has granted the speaker temporary control over what the listener hears. The phrase "lend me your ear" is interpreted to metaphorically mean that the speaker wants the listener to grant the speaker temporary control over what the listener hears.
First, analyze the verb phrase "lend me your ear" metaphorically to mean "turn your ear in my direction", since it is known that, literally lending a body part is nonsensical. Then, analyze the motion of ears metonymically – we associate "turning ears" with "paying attention", which is what the speaker wants the listeners to do.
It is difficult to say which analysis above most closely represents the way a listener interprets the expression, and it is possible that different listeners analyse the phrase in different ways, or even in different ways at different times. Regardless, all three analyses yield the same interpretation. Thus, metaphor and metonymy, though different in their mechanism, work together seamlessly.
Examples
Here are some broad kinds of relationships where metonymy is frequently used:
Containment: When one thing contains another, it can frequently be used metonymically, as when "dish" is used to refer not to a plate but to the food it contains, or as when the name of a building is used to refer to the entity it contains, as when "the White House" or "the Pentagon" are used to refer to the Administration of the United States, or the U.S. Department of Defense, respectively.
A physical item, place, or body part used to refer to a related concept, such as "the bench" for the judicial profession, "stomach" or "belly" for appetite or hunger, "mouth" for speech, being "in diapers" for infancy, "palate" for taste, "the altar" or "the aisle" for marriage, "hand" for someone's responsibility for something ("he had a hand in it"), "head" or "brain" for mind or intelligence, or "nose" for concern about someone else's affairs, (as in "keep your nose out of my business"). A reference to Timbuktu, as in "from here to Timbuktu," usually means a place or idea is too far away or mysterious. Metonymy of objects or body parts for concepts is common in dreams.
Tools/instruments: Often a tool is used to signify the job it does or the person who does the job, as in the phrase "his Rolodex is long and valuable" (referring to the Rolodex instrument, which keeps contact business cards, meaning he has a lot of contacts and knows many people). Also "the press" (referring to the printing press), or as in the proverb, "The pen is mightier than the sword."
Product for process: This is a type of metonymy where the product of the activity stands for the activity itself. For example, in "The book is moving right along," the book refers to the process of writing or publishing.
Punctuation marks often stand metonymically for a meaning expressed by the punctuation mark. For example, "He's a big question mark to me" indicates that something is unknown. In the same way, 'period' can be used to emphasise that a point is concluded or not to be challenged.
Synecdoche: A part of something is often used for the whole, as when people refer to "head" of cattle or assistants are referred to as "hands." An example of this is the Canadian dollar, referred to as the loonie for the image of a bird on the one-dollar coin. United States one hundred-dollar bills are often referred to as "Bens", "Benjamins" or "Franklins" because they bear a portrait of Benjamin Franklin. Also, the whole of something is used for a part, as when people refer to a municipal employee as "the city" or police officers as "the law".
Toponyms: A country's capital city or some location within the city is frequently used as a metonym for the country's government, such as Washington, D.C., in the United States; Ottawa in Canada; Rome in Italy; Paris in France; Tokyo in Japan; New Delhi in India; London in the United Kingdom; Moscow in Russia etc. Perhaps the oldest such example is "Pharaoh" which originally referred to the residence of the King of Egypt but by the New Kingdom had come to refer to the king himself. Similarly, other important places, such as Wall Street, K Street, Madison Avenue, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Vegas, and Detroit are commonly used to refer to the industries that are located there (finance, lobbying, advertising, high technology, entertainment, gambling, and motor vehicles, respectively). Such usage may persist even when the industries in question have moved elsewhere, for example, Fleet Street continues to be used as a metonymy for the British national press, though many national publications are no longer headquartered on the street of that name.
Places and institutions
A place is often used as a metonym for a government or other official institutions, for example, Brussels for the institutions of the European Union, The Hague for the International Court of Justice or International Criminal Court, Nairobi for the government of Kenya, the Kremlin for the Russian presidency, Chausseestraße and Pullach for the German Federal Intelligence Service, Number 10, Downing Street or Whitehall for the prime minister of the United Kingdom and the UK civil service, the White House and Capitol Hill for the executive and legislative branches, respectively, of the United States federal government, Foggy Bottom for the U.S. State Department, Langley for the Central Intelligence Agency, Quantico for either the Federal Bureau of Investigation academy and forensic laboratory or the Marine Corps base of the same name, Malacañang for the President of the Philippines, their advisers and Office of the President, "La Moncloa" for the Prime Minister of Spain, and Vatican for the pope, Holy See and Roman Curia. Other names of addresses or locations can become convenient shorthand names in international diplomacy, allowing commentators and insiders to refer impersonally and succinctly to foreign ministries with impressive and imposing names as (for example) the Quai d'Orsay, the Wilhelmstrasse, the Kremlin, and the Porte.
A place (or places) can represent an entire industry. For instance: Wall Street, used metonymically, can stand for the entire U.S. financial and corporate banking sector; K Street for Washington, D.C.'s lobbying industry or lobbying in the United States in general; Hollywood for the U.S. film industry, and the people associated with it; Broadway for the American commercial theatrical industry; Madison Avenue for the American advertising industry; and Silicon Valley for the American technology industry. The High Street (of which there are over 5,000 in Britain) is a term commonly used to refer to the entire British retail sector. Common nouns and phrases can also be metonyms: "red tape" can stand for bureaucracy, whether or not that bureaucracy uses actual red tape to bind documents. In Commonwealth realms, The Crown is a metonym for the state in all its aspects.
In recent Israeli usage, the term "Balfour" came to refer to the Israeli Prime Minister's residence, located on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, to all the streets around it where demonstrations frequently take place, and also to the Prime Minister and his family who live in the residence.
Rhetoric in ancient history
Western culture studied poetic language and deemed it to be rhetoric. A. Al-Sharafi supports this concept in his book Textual Metonymy, "Greek rhetorical scholarship at one time became entirely poetic scholarship." Philosophers and rhetoricians thought that metaphors were the primary figurative language used in rhetoric. Metaphors served as a better means to attract the audience's attention because the audience had to read between the lines in order to get an understanding of what the speaker was trying to say. Others did not think of metonymy as a good rhetorical method because metonymy did not involve symbolism. Al-Sharafi explains, "This is why they undermined practical and purely referential discourse because it was seen as banal and not containing anything new, strange or shocking."
Greek scholars contributed to the definition of metonymy. For example, Isocrates worked to define the difference between poetic language and non-poetic language by saying that, "Prose writers are handicapped in this regard because their discourse has to conform to the forms and terms used by the citizens and to those arguments which are precise and relevant to the subject-matter." In other words, Isocrates proposes here that metaphor is a distinctive feature of poetic language because it conveys the experience of the world afresh and provides a kind of defamiliarisation in the way the citizens perceive the world. Democritus described metonymy by saying, "Metonymy, that is the fact that words and meaning change." Aristotle discussed different definitions of metaphor, regarding one type as what we know to be metonymy today.
Latin scholars also had an influence on metonymy. The treatise Rhetorica ad Herennium states metonymy as, "the figure which draws from an object closely akin or associated an expression suggesting the object meant, but not called by its own name." The author describes the process of metonymy to us saying that we first figure out what a word means. We then figure out that word's relationship with other words. We understand and then call the word by a name that it is associated with. "Perceived as such then metonymy will be a figure of speech in which there is a process of abstracting a relation of proximity between two words to the extent that one will be used in place of another." Cicero viewed metonymy as more of a stylish rhetorical method and described it as being based on words, but motivated by style.
Jakobson, structuralism and realism
Metonymy became important in French structuralism through the work of Roman Jakobson. In his 1956 essay "The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles", Jakobson relates metonymy to the linguistic practice of [syntagmatic] combination and to the literary practice of realism. He explains:
The primacy of the metaphoric process in the literary schools of Romanticism and symbolism has been repeatedly acknowledged, but it is still insufficiently realized that it is the predominance of metonymy which underlies and actually predetermines the so-called 'realistic' trend, which belongs to an intermediary stage between the decline of Romanticism and the rise of symbolism and is opposed to both. Following the path of contiguous relationships, the realistic author metonymically digresses from the plot to the atmosphere and from the characters to the setting in space and time. He is fond of synecdochic details. In the scene of Anna Karenina's suicide Tolstoy's artistic attention is focused on the heroine's handbag; and in War and Peace the synecdoches "hair on the upper lip" or "bare shoulders" are used by the same writer to stand for the female characters to whom these features belong.
Jakobson's theories were important for Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Jacques Lacan, and others.
Dreams can use metonyms.
Art
Metonyms can also be wordless. For example, Roman Jakobson argued that cubist art relied heavily on nonlinguistic metonyms, while surrealist art relied more on metaphors.
Lakoff and Turner argued that all words are metonyms: "Words stand for the concepts they express." Some artists have used actual words as metonyms in their paintings. For example, Miró's 1925 painting "Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams" has the word "photo" to represent the image of his dreams. This painting comes from a series of paintings called peintures-poésies (paintings-poems) which reflect Miró's interest in dreams and the subconscious and the relationship of words, images, and thoughts. Picasso, in his 1911 painting "Pipe Rack and Still Life on Table" inserts the word "Ocean" rather than painting an ocean: These paintings by Miró and Picasso are, in a sense, the reverse of a rebus: the word stands for the picture, instead of the picture standing for the word.
See also
-onym
Antonomasia
Deferred reference
Eggcorn
Eponym
Enthymeme
Euphemism by comparison
Generic trademark
Kenning
List of metonyms
Meronymy
Newspeak
Pars pro toto
Simile
Slang
Sobriquet
Social stereotype
Synecdoche
Totum pro parte
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Figures of speech
Narrative techniques
Semantics
Tropes by type | 0.768705 | 0.998888 | 0.76785 |
Politicisation | Politicisation (also politicization; see English spelling differences) is a concept in political science and theory used to explain how ideas, entities or collections of facts are given a political tone or character, and are consequently assigned to the ideas and strategies of a particular group or party, thus becoming the subject of contestation. Politicisation has been described as compromising objectivity, and is linked with political polarisation. Conversely, it can have a democratising effect and enhance political choice, and has been shown to improve the responsiveness of supranational institutions such as the European Union. The politicisation of a group is more likely to occur when justifications for political violence are considered acceptable within a society, or in the absence of norms condemning violence.
Depoliticisation, the reverse process, is when issues are no longer the subject of political contestation. It is characterised by governance through consensus-building and pragmatic compromise. It occurs when subjects are left to experts, such as technocratic or bureaucratic institutions, or left to individuals and free markets, through liberalisation or deregulation. It is often connected with multi-level governance. The concept has been used to explain the "democratic gap" between politicians and citizens who lack choice, agency and opportunities for deliberation. In the 21st century, depoliticisation has been linked to disillusionment with neoliberalism. Depoliticisation has negative consequences for regime legitimacy, and produces anti-political sentiment associated with populism, which can result in "repoliticisation" (politicisation following depoliticisation).
Current studies of politicisation are separated into various subfields. It is primarily examined on three separate levels: within national political systems, within the European Union and within international institutions. Academic approaches vary greatly and are frequently disconnected. It has been studied from subdisciplines such as comparative politics, political sociology, European studies and legal theory.
The politicisation of science occurs when actors stress the inherent uncertainty of scientific method to challenge scientific consensus, undermining the positive impact of science on political debate by causing citizens to dismiss scientific evidence.
Definitions
The dominant academic framework for understanding politicisation is the systems model, which sees politics as an arena or sphere. In this perspective, politicisation is the process by which issues or phenomena enter the sphere of "the political", a space of controversy and conflict. Alternatively, in the behaviouralist approach to political science, which sees politics as action or conflict, politicisation is conceptualised as the process by which an issue or phenomenon becomes significantly more visible in the collective consciousness, causing political mobilisation.
In the systems model, depoliticisation is seen as "arena-shifting": removing issues from the political sphere by placing them outside the direct control or influence of political institutions, such as legislatures and elected politicians, thereby denying or minimising their political nature. In the behaviouralist model, depoliticisation indicates the reduction of popular interest in an issue, a weakening of participation in the public sphere and the utilisation of power to prevent opposition.
Theory
Comparative politics (national level)
Majoritarian institutions, such as parliaments (legislatures) and political parties, are associated with politicisation because they represent popular sovereignty and their agents are subject to short-term political considerations, particularly the need to compete for votes ("vote-seeking") by utilising populist rhetoric and policies. Non-majoritarian institutions, such as constitutional courts, central banks and international organisations, are neither directly elected nor directly managed by elected officials, and are connected with depoliticisation as they tend towards moderation and compromise.
Declines in voter turnout, political mobilisation and political party membership, trends present in most OECD countries from the 1960s onwards, reflect depoliticisation. A number of causes for this shift have been suggested. The growth of big tent political parties (parties which aim to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters) resulted in reduced polarisation and centralised decision-making, with increased compromise and bargaining. In postwar Europe, the development of neo-corporatism led to political bargaining between powerful employers' organizations, trade unions and the government in a system known as tripartism, within which cartel parties could successfully prevent competition from newer parties. Globally during the late 20th century, central banks and constitutional courts became increasingly important.
Robert Dahl argued that these processes risked producing alienation because they created a professionalised form of politics that was "anti-ideological" and "too remote and bureaucratized". Other contemporary scholars saw depoliticisation as a positive indication of dealignment and democratic maturity, as political competition came to be dominated by issues rather than cleavages. In the early 21st century, theorists such as Colin Crouch and Chantal Mouffe argued that low participation was not the result of satisfaction with political systems, but the consequence of low confidence in institutions and political representatives; in 2007, Colin Hay explicitly linked these studies with the concept of politicisation.
Since the 1990s, a process of "repoliticisation" has occurred on the national level, marked by the growth of right-wing populist parties in Europe, increased polarisation in American politics and higher voter turnout. The divide between the winners and losers of globalisation and neoliberalism is hypothesised to have played a major role in this process, having replaced class conflict as the primary source of politicisation. Sources of conflict along this line include an "integration–demarcation" cleavage (between the losers of globalisation, who favour protectionism and nationalism, and the winners of globalisation, who prefer increased competition, open borders and internationalism); and a similar "cosmopolitan–communitarian" cleavage (which places additional emphasis on a cultural divide between supporters of universal norms and those who believe in cultural particularism).
Disillusionment with neoliberal policies has also been cited as a factor behind the processes of depoliticisation and repoliticisation, particularly through the lens of public choice theory. In 2001, Peter Burnham argued that in the UK the New Labour administration of Tony Blair used depoliticisation as a governing strategy, presenting contentious neoliberal reforms as non-negotiable "constraints" in order to lower political expectations, thus creating apathy and submission among the electorate and facilitating the emergence of "anti-politics".
Neo-Marxist, radical democratic and anti-capitalist critiques aim to repoliticise what they describe as neoliberal society, arguing that Marx's theory of alienation can be used to explain depoliticisation.
European studies (European Union)
In post-functionalist theory, the politicisation of the EU is seen as a threat to integration because it constrains executive decision makers in member states due to domestic partisanship, fear of referendum defeat and the electoral repercussions of European policies, ultimately preventing political compromise on the European level.
The EU has experienced politicisation over time however it has been at an increased rate since the early 2000's due to the series of crises. At a national level within its member states, a rise in populism has contributed to volatile party politics and the election of anti-EU representatives. Due to the EU's increasing involvement and influence in controversial policy issues as it strives for further integration, there is a rise in the contestational nature of interactions between EU agents. After dissatisfaction with governance, rising populist challengers have grown the cleavages in electoral divides.
International relations (international level)
Government agencies
Politicisation of science
Climate science
COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the politicisation of investigations into the origin of COVID-19 led to geopolitical tension between the United States and China, the growth of anti-Asian rhetoric and the bullying of scientists. Some scientists said that politicisation could obstruct global efforts to suppress the virus and prepare for future pandemics. Political scientists Giuliano Bobba and Nicolas Hubé have argued that the pandemic strengthened populist politicians by providing an opportunity for them to promote policies such as tighter border controls, anti-elitism and restriction of public freedoms.
See also
Political polarisation
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Political science
Political terminology
Comparative politics
Politics | 0.780795 | 0.983271 | 0.767733 |
Scene (subculture) | The scene subculture is a youth subculture that emerged during the early 2000s in the United States from the pre-existing emo subculture. The subculture became popular with adolescents from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. Members of the scene subculture are referred to as scene kids, trendies, or scenesters. Scene fashion consists of skinny jeans, bright-colored clothing, a signature hairstyle consisting of straight, flat hair with long fringes covering the forehead, and bright-colored hair dye. Music genres associated with the scene subculture include metalcore, crunkcore, deathcore, electronic music, and pop punk.
From the mid-2000s to early 2010s, scene fashion gained popularity among teens and the music associated with the subculture achieved commercial success in both the underground and the mainstream. Groups like Bring Me the Horizon, Asking Alexandria, Pierce the Veil, and Metro Station garnered mainstream attention and large audiences while still largely being tied to the scene subculture. In the mid-to-late 2010s, the scene subculture lost popularity; however, since 2019, there have been movements that have given it a revival.
Fashion
Scene fashion includes bright-colored clothing, skinny jeans, stretched earlobes, sunglasses, piercings, large belt buckles, wristbands, fingerless gloves, eyeliner, hair extensions, and straight, androgynous flat hair with a long fringe covering the forehead and sometimes one or both eyes. Scene people dye their hair colors like blond, pink, red, green, or bright blue. Members of the scene subculture often shop at Hot Topic. According to The Guardian, a scene girl named Eve O'Brien described scene people as "happy emos".
Music
Scene people are associated with various styles of music including metalcore, deathcore, post-hardcore, crunkcore, electronic music, indie rock, emo pop, and pop punk. Artists commonly associated with the scene subculture include Cute Is What We Aim For, Asking Alexandria, Black Veil Brides, Attack Attack!, We Came As Romans, Bring Me the Horizon, Paramore, Mayday Parade, Suicide Silence, the Medic Droid, Breathe Carolina, Escape the Fate, Falling in Reverse, Hawthorne Heights, Lights, Taking Back Sunday, Prima Donna, and Design the Skyline. Many bands associated with the scene subculture gained popularity through the social media website MySpace.
Crunkcore
Crunkcore (also called crunk punk, screamo-crunk and scrunk) is a musical fusion genre that is popular among scene kids. Characterized by the combination of cultural and musical elements from crunk, screamo, pop, electronic and dance music, the genre often features screamed vocals, hip hop beats, and sexually provocative lyrics. Notable groups in the genre included Brokencyde, Hollywood Undead, 3OH!3 and Millionaires.
Neon pop-punk
Neon pop-punk emerged in the late 2000s as a style that blended elements of power pop and electronic music with the upbeat, catchy sound of pop-punk. Bands in this genre embraced bright, glistening aesthetics and often featured neon colors in their merch and music videos. Notable groups from that era include All Time Low, the Maine, the Cab, Metro Station, We the Kings, Marianas Trench, Boys Like Girls, The Summer Set, Cobra Starship, Hey Monday, the Academy Is... and Forever the Sickest Kids.
History
Origins
Scene originated from the emo subculture in the early-2000s across the United States. The name began being used around 2002, through the term "scene queen", a derogatory term describing attractive, popular women perceived by older hardcore musicians as only being involved in hardcore for the subculture.
"Fashioncore" was an aesthetic originated by Orange County metalcore band Eighteen Visions that helped to originate the scene subculture. Originating as a way of purposely being confrontational to the hypermasculinity of hardcore, it used many aspects that would come to define scene fashion, such as eyeliner, tight jeans, collared shirts, straightened hair and white belts. According to MetalSucks writer Finn McKenty, the quintessential scene haircut was invented by Eighteen Visions bassist Javier Van Huss. Huss, himself, had been inspired to create the haircut from seeing a poster of the band Orgy. in Louder Than Hell by Katherine Turman and John Wiederhorn, Ryan Downey states "Javier [Van Huss] really led the charge with crazy hairstyles and pink and blond and blue chunks in their hair". Though the term began as pejorative against fashionable people in the hardcore scene, the style was eventually popularized in the early-2000s through the success of Eighteen Visions, Atreyu and From Autumn to Ashes.
Sass music was also a notable origin of scene. Like fashioncore, sass was also a deliberate confrontation to hardcore's hyper masculinity, with sass bands doing so through their use of overt homoeroticism. The fashion of many sass musicians, notably Johnny Whitney, lead vocalist for the Blood Brothers, were influential upon the development of scene.
Mainstream success
Scene entered popular culture following the mainstream exposure of the emo subculture, indie pop, pop punk, and hip hop in the mid 2000s. The scene subculture is considered by some to have developed directly from the emo subculture and thus the two are often compared. During the mid 2000s, members of the British and American scene subculture took inspiration from the deathcore music scene. In a 2005 article by Phoenix New Times, writer Chelsea Mueller described the appearance of the band Job for a Cowboy (a band that was deathcore at the time) by writing that the band "may look like scenesters with shaggy emo haircuts and tight pants, and may mock metal greats, but this death-metal band is for real." Mueller described Job for a Cowboy as "five guys in girls' jeans and tight band tee shirts". Another early deathcore group popular among members of the scene subculture is Bring Me the Horizon.
In the following years, the spectrum of scene fashion broadened to include a number of sub-styles taking influence from a wide range of fashion styles. According to PopMatters writer Ethan Stewart, "the most renowned [sub-style of scene] was those who merged the subculture with brightly coloured party fashion", a style he attributed the beginnings of to Cobra Starship vocalist Gabe Saporta and his influence from rave and Harajuku street fashion. He also noted those who took influence from 1980s glam metal fashion, such as the members of Black Veil Brides, Escape the Fate and Falling in Reverse. He attributed the origin of this style to Blessed by a Broken Heart.
Members of the subculture quickly began using MySpace. As the popularity of MySpace grew, the website began to develop some of the earliest internet celebrities, referred to as "scene queens". Notable MySpace scene queens include Audrey Kitching, Jeffree Star and the members of the Millionaires.
The music festival Warped Tour became popular with members of the scene subculture during the 2000s. Artists associated with the subculture would often play at the festival. Bands influenced by crunkcore, electropop and electronic dance music gained popularity among scene kids during the mid to late 2000s, including Cobra Starship and 3OH!3. Blood on the Dance Floor became especially popular, after Jayy Von Monroe joined as lead singer in 2009.
During the late 2000s, similar subcultures emerged in Asia and Latin America, including the Shamate in China, the Floggers in Argentina, the Coloridos of Brazil, and the Pokemón in Chile. Like their American counterparts, these scene kids wore brightly colored clothing, androgynous big hair and eyeliner, and identified with the emo pop, indie rock, hip hop, and EDM scene.
Decline and revival
By around 2014 the subculture had seen a decline in popularity, while also being influential on the fashion and culture of Tumblr, a website which would eventually develop a number of its own scene queens, such as Halsey. Warped Tour had its last show in 2019 after running annually since 1995.
The late 2010s saw the growing popularity of musicians who had begun their careers as members of scene bands, most notably Lil Lotus, Blackbear, Post Malone, Mod Sun and Lil Aaron. Within this movement came the mainstream success of emo rap, itself influenced by scene.
Beginning in 2019, there were several movements promoting the return of the subculture, such as #20ninescene (2019) and the "Rawring 20s" (2020s). Websites like SpaceHey and FriendProject, which retain Myspace's early design, have gained popularity among teenagers, and social media influencers on Instagram and TikTok have begun adopting scene fashion. Around this time, the subculture was also influential on the development of the e-girls and e-boys subculture, and the development of hyperpop. Scene festivals also returned in 2022 with the When We Were Young festival.
Criticisms
According to a 2008 article by The Sydney Morning Herald, the scene subculture has been criticized for its perceived derivativeness of emo fashion. The scene subculture has also been the subject of criticism from members of the heavy metal subculture. Pejorative terms such as "myspace-core", "scenecore" and "mallcore" have been used to describe scene music and artists. These terms mock the use of the suffix "-core" which has been used to describe genres related to the scene subculture such as metalcore, crunkcore, and deathcore.
Crunkcore has received criticism and the genre has been poorly received by music reviewers. The Boston Phoenix has mentioned criticism of the style, saying that "the idea that a handful of kids would remix lowest-common-denominator screamo with crunk beats, misappropriated
gangsterisms, and the extreme garishness of emo fashion was sure to incite hate-filled diatribes". Deathcore has been criticized by members of the heavy metal community for its use of breakdowns.
See also
E-girls and e-boys
Emo subculture
Visual kei
List of pop-punk bands
List of indie rock bands
List of emo pop bands
List of metalcore bands
List of deathcore bands
References
External links
"Inside the clash of the teen subcultures" Sydney Morning Herald 30 March 2008
Subcultures
2000s fashion
2010s fashion
2000s fads and trends
2010s fads and trends
Youth culture in the United States
Youth culture in the United Kingdom
Counterculture of the 2000s
Counterculture of the 2010s
Australian youth culture
Music and fashion | 0.768804 | 0.998491 | 0.767644 |
Art criticism | Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is questionable whether such criticism can transcend prevailing socio-political circumstances.
The variety of artistic movements has resulted in a division of art criticism into different disciplines which may each use different criteria for their judgements. The most common division in the field of criticism is between historical criticism and evaluation, a form of art history, and contemporary criticism of work by living artists.
Despite perceptions that art criticism is a much lower risk activity than making art, opinions of current art are always liable to drastic corrections with the passage of time. Critics of the past are often ridiculed for dismissing artists now venerated (like the early work of the Impressionists). Some art movements themselves were named disparagingly by critics, with the name later adopted as a sort of badge of honour by the artists of the style (e.g., Impressionism, Cubism), with the original negative meaning forgotten.
Artists have often had an uneasy relationship with their critics. Artists usually need positive opinions from critics for their work to be viewed and purchased; unfortunately for the artists, only later generations may understand it.
There are many different variables that determine judgment of art such as aesthetics, cognition or perception. Art is a human instinct with a diverse range of form and expression. Art can stand alone with an instantaneous judgment, or be viewed with a deeper knowledge. Aesthetic, pragmatic, expressive, formalist, relativist, processional, imitation, ritual, cognition, mimetic and postmodern theories, are some of many theories to criticize and appreciate art. Art criticism and appreciation can be subjective based on personal preference toward aesthetics and form, or it can be based on the elements and principle of design and by social and cultural acceptance.
Definition
Art criticism has many and often numerous subjective viewpoints which are nearly as varied as there are people practising it. It is difficult to come by a more stable definition than the activity being related to the discussion and interpretation of art and its value. Depending on who is writing on the subject, "art criticism" itself may be obviated as a direct goal or it may include art history within its framework. Regardless of definitional problems, art criticism can refer to the history of the craft in its essays and art history itself may use critical methods implicitly. According to art historian R. Siva Kumar, "The borders between art history and art criticism... are no more as firmly drawn as they once used to be. It perhaps began with art historians taking interest in modern art."
Methodology
Art criticism includes a descriptive aspect, where the work of art is sufficiently translated into words so as to allow a case to be made. The evaluation of a work of art that follows the description (or is interspersed with it) depends as much on the artist's output as on the experience of the critic. There is in an activity with such a marked subjective component a variety of ways in which it can be pursued. As extremes in a possible spectrum, while some favour simply remarking on the immediate impressions caused by an artistic object, others prefer a more systematic approach calling on technical knowledge, favoured aesthetic theory and the known sociocultural context the artist is immersed in to discern their intent.
History
Critiques of art likely originated with the origins of art itself, as evidenced by texts found in the works of Plato, Vitruvius or Augustine of Hippo among others, that contain early forms of art criticism. Also, wealthy patrons have employed, at least since the start of Renaissance, intermediary art-evaluators to assist them in the procurement of commissions and/or finished pieces.
Origins
Art criticism as a genre of writing, obtained its modern form in the 18th century. The earliest use of the term art criticism was by the English painter Jonathan Richardson in his 1719 publication An Essay on the Whole Art of Criticism. In this work, he attempted to create an objective system for the ranking of works of art. Seven categories, including drawing, composition, invention and colouring, were given a score from 0 to 18, which were combined to give a final score. The term he introduced quickly caught on, especially as the English middle class began to be more discerning in their art acquisitions, as symbols of their flaunted social status.
In France and England in the mid-1700s, public interest in art began to become widespread, and art was regularly exhibited at the Salons in Paris and the Summer Exhibitions of London. The first writers to acquire an individual reputation as art critics in 18th-century France were Jean-Baptiste Dubos with his Réflexions critiques sur la poésie et sur la peinture (1718) which garnered the acclaim of Voltaire for the sagacity of his approach to aesthetic theory; and Étienne La Font de Saint-Yenne with Reflexions sur quelques causes de l'état présent de la peinture en France who wrote about the Salon of 1746, commenting on the socioeconomic framework of the production of the then popular Baroque art style, which led to a perception of anti-monarchist sentiments in the text.
The 18th-century French writer Denis Diderot greatly advanced the medium of art criticism. Diderot's "The Salon of 1765" was one of the first real attempts to capture art in words. According to art historian Thomas E. Crow, "When Diderot took up art criticism it was on the heels of the first generation of professional writers who made it their business to offer descriptions and judgments of contemporary painting and sculpture. The demand for such commentary was a product of the similarly novel institution of regular, free, public exhibitions of the latest art".
Meanwhile, in England an exhibition of the Society of Arts in 1762 and later, in 1766, prompted a flurry of critical, though anonymous, pamphlets. Newspapers and periodicals of the period, such as the London Chronicle, began to carry columns for art criticism; a form that took off with the foundation of the Royal Academy in 1768.
In the 1770s, the Morning Chronicle became the first newspaper to systematically review the art featured at exhibitions.
19th century
From the 19th century onwards, art criticism became a more common vocation and even a profession, developing at times formalised methods based on particular aesthetic theories. In France, a rift emerged in the 1820s between the proponents of traditional neo-classical forms of art and the new romantic fashion. The Neoclassicists, under Étienne-Jean Delécluze defended the classical ideal and preferred carefully finished form in paintings. Romantics, such as Stendhal, criticized the old styles as overly formulaic and devoid of any feeling. Instead, they championed the new expressive, Idealistic, and emotional nuances of Romantic art. A similar, though more muted, debate also occurred in England.
One of the prominent critics in England at the time was William Hazlitt, a painter and essayist. He wrote about his deep pleasure in art and his belief that the arts could be used to improve mankind's generosity of spirit and knowledge of the world around it. He was one of a rising tide of English critics that began to grow uneasy with the increasingly abstract direction J. M. W. Turner's landscape art was moving in.
One of the great critics of the 19th century was John Ruskin. In 1843 he published Modern Painters, which repeated concepts from "Landscape and Portrait-Painting" in The Yankee (1829) by first American art critic John Neal in its distinction between "things seen by the artist" and "things as they are." Through painstaking analysis and attention to detail, Ruskin achieved what art historian E. H. Gombrich called "the most ambitious work of scientific art criticism ever attempted." Ruskin became renowned for his rich and flowing prose, and later in life he branched out to become an active and wide-ranging critic, publishing works on architecture and Renaissance art, including the Stones of Venice.
Another dominating figure in 19th-century art criticism, was the French poet Charles Baudelaire, whose first published work was his art review Salon of 1845, which attracted immediate attention for its boldness. Many of his critical opinions were novel in their time, including his championing of Eugène Delacroix. When Édouard Manet's famous Olympia (1865), a portrait of a nude courtesan, provoked a scandal for its blatant realism, Baudelaire worked privately to support his friend. He claimed that "criticism should be partial, impassioned, political— that is to say, formed from an exclusive point of view, but also from a point of view that opens up the greatest number of horizons". He tried to move the debate from the old binary positions of previous decades, declaring that "the true painter, will be he who can wring from contemporary life its epic aspect and make us see and understand, with colour or in drawing, how great and poetic we are in our cravats and our polished boots".
In 1877, John Ruskin derided Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket after the artist, James McNeill Whistler, showed it at Grosvenor Gallery: "I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." This criticism provoked Whistler into suing the critic for libel. The ensuing court case proved to be a Pyrrhic victory for Whistler.
Turn of the twentieth century
Towards the end of the 19th century a movement towards abstraction, as opposed to specific content, began to gain ground in England, notably championed by the playwright Oscar Wilde. By the early twentieth century these attitudes formally coalesced into a coherent philosophy, through the work of Bloomsbury Group members Roger Fry and Clive Bell. As an art historian in the 1890s, Fry became intrigued with the new modernist art and its shift away from traditional depiction. His 1910 exhibition of what he called post-Impressionist art attracted much criticism for its iconoclasm. He vigorously defended himself in a lecture, in which he argued that art had moved to attempt to discover the language of pure imagination, rather than the staid and, to his mind, dishonest scientific capturing of landscape. Fry's argument proved to be very influential at the time, especially among the progressive elite. Virginia Woolf remarked that: "in or about December 1910 [the date Fry gave his lecture] human character changed."
Independently, and at the same time, Clive Bell argued in his 1914 book Art that all art work has its particular 'significant form', while the conventional subject matter was essentially irrelevant. This work laid the foundations for the formalist approach to art. In 1920, Fry argued that "it's all the same to me if I represent a Christ or a saucepan since it's the form, and not the object itself, that interests me." As well as being a proponent of formalism, he argued that the value of art lies in its ability to produce a distinctive aesthetic experience in the viewer. an experience he called "aesthetic emotion". He defined it as that experience which is aroused by significant form. He also suggested that the reason we experience aesthetic emotion in response to the significant form of a work of art was that we perceive that form as an expression of an experience the artist has. The artist's experience in turn, he suggested, was the experience of seeing ordinary objects in the world as pure form: the experience one has when one sees something not as a means to something else, but as an end in itself.
Herbert Read was a champion of modern British artists such as Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and became associated with Nash's contemporary arts group Unit One. He focused on the modernism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, and published an influential 1929 essay on the meaning of art in The Listener. He also edited the trend-setting Burlington Magazine (1933–38) and helped organise the London International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936.
Since 1945
As in the case of Baudelaire in the 19th century, the poet-as-critic phenomenon appeared once again in the 20th, when French poet Apollinaire became the champion of Cubism. Later, French writer and hero of the Resistance André Malraux wrote extensively on art, going well beyond the limits of his native Europe. His conviction that the vanguard in Latin America lay in Mexican Muralism (Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros) changed after his trip to Buenos Aires in 1958. After visiting the studios of several Argentine artists in the company of the young Director of the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires Rafael Squirru, Malraux declared the new vanguard to lie in Argentina's new artistic movements. Squirru, a poet-critic who became Cultural Director of the OAS in Washington, D.C., during the 1960s, was the last to interview Edward Hopper before his death, contributing to a revival of interest in the American artist.
In the 1940s there were not only few galleries (The Art of This Century) but also few critics who were willing to follow the work of the New York Vanguard. There were also a few artists with a literary background, among them Robert Motherwell and Barnett Newman who functioned as critics as well.
Although New York and the world were unfamiliar with the New York avant-garde, by the late 1940s most of the artists who have become household names today had their well established patron critics. Clement Greenberg advocated Abstract Expressionist and color field painters like Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Adolph Gottlieb and Hans Hofmann. Harold Rosenberg seemed to prefer the action painters such as Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. Thomas B. Hess, the managing editor of ARTnews, championed Willem de Kooning.
The new critics elevated their protégés by casting other artists as "followers" or ignoring those who did not serve their promotional goal. As an example, in 1958, Mark Tobey "became the first American painter since Whistler (1895) to win top prize at the Biennale of Venice. New York's two leading art magazines were not interested. Arts mentioned the historic event only in a news column and Art News (Managing editor: Thomas B. Hess) ignored it completely. The New York Times and Life printed feature articles".
Barnett Newman, a late member of the Uptown Group wrote catalogue forewords and reviews and by the late 1940s became an exhibiting artist at Betty Parsons Gallery. His first solo show was in 1948. Soon after his first exhibition, Barnett Newman remarked in one of the Artists' Session at Studio 35: "We are in the process of making the world, to a certain extent, in our own image". Utilizing his writing skills, Newman fought every step of the way to reinforce his newly established image as an artist and to promote his work. An example is his letter to Sidney Janis on 9 April 1955:
The person thought to have had most to do with the promotion of this style was a New York Trotskyist, Clement Greenberg. As long time art critic for the Partisan Review and The Nation, he became an early and literate proponent of Abstract Expressionism. Artist Robert Motherwell, well-heeled, joined Greenberg in promoting a style that fit the political climate and the intellectual rebelliousness of the era.
Clement Greenberg proclaimed Abstract Expressionism and Jackson Pollock in particular as the epitome of aesthetic value. Greenberg supported Pollock's work on formalistic grounds as simply the best painting of its day and the culmination of an art tradition going back via Cubism and Cézanne to Monet, in which painting became ever "purer" and more concentrated in what was "essential" to it, the making of marks on a flat surface.
Jackson Pollock's work has always polarised critics. Harold Rosenberg spoke of the transformation of painting into an existential drama in Pollock's work, in which "what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event". "The big moment came when it was decided to paint 'just to paint'. The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation from value—political, aesthetic, moral."
One of the most vocal critics of Abstract Expressionism at the time was New York Times art critic John Canaday. Meyer Schapiro and Leo Steinberg were also important postwar art historians who voiced support for Abstract Expressionism. During the early to mid sixties younger art critics Michael Fried, Rosalind Krauss and Robert Hughes added considerable insights into the critical dialectic that continues to grow around Abstract Expressionism.
Feminist art criticism
Feminist art criticism emerged in the 1970s from the wider feminist movement as the critical examination of both visual representations of women in art and art produced by women.
Today
Art critics today work not only in print media and in specialist art magazines as well as newspapers. Art critics appear also on the internet, TV, and radio, as well as in museums and galleries. Many are also employed in universities or as art educators for museums. Art critics curate exhibitions and are frequently employed to write exhibition catalogues. Art critics have their own organisation, a UNESCO non-governmental organisation, called the International Association of Art Critics which has around 76 national sections and a political non-aligned section for refugees and exiles.
Art blogs
Since the early 21st century, online art critical websites and art blogs have cropped up around the world to add their voices to the art world. Many of these writers use social media resources like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+ to introduce readers to their opinions about art criticism.
See also
Art history
Art critic
Documenta 12 magazines (contemporary examples of art criticism)
References
External links
In this article Adrian Searle, among others, gives advice to ambitious, young, would-be art critics.
– conference, reading room, and bibliography
Criticism
Aesthetics
Criticism in the arts
American art critics
Art | 0.777756 | 0.986983 | 0.767632 |
Line art | Line art or line drawing is any image that consists of distinct straight lines or curved lines placed against a background (usually plain). Two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects are often represented through shade (darkness) or hue (color). Line art can use lines of different colors, although line art is usually monochromatic.
Techniques
Line art emphasizes form and drawings, of several (few) constant widths (as in technical illustrations), or of freely varying widths (as in brush work or engraving). Line art may tend towards realism (as in much of Gustave Doré's work), or it may be a caricature, cartoon, ideograph, or glyph.
Form
One of the most fundamental elements of art is the line. An important feature of a line is that it indicates the edge of a two-dimensional (flat) shape or a three-dimensional form. A shape can be indicated by means of an outline, and a three-dimensional form can be indicated by contour lines.
History
Before the development of photography and of halftones, line art was the standard format for illustrations to be used in print publications, using black ink on white paper. Using either stippling or hatching, shades of gray could also be simulated.
Image gallery
See also
Lineography
Old master print
Screentone
Hatching
Stippling
Halftone
Ben-Day dots
Perspective (graphical)
Vanishing point
References
External links
Graphic design
Visual arts genres | 0.773259 | 0.992651 | 0.767577 |
World Values Survey | The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global research project that explores people's values and beliefs, how they change over time, and what social and political impact they have. Since 1981 a worldwide network of social scientists have conducted representative national surveys as part of WVS in almost 100 countries.
The WVS measures, monitors and analyzes: support for democracy, tolerance of foreigners and ethnic minorities, support for gender equality, the role of religion and changing levels of religiosity, the impact of globalization, attitudes toward the environment, work, family, politics, national identity, culture, diversity, insecurity, and subjective well-being.
Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy and the tenth President of the European Commission, said about WVS work:
The growing globalization of the world makes it increasingly important to understand ... diversity. People with varying beliefs and values can live together and work together productively, but for this to happen it is crucial to understand and appreciate their distinctive worldviews.
Insights
The WVS has over the years demonstrated that people's beliefs play a key role in economic development, the emergence and flourishing of democratic institutions, the rise of gender equality, and the extent to which societies have effective government.
Inglehart–Welzel cultural map
Analysis of WVS data made by political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel asserts that there are two major dimensions of cross cultural variation in the world:
Traditional values versus secular-rational values and
Survival values versus self-expression values.
The global cultural map shows how scores of societies are located on these two dimensions. Moving upward on this map reflects the shift from Traditional values to Secular-rational and moving rightward reflects the shift from Survival values to Self-expression values.
Traditional values emphasize the importance of religion, parent-child ties, deference to authority and traditional family values. People who embrace these values also reject divorce, abortion, euthanasia and suicide. These societies have high levels of national pride and a nationalistic outlook.
Secular-rational values have the opposite preferences to the traditional values. These societies place less emphasis on religion, traditional family values and authority. Divorce, abortion, euthanasia and suicide are seen as relatively acceptable.
Survival values place emphasis on economic and physical security. It is linked with a relatively ethnocentric outlook and low levels of trust and tolerance.
Self-expression values give high priority to environmental protection, growing tolerance of foreigners, gays and lesbians and gender equality, and rising demands for participation in decision-making in economic and political life.
Christian Welzel introduced the concepts of emancipative values and secular values. He provided measurements for those values using World Values Survey data. Emancipative values are an updated version of self-expression values. Secular values are an updated version of traditional versus secular rational values. The survival versus self-expression values and the traditional versus secular rational values were factors extracted with an orthogonal technique of factor analysis, which forbids the two scales from correlating with each other. The emancipative and secular values are measured in such a way as to represent the data as faithfully as possible even if this results in a correlation between the scales. The secular and emancipative values indices are positively correlated with each other.
Culture variations
A somewhat simplified analysis is that following an increase in standards of living, and a transit from development country via industrialization to post-industrial knowledge society, a country tends to move diagonally in the direction from lower-left corner (poor) to upper-right corner (rich), indicating a transit in both dimensions.
However, the attitudes among the population are also highly correlated with the philosophical, political and religious ideas that have been dominating in the country. Secular-rational values and materialism were formulated by philosophers and the left-wing politics side in the French Revolution, and can consequently be observed especially in countries with a long history of social democratic or socialistic policy, and in countries where a large portion of the population have studied philosophy and science at universities. Survival values are characteristic for eastern-world countries and self-expression values for western-world countries. In a liberal post-industrial economy, an increasing share of the population has grown up taking survival and freedom of thought for granted, resulting in that self-expression is highly valued.
Examples
Societies that have high scores in Traditional and Survival values: Zimbabwe, Morocco, Jordan, Bangladesh.
Societies with high scores in Traditional and Self-expression values: Most of Latin America, Ireland.
Societies with high scores in Secular-rational and Survival values: Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Estonia.
Societies with high scores in Secular-rational and Self-expression values: Japan, Nordic countries, Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, Czechia, Slovenia, France.
Gender values
Findings from the WVS indicate that support for gender equality is not just a consequence of democratization. It is part of a broader cultural change that is transforming industrialized societies with mass demands for increasingly democratic institutions. Although a majority of the world's population still believes that men make better political leaders than women, this view is fading in advanced industrialized societies, and also among young people in less prosperous countries.
World Values Survey data is used by the United Nation Development Programme in order to calculate the gender social norms index. The index measures attitudes toward gender equality worldwide and was introduced in the Human Development Report starting from 2019. The index has four components, measuring gender attitudes in politics, education and economy as well as social norms related to domestic violence.
Religion
The data from the World Values Survey cover several important aspects of people's religious orientation. One of them tracks how involved people are in religious services and how much importance they attach to their religious beliefs. In the data from 2000, 98% of the public in Indonesia said that religion was very important in their lives while in China only three percent considered religion very important. Another aspect concerns people's attitudes towards the relation between religion and politics and whether they approve of religious spokesmen who try to influence government decisions and people's voting preferences.
In a factor analysis of the latest wave (6) of World Values Survey data, Arno Tausch (Corvinus University of Budapest) found that family values in the tradition of Joseph Schumpeter and religious values in the research tradition of Robert Barro can be an important positive asset for society. Negative phenomena, like the distrust in the state of law; the shadow economy; the distance from altruistic values; a growing fatigue of democracy; and the lack of entrepreneurial spirit are all correlated with the loss of religiosity. Tausch based his results on a factor analysis with promax rotation of 78 variables from 45 countries with complete data, and also calculated performance indices for the 45 countries with complete data and the nine main global religious denominations. On this account, Judaism and also Protestantism emerge as most closely combining religion and the traditions of the Enlightenment.
Happiness and life satisfaction
The WVS has shown that from 1981 to 2007 happiness rose in 45 of the 52 countries for which long-term data are available. Since 1981, economic development, democratization, and rising social tolerance have increased the extent to which people perceive that they have free choice, which in turn has led to higher levels of happiness around the world, which supports the human development theory.
Findings
Some of the survey's basic findings are:
Much of the variation in human values between societies boils down to two broad dimensions: a first dimension of “traditional vs. secular-rational values” and a second dimension of “survival vs. self-expression values.”
On the first dimension, traditional values emphasize religiosity, national pride, respect for authority, obedience and marriage. Secular-rational values emphasize the opposite on each of these accounts.
On the second dimension, survival values involve a priority of security over liberty, non-acceptance of homosexuality, abstinence from political action, distrust in outsiders and a weak sense of happiness. Self-expression values imply the opposite on all these accounts.
Following the 'revised theory of modernization,' values change in predictable ways with certain aspects of modernity. People's priorities shift from traditional to secular-rational values as their sense of existential security increases (or backwards from secular-rational values to traditional values as their sense of existential security decreases).
The largest increase in existential security occurs with the transition from agrarian to industrial societies. Consequently, the largest shift from traditional towards secular-rational values happens in this phase.
People's priorities shift from survival to self-expression values as their sense of individual agency increases (or backwards from self-expression values to survival as the sense of individual agency decreases).
The largest increase in individual agency occurs with the transition from industrial to knowledge societies. Consequently, the largest shift from survival to self-expression values happens in this phase.
The value differences between societies around the world show a pronounced culture zone pattern. The strongest emphasis on traditional values and survival values is found in the Islamic societies of the Middle East. By contrast, the strongest emphasis on secular-rational values and self-expression values is found in the Protestant societies of Northern Europe.
These culture zone differences reflect different historical pathways of how entire groups of societies entered modernity. These pathways account for people's different senses of existential security and individual agency, which in turn account for their different emphases on secular-rational values and self-expression values.
Values also differ within societies along such cleavage lines as gender, generation, ethnicity, religious denomination, education, income and so forth.
Generally speaking, groups whose living conditions provide people with a stronger sense of existential security and individual agency nurture a stronger emphasis on secular-rational values and self-expression values.
However, the within-societal differences in people's values are dwarfed by a factor five to ten by the between-societal differences. On a global scale, basic living conditions differ still much more between than within societies, and so do the experiences of existential security and individual agency that shape people's values.
A specific subset of self-expression values—emancipative values—combines an emphasis on freedom of choice and equality of opportunities. Emancipative values, thus, involve priorities for lifestyle liberty, gender equality, personal autonomy and the voice of the people.
Emancipative values constitute the key cultural component of a broader process of human empowerment. Once set in motion, this process empowers people to exercise freedoms in their course of actions.
If set in motion, human empowerment advances on three levels. On the socio-economic level, human empowerment advances as growing action resources increase people's capabilities to exercise freedoms. On the socio-cultural level, human empowerment advances as rising emancipative values increase people's aspirations to exercise freedoms. On the legal-institutional level, human empowerment advances as widened democratic rights increase people's entitlements to exercise freedoms.
Human empowerment is an entity of empowering capabilities, aspirations, and entitlements. As an entity, human empowerment tends to advance in virtuous spirals or to recede in vicious spirals on each of its three levels.
As the cultural component of human empowerment, emancipative values are highly consequential in manifold ways. For one, emancipative values establish a civic form of modern individualism that favours out-group trust and cosmopolitan orientations towards others.
Emancipative values encourage nonviolent protest, even against the risk of repression. Thus, emancipative values provide social capital that activates societies, makes publics more self-expressive, and vitalizes civil society. Emancipative values advance entire societies' civic agency.
If emancipative values grow strong in countries that are democratic, they help to prevent movements away from democracy.
If emancipative values grow strong in countries that are undemocratic, they help to trigger movements towards democracy.
Emancipative values exert these effects because they encourage mass actions that put power holders under pressures to sustain, substantiate or establish democracy, depending on what the current challenge for democracy is.
Objective factors that have been found to favour democracy (including economic prosperity, income equality, ethnic homogeneity, world market integration, global media exposure, closeness to democratic neighbours, a Protestant heritage, social capital and so forth) exert an influence on democracy mostly insofar as these factors favour emancipative values.
Emancipative values do not strengthen people's desire for democracy, for the desire for democracy is universal at this point in history. But emancipative values do change the nature of the desire for democracy. And they do so in a double way.
For one, emancipative values make people's understanding of democracy more liberal: people with stronger emancipative values emphasize the empowering features of democracy rather than bread-and-butter and law-and-order issues.
Next, emancipative values make people assess the level of their country's democracy more critically: people with stronger emancipative values rather underrate than overrate their country's democratic performance.
Together, then, emancipative values generate a critical-liberal desire for democracy. The critical-liberal desire for democracy is a formidable force of democratic reforms. And, it is the best available predictor of a country's effective level of democracy and of other indicators of good governance. Neither democratic traditions nor cognitive mobilization account for the strong positive impact of emancipative values on the critical-liberal desire for democracy.
Emancipative values constitute the single most important factor in advancing the empowerment of women. Economic, religious, and institutional factors that have been found to advance women's empowerment, do so for the most part because they nurture emancipative values.
Emancipative values change people's life strategy from an emphasis on securing a decent subsistence level to enhancing human agency. As the shift from subsistence to agency affects entire societies, the overall level of subjective well-being rises.
The emancipative consequences of the human empowerment process are not a culture-specific peculiarity of the 'West.' The same empowerment processes that advance emancipative values and a critical-liberal desire for democracy in the 'West,' do the same in the 'East' and in other culture zones.
The social dominance of Islam and individual identification as Muslim both weaken emancipative values. But among young Muslims with high education, and especially among young Muslim women with high education, the Muslim/Non-Muslim gap over emancipative values closes.
A 2013 analysis noted the number of people in various countries responding that they would prefer not to have neighbors of the different race ranged from below 5% in many countries to 51.4% in Jordan, with wide variation in Europe.
According to the 2017-2020 world values survey, 95% of Chinese respondents have significant confidence in their government, compared with the world average of 45% government satisfaction.
History
The World Values Surveys were designed to test the hypothesis that economic and technological changes are transforming the basic values and motivations of the publics of industrialized societies. The surveys build on the European Values Study (EVS) first carried out in 1981. The EVS was conducted under the aegis of Jan Kerkhofs and Ruud de Moor and continues to be based in the Netherlands at the Tilburg University. The 1981 study was largely limited to developed societies, but interest in this project spread so widely that surveys were carried out in more than twenty countries, located on all six inhabited continents. Ronald Inglehart of the University of Michigan played a leading role in extending these surveys to be carried out in countries around the world. Today the network includes hundreds of social scientist from more than 100 countries.
The surveys are repeated in waves with intervals of 5 to 10 years. The waves have been carried out in the years listed in this table:
Findings from the first wave of surveys pointed to the conclusion that intergenerational changes were taking place in basic values relating to politics, economic life, religion, gender roles, family norms and sexual norms. The values of younger generations differed consistently from those prevailing among older generations, particularly in societies that had experienced rapid economic growth. To examine whether changes were actually taking place in these values and to analyze the underlying causes, a second wave of WVS surveys was carried out in 1990–91. Because these changes seem to be linked with economic and technological development, it was important to include societies across the entire range of development, from low income societies to rich societies.
A third wave of surveys was carried out in 1995–97, this time in 55 societies and with increased attention being given to analysing the cultural conditions for democracy. A fourth wave of surveys was carried out in 1999–2001 in 65 societies. A key goal was to obtain better coverage of African and Islamic societies, which had been under-represented in previous surveys. A fifth wave was carried out in 2005–07 and a sixth wave was carried out during 2011–12.
Due to the European origin of the project, the early waves of the WVS were eurocentric in emphasis, with little representation in Africa and South-East Asia. To expand, the WVS adopted a decentralised structure, in which social scientists from countries throughout the world participated in the design, execution and analysis of the data, and in publication of findings. In return for providing the data from a survey in their own society, each group obtained immediate access to the data from all participating societies enabling them to analyse social change in a broader perspective.
The WVS network has produced over 300 publications in 20 languages and secondary users have produced several thousand additional publications. The database of the WVS has been published on the internet with free access.
The official archive of the World Values Survey is located in [ASEP/JDS] Madrid, Spain.
Methodology
The World Values Survey uses the sample survey as its mode of data collection, a systematic and standardized approach to collect information through interviewing representative national samples of individuals. The basic stages of a sample survey are Questionnaire design; Sampling; Data collection and Analysis.
Questionnaire design
For each wave, suggestions for questions are solicited by social scientists from all over the world and a final master questionnaire is developed in English. Since the start in 1981 each successive wave has covered a broader range of societies than the previous one. Analysis of the data from each wave has indicated that certain questions tapped interesting and important concepts while others were of little value. This has led to the more useful questions or themes being replicated in future waves while the less useful ones have been dropped making room for new questions.
The questionnaire is translated into the various national languages and in many cases independently translated back to English to check the accuracy of the translation. In most countries, the translated questionnaire is pre-tested to help identify questions for which the translation is problematic. In some cases certain problematic questions are omitted from the national questionnaire.
Sampling
Samples are drawn from the entire population of 18 years and older. The minimum sample is 1000. In most countries, no upper age limit is imposed and some form of stratified random sampling is used to obtain representative national samples. In the first stages, a random selection of sampling points is made based on the given society statistical regions, districts, census units, election sections, electoral roll or polling place and central population registers. In most countries the population size and/or degree of urbanization of these Primary Sampling Units are taken into account. In some countries, individuals are drawn from national registers.
Data collection and field work
Following the sampling, each country is left with a representative national sample of its public. These persons are then interviewed during a limited time frame decided by the executive committee of the World Values Survey using the uniformly structured questionnaires. The survey is carried out by professional organizations using face-to-face interviews or phone interviews for remote areas. Each country has a Principal Investigator (social scientists working in academic institutions) who is responsible for conducting the survey in accordance with the fixed rules and procedures. During the field work, the agency has to report in writing according to a specific check-list. Internal consistency checks are made between the sampling design and the outcome and rigorous data cleaning procedures are followed at the WVS data archive. No country is included in a wave before full documentation has been delivered. This means a data set with the completed methodological questionnaire. and a report of country-specific information (for example important political events during the fieldwork, problems particular to the country). Once all the surveys are completed, the Principal Investigator has access to all surveys and data.
Analysis
The World Values Survey group works with leading social scientists, recruited from each society studied. They represent a wide range of cultures and perspectives which makes it possible to draw on the insights of well-informed insiders in interpreting the findings. It also helps disseminate social science techniques to new countries.
Each research team that has contributed to the survey analyses the findings according to its hypotheses. Because all researchers obtain data from all of the participating societies, they are also able to compare the values and beliefs of the people of their own society with those from scores of other societies and to test alternative hypotheses. In addition, the participants are invited to international meetings at which they can compare findings and interpretations with other members of the WVS network. The findings are then disseminated through international conferences and joint publications.
Usage
The World Values Survey data has been downloaded by over 100,000 researchers, journalists, policy-makers and others. The data is available on the WVS website which contains tools developed for online analysis.
Governance and funding
The World Values Survey is organised as a network of social scientists coordinated by a central body - the World Values Survey Association. It is established as a non-profit organization seated in Stockholm, Sweden, with a constitution and mission statement. The project is guided by an executive committee representing all regions of the world. The committee is also supported by a Scientific Advisory Committee, a Secretariat and an Archive. The WVS Executive Committee provides leadership and strategic planning for the association. It is responsible for the recruitment of new members, the organization of meetings and workshops, data processing and distribution, capacity building and the promotion of publications and dissemination of results. The WVS Executive Committee also raises funds for central functions and assists member groups in their fundraising.
Each national team is responsible for its own expenses and most surveys are financed by local sources. However, central funding has been obtained in cases where local funding is not possible. Presently, the activities of the WVS Secretariat and WVS Executive Committee are funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. Other funding has been obtained from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Volkswagen Foundation, he German Science Foundation (DFG) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
Media coverage
The World Values Survey data has been used in a large number of scholarly publications and the findings have been reported in media such as BBC News, Bloomberg Businessweek, China Daily, Chinadialogue.net, CNN, Der Spiegel, Der Standard, Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Le Monde, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Newsweek, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Time, The Economist, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Washington Post, and the World Development Report.
World Values Paper Series: World Values Research
World Values Research (WVR), registered as , is the official online paper series of the World Values Survey Association. The series is edited by the executive committee of the Association. WVR publishes research papers of high scientific standards based on evidence from World Values Surveys data. Papers in WVR follow good academic practice and abide to ethical norms in line with the mission of the World Values Survey Association. Publication of submitted papers is pending on an internal review by the executive committee of the World Values Survey Association. WVR papers present original research based on data from the World Values Surveys, providing new evidence and novel insights of theoretical relevance to the theme of human values. An archive of published WVR papers is available on the project's website.
See also
Afrobarometer
Eurobarometer
Latin American Public Opinion Project
Broad measures of economic progress
Happiness economics
Post-materialism
World Social Capital Monitor
Notes
Bibliography
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290349218_The_political_algebra_of_global_value_change_General_models_and_implications_for_the_Muslim_world
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
External links
1981 establishments
Belief
Epistemology
Global ethics
Political science
Social statistics data
Statistical data sets
Surveys (human research)
Value (ethics) | 0.776023 | 0.989029 | 0.767509 |
Structural functionalism | Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is "a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability".
This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions.
A common analogy called the organic or biological analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer, presents these parts of society as human body "organs" that work toward the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole. In the most basic terms, it simply emphasizes "the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system". For Talcott Parsons, "structural-functionalism" came to describe a particular stage in the methodological development of social science, rather than a specific school of thought.
Theory
In sociology, classical theories are defined by a tendency towards biological analogy and notions of social evolutionism:
While one may regard functionalism as a logical extension of the organic analogies for societies presented by political philosophers such as Rousseau, sociology draws firmer attention to those institutions unique to industrialized capitalist society (or modernity).
Auguste Comte believed that society constitutes a separate "level" of reality, distinct from both biological and inorganic matter. Explanations of social phenomena had therefore to be constructed within this level, individuals being merely transient occupants of comparatively stable social roles. In this view, Comte was followed by Émile Durkheim.
A central concern for Durkheim was the question of how certain societies maintain internal stability and survive over time. He proposed that such societies tend to be segmented, with equivalent parts held together by shared values, common symbols or (as his nephew Marcel Mauss held), systems of exchanges. Durkheim used the term "mechanical solidarity" to refer to these types of "social bonds, based on common sentiments and shared moral values, that are strong among members of pre-industrial societies". In modern, complex societies, members perform very different tasks, resulting in a strong interdependence. Based on the metaphor above of an organism in which many parts function together to sustain the whole, Durkheim argued that complex societies are held together by "organic solidarity", i.e. "social bonds, based on specialization and interdependence, that are strong among members of industrial societies".
The central concern of structural functionalism may be regarded as a continuation of the Durkheimian task of explaining the apparent stability and internal cohesion needed by societies to endure over time. Societies are seen as coherent, bounded and fundamentally relational constructs that function like organisms, with their various (or social institutions) working together in an unconscious, quasi-automatic fashion toward achieving an overall social equilibrium. All social and cultural phenomena are therefore seen as functional in the sense of working together, and are effectively deemed to have "lives" of their own. They are primarily analyzed in terms of this function. The individual is significant not in and of themselves, but rather in terms of their status, their position in patterns of social relations, and the behaviours associated with their status. Therefore, the social structure is the network of statuses connected by associated roles.
Functionalism also has an anthropological basis in the work of theorists such as Marcel Mauss, Bronisław Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown. The prefix 'structural' emerged in Radcliffe-Brown's specific usage. Radcliffe-Brown proposed that most stateless, "primitive" societies, lacking strong centralized institutions, are based on an association of corporate-descent groups, i.e. the respective society's recognised kinship groups. Structural functionalism also took on Malinowski's argument that the basic building block of society is the nuclear family, and that the clan is an outgrowth, not vice versa.
It is simplistic to equate the perspective directly with political conservatism. The tendency to emphasize "cohesive systems", however, leads functionalist theories to be contrasted with "conflict theories" which instead emphasize social problems and inequalities.
Prominent theorists
Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte, the "Father of Positivism", pointed out the need to keep society unified as many traditions were diminishing. He was the first person to coin the term sociology. Comte suggests that sociology is the product of a three-stage development:
Theological stage: From the beginning of human history until the end of the European Middle Ages, people took a religious view that society expressed God's will. In the theological state, the human mind, seeking the essential nature of beings, the first and final causes (the origin and purpose) of all effects—in short, absolute knowledge—supposes all phenomena to be produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings.
Metaphysical stage: People began seeing society as a natural system as opposed to the supernatural. This began with enlightenment and the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. Perceptions of society reflected the failings of a selfish human nature rather than the perfection of God.
Positive or scientific stage: Describing society through the application of the scientific approach, which draws on the work of scientists.
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was a British philosopher famous for applying the theory of natural selection to society. He was in many ways the first true sociological functionalist. In fact, while Durkheim is widely considered the most important functionalist among positivist theorists, it is known that much of his analysis was culled from reading Spencer's work, especially his Principles of Sociology (1874–96). In describing society, Spencer alludes to the analogy of a human body. Just as the structural parts of the human body—the skeleton, muscles, and various internal organs—function independently to help the entire organism survive, social structures work together to preserve society.
While reading Spencer's massive volumes can be tedious (long passages explicating the organic analogy, with reference to cells, simple organisms, animals, humans and society), there are some important insights that have quietly influenced many contemporary theorists, including Talcott Parsons, in his early work The Structure of Social Action (1937). Cultural anthropology also consistently uses functionalism.
This evolutionary model, unlike most 19th century evolutionary theories, is cyclical, beginning with the differentiation and increasing complication of an organic or "super-organic" (Spencer's term for a social system) body, followed by a fluctuating state of equilibrium and disequilibrium (or a state of adjustment and adaptation), and, finally, the stage of disintegration or dissolution. Following Thomas Malthus' population principles, Spencer concluded that society is constantly facing selection pressures (internal and external) that force it to adapt its internal structure through differentiation.
Every solution, however, causes a new set of selection pressures that threaten society's viability. Spencer was not a determinist in the sense that he never said that
Selection pressures will be felt in time to change them;
They will be felt and reacted to; or
The solutions will always work.
In fact, he was in many ways a political sociologist, and recognized that the degree of centralized and consolidated authority in a given polity could make or break its ability to adapt. In other words, he saw a general trend towards the centralization of power as leading to stagnation and ultimately, pressures to decentralize.
More specifically, Spencer recognized three functional needs or prerequisites that produce selection pressures: they are regulatory, operative (production) and distributive. He argued that all societies need to solve problems of control and coordination, production of goods, services and ideas, and, finally, to find ways of distributing these resources.
Initially, in tribal societies, these three needs are inseparable, and the kinship system is the dominant structure that satisfies them. As many scholars have noted, all institutions are subsumed under kinship organization, but, with increasing population (both in terms of sheer numbers and density), problems emerge with regard to feeding individuals, creating new forms of organization—consider the emergent division of labour—coordinating and controlling various differentiated social units, and developing systems of resource distribution.
The solution, as Spencer sees it, is to differentiate structures to fulfill more specialized functions; thus, a chief or "big man" emerges, soon followed by a group of lieutenants, and later kings and administrators. The structural parts of society (e.g. families, work) function interdependently to help society function. Therefore, social structures work together to preserve society.
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons began writing in the 1930s and contributed to sociology, political science, anthropology, and psychology. Structural functionalism and Parsons have received much criticism. Numerous critics have pointed out Parsons' underemphasis of political and monetary struggle, the basics of social change, and the by and large "manipulative" conduct unregulated by qualities and standards. Structural functionalism, and a large portion of Parsons' works, appear to be insufficient in their definitions concerning the connections amongst institutionalized and non-institutionalized conduct, and the procedures by which institutionalization happens.
Parsons was heavily influenced by Durkheim and Max Weber, synthesizing much of their work into his action theory, which he based on the system-theoretical concept and the methodological principle of voluntary action. He held that "the social system is made up of the actions of individuals". His starting point, accordingly, is the interaction between two individuals faced with a variety of choices about how they might act, choices that are influenced and constrained by a number of physical and social factors.
Parsons determined that each individual has expectations of the other's action and reaction to their own behavior, and that these expectations would (if successful) be "derived" from the accepted norms and values of the society they inhabit. As Parsons himself emphasized, in a general context there would never exist any perfect "fit" between behaviors and norms, so such a relation is never complete or "perfect".
Social norms were always problematic for Parsons, who never claimed (as has often been alleged) that social norms were generally accepted and agreed upon, should this prevent some kind of universal law. Whether social norms were accepted or not was for Parsons simply a historical question.
As behaviors are repeated in more interactions, and these expectations are entrenched or institutionalized, a role is created. Parsons defines a "role" as the normatively-regulated participation "of a person in a concrete process of social interaction with specific, concrete role-partners". Although any individual, theoretically, can fulfill any role, the individual is expected to conform to the norms governing the nature of the role they fulfill.
Furthermore, one person can and does fulfill many different roles at the same time. In one sense, an individual can be seen to be a "composition" of the roles he inhabits. Certainly, today, when asked to describe themselves, most people would answer with reference to their societal roles.
Parsons later developed the idea of roles into collectivities of roles that complement each other in fulfilling functions for society. Some roles are bound up in institutions and social structures (economic, educational, legal and even gender-based). These are functional in the sense that they assist society in operating and fulfilling its functional needs so that society runs smoothly.
Contrary to prevailing myth, Parsons never spoke about a society where there was no conflict or some kind of "perfect" equilibrium. A society's cultural value-system was in the typical case never completely integrated, never static and most of the time, like in the case of the American society, in a complex state of transformation relative to its historical point of departure. To reach a "perfect" equilibrium was not any serious theoretical question in Parsons analysis of social systems, indeed, the most dynamic societies had generally cultural systems with important inner tensions like the US and India. These tensions were a source of their strength according to Parsons rather than the opposite. Parsons never thought about system-institutionalization and the level of strains (tensions, conflict) in the system as opposite forces per se.
The key processes for Parsons for system reproduction are socialization and social control. Socialization is important because it is the mechanism for transferring the accepted norms and values of society to the individuals within the system. Parsons never spoke about "perfect socialization"in any society socialization was only partial and "incomplete" from an integral point of view.
Parsons states that "this point ... is independent of the sense in which [the] individual is concretely autonomous or creative rather than 'passive' or 'conforming', for individuality and creativity, are to a considerable extent, phenomena of the institutionalization of expectations"; they are culturally constructed.
Socialization is supported by the positive and negative sanctioning of role behaviours that do or do not meet these expectations. A punishment could be informal, like a snigger or gossip, or more formalized, through institutions such as prisons and mental homes. If these two processes were perfect, society would become static and unchanging, but in reality, this is unlikely to occur for long.
Parsons recognizes this, stating that he treats "the structure of the system as problematic and subject to change", and that his concept of the tendency towards equilibrium "does not imply the empirical dominance of stability over change". He does, however, believe that these changes occur in a relatively smooth way.
Individuals in interaction with changing situations adapt through a process of "role bargaining". Once the roles are established, they create norms that guide further action and are thus institutionalized, creating stability across social interactions. Where the adaptation process cannot adjust, due to sharp shocks or immediate radical change, structural dissolution occurs and either new structures (or therefore a new system) are formed, or society dies. This model of social change has been described as a "moving equilibrium", and emphasizes a desire for social order.
Davis and Moore
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore (1945) gave an argument for social stratification based on the idea of "functional necessity" (also known as the Davis-Moore hypothesis). They argue that the most difficult jobs in any society have the highest incomes in order to motivate individuals to fill the roles needed by the division of labour. Thus, inequality serves social stability.
This argument has been criticized as fallacious from a number of different angles: the argument is both that the individuals who are the most deserving are the highest rewarded, and that a system of unequal rewards is necessary, otherwise no individuals would perform as needed for the society to function. The problem is that these rewards are supposed to be based upon objective merit, rather than subjective "motivations." The argument also does not clearly establish why some positions are worth more than others, even when they benefit more people in society, e.g., teachers compared to athletes and movie stars. Critics have suggested that structural inequality (inherited wealth, family power, etc.) is itself a cause of individual success or failure, not a consequence of it.
Robert Merton
Robert K. Merton made important refinements to functionalist thought. He fundamentally agreed with Parsons' theory but acknowledged that Parsons' theory could be questioned, believing that it was over generalized. Merton tended to emphasize middle range theory rather than a grand theory, meaning that he was able to deal specifically with some of the limitations in Parsons' thinking. Merton believed that any social structure probably has many functions, some more obvious than others. He identified three main limitations: functional unity, universal functionalism and indispensability. He also developed the concept of deviance and made the distinction between manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions referred to the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern. Latent functions referred to unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern.
Merton criticized functional unity, saying that not all parts of a modern complex society work for the functional unity of society. Consequently, there is a social dysfunction referred to as any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society. Some institutions and structures may have other functions, and some may even be generally dysfunctional, or be functional for some while being dysfunctional for others. This is because not all structures are functional for society as a whole. Some practices are only functional for a dominant individual or a group.
There are two types of functions that Merton discusses the "manifest functions" in that a social pattern can trigger a recognized and intended consequence. The manifest function of education includes preparing for a career by getting good grades, graduation and finding good job. The second type of function is "latent functions", where a social pattern results in an unrecognized or unintended consequence. The latent functions of education include meeting new people, extra-curricular activities, school trips.
Another type of social function is "social dysfunction" which is any undesirable consequences that disrupts the operation of society. The social dysfunction of education includes not getting good grades, a job. Merton states that by recognizing and examining the dysfunctional aspects of society we can explain the development and persistence of alternatives. Thus, as Holmwood states, "Merton explicitly made power and conflict central issues for research within a functionalist paradigm."
Merton also noted that there may be functional alternatives to the institutions and structures currently fulfilling the functions of society. This means that the institutions that currently exist are not indispensable to society. Merton states "just as the same item may have multiple functions, so may the same function be diversely fulfilled by alternative items." This notion of functional alternatives is important because it reduces the tendency of functionalism to imply approval of the status quo.
Merton's theory of deviance is derived from Durkheim's idea of anomie. It is central in explaining how internal changes can occur in a system. For Merton, anomie means a discontinuity between cultural goals and the accepted methods available for reaching them.
Merton believes that there are 5 situations facing an actor.
Conformity occurs when an individual has the means and desire to achieve the cultural goals socialized into them.
Innovation occurs when an individual strives to attain the accepted cultural goals but chooses to do so in novel or unaccepted method.
Ritualism occurs when an individual continues to do things as prescribed by society but forfeits the achievement of the goals.
Retreatism is the rejection of both the means and the goals of society.
Rebellion is a combination of the rejection of societal goals and means and a substitution of other goals and means.
Thus it can be seen that change can occur internally in society through either innovation or rebellion. It is true that society will attempt to control these individuals and negate the changes, but as the innovation or rebellion builds momentum, society will eventually adapt or face dissolution.
Almond and Powell
In the 1970s, political scientists Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell introduced a structural-functionalist approach to comparing political systems. They argued that, in order to understand a political system, it is necessary to understand not only its institutions (or structures) but also their respective functions. They also insisted that these institutions, to be properly understood, must be placed in a meaningful and dynamic historical context.
This idea stood in marked contrast to prevalent approaches in the field of comparative politics—the state-society theory and the dependency theory. These were the descendants of David Easton's system theory in international relations, a mechanistic view that saw all political systems as essentially the same, subject to the same laws of "stimulus and response"—or inputs and outputs—while paying little attention to unique characteristics. The structural-functional approach is based on the view that a political system is made up of several key components, including interest groups, political parties and branches of government.
In addition to structures, Almond and Powell showed that a political system consists of various functions, chief among them political socialization, recruitment and communication: socialization refers to the way in which societies pass along their values and beliefs to succeeding generations, and in political terms describe the process by which a society inculcates civic virtues, or the habits of effective citizenship; recruitment denotes the process by which a political system generates interest, engagement and participation from citizens; and communication refers to the way that a system promulgates its values and information.
Unilineal descent
In their attempt to explain the social stability of African "primitive" stateless societies where they undertook their fieldwork, Evans-Pritchard (1940) and Meyer Fortes (1945) argued that the Tallensi and the Nuer were primarily organized around unilineal descent groups. Such groups are characterized by common purposes, such as administering property or defending against attacks; they form a permanent social structure that persists well beyond the lifespan of their members. In the case of the Tallensi and the Nuer, these corporate groups were based on kinship which in turn fitted into the larger structures of unilineal descent; consequently Evans-Pritchard's and Fortes' model is called "descent theory". Moreover, in this African context territorial divisions were aligned with lineages; descent theory therefore synthesized both blood and soil as the same. Affinal ties with the parent through whom descent is not reckoned, however, are considered to be merely complementary or secondary (Fortes created the concept of "complementary filiation"), with the reckoning of kinship through descent being considered the primary organizing force of social systems. Because of its strong emphasis on unilineal descent, this new kinship theory came to be called "descent theory".
With no delay, descent theory had found its critics. Many African tribal societies seemed to fit this neat model rather well, although Africanists, such as Paul Richards, also argued that Fortes and Evans-Pritchard had deliberately downplayed internal contradictions and overemphasized the stability of the local lineage systems and their significance for the organization of society. However, in many Asian settings the problems were even more obvious. In Papua New Guinea, the local patrilineal descent groups were fragmented and contained large amounts of non-agnates. Status distinctions did not depend on descent, and genealogies were too short to account for social solidarity through identification with a common ancestor. In particular, the phenomenon of cognatic (or bilateral) kinship posed a serious problem to the proposition that descent groups are the primary element behind the social structures of "primitive" societies.
Leach's (1966) critique came in the form of the classical Malinowskian argument, pointing out that "in Evans-Pritchard's studies of the Nuer and also in Fortes's studies of the Tallensi unilineal descent turns out to be largely an ideal concept to which the empirical facts are only adapted by means of fictions". People's self-interest, manoeuvring, manipulation and competition had been ignored. Moreover, descent theory neglected the significance of marriage and affinal ties, which were emphasized by Lévi-Strauss's structural anthropology, at the expense of overemphasizing the role of descent. To quote Leach: "The evident importance attached to matrilateral and affinal kinship connections is not so much explained as explained away."
Biological
Biological functionalism is an anthropological paradigm, asserting that all social institutions, beliefs, values and practices serve to address pragmatic concerns. In many ways, the theorem derives from the longer-established structural functionalism, yet the two theorems diverge from one another significantly. While both maintain the fundamental belief that a social structure is composed of many interdependent frames of reference, biological functionalists criticise the structural view that a social solidarity and collective conscience is required in a functioning system. By that fact, biological functionalism maintains that our individual survival and health is the driving provocation of actions, and that the importance of social rigidity is negligible.
Everyday application
Although the actions of humans without doubt do not always engender positive results for the individual, a biological functionalist would argue that the intention was still self-preservation, albeit unsuccessful. An example of this is the belief in luck as an entity; while a disproportionately strong belief in good luck may lead to undesirable results, such as a huge loss in money from gambling, biological functionalism maintains that the newly created ability of the gambler to condemn luck will allow them to be free of individual blame, thus serving a practical and individual purpose. In this sense, biological functionalism maintains that while bad results often occur in life, which do not serve any pragmatic concerns, an entrenched cognitive psychological motivation was attempting to create a positive result, in spite of its eventual failure.
Decline
Structural functionalism reached the peak of its influence in the 1940s and 1950s, and by the 1960s was in rapid decline. By the 1980s, its place was taken in Europe by more conflict-oriented approaches, and more recently by structuralism. While some of the critical approaches also gained popularity in the United States, the mainstream of the discipline has instead shifted to a myriad of empirically oriented middle-range theories with no overarching theoretical orientation. To most sociologists, functionalism is now "as dead as a dodo".
As the influence of functionalism in the 1960s began to wane, the linguistic and cultural turns led to a myriad of new movements in the social sciences: "According to Giddens, the orthodox consensus terminated in the late 1960s and 1970s as the middle ground shared by otherwise competing perspectives gave way and was replaced by a baffling variety of competing perspectives. This third generation of social theory includes phenomenologically inspired approaches, critical theory, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism, structuralism, post-structuralism, and theories written in the tradition of hermeneutics and ordinary language philosophy."
While absent from empirical sociology, functionalist themes remained detectable in sociological theory, most notably in the works of Luhmann and Giddens. There are, however, signs of an incipient revival, as functionalist claims have recently been bolstered by developments in multilevel selection theory and in empirical research on how groups solve social dilemmas. Recent developments in evolutionary theory—especially by biologist David Sloan Wilson and anthropologists Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson—have provided strong support for structural functionalism in the form of multilevel selection theory. In this theory, culture and social structure are seen as a Darwinian (biological or cultural) adaptation at the group level.
Criticisms
In the 1960s, functionalism was criticized for being unable to account for social change, or for structural contradictions and conflict (and thus was often called "consensus theory"). Also, it ignores inequalities including race, gender, class, which cause tension and conflict. The refutation of the second criticism of functionalism, that it is static and has no concept of change, has already been articulated above, concluding that while Parsons' theory allows for change, it is an orderly process of change [Parsons, 1961:38], a moving equilibrium. Therefore, referring to Parsons' theory of society as static is inaccurate. It is true that it does place emphasis on equilibrium and the maintenance or quick return to social order, but this is a product of the time in which Parsons was writing (post-World War II, and the start of the cold war). Society was in upheaval and fear abounded. At the time social order was crucial, and this is reflected in Parsons' tendency to promote equilibrium and social order rather than social change.
Furthermore, Durkheim favoured a radical form of guild socialism along with functionalist explanations. Also, Marxism, while acknowledging social contradictions, still uses functionalist explanations. Parsons' evolutionary theory describes the differentiation and reintegration systems and subsystems and thus at least temporary conflict before reintegration (ibid). "The fact that functional analysis can be seen by some as inherently conservative and by others as inherently radical suggests that it may be inherently neither one nor the other."
Stronger criticisms include the epistemological argument that functionalism is tautologous, that is, it attempts to account for the development of social institutions solely through recourse to the effects that are attributed to them, and thereby explains the two circularly. However, Parsons drew directly on many of Durkheim's concepts in creating his theory. Certainly Durkheim was one of the first theorists to explain a phenomenon with reference to the function it served for society. He said, "the determination of function is…necessary for the complete explanation of the phenomena." However Durkheim made a clear distinction between historical and functional analysis, saying, "When ... the explanation of a social phenomenon is undertaken, we must seek separately the efficient cause which produces it and the function it fulfills." If Durkheim made this distinction, then it is unlikely that Parsons did not.
However Merton does explicitly state that functional analysis does not seek to explain why the action happened in the first instance, but why it continues or is reproduced. By this particular logic, it can be argued that functionalists do not necessarily explain the original cause of a phenomenon with reference to its effect. Yet the logic stated in reverse, that social phenomena are (re)produced because they serve ends, is unoriginal to functionalist thought. Thus functionalism is either undefinable or it can be defined by the teleological arguments which functionalist theorists normatively produced before Merton.
Another criticism describes the ontological argument that society cannot have "needs" as a human being does, and even if society does have needs they need not be met. Anthony Giddens argues that functionalist explanations may all be rewritten as historical accounts of individual human actions and consequences (see Structuration).
A further criticism directed at functionalism is that it contains no sense of agency, that individuals are seen as puppets, acting as their role requires. Yet Holmwood states that the most sophisticated forms of functionalism are based on "a highly developed concept of action," and as was explained above, Parsons took as his starting point the individual and their actions. His theory did not however articulate how these actors exercise their agency in opposition to the socialization and inculcation of accepted norms. As has been shown above, Merton addressed this limitation through his concept of deviance, and so it can be seen that functionalism allows for agency. It cannot, however, explain why individuals choose to accept or reject the accepted norms, why and in what circumstances they choose to exercise their agency, and this does remain a considerable limitation of the theory.
Further criticisms have been levelled at functionalism by proponents of other social theories, particularly conflict theorists, Marxists, feminists and postmodernists. Conflict theorists criticized functionalism's concept of systems as giving far too much weight to integration and consensus, and neglecting independence and conflict. Lockwood, in line with conflict theory, suggested that Parsons' theory missed the concept of system contradiction. He did not account for those parts of the system that might have tendencies to mal-integration. According to Lockwood, it was these tendencies that come to the surface as opposition and conflict among actors. However Parsons thought that the issues of conflict and cooperation were very much intertwined and sought to account for both in his model. In this however he was limited by his analysis of an ‘ideal type' of society which was characterized by consensus. Merton, through his critique of functional unity, introduced into functionalism an explicit analysis of tension and conflict. Yet Merton's functionalist explanations of social phenomena continued to rest on the idea that society is primarily co-operative rather than conflicted, which differentiates Merton from conflict theorists.
Marxism, which was revived soon after the emergence of conflict theory, criticized professional sociology (functionalism and conflict theory alike) for being partisan to advanced welfare capitalism. Gouldner thought that Parsons' theory specifically was an expression of the dominant interests of welfare capitalism, that it justified institutions with reference to the function they fulfill for society. It may be that Parsons' work implied or articulated that certain institutions were necessary to fulfill the functional prerequisites of society, but whether or not this is the case, Merton explicitly states that institutions are not indispensable and that there are functional alternatives. That he does not identify any alternatives to the current institutions does reflect a conservative bias, which as has been stated before is a product of the specific time that he was writing in.
As functionalism's prominence was ending, feminism was on the rise, and it attempted a radical criticism of functionalism. It believed that functionalism neglected the suppression of women within the family structure. Holmwood shows, however, that Parsons did in fact describe the situations where tensions and conflict existed or were about to take place, even if he did not articulate those conflicts. Some feminists agree, suggesting that Parsons provided accurate descriptions of these situations. On the other hand, Parsons recognized that he had oversimplified his functional analysis of women in relation to work and the family, and focused on the positive functions of the family for society and not on its dysfunctions for women. Merton, too, although addressing situations where function and dysfunction occurred simultaneously, lacked a "feminist sensibility".
Postmodernism, as a theory, is critical of claims of objectivity. Therefore, the idea of grand theory and grand narrative that can explain society in all its forms is treated with skepticism. This critique focuses on exposing the danger that grand theory can pose when not seen as a limited perspective, as one way of understanding society.
Jeffrey Alexander (1985) sees functionalism as a broad school rather than a specific method or system, such as Parsons, who is capable of taking equilibrium (stability) as a reference-point rather than assumption and treats structural differentiation as a major form of social change. The name 'functionalism' implies a difference of method or interpretation that does not exist. This removes the determinism criticized above. Cohen argues that rather than needs a society has dispositional facts: features of the social environment that support the existence of particular social institutions but do not cause them.
Influential theorists
Kingsley Davis
Michael Denton
Émile Durkheim
David Keen
Niklas Luhmann
Bronisław Malinowski
Robert K. Merton
Wilbert E. Moore
George Murdock
Talcott Parsons
Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown
Herbert Spencer
Fei Xiaotong
See also
Causation (sociology)
Functional structuralism
Historicism
Neofunctionalism (sociology)
New institutional economics
Pure sociology
Sociotechnical system
Systems theory
Vacancy chain
Dennis Wrong (critic of structural functionalism)
Notes
References
Barnard, A. 2000. History and Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge: CUP.
Barnard, A., and Good, A. 1984. Research Practices in the Study of Kinship. London: Academic Press.
Barnes, J. 1971. Three Styles in the Study of Kinship. London: Butler & Tanner.
Elster, J., (1990), “Merton's Functionalism and the Unintended Consequences of Action”, in Clark, J., Modgil, C. & Modgil, S., (eds) Robert Merton: Consensus and Controversy, Falmer Press, London, pp. 129–35
Gingrich, P., (1999) “Functionalism and Parsons” in Sociology 250 Subject Notes, University of Regina, accessed, 24/5/06, uregina.ca
Holy, L. 1996. Anthropological Perspectives on Kinship. London: Pluto Press.
Homans, George Casper (1962). Sentiments and Activities. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe.
Hoult, Thomas Ford (1969). Dictionary of Modern Sociology.
Kuper, A. 1996. Anthropology and Anthropologists. London: Routledge.
Layton, R. 1997. An Introduction to Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge: CUP.
Leach, E. 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma. London: Bell.
Leach, E. 1966. Rethinking Anthropology. Northampton: Dickens.
Lenski, Gerhard (1966). "Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification." New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lenski, Gerhard (2005). "Evolutionary-Ecological Theory." Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Levi-Strauss, C. 1969. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. London: Eyre and Spottis-woode.
Maryanski, Alexandra (1998). "Evolutionary Sociology." Advances in Human Ecology. 7:1–56.
Maryanski, Alexandra and Jonathan Turner (1992). "The Social Cage: Human Nature and the Evolution of Society." Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Marshall, Gordon (1994). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology.
Parsons, T., (1961) Theories of Society: foundations of modern sociological theory, Free Press, New York
Perey, Arnold (2005) "Malinowski, His Diary, and Men Today (with a note on the nature of Malinowskian functionalism)
Ritzer, George and Douglas J. Goodman (2004). Sociological Theory, 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sanderson, Stephen K. (1999). "Social Transformations: A General Theory of Historical Development." Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Turner, Jonathan (1995). "Macrodynamics: Toward a Theory on the Organization of Human Populations." New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Turner, Jonathan and Jan Stets (2005). "The Sociology of Emotions." Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Comparative politics
Functionalism (social theory)
History of sociology
Sociological theories
Anthropology
Cognition | 0.76921 | 0.997675 | 0.767422 |
Neo-expressionism | Neo-expressionism is a style of late modernist or early-postmodern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s.. Neo-expressionists were sometimes called Transavantgarde, Junge Wilde or Neue Wilden ('The new wild ones'; 'New Fauves' would better meet the meaning of the term). It is characterized by intense subjectivity and rough handling of materials.
Neo-expressionism developed as a reaction against conceptual art and minimal art of the 1970s. Neo-expressionists returned to portraying recognizable objects, such as the human body (although sometimes in an abstract manner), in a rough and violently emotional way, often using vivid colors. It was overtly inspired by German Expressionist painters, such as Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, James Ensor and Edvard Munch. It is also related to American Lyrical Abstraction painting of the 1960s and 1970s, The Hairy Who movement in Chicago, the Bay Area Figurative School of the 1950s and 1960s, the continuation of Abstract Expressionism, precedents in Pop Painting, and New Image Painting: a vague late 1970s term applied to painters who employed a strident figurative style with cartoon-like imagery and abrasive handling owing something to neo-expressionism. The New Image Painting term was given currency by a 1978 exhibition entitled New Image Painting held at the Whitney Museum.
Critical reception
Neo-expressionism dominated the art market until the mid-1980s. The style emerged internationally and was viewed by many critics, such as Achille Bonito Oliva and Donald Kuspit, as a revival of traditional themes of self-expression in European art after decades of American dominance. The social and economic value of the movement was hotly debated. From the point of view of the history of Modern Art, art critic Robert Hughes dismissed Neo-Expressionist painting as retrograde, as a failure of radical imagination, and as a lamentable capitulation to the art market.
Critics such as Benjamin Buchloh, Hal Foster, Craig Owens, and Mira Schor were highly critical of its relation to the marketability of painting on the rapidly expanding art market, celebrity, the backlash against feminism, anti-intellectualism, and a return to mythic subjects and individualist methods they deemed outmoded. Women were notoriously marginalized in the movement, and painters such as Elizabeth Murray and Maria Lassnig were omitted from many of its key exhibitions, most notoriously the 1981 New Spirit in Painting exhibition in London which included 38 male painters but no female painters.
Neo-expressionism around the world
The movement became known as Transavanguardia in Italy and Neue Wilden in Germany, and the group Figuration Libre was formed in France in 1981.
Key neo-expressionist painters
Georg Baselitz
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Sandro Chia
Enzo Cucchi
Francesco Clemente
Eric Fischl
Philip Guston
Anselm Kiefer
Robert Longo
Rick Prol
Julian Schnabel
See also
Abstract expressionism
Black Abstractionism
Expressionism
Postmodernism
Postmodern art
New European Painting
References
External links
Contemporary art movements
Expressionism
Modern art
Postmodern art
1970s in art | 0.770572 | 0.99587 | 0.76739 |
Qualitative research | Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This type of research typically involves in-depth interviews, focus groups, or field observations in order to collect data that is rich in detail and context. Qualitative research is often used to explore complex phenomena or to gain insight into people's experiences and perspectives on a particular topic. It is particularly useful when researchers want to understand the meaning that people attach to their experiences or when they want to uncover the underlying reasons for people's behavior. Qualitative methods include ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative research methods have been used in sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, communication studies, social work, folklore, educational research, information science and software engineering research.
Background
Qualitative research has been informed by several strands of philosophical thought and examines aspects of human life, including culture, expression, beliefs, morality, life stress, and imagination. Contemporary qualitative research has been influenced by a number of branches of philosophy, for example, positivism, postpositivism, critical theory, and constructivism.
The historical transitions or 'moments' in qualitative research, together with the notion of 'paradigms' (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005), have received widespread popularity over the past decades. However, some scholars have argued that the adoptions of paradigms may be counterproductive and lead to less philosophically engaged communities.
Approaches to inquiry
The use of nonquantitative material as empirical data has been growing in many areas of the social sciences, including learning sciences, development psychology and cultural psychology. Several philosophical and psychological traditions have influenced investigators' approaches to qualitative research, including phenomenology, social constructionism, symbolic interactionism, and positivism.
Philosophical traditions
Phenomenology refers to the philosophical study of the structure of an individual's consciousness and general subjective experience. Approaches to qualitative research based on constructionism, such as grounded theory, pay attention to how the subjectivity of both the researcher and the study participants can affect the theory that develops out of the research. The symbolic interactionist approach to qualitative research examines how individuals and groups develop an understanding of the world. Traditional positivist approaches to qualitative research seek a more objective understanding of the social world. Qualitative researchers have also been influenced by the sociology of knowledge and the work of Alfred Schütz, Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann, and Harold Garfinkel.
Sources of data
Qualitative researchers use different sources of data to understand the topic they are studying. These data sources include interview transcripts, videos of social interactions, notes, verbal reports and artifacts such as books or works of art. The case study method exemplifies qualitative researchers' preference for depth, detail, and context. Data triangulation is also a strategy used in qualitative research. Autoethnography, the study of self, is a qualitative research method in which the researcher uses his or her personal experience to understand an issue.
Grounded theory is an inductive type of research, based on ("grounded" in) a very close look at the empirical observations a study yields. Thematic analysis involves analyzing patterns of meaning. Conversation analysis is primarily used to analyze spoken conversations. Biographical research is concerned with the reconstruction of life histories, based on biographical narratives and documents. Narrative inquiry studies the narratives that people use to describe their experience.
Data collection
Qualitative researchers may gather information through observations, note-taking, interviews, focus groups (group interviews), documents, images and artifacts.
Interviews
Research interviews are an important method of data collection in qualitative research. An interviewer is usually a professional or paid researcher, sometimes trained, who poses questions to the interviewee, in an alternating series of usually brief questions and answers, to elicit information. Compared to something like a written survey, qualitative interviews allow for a significantly higher degree of intimacy, with participants often revealing personal information to their interviewers in a real-time, face-to-face setting. As such, this technique can evoke an array of significant feelings and experiences within those being interviewed. Sociologists Bredal, Stefansen and Bjørnholt identified three "participant orientations", that they described as "telling for oneself", "telling for others" and "telling for the researcher". They also proposed that these orientations implied "different ethical contracts between the participant and researcher".
Participant observation
In participant observation ethnographers get to understand a culture by directly participating in the activities of the culture they study. Participant observation extends further than ethnography and into other fields, including psychology. For example, by training to be an EMT and becoming a participant observer in the lives of EMTs, Palmer studied how EMTs cope with the stress associated with some of the gruesome emergencies they deal with.
Recursivity
In qualitative research, the idea of recursivity refers to the emergent nature of research design. In contrast to standardized research methods, recursivity embodies the idea that the qualitative researcher can change a study's design during the data collection phase.
Recursivity in qualitative research procedures contrasts to the methods used by scientists who conduct experiments. From the perspective of the scientist, data collection, data analysis, discussion of the data in the context of the research literature, and drawing conclusions should be each undertaken once (or at most a small number of times). In qualitative research however, data are collected repeatedly until one or more specific stopping conditions are met, reflecting a nonstatic attitude to the planning and design of research activities. An example of this dynamism might be when the qualitative researcher unexpectedly changes their research focus or design midway through a study, based on their first interim data analysis. The researcher can even make further unplanned changes based on another interim data analysis. Such an approach would not be permitted in an experiment. Qualitative researchers would argue that recursivity in developing the relevant evidence enables the researcher to be more open to unexpected results and emerging new constructs.
Data analysis
Qualitative researchers have a number of analytic strategies available to them.
Coding
In general, coding refers to the act of associating meaningful ideas with the data of interest. In the context of qualitative research, interpretative aspects of the coding process are often explicitly recognized and articulated; coding helps to produce specific words or short phrases believed to be useful abstractions from the data.
Pattern thematic analysis
Data may be sorted into patterns for thematic analyses as the primary basis for organizing and reporting the study findings.
Content analysis
According to Krippendorf, "Content analysis is a research technique for making replicable and valid inference from data to their context" (p. 21). It is applied to documents and written and oral communication. Content analysis is an important building block in the conceptual analysis of qualitative data. It is frequently used in sociology. For example, content analysis has been applied to research on such diverse aspects of human life as changes in perceptions of race over time, the lifestyles of contractors, and even reviews of automobiles.
Issues
Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS)
Contemporary qualitative data analyses can be supported by computer programs (termed computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software). These programs have been employed with or without detailed hand coding or labeling. Such programs do not supplant the interpretive nature of coding. The programs are aimed at enhancing analysts' efficiency at applying, retrieving, and storing the codes generated from reading the data. Many programs enhance efficiency in editing and revising codes, which allow for more effective work sharing, peer review, data examination, and analysis of large datasets.
Common qualitative data analysis software includes:
ATLAS.ti
Dedoose (mixed methods)
MAXQDA (mixed methods)
NVivo
QDA MINER
A criticism of quantitative coding approaches is that such coding sorts qualitative data into predefined (nomothetic) categories that are reflective of the categories found in objective science. The variety, richness, and individual characteristics of the qualitative data are reduced or, even, lost.
To defend against the criticism that qualitative approaches to data are too subjective, qualitative researchers assert that by clearly articulating their definitions of the codes they use and linking those codes to the underlying data, they preserve some of the richness that might be lost if the results of their research boiled down to a list of predefined categories. Qualitative researchers also assert that their procedures are repeatable, which is an idea that is valued by quantitatively oriented researchers.
Sometimes researchers rely on computers and their software to scan and reduce large amounts of qualitative data. At their most basic level, numerical coding schemes rely on counting words and phrases within a dataset; other techniques involve the analysis of phrases and exchanges in analyses of conversations. A computerized approach to data analysis can be used to aid content analysis, especially when there is a large corpus to unpack.
Trustworthiness
A central issue in qualitative research is trustworthiness (also known as credibility or, in quantitative studies, validity). There are many ways of establishing trustworthiness, including member check, interviewer corroboration, peer debriefing, prolonged engagement, negative case analysis, auditability, confirmability, bracketing, and balance. Data triangulation and eliciting examples of interviewee accounts are two of the most commonly used methods of establishing the trustworthiness of qualitative studies.
Transferability of results has also been considered as an indicator of validity.
Limitations of qualitative research
Qualitative research is not without limitations. These limitations include participant reactivity, the potential for a qualitative investigator to over-identify with one or more study participants, "the impracticality of the Glaser-Strauss idea that hypotheses arise from data unsullied by prior expectations," the inadequacy of qualitative research for testing cause-effect hypotheses, and the Baconian character of qualitative research. Participant reactivity refers to the fact that people often behave differently when they know they are being observed. Over-identifying with participants refers to a sympathetic investigator studying a group of people and ascribing, more than is warranted, a virtue or some other characteristic to one or more participants. Compared to qualitative research, experimental research and certain types of nonexperimental research (e.g., prospective studies), although not perfect, are better means for drawing cause-effect conclusions.
Glaser and Strauss, influential members of the qualitative research community, pioneered the idea that theoretically important categories and hypotheses can emerge "naturally" from the observations a qualitative researcher collects, provided that the researcher is not guided by preconceptions. The ethologist David Katz wrote "a hungry animal divides the environment into edible and inedible things....Generally speaking, objects change...according to the needs of the animal." Karl Popper carrying forward Katz's point wrote that "objects can be classified and can become similar or dissimilar, only in this way--by being related to needs and interests. This rule applied not only to animals but also to scientists." Popper made clear that observation is always selective, based on past research and the investigators' goals and motives and that preconceptionless research is impossible.
The Baconian character of qualitative research refers to the idea that a qualitative researcher can collect enough observations such that categories and hypotheses will emerge from the data. Glaser and Strauss developed the idea of theoretical sampling by way of collecting observations until theoretical saturation is obtained and no additional observations are required to understand the character of the individuals under study. Bertrand Russell suggested that there can be no orderly arrangement of observations such that a hypothesis will jump out of those ordered observations; some provisional hypothesis usually guides the collection of observations.
In psychology
Community psychology
Autobiographical narrative research has been conducted in the field of community psychology. A selection of autobiographical narratives of community psychologists can be found in the book Six Community Psychologists Tell Their Stories: History, Contexts, and Narrative.
Educational psychology
Edwin Farrell used qualitative methods to understand the social reality of at-risk high school students. Later he used similar methods to understand the reality of successful high school students who came from the same neighborhoods as the at-risk students he wrote about in his previously mentioned book.
Health psychology
In the field of health psychology, qualitative methods have become increasingly employed in research on understanding health and illness and how health and illness are socially constructed in everyday life. Since then, a broad range of qualitative methods have been adopted by health psychologists, including discourse analysis, thematic analysis, narrative analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis. In 2015, the journal Health Psychology published a special issue on qualitative research.<ref>Gough, B., & Deatrick, J.A. (eds.)(2015). Qualitative research in health psychology [special issue]. Health Psychology, 34 (4).</ref>
Industrial and organizational psychology
According to Doldor and colleagues organizational psychologists extensively use qualitative research "during the design and implementation of activities like organizational change, training needs analyses, strategic reviews, and employee development plans."
Occupational health psychology
Although research in the field of occupational health psychology (OHP) has predominantly been quantitatively oriented, some OHP researchers have employed qualitative methods. Qualitative research efforts, if directed properly, can provide advantages for quantitatively oriented OHP researchers. These advantages include help with (1) theory and hypothesis development, (2) item creation for surveys and interviews, (3) the discovery of stressors and coping strategies not previously identified, (4) interpreting difficult-to-interpret quantitative findings, (5) understanding why some stress-reduction interventions fail and others succeed, and (6) providing rich descriptions of the lived lives of people at work.Schonfeld, I. S., & Farrell, E. (2010). Qualitative methods can enrich quantitative research on occupational stress: An example from one occupational group. In D. C. Ganster & P. L. Perrewé (Eds.), Research in occupational stress and wellbeing series. Vol. 8. New developments in theoretical and conceptual approaches to job stress (pp. 137-197). Bingley, UK: Emerald. Some OHP investigators have united qualitative and quantitative methods within a single study (e.g., Elfering et al., [2005]); these investigators have used qualitative methods to assess job stressors that are difficult to ascertain using standard measures and well validated standardized instruments to assess coping behaviors and dependent variables such as mood.
Social media psychology
Since the advent of social media in the early 2000s, formerly private accounts of personal experiences have become widely shared with the public by millions of people around the world. Disclosures are often made openly, which has contributed to social media's key role in movements like the #metoo movement.
The abundance of self-disclosure on social media has presented an unprecedented opportunity for qualitative and mixed methods researchers; mental health problems can now be investigated qualitatively more widely, at a lower cost, and with no intervention by the researchers. To take advantage of these data, researchers need to have mastered the tools for conducting qualitative research.
Academic journals
Consumption Markets & Culture
Journal of Consumer Research
Qualitative Inquiry Qualitative Market Research Qualitative Research The Qualitative ReportSee also
Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS)
References
Further reading
Adler, P. A. & Adler, P. (1987). : context and meaning in social inquiry / edited by Richard Jessor, Anne Colby, and Richard A. Shweder
Baškarada, S. (2014) "Qualitative Case Study Guidelines", in The Qualitative Report, 19(40): 1-25. Available from
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research ( 2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2011). The SAGE Handbook of qualitative research ( 4th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
DeWalt, K. M. & DeWalt, B. R. (2002). Participant observation. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Fischer, C.T. (Ed.) (2005). Qualitative research methods for psychologists: Introduction through empirical studies. Academic Press. .
Franklin, M. I. (2012), "Understanding Research: Coping with the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide". London/New York. Routledge
Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Gubrium, J. F. and J. A. Holstein. (2000). "The New Language of Qualitative Method." New York: Oxford University Press.
Gubrium, J. F. and J. A. Holstein (2009). "Analyzing Narrative Reality." Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gubrium, J. F. and J. A. Holstein, eds. (2000). "Institutional Selves: Troubled Identities in a Postmodern World." New York: Oxford University Press.
Hammersley, M. (2008) Questioning Qualitative Inquiry, London, Sage.
Hammersley, M. (2013) What is qualitative research?, London, Bloomsbury.
Holliday, A. R. (2007). Doing and Writing Qualitative Research, 2nd Edition. London: Sage Publications
Holstein, J. A. and J. F. Gubrium, eds. (2012). "Varieties of Narrative Analysis." Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kaminski, Marek M. (2004). Games Prisoners Play. Princeton University Press. .
Malinowski, B. (1922/1961). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Pamela Maykut, Richard Morehouse. 1994 Beginning Qualitative Research. Falmer Press.
Pernecky, T. (2016). Epistemology and Metaphysics for Qualitative Research. London, UK: Sage Publications.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods ( 3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Pawluch D. & Shaffir W. & Miall C. (2005). Doing Ethnography: Studying Everyday Life. Toronto, ON Canada: Canadian Scholars' Press.
Racino, J. (1999). Policy, Program Evaluation and Research in Disability: Community Support for All." New York, NY: Haworth Press (now Routledge imprint, Francis and Taylor, 2015).
Ragin, C. C. (1994). Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method, Pine Forge Press,
Riessman, Catherine K. (1993). "Narrative Analysis." Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rosenthal, Gabriele (2018). Interpretive Social Research. An Introduction. Göttingen, Germany: Universitätsverlag Göttingen.
Savin-Baden, M. and Major, C. (2013). "Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice." London, Rutledge.
Silverman, David, (ed), (2011), "Qualitative Research: Issues of Theory, Method and Practice". Third Edition. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, Sage Publications
Stebbins, Robert A. (2001) Exploratory Research in the Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Taylor, Steven J., Bogdan, Robert, Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, Wiley, 1998,
Van Maanen, J. (1988) Tales of the field: on writing ethnography, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wolcott, H. F. (1995). The art of fieldwork. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Wolcott, H. F. (1999). Ethnography: A way of seeing. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Ziman, John (2000). Real Science: what it is, and what it means''. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press.
External links
Qualitative Philosophy
C.Wright Mills, On intellectual Craftsmanship, The Sociological Imagination,1959
Participant Observation, Qualitative research methods: a Data collector's field guide
Analyzing and Reporting Qualitative Market Research
Overview of available QDA Software
Videos
Research methods
Psychological methodology | 0.769195 | 0.997602 | 0.76735 |
Imagism | Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has been termed "a succession of creative moments" rather than a continuous or sustained period of development. The French academic René Taupin remarked that "it is more accurate to consider Imagism not as a doctrine, nor even as a poetic school, but as the association of a few poets who were for a certain time in agreement on a small number of important principles".
The Imagists rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of Romantic and Victorian poetry. In contrast to the contemporary Georgian poets, who were generally content to work within that tradition, Imagists called for a return to more Classical values, such as directness of presentation, economy of language, and a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms; Imagists used free verse. A characteristic feature of the form is its attempt to isolate a single image to reveal its essence. This mirrors contemporary developments in avant-garde art, especially Cubism. Although these poets isolate objects through the use of what the American poet Ezra Pound called "luminous details", Pound's ideogrammic method of juxtaposing concrete instances to express an abstraction is similar to Cubism's manner of synthesizing multiple perspectives into a single image.
Imagist publications appearing between 1914 and 1917 featured works by many of the most prominent modernist figures in poetry and other fields, including Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Amy Lowell, Ford Madox Ford, William Carlos Williams, F. S. Flint, and T. E. Hulme. The Imagists were centered in London, with members from Great Britain, Ireland and the United States. Somewhat unusually for the time, a number of women writers were major Imagist figures.
Pre-Imagism
The origins of Imagism are to be found in two poems, Autumn and A City Sunset by T. E. Hulme. These were published in January 1909 by the Poets' Club in London in a booklet called For Christmas MDCCCCVIII. Hulme was a student of mathematics and philosophy; he had been involved in setting up the club in 1908 and was its first secretary. Around the end of 1908, he presented his paper A Lecture on Modern Poetry at one of the club's meetings. Writing in A. R. Orage's magazine The New Age, the poet and critic F. S. Flint (a champion of free verse and modern French poetry) was highly critical of the club and its publications.
From the ensuing debate, Hulme and Flint became close friends. In 1909, Hulme left the Poets' Club and started meeting with Flint and other poets in a new group which Hulme referred to as the "Secession Club"; they met at the Eiffel Tower restaurant in London's Soho to discuss plans to reform contemporary poetry through free verse and the tanka and haiku and through the removal of all unnecessary verbiage from poems. The interest in Japanese verse forms can be contextualized by the late Victorian and Edwardian revival of Chinoiserie and Japonism as witnessed in the 1890s vogue for William Anderson's Japanese prints donated to the British Museum as well as in the influence of woodblock prints on paintings by Monet, Degas and van Gogh. Direct literary models were available from a number of sources, including F. V. Dickins's 1866 Hyak nin is'shiu, or, Stanzas by a Century of Poets, Being Japanese Lyrical Odes, the first English-language version of the Hyakunin Isshū, a 13th-century anthology of 100 waka, the early 20th-century critical writings and poems of Sadakichi Hartmann, and contemporary French-language translations.
The American poet Ezra Pound was introduced to the group in April 1909 and found their ideas close to his own. In particular, Pound's studies of early European vernacular poetry had led him to an admiration of the condensed, direct expression that he detected in the writings of Arnaut Daniel, Dante, and Guido Cavalcanti, amongst others. For example, in his 1911–12 series of essays I gather the limbs of Osiris, Pound writes of Daniel's line "pensar de lieis m'es repaus" ("it rests me to think of her"), from the canzone En breu brizara'l temps braus: "You cannot get statement simpler than that, or clearer, or less rhetorical". These criteria—directness, clarity and lack of rhetoric—were to be amongst the defining qualities of Imagist poetry. Through his friendship with Laurence Binyon, Pound had already developed an interest in Japanese art by examining Nishiki-e prints at the British Museum, and he quickly became absorbed in the study of Japanese verse forms.
In a 1915 article in La France, French critic Remy de Gourmont described the Imagists as descendants of the French Symbolists. Pound emphasised that influence in a 1928 letter to the French critic and translator René Taupin. He pointed out that Hulme was indebted to the Symbolist tradition, via W. B. Yeats, Arthur Symons and the Rhymers' Club generation of British poets and Mallarmé. Taupin concluded in his 1929 study that however great the divergence of technique and language "between the image of the Imagist and the 'symbol' of the Symbolists[,] there is a difference only of precision". In 1915, Pound edited the poetry of another 1890s poet, Lionel Johnson. In his introduction, he wrote
Early publications and statements of intent
In 1911, Pound introduced two other poets to the Eiffel Tower group: his former fiancée Hilda Doolittle, who by then was writing under her initials, H.D., and H.D.'s future husband Richard Aldington. These two were interested in exploring Greek poetic models, especially Sappho, an interest that Pound shared. The compression of expression that they achieved by following the Greek example complemented the proto-Imagist interest in Japanese poetry, and, in 1912, during a meeting with them in the British Museum tea room, Pound told H.D. and Aldington that they were Imagistes and even appended the signature H.D. Imagiste to some poems they were discussing.
When Harriet Monroe started her Poetry magazine in 1911, she had asked Pound to act as foreign editor. In October 1912, he submitted thereto three poems each by H.D. and Aldington under the Imagiste rubric, with a note describing Aldington as "one of the 'Imagistes'". This note, along with the appendix note ("The Complete Poetical Works of T. E. Hulme") in Pound's book Ripostes (1912), are considered to be the first appearances of the word "Imagiste" (later anglicised to "Imagist") in print.
Aldington's poems, Choricos, To a Greek Marble, and Au Vieux Jardin, were in the November issue of Poetry, and H.D.'s, Hermes of the Ways, Priapus, and Epigram, appeared in the January 1913 issue, marking the beginning of the Imagism movement. Poetrys April issue published Pound's haiku-like "In a Station of the Metro":
The March 1913 issue of Poetry contained A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste and the essay entitled Imagisme both written by Pound, with the latter attributed to Flint. The latter contained this succinct statement of the group's position, which he had agreed with H.D. and Aldington:
Pound's note opened with a definition of an image as "that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time". Pound goes on to state,"It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works". His list of "don'ts" reinforced his three statements in "Imagism", while warning that they should not be considered as dogma but as the "result of long contemplation". Taken together, these two texts comprised the Imagist programme for a return to what they saw as the best poetic practice of the past. F. S. Flint commented "we have never claimed to have invented the moon. We do not pretend that our ideas are original."
The 1916 preface to Some Imagist Poets comments "Imagism does not merely mean the presentation of pictures. Imagism refers to the manner of presentation, not to the subject."
Des Imagistes
Determined to promote the work of the Imagists, and particularly of Aldington and H.D., Pound decided to publish an anthology under the title Des Imagistes. It was first published in Alfred Kreymborg's little magazine The Glebe and was later published in 1914 by Albert and Charles Boni in New York and by Harold Monro at the Poetry Bookshop in London. It became one of the most important and influential English-language collections of modernist verse. Included in the thirty-seven poems were ten poems by Aldington, seven by H.D., and six by Pound. The book also included work by Flint, Skipwith Cannell, Amy Lowell, William Carlos Williams, James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, Allen Upward and John Cournos.
Pound's editorial choices were based on what he saw as the degree of sympathy that the writers displayed with Imagist precepts, rather than active participation in a group. Williams, based in the United States, had not participated in any of the discussions of the Eiffel Tower group. However, he and Pound had long been corresponding on the question of the renewal of poetry along similar lines. Ford was included at least partly because of his strong influence on Pound, as the younger poet made the transition from his earlier, Pre-Raphaelite-influenced style towards a harder, more modern way of writing. The anthology included the poem I Hear an Army by James Joyce, which was sent to Pound by W. B. Yeats.
Some Imagist Poets
An article on the history of Imagism was written by Flint and published in The Egoist in May 1915. Pound disagreed with Flint's interpretation of events and the goals of the group, causing the two to cease contact with each other. Flint emphasised the contribution of the Eiffel Tower poets, especially Edward Storer. Pound, who believed that the "Hellenic hardness" that he saw as the distinguishing quality of the poems of H.D. and Aldington was likely to be diluted by the "custard" of Storer, was to play no further direct role in the history of the Imagists. He went on to co-found the Vorticists with his friend, the painter and writer Wyndham Lewis.
Around this time, the American Imagist Amy Lowell moved to London, determined to promote her own work and that of the other Imagist poets. Lowell was a wealthy heiress from Boston, whose brother Abbott Lawrence Lowell was President of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933. She was an enthusiastic champion of literary experiment who was willing to use her money to publish the group. Lowell was determined to change the method of selection from Pound's autocratic editorial attitude to a more democratic manner. The outcome was a series of Imagist anthologies under the title Some Imagist Poets. The first of these appeared in 1915, planned and assembled mainly by H.D. and Aldington. Two further issues, both edited by Lowell, were published in 1916 and 1917. These three volumes featured most of the original poets, plus the American John Gould Fletcher, but not Pound, who had tried to persuade Lowell to drop the Imagist name from her publications and who sardonically dubbed this phase of Imagism "Amygism".
Lowell persuaded D. H. Lawrence to contribute poems to the 1915 and 1916 volumes, making him the only writer to publish as both a Georgian poet and an Imagist. Marianne Moore also became associated with the group during this period. With World War I as a backdrop, the times were not easy for avant-garde literary movements (Aldington, for example, spent much of the war at the front), and the 1917 anthology effectively marked the end of the Imagists as a movement.
After Imagism
In 1929, Walter Lowenfels jokingly suggested that Aldington should produce a new Imagist anthology. Aldington, by now a successful novelist, took up the suggestion and enlisted the help of Ford and H.D. The result was the Imagist Anthology 1930, edited by Aldington and including all the contributors to the four earlier anthologies with the exception of Lowell, who had died, Cannell, who had disappeared, and Pound, who declined. The appearance of this anthology initiated a critical discussion of the place of the Imagists in the history of 20th-century poetry.
Of the poets who were published in the various Imagist anthologies, Joyce, Lawrence and Aldington are now primarily remembered and read as novelists. Marianne Moore, who was at most a fringe member of the group, carved out a unique poetic style of her own that retained an Imagist concern with compression of language. William Carlos Williams developed his poetic along distinctly American lines with his variable foot and a diction he claimed was taken "from the mouths of Polish mothers". Both Pound and H.D. turned to long form poetry, but retained the hard edge to their language as an Imagist legacy. Most of the other members of the group are largely forgotten outside the context of Imagism.
Legacy
Despite the movement's short life, Imagism would deeply influence the course of modernist poetry in English. Richard Aldington, in his 1941 memoir, writes: "I think the poems of Ezra Pound, H.D., Lawrence, and Ford Madox Ford will continue to be read. And to a considerable extent T. S. Eliot and his followers have carried on their operations from positions won by the Imagists."
On the other hand, the American poet Wallace Stevens found shortcomings in the Imagist approach: "Not all objects are equal. The vice of imagism was that it did not recognize this."
With its demand for hardness, clarity and precision and its insistence on fidelity to appearances coupled with its rejection of irrelevant subjective emotions Imagism had later effects that are demonstratable in T. S. Eliot's Preludes and Morning at the Window and in Lawrence's animal and flower pieces. The rejection of conventional verse forms in the nineteen-twenties owed much to the Imagists' repudiation of the Georgian Poetry style.
Imagism, which had made free verse a discipline and a legitimate poetic form, influenced a number of poetry circles and movements. Its influence can be seen clearly in the work of the Objectivist poets, who came to prominence in the 1930s under the auspices of Pound and Williams. The Objectivists worked mainly in free verse. Clearly linking Objectivism's principles with Imagism's, Louis Zukofsky insisted, in his introduction to the 1931 Objectivist issue of Poetry, on writing "which is the detail, not mirage, of seeing, of thinking with the things as they exist, and of directing them along a line of melody." Zukofsky was a major influence on the Language poets, who carried the Imagist focus on formal concerns to a high level of development. In his seminal 1950 essay Projective Verse, Charles Olson, the theorist of the Black Mountain poets, wrote "One perception must immediately and directly lead to a further perception", his credo derived from and supplemented the Imagists.
Among the Beats, Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg in particular were influenced by the Imagist emphasis on Chinese and Japanese poetry. Williams also had a strong effect on the Beat poets, encouraging poets like Lew Welch and writing an introduction for the book publication of Ginsberg's Howl (1955).
Citations
Sources
Aldington, Richard; Gates, Norman (1984). Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press
Aldington, Richard (1941). Life For Life's Sake. New York: Viking Press
Ayers, David (2004). H. D., Ezra Pound and Imagism, in Modernism: A Short Introduction. Blackwell Publishers.
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau (1986). H.D.: The Career of That Struggle. The Harvester Press.
Bercovitch, Sacvan; Patell, Cyrus RK. (1994). The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bradshaw, Melissa; Munich, Adrienne (2002). Selected Poems of Amy Lowell. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Brooker, Jewel Spears (1996). Mastery and Escape: T. S. Eliot and the Dialectic of Modernism. University of Massachusetts Press.
Carpenter, Humphrey (1988). A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Cookson, William (ed) (1975). Selected Prose, 1909–1965. London: New Directions Publishing.
Crunden, Robert (1993). American Salons: Encounters with European Modernism, 1885–1917. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davidson, Michael (1997). Ghostlier Demarcations: Modern Poetry and the Material Word. University of California Press.
Elder, R. Bruce (1998). The Films of Stan Brakhage in the American Tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and Charles Olson. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Ellmann, Richard (1959). James Joyce. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Enck, John (1964). Wallace Stevens: Images and Judgments. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press
Geiger, Don (1956). "Imagism; the New Poetry Forty Years Later". Prairie Schooner, volume 30, No. 2.
Jones, Peter (ed.) (1972). Imagist Poetry. Penguin.
Kenner, Hugh (1975). The Pound Era. Faber and Faber.
King, Michael; Pearson, Norman (1979). H. D., and Ezra Pound, End to Torment: A Memoir of Ezra Pound. New York: New Directions, 1979.
Kita, Yoshiko (2000). "Ezra Pound and Haiku: Why Did Imagists Hardly Mention Basho?". Paideuma: Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, volume 29, No. 3.
Kolocotroni, Vassiliki; Goldman, Jane; Taxidou, Olga (1998). Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. University of Chicago Press.
Lawrence, D. H. (1979). The Letters of D. H. Lawrence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Martin, Wallace (1970). "The Sources of the Imagist Aesthetic". PMLA, volume 85, No. 2.
McGuinness, Patrick (1998). T. E. Hulme: Selected Writings. Fyfield Books, Carcanet Press. (pp. xii–xiii)
Ming, Xie (1998). Ezra Pound and the Appropriation of Chinese Poetry: Cathay, Translation, and Imagism. New York: Routledge.
Moody, A. David (2007). Ezra Pound: Poet. A Portrait of the Man and His Work. I: The Young Genius 1885–1920. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Olson, Charles (1966). Selected Writings. London: New Directions Publishing.
Pondrom, Cyrena (1969). "Selected Letters from H. D. to F. S. Flint: A Commentary on the Imagist Period". Contemporary Literature, volume 10, issue 4.
Pound, Ezra (1974) [June 1914]. "How I Began". In Grace Schulman (ed.). Ezra Pound: A Collection of Criticism. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Pound, Ezra (1970). Pound/Joyce: The Letters of Ezra Pound to James Joyce. Edited by Forrest Read. New York: New Directions Publishing.
Pound, Ezra (ed.) (1914). Des Imagistes. New York: Albert and Charles Boni.
Pound, Ezra (March 1913). "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste". Poetry. I(6)
Riddel, Joseph (1979). "Decentering the Image: The 'Project' of 'American' Poetics?". Boundary 2, volume 8, issue 1.
Sloan, De Villo (1987). "The Decline of American Postmodernism". SubStance, University of Wisconsin Press, volume 16, issue 3.
Stanley, Sandra (1995). "Louis Zukofsky and the Transformation of a Modern American Poetics". South Atlantic Review, volume 60.
Sullivan, J. P. (ed.) (1970). Ezra Pound. Penguin Critical Anthologies Series.
Thacker, Andrew (2018). The Imagist Poets. Tavistock: Northcote House Publishers.
Wącior, Sławomir (2007). Explaining Imagism: The Imagist Movement in Poetry and Art. Edwin Mellen Press.
Williams, Louise Blakeney (2002). Modernism and the Ideology of History: Literature, Politics, and the Past. Cambridge University Press.
External links
Some Imagist anthologies at the Modernist Journals Project
Bibliography of Japan in English-Language Verse
J.T. Barbarese et al.: "On 'In a Station of the Metro'" at Modern American Poetry
Poetry movements
20th-century American literature
20th-century British literature
American literary movements
British literary movements | 0.772784 | 0.992909 | 0.767304 |
Lad culture | Lad culture (also the new lad, laddism) was a media-driven, principally British and Irish subculture of the 1990s and the early 2000s. The term lad culture continues to be used today to refer to collective, boorish or misogynistic behaviour by young heterosexual men, particularly university students.
In the lad culture of the 1990s and 2000s, the image of the "lad"—or "new lad"—was that of a generally middle class figure espousing attitudes typically attributed to the working classes. The subculture involved heterosexual young men assuming an anti-intellectual position, shunning cultural pursuits and sensitivity in favour of drinking, sport, sex and sexism. Lad culture was diverse and popular, involving literature, magazines, film, music and television, with ironic humour being a defining trope. Principally understood at the time as a male backlash against feminism and the pro-feminist "new man", the discourse around the new lad represented some of the earliest mass public discussion of how heterosexual masculinity is constructed.
Lad culture as a mainstream cultural phenomenon peaked around the turn of the millennium and can be seen as going into decline as the market for lad mags collapsed in the early 2000s, driven by the rise of Internet. Nonetheless, the stereotype of the lad continued to be exploited in advertising and marketing as late as the mid-2010s.
Though the term "lad culture" was predominantly used in Britain and Ireland, it was part of a global cultural trend in the developed English speaking world. The title of a 2007 book by the gender studies academic David Nylund about USA Sports Radio, "Beer, Babes and Balls" mirrors the three stereotypical interests of the "lad."
The American term Bro culture is clearly closely related, though originated around two decades later than the term lad culture and therefore needs to be understood against a different cultural context.
In popular culture
Lad culture did not emerge organically as with earlier British male sub-cultures such as the mods of the 1960s; rather it was a media creation. The term "new lad" was first coined - as a response to then popular concept of the new man - by journalist Sean O'Hagan in a 1993 article in the magazine Arena. The concept was developed and sustained across a diverse range of media: there was a literary component - lad lit; it was closely associated with the musical style Britpop and with certain television shows and stand-up comedians; a number of glossy, violent films in the later 1990s were also popularly linked to lad culture. Most important in shaping and popularising lad culture, though, was the lad mag a new style of lifestyle magazine for young, heterosexual men that became suddenly popular in the mid-1990s.
Lad mags
Lad mags included Maxim, FHM and Loaded.
Britpop
Television
Men Behaving Badly, Game On and They Think It's All Over were 1990s television programmes that presented images of laddishness dominated by the male pastimes of drinking, watching football, and sex.
Film
Lad culture grew beyond men's magazines to films such as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Irony
Lad culture was strongly associated with an ironic position. The strapline of the leading lad mag Loaded was "for men who should know better." The BBC in a 1999 review called "Our Decade: New Lad Rules the World" identified that one of the key concepts associated with lad culture (alongside curry and foreign stag weekends) was "anything being acceptable if its "ironic"." Humour in lad mags and in television comedy was a major element of lad culture: the ironic position allowed comedians to both identify themselves as opposed to and, at the same time, indulge in racist, sexist and homophobic jokes.
Part of the ironic position can be seen in relation to the term lad itself. Despite the ubiquity of lad culture in the media of the 1990s there was no expectation that real, individual men would seriously identify themselves as lads: to do so would be to invite ridicule. This was a form of distinctively British class play: middle or aspiring middle men were playing at being working class. A 2012 National Union of Students report citing the academic John Benyon identified how "Uncensored displays of masculinity during the 1990s were deemed by those involved to be ironic by their very nature. He [Benyon] highlights how the magazine Loaded consciously reduced working class masculinities to jokes, interest in cars and the objectification of women, and dismissed criticisms as humourless attacks on free speech which failed to see the ironic nature of the representations."
Oddly, the lad was both ironic and authentic. Irony was the lad's defining behaviours but the lad himself was often presented as the authentic form of masculinity. For example, GQ in a press-release from 1991 wrote, "GQ is proud to announce that the New Man has officially been laid to rest (if indeed he ever drew breath). The Nineties man knows who he is, what he wants and where he's going, and he's not afraid to say so. And yes, he still wants to get laid."
In gender studies
Though always principally driven by the media, the concept of the "lad" or "new lad" was widely discussed at the time as a male backlash to feminism and changing gender norms. For example, the writer Fay Weldon claimed in 1999 that, "laddishness is a response to humiliation and indignity ... the girl-power! girl-power! female triumphalism which echoes through the land".
The press frequently presented the new lad in opposition to a slightly earlier media construct, the "new man," who supposedly eschewed traditionally male interests as part of his feminist values, a man who "has subjugated his masculinity in order to fulfill the needs of women .." and has a "passive and insipid image". Both the "new lad" and the "new man" were - it was always implicitly assumed - heterosexual and cisgender.
Many feminists were robust in their criticism of lad culture. Naomi Wolf stated: "the stereotypes for men attentive to feminism were two: Eunuch, or Beast", in the New Statesman, Kira Cochrane argued that "it's a dark world that Loaded and the lad culture has bequeathed us". Joanne Knowles of Liverpool John Moores University wrote that the "lad" displays "a pre-feminist and racist attitude to women as both sex objects and creatures from another species".
An article in Frieze magazine proposed a psychoanalytic reading of the new lad phenomenon:
Other writers saw less new about the lad. Nylund, in his 2007 "Beer, Babes and Balls" discussion of parallel developments in American popular culture, identifies "a return to hegemonic masculine values of male homosociality". Other writers observed that social constraints simply meant that "it is easier to be a lad rather than a new man in most workplaces". Meanwhile, the lad could be seen as the ongoing reaction to a far older perceived threat from women to men's freedom, one that predated feminism: the lad image was "a refuge from the constraints and demands of marriage and nuclear family".
Social studies
A study by Gabrielle Ivinson of Cardiff University and Patricia Murphy of the Open University identified lad culture as a source of behavioural confusion, and an investigation by Adrienne Katz linked it to suicide and depression. A study of the architecture profession found that lad culture had a negative impact on women completing their professional education. Commentator Helen Wilkinson believes that lad culture has affected politics and decreased the ability of women to participate.
The UK's largest student union warned in a 2015 study that universities were failing to address the issue of lad culture, with almost half (49%) of all universities having no policy against discrimination due to sexuality, or anti-sexual harassment policies.
Related terms and uses
The word "ladette" was coined to describe young women who take part in laddish behaviour. Ladettes are defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary as: "Young women who behave in a boisterously assertive or crude manner and engage in heavy drinking sessions." The term is no longer widely used.
The term "lad" is also used in Australian youth culture to refer to the Eshay subculture which is more similar to the chav or football casual subcultures, rather than the middle class student subculture the term refers to in the United Kingdom. Australian lads wear a distinctive dress code, consisting of running caps and shoes combined with striped polo shirts and sports shorts. They frequently use pig latin phrases in conversation, for example "Ad-lay" to refer to a fellow "Lad". Lad-rap is a growing underground hip hop scene in Australia.
See also
References
Counterculture of the 1990s
Counterculture of the 2000s
1990s in the United Kingdom
1990s in the Republic of Ireland
2000s in the United Kingdom
2000s in the Republic of Ireland
Adolescence
Anti-intellectualism
Drinking culture
Masculinity
Interpersonal relationships
Men's culture
Men's movement
Misogyny
Postmodernism
Slang terms for men
Subcultures
Youth culture in the United Kingdom
Middle class culture
Antifeminism
1990s neologisms | 0.771123 | 0.995013 | 0.767278 |
1990s | The 1990s (often referred and shortened to as "the '90s" or "nineties") was a decade that began on 1 January 1990, and ended on 31 December 1999. Known as the "post-Cold War decade", the 1990s were culturally imagined as the period from the Revolutions of 1989 until the September 11 attacks in 2001. The dissolution of the Soviet Union marked the end of Russia's status as a superpower, the end of a multipolar world, and the rise of anti-Western sentiment. China was still recovering from a politically and economically turbulent period. This allowed the US to emerge as the world's sole superpower, creating relative peace and prosperity for many western countries. During this decade, the world population grew from 5.3 to 6.1 billion.
The decade saw greater attention to multiculturalism and advance of alternative media. Public education about safe sex curbed HIV in developed countries. Generation X bonded over musical tastes. Humor in television and film was marked by ironic self-references mixed with popular culture references. Alternative music movements like grunge, reggaeton, Eurodance, and hip-hop, became popular, aided by the rise in satellite and cable television, and the internet. New music genres such as drum and bass, post-rock, happy hardcore, denpa, and trance emerged. Video game popularity exploded due to the development of CD-ROM supported 3D computer graphics on platforms such as Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and PCs.
The 1990s saw advances in technology, with the World Wide Web, evolution of the Pentium microprocessor, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, the first gene therapy trial, and cloning. The Human Genome Project was launched in 1990, building the Large Hadron Collider commenced in 1998, and Nasdaq became the first US stock market to trade online. Environmentalism divided between left-wing green politics, primary industry-sponsored environmentalist front organizations, and a more business-oriented approach to the regulation of carbon footprint of businesses. More businesses started using information technology.
There was a realignment and consolidation of economic and political power, such as the continued mass-mobilization of capital markets through neoliberalism, globalization, and end of the Cold War. Network cultures were enhanced by the proliferation of new media such as the internet, and a new ability to self-publish web pages and make connections on professional, political and hobby topics. The digital divide was immediate, with access limited to those who could afford it and knew how to operate a computer. The internet provided anonymity for individuals skeptical of the government. Traditional mass media continued to perform strongly. However, mainstream internet users were optimistic about its benefits particularly the future of e-commerce. Web portals, a curated bookmark homepage, were as popular as searching via web crawlers. The dot-com bubble of 1997–2000 brought wealth to some entrepreneurs before its crash of the early-2000s.
Many countries were economically prosperous and spreading globalization. High-income countries experienced steady growth during the Great Moderation (1980s—2000s). Using a mobile phone in a public place was typical conspicuous consumption. In contrast, the GDP of former Soviet Union states declined as a result of neoliberal restructuring. International trade increased with the establishment of the European Union (EU) in 1993, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, and World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The Asia-Pacific economies of the Four Asian Tigers, ASEAN, Australia and Japan were hampered by the 1997 Asian financial crisis and early 1990s recession.
Major wars that began include the First and Second Congo Wars, the Rwandan Civil War and genocide, the Somali Civil War, and Sierra Leone Civil War in Africa; the Yugoslav Wars in Southeast Europe; the First and Second Chechen Wars, in the former Soviet Union; and the Gulf War in the Middle East. The Afghanistan conflict (1978–present) and Colombian conflict continued. The Oslo Accords seemed to herald an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but this was in vain. However, in Northern Ireland, The Troubles came to a standstill in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, ending 30 years of violence.
Politics and wars
International wars
The Congo Wars began in the 1990s.
The First Congo War (24 October 1996 – 16 May 1997) resulted in the overthrow of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, his 32 rule of Zaire, which was then renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Second Congo War (August 1998 – July 2003) started in Central Africa and involved multiple nearby nations.
The Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991).
Iraq was left in severe debt after the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s. President Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait of flooding the oil market, therefore driving down prices. As a result, Iraqi forces invaded and conquered Kuwait.
The UN (United Nations) immediately condemned the action and a coalition force led by the United States was sent to the Persian Gulf. Aerial bombing of Iraq began in January 1991, and one month later, the UN forces drove the Iraqi army from Kuwait in four days.
Two wars were fought in the region of Chechnya:
The First Chechen War (1994–1996) was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya. Despite Russia's overwhelming manpower, weaponry, and air support, they were set back by Chechen guerrillas and raids on the flatlands. The resulting widespread demoralization of Russian federal forces, and the universal opposition of the Russian public to the conflict, led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later.
The Second Chechen War (1999 – 2009) was started by the Russian Federation in response to the 1999 invasion of Dagestan and the Russian apartment bombings, which were blamed on the Chechens. In this military campaign, Russian forces largely recaptured the separatist region of Chechnya and the outcome of the First Chechen War – in which the region gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria – was essentially reversed.
The Eritrean–Ethiopian War (1998–2000) was commenced by the invasion of Ethiopia by Eritrea due to a territorial dispute. The conflict resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and a peace agreement in December 2000.
The Kargil War (1999) began in May when Pakistan covertly sent troops to occupy strategic peaks in Kashmir. A month later, the Kargil War with India resulted in a political fiasco for Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, followed by a Pakistani military withdrawal to the Line of Control. The incident led to a Pakistani military coup in October, in which Sharif was ousted by Army Chief Pervez Musharraf. This conflict remains the only war fought between the two declared nuclear powers.
The Yugoslav Wars (1991–1995) followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, beginning on 25 June 1991, after the republics of Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia. These wars were notorious for war crimes and human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing and genocide, with the overwhelming majority of casualties being Muslim Bosniaks.
The Ten-Day War (1991) was a brief military conflict between Slovenian TO (Slovenian Territorial Defence) and the Yugoslav People's Army ("JNA") following Slovenia's declaration of independence.
The Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) was fought in modern-day Croatia between the Croatian government (having declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and both the Yugoslav People's Army ("JNA") and Serb forces, who established the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina ("RSK") within Croatia.
The Bosnian War (1992–1995) involved several ethnically-defined factions within Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats, as well as a smaller Bosniak faction led by Fikret Abdić. The Siege of Sarajevo (1992–1995) marked the most violent urban warfare in Europe since World War II at that time, as Serb forces bombarded and attacked Bosnian-controlled and populated areas of the city. War crimes occurred, including ethnic cleansing and the destruction of civilian property.
The final fighting in the Croatian and Bosnian wars ended in 1995 with the success of Croatian military offensives against Serb forces. This led to the mass exodus of Serbs from Croatia, Serb losses to Croat and Bosniak forces, and the signing of the Dayton Agreement, which internally partitioned Bosnia and Herzegovina into a Republika Srpska and a Bosniak-Croat Federation.
The Kosovo War (1998–1999) was a war between Albanian separatists and Yugoslav military and Serb paramilitary forces in Kosovo. That conflict began in 1996 and escalated in 1998, with increasing reports of atrocities.
In 1999, the NATO, led by the United States, launched air attacks against Yugoslavia (then composed of only Serbia and Montenegro) to pressure the Yugoslav government to end its military operations against Albanian separatists in Kosovo. The intervention lacked UN approval yet was justified by NATO based on accusations of war crimes committed by Yugoslav military forces working alongside nationalist Serb paramilitary groups. Finally, after months of bombing, Yugoslavia conceded to NATO's demands, and NATO forces (later UN peacekeeping forces) occupied Kosovo.
The South African Border War (1990) was a border war between Zambia, Angola, and Namibia that began in 1966 and ended in 1990.
Civil wars and guerrilla wars
The First Liberian Civil War occurred from 1989 until 1997 and led to the death of around 200,000 people.
The Ethiopian Civil War (1991) was an internal conflict that had been raging for over twenty years. Its end coincided with the establishment of a coalition government of various factions.
The Algerian Civil War (1991–2002) was caused by a group of high-ranking army officers canceling the first multi-party elections in Algeria.
The Somali Civil War (1991–present) included the Battle of Mogadishu.
The Rwandan genocide (1994) occurred from 6 April to mid-July 1994 when hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates were killed by the Hutu-dominated government under the Hutu Power ideology. For approximately 100 days between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed. The United Nations and major states came under criticism for failing to stop the genocide.
1993 Russian constitutional crisis resulted from a severe political deadlock between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet (Russia's parliament at this time) resulting in Yeltsin ordering the controversial shelling of the Russian parliament building by tanks.
The Tajikistani Civil War (1992–1997) occurred when the Tajikistan government was pitted against the United Tajik Opposition, resulting in the death of between 50,000 and 100,000 people.
The Zapatista uprising (1994) occurred when a large number of the Zapatista indigenous people of Mexico formed the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and began an armed conflict with the Mexican government to protest against NAFTA. The uprising lasted 12 days, bringing worldwide attention to the Zapatistas, and continued through the rest of the 1990s.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001) was formed at the end of the Afghan Civil War, when the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 1996. They ruled during the later Afghan Civil War until their ousting 2001.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1998) involved 30 years of conflict that ended on 10 April 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
1999 East Timorese crisis.
Coups
Terrorist attacks
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing in the United States (1993) led to broader public awareness in the US of domestic terrorism and international terrorism as a potential threat.
Markale market massacres in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1994) – soldiers of the Army of Republika Srpska deliberately targeted Bosniak (then known as "Bosnian Muslims") civilians.
AMIA bombing (1994) – on 18 July 1994, an unknown terrorist targeting Argentina's Jewish community planted a car bomb in the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina headquarters in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds, making it the first ethnically targeted bombing and deadliest bombing in Argentine history.
Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995) – soldiers of the Army of Republika Srpska and members of Serbia's Scorpions paramilitary group committed mass murder of Bosniak civilians.
Oklahoma City bombing (1995) in the United States – the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma killed 168 people, becoming the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States at that time. Suspect Timothy McVeigh claimed he bombed the building in retaliation for the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff and the Waco siege a year later.
The 1996 Manchester bombing (1996) – on 15 June 1996, the IRA set off a bomb in Manchester, England. The bomb, placed in a van on Corporation Street in the city center, targeted the city's infrastructure and economy and caused widespread damage, estimated by insurers at £700 million (£1 billion ). Two hundred and twelve people were injured, but there were no fatalities.
The 1998 United States embassy bombings – Al-Qaeda militants carried out bomb attacks on United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In retaliation, U.S. naval military forces launched cruise missile attacks against Al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan.
The Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland (1998) – a bombing in Omagh, County Tyrone, that killed 29 civilians and injured hundreds more.
LAX bombing plot (1999) – Ahmed Ressam, an Islamist militant associated with Al-Qaeda, was arrested when attempting to cross from Canada into the United States at the Canada-U.S. border on 14 December 1999. It was later discovered that he intended to bomb Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) during millennium celebrations. This was the first major attempted terrorist attack by Al-Qaeda on United States soil since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and marked the beginning of a series of attempted terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda against the United States that would continue into the 21st century.
Decolonization and independence
Independence of Namibia (1990) – the Republic of Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990. Walvis Bay, initially retained by South Africa, joined Namibia in 1994.
Breakup of Yugoslavia (1991–1992) – the republics of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia.
Independence of Eritrea (1993) – Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia.
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (1993) – the Slovak Republic adopts the Declaration of Independence from the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (Czechoslovakia).
Independence of Palau (1994) – Palau gained independence from the United Nations Trusteeship Council.
Handover of Hong Kong (1997) – The United Kingdom handed sovereignty of Hong Kong (then British Hong Kong) to the People's Republic of China on 1 July 1997.
Independence of East Timorese (1999) – East Timor broke away from Indonesian occupation, only a year after the fall of Suharto from power, ending a 24-year guerrilla war and genocide with more than 200,000 casualties. The UN deployed a peacekeeping force spearheaded by Australia's armed forces. The United States deployed police officers to serve with the Interpol element to help train and equip an East Timorese police force.
Handover of Macau (1999) – Portugal handed sovereignty of Macau (Portuguese Macau) to the People's Republic of China on 20 December 1999.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991) – multiple Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) declared independence from the USSR.
Armenia – the Armenian SSR became the Republic of Armenia following the Declaration of Independence of Armenia.
Azerbaijan – the Azerbaijan SSR became the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Belarus – the Byelorussian SSR became the Republic of Belarus following its Declaration of State Sovereignty.
Estonia – Estonian SSR became the Republic of Estonia.
Georgia – The Georgian SSR became the Republic of Georgia.
Kazakhstan – the Kazakh SSR became the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Kyrgyzstan – the Kirghiz SSR became the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Latvia – the Latvian SSR became the Republic of Latvia.
Lithuania – the Lithuanian SSR became the Republic of Lithuania
Moldova – the Moldavian SSR became the Republic of Moldova.
Tajikistan – the Tajik SSR became the Republic of Tajikistan.
Turkmenistan – the Turkmen SSR became the Republic of Turkmenistan.
Ukraine – the Ukrainian SSR became the Republic of Ukraine
Uzbekistan – the Uzbek SSR became the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Political trends
The 1990s saw an increased spread of capitalism and third way policies. The former countries of the Warsaw Pact moved from single-party socialist states to multi-party states with private sector economies. The same wave of political liberalization occurred in the capitalist and newly industrialized countries (including First and Third World countries), such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Market reforms made incredible changes to the economies of Second World socialist countries such as China and Vietnam.
Ethnic tensions and violence in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s created a greater sense of ethnic identity among nations in newly independent countries and a marked increase in the popularity of nationalism.
Prominent political events
Africa
African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela was released from prison on 11 February 1990, after thirty years of imprisonment for opposing apartheid and white-minority rule in South Africa. Apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994.
Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa in 1994, becoming the first democratically elected president in South African history, and ending a long legacy of apartheid white rule in the country.
Americas
The establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on 1 January 1994, created a North American free-trade zone consisting of Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Canadian politics was radically altered in the 1993 federal election with the collapse of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. A major political party in Canada since 1867, the party went from controlling the government to being left with only two seats. The New Democratic Party collapsed as well, with their sets declining from 44 to 9. The Liberal Party of Canada was the only genuinely 'national' political party left standing. Regionally-based parties, such as the Quebec-based Bloc Québécois and the almost entirely Western Canada-based Reform Party of Canada, rose from political insignificance to being major political parties.
After the collapse of the Meech Lake constitutional accord in 1990, the province of Quebec in Canada experienced a rekindled wave of separatism by Francophone Québécois nationalists, who sought for Quebec to become an independent country and forced a referendum on the question of independence in 1995.
The 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty was held in the predominantly francophone province of Quebec in Canada, a majority Anglophone country. If accepted, Quebec would have become an independent country with an economic association with Canada. Quebec's voters narrowly rejected the proposal.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former Haitian priest, became the first democratically elected President of Haiti in 1990. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a Roman Catholic parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies to become a priest of the Salesian order. Aristide was later forced into exile in the Central African Republic and South Africa and returned to Haiti after several years.
Ernesto Zedillo was elected President of Mexico in the 1994 presidential election, making him the last of an uninterrupted 72-year-long succession of Mexican presidents from the dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The original PRI candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, was assassinated several months prior.
Due to internal conflict and an economic crisis, Alberto Fujimori rose to power in Peru and remained in office for eleven years. His administration was marked by economic development but also by numerous human rights violations (La Cantuta massacre, Barrios Altos massacre) and a rampant corruption network set up by Vladimiro Montesinos.
The sluggish Latin American economies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, by a new emphasis on free markets for all their citizens after the debt crisis of the 1980s. Following democratic reforms and neoliberal policies were implemented by President Carlos Saúl Menem (Argentina), President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (Chile), President Ernesto Zedillo (Mexico), and President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil), in their best shape by the late 1990s.
United States President Bill Clinton was a dominant political figure in international affairs during the 1990s, known primarily for his attempts to negotiate peace in the Middle East and end the ongoing wars occurring in the former Yugoslavia, his promotion of international action to decrease human-created climate change, and his endorsement of advancing free trade in the Americas.
After a failed coup attempt in 1992, Hugo Chávez, politician and former member of the Venezuelan military, is elected President of Venezuela in 1998.
Lewinsky scandal – US president Bill Clinton was caught in a media-frenzied scandal involving inappropriate relations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which was first announced on 21 January 1998. After the United States House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton on 19 December 1998, for perjury under oath, and following an investigation by federal prosecutor Kenneth Starr, the Senate acquitted Clinton of all charges on 12 February 1999. He served out the remainder of his second term.
California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, which legalized cannabis for medicinal purposes.
Asia
In 1990, the Lebanese Civil War came to a close and a return to political normalcy in Lebanon began. With peace among all factions in Lebanon, the rebuilding of the country and its capital, Beirut, began.
1990 Nepalese revolution, a multiparty movement against the one-party Panchayat rule in Nepal. It led to the end of absolute monarchy in Nepal and the restoration of democracy.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Prime Minister Yasser Arafat agree to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process at the culmination of the Oslo Accords, negotiated by the United States President, Bill Clinton, on 13 September 1993.
By signing the Oslo accords, the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized Israel's right to exist. At the same time, Israel permitted the creation of an autonomous Palestinian National Authority consisting of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which was implemented in 1994.
Israeli military forces withdrew from these Palestinian territories in compliance with the accord, which marked the end of the First Intifada (a period of violence between Palestinian Arab militants and Israeli armed forces from 1987 to 1993).
The Palestinian National Authority was created in 1994 following the Oslo Accords, giving Palestinian Arab people official autonomy over the Gaza Strip and West Bank, though not official independence from Israel.
On 4 November 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing extremist who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords.
North Yemen and South Yemen merged to form Yemen in 1991.
Lee Kuan Yew resigned as the Prime Minister of Singapore on 28 November 1990, a position he had held since 1959, to Goh Chok Tong. Lee remained in the cabinet as Senior Minister.
In July 1994, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung died, having ruled the country since its founding in 1948. His son Kim Jong Il, who succeeded him, took over a nation on the brink of complete economic collapse. Famine had caused a significant number of deaths in the late 1990s, and North Korea gained a reputation for being an important hub of money laundering, counterfeiting, and weapons proliferation. The country's ability to produce and sell nuclear weapons became a prominent concern in the international community.
In 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in Burma won a majority of seats in the first free election conducted in 30 years. But the SPDC refused to relinquish power, beginning a peaceful struggle that began in the 1990s and continued for several decades, primarily fueled by Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters to demand the end of military rule.
Indonesian President Suharto resigned after ruling the country for 32 years (1966–1998), following the riots on several cities in Indonesia. His resignation marked the beginning of the Reform era.
In India, the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May 1991 by the Tamil Tigers, beginning a period of economic liberalization led by new Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao.
After democratic reforms and steady economic growth in the four Asia-Pacific MNNAs by the United States and Canada, after the Revolutions of 1989.
In the Philippines, following the People Power Revolution of 1986 under the Corazon Aquino presidency until 1992, democratic reforms and economic policies implemented by two Presidents were elected by Fidel V. Ramos in 1992, and Joseph Estrada in 1998.
South Korea and Taiwan became developed countries, and two of the Four Asian Tigers in the 1990s. Following democratic reforms in 1988, neoliberal policies were implemented by President Kim Young-sam (South Korea) and President Lee Teng-hui (Taiwan), both who led their countries during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Japan saw eight different prime ministers serve during the 1990s in what was at first called the "Lost Decade" but later became referred to as the "Lost Decades of the Heisei Era". These included Morihiro Hosokawa, who won the 1993 Japanese general election and formed an opposition coalition until 1996.
Europe
The improvement in relations between NATO countries and the former members of the Warsaw Pact led to the end of the Cold War, both in Europe and other parts of the world.
German reunification – on 3 October 1990, East and West Germany reunified as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. After reintegrating their economic structure and provincial governments, Germany focused on the modernization of the formerly communist East. People brought up in socialist East Germany became integrated with those living in capitalist West Germany.
Margaret Thatcher, who had been the United Kingdom's Prime Minister since 1979, resigned as Prime Minister on 22 November 1990 after being challenged for leadership of the Conservative Party by Michael Heseltine. This was because of widespread opposition to the introduction of the controversial Community Charge, and the fact that her key allies such as Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe resigned over the deeply sensitive issues of the Maastricht Treaty and Margaret Thatcher's resistance to Britain joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Less than two years later, on the infamous Black Wednesday of September 1992, the pound sterling crashed out of the system after the pound fell below the agreed exchange rate with the Deutsche Mark.
John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister in 1990.
The Perestroika (restructuring) of the Soviet Union destabilized, leading to nationalist and separatist demagogues gaining popularity. Boris Yeltsin, then chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia, resigned from the Communist Party and became the opposition leader against Mikhail Gorbachev. The Communist Party lost its status as the governing force of the country and was banned after a coup attempt by communist hardliners attempted to revert the effects of Gorbachev's policies. Yeltsin's counter-revolution was victorious, and on 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned from the presidency, which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin became president of the Soviet Union's successor, the Russian Federation, and presided over a period of political unrest, economic crisis, and social anarchy. On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin resigned, leaving Vladimir Putin as acting president.
The European Union was formed in 1992 under the Maastricht Treaty.
The Downing Street Declaration, signed on 15 December 1993 by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, John Major, and the Taoiseach of Ireland, Albert Reynolds at the British Prime Minister's office in 10 Downing Street, affirmed that (1) the right of the people of Ireland to self-determination, and (2) that Northern Ireland would be transferred to the Republic of Ireland from the United Kingdom only if a majority of its population was in favour of such a move. It included, as part of the perspective of the so-called "Irish dimension," the principle of consent that the people of the island of Ireland had the exclusive right to solve the issues between North and South by mutual consent. The latter statement, which later would become one of the points of the Good Friday Agreement, was key to producing a positive change of attitude by the Republicans towards a negotiated settlement. The joint declaration also pledged the governments to seek a peaceful constitutional settlement and promised that parties linked with paramilitaries (such as Sinn Féin) could take part in the talks so long as they abandoned violence.
The IRA agreed to a truce in 1994. This marked the beginning of the end of 25 years of violence between the IRA and the United Kingdom and the start of political negotiations.
Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997 following a general election.
The Belfast Agreement (a.k.a. the Good Friday Agreement) was signed by the U.K. and Irish politicians on 10 April 1998, declaring a joint commitment to a peaceful resolution of the territorial dispute between Ireland and the United Kingdom over Northern Ireland. The 1998 Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum was held on 22 May 1998, with majority approval.
The National Assembly for Wales was established following the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum, in which a majority of voters approved the creation of the National Assembly for Wales.
In September 1997, the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum was put to the Scottish electorate and secured a majority in favor of the establishment of a new Scottish Parliament.
Assassinations and attempts
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
Disasters
Natural disasters
The 1990s saw a trend in frequent and more devastating natural disasters, breaking many previous records. Although the 1990s was designated by the United Nations as an International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction as part of its program to prevent losses due to disasters, disasters would go on to cause a record-breaking US$608 billion worth of damage—more than the past four decades combined.
The most prominent natural disasters of the decade include: Hurricane Andrew striking South Florida in August 1992, the crippling super storm of March 1993 along the Eastern Seaboard, the devastating 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, the Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe, Japan in January 1995, the Blizzard of 1996 in the eastern United States, the US drought of 1999, the deadly Hurricane Mitch which struck Central America in October 1998, the destructive Oklahoma tornado outbreak in May 1999, the August 1999 İzmit earthquake in Turkey, and the September 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the Philippines on 16 July 1990 and killed around 1000 people in Baguio.
After 600 years of inactivity, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted and devastated Zambales and Pampanga in June 1991.
July 1995 – Midwestern United States heat wave – An unprecedented heat wave strikes the Midwestern United States for most of the month. Temperatures peak at , and remain above in the afternoon for 5 straight days. At least 739 people died in Chicago alone.
Hurricane Georges made landfall in at least seven different countries (Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the United States and Puerto Rico, a Commonwealth of the United States) – more than any other hurricane since Hurricane Inez of the 1966 season. The total estimated costs were $60 billion (about $110 billion in 2022).
September 1996 – Hurricane Fran made landfall in North Carolina, causing significant damage throughout the entire state.
Hurricane Iniki hit the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands on 11 September 1992, making it one of the costliest hurricanes on record in the eastern Pacific.
A flood hits the Red River Valley in 1997 becoming the most severe flood since 1826.
In December 1999, torrential rains and flash floods killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans living in the state of Vargas in a natural disaster known as the Vargas tragedy.
Non-natural disasters
Gulf War oil spill: Resulting from actions taken during the Gulf War in 1991 by the Iraq military, the oil spill caused considerable damage to wildlife in the Persian Gulf, especially in areas surrounding Kuwait and Iraq.
11 July 1991: A Nationair Douglas DC-8, chartered by Nigeria Airways, caught fire and crashed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing 261 people.
15 December 1991: The Egyptian ferry Salem Express sinks in the Red Sea, killing more than 450 people.
4 October 1992: El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 cargo airplane heading to Tel Aviv, suffered physical engine separation of both right-wing engines (#3 and #4) just after taking off from Schiphol and crashed into an apartment building in the Bijlmer neighbourhood of Amsterdam while attempting to return to the airport. A total of 43 people were killed, including the plane's crew of three and a "non-revenue passenger." Several others were injured.
26 July 1993: Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashed into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea, killing 68 people.
26 April 1994: China Airlines Flight 140, an Airbus A300, crashed just as it was about to land at Nagoya Airfield, Japan, killing 264 and leaving only seven survivors.
8 September 1994: USAir Flight 427 crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing 132 people.
28 September 1994: The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
29 June 1995: The Sampoong Department Store collapses in Seoul, South Korea, killing 502 people.
20 December 1995: American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, hit a mountain in Colombia at night, killing 159 people.
17 July 1996: Trans World Airlines Flight 800, a Boeing 747-131 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, killing 230.
12 November 1996: A Saudia Boeing 747 and a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 collided over the town of Charkhi Dadri, outside New Delhi, India, killing 349.
6 August 1997: Korean Air Flight 801, a Boeing 747-300, crashed into a hill on the island of Guam, killing 228 people.
26 September 1997: Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 crashed in bad weather, killing 234.
2 September 1998: Swissair Flight 111, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia near the towns of Peggy's Cove and Bayswater, killing 229.
31 October 1999: EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767, crashed off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing 217.
Economics
Many countries, institutions, companies, and organizations were prosperous during the 1990s. High-income countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Western Europe experienced steady economic growth for much of the decade during the Great Moderation. However, in the former Soviet Union, GDP decreased as their economies restructured to produce goods they needed, and some capital flight occurred.
In 1993, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was updated to include the creation of the World Trade Organization, with the 76 existing GATT members and European Communities becoming the founding members of the World Trade Organization on 1 January 1995. Opposition by anti-globalization activists showed up in nearly every GATT summit, like the demonstrations in Seattle in December 1999.
The anti-globalization protests in the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 in Seattle began on 30 November 1999. This marked the beginning of a steady increase in anti-globalization protests in the first decade of the 21st century and increasing hostility to neoliberalism.
U.S. inflation moderated, beginning in 1990 at 5.39%, falling to a low of 1.55% in 1998 and rising slightly to 2.19% in 1999.
The G20 or Group of Twenty formed on 26 September 1999.
North America
The decade is seen as a time of great prosperity in the United States and Canada, largely because of the unexpected advent of the Internet and the explosion of technology industries. The US and Canadian economies experienced their longest period of peacetime economic expansion, beginning in 1991. Personal incomes doubled from the recession in 1990, and there was higher productivity overall. The New York Stock Exchange stayed over the 10,500 mark from 1999 to 2001.
After the 1992 boom of the US stock market, Alan Greenspan coined the phrase "irrational exuberance", a reference to the overenthusiasm of investors that typified the trading of this period, and warned of overvaluation of assets and the stock market generally.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which phases out the trade barriers between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Asia
In the People's Republic of China, the government announced the major privatization of state-owned industries in September 1997. China entered the 1990s in a turbulent period due to the aftermath of both the Tiananmen Square Massacre and hardline politicians' efforts to rein in private enterprise and attempt to revive old-fashioned propaganda campaigns. Relations with the United States deteriorated sharply, and the Chinese leadership was further embarrassed by the disintegration of communism in Europe. In 1992 Deng Xiaoping travelled to southern China in his last major public appearance to revitalize faith in market economics and stop the country's slide back into Maoism. Afterward, China recovered and would experience explosive economic growth during the rest of the decade. Despite this, dissent continued to be suppressed, and Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin launched a brutal crackdown against the Falun Gong religious sect in 1999. Deng Xiaoping died in 1997 at the age of 93. Relations with the US deteriorated again in 1999 after the bombing of the Chinese embassy during the bombing of Serbia by NATO forces, which caused three deaths, and allegations of Chinese espionage at the Los Alamos Nuclear Facility.
Financial crisis hits East and Southeast Asian countries between 1997 and 1998 after a long period of phenomenal economic development, which continues into 1999. This crisis begins to be felt by the end of the decade.
In Japan, after three decades of economic growth put them in second place in the world's economies, the county experienced an economic downturn after 1993. The recession went on into the early first decade of the 21st century, ending the seemingly unlimited prosperity that the country had previously enjoyed.
Less affluent nations such as India, Malaysia, and Vietnam also saw tremendous improvements in economic prosperity and quality of life during the 1990s. Restructuring following the end of the Cold War was beginning. However, there was also the continuation of terrorism in Third World regions that were once the "frontlines" for American and Soviet foreign politics, particularly in Asia.
Europe
By 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms were causing major inflation and economic chaos. A coup attempt by hardliners in August 1991 failed, marking the effective end of the Soviet Union. All its constituent republics declared their independence by 1991, and Gorbachev resigned from office on Christmas. After 73 years, the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The new Russian Federation was headed by Boris Yeltsin, and would face severe economic difficulty. Oligarchs took over Russia's energy and industrial sectors, reducing almost half the country to poverty. With a 3% approval rating, Yeltsin had to buy the support of the oligarchs to win reelection in 1996. Economic turmoil and devaluation of the ruble continued, and with heart and alcohol troubles, Yeltsin stepped down from office on the last day of 1999, handing power to Vladimir Putin.
Russian financial crisis in the 1990s resulted in mass hyperinflation and prompted economic intervention from the International Monetary Fund and western countries to help Russia's economy recover.
The first McDonald's restaurant opened in Moscow in 1990 with then-President of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR and future Russian President Boris Yeltsin attending, symbolizing Russia's transition towards a capitalist free market economy and a move towards adopting elements of Western culture.
Oil and gas were discovered in many countries in the former Soviet bloc, leading to economic growth and broader adoption of trade between nations. These trends were also fueled by inexpensive fossil energy, with low petroleum prices caused by increased oil production. Political stability and decreased militarization due to the winding down of the Cold War led to economic development and higher living standards for many citizens.
Most of Europe enjoyed growing prosperity during the 1990s. However, problems including the massive 1995 general strikes in France following a recession and the difficulties associated with German reunification led to sluggish growth in these countries. However, the French and German economies improved in the latter half of the decade. Meanwhile, the economies of Spain, Scandinavia and former Eastern Bloc countries accelerated at rapid speed during the decade. Unemployment rates were low due to many having experienced a deep recession at the start of the decade.
After the early 1990s recession, the United Kingdom and Ireland experienced rapid economic growth and falling unemployment that continued throughout the decade. Economic growth would continue until the Great Recession, marking the longest uninterrupted period of economic growth in history.
Some Eastern European economies struggled after the fall of communism, but Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania saw economic growth in the late 1990s.
With the creation of the European Union (EU), there is freedom of movement between member states, such as the 1992 and 1995 free trade agreements.
The Euro is adopted by the European Union on 1 January 1999, which begins a process of phasing out the former national currencies of EU countries.
South America
A Latin American common market, Mercosur, was established in 1991. Mercosur's origins are linked to the discussions for the constitution of a regional economic market for Latin America, which go back to the treaty that established the Latin American Free Trade Association in 1960, which was succeeded by the Latin American Integration Association in the 1980s.
Science and technology
Technology
The 1990s were a revolutionary decade for digital technology. Between 1990 and 1997, household PC ownership in the US rose from 15% to 35%. Cell phones of the early-1990s and earlier ones were very large, lacked extra features, and were used by only a few percent of the population of even the advanced nations. Only a few million people used online services in 1990, and the World Wide Web, which would have a significant impact on technology for many decades, had only just been invented. The first web browser went online in 1993. By 2001, more than 50% of some Western countries had Internet access, and more than 25% had cell phone access.
Electronics and communications
On 6 August 1991, CERN, a pan-European organization for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project. Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost two decades, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s.
Driven by mass adoption, consumer personal computer specifications increased dramatically during the 1990s, from 512 KB RAM 12 MHz Turbo XTs in 1990, to 25–66 MHz 80486-class processor at the start of the popularization of the World Wide Web mid-decade, to over 1 GHz CPUs with close to a gigabyte of RAM by 2000.
Y2K spread fear throughout the United States and eventually the world in the last half of the decade, particularly in 1999, about possible massive computer malfunctions on 1 January 2000. As a result, many people stocked up on supplies for fear of a worldwide disaster. After significant effort to upgrade systems on the part of software engineers, no failures occurred when the clocks rolled over into 2000.
Advancements in computer modems, ISDN, cable modems, and DSL led to faster connections to the Internet.
The first Pentium microprocessor is introduced and developed by the Intel Corporation.
Email becomes popular; as a result, Microsoft acquires the popular Hotmail webmail service.
Instant messaging and the buddy list feature becomes popular. AIM and ICQ are two early protocols.
Businesses start to build e-commerce websites; e-commerce-only companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, AOL, and Yahoo! grow rapidly.
The introduction of affordable, smaller satellite dishes and the DVB-S standard in the mid-1990s expanded satellite television services that carried up to 500 television channels.
The first MP3 player, the MPMan, is released in the late spring of 1998. It came with 32 MB of flash memory expandable to 64 MB. By the mid-2000s, the MP3 player would overtake the CD player in popularity.
The first GSM network is launched in Finland in 1991.
Digital single-lens reflex cameras and regular digital cameras become commercially available. They would replace film cameras by the late 1990s and early 2000s.
IBM introduces the wide Microdrive hard drive in 170 MB and 340 MB capacities.
Apple Computer in 1998 introduces the iMac all-in-one computer, initiating a trend in computer design towards translucent plastics and multicolour case design, discontinuing many legacy technologies like serial ports, and beginning a resurgence in the company's fortunes that continues to this day.
CD burner drives are introduced.
The CD-ROM drive became standard for most personal computers during the decade.
The DVD media format is developed and popularized along with a plethora of Flash memory card standards in 1994.
Pagers are initially popular but ultimately are replaced by mobile phones by the early-2000s.
Hand-held satellite phones are introduced towards the end of the decade.
The 24-hour news cycle becomes popular alongside the outbreak of the Gulf War between late 1990 and early 1991, and is solidified with CNN's coverage of Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Though CNN had been running 24-hour newscasts since 1980, it was not until the Gulf War that the general public took notice, and others imitated CNN's non-stop news approach.
Portable CD players, introduced during the late 1980s, became very popular and profoundly impacted the music industry and youth culture during the 1990s.
In 1992, Fujitsu introduced the world's first full-color display plasma display television set.
Software
Microsoft Windows operating systems become virtually ubiquitous on IBM PC compatibles.
Microsoft introduces Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows 98 to the market, which gain immediate popularity.
Macintosh System 7 was released in 1991. For much of the decade, Apple would struggle to develop a next-generation graphical operating system, starting with Copland and culminating in its December 1996 buyout of NeXT and the 1999 release of Mac OS X Server 1.0.
The development of web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer makes surfing the World Wide Web easier and more user-friendly.
The Java programming language is developed by Sun Microsystems (later acquired by Oracle in 2009–2010).
In 1991, development of the free Linux kernel is started by 21-year-old Linus Torvalds in Finland.
SolidWorks computer-aided design software for Windows released in 1995.
Macromedia Shockwave Player for multimedia in browsers released in 1995.
Winamp media player first released 1997.
QuickTime media player created in 1991.
Rail transportation
The opening of the Channel Tunnel between France and the United Kingdom saw the commencement by the three national railway companies of Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom, respectively SNCB/NMBS, SNCF and British Rail of the joint Eurostar service.
On 14 November 1994 Eurostar services began between Waterloo International station in London, Gare du Nord in Paris and Brussels South in Brussels.
In 1995 Eurostar was achieving an average end-to-end speed of between London and Paris.
On 8 January 1996 Eurostar launched services from a second railway station in the UK when Ashford International was opened. Journey times between London and Brussels were reduced by the opening of the High Speed 1 line on 14 December 1997.
Automobiles
The 1990s began with a recession that dampened car sales. General Motors suffered huge losses because of an inefficient structure, stale designs, and poor quality. Sales improved with the economy by the mid-1990s, but GM's US market share gradually declined to less than 40% (from a peak of 50% in the 1970s). While the new Saturn division fared well, Oldsmobile fell sharply, and attempts to remake the division as a European-style luxury car were unsuccessful.
Cars in the 1990s had a rounder, more streamlined shape than those from the 1970s and 1980s; this style would continue early into the 2000s and to a lesser extent later on.
Chrysler ran into financial troubles as it entered the 1990s. Like GM, the Chrysler too had a stale model lineup (except for the best-selling minivans) that were largely based on the aging K-car platform. In 1992, chairman Lee Iacocca retired, and the company began a remarkable revival, introducing the new LH platform and "Cab-Forward" styling, along with a highly successful redesign of the full-sized Dodge Ram in 1994. Chrysler's minivans continued to dominate the market despite increasing competition. In 1998, Daimler-Benz (the parent company of Mercedes-Benz) merged with Chrysler. The following year, it was decided to retire Plymouth, which had been on a long decline since the 1970s. Ford continued to fare well in the 1990s, with the second and third generations of the Ford Taurus being named the best-selling car in the United States from 1992 to 1996. However, the Taurus would be outsold and dethroned by the Toyota Camry starting in 1997, which became the best-selling car in the United States for the rest of the decade and into the 2000s. Ford also introduced the Ford Explorer, with the first model being sold in 1991. Ford's Explorer became the best-selling SUV on the market, outselling both the Chevy Blazer and Jeep Cherokee.
Japanese cars continued to be highly successful during the decade. The Honda Accord vied with the Taurus most years for being the best-selling car in the United States during the early decade. Although launched in 1989, the luxury brands Lexus and Infiniti began car sales of 1990 model year vehicles and saw great success. Lexus would go on to outsell Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the United States by 1991 and outsell Cadillac and Lincoln by the end of the decade. SUVs and trucks became hugely popular during the economic boom in the decade's second half. Many manufacturers that had never built a truck before started selling SUVs. Fabrication during the 1990s became gradually rounder and ovoid, the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable being some of the more extreme examples. Safety features such as airbags and shoulder belts became mandatory equipment on new cars.
Science
Physicists develop M-theory.
Detection of extrasolar planets orbiting stars other than the Sun.
In the United Kingdom, the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep was confirmed by the Roslin Institute, and was reported by global media on 26 February 1997. Dolly would trigger a raging controversy on cloning, and bioethical concerns regarding possible human cloning continue to this day.
Human Genome Project begins under the leadership of Francis Collins.
DNA identification of individuals finds wide application in criminal law. Brazil, United States, United Kingdom, Russia and The Netherlands established their own national DNA database.
Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and revolutionized astronomy. Unfortunately, a flaw in its main mirror caused it to produce fuzzy, distorted images. This was corrected by a Space Shuttle repair mission in 1993.
Protease inhibitors introduced, allowing HAART therapy against HIV; drastically reduces AIDS mortality.
NASA's spacecraft Pathfinder lands on Mars and deploys a small roving vehicle, Sojourner, which analyzes the planet's geology and atmosphere.
The Hale–Bopp comet swings past the Sun for the first time in 4,200 years in April 1997.
Development of biodegradable products, replacing products made from polystyrene foam; advances in methods for recycling of waste products (such as paper, glass, and aluminum).
Genetically engineered crops are developed for commercial use.
Discovery of dark matter, dark energy, brown dwarfs, and first confirmation of black holes.
The Galileo probe orbits Jupiter, studying the planet and its moons extensively.
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 (formally designated D/1993 F2, nicknamed String of Pearls for its appearance) was a comet that broke apart and collided with Jupiter in July 1994, providing the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) becomes fully operational.
Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem is discovered by Andrew Wiles.
Construction started in 1998 on the International Space Station.
Society
The 1990s represented continuing social liberalization in most countries, coupled with an increase in the influence of capitalism, which would continue until the Great Recession of the late 2000s/early 2010s.
Youth culture in the 1990s responded to this by embracing both environmentalism and entrepreneurship. Fashion of the Western world reflected this by often turning highly individualistic and/or counter-cultural, which was influenced by Generation X and early millennials: tattoos and body piercings gained popularity, and "retro" styles, inspired by fashions of the 1960s and 1970s, were also prevalent. Some young people became increasingly involved in extreme sports and outdoor activities that combined embracing athletics with the appreciation of nature.
In 1990 the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of diseases. Increasing acceptance of openly homosexual people occurred in the western world, slowly starting in the early 1990s, Biphobia towards bisexual men became somewhat fashionable amongst heterosexual women and gay men, while lesbians and bisexual women complained of being commodified by publishing and film industries to cater to heterosexual men.
Following the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer by a stalker, America's first anti-stalking laws, including California Penal Code 646.9 were passed in 1990. California also passed the first cyberstalking law in 1999 (§646.9 of the California Penal Code).
Transdisciplinarity in academia. The 1st World Congress of Transdisciplinarity, Convento da Arrabida, was in Portugal, November 1994.
Child abduction warnings on emergency broadcasting systems, such as Amber Alerts became standard in such cases.
Midlife crisis is a major concern in domestic violence, social implications and suicides for middle-aged adults in the 1990s.
Aggressive marketing tactics for psychoactive drugs and used to treat ADHD, inappropriate prescribing by doctors.
Environment
At the beginning of the decade, sustainable development and environmental protection became serious issues for governments and the international community. In 1987, the publication of the Brundtland Report by the United Nations paved the way to establish an environmental governance. In 1992, the Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, in which several countries committed to protect the environment, signing a Convention on Biological Diversity.
The prevention of the destruction of the tropical rainforests of the world is a major environmental cause that first came into wide public concern in the early 1990s and has continued and accelerated in its prominence.
The Chernobyl disaster had significant impact on public opinion at the end of the 1980s, and the fallout was still causing cancer deaths well into the 1990s and possibly even into the 21st century. Well into the 1990s, several environmental NGOs helped improve environmental awareness among public opinion and governments. The most famous of these organizations during this decade was Greenpeace, which did not hesitate to lead illegal actions in the name of environmental preservation. These organizations also drew attention to the large deforestation of the Amazon rainforest during the period.
Global warming as an aspect of climate change also became a major concern, and the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) after the Earth Summit helped coordinate efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere. From 1995, the UNFCCC held annual summits on climate change, leading to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997, a binding agreement signed by several developed countries.
The 1989 EPA total ban on asbestos was overturned in 1991.
In 1996, (Anderson, et al. v. Pacific Gas & Electric, file BCV 00300) alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium and the case was settled for (US) $333 million, a new record for a direct-action lawsuit.
Third-wave feminism
Anita Hill and other women testify before the United States Congress on being sexually harassed by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Thomas was narrowly confirmed by the United States Senate, but Hill's testimony, and the testimony of other harassed women, begins a national debate on the issue.
Record numbers of women are elected to high office in the United States in 1992, the "Year of the Woman".
Violence against women takes centre stage as an essential issue internationally. The Violence Against Women Act was passed in the United States, which greatly affected the world community through the United Nations. The law's author, Joe Biden, UN Ambassador and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Hillary Clinton (see below) have become vocal advocates of action against violence against women.
Women reach great heights of power in the United States government. Hillary Clinton, leading policy proposals, traveling abroad as a State Department representative to 82 nations, advising her husband, and being elected a Senator (in 2000), is the most openly empowered and politically powerful First Lady in American history; Madeleine Albright and Janet Reno take two of the cabinet's top jobs as United States Secretary of State (#1), and United States Attorney General (#4), respectively. Sheila Widnall becomes head and Secretary of the Air Force, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins Sandra Day O'Connor as the second woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.
More nations than ever before are led by elected women Presidents and Prime Ministers. Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's 1988 victory in Pakistan makes great strides for women leaders in Muslim states. In Turkey, Tansu Çiller became the first female prime minister in 1993.
In popular culture, British pop group the Spice Girls also played a part in the feminist movement, boosting popularity with their slogan "Girl Power!", while country music superstar Shania Twain declared female supremacy in her 1995 hit song "Any Man of Mine."
Baby boomers
Marketing campaigns aimed at young adults in wealthy English-Speaking Countries were informed by unscientific theories about selling to so-called Generation X and Baby boomers. Few people embraced the labels Generation X and Baby Boomer as self-descriptors. Films with characters depicting the Generation X stereotype included Slacker, The Brady Bunch Movie and Austin Powers.
Substance abuse
In Western countries, Fashion and Music magazines embrace heroin chic.
Peak in numbers of heroin overdose deaths.
An estimated fifty percent of deaths of 15–54 in post-Soviet Russia are blamed on alcohol abuse.
More restrictions on tobacco advertising in some countries.
Slavery and human trafficking
See: History of slavery, Global Slavery Index, Slavery in contemporary Africa, Slavery in Asia, Debt bondage in India, Child labour in Pakistan, Sex trafficking in China, Nike sweatshops
Pakistan
Pakistan's government passed laws to end caste based slavery:
- 1992 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.
- 1995 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Rules.
Civil rights
Saudi Arabia: Women to drive movement. 6 November 1990, 47 Saudi women in Riyadh protested Saudi government's ban on women drivers.
United States: 1992 Rosa Parks: My Story, the autobiography of Rosa Parks is published.
Additional significant events
Worldwide New Year's Eve celebrations on 31 December 1999, welcoming the year 2000.
Europe
1991 – January Events (Lithuania) – Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000.
In Paris, Diana, Princess of Wales and her fiancé, Dodi Al-Fayed, were killed in a car accident in August 1997, when their chauffeured, hired Mercedes-Benz S-Class crashed in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. The chauffeur, Henri Paul, died at the scene, as did Al-Fayed. Diana and an Al-Fayed bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, survived the accident. The Princess of Wales died at a Paris hospital hours later. The bodyguard, Rees-Jones, is the sole survivor of the now infamous accident.
Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun who won the Nobel Peace Prize, dies at age 87.
The birth of the "Second Republic" in Italy, with the Mani Pulite investigations of 1994.
The Channel Tunnel across the English Channel opens in 1994, connecting France and England. it is the third-longest rail tunnel in the world, but with the undersea section of being the longest undersea tunnel in the world.
The resignation of President Boris Yeltsin on 31 December 1999 resulted in Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's succession to the position.
North America
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and then themselves during the Columbine High School shooting in April 1999, which would inspire a number of future school shooters to commit similar offenses.
O. J. Simpson murder case – O. J. Simpson's trial, described in the American media as the "trial of the century", proceeds for nearly a year under intense media publicity. A majority of the trial was broadcast nightly during prime time television. On 3 October 1995, Simpson was found not guilty of the double-murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
With help from clinical fertility drugs, an Iowa mother, Bobbie McCaughey, gave birth to the first surviving septuplets in 1997. There followed a media frenzy and widespread support for the family.
John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed when Kennedy's private plane crashes off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in July 1999.
Debate on assisted suicide, highly publicized by Michigan doctor Jack Kevorkian, surfaces when Kevorkian is charged with multiple counts of homicide of his terminally ill patients through the decade.
Beer keg registration becomes a popular public policy in the United States.
The 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' purported discovery of the Americas in 1992 was popularly observed in the United States, despite controversy and protests against the victimization of Native Americans by Columbus' expeditions. The holiday was labeled by some as racist, in view of Native American experiences of colonialism, slavery, genocide, and cultural destruction.
Matthew Shepard is murdered near the University of Wyoming, purportedly for being gay. This sparks intense national and international media attention and outrage. Shepard becomes a major symbol in the LGBT rights movement and the fight against homophobia. Claims of crystal methamphetamine related "meth rage" as a contributing factor in the crime surfaced in 2013.
Shanda Sharer was murdered on 11 January 1992. She was lured away from her house and held captive by a group of teenage girls. She was tortured for hours and burned alive. She died from smoke inhalation. Those found guilty and sentenced to prison were Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence. According to Loveless, she was jealous of her former partner Amanda Heavrin's relationship with Shanda Sharer.
Karla Homolka was arrested with her husband, Paul Bernardo, in 1993. Both sexually tortured and killed their victims. Their first victim was Karla's 15-year-old sister, Tammy Homolka. The second and third victims were Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. Karla told the investigators that she reluctantly did what Paul told her to do because he was abusive, and was given a plea deal. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison (10 years for Mahaffy and French, and two years for Tammy). Later, investigators discovered the crime videotapes, proving that Karla was a willing participant. But by that time the deal had already been made. In 1995, Paul was sentenced to life in prison. Karla was released from prison in 2005.
Polly Klaas (3 January 1981 – October 1993) was kidnapped by Richard Allen Davis from her home during a slumber party. She was later strangled to death. After her death, her father, Marc Klaas, established the KlaasKids Foundation.
Jonbenet Ramsey (6 August 1990 – 25 December 1996) was a child beauty pageant contestant who was missing and found dead in her Boulder, Colorado, home. The crime terrified the nation and the world. Her parents were initially considered to be suspects in her death but were cleared in 2003 when DNA from her clothes was tested. To this day, her murderer has not been found and brought to justice.
Lorena Bobbitt was charged with malicious wounding for severing her husband John Bobbitt's penis after she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Bobbitt, for which he was charged. Both parties were acquitted of their respective crimes. The story was notable because of the use of Microsurgery to re-attach the man's penis.
Wanda Holloway was convicted of solicitation of capital murder when she attempted to hire a hitman to kill the mother of her daughter's junior high school cheerleading rival.
American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor John Denver died in a plane crash in Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove on 12 October 1997.
Scandal rocked the sport of figure skating when skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked during practice by an assailant hired by Jeff Gillooly, former husband of skater Tonya Harding. The attack was carried out in an attempt to injure Kerrigan's leg to the point of her being unable to compete in the upcoming 1994 Winter Olympics, thereby securing Harding a better spot to win a gold medal.
1992 Los Angeles riots – resulted in 53 deaths and 5,500 property fires in a riot zone. The riots were a result of the state court acquittal of three white and one Hispanic L.A. police officer by an all-white jury in a police brutality case involving motorist Rodney King. In 1993, all four officers were convicted in a federal civil rights case.
Asia
Massive immigration wave of Jews from the Commonwealth of Independent States to Israel – With the end of the Soviet Union, Israel faced a mass influx of Russian Jews, many of whom had high expectations the country was unable to meet. Israel also came under an Iraqi missile attack during the Gulf War but acquiesced to US pressure not to retaliate militarily, which could have disrupted the US-Arab alliance. The US and Netherlands then rushed anti-missile batteries to Israel to defend the country against missile attacks.
The Spratly Islands issue became one of the most controversial islands in Southeast Asia.
The closing Mass of the X World Youth Day 1995 was held in Rizal Park on 15 January 1995, attended by more than 5 million people. This is the record gathering of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Philippines celebrates the 100th anniversary of Philippine Independence in 1998 with its theme: "Kalayaan: Kayamanan ng Bayan."
Popular culture
Film
Live-action films
Dogme 95 became an important European artistic motion picture movement by the decade's end. Also in 1998, Titanic by director James Cameron (released in late 1997) became the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing over $1.8 billion worldwide. It would hold this record for over a decade until 2010 when James Cameron's Avatar (released in December 2009), took the title.
Crime films were also extremely popular during the 1990s and garnered several awards throughout the decade, such as Wild at Heart, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Fargo, L.A. Confidential, Heat, The Godfather Part III, Seven, Trainspotting, A Simple Plan, and many others.
Live-action films featuring computer-animated characters became popular, with films such as Casper, James and the Giant Peach, 101 Dalmatians, Men in Black, Small Soldiers and Stuart Little proving financially successful. Live-action/traditional cel animated film featuring traditional characters like Cool World, The Pagemaster and Space Jam were prevalent as well.
Animated films
In 1994, former Disney employee Jeffrey Katzenberg founded DreamWorks SKG, which would produce its first two animated films: The Prince of Egypt and Antz which were both aimed more at adults than children and were both critically and commercially successful. Toy Story, the first full-length CGI movie, made by Pixar, was released in 1995 and revolutionized animated films. In 1998, with the release of DreamWorks's Antz and Pixar's A Bug's Life, the rivalry between DreamWorks and Pixar began between the studios due to the similarities between both films.
Meanwhile, films by Pixar's parent company, Disney became popular once more when the studio returned to making family-oriented animated musical films. Disney Animation was navigating the "Disney Renaissance", through both animated theatrical films and animated television series on the Disney Channel (owned by Walt Disney Television). The "Disney Renaissance" began with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and ended with Tarzan in 1999. Films of this era include Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Mulan.
Japanese anime films remained popular throughout the 1990s with the release of Studio Ghibli films such as Only Yesterday, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart, Princess Mononoke (which became the highest-grossing anime film at the time) and My Neighbors the Yamadas. Other significant anime films which gained cult status include Roujin Z, Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, Patlabor 2: The Movie, Ninja Scroll, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Ghost in the Shell, Memories, The End of Evangelion, Perfect Blue, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, and the Pokémon film series, which started with Pokémon: The First Movie.
Other significant animated films have also gained cult status, such as The Jetsons Movie, The Princess and the Goblin, Happily Ever After, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, The Thief and the Cobbler, Once Upon a Forest, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Felidae, The Swan Princess, A Goofy Movie, Balto, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Cats Don't Dance, Anastasia, Quest for Camelot, The Rugrats Movie, Kirikou and the Sorceress, The King and I, South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut and The Iron Giant. Family-centric animated feature films began to gain popularity through the late-1990s (1997, 1998, and 1999). Don Bluth's animation studio released a number of underperforming family animated films such as Rock-a-Doodle, Thumbelina and The Pebble and the Penguin and closed down in 1995.
In India, Shah Rukh Khan got rise in his stardom by Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Dil To Pagal Hai.
Award winners
Highest-grossing
The 25 highest-grossing films of the decade are:
Music
Music artists and genres
Music marketing became more segmented in the 1990s, as MTV gradually shifted away from music videos and radio splintered into narrower formats aimed at various niches. However, the 1990s are perhaps best known for grunge, gangsta rap, R&B, teen pop; Eurodance, electronic dance music, the renewed popularity of punk rock from the band Green Day and their 1994 album Dookie (which would also help create a new genre pop punk), and for the entrance of alternative rock into the mainstream. U2 was one of the most popular 1990s bands; their groundbreaking Zoo TV and PopMart tours were the top-selling tours of 1992 and 1997, respectively. Glam metal died out in the music mainstream by 1991. Grunge became popular in the early 1990s due to the success of Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Alice in Chain's Dirt, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and Stone Temple Pilot's Core. Pop punk also becomes popular with such artists as Green Day, Blink-182, Weezer, Social Distortion, the Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX and Rancid. Other successful alternative acts included Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Nickelback, Creed, Radiohead, Gin Blossoms, Soul Asylum, Third Eye Blind, Faith No More, the Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Everclear, Bush, Screaming Trees and Ween.
Rappers Salt-n-Pepa continued to have hit songs until 1994. Dr. Dre's 1992 album The Chronic provided a template for modern gangsta rap, and gave rise to other emerging artists of the genre, including Snoop Dogg. Due to the success of Death Row Records and Tupac Shakur, West Coast gangsta rap commercially dominated hip hop during the early-to-mid 1990s, along with Bad Boy Records and the Notorious B.I.G. on the East Coast. Hip hop became the best-selling music genre by the mid-1990s.
1994 became a breakthrough year for punk rock in California, with the success of bands like Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Blink-182, Green Day, the Offspring, Rancid and similar groups following. This success would continue to grow over the next decade. The 1990s also became the most important decade for ska punk/reggae rock, with the success of many bands like Smash Mouth, Buck-O-Nine, Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Murphy's Law, No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, Sublime and Sugar Ray.
The rave movement that emerged in the late 1980s continued to grow in popularity. This movement spawned genres such as Intelligent dance music and Drum and bass. The latter is an offshoot of jungle techno and breakbeat. Popular artists included Moby, Fatboy Slim, Björk, Aphex Twin, Orbital, the Orb, the Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, Todd Terry, 808 State, Primal Scream, the Shamen, the KLF and the Prodigy.
The rise of industrial music, somewhat a fusion of synthpop and heavy metal, rose to worldwide popularity with bands like Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Ministry and Marilyn Manson. Groove metal was born through the efforts of Pantera, whose seventh studio album Far Beyond Driven (1994) was notable for going number one on Billboard 200. Another heavy metal subgenre called nu metal, which mixed metal with hip hop influences, became popular with bands like Korn, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit selling millions of albums worldwide. Metallica's 1991 eponymous album Metallica is the best-selling album of the SoundScan era, while extreme metal acts such as Death, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Emperor, Cannibal Corpse and others experienced popularity throughout the decade.
Country music
In the 1990s, country music became a worldwide phenomenon thanks to Billy Ray Cyrus, Shania Twain and Garth Brooks. The latter enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the decade. The RIAA has certified his recordings at a combined (128× platinum), denoting roughly 113 million United States shipments.
Other artists that experienced success during this time included Clint Black, Sammy Kershaw, Aaron Tippin, Travis Tritt, Suzy Bogguss, Alan Jackson, Lorrie Morgan and the newly formed duo of Brooks & Dunn. George Strait, whose career began in the 1980s, also continued to have widespread success in this decade and beyond. Female artists such as Reba McEntire, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Deana Carter, LeAnn Rimes and Mary Chapin Carpenter all released platinum-selling albums in the 1990s. Rimes, a teenager at the time, spawned a "teen movement" in country music; with fellow teen artists Lila McCann, Jessica Andrews, Billy Gillman, and others following suit; a feat that hasn't been duplicated since Tanya Tucker and Marie Osmond in the early 1970s. The Dixie Chicks became one of the most popular country bands in the 1990s and early 2000s. Their 1998 debut album Wide Open Spaces went on to become certified 12× platinum, while their 1999 album Fly went on to become 10× platinum.
R&B and related
Contemporary quiet storm and R&B continued to be quite popular among adult audiences originating from African-American communities, which began during the 1980s. Popular African-American contemporary R&B artists included Mariah Carey, D'Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Whitney Houston, Brandy, En Vogue, TLC, Destiny's Child, Toni Braxton, Boyz II Men, Dru Hill, Vanessa Williams and Janet Jackson.
Also, British R&B artists Sade (active since 1982), Des'Ree and Mark Morrison became quite popular during this decade.
Music from around the world
In the United Kingdom, the alternative rock Britpop genre emerged as part of the more general Cool Britannia culture, with Pulp (already founded in 1978), Blur (active since 1988), Ocean Colour Scene (since 1989), Suede (existing since 1989 with hiatus), the Verve (1990–1993), Oasis (formed in 1991), Elastica (1992–2001), Ash (since 1992), Supergrass (1993–2022 with hiatus) and Kula Shaker (since 1995) serving as popular examples of this emergence.
The impact of boy band pop sensation Take That, founded in 1990, lead to the formation of other boy bands in the UK and Ireland, such as East 17 in 1991 and the Irish boy band Boyzone in 1993. Female pop icons Spice Girls took the world by storm since 1994, becoming the most commercially successful British group since the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Their global success brought about a widespread scene of teen pop acts around the world such as All Saints, Backstreet Boys (both formed in 1993) as well as American acts as Hanson (from 1992), NSYNC (1995–2002, reunited 2003), Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera who came to prominence into the new millennium.
Many musicians from Canada, such as Celine Dion, Maestro Fresh Wes, Snow, Barenaked Ladies, Shania Twain, Len, Sarah McLachlan, and Alanis Morissette became known worldwide.
In 1991, Australian children's music group The Wiggles.
In Japan, the J-pop genre emerged as part of the more general Heisei Power cultural movement, with B'z, Mr. Children, Southern All Stars, Yumi Matsutoya, Dreams Come True, Glay, Zard, Hikaru Utada, Namie Amuro, SMAP, Chage and Aska, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Masaharu Fukuyama, Globe, Tube, Kome Kome Club, Maki Ohguro, Tatsuro Yamashita, TRF, Speed, Wands, and Field of View became more popular for Japanese youth audiences during the Lost Decades.
The Tibetan Freedom Concert, organized by Beastie Boys and the Milarepa Fund, brought 120,000 people together in the interest of increased human rights and autonomy for Tibet from China.
Controversies
Controversy surrounded the Prodigy with the release of the track "Smack My Bitch Up". The National Organization for Women (NOW) claimed that the track was "advocating violence against women" due to the song's lyrics, which are themselves sampled from Ultramagnetic MCs' "Give the Drummer Some". The music video (directed by Jonas Åkerlund) featured a first-person POV of someone going clubbing, indulging in drugs and alcohol, getting into fist fights, abusing women and picking up a prostitute. At the end of the video, the camera pans over to a mirror, revealing the subject to be a woman.
Deaths of artists
1991 also saw the death of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury from AIDS-related pneumonia. Next to this Kurt Cobain, Selena, Eazy-E, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. were the most publicized music-related deaths of the decade, in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 respectively. Richey Edwards of Manic Street Preachers was publicized in the media in 1991 following an incident involving Steve Lamacq backstage after a live show, in which Edwards carved '4 Real' into his arm. Edwards' disappearance in 1995 was highly publicized. He is still missing but was presumed dead in 2008.
Television
Comedies and sitcoms
TV shows, mostly sitcoms, were popular with American audiences. Series such as Roseanne, Coach, Empty Nest, Mr. Belvedere, 227, Cheers, The Cosby Show, Growing Pains, Night Court, The Hogan Family, Murphy Brown, Full House, The Wonder Years, A Different World, Amen, ALF, Perfect Strangers, Married... with Children, Family Matters, Charles in Charge, Saved by the Bell, My Two Dads, Major Dad, Newhart, Dear John, Designing Women, The Golden Girls, Who's the Boss?, Head of the Class, and Seinfeld, which premiered in the eighties, and Frasier, a spin-off of the 1980s hit Cheers were viewed throughout the 1990s.
These sitcoms, along with Friends, That '70s Show, Ellen, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Nurses, Living Single, Step by Step, NewsRadio, Blossom, The King of Queens, Fired Up, Jesse, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, For Your Love, The Steve Harvey Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Sex and the City, Arliss, Dream On, Grace Under Fire, Mad About You, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Naked Truth, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, The Jamie Foxx Show, Smart Guy, The Wayans Bros., Malcolm & Eddie, Clueless, Moesha, The Parent 'Hood, Unhappily Ever After, Roc, Martin, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, In Living Color, Sister, Sister, Boy Meets World, Ned and Stacey, Becker, Veronica's Closet, Two Guys and a Girl, The Drew Carey Show, Wings, The John Larroquette Show, Caroline in the City, Sports Night, Home Improvement, Will & Grace, Evening Shade, Cosby, Spin City, The Nanny, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Suddenly Susan, Cybill, Just Shoot Me!, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Dharma and Greg from the 90s turned TV in new directions and defined the humor of the decade.
Furthermore, Saturday Night Live experienced a new era of success during the 1990s, launching the careers of popular comedians and actors such as Chris Farley, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Norm Macdonald, David Spade, Cheri Oteri and others.
Drama shows
1993 saw the debut of the medical–mystery drama, Diagnosis Murder, a comeback vehicle for Dick Van Dyke, who guest-starred on an episode of its parent series, Jake and the Fatman, where the show got off to a rocky start and became one of television's long-running mysteries, that lasted until its cancellation in 2001. It was one of a number of shows that made CBS popular with a distinctly older audience than its competitors, with a lineup consisting mainly of murder mysteries, westerns and religious dramas, such as Walker, Texas Ranger, Touched by an Angel, Murder, She Wrote and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
Medical dramas started to return to television in the 1990s after the end of St. Elsewhere in 1988. In 1994, ER, which originally starred Anthony Edwards, Noah Wyle and George Clooney, was instantly a domestic and international success, lasting until 2009 and spawning similar series to compete against it, such as the more soap opera-esque Grey's Anatomy (2005–present), and the short lived Medicine Ball (1995). It was one of the many successful shows during that period (as well as sitcoms such as Seinfeld and Friends) which made NBC the most-watched channel in the United States. This show launched the career of George Clooney. That same year, Chicago Hope, that starred Héctor Elizondo, Mandy Patinkin and Adam Arkin, was also a popular series for CBS, lasting between 1994 and 2000.
Crime drama and police detective shows returned to the spotlight after soap operas died down. After the successful debuts of Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life on the Street, Fox debuted New York Undercover, which starred Malik Yoba and Micheal DeLorenzo, is notable for featuring two people of color in the main roles. Nash Bridges, a comeback vehicle for Don Johnson, lasting six seasons (1996–2001), dealt with escapist entertainment instead of tackling social issues.
Beverly Hills, 90210 ran on Fox from 1990 to 2000. It established the teen soap genre, paving the way for Dawson's Creek, Felicity, Party of Five, and other shows airing later in the decade, and into the 2000s. The show was then remade and renamed simply 90210 and premiered in 2008. Beverly Hills, 90210, and its spin-off Melrose Place also became a popular TV show throughout the 1990s. Baywatch became the most-watched TV show in history and influenced pop culture.
Sex and the City portrayal of relationships and sexuality caused controversy and acclaim, leading to a new generation of sexually progressive television shows in the 2000s, such as Queer as Folk and The L Word.
Other television shows and genres
Fantasy and science fiction shows were popular on television, with NBC airing SeaQuest DSV beginning in 1993, which made Jonathan Brandis a popular teen idol, but was cancelled after three seasons. The 1990s saw a multitude of Star Trek content: in 1993, following the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount released the follow-up shows Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001). Touched By an Angel, broadcast by CBS in 1994, was intended as the comeback vehicle of Della Reese, and also launched the career of Roma Downey. It wasn't an immediate success and was cancelled, but was revived the following year due to a fan letter-writing campaign, and ran for eight more seasons. At the end of the decade, the fantasy drama series Charmed gained a cult following and helped popularize the WB.
In 1993, one of the last westerns to air on television was Walker, Texas Ranger, a crime drama starring Chuck Norris as the title character. Running for nine seasons, the show tackled a wide variety of subjects and was one of few shows to feature an actor performing karate stunts at that time.
Reality television was not an entirely new concept (An American Family aired on PBS in 1973) but proliferated for Generation X audiences with titles such as Judge Judy, Eco-Challenge, and Cops.
The 1990s saw the debut of live-action children's programs such as the educational Bill Nye the Science Guy and Blue's Clues as well as the superhero show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the latter becoming a pop culture phenomenon along with a line of action figures and other toys by Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai. This can also be said for the British pre-school series Teletubbies, which was a massive hit loved by very young children. It also saw long time running shows such as Barney & Friends and the continuation of Sesame Street, both of which would continue in the following decades and so.
In 1992, Australian Broadcasting Corporation television series Bananas in Pyjamas.
During the mid-1990s, two of the biggest professional wrestling companies: World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation were in a ratings battle that was called the Monday Night War (1995–2001). Each company fought to draw more viewers to their respective Monday night wrestling show. The "War" ended in 2001 when WWE bought WCW. In November 2001, there was a Winner Takes All match with both companies in a Pay-Per-View called Survivor Series. WWF won the match, putting an end to WCW.
The late 1990s also saw the evolution of a new TV genre: primetime game shows, popularized by the quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, hosted originally by Chris Tarrant on ITV in the United Kingdom and Regis Philbin on ABC in the United States, as well as other first-run game shows aired in prime time on the newly launched Game Show Network.
Animated shows
An animated sitcom, The Simpsons, premiered on Fox in December 1989 and became a domestic and international success in the 1990s. The show has since aired more than 600 episodes and has become an institution of pop culture. In addition, it has spawned the adult-oriented animated sitcom genre, inspiring more adult-oriented animated shows such as Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–1997), Daria (1997–2001), along with South Park and Family Guy, the latter two of which began in 1997 and 1999, respectively, and continue to air new episodes through the 2000s and into the 2020s.
Cartoons produced in the 1990s are sometimes referred to as the "Renaissance Age of Animation" for cartoons in general, particularly for American animated children's programs. Disney Channel, Nickelodeon (owned by Viacom, now Paramount Global) and Cartoon Network (owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) would dominate the animated television industry. These three channels are considered the "Big Three", of children's entertainment, even today, but especially during the 1990s.
Other channels such as Warner Bros. Animation would create shows like Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, and the start of the DC Animated Universe with shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, and Superman: The Animated Series, as well as syndicated shows like Phantom 2040. Nickelodeon's first three animated series (Doug, Rugrats, The Ren & Stimpy Show) all premiered in 1991 along with shows such as Hey Arnold!, CatDog, The Wild Thornberrys, and in 1999 saw the debut of Nickelodeon's well known animated comedy series SpongeBob SquarePants. Cartoon Network would create shows like Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Johnny Bravo, and Courage the Cowardly Dog. Disney Channel would make shows like Recess, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pepper Ann, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and Gargoyles. In 1990s, animated shows such as Rupert, Where's Wally?, Oggy and the Cockroaches, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, Bobby's World, Arthur, Budgie the Little Helicopter and Biker Mice from Mars.
In 1992, British stop-motion animated television series Noddy's Toyland Adventures.
Japanese anime was popular in the 1980s and expanded to a worldwide audience by the 1990s for its expansive spectrum of story subjects and themes not limited to comedy and superhero action found in the US. It featured well-produced, well-written, visual, and story content that came to showcase animation's potential for emotional and intellectual depth and integrity on par with live action media to its viewers. Anime expanded to older and adult audiences in the medium of animation. Anime shows such as Sailor Moon, Digimon, Pokémon, Tenchi Muyo!, Berserk, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Gundam Wing, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ranma ½, Yu Yu Hakusho, Slayers, Rurouni Kenshin, Initial D, Gunsmith Cats, Slam Dunk, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Outlaw Star, to anime movies such as Akira, Vampire Hunter D, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, The Castle of Cagliostro, and imports by various distributors such as Viz, AnimEigo, Central Park Media, A.D. Vision, Pioneer Entertainment, Media Blasters, Manga Entertainment, and Celebrity, helped begin the mid to late 1990s and turn of the millennium introductory anime craze in the US, and the Cartoon Network anime programming block Toonami in 1997.
Fashion and body modification
Significant fashion trends of the 1990s include:
Earth and jewel tones, as well as an array of minimalist style and design influences, characterize the 1990s, a stark contrast to the camp and bombast seen in the brightly colored fashion and design trends of the 1980s.
The Rachel, Jennifer Aniston's hairstyle on the hit TV show Friends, became a cultural phenomenon, with millions of women copying it worldwide.
The Hi-top fade was trendy among African-Americans in the early 1990s.
The Curtained Haircut increased in popularity in fashion and culture among teenage boys and young men in the 1990s, mainly after it was popularized in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day by the actor Edward Furlong.
The model 1300 Wonderbra style has a resurgence of popularity in Europe in 1992, which kicks off an international media sensation, the 1994 return of "The Wonderbra" brand, and a spike in the push-up, plunge bras around the world.
Additional fashion trends of the 1990s include the Tamagotchi, Rollerblades, Pogs and Dr. Martens shoes.
Bleached-blond hair became very popular in the late 1990s, as were men with short hair with the bangs "flipped up."
The 1990s also saw the return of the 1970s teenage female fashion with long, straight hair and denim hot pants.
Beverly Hills, 90210 sideburns also became popular in the early and mid-1990s.
Slap bracelets were a popular fad among children, preteens, and teenagers in the early 1990s and were available in a wide variety of patterns and colors. Also popular among children were light-up sneakers, jelly shoes, and shoelace hair clips.
The Grunge hype at the beginning of the decade popularized flannel shirts among both genders during the 1990s.
Heroin chic appeared sporadically across film, fashion models and grunge music, but gave way by end of the US recession and the emergence of internet "geek" culture (a sassy tech-literate style centered on web searching and drinking coffee).
Grunge- and hip-hop-inspired anti-fashion saw an expansion of the slouchy, casual styles of past decades, mostly seen in baggy and distressed jeans, cargo shorts and pants, baseball caps (often worn backward), chunky sneakers, oversized sweatshirts, and loose-fitting tees with grandiloquent graphics and logos.
Svelte fashion was also popular from the beginning of the 1990s and into the 2000s, as the new millennium began. The rivalry of sloppy grunge fashion versus more expensive clothing made for fitter bodies was a repeat of the rock versus disco rivalry of a decade ago. Nineties fashion became darker, slinkier, and more futuristic-looking clothing in the late 1990s, with Keanu Reeves in The Matrix as a style icon.
Tattoos and piercings became part of the mainstream aesthetic. American model Christy Turlington revealed her belly button piercing at a fashion show in London in 1993. In the late 1990s, some females got lower back tattoos and men opted for tribal style arm bands or back pieces.
Video games
Video game consoles
Video game consoles released in this decade include the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Neo Geo, Atari Jaguar, 3DO, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast. Portable video game consoles include the Game Gear, Atari Lynx and Game Boy Color. Super Mario World was the decade's best-selling home console video game, while Pokémon Red and Blue was the decade's best-selling portable video game; Super Mario 64 was the decade's best-selling fifth-generation video game, while Street Fighter II was the decade's highest-grossing arcade video game.
The console wars, primarily between Sega (Mega Drive, marketed as the Sega Genesis in North America, introduced in 1988) and Nintendo (Super NES, introduced in 1990), sees the entrance of Sony with the PlayStation in 1994, which becomes the first successful CD-based console (as opposed to cartridges). By the end of the decade, Sega's hold on the market becomes tenuous after the end of the Saturn in 1999 and the Dreamcast in 2002.
Arcade games rapidly decreased in popularity, mainly due to the dominance of handheld and home consoles.
Video games
Mario as Nintendo's mascot finds a rival in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. Sonic the Hedgehog would go on to become one of the most successful video game franchises of the decade and of all time.
Notable video games of the 1990s include: Super Metroid, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario World, Doom, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong 64, Pokémon Red and Blue Versions, Pokémon Yellow Version, GoldenEye 007, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Gran Turismo, Mario Kart 64, Half-Life, Super Mario Kart, Radiant Silvergun, Rayman, Gunstar Heroes, Banjo-Kazooie, Soulcalibur, Star Fox series, Tomb Raider series, Final Fantasy, Sonic the Hedgehog series, Story of Seasons series, Tony Hawk's series, Crash Bandicoot series, Metal Slug series, Resident Evil series, Street Fighter II, Spyro the Dragon series, Commander Keen series, Test Drive series, Dance Dance Revolution series, Monkey Island series, Dune series, Mortal Kombat series, Warcraft series, Duke Nukem 3D, Tekken series, EarthBound, Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game, and StarCraft.
Sony's PlayStation becomes the top-selling video game console and changes the standard media storage type from cartridges to compact discs (CDs) in home consoles. Crash Bandicoot is released on 9 September 1996, becoming one of the most successful platforming series for the Sony PlayStation. Spyro The Dragon, released on 9 September 1998, also became a successful platforming series. Tomb Raiders Lara Croft became a video game sex symbol, becoming one of the most recognizable figures in the entertainment industry throughout the late 1990s.
Pokémon enters the world scene with the release of the original Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green for Game Boy in Japan in 1996, later changed to Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue for worldwide release in 1998. It soon becomes popular in the United States and Canada, creating the term Pokémonia, and is adapted into a popular anime series and trading card game, among other media forms.
Resident Evil is released in 1996 and Resident Evil 2. Both games became the most highly acclaimed survival-horror series on the PlayStation at the time it was released. It is credited with defining the survival horror genre and with returning zombies to popular culture, leading to a renewed interest in zombie films by the 2000s.
Video game genres
3D graphics become the standard by the decade's end. Although FPS games had long since seen the transition to full 3D, other genres began to copy this trend by the end of the decade. The most notable first shooter games in the 1990s are GoldenEye 007 and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
The violent nature of fighting games like Capcom's Street Fighter II, Sega's Virtua Fighter, and Midway's Mortal Kombat prompted the video game industry to accept a game rating system. Hundreds of knockoffs are widely popular in the mid-to-late 1990s. Doom (1993) bursts onto the world scene, and instantly popularizes the FPS genre. Half-Life (1998) builds upon this, using gameplay without levels and an immersive first-person perspective. Half-Life became one of the most popular FPS games in history.
The real-time strategy (RTS) genre is introduced in 1992 with the release of Dune II. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) popularizing the genre, and Command & Conquer and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1995, setting up the first major real-time strategy competition and popularizing multiplayer capabilities in RTS games. StarCraft in 1998 becomes the second best-selling computer game of all time. It remains among the most popular multiplayer RTS games today, especially in South Korea. Homeworld in 1999 becomes the first successful 3D RTS game. The rise of the RTS genre is often credited with the fall of the turn-based strategy (TBS) genre, popularized with Civilization in 1991. Final Fantasy was introduced (in North America) in 1990 for the NES and remains among the most popular video game franchises, with many new titles to date and more in development, plus numerous spin-offs, sequels, films and related titles. Final Fantasy VII, released in 1997, especially popularized the series.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) see their entrance with Ultima Online in 1997. However, they do not gain widespread popularity until EverQuest and Asheron's Call in 1999. MMORPGs become among the most popular video game genres until the 2010s.
The best-selling games of the 1990s are listed below (note that some sources disagree on particular years):
1990: Super Mario World
1991: Sonic the Hedgehog
1992: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
1993: Super Mario All-Stars
1994: Donkey Kong Country
1995: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island or Mortal Kombat 3
1996: Pokémon Red and Blue or Super Mario 64
1997: Gran Turismo or Mario Kart 64
1998: Pokémon Yellow or The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
1999: Pokémon Gold and Silver or Donkey Kong 64
Internet
Prominent websites launched during the decade include IMDb (1993), eBay (1995), Amazon (1994), GeoCities (1994), Netscape (1994), Yahoo! (1995), AltaVista (1995), AIM (1997), ICQ (1996), Hotmail (1996), Google (1998), Napster (1999). The pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing internet service Napster, which launched in Fall 1999, was the first peer-to-peer software to become massively popular. While at the time it was possible to share files in other ways via the Internet (such as IRC and USENET), Napster was the first software to focus exclusively on sharing MP3 files for music. Napster was eventually forced to shut down in July 2001 after legal disputes over copyright infringement and digital piracy, though it would eventually be relaunched as a music streaming service in 2016.
Architecture
The Petronas Twin Towers became two of the tallest man-made structures ever built after they officially opened on 31 August 1999.
Sports
In college football, the Inaugural 1992 SEC Championship Game occurred at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. The Alabama Crimson Tide football team, under then-Coach Gene Stallings, went 11-0 and defeated the Florida Gators under then-Coach Steve Spurrier. The Tide would later finish 13–0 to win the National Championship and beat the Miami Hurricanes in the 1993 Sugar Bowl. However, Spurrier and the Gators would later win Four SEC Championships from 1993 to 1996. They went on to win their first National Championship in the 1997 Nokia Sugar Bowl by defeating the Florida State Seminoles.
The 1992 Summer Olympics are held in Barcelona, Spain and the 1996 Summer Olympics are held in Atlanta, United States.
The 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the "Dream Team", was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association. Described as the "greatest team ever assembled", its roster included the likes of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson.
Major League Baseball players went on strike on 12 August 1994, thus ending the season and canceling the World Series for the first time in 90 years. The players' strike ended on 29 March 1995, when players and team owners agreed.
The 1991 World Series pitted the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins, two teams who finished last place in their respective divisions, the previous season. The series would go all seven games won by the home teams, concluding dramatically with the Minnesota Twins claiming their second World Series title.
American NBA basketball player Michael Jordan became a major sports and pop culture icon, idolized by millions worldwide. He revolutionized sports marketing through deals with companies such as Gatorade, Hanes, McDonald's and Nike. His Chicago Bulls team won six NBA titles during the decade (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998). He was also notable outside of basketball thanks to his self-portrayal in the film Space Jam with the Looney Tunes characters.
The National Hockey League would expand from 21 to 30 teams. During the expansion years, several teams would relocate to new cities: the Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix, Arizona and became the Phoenix Coyotes, the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche, the Hartford Whalers moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and became the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas and became the Dallas Stars.
The NHL's 1990s expansion saw new teams in cities that previously never had NHL hockey: San Jose (San Jose Sharks), Anaheim (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim), Nashville (Nashville Predators), Miami (Florida Panthers), and Tampa (Tampa Bay Lightning). The NHL also returned to Atlanta with the expansion Atlanta Thrashers.
Two of the NHL's Original Six teams, the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings, would end long Stanley Cup championship droughts; the Rangers in 1994 after 54 years, and the Red Wings would win back-to-back Cups in 1997 and 1998 after 42 years.
Canadian hockey star Mario Lemieux led the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of the original NHL expansion teams, to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992.
In addition to the Pittsburgh Penguins, three other NHL expansion teams went on to earn their first Stanley Cup championships: the New Jersey Devils in 1995, the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, and the Dallas Stars in 1999.
Canadian hockey star Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the NHL in 1999. Upon his final game on 18 April, he held 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. He is the leading point-scorer in NHL history and the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. He played for four teams during his NHL career: the Edmonton Oilers, the Los Angeles Kings, the St. Louis Blues, and the New York Rangers.
American cyclist Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France in 1999, less than two years after battling testicular cancer. Armstrong would later become embattled in a major doping investigation, stripping him of this and all of his major cycling titles.
In professional wrestling, as the popularity brought on by the 1980s boom period slowly declined in the former half of the 1990s, the WWF continued its "Golden Era" until 1993, led by such stars as Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and The Undertaker (who would go on to have an undefeated streak at WrestleMania that continued until WrestleMania XXX in April 2014). Afterwards, a second boom period from the middle of the decade was initiated due to the Monday Night War between the WWF and WCW to later spawn the WWF's Attitude Era, home to some of the biggest names in wrestling history such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and Triple H. Meanwhile, the highly popular nWo stable, along with Sting and Goldberg, brought WCW major success.
The Manchester United won an unprecedented treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League after defeating Bayern Munich 2–1 in May 1999.
The United States hosted the 15th staging of the 1994 FIFA World Cup. It holds the record for the largest attendance per game during the World Cup finals (even after the tournament's expansion to 32 teams and 64 matches). Additionally, this led to the creation of the MLS.
In motor racing, triple Formula One World Champion Ayrton Senna is fatally injured in a crash at San Marino in 1994. Michael Schumacher enters into the sport – winning his first two championships in 1994 and 1995. Dale Earnhardt wins the 1998 Daytona 500 and the NASCAR Winston Cup championship in 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1994. Indy Car racing delves into an organizational "Split".
In the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins showed promise of continuing their '80s glory by each team winning another Super Bowl at the beginning of the decade. However, it was the Dallas Cowboys who made a gradual return to dynasty status, winning three Super Bowls (1992, 1993 and 1995) in four years after a 14-year NFL championship drought. The Denver Broncos also won their first two Super Bowls after having lost four, winning consecutive championships of the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
Florida State, 1987–2000 – At the height of Bobby Bowden's dominance, the Florida State Seminoles went 152–19–1, won nine ACC championships (1992–2000), two national championships (1993 and 1999), played for three more national championships (1996, 1998, and 2000), were ranked #1 in the preseason AP poll five times (1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1999), never lost the #1 AP ranking during 1999, produced 20 1st round NFL draft picks (including the 1997 offensive and defensive rookies of the year), won at least ten games every year, and never finished a season ranked lower than fourth in the AP poll. Quarterbacks Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke won Heisman Trophies.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers led by head coach Tom Osborne won three national championships in college football in four years (1994, 1995, 1997)
Led by head coach Jim Tressel, The Youngstown State Penguins claimed to be the "team of the '90s" by winning four national championships (1991, 1993, 1994, 1997) in division I-AA college football
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (1993) and Pride Fighting Championship (1997) debut and evolve into the modern sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
Major League Baseball added four teams, Miami Marlins (as Florida Marlins), Colorado Rockies, Tampa Bay Rays (as Tampa Bay Devil Rays), and the Arizona Diamondbacks, and moved one (Milwaukee Brewers) into the National League. The Florida Marlins would win the World Series in 1997 and 2003; the Arizona Diamondbacks would win the World Series in 2001, becoming the fastest expansion team to win a major championship for any major sport; the Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays would appear in the World Series in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
In 1998, Canada wins gold medals for the first time in Disc ultimate at the WFDF World Ultimate Championship in Open, Mixed, and Masters.
In the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Women's Gymnastics team won the first team gold medal for the US in Olympic Gymnastics history.
In 1997, eight Australian Rugby League Premiership clubs defect to the News Corporation-backed Super League, before a resolution sees the two parties form the National Rugby League in 1998. The British competition is bought out by News Corporation, and renamed Super League, which it is still currently named (although it was sold by News Corporation).
Literature
Leading talk show host Oprah Winfrey became an important book influencer in 1996 when she launched the highly successful Oprah's Book Club.
The hugely successful Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling was introduced in 1997. The series, with seven main novels, would go on to become the best-selling book series in world history and adapted into a film series in 2001.
John Grisham was the bestselling author in the United States in the 1990s, with over 60 million copies sold of novels such as The Pelican Brief, The Client, and The Firm.
Other successful authors of the 1990s include Stephen King, Natsuo Kirino, Danielle Steel, Michael Crichton, James Redfield, Haruki Murakami, Keigo Higashino and Tom Clancy.
Goosebumps by R. L. Stine, the second highest-grossing book series in the world, was introduced in 1992 and remained a dominant player in children's literature throughout and after the decade. A television series released on Fox Kids alongside a film version that released in 2015.
The decline of diverse study options in university humanities schools due to economic rationalism, leading to a boom in purple prose heavily influenced by 20th century European social theory and cultural studies. In 1996 in what is known as the Sokal affair, a mathematician pranked a cultural studies by tricking them into publishing his nonsensical essay "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" on the basis that the journal wasn't peer-reviewed and would publish anything that seemed fashionably left-wing. In 1996 the Postmodernism Generator used a recursive transition network to imitate the postmodernist style of humanities writing.
1990s saw the rise of independent literature and notable self-help books, included Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray and Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson.
Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria (1994) by Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters was critical of the repressed memory therapy that was gaining some traction in psychotherapy.
People
Actors and directors
Ben Affleck
Jason Alexander
Tim Allen
María Conchita Alonso
Benyamin Sueb
Gillian Anderson
Pamela Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson
Jennifer Aniston
Christina Applegate
Rosanna Arquette
Rowan Atkinson
Hank Azaria
Kevin Bacon
Alec Baldwin
Antonio Banderas
Christopher Daniel Barnes
Roseanne Barr
Drew Barrymore
Kim Basinger
Angela Bassett
Sean Bean
Tom Bérenger
Daniel Beretta
Elizabeth Berkley
Sandra Bernhard
Halle Berry
Kathryn Bigelow
Powers Boothe
Ernest Borgnine
Matthew Broderick
Avery Brooks
Pierce Brosnan
Clancy Brown
Sandra Bullock
Tim Burton
Brett Butler
Yancy Butler
Gabriel Byrne
James Caan
Nicolas Cage
Dean Cain
Chen Kaige
James Cameron
Neve Campbell
Drew Carey
George Carlin
Jim Carrey
Dana Carvey
Dan Castellaneta
Jackie Chan
Dave Chappelle
George Clooney
Kevin Conroy
Tim Conway
Coen brothers
Sean Connery
Kevin Costner
Courteney Cox
Marcia Cross
Tom Cruise
Billy Crystal
Macaulay Culkin
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Willem Dafoe
Matt Damon
Frank Darabont
Richard Darbois
Robert Davi
Ellen DeGeneres
Robert De Niro
Johnny Depp
Danny DeVito
Leonardo DiCaprio
Shannen Doherty
Kirk Douglas
Brad Dourif
Fran Drescher
Léa Drucker
David Duchovny
Kirsten Dunst
Charles S. Dutton
Clint Eastwood
Anthony Edwards
Peter Falk
Chris Farley
David Faustino
Abel Ferrara
Will Ferrell
Laurence Fishburne
Calista Flockhart
Harrison Ford
Jodie Foster
Jacques Frantz
Dennis Franz
Brendan Fraser
Morgan Freeman
Edward Furlong
Eva Gabor
James Gandolfini
Janeane Garofalo
Jennie Garth
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Mel Gibson
Peri Gilpin
Danny Glover
Whoopi Goldberg
Jeff Goldblum
Trevor Goddard
John Goodman
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Kelsey Grammer
Brian Austin Green
Graham Greene
Thomas Ian Griffith
Arsenio Hall
Linda Hamilton
Tom Hanks
Curtis Hanson
Phil Hartman
Woody Harrelson
Ed Harris
Teri Hatcher
Rutger Hauer
Ethan Hawke
Salma Hayek
Isaac Hayes
Mitch Hedberg
Lance Henriksen
Bill Hicks
Agnieszka Holland
Anthony Hopkins
Dennis Hopper
Bob Hoskins
Helen Hunt
Jeremy Irons
Samuel L. Jackson
Angelina Jolie
Tommy Lee Jones
Mike Judge
Shekhar Kapur
Tchéky Karyo
Michael Keaton
Harvey Keitel
Tom Kenny
Nicole Kidman
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Val Kilmer
Greg Kinnear
Lisa Kudrow
Nathan Lane
Eriq La Salle
Martin Lawrence
Matt LeBlanc
Ang Lee
Spike Lee
Jane Leeves
John Leguizamo
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Valérie Lemercier
Jay Leno
Jared Leto
David Letterman
Ted Levine
Jet Li
Rachael Lillis
Delroy Lindo
Ray Liotta
John Lithgow
Heather Locklear
Mario Lopez
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Dolph Lundgren
Michael Madsen
Bill Maher
John Mahoney
Julianna Margulies
Steve Martin
Frances McDormand
John McTiernan
Demi Moore
Julianne Moore
Joe Morton
Carrie-Anne Moss
Kate Mulgrew
Eddie Murphy
Mike Myers
Samy Naceri
Hideo Nakata
Liam Neeson
Craig T. Nelson
Bob Newhart
Aaron Norris
Chuck Norris
Bill Nunn
Conan O'Brien
Ed O'Neill
Gary Oldman
Jerry Orbach
Gwyneth Paltrow
Robert Patrick
Alexandra Paul
Chris Penn
Sean Penn
Ron Perlman
Luke Perry
Matthew Perry
Joe Pesci
Michelle Pfeiffer
River Phoenix
David Hyde Pierce
Brad Pitt
Kevin Pollak
Jason Priestley
Alex Proyas
Dennis Quaid
Randy Quaid
Keanu Reeves
Paul Reiser
Michael Richards
Alan Rickman
Tim Robbins
Eric Roberts
Julia Roberts
Chris Rock
Michael Rooker
Mickey Rourke
Tim Roth
RuPaul
Kurt Russell
Daniel Russo
Rene Russo
Meg Ryan
Winona Ryder
Katey Sagal
Bob Saget
Adam Sandler
Susan Sarandon
Arnold Schwarzenegger
David Schwimmer
Steven Seagal
Jerry Seinfeld
Garry Shandling
Charlie Sheen
Elisabeth Shue
Sarah Silverman
Tony Sirico
Christian Slater
Will Smith
Jimmy Smits
Wesley Snipes
Kevin Spacey
David Spade
Tori Spelling
Steven Spielberg
Sage Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
John Stamos
Jon Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sharon Stone
Meryl Streep
Patrick Swayze
Ice-T
Jeffrey Tambor
Quentin Tarantino
Veronica Taylor
Tiffani-Amber Thiessen
Uma Thurman
Jennifer Tilly
Tony Todd
Danny Trejo
John Travolta
Robin Tunney
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Dick Van Dyke
Gus Van Sant
Arnold Vosloo
Christopher Walken
Fred Ward
Denzel Washington
Sam Waterston
Sigourney Weaver
Hugo Weaving
Vernon Wells
Forest Whitaker
Michael Jai White
Robin Williams
Bruce Willis
Rita Wilson
Oprah Winfrey
Michael Winterbottom
John Woo
James Woods
Noah Wyle
Robert Zemeckis
Ian Ziering
Athletes
Andre Agassi
Troy Aikman
Simona Amânar
Lance Armstrong
Steve Austin
Roberto Baggio
Charles Barkley
Gabriel Batistuta
Gerhard Berger
Dennis Bergkamp
Barry Bonds
Martin Brodeur
Sergey Bubka
Eric Cantona
Julio Cesar Chavez
Roger Clemens
David Coulthard
Hernán Crespo
Lynford Christie
Oscar De La Hoya
Alessandro Del Piero
Pyrros Dimas
Mick Doohan
David Douillet
Clyde Drexler
Dale Earnhardt
John Elway
Marco Etcheverry
Patrick Ewing
Brett Favre
Allison Fisher
Paul Gascoigne
Tom Glavine
Gina Gogean
Bill Goldberg
Raúl González Blanco
Graham Gooch
Jeff Gordon
Rickson Gracie
Royce Gracie
Steffi Graf
Wayne Gretzky
Ken Griffey Jr.
Gheorghe Hagi
Mia Hamm
Tony Hawk
Carlos Hermosillo
Fernando Hierro
Grant Hill
Martina Hingis
Evander Holyfield
Miguel Induráin
Filippo Inzaghi
Michael Irvin
Jaromír Jágr
Derek Jeter
Michael Johnson
Randy Johnson
Chipper Jones
Michael Jordan
Juha Kankkunen
Garry Kasparov
Jim Kelly
Svetlana Khorkina
Jürgen Klinsmann
Ronald Koeman
Toni Kukoc
Michelle Kwan
Brian Lara
Jeanette Lee
Mario Lemieux
Carl Lewis
Greg LeMond
Jose Loiola
Ricardo López
Colin McRae
Greg Maddux
Paolo Maldini
Karl Malone
Nigel Mansell
Mark Messier
Reggie Miller
Lavinia Milosovici
Shannon Miller
Fu Mingxia
Jaime Moreno
Tommy Morrison
Alonzo Mourning
Alexei Nemov
Hakeem Olajuwon
Shaquille O'Neal
Gary Payton
Marie-José Pérec
Stephane Peterhansel
Drazen Petrovic
Mike Piazza
Scottie Pippen
Lilia Podkopayeva
Aleksandr Popov
Alain Prost
Wayne Rainey
Efren Reyes
Jerry Rice
Marcelo Ríos
Rivaldo
Cal Ripken Jr.
David Robinson
Dennis Rodman
Romário
Ronaldo
Patrick Roy
Arvydas Sabonis
Carlos Sainz
Joe Sakic
Marcelo Salas
Pete Sampras
Barry Sanders
Deion Sanders
Félix Savón
Vitaly Scherbo
Peter Schmeichel
Michael Schumacher
Junior Seau
Monica Seles
Ayrton Senna
Alan Shearer
Brendan Shanahan
Giuseppe Signori
Kelly Slater
Michael Slater
Emmitt Smith
John Smoltz
John Stockton
Earl Strickland
Davor Šuker
Sachin Tendulkar
Alberto Tomba
Félix Trinidad
Mike Tyson
Carlos Valderrama
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
Christian Vieri
Jacques Villeneuve
Pernell Whitaker
Tiger Woods
Steve Yzerman
Zinedine Zidane
Mika Häkkinen
Tommi Mäkinen
Musicians
The 1990s saw the rise of diverse musical trends, identifiable through the decade's top-selling pop songs and the continued prominence of established genres such as gangsta rap, grunge, industrial rock, and deep house. Alternative hip hop gained visibility at the start of the decade, while the public's interest in independent music surged as a counter to commercial radio payola.
Some of the notable artists and bands of the 1990s include AC/DC, Ace of Base, Alanis Morissette, Alice in Chains, Backstreet Boys, Beck, Blur, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Destiny's Child, Eminem, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Lauryn Hill, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Nirvana, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Spice Girls, The Smashing Pumpkins, Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., U2, Nas, and Wu-Tang Clan. These artists and bands defined the soundscape of the decade, shaping popular music and influencing future generations.
See also
List of decades
1990s in music
1990s in fashion
1990s in television
1990s in science and technology
1990s in video gaming
1990s in literature
Generation X (when the majority of that demographic had matured).
Millennials (when the oldest members of that demographic had matured in the decade's final year).
Timeline
The following articles contain timelines that list the most prominent events of the decade:
1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999
References
Further reading
Ash, Timothy Garton. History of the Present: Essays, Sketches, and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s (2009) excerpts
Bender, Thomas. "'Venturesome and Cautious': American History in the 1990s." Journal of American History (1994): 992–1003. in JSTOR
Bentley, Nick, ed. British Fiction of the 1990s (Routledge, 2007).
Berman, Milton. The Nineties in America (2009).
Brügger, Niels, ed, Web25: Histories from the first 25 years of the World Wide Web (Peter Lang, 2017).
Cornia, Giovanni Andrea, Ralph van der Hoeven, and Thandika Mkandawire. Africa's recovery in the 1990s: from stagnation and adjustment to human development (St. Martin's Press, 1992)
O'Neill, William. A Bubble in Time: America During the Interwar Years, 1989-2001 (2009) Excerpt, popular history
Parratt, Catriona M. "About Turns: Reflecting on Sport History in the 1990s." Sport History Review (1998) 29#1 pp: 4–17.
Rubin, Robert, and Jacob Weisberg. In an uncertain world: tough choices from Wall Street to Washington (2015), economic history.
Sierz, Aleks. Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations (A&C Black, 2012)
Stiglitz, Joseph E. The roaring nineties: A new history of the world's most prosperous decade (Norton, 2004), economic history
Turner, Alwyn. A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s Aurum Press (2013)
van der Hoeven, Arno. "Remembering the popular music of the 1990s: dance music and the cultural meanings of decade-based nostalgia." International Journal of heritage studies (2014) 20#3 pp: 316–330.
Yoda, Tomiko, and Harry Harootunian, eds. Japan After Japan: Social and Cultural Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present (2006)
External links
20th century
Contemporary history
Articles containing video clips
1990s decade overviews | 0.76825 | 0.998651 | 0.767214 |
Neopatriarchy | Neopatriarchy is a contemporary social structure where traditional patriarchal norms are maintained or revived within the context of modern society. The term was originally coined by Palestinian-American intellectual Hisham Sharabi in his 1988 work, Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society, where he examined the persistence of patriarchal values in Arab societies despite modernization efforts. Today, the concept has broadened to describe similar dynamics globally, where traditional gender roles are reinforced or reasserted, even as societies undergo economic and social development.
In recent years, the term has gained renewed attention in political and cultural discourse, particularly within conservative movements in the United States. Figures like JD Vance have been associated with a resurgence of neopatriarchal ideas, advocating for a return to traditional family structures and gender roles. This movement, while not overtly dismissing women's participation in the workforce, subtly encourages a reversion to more traditional roles, particularly emphasizing motherhood and the importance of male authority within the family. Neopatriarchy represents a response to perceived threats from liberal individualism, promoting a vision of society where the state supports and incentivizes traditional gender dynamics as a cornerstone of social stability.
Background
The concept of neopatriarchy was first articulated by Palestinian-American intellectual Hisham Sharabi in his influential 1988 work, Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society. In this book, Sharabi analyzed the persistence of patriarchal structures within modernizing Arab societies, arguing that while these societies had undergone significant economic and social transformations, they retained deeply ingrained patriarchal norms. Sharabi described this phenomenon as a form of "distorted" modernity, where the appearance of progress in areas such as education and urbanization was accompanied by the entrenchment of traditional gender roles within new social and institutional frameworks.
Sharabi's analysis focused on the Arab world, where he observed that modernization processes—despite their surface-level advances—did not fundamentally challenge the existing patriarchal order. Instead, these processes often reinforced male dominance, as traditional values were reinterpreted and integrated into modern institutions. Sharabi's work remains a seminal reference for understanding how patriarchal systems can adapt to and persist within modern contexts, especially in societies with strong cultural or religious ties to traditional gender norm.
Beyond the Arab context, the concept of neopatriarchy has been applied to other regions where similar dynamics are observed. For instance, Deniz Kandiyoti's article "Bargaining with Patriarchy" (1988) discusses how women in various societies negotiate within patriarchal structures, revealing the persistence of these structures even in modernizing contexts. Similarly, Leela Dube's work on gender and kinship in South Asia highlights how modernization has coexisted with entrenched patriarchal practices, resulting in a complex blend of modernity and tradition.
In Western societies, the concept of neopatriarchy has gained attention in the analysis of certain political and cultural movements that advocate for a return to traditional family values and gender roles. These movements often position themselves as a response to the perceived excesses of liberal individualism and feminism, calling for a reassertion of male authority within the family and society. R. W. Connell's Masculinities (2005) offers a critical analysis of how traditional masculine roles are being reshaped in response to contemporary social and political contexts.
Theoretical foundations
Neopatriarchy, as a concept, builds on the traditional framework of patriarchy but adapts it to contemporary societal conditions. This adaptation involves a selective incorporation of modern values and practices while maintaining core elements of male dominance and traditional gender roles. The theoretical foundations of neopatriarchy draw on several key ideas:
Persistence of traditional gender roles
One of the central tenets of neopatriarchy is the persistence of traditional gender roles despite social and economic modernization. In this framework, men are primarily seen as providers and protectors, while women are expected to focus on domestic responsibilities and child-rearing. This division of roles is often justified through cultural or religious narratives that portray such arrangements as natural or divinely ordained. Scholars like Hisham Sharabi and Deniz Kandiyoti have argued that even as societies modernize, these roles can be deeply entrenched in the social fabric, often being reinforced rather than diminished by modernization processes.
Cultural and religious justifications
Neopatriarchal societies often use cultural and religious justifications to uphold traditional gender roles. These justifications are typically rooted in long-standing beliefs about the nature and purpose of men and women, often drawing on religious texts, cultural traditions, and historical precedents. This alignment with cultural and religious values helps to legitimize and perpetuate male authority within the family and society at large. For example, in many neopatriarchal societies, religious institutions play a key role in shaping and maintaining gender norms by promoting ideologies that support male dominance and the subordination of women.
Resistance to feminism
Neopatriarchy is often positioned in direct opposition to feminist movements and ideologies that challenge traditional gender roles. Proponents of neopatriarchy argue that feminism has disrupted the natural order of society by encouraging women to pursue careers and independence at the expense of family and community cohesion. In this context, neopatriarchy can be seen as a reactionary movement, seeking to restore what it perceives as the lost balance of traditional gender roles. This resistance to feminism is evident in both the rhetoric and policy proposals of neopatriarchal advocates, who often push for measures that would encourage or even enforce traditional family structures.
Modernization without equality
Neopatriarchy illustrates a paradox where modernization and economic development occur without corresponding advancements in gender equality. In these societies, women may have access to education and employment, but their roles are still largely confined to the private sphere. This phenomenon has been observed in various global contexts, where rapid economic growth has not led to a dismantling of patriarchal structures, but rather to their reinforcement in new forms. This selective modernization allows for the adoption of certain modern practices, such as women entering the workforce, while maintaining strict control over other aspects of gender relations, particularly in the domestic sphere.
Role of the state
In neopatriarchal frameworks, the state is often seen as an ally in the preservation of traditional gender roles. Through laws, policies, and social programs, the state can play a significant role in encouraging or mandating traditional family structures. For example, some neopatriarchal movements advocate for policies that incentivize marriage, discourage divorce, and promote child-rearing as a primary role for women. This alignment between the state and neopatriarchal ideals serves to institutionalize gender inequalities and reinforce the social order based on traditional gender roles.
Key characteristics
Neopatriarchy is distinguished by several key characteristics that define its structure and operation in contemporary societies. These characteristics highlight how traditional patriarchal norms are maintained, adapted, and reinforced within modern contexts.
Enduring gender roles
One of the most defining characteristics of neopatriarchy is the endurance of traditional gender roles. In neopatriarchal societies, men are primarily seen as the breadwinners and heads of households, while women are expected to take on the roles of caretakers and homemakers. Even in societies that have undergone significant economic and social modernization, these gender roles often remain deeply entrenched. This endurance is not merely a holdover from the past but is actively reinforced by cultural, religious, and sometimes state institutions.
This persistence is evident in many societies where, despite the increasing participation of women in the workforce, there remains a strong expectation that women should prioritize their familial responsibilities over their careers. This dynamic creates a "double burden" for women, who are expected to excel both in their professional lives and in their roles as wives and mothers. The maintenance of these traditional roles serves to perpetuate gender inequalities by limiting women's opportunities for advancement and reinforcing the notion that their primary value lies in their domestic contributions.
Justification through culture and religion
Neopatriarchal societies often rely on cultural and religious narratives to justify the continued dominance of traditional gender roles. These justifications are deeply rooted in the society's historical and cultural fabric, drawing on long-established beliefs about the natural or divine order of gender relations. Religious texts and teachings are frequently cited to support the idea that men and women have distinct, complementary roles that should not be altered. This cultural and religious endorsement of traditional gender roles provides a powerful legitimizing force that makes these norms difficult to challenge or change.
In many neopatriarchal contexts, religious institutions play a key role in promoting and enforcing these gender norms. For example, in some Middle Eastern societies, Islamic teachings are often interpreted in ways that emphasize male authority and female submission, reinforcing the notion that men are the natural leaders of both the family and society. Similarly, in certain Christian communities, the Bible is invoked to support the idea that women should be subservient to their husbands and focus on their roles as mothers and homemakers.
Anti-feminist sentiment
Neopatriarchy is often characterized by a strong resistance to feminist movements and ideologies that seek to challenge traditional gender roles. This resistance is rooted in the belief that feminism disrupts the natural social order and undermines the stability of the family. Proponents of neopatriarchy argue that the feminist emphasis on gender equality and women's independence has led to a breakdown in family structures and a decline in moral values. As a result, they advocate for a return to more "traditional" gender roles, where men are the providers and women are the caregivers.
This resistance to feminism is often expressed through political and social movements that seek to roll back the gains made by feminist activists. For example, in the United States, certain conservative groups have campaigned against policies that promote gender equality, such as paid parental leave and reproductive rights, arguing that these policies encourage women to prioritize their careers over their families. Similarly, in some neopatriarchal societies, feminist activists face significant social and legal obstacles in their efforts to challenge traditional gender norms.
Selective modernization
A central paradox of neopatriarchy is the phenomenon of modernization without equality. In neopatriarchal societies, economic development and modernization do not necessarily lead to gender equality. Instead, these processes often coexist with the continued dominance of traditional gender roles. While women may have greater access to education and employment, their roles within the family and society remain largely defined by patriarchal norms. This selective modernization allows for the adoption of certain modern practices while maintaining strict control over gender relations.
This paradox is evident in many rapidly developing societies, where the benefits of modernization, such as increased wealth and technological advancement, do not translate into greater social or political power for women. Instead, women often find themselves navigating a complex landscape where they are expected to contribute to the economy while still adhering to traditional expectations of femininity and domesticity. This dual expectation can create significant stress and limit women's ability to fully participate in public life.
Women's dual role
In neopatriarchal societies, women often face what is known as the "double burden"—the expectation that they will succeed both in the workplace and at home. While women are encouraged to pursue education and careers, they are simultaneously expected to fulfill their traditional roles as wives and mothers. This dual expectation places a significant strain on women, who must balance the demands of work with the responsibilities of family life.
The double burden is a key feature of neopatriarchy because it illustrates how traditional gender roles are maintained even as women gain access to new opportunities. In many cases, women are praised for their ability to "have it all", but they are also criticized if they fail to meet the high expectations placed on them. This dynamic reinforces the idea that women's primary value lies in their ability to manage both professional and domestic responsibilities, thereby perpetuating gender inequalities.
In contemporary politics
In recent years, the concept of neopatriarchy has gained significant attention in political discourse, particularly within conservative movements in the United States. This resurgence is largely driven by prominent figures who advocate for a return to traditional gender roles and family structures, viewing these as essential for societal stability. Key among these figures is JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, whose views have become emblematic of this modern patriarchal revival.
JD Vance and the revival of traditional values
JD Vance has been a leading voice in what some commentators are calling a neopatriarchal movement within the American right. Vance, known for his book Hillbilly Elegy and his political career, has frequently expressed concerns about the state of the American family. He argues that the decline of traditional family structures, particularly the roles of men as providers and women as homemakers, has led to a host of social problems. Vance's rhetoric often reflects a desire to restore these traditional roles, which he believes are crucial for both individual fulfillment and national well-being.
Vance has supported policies that align with neopatriarchal ideals, such as advocating for the elimination of no-fault divorce, which he argues undermines the stability of marriages. He has also been a vocal critic of what he sees as the excessive individualism promoted by liberal ideologies, which he believes has led to the erosion of community and family values. Vance's views are part of a broader conservative effort to reassert traditional gender roles in a modern context, a stance that has been both lauded by some as a necessary corrective and criticized by others as a regression.
Broader conservative movement
Beyond JD Vance, other conservative figures and movements have embraced similar neopatriarchal ideas. Senator Josh Hawley, for instance, has called for a revival of "manhood" in America, urging men to embrace traditional masculine virtues such as strength, stoicism, and leadership. In his book Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs, Hawley advocates for men to take on roles as "warriors" and "builders", reflecting a neopatriarchal vision of gender relations where men are expected to protect and provide.
Additionally, the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, has been involved in promoting policies that support traditional family structures. Kevin Roberts, the foundation's president, has argued against contraceptive technologies, claiming that they disrupt the "basic functioning elements of civilization" by enabling consequence-free sexual activity. Such views align with neopatriarchal ideals by emphasizing the importance of family formation and child-rearing within traditional marital frameworks.
Neo-Nazism and the alt-right
Neopatriarchy also finds a significant parallel within the ideologies of Neo-Nazism and the broader alt-right, where traditional gender roles are exalted as essential to maintaining social order and racial purity. Neo-Nazi movements often emphasize the need to reinforce strict gender roles: men are portrayed as warriors, leaders, and protectors, while women are confined to roles as mothers and caretakers, responsible for the continuation and purity of the race. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke in Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity discusses how Neo-Nazi movements romanticize these traditional roles, often invoking esoteric and mythological narratives to justify the separation of gender roles. These narratives cast men as the defenders of the race and women as the nurturers of future generations, roles deemed essential for the survival of the Aryan lineage.
Joscelyn Godwin's Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival examines how these gender roles are intertwined with esoteric beliefs within Neo-Nazism. The movement often draws on ancient myths and supposed cosmic laws to reinforce the idea that men and women have inherently different but complementary roles that must be strictly maintained. This belief system underpins a social order where patriarchal control is necessary for racial and cultural preservation.
These ideas also resonate within the alt-right, a movement that emerged in the 2010s with a blend of white nationalist, anti-feminist, and neo-fascist ideologies. The alt-right propagates a vision of society where traditional gender roles are restored as part of a larger cultural and racial revival. Their rhetoric often extols male dominance and female domesticity, positioning these roles as central to their goals of preserving Western civilization. Matthew Lyons, in Insurgent Supremacists: The U.S. Far Right's Challenge to State and Empire, explores how the alt-right uses these neopatriarchal ideals to appeal to a broader audience, linking gender roles to their wider objectives of racial purity and societal stability.
Cultural and social media influences
The influence of neopatriarchal ideas extends beyond the political sphere into popular culture, particularly on social media platforms. The "tradwife" movement, which has gained traction on TikTok and other social media sites, promotes the idea that women should embrace traditional domestic roles, prioritizing homemaking and child-rearing over careers. These influencers often present a romanticized version of 1950s-style family life, aligning closely with the neopatriarchal vision of gender relations.
This cultural resurgence of traditionalism is also explored in Tia Levings' memoir, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy. Levings' book offers a deeply personal account of life within a Christian fundamentalist environment that enforced strict patriarchal norms. Her experiences of control, abuse, and eventual escape underscore the dangers of rigid gender roles imposed under the guise of religious or cultural justification. The memoir has been praised not only for its vivid portrayal of the struggles faced by women in such environments but also for its relevance to contemporary debates about the role of traditional gender roles in society. Levings' story serves as a warning against the potential consequences of the neopatriarchal ideals being promoted by certain conservative figures.
Criticism and controversy
Neopatriarchal ideas have not gone unchallenged. Feminists and progressives have criticized figures like JD Vance and Josh Hawley for promoting a regressive view of gender roles that undermines decades of progress toward gender equality. They argue that the emphasis on traditional family structures ignores the diversity of modern families and the importance of women's rights to autonomy and career advancement.
Moreover, there is significant debate within conservative circles about the desirability and practicality of implementing neopatriarchal policies. Some conservatives, particularly those identified as "barstool conservatives", reject the moralizing aspects of neopatriarchy, preferring a more libertarian approach that emphasizes personal freedom, including in matters of gender and family life.
References
Citations
Works cited
Further reading
Review of Life in the Negative World by Aaron Renn.
Feminism
Gender studies
Patriarchy
Josh Hawley
JD Vance | 0.774506 | 0.990578 | 0.767209 |
Social relation | A social relation is the fundamental unit of analysis within the social sciences, and describes any voluntary or involuntary interpersonal relationship between two or more conspecifics within and/or between groups. The group can be a language or kinship group, a social institution or organization, an economic class, a nation, or gender. Social relations are derived from human behavioral ecology, and, as an aggregate, form a coherent social structure whose constituent parts are best understood relative to each other and to the social ecosystem as a whole.
History
Early inquiries into the nature of social relations featured in the work of sociologists such as Max Weber in his theory of social action, where social relationships composed of both positive (affiliative) and negative (agonistic) interactions represented opposing effects. Categorizing social interactions enables observational and other social research, such as Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (lit. 'community and society'), collective consciousness, etc.
Ancient works which include manuals of good practice in social relations include the text of Pseudo-Phocylides, 175–227, Josephus' polemical work Against Apion, 198–210, and the deutero-canonical Jewish Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, .
More recent research on social behaviour has demonstrated that newborn infants tend to instinctually gravitate towards prosocial behaviour. As obligate social apes, humans are born highly altricial, and require an extended period of post-natal development for cultural transmission of social organization, language, and moral frameworks. In linguistic and anthropological frameworks, this is reflected in a culture's kinship terminology, with the default mother-child relation emerging as part of the embryological process.
Forms of relation and interaction
According to Piotr Sztompka, forms of relation and interaction in sociology and anthropology may be described as follows: first and most basic are animal-like behaviors, i.e. various physical movements of the body. Then there are actions—movements with a meaning and purpose. Then there are social behaviors, or social actions, which address (directly or indirectly) other people, which solicit a response from another agent.
Next are social contacts, a pair of social actions, which form the beginning of social interactions. Symbols define social relationships. Without symbols, our social life would be no more sophisticated than that of animals. For example, without symbols, people would have no aunts or uncles, employers or teachers—or even brothers and sisters. In sum, symbolic interactionists analyze how social life depends on the ways people define themselves and others. They study face-to-face interaction, examining how people make sense of life and how they determine their relationships.
See also
Affectional action
Communicative action
Dramaturgical action
Instrumental and value-rational action
Interdependence
Interpersonal relationship
Relations of production
Social isolation
Social movement
Social multiplier effect
Social robot
Symbolic interactionism
Traditional action
Related disciplines
Behavioral ecology
Behavioral sciences
Engaged theory
Social ecology
Social philosophy
Social psychology
References
Bibliography
Azarian, Reza. 2010. "Social Ties: Elements of a Substantive Conceptualisation". Acta Sociologica 53(4):323–38.
Piotr Sztompka, Socjologia, Znak, 2002,
Weber, Max. "The Nature of Social Action". In Weber: Selections in Translation, edited by W. G. Runciman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991.
Community building
Interpersonal relationships | 0.770746 | 0.995385 | 0.767189 |
Historicism (art) | Historicism or historism comprises artistic styles that draw their inspiration from recreating historic styles or imitating the work of historic artists and artisans. This is especially common in architecture, where there are many different styles of Revival architecture, which dominated large buildings in the 19th century. Through a combination of different styles or the implementation of new elements, historicism can create completely different aesthetics than former styles. Thus, it offers a great variety of possible designs.
Overview
In the history of art, after Neoclassicism which in the Romantic era could itself be considered a historicist movement, the 19th century included a new historicist phase characterized by an interpretation not only of Greek and Roman classicism, but also of succeeding stylistic eras, which were increasingly respected. In particular in architecture and in the genre of history painting, in which historical subjects were treated with great attention to accurate period detail, the global influence of historicism was especially strong from the 1850s onwards. The change is often related to the rise of the bourgeoisie during and after the Industrial Revolution. By the end of the century, in the fin de siècle, Symbolism and Art Nouveau followed by Expressionism and Modernism acted to make Historicism look outdated, although many large public commissions continued in the 20th century. The Arts and Crafts style managed to combine a looser vernacular historicism with elements of Art Nouveau and other contemporary styles.
The influence of historicism remained strong until the 1950s in many countries. When postmodern architecture became widely popular during the 1980s, a Neohistorism style followed, that is still prominent and can be found around the world, especially in representative and upper-class buildings.
Western historicist styles
International
Baroque Revival
Beaux-Arts
Byzantine Revival
Egyptian Revival
Gothic Revival
Greek Revival / Neo-Grec
Moorish Revival
Neoclassical
New Classical / Neohistorism
Renaissance Revival (Châteauesque/Italianate/Palazzo style)
Romanesque Revival
Second Empire
Swiss chalet style
Vernacular
British Empire
Adam style
Bristol Byzantine
Carpenter Gothic (Canada)
Edwardian Baroque
Indo-Saracenic Revival (India)
Jacobethan
Queen Anne style
Regency
Scottish baronial style (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)
Tudor Revival / Black-and-White Revival
France
Directoire style
Empire style
Napoleon III style
Austria and Germany
Biedermeier
Nazi architecture
Resort style
Rundbogenstil
Greece and Balkans
Mycenaean Revival
Serbo-Byzantine Revival
Italy
Stile Umbertino
Mexico
Spanish Colonial Revival architecture
Mayan Revival
Netherlands
Traditionalist School
Portugal
Pombaline
Neo-Manueline
Soft Portuguese style
Romania
Romanian Revival
Russian Empire and USSR
Byzantine Revival
Russian Revival
Stalinist architecture
Scandinavia
Dragestil
National Romantic style
Nordic Classicism
Spain
Neo-Mudéjar
Noucentisme
United States
Jeffersonian architecture
American Renaissance
Carpenter Gothic
Collegiate Gothic
Colonial Revival
Federal style
Greco Deco
Mayan Revival
Mediterranean Revival
Mission Revival
Polish Cathedral style
Pueblo Revival
Queen Anne style
Richardsonian Romanesque
Spanish Colonial Revival
Territorial Revival
See also
Revivalism (architecture)
Resort architecture – a specific style of historicism, that is popular on the German Baltic Sea coast
Academicism
Musical historicism
References
External links
Historicism, Teaching, and the Understanding of Works of Art by Stuart Richmond (on JSTOR)
Art movements
19th century in art
19th century in the arts
es:Arquitectura historicista#top | 0.774375 | 0.990692 | 0.767167 |
Symmetry | Symmetry in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations, such as translation, reflection, rotation, or scaling. Although these two meanings of the word can sometimes be told apart, they are intricately related, and hence are discussed together in this article.
Mathematical symmetry may be observed with respect to the passage of time; as a spatial relationship; through geometric transformations; through other kinds of functional transformations; and as an aspect of abstract objects, including theoretic models, language, and music.
This article describes symmetry from three perspectives: in mathematics, including geometry, the most familiar type of symmetry for many people; in science and nature; and in the arts, covering architecture, art, and music.
The opposite of symmetry is asymmetry, which refers to the absence of symmetry.
In mathematics
In geometry
A geometric shape or object is symmetric if it can be divided into two or more identical pieces that are arranged in an organized fashion. This means that an object is symmetric if there is a transformation that moves individual pieces of the object, but doesn't change the overall shape. The type of symmetry is determined by the way the pieces are organized, or by the type of transformation:
An object has reflectional symmetry (line or mirror symmetry) if there is a line (or in 3D a plane) going through it which divides it into two pieces that are mirror images of each other.
An object has rotational symmetry if the object can be rotated about a fixed point (or in 3D about a line) without changing the overall shape.
An object has translational symmetry if it can be translated (moving every point of the object by the same distance) without changing its overall shape.
An object has helical symmetry if it can be simultaneously translated and rotated in three-dimensional space along a line known as a screw axis.
An object has scale symmetry if it does not change shape when it is expanded or contracted. Fractals also exhibit a form of scale symmetry, where smaller portions of the fractal are similar in shape to larger portions.
Other symmetries include glide reflection symmetry (a reflection followed by a translation) and rotoreflection symmetry (a combination of a rotation and a reflection).
In logic
A dyadic relation R = S × S is symmetric if for all elements a, b in S, whenever it is true that Rab, it is also true that Rba. Thus, the relation "is the same age as" is symmetric, for if Paul is the same age as Mary, then Mary is the same age as Paul.
In propositional logic, symmetric binary logical connectives include and (∧, or &), or (∨, or |) and if and only if (↔), while the connective if (→) is not symmetric. Other symmetric logical connectives include nand (not-and, or ⊼), xor (not-biconditional, or ⊻), and nor (not-or, or ⊽).
Other areas of mathematics
Generalizing from geometrical symmetry in the previous section, one can say that a mathematical object is symmetric with respect to a given mathematical operation, if, when applied to the object, this operation preserves some property of the object. The set of operations that preserve a given property of the object form a group.
In general, every kind of structure in mathematics will have its own kind of symmetry. Examples include even and odd functions in calculus, symmetric groups in abstract algebra, symmetric matrices in linear algebra, and Galois groups in Galois theory. In statistics, symmetry also manifests as symmetric probability distributions, and as skewness—the asymmetry of distributions.
In science and nature
In physics
Symmetry in physics has been generalized to mean invariance—that is, lack of change—under any kind of transformation, for example arbitrary coordinate transformations. This concept has become one of the most powerful tools of theoretical physics, as it has become evident that practically all laws of nature originate in symmetries. In fact, this role inspired the Nobel laureate PW Anderson to write in his widely read 1972 article More is Different that "it is only slightly overstating the case to say that physics is the study of symmetry." See Noether's theorem (which, in greatly simplified form, states that for every continuous mathematical symmetry, there is a corresponding conserved quantity such as energy or momentum; a conserved current, in Noether's original language); and also, Wigner's classification, which says that the symmetries of the laws of physics determine the properties of the particles found in nature.
Important symmetries in physics include continuous symmetries and discrete symmetries of spacetime; internal symmetries of particles; and supersymmetry of physical theories.
In biology
In biology, the notion of symmetry is mostly used explicitly to describe body shapes. Bilateral animals, including humans, are more or less symmetric with respect to the sagittal plane which divides the body into left and right halves. Animals that move in one direction necessarily have upper and lower sides, head and tail ends, and therefore a left and a right. The head becomes specialized with a mouth and sense organs, and the body becomes bilaterally symmetric for the purpose of movement, with symmetrical pairs of muscles and skeletal elements, though internal organs often remain asymmetric.
Plants and sessile (attached) animals such as sea anemones often have radial or rotational symmetry, which suits them because food or threats may arrive from any direction. Fivefold symmetry is found in the echinoderms, the group that includes starfish, sea urchins, and sea lilies.
In biology, the notion of symmetry is also used as in physics, that is to say to describe the properties of the objects studied, including their interactions. A remarkable property of biological evolution is the changes of symmetry corresponding to the appearance of new parts and dynamics.
In chemistry
Symmetry is important to chemistry because it undergirds essentially all specific interactions between molecules in nature (i.e., via the interaction of natural and human-made chiral molecules with inherently chiral biological systems). The control of the symmetry of molecules produced in modern chemical synthesis contributes to the ability of scientists to offer therapeutic interventions with minimal side effects. A rigorous understanding of symmetry explains fundamental observations in quantum chemistry, and in the applied areas of spectroscopy and crystallography. The theory and application of symmetry to these areas of physical science draws heavily on the mathematical area of group theory.
In psychology and neuroscience
For a human observer, some symmetry types are more salient than others, in particular the most salient is a reflection with a vertical axis, like that present in the human face. Ernst Mach made this observation in his book "The analysis of sensations" (1897), and this implies that perception of symmetry is not a general response to all types of regularities. Both behavioural and neurophysiological studies have confirmed the special sensitivity to reflection symmetry in humans and also in other animals. Early studies within the Gestalt tradition suggested that bilateral symmetry was one of the key factors in perceptual grouping. This is known as the Law of Symmetry. The role of symmetry in grouping and figure/ground organization has been confirmed in many studies. For instance, detection of reflectional symmetry is faster when this is a property of a single object. Studies of human perception and psychophysics have shown that detection of symmetry is fast, efficient and robust to perturbations. For example, symmetry can be detected with presentations between 100 and 150 milliseconds.
More recent neuroimaging studies have documented which brain regions are active during perception of symmetry. Sasaki et al. used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare responses for patterns with symmetrical or random dots. A strong activity was present in extrastriate regions of the occipital cortex but not in the primary visual cortex. The extrastriate regions included V3A, V4, V7, and the lateral occipital complex (LOC). Electrophysiological studies have found a late posterior negativity that originates from the same areas. In general, a large part of the visual system seems to be involved in processing visual symmetry, and these areas involve similar networks to those responsible for detecting and recognising objects.
In social interactions
People observe the symmetrical nature, often including asymmetrical balance, of social interactions in a variety of contexts. These include assessments of reciprocity, empathy, sympathy, apology, dialogue, respect, justice, and revenge.
Reflective equilibrium is the balance that may be attained through deliberative mutual adjustment among general principles and specific judgments.
Symmetrical interactions send the moral message "we are all the same" while asymmetrical interactions may send the message "I am special; better than you." Peer relationships, such as can be governed by the Golden Rule, are based on symmetry, whereas power relationships are based on asymmetry. Symmetrical relationships can to some degree be maintained by simple (game theory) strategies seen in symmetric games such as tit for tat.
In the arts
There exists a list of journals and newsletters known to deal, at least in part, with symmetry and the arts.
In architecture
Symmetry finds its ways into architecture at every scale, from the overall external views of buildings such as Gothic cathedrals and The White House, through the layout of the individual floor plans, and down to the design of individual building elements such as tile mosaics. Islamic buildings such as the Taj Mahal and the Lotfollah mosque make elaborate use of symmetry both in their structure and in their ornamentation. Moorish buildings like the Alhambra are ornamented with complex patterns made using translational and reflection symmetries as well as rotations.
It has been said that only bad architects rely on a "symmetrical layout of blocks, masses and structures"; Modernist architecture, starting with International style, relies instead on "wings and balance of masses".
In pottery and metal vessels
Since the earliest uses of pottery wheels to help shape clay vessels, pottery has had a strong relationship to symmetry. Pottery created using a wheel acquires full rotational symmetry in its cross-section, while allowing substantial freedom of shape in the vertical direction. Upon this inherently symmetrical starting point, potters from ancient times onwards have added patterns that modify the rotational symmetry to achieve visual objectives.
Cast metal vessels lacked the inherent rotational symmetry of wheel-made pottery, but otherwise provided a similar opportunity to decorate their surfaces with patterns pleasing to those who used them. The ancient Chinese, for example, used symmetrical patterns in their bronze castings as early as the 17th century BC. Bronze vessels exhibited both a bilateral main motif and a repetitive translated border design.
In carpets and rugs
A long tradition of the use of symmetry in carpet and rug patterns spans a variety of cultures. American Navajo Indians used bold diagonals and rectangular motifs. Many Oriental rugs have intricate reflected centers and borders that translate a pattern. Not surprisingly, rectangular rugs have typically the symmetries of a rectangle—that is, motifs that are reflected across both the horizontal and vertical axes (see ).
In quilts
As quilts are made from square blocks (usually 9, 16, or 25 pieces to a block) with each smaller piece usually consisting of fabric triangles, the craft lends itself readily to the application of symmetry.
In other arts and crafts
Symmetries appear in the design of objects of all kinds. Examples include beadwork, furniture, sand paintings, knotwork, masks, and musical instruments. Symmetries are central to the art of M.C. Escher and the many applications of tessellation in art and craft forms such as wallpaper, ceramic tilework such as in Islamic geometric decoration, batik, ikat, carpet-making, and many kinds of textile and embroidery patterns.
Symmetry is also used in designing logos. By creating a logo on a grid and using the theory of symmetry, designers can organize their work, create a symmetric or asymmetrical design, determine the space between letters, determine how much negative space is required in the design, and how to accentuate parts of the logo to make it stand out.
In music
Symmetry is not restricted to the visual arts. Its role in the history of music touches many aspects of the creation and perception of music.
Musical form
Symmetry has been used as a formal constraint by many composers, such as the arch (swell) form (ABCBA) used by Steve Reich, Béla Bartók, and James Tenney. In classical music, Johann Sebastian Bach used the symmetry concepts of permutation and invariance.
Pitch structures
Symmetry is also an important consideration in the formation of scales and chords, traditional or tonal music being made up of non-symmetrical groups of pitches, such as the diatonic scale or the major chord. Symmetrical scales or chords, such as the whole tone scale, augmented chord, or diminished seventh chord (diminished-diminished seventh), are said to lack direction or a sense of forward motion, are ambiguous as to the key or tonal center, and have a less specific diatonic functionality. However, composers such as Alban Berg, Béla Bartók, and George Perle have used axes of symmetry and/or interval cycles in an analogous way to keys or non-tonal tonal centers. George Perle explains that "C–E, D–F♯, [and] Eb–G, are different instances of the same interval … the other kind of identity. … has to do with axes of symmetry. C–E belongs to a family of symmetrically related dyads as follows:"
Thus in addition to being part of the interval-4 family, C–E is also a part of the sum-4 family (with C equal to 0).
Interval cycles are symmetrical and thus non-diatonic. However, a seven pitch segment of C5 (the cycle of fifths, which are enharmonic with the cycle of fourths) will produce the diatonic major scale. Cyclic tonal progressions in the works of Romantic composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Wagner form a link with the cyclic pitch successions in the atonal music of Modernists such as Bartók, Alexander Scriabin, Edgard Varèse, and the Vienna school. At the same time, these progressions signal the end of tonality.
The first extended composition consistently based on symmetrical pitch relations was probably Alban Berg's Quartet, Op. 3 (1910).
Equivalency
Tone rows or pitch class sets which are invariant under retrograde are horizontally symmetrical, under inversion vertically. See also Asymmetric rhythm.
In aesthetics
The relationship of symmetry to aesthetics is complex. Humans find bilateral symmetry in faces physically attractive; it indicates health and genetic fitness. Opposed to this is the tendency for excessive symmetry to be perceived as boring or uninteresting. Rudolf Arnheim suggested that people prefer shapes that have some symmetry, and enough complexity to make them interesting.
In literature
Symmetry can be found in various forms in literature, a simple example being the palindrome where a brief text reads the same forwards or backwards. Stories may have a symmetrical structure, such as the rise and fall pattern of Beowulf.
See also
Automorphism
Burnside's lemma
Chirality
Even and odd functions
Fixed points of isometry groups in Euclidean space – center of symmetry
Isotropy
Palindrome
Spacetime symmetries
Spontaneous symmetry breaking
Symmetry-breaking constraints
Symmetric relation
Symmetries of polyiamonds
Symmetries of polyominoes
Symmetry group
Wallpaper group
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry, Mario Livio, Souvenir Press, 2006, .
External links
International Symmetry Association (ISA)
Dutch: Symmetry Around a Point in the Plane
Chapman: Aesthetics of Symmetry
ISIS Symmetry
Symmetry, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Fay Dowker, Marcus du Sautoy & Ian Stewart (In Our Time, Apr. 19, 2007)
Aesthetics
Artistic techniques
Geometry
Theoretical physics | 0.76973 | 0.996648 | 0.76715 |
Cultural artifact | A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users. Artifact is the spelling in North American English; artefact is usually preferred elsewhere.
Cultural artifact is a more generic term and should be considered with two words of similar, but narrower, nuance: it can include objects recovered from archaeological sites, i.e. archaeological artifacts, but can also include objects of modern or early-modern society, or social artifacts. For example, in an anthropological context: a 17th-century lathe, a piece of faience, or a television each provides a wealth of information about the time in which they were manufactured and used.
Cultural artifacts, whether ancient or current, have a significance because they offer an insight into: technological processes, economic development and social structure, among other attributes.
Classification
The philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky categorized artifacts as follows:
primary artifacts: used in production (such as a hammer, a fork, a lamp or a camera);
secondary artifacts: relating to primary artifacts (such as a user-manual for a camera);
tertiary artifacts: representations of secondary artifacts (such as a picture of a user-manual for a camera).
Social artifacts, unlike archaeological artifacts, do not need to have a physical form (for example virtual artifact), nor to be of historical value (items created seconds ago can be classified as social artifacts).
References
Further reading
Habib, Laurence, and Line Wittek (2007). The portfolio as artifact and actor. Mind, Culture and Activity, Vol. 14, No. 4, .
External links
Cultural anthropology
Museology
Cultural heritage
Artifact | 0.777258 | 0.9869 | 0.767076 |
Punk subculture | The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of music, ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature, and film. Largely characterised by anti-establishment views, the promotion of individual freedom, and the DIY ethics, the culture originated from punk rock.
The punk ethos is primarily made up of beliefs such as non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate greed, direct action, and not "selling out".
There is a wide range of punk fashion, including T-shirts, leather jackets, Dr. Martens boots, hairstyles such as brightly coloured hair and spiked mohawks, cosmetics, tattoos, jewellery, and body modification. Women in the hardcore scene typically wore clothing categorized as masculine.
Punk aesthetics determine the type of art punks enjoy, which typically has underground, minimalist, iconoclastic, and satirical sensibilities. Punk has generated a considerable amount of poetry and prose, and has its own underground press in the form of zines. Many punk-themed films have been made.
History
The punk subculture emerged in the mid-1970s; in New York in 1974 and in the United Kingdom in 1976. Some suggest the name "punk" was borrowed from prison slang.
Early punk had an abundance of antecedents and influences, and Jon Savage describes the subculture as a "bricolage" of almost every previous youth culture in the Western world since World War II, "stuck together with safety pins".
In the late 1970s, the subculture began to diversify, which led to the proliferation of factions such as new wave, post-punk, 2 Tone, hardcore punk, no wave, street punk, and Oi!. Hardcore punk, street punk, and Oi! sought to do away with the frivolities introduced in the later years of the original punk movement. The punk subculture influenced other underground music scenes such as alternative rock, indie music, crossover thrash, and the extreme subgenres of heavy metal (mainly thrash metal, death metal, speed metal, and the NWOBHM).
Music
The punk subculture is centered on a loud, aggressive genre of rock music called punk rock, usually played by bands consisting of a vocalist, one or two electric guitarists, an electric bassist, and a drummer. In some bands, the musicians contribute backup vocals, which typically consist of shouted slogans, choruses, or football-style chants.
While most punk rock uses distorted guitars and noisy drumming sounds derived from 1960s garage rock and 1970s pub rock, some punk bands incorporate elements from other subgenres, such as surf rock, rockabilly, or reggae. Most punk rock songs are short, have simple and somewhat basic arrangements using relatively few chords, and typically have lyrics that express punk ideologies and values, although some punk lyrics are about lighter topics such as partying or romantic relationships.
Different punk subcultures often distinguish themselves by having a unique style of punk rock, although not every style of punk rock has its own associated subculture.
The earliest form of music to be called "punk rock" was 1960s garage rock, and the term was applied to the genre retroactively by influential rock critics in the early 1970s. In the late 1960s, music now referred to as protopunk originated as a garage rock revival in the northeastern United States. The first distinct music scene to claim the punk label appeared in New York City between 1974 and 1976. Around the same time or soon afterward, a punk scene developed in London. Los Angeles subsequently became home to the third major punk scene. These three cities formed the backbone of the burgeoning movement, but there were also other punk scenes in cities such as Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney in Australia, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal in Canada, and Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, and San Francisco in the United States.
The punk subculture advocates a do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic. During the subculture's infancy members were almost all from a lower economic class, and had become tired of the affluence that was associated with popular rock music at the time. Punks would publish their own music or sign with small independent labels, in hopes to combat what they saw as a money-hungry music industry. The DIY ethic is still popular with punks.
The New York City punk rock scene arose from a subcultural underground promoted by artists, reporters, musicians, and a wide variety of non-mainstream enthusiasts. The Velvet Underground's harsh and experimental yet often melodic sound in the mid to late-1960s, much of it relating to transgressive media work by visual artist Andy Warhol, is credited for influencing 1970s bands such as the New York Dolls, the Stooges, and the Ramones.
Ideologies
Punk political ideologies are mostly concerned with individual freedom and anti-establishment views. Common punk viewpoints include individual liberty, anti-authoritarianism, a DIY ethic, non-conformity, anti-corporatism, anti-government, direct action, and not "selling out".
Some groups and individuals that try to self-identify as being a part of the punk subculture hold pro-Nazi or Fascist views, however, these Nazi/Fascist groups are rejected by almost all of the punk subculture. The belief that such views are opposed to the original ethos of the punk subculture, and its history, has led to internal conflicts and an active push against such views being considered part of punk subculture at all. Two examples of this are an incident during the 2016 American Music Awards, where the band Green Day chanted anti-racist and anti-fascist messages, and an incident at a show by the Dropkick Murphys, when bassist and singer Ken Casey tackled an individual for giving a Nazi-style salute and later stated that Nazis are not welcome at a Dropkick Murphys show. Band member Tim Brennan later reaffirmed this sentiment. The song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" by hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys is a standout example.
Early British punks expressed nihilistic and anarchist views with the slogan No Future, which came from the Sex Pistols song "God Save the Queen". In the United States, punks had a different approach to nihilism which was less anarchistic than the British punks. Punk nihilism was expressed in the use of "harder, more self-destructive, consciousness-obliterating substances like heroin, or methamphetamine".
Fashion
Early punk fashion adapted everyday objects for aesthetic effect: ripped clothing was held together by safety pins or wrapped with tape; ordinary clothing was customised by embellishing it with marker or adorning it with paint; a black bin liner became a dress, shirt or skirt; safety pins and razor blades were used as jewellery. Also popular have been leather, rubber, and PVC clothing that is often associated with transgressive sexuality, like BDSM and S&M. A designer associated with early UK punk fashion was Vivienne Westwood, who made clothes for Malcolm McLaren's boutique in the King's Road, which became famous as "SEX".
Many punks wear tight "drainpipe" jeans, plaid/tartan trousers, kilts or skirts, T-shirts, leather jackets (often decorated with painted band logos, pins and buttons, and metal studs, chains or spikes), and footwear such as high-cut Chuck Taylors, trainers, skate shoes, brothel creepers, Dr. Martens boots, and army boots. Early punks occasionally wore clothes displaying a swastika for shock value; Vivienne Westwood's DESTROY shirt featured an upside-down crucified Jesus and a swastika, notably worn by members of the Sex Pistols. Most contemporary punks are staunchly anti-racist and are more likely to wear a crossed-out swastika symbol than a pro-Nazi symbol. Some punks cut their hair into mohawks or other dramatic shapes, style it to stand in spikes, and colour it with vibrant, unnatural hues.
Some punks are anti-fashion, arguing that punk should be defined by music or ideology. Punk clothing choices challenge the way in which individuals in a nation dress, and the ideals of a traditionalist nation. This is most common in the post-1980s US hardcore punk scene, where members of the subculture often dressed in plain T-shirts and jeans, rather than the more elaborate outfits and spiked, dyed hair of their British counterparts. Many groups adopt a look based on street clothes and working-class outfits. Hardcore punk fans adopted a dressed-down style of T-shirts, jeans, combat boots or trainers, and crewcuts. Women in the hardcore scene typically wore army trousers, band T-shirts, and hooded jumpers.
The style of the 1980s hardcore scene contrasted with the more provocative fashion styles of late 1970s punk rockers (elaborate hairdos, torn clothes, patches, safety pins, studs, spikes, etc.). Circle Jerks frontman Keith Morris described early hardcore fashion as "the...punk scene was basically based on English fashion. But we had nothing to do with that. Black Flag and the Circle Jerks were so far from that. We looked like the kid who worked at the gas station or submarine shop." Henry Rollins echoes Morris' point, stating that for him getting dressed up meant putting on a black shirt and some dark pants; Rollins viewed an interest in fashion as being a distraction. Jimmy Gestapo from Murphy's Law describes his own transition from dressing in a punk style (spiked hair and a bondage belt) to adopting a hardcore style (i.e. boots and a shaved head) as being based on a need for more functional clothing. A punk scholar states that "hardcore kids do not look like punks", since hardcore scene members wore basic clothing and short haircuts, in contrast to the "embellished leather jackets and pants" worn in the punk scene.
In contrast to Morris' and Rollins' views, another punk scholar claims that the standard hardcore punk clothing and styles included torn jeans, leather jackets, spiked armbands and dog collars, mohawk hairstyles, and DIY ornamentation of clothes with studs, painted band names, political statements, and patches. Yet another punk scholar describes the look that was common in the San Francisco hardcore scene as consisting of biker-style leather jackets, chains, studded wristbands, pierced noses and multiple piercings, painted or tattooed statements (e.g. an anarchy symbol), and hairstyles ranging from military-style haircuts dyed black or blonde to mohawks and shaved heads.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013 hosted a comprehensive exhibit, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, that examined the techniques of hardware, distress, and re-purposing in punk fashion.
Gender and gender expression
In the United Kingdom, the advent of punk in the late 1970s with its "anyone can do it" ethos led to women making significant contributions. In contrast to the rock music and heavy metal scenes of the 1970s, which were dominated by men, the anarchic, counter-cultural mindset of the punk scene in mid- and late 1970s encouraged women to participate. "That was the beauty of the punk thing," Chrissie Hynde later said. "[Sexual] discrimination didn't exist in that scene." This participation played a role in the historical development of punk music, especially in the U.S. and U.K. at that time, and continues to influence and enable future generations.
Rock historian Helen Reddington states that the popular image of young punk women musicians as focused on the fashion aspects of the scene (fishnet stockings, spiky blond hair, etc.) was stereotypical. She states that many, if not most women punks were more interested in the ideology and socio-political implications, rather than the fashion. Music historian Caroline Coon contends that before punk, women in rock music were virtually invisible; in contrast, in punk, she argues "[i]t would be possible to write the whole history of punk music without mentioning any male bands at all – and I think a lot of [people] would find that very surprising." Johnny Rotten wrote that 'During the Pistols era, women were out there playing with the men, taking us on in equal terms ... It wasn't combative, but compatible.' Women were involved in bands such as The Runaways, The Slits, The Raincoats, Mo-dettes, Dolly Mixture, and The Innocents.
Others take issue with the notion of equal recognition, such as guitarist Viv Albertine, who stated that "the A&R men, the bouncers, the sound mixers, no one took us seriously. So, no, we got no respect anywhere we went. People just didn't want us around." The anti-establishment stance of punk opened the space for women who were treated like outsiders in a male-dominated industry. Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon states, "I think women are natural anarchists, because you're always operating in a male framework."
Body and appearance
For some punks, the body was a symbol of opposition, a political statement expressing disgust of all that was "normal" and socially accepted. The idea was to make others outside of the subculture question their own views, which made gender presentation and gender identity a popular factor to be played with. In some ways, punk helped to tear apart the normalised view of gender as a dichotomy. There was a notable amount of cross-dressing in the punk scene; it was not unusual to see men wearing ripped-up skirts, fishnet tights, and excessive makeup, or to see women with shaved heads wearing oversized plaid shirts and jean jackets and heavy combat boots. Punk created a new cultural space for androgyny and all kinds of gender expression.
In trying to reject societal norms, punk embraced one societal norm by deciding that strength and anger was best expressed through masculinity, defining masculine as the "default", where gender did not exist or had no meaning. However, the main reasoning behind this argument equates femininity with popular conceptions of beauty. Everything that was normally supposed to be hidden was brought to the front, both literally and figuratively. This could mean anything from wearing bras and underwear on top of clothing to wearing nothing but a bra and underwear. Although that act can seem sexualised, to punks it was just a way of self-expression. Punk seemed to allow people to sexualize themselves and still be taken seriously.
The nature of punk allowed many to create a non-gender-conforming style. Punks could be free to use femininity or masculinity to make what they were doing even more shocking to their audience. It became popular for some punks to accentuate societal norms. At one concert, Donita Sparks, lead singer of the band L7, pulled out her tampon and threw it into the audience.
Riot grrrl
Riot grrrl is an underground feminist hardcore punk movement that originated in the early 1990s in Washington, D.C., and the Pacific Northwest, especially Olympia, Washington. It is often associated with third-wave feminism, which is sometimes seen as its starting point. It has also been described as a musical genre that came out of indie rock, with the punk scene serving as an inspiration for a musical movement in which women could express themselves in the same way men had been doing for the past several years.
Queercore
Queercore is punk movement that focuses on LGBT issues. Queercore is an anti-establishment subculture based around a rejection of heteronormativity. This rejection extends beyond mainstream society and resists homophobia in the larger punk scene. Queercore is an offshoot of the hardcore punk scene and draws its name from a combination of the words "queer" and "hardcore." As in the larger punk scene, DIY is an integral component of the queercore subculture. Many zines that came out of the riot grrrl movement explored issues of queer identity, contributing to the queercore subculture. The queercore and riot grrrl subcultures are often considered to be connected. These two punk scenes are intertwined, with many bands being both queercore and riot grrrl.
Visual art
Punk aesthetics determine the type of art punks enjoy, usually with underground, minimalistic, iconoclastic, and satirical sensibilities. Punk artwork graces album covers, flyers for concerts, and punk zines. Usually straightforward with clear messages, punk art is often concerned with political issues such as social injustice and economic disparity. The use of images of suffering to shock and create feelings of empathy in the viewer is common. Alternatively, punk artwork may contain images of selfishness, stupidity, or apathy to provoke contempt in the viewer.
Much of the earlier artwork was black and white, because it was distributed in zines and reproduced by photocopying at work, school, or at copy shops. Punk art also uses the mass production aesthetic of Andy Warhol's Factory studio. Punk played a hand in the revival of stencil art, spearheaded by Crass. The Situationists also influenced the look of punk art, particularly that of the Sex Pistols created by Jamie Reid. Punk art often uses collage, exemplified by the art of Jamie Reid, Crass, The Clash, Dead Kennedys, and Winston Smith. John Holmstrom was a punk cartoonist who created work for the Ramones and Punk.
Dance
Two dance styles associated with punk are pogo dancing and moshing. The pogo is a dance in which the dancers jump up and down, while either remaining on the spot or moving around; the dance takes its name from its resemblance to the use of a pogo stick, especially in a common version of the dance, where an individual keeps their torso stiff, their arms rigid, and their legs close together. Pogo dancing is closely associated with punk rock and is a precursor to moshing. Moshing or slamdancing is a style of dance where participants push or slam into each other, typically during a live music show. It is usually associated with "aggressive" music genres, such as hardcore punk and thrash metal. Stage diving and crowd surfing were originally associated with protopunk bands such as The Stooges, and have appeared at punk, metal, and rock concerts. Ska punk promoted an updated version of skanking. Hardcore dancing is a later development influenced by all of the above-mentioned styles. Psychobillies prefer to "wreck", a form of slam dancing that involves people punching each other in the chest and arms as they move around the circle pit.
Literature
Punk has generated a considerable amount of poetry and prose. Punk has its own underground press in the form of punk zines, which feature news, gossip, cultural criticism, and interviews. Some zines take the form of perzines. Important punk zines include Maximum RocknRoll, Punk Planet, No Cure, Cometbus, Flipside, and Search & Destroy. Several novels, biographies, autobiographies, and comic books have been written about punk. Love and Rockets is a comic with a plot involving the Los Angeles punk scene.
Just as zines played an important role in spreading information in the punk era (e.g. British fanzines like Mark Perry's Sniffin Glue and Shane MacGowan's Bondage), zines also played an important role in the hardcore scene. In the pre-Internet era, zines enabled readers to learn about bands, shows, clubs, and record labels. Zines typically included reviews of shows and records, interviews with bands, letters to the editor, and advertisements for records and labels. Zines were DIY products, "proudly amateur, usually handmade, and always independent", and during the "'90s, zines were the primary way to stay up on punk and hardcore." They were the "blogs, comment sections, and social networks of their day."
In the American Midwest, the zine Touch and Go described the regional hardcore scene from 1979 to 1983. We Got Power described the LA scene from 1981 to 1984, and included show reviews of and interviews with such bands as Vancouver's D.O.A., the Misfits, Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, and the Circle Jerks. My Rules was a photo zine that included photos of hardcore shows from across the US. In Effect, which began in 1988, described the New York City scene.
Punk poets include: Richard Hell, Jim Carroll, Patti Smith, John Cooper Clarke, Seething Wells, Raegan Butcher, and Attila the Stockbroker. The Medway Poets performance group included punk musician Billy Childish and had an influence on Tracey Emin. Jim Carroll's autobiographical works are among the first known examples of punk literature. The punk subculture has inspired the cyberpunk and steampunk literature genres, and has even contributed (through Iggy Pop) to classical scholarship.
Film
Many punk-themed films have been made. The No Wave Cinema and Remodernist film movements owe much to punk aesthetics. Several famous punk bands have participated in movies, such as the Ramones in Rock 'n' Roll High School, the Sex Pistols in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, and Social Distortion in Another State of Mind. Derek Jarman and Don Letts are notable punk filmmakers. Penelope Spheeris' first instalment of the documentary trilogy "The Decline of Western Civilization" (1981) focuses on the early Los Angeles punk scene through interviews and early concert footage from bands including Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Germs, and Fear. The Decline of Western Civilization III" explores the gutter punk lifestyle in the 1990s. Loren Cass is another example of the punk subculture represented in film.
The Japanese cyberpunk movement has roots in the J-rock subculture that arose in the 1970s. The filmmaker Sogo Ishii introduced this subculture to Japanese cinema with his punk films Panic High School (1978) and Crazy Thunder Road (1980), which portrayed the rebellion and anarchy associated with punk, and went on to become highly influential in underground film circles. Crazy Thunder Road in particular was an influential biker film, with a punk biker gang aesthetic that paved the way for Katsuhiro Otomo's manga and anime franchise Akira (1982 debut). Ishii's next film was the frenetic Shuffle (1981), an unofficial short film adaptation of a manga comic strip by Otomo.
The documentary film Afro-Punk covers the black experience in the punk DIY scene.
Perspectives on drugs and alcohol
Inhalable solvents
"[Glue] sniffing was adopted by punks because public perceptions of sniffing fitted in with their self-image. Originally used experimentally and as a cheap high, adult disgust and hostility encouraged punks to use glue sniffing as a way of shocking society." Model airplane glue and contact cement were among the numerous solvents and inhalants used by punks to achieve euphoria and intoxication. Glue was typically inhaled by placing a quantity in a plastic bag and "huffing" (inhaling) the vapour. Liquid solvents were typically inhaled by soaking a rag with the solvent and inhaling the vapour. While users inhale solvents for the intoxicating effects, the practice can be harmful or fatal.
Straight edge
Straight edge is a philosophy of hardcore punk culture, adherents of which refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs, in reaction to the excesses of punk subculture. For some, this extends to refraining from engaging in promiscuous sex, following a vegetarian or vegan diet, and not drinking coffee or taking prescribed medicine. The term straight edge was adopted from the 1981 song "Straight Edge" by the hardcore punk band Minor Threat.
Straight edge emerged amid the early-1980s hardcore punk scene. Since then, a wide variety of beliefs and ideas have been associated with the movement, including vegetarianism and animal rights. Ross Haenfler writes that as of the late 1990s, approximately three out of four straight edge participants were vegetarian or vegan. While the commonly expressed aspects of the straight edge subculture have been abstinence from alcohol, nicotine, and illegal drugs, there have been considerable variations on how far to take the interpretations of "abstaining from intoxicants" or "living drug-free". Disagreements often arise as to the primary reasons for living straight edge. Straight edge politics are primarily left-wing and revolutionary but there have been conservative offshoots.
In 1999, William Tsitsos wrote that straight edge had gone through three eras since its founding in the early 1980s. Bent edge began as a counter-movement to straight edge by members of the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene who were frustrated by the rigidity and intolerance in the scene. During the youth crew era, which started in the mid-1980s, the influence of music on the straight edge scene was at an all-time high. By the early 1990s, militant straight edge was a well-known part of the wider punk scene. In the early to mid-1990s, straight edge spread from the United States to Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South America. By the beginning of the 2000s, militant straight edge punks had largely left the broader straight edge culture and movement.
Lifestyle and community
Punks come from all culture and economic classes. Compared to some subcultures, punk ideology is much closer to gender equality. Although the punk subculture is mostly anti-racist, it is overwhelmingly white. However, members of other groups (such as African Americans, other black people, Latinos, and Asians) have contributed to the development of the subculture. Substance abuse has sometimes been a part of the punk scene, with the notable exception of the straight edge movement. Violence has also sometimes appeared in the punk subculture, but has been opposed by some subsets of the subculture, such as the pacifist strain anarcho-punk.
Punks often form a local scene, which can have as few as half a dozen members in a small town, or as many as thousands of in a major city. A local scene usually has a small group of dedicated punks surrounded by a more casual periphery. A typical punk scene is made up of punk and hardcore bands, fans who attend concerts, protests, and other events, zine publishers, reviewers, and other writers, visual artists illustrating zines, and creating posters and album covers, show promoters, and people who work at music venues or independent record labels.
Squatting plays a role in many punk communities, providing shelter and other forms of support. Squats in abandoned or condemned housing, and communal "punk houses" often provide bands a place to stay while they are touring. There are some punk communes, such as Essex's Dial House. The Internet has been playing an increasingly large role in punk, specifically in the form of virtual communities and file sharing programs for trading music files.
Authenticity
In the punk and hardcore subcultures, members of the scene are often evaluated in terms of the authenticity of their commitment to the values or philosophies of the scene, which may range from political beliefs to lifestyle practices. In the punk subculture, the epithet poseur (or "poser") is used to describe "a person who habitually pretends to be something [they are] not." The term is used to refer to a person who adopts the dress, speech, and/or mannerisms of a particular subculture, yet who is deemed to not share or understand the values or philosophy of the subculture.
Never one to shy away from criticizing the music industry and even punk culture, in Chickenshit Conformist Dead Kennedys opined that "Punk's not dead It just deserves to die When it becomes another stale cartoon...Ideas don't matter, it's who you know.", saying punk was in danger of becoming a "meaningless fad" because people had stopped caring about what they saw as the core values of punk ("Change and caring are what's real"). In particular, metal bands, which were seen as an offshoot, they saw as not only as a sell-out, but as morally repugnant to the core values of punk saying labels were making money by signing "the most racist queerbashing bands they can find."
While this perceived inauthenticity is viewed with scorn and contempt by members of the subculture, the definition of the term and to whom it should be applied is subjective. An article in Drowned in Sound argues that 1980s-era "hardcore is the true spirit of punk", because "after all the poseurs and fashionistas fucked off to the next trend of skinny pink ties with New Romantic haircuts, singing wimpy lyrics", the punk scene consisted only of people "completely dedicated to the DIY ethics".
Proto-punk bands such as the Who, the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, Pink Fairies, the Deviants, and Edgar Broughton Band came out of garage-rock during the late 1960s. Usually, white working-class boys are credited for pioneering the genre, however, there were many women (Patti Smith, Siouxsie Sioux) and people of colour (the Specials member) who contributed to the original punk sound and aesthetic. Because the original subculture meant to challenge to the mainstream, and punk movement became major it was brought to the mainstream. If punk is commercialized, it is far from street culture. This is the paradox of punk; as a subculture, it must always be evolving to stay out of the mainstream.
Punk Girls written by Liz Ham is a photo-book featuring 100 portraits of Australian women in the punk subculture, and it was published in 2017 by Manuscript Daily. Discrimination against punk subculture is explored with her photographs in the book; these girls who are not mainstream, but "beautiful and talented".
Interactions with other subcultures
Some of the first hip hop MCs called themselves punk rockers, and some punk fashions have found their way into hip hop dress and vice versa. Malcolm McLaren played roles in introducing both punk and hip hop to the United Kingdom. Hip hop later influenced some punk and hardcore bands, such as the Beastie Boys, Hed PE, Blaggers I.T.A., Biohazard, E.Town Concrete, The Transplants, and Refused. Other rappers and hip-hop acts were influenced by the subcultures of crust punk and hardcore such as City Morgue.
The skinhead subculture of the United Kingdom in the late 1960s – which had almost disappeared in the early 1970s – was revived in the late 1970s, partly because of the influence of punk rock, especially the Oi! punk subgenre. Conversely, ska and reggae, popular among traditionalist skinheads, has influenced several punk musicians. Punks and skinheads have had both antagonistic and friendly relationships, depending on the social circumstances, time period, and geographic location.
The punk and heavy metal subcultures have shared some similarities since punk's inception. The early 1970s protopunk scene had an influence on the development of heavy metal. Alice Cooper was a forerunner of the fashion and music of both the punk and metal subcultures. Motörhead, since their first album release in 1977, have enjoyed continued popularity in the punk scene, and their now-deceased frontman Lemmy was a fan of punk rock. Genres such as metalcore, grindcore, and crossover thrash were greatly influenced by punk rock and heavy metal. The new wave of British heavy metal influenced the UK 82-style of bands like Discharge, and hardcore was a primary influence on thrash metal bands such as Metallica and Slayer. The early 1990s grunge subculture was a fusion of punk anti-fashion ideals and metal-influenced guitar sounds. However, hardcore punk and grunge developed in part as reactions against the heavy metal music that was popular during the 1980s.
In punk's heyday, punks faced harassment and attacks from the general public and from members of other subcultures. In the 1980s in the UK, punks were sometimes involved in brawls with Teddy Boys, greasers, bikers, mods, and members of other subcultures. There was also considerable enmity between Positive punks (known today as goths) and the glamorously dressed New Romantics.
In the late 1970s, punks were known to have had confrontations with hippies due to the contrasting ideologies and backlash of the hippie culture. Nevertheless, Penny Rimbaud of the English anarcho-punk band Crass said that Crass was formed in memory of his friend, the hippie Wally Hope. Rimbaud also said that Crass were heavily involved with the hippie movement throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with Dial House being established in 1967. Many punks were often critical of Crass for their involvement in the hippie movement. Like Crass, Jello Biafra was influenced by the hippie movement and cited the yippies as a key influence on his political activism and thinking, though he did write songs critical of hippies.
The industrial and rivethead subcultures have had several ties to punk, in terms of music, fashion, and attitude.
Power pop music (as defined by groups such as Badfinger, Cheap Trick, The Knack, and The Romantics) emerged in mostly the same time frame and geographical area as punk rock, and they shared a great deal musically in terms of playing short songs loud and fast while trying to emphasize catchy feelings. More melodic and pop-influenced punk music has also often been wrapped alongside power pop bands under the general "new wave music" label. A good example of a genre-straddling "power pop punk" band is the popular Northern Ireland group Protex. However, stylistically and lyrically, power pop bands have tended to have a very "not-punk" top 40 commercial pop music influence and a flashier, heavily teen-pop sense of fashion, especially modern power pop groups such as Stereo Skyline and All Time Low.
Persecution
East Germany
The punk scene began to emerge in communist East Germany in the late 1970s. It shared many similarities with that of the West and was considered by the ruling authorities to be a spread of an international youth sub-culture which had its roots in the U.S. and Western Europe. Indeed, this was an assessment many East German punks shared themselves. According to one, Mario Schulz, "The start was that I liked the music. I did not quite understand the English texts, but this ostentatious experience as an outsider, this capacity to shock, that pleased me. I was already- someone else would probably express it differently- an awkward sod."
By the authorities, punk was seen as representing a way of life which was contrary in nature to existing social conventions and values. Punks were, however, not the only youth sub-culture to be considered 'negative decadent' and a threat to the stability of communist society: heavy metallers, skinheads, and goths were also targeted. Whilst it is hard to ascertain an exact figure, the punk scene in East Germany in the early 1980s was still relatively small. For example, 'In 1981, the Stasi (secret police) identified 1,000 punks and a broader group of 10,000 sympathisers.' Punks, whether considered as individuals or as groups, were persecuted by both the regular police and the Stasi. More overt methods of persecution by the regular police- such as enforced haircutting, arrest, and physical beatings- were combined unofficially with the more insidious and far-reaching decomposition methods (trans. Zersetzung) of the Stasi: these involved various forms of infiltration, false flag type acts, framing, psychological harassment methods designed to cause mental health problems, and incarceration on the basis of mental health legislation or on the basis of crimes ostensibly committed. As the methods of the Stasi were difficult to detect and even harder to prove, it allowed them to circumvent international condemnation in regard to the persecution of their own citizens. Aside from being designed to harm people, the methods were also designed to discredit and isolate individuals and break up the various bands and groupings. They relied heavily on the hiring of collaborators who were of a similar disposition to those who were being targeted. According to Stasi officers, this was a task which was harder to achieve with punks due to their 'feeling of belonging together.' Nonetheless, the Stasi did have notable success in the repression and decomposition of the punk scene. Former member of the band Namenlos, Jana Schlosser, stated in 1984 when she came out of jail, that "The Stasi had pretty well managed to smash punk."
Global perspectives
The punk subculture has spread to many countries around the world. The fluidity of musical expression in particular makes it an ideal medium for this cross-cultural interpretation.
Mexico
In Mexico, punk culture is primarily a phenomenon among the upper-middle class, many of whom were first exposed to punk music through travel to England, but rapidly shifted to the lower-class youth. Because of low fees at public universities in Mexico, a significant majority of Mexican punks are university students. It is estimated approximately 5,000 young people are active punks in Mexico City, hosting two or three underground shows a week. These young people often form chavos banda—youth gangs—that organized subculture activity by creating formal meeting spaces and rituals and practices.
Oral nicknames are a distinguishing feature of Mexican punk, where the tradition of oral culture has influenced the development of nicknames for almost all Mexican punks. Patches are widely used as an inexpensive way to alter clothing and express identity. Though English-language bands like the Dead Kennedys are well known in Mexico, punks there prefer Spanish-language music or covers translated into Spanish. The slam dance style common in the California punk scene of the early 1980s is thoroughly adopted as part of the movement and continues to be the most popular dancing style among punks.
Performance and ideology practices often reflect the socioeconomic circumstances of Mexican punks. Live shows, called "Tocadas" are generally held in public spaces like basketball courts or community centers instead of places of business like venues, bars, and restaurants, as is more common in the United States and Europe. They usually take place in the afternoon and end early to accommodate the two or three hours it takes many punks to return home by public transit. Mexican punk groups rarely release vinyl or CD recordings, usually cassettes are the preferred format.
Though Mexican punk itself does not have an explicit political agenda, Mexican punks have been active in the Zapatista, Anarcho-punk, and anti-globalisation movements.
South Africa
Punk arrived slowly in South Africa during the 1970s when waves of British tradesmen welcomed by the then-apartheid government brought cultural influences like the popular British music magazine NME, sold in South Africa six weeks after publication.
South African punk developed separately in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town and relied on live performances in townships and streets as the multi-racial composition of bands and fan bases challenged the legal and social conventions of the apartheid regime.
Political participation is foundational to punk subculture in South Africa. During the apartheid regime, punk was second only to Rock music in its importance to multi-racial interactions in South Africa. Because of this, any involvement in the punk scene was in itself a political statement. Police harassment was common and the government often censored explicitly political lyrics. Johannesburg-based band National Wake was routinely censored and even banned for songs like "International News", which challenged the South African government's refusal to acknowledge the racial and political conflict in the country. National Wake guitarist Ivan Kadey attributes the punk scene's ability to persevere despite the legal challenges of multi-racial mixing to punk subculture's DIY ethic and anti-establishment attitude.
In post-apartheid South Africa, punk attracted a greater number of white middle-class males than the more diverse makeup of the subculture during the apartheid era. Thabo Mbeki's African Renaissance movement has complicated the position of white South Africans in contemporary society. Punk provides young white men the opportunity to explore and express their minority identity. Cape Town band Hog Hoggidy Hog sings of the strange status of white Africans:
It's my home it's where I'll stay and where I belong,
I didn't choose to be here I was born I might seem out of place
but everything I hold dear is under the African sun.
Post-apartheid punk subculture continues to be active in South African politics, organising a 2000 festival called Punks Against Racism at Thrashers Statepark in Pretoria. Rather than the sense of despondency and fatalism that characterised 1970s British punk subculture, the politically engaged South African scene is more positive about the future of South Africa.
Peru
In Peru punk traces its roots to the band Los Saicos, a Lima group that played the unique blend of garage and break dance music that would later be labeled punk as early as the 1960s. The early activity of Los Saicos has led many to claim that punk originated in Lima instead of the UK, as is typically assumed. Though their claim to be the first punk band in the world can be disputed, Los Saicos were undoubtedly the first in Latin America and released their first single in 1965. The group played to full houses and made frequent television appearances throughout the 1960s. Throughout the 1970s, the band was completely forgotten. Years later, a plaque that declares "here the global punk-rock movement was born" was placed at the corner of Miguel Iglesias and Julio C. Tello Streets in Lima.
By the 1980s the punk scene in Peru was highly active. Peruvian punks call themselves subtes and appropriate the subversive implications of the English term "underground" through the Spanish term subterraneo (literally, subterranean). In the 1980s and 1990s subtes made almost exclusive use of cassette recording as a means of circulating music without participating in formal intellectual property and musical production industries. The current scene relies on digital distribution and assumes similar anti-establishment practices. Like many punk subcultures, subtes explicitly oppose the Peruvian state and advocate instead an anarchic resistance that challenges the political and mainstream cultural establishment.
Cuba
A punk subculture originated in Cuba in the 1980s, referred to as Los Frikis. As Cuban radio stations rarely played rock music, Frikis often listened to music by picking up radio frequencies from stations in nearby Florida. While many Frikas in the early-1990s entered AIDS clinics by knowingly injecting HIV-positive blood into them, others began congregating at El patio de María, a community centre in Havana that was one of the few venues in the city that allowed rock bands to play. Some Frikis also participate in squatting as an act of political defiance.
In its beginning, the subculture was seen as a threat to the collectivism of Cuban society, leading to Frikis becoming victims of discrimination and police brutality. According to the New Times Broward-Palm Beach some Frikis were "rejected by family and often jailed or fined by the government", the 1980s Friki woman Yoandra Cardoso, however, has that argued that much of the response was verbal harassment from law enforcement. Dionisio Arce, lead vocalist of Cuban heavy metal band Zeus spent six years in prison due to his part in the Frikis. Some schools would forcibly shave the heads of young Frikis as a form of punishment.
See also
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Savage, Jon. England's Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock. Faber and Faber, 1991.
External links
Underground culture
1970s in the United Kingdom
Culture of Australia
Motorcycling subculture
Anarchist culture
Music and politics
Musical subcultures
Punk
Counterculture of the 1970s
Counterculture of the 1980s
Counterculture of the 1990s
Subcultures
Youth culture in the United Kingdom
Working-class culture | 0.768044 | 0.99869 | 0.767038 |
Public sphere | The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. A "Public" is "of or concerning the people as a whole." Such a discussion is called public debate and is defined as the expression of views on matters that are of concern to the public—often, but not always, with opposing or diverging views being expressed by participants in the discussion. Public debate takes place mostly through the mass media, but also at meetings or through social media, academic publications and government policy documents.
The term was originally coined by German philosopher Jürgen Habermas who defined the public sphere as "made up of private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the state". Communication scholar Gerard A. Hauser defines it as "a discursive space in which individuals and groups associate to discuss matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment about them". The public sphere can be seen as "a theater in modern societies in which political participation is enacted through the medium of talk" and "a realm of social life in which public opinion can be formed".
History
Describing the emergence of the public sphere in the 18th century, Habermas noted that the public realm, or sphere, originally was "coextensive with public authority", while "the private sphere comprised civil society in the narrower sense, that is to say, the realm of commodity exchange and of social labor". Whereas the "sphere of public authority" dealt with the state, or realm of the police, and the ruling class, or the feudal authorities (church, princes and nobility) the "authentic 'public sphere, in a political sense, arose at that time from within the private realm, specifically, in connection with literary activities, the world of letters. This new public sphere spanned the public and the private realms, and "through the vehicle of public opinion it put the state in touch with the needs of society". "This area is conceptually distinct from the state: it [is] a site for the production and circulation of discourses that can in principle be critical of the state." The public sphere "is also distinct from the official economy; it is not an arena of market relations but rather one of the discursive relations, a theater for debating and deliberating rather than for buying and selling". These distinctions between "state apparatuses, economic markets, and democratic associations... are essential to democratic theory". The people themselves came to see the public sphere as a regulatory institution against the authority of the state. The study of the public sphere centers on the idea of participatory democracy, and how public opinion becomes political action.
The ideology of the public sphere theory is that the government's laws and policies should be steered by the public sphere and that the only legitimate governments are those that listen to the public sphere. "Democratic governance rests on the capacity of and opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate". Much of the debate over the public sphere involves what is the basic theoretical structure of the public sphere, how information is deliberated in the public sphere, and what influence the public sphere has over society.
Definitions
Jürgen Habermas claims "We call events and occasions 'public' when they are open to all, in contrast to closed or exclusive affairs".
This 'public sphere' is a "realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens".
This notion of the public becomes evident in terms such as public health, public education, public opinion or public ownership. They are opposed to the notions of private health, private education, private opinion, and private ownership. The notion of the public is intrinsically connected to the notion of the private.
Habermas stresses that the notion of the public is related to the notion of the common. For Hannah Arendt, the public sphere is therefore "the common world" that "gathers us together and yet prevents our falling over each other".
Habermas defines the public sphere as a "society engaged in critical public debate".
Conditions of the public sphere are according to Habermas:
The formation of public opinion
All citizens have access
Conference in unrestricted fashion (based on the freedom of assembly, the freedom of association, the freedom to expression and publication of opinions) about matters of general interest, which implies freedom from economic and political control.
Debate over the general rules governing relations.
Jürgen Habermas: bourgeois public sphere
Most contemporary conceptualizations of the public sphere are based on the ideas expressed in Jürgen Habermas' book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere – An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, which is a translation of his Habilitationsschrift, Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit:Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. The German term Öffentlichkeit (public sphere) encompasses a variety of meanings and it implies a spatial concept, the social sites or arenas where meanings are articulated, distributed, and negotiated, as well as the collective body constituted by, and in this process, "the public". The work is still considered the foundation of contemporary public sphere theories, and most theorists cite it when discussing their own theories.
Through this work, he gave a historical-sociological account of the creation, brief flourishing, and demise of a "bourgeois" public sphere based on rational-critical debate and discussion: Habermas stipulates that, due to specific historical circumstances, a new civic society emerged in the eighteenth century. Driven by a need for open commercial arenas where news and matters of common concern could be freely exchanged and discussed—accompanied by growing rates of literacy, accessibility to literature, and a new kind of critical journalism—a separate domain from ruling authorities started to evolve across Europe. "In its clash with the arcane and bureaucratic practices of the absolutist state, the emergent bourgeoisie gradually replaced a public sphere in which the ruler's power was merely represented before the people with a sphere in which state authority was publicly monitored through informed and critical discourse by the people".
In his historical analysis, Habermas points out three so-called "'institutional criteria" as preconditions for the emergence of the new public sphere. The discursive arenas, such as Britain's coffee houses, France's salons, and Germany's Tischgesellschaften "may have differed in the size and compositions of their publics, the style of their proceedings, the climate of their debates, and their topical orientations", but "they all organized discussion among people that tended to be ongoing; hence they had a number of institutional criteria in common":
Disregard of status: Preservation of "a kind of social intercourse that, far from presupposing the equality of status, disregarded status altogether. ... Not that this idea of the public was actually realized in earnest in the coffee houses, salons, and the societies; but as an idea, it had become institutionalized and thereby stated as an objective claim. If not realized, it was at least consequential." (loc. cit.)
Domain of common concern: "... discussion within such a public presupposed the problematization of areas that until then had not been questioned. The domain of 'common concern' which was the object of public critical attention remained a preserve in which church and state authorities had the monopoly of interpretation. ... The private people for whom the cultural product became available as a commodity profaned it inasmuch as they had to determine its meaning on their own (by way of rational communication with one another), verbalize it, and thus state explicitly what precisely in its implicitness for so long could assert its authority." (loc. cit.)
Inclusivity: However exclusive the public might be in any given instance, it could never close itself off entirely and become consolidated as a clique; for it always understood and found itself immersed within a more inclusive public of all private people, persons who – insofar as they were propertied and educated – as readers, listeners, and spectators could avail themselves via the market of the objects that were subject to discussion. The issues discussed became 'general' not merely in their significance, but also in their accessibility: everyone had to be able to participate. ... Wherever the public established itself institutionally as a stable group of discussants, it did not equate itself with the public but at most claimed to act as its mouthpiece, in its name, perhaps even as its educator – the new form of bourgeois representation" (loc. cit.).
Habermas argued that the bourgeois society cultivated and upheld these criteria. The public sphere was well established in various locations including coffee shops and salons, areas of society where various people could gather and discuss matters that concerned them. The coffee houses in London society at this time became the centers of art and literary criticism, which gradually widened to include even the economic and the political disputes as matters of discussion. In French salons, as Habermas says, "opinion became emancipated from the bonds of economic dependence". Any new work, or a book or a musical composition had to get its legitimacy in these places. It not only paved a forum for self-expression but in fact had become a platform for airing one's opinions and agendas for public discussion.
The emergence of a bourgeois public sphere was particularly supported by the 18th-century liberal democracy making resources available to this new political class to establish a network of institutions like publishing enterprises, newspapers and discussion forums, and the democratic press was the main tool to execute this. The key feature of this public sphere was its separation from the power of both the church and the government due to its access to a variety of resources, both economic and social.
As Habermas argues, in due course, this sphere of rational and universalistic politics, free from both the economy and the State, was destroyed by the same forces that initially established it. This collapse was due to the consumeristic drive that infiltrated society, so citizens became more concerned about consumption than political actions. Furthermore, the growth of capitalistic economy led to an uneven distribution of wealth, thus widening economic polarity. Suddenly the media became a tool of political forces and a medium for advertising rather than the medium from which the public got their information on political matters. This resulted in limiting access to the public sphere and the political control of the public sphere was inevitable for the modern capitalistic forces to operate and thrive in the competitive economy.
Counterpublics, feminist critiques and expansions
Although Structural Transformation was (and is) one of the most influential works in contemporary German philosophy and political science, it took 27 years until an English version appeared on the market in 1989. Based on a conference on the occasion of the English translation, at which Habermas himself attended, Craig Calhoun (1992) edited Habermas and the Public Sphere – a thorough dissection of Habermas' bourgeois public sphere by scholars from various academic disciplines. The core criticism at the conference was directed towards the above stated "institutional criteria":
Hegemonic dominance and exclusion: In "Rethinking the Public Sphere," Nancy Fraser offers a feminist revision of Habermas' historical description of the public sphere, and confronts it with "recent revisionist historiography". She refers to other scholars, like Joan Landes, Mary P. Ryan and Geoff Eley, when she argues that the bourgeois public sphere was in fact constituted by a "number of significant exclusions." In contrast to Habermas' assertions on disregard of status and inclusivity, Fraser claims that the bourgeois public sphere discriminated against women and other historically marginalized groups: "... this network of clubs and associations – philanthropic, civic, professional, and cultural – was anything but accessible to everyone. On the contrary, it was the arena, the training ground and eventually the power base of a stratum of bourgeois men who were coming to see themselves as a "universal class" and preparing to assert their fitness to govern." Thus, she stipulates a hegemonic tendency of the male bourgeois public sphere, which dominated at the cost of alternative publics (for example by gender, social status, ethnicity and property ownership), thereby averting other groups from articulating their particular concerns.
Bracketing of inequalities: Fraser makes us recall that "the bourgeois conception of the public sphere requires bracketing inequalities of status". The "public sphere was to be an arena in which interlocutors would set aside such characteristics as a difference in birth and fortune and speak to one another as if they were social and economic peers". Fraser refers to feminist research by Jane Mansbridge, which notes several relevant "ways in which deliberation can serve as a mask for domination". Consequently, she argues that "such bracketing usually works to the advantage of dominant groups in society and to the disadvantage of subordinates." Thus, she concludes: "In most cases, it would be more appropriate to unbracket inequalities in the sense of explicitly thematizing them – a point that accords with the spirit of Habermas' later communicative ethics".
The problematic definition of "common concern": Nancy Fraser points out that "there are no naturally given, a priori boundaries" between matters that are generally conceived as private, and ones we typically label as public (i.e. of "common concern"). As an example, she refers to the historic shift in the general conception of domestic violence, from previously being a matter of primarily private concern, to now generally being accepted as a common one: "Eventually, after sustained discursive contestation we succeeded in making it a common concern".
Nancy Fraser identified the fact that marginalized groups are excluded from a universal public sphere, and thus it was impossible to claim that one group would, in fact, be inclusive. However, she claimed that marginalized groups formed their own public spheres, and termed this concept a subaltern counter public or counter-public.
Fraser worked from Habermas' basic theory because she saw it to be "an indispensable resource" but questioned the actual structure and attempted to address her concerns. She made the observation that "Habermas stops short of developing a new, post-bourgeois model of the public sphere". Fraser attempted to evaluate Habermas' bourgeois public sphere, discuss some assumptions within his model, and offer a modern conception of the public sphere.
In the historical reevaluation of the bourgeois public sphere, Fraser argues that rather than opening up the political realm to everyone, the bourgeois public sphere shifted political power from "a repressive mode of domination to a hegemonic one". Rather than rule by power, there was now rule by the majority ideology. To deal with this hegemonic domination, Fraser argues that repressed groups form "Subaltern counter-publics" that are "parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counterdiscourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs".
Benhabib notes that in Habermas' idea of the public sphere, the distinction between public and private issues separates issues that normally affect women (issues of "reproduction, nurture and care for the young, the sick, and the elderly") into the private realm and out of the discussion in the public sphere. She argues that if the public sphere is to be open to any discussion that affects the population, there cannot be distinctions between "what is" and "what is not" discussed. Benhabib argues for feminists to counter the popular public discourse in their own counter public.
The public sphere was long regarded as men's domain whereas women were supposed to inhabit the private domestic sphere. A distinct ideology that prescribed separate spheres for women and men emerged during the Industrial Revolution.
The concept of heteronormativity is used to describe the way in which those who fall outside of the basic male/female dichotomy of gender or whose sexual orientations are other than heterosexual cannot meaningfully claim their identities, causing a disconnect between their public selves and their private selves. Michael Warner made the observation that the idea of an inclusive public sphere makes the assumption that we are all the same without judgments about our fellows. He argues that we must achieve some sort of disembodied state in order to participate in a universal public sphere without being judged. His observations point to a homosexual counter public, and offers the idea that homosexuals must otherwise remain "closeted" in order to participate in the larger public discourse.
Rhetorical
Gerard Hauser proposed a different direction for the public sphere than previous models. He foregrounds the rhetorical nature of public spheres, suggesting that public spheres form around "the ongoing dialogue on public issues" rather than the identity of the group engaged in the discourse.
Rather than arguing for an all-inclusive public sphere, or the analysis of tension between public spheres, he suggested that publics were formed by active members of society around issues. They are a group of interested individuals who engage in vernacular discourse about a specific issue. "Publics may be repressed, distorted, or responsible, but any evaluation of their actual state requires that we inspect the rhetorical environment as well as the rhetorical act out of which they evolved, for these are the conditions that constitute their individual character". These people formed rhetorical public spheres that were based in discourse, not necessarily orderly discourse but any interactions whereby the interested public engages each other. This interaction can take the form of institutional actors as well as the basic "street rhetoric" that "open[s] a dialogue between competing factions." The spheres themselves formed around the issues that were being deliberated. The discussion itself would reproduce itself across the spectrum of interested publics "even though we lack personal acquaintance with all but a few of its participants and are seldom in contexts where we and they directly interact, we join these exchanges because they are discussing the same matters". In order to communicate within the public sphere, "those who enter any given arena must share a reference world for their discourse to produce awareness for shared interests and public opinions about them". This world consists of common meanings and cultural norms from which interaction can take place.
The rhetorical public sphere has several primary features:
it is discourse-based, rather than class-based.
the critical norms are derived from actual discursive practices. Taking a universal reasonableness out of the picture, arguments are judged by how well they resonate with the population that is discussing the issue.
intermediate bracketing of discursive exchanges. Rather than a conversation that goes on across a population as a whole, the public sphere is composed of many intermediate dialogs that merge later on in the discussion.
The rhetorical public sphere was characterized by five rhetorical norms from which it can be gauged and criticized. How well the public sphere adheres to these norms determine the effectiveness of the public sphere under the rhetorical model. Those norms are:
permeable boundaries: Although a public sphere may have a specific membership as with any social movement or deliberative assembly, people outside the group can participate in the discussion.
activity: Publics are active rather than passive. They do not just hear the issue and applaud, but rather they actively engage the issue and the publics surrounding the issue.
contextualized language: They require that participants adhere to the rhetorical norm of contextualized language to render their respective experiences intelligible to one another.
believable appearance: The public sphere must appear to be believable to each other and the outside public.
tolerance: In order to maintain a vibrant discourse, others opinions need to be allowed to enter the arena.
In all this Hauser believes a public sphere is a "discursive space in which strangers discuss issues they perceive to be of consequence for them and their group. Its rhetorical exchanges are the bases for shared awareness of common issues, shared interests, tendencies of extent and strength of difference and agreement, and self-constitution as a public whose opinions bear on the organization of society."
This concept that the public sphere acts as a medium in which public opinion is formed as analogous to a lava lamp. Just as the lamp's structure changes, with its lava separating and forming new shapes, so does the public sphere's creation of opportunities for discourse to address public opinion, thereby forming new discussions of rhetoric. The lava of the public which holds together the public arguments is the public conversation.
Media
Habermas argues that the public sphere requires "specific means for transmitting information and influencing those who receive it".
Habermas' argument shows that the media are of particular importance for constituting and maintaining a public sphere. Discussions about the media have therefore been of particular importance in public sphere theory.
As actors in the political public sphere
According to Habermas, there are two types of actors without whom no political public sphere could be put to work: professionals in the media system and politicians.
For Habermas, there are five types of actors who make their appearance on the virtual stage of an established public sphere:
(a) Lobbyists who represent special interest groups;
(b) Advocates who either represent general interest groups or substitute for a lack of representation of marginalized groups that are unable to voice their interests effectively;
(c) Experts who are credited with professional or scientific knowledge in some specialized area and are invited to give advice;
(d) Moral entrepreneurs who generate public attention for supposedly neglected issues;
(e) Intellectuals who have gained, unlike advocates or moral entrepreneurs, a perceived personal reputation in some field (e.g., as writers or academics) and who engage, unlike experts and lobbyists, spontaneously in public discourse with the declared intention of promoting general interests.
Libraries have been inextricably tied to educational institutions in the modern era having developed within democratic societies. Libraries took on aspects of the public sphere (as did classrooms), even while public spheres transformed in the macro sense. These contextual conditions led to a fundamental conservative rethinking of civil society institutions like schools and libraries.
YouTube
Habermas argues that under certain conditions, the media act to facilitate discourse in a public sphere. The rise of the Internet has brought about a resurgence of scholars applying theories of the public sphere to Internet technologies.
For example, a study by S. Edgerly et al.
focused on the ability of YouTube to serve as an online public sphere. The researchers examined a large sample of video comments using the California Proposition 8 (2008) as an example. The authors argue that some scholars think the online public sphere is a space where a wide range of voices can be expressed due to the "low barrier of entry" and interactivity. However, they also point at a number of limitations. Edgerly et al. say that the affirmative discourse presupposes that YouTube can be an influential player in the political process and that it can serve as an influential force to politically mobilize young people. YouTube has allowed anyone and everyone to be able to get any political knowledge they wish. The authors mention critiques that say YouTube is built around the popularity of videos with sensationalist content. It has also allowed people to broadcast themselves for a large public sphere, where people can form their own opinions and discuss different things in the comments. The research by Edgerly, et al. found that the analyzed YouTube comments were diverse. They argue that this is a possible indicator that YouTube provides space for public discussion. They also found that YouTube videos' style influences the nature of the commentary. Finally, they concluded that the video's ideological stances influenced the language of the comments. The findings of the work suggest that YouTube is a public sphere platform.
Additional work by S. Buckley reflected on the role that news content, specifically US cable news, contributed towards the formation of the public sphere. His research analysed a total of 1239 videos uploaded by five news organisations and investigated the link between content and user engagement. Through both content and sentiment analysis, it was suggested that the sentiment of the language used in the titles of the videos had an impact upon the public, with negatively sentimented titles generated more user engagement. Buckley suggested that due to the aspect of emotionality that is present in news content that due to the ongoing process of media hybridization, a new conceptual framework of the public sphere that acknowledges how both thoughtful discussions as well as ones which express feelings in an overt way needs to be developed.
Limitations of media and the internet
Some, like Colin Sparks, note that a new global public sphere ought to be created in the wake of increasing globalization and global institutions, which operate at the supranational level. However, the key questions for him were, whether any media exists in terms of size and access to fulfil this role. The traditional media, he notes, are close to the public sphere in this true sense. Nevertheless, limitations are imposed by the market and concentration of ownership. At present, the global media fail to constitute the basis of a public sphere for at least three reasons. Similarly, he notes that the internet, for all its potential, does not meet the criteria for a public sphere and that unless these are "overcome, there will be no sign of a global public sphere".
German scholars Jürgen Gerhards and Mike S. Schäfer conducted a study in 2009 in order to establish whether the Internet offers a better and broader communication environment compared to quality newspapers. They analyzed how the issue of human genome research was portrayed between 1999 and 2001 in popular quality newspapers in both Germany and the United States in comparison to the way it appeared on search engines at the time of their research. Their intention was to analyze what actors and what sort of opinions the subject generated in both print and the Internet and verify whether the online space proved to be a more democratic public sphere, with a wider range of sources and views. Gerhards and Schäfer say they have found "only minimal evidence to support the idea that the internet is a better communication space as compared to print media". "In both media, communication is dominated by (bio- and natural) scientific actors; popular inclusion does not occur". The scholars argue that the search algorithms select the sources of information based on the popularity of their links. "Their gatekeeping, in contrast to the old mass media, relies mainly on technical characteristics of websites". For Gerhards and Schäfer the Internet is not an alternative public sphere because less prominent voices end up being silenced by the search engines' algorithms. "Search engines might actually silence societal debate by giving more space to established actors and institutions". Another tactic that supports this view is astroturfing. The Guardian columnist George Monbiot said that Astroturfing software, "has the potential to destroy the internet as a forum for constructive debate. It jeopardizes the notion of online democracy".
Virtual
There has been an academic debate about how social media impacts the public sphere. The sociologists Brian Loader and Dan Mercea give an overview of this discussion. They argue that social media offers increasing opportunities for political communication and enable democratic capacities for political discussion within the virtual public sphere. The effect would be that citizens could challenge governments and corporations' political and economic power. Additionally, new forms of political participation and information sources for the users emerge with the Internet that can be used, for example, in online campaigns.
However, the two authors point out that social media's dominant uses are entertainment, consumerism, and content sharing among friends. Loader and Mercea point out that "individual preferences reveal an unequal spread of social ties with a few giant nodes such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and YouTube attracting the majority of users". They also stress that some critics have voiced the concern that there is a lack of seriousness in political communication on social media platforms. Moreover, lines between professional media coverage and user-generated content would blur on social media.
The authors conclude that social media provides new opportunities for political participation; however, they warn users of the risks of accessing unreliable sources. The Internet impacts the virtual public sphere in many ways, but is not a free utopian platform as some observers argued at the beginning of its history.
Mediated publicness
John Thompson criticises the traditional idea of public sphere by Habermas, as it is centred mainly in face-to-face interactions. On the contrary, Thompson argues that modern society is characterized by a new form of "mediated publicness", whose main characteristics are:
Despatialized (there is a rupture of time/space. People can see more things, as they do not need to share the same physical location, but this extended vision always has an angle, which people do not have control over).
Non dialogical (unidirectional. For example, presenters on TV are not able to adapt their discourse to the reactions of the audience, since they are visible to a wide audience but that audience is not directly visible to them. However, internet allows a bigger interactivity).
Wider and more diverse audiences. (The same message can reach people with different education, different social class, different values and beliefs, and so on.)
This mediated publicness has altered the power relations in a way in which not only the many are visible to the few but the few can also now see the many:
"Whereas the Panopticon renders many people visible to a few and enables power to be exercised over the many by subjecting them to a state of permanent visibility, the development of communication media provides a means by which many people can gather information about a few and, at the same time, a few can appear before many; thanks to the media, it is primarily those who exercise power, rather than those over whom power is exercised, who are subjected to a certain kind of visibility".
However, Thompson also acknowledges that "media and visibility is a double-edged sword" meaning that even though they can be used to show an improved image (by managing the visibility), individuals are not in full control of their self-presentation. Mistakes, gaffes or scandals are now recorded therefore they are harder to deny, as they can be replayed by the media.
The public service model
Examples of the public service model include BBC in Britain, and the ABC and SBS in Australia. The political function and effect of modes of public communication has traditionally continued with the dichotomy between Hegelian State and civil society. The dominant theory of this mode includes the liberal theory of the free press. However, the public service, state-regulated model, whether publicly or privately funded, has always been seen not as a positive good but as an unfortunate necessity imposed by the technical limitations of frequency scarcity.
According to Habermas's concept of the public sphere, the strength of this concept is that it identifies and stresses the importance for democratic politics of a sphere distinct from the economy and the State. On the other hand, this concept challenges the liberal free press tradition form the grounds of its materiality, and it challenges the Marxist critique of that tradition from the grounds of the specificity of politics as well.
From Garnham's critique, three great virtues of Habermas's public sphere are mentioned. Firstly, it focuses on the indissoluble like between the institutions and practices of mass public communication and the institutions and practices of democratic politics. The second virtue of Habermas's approach concentrate on the necessary material resource base for ant public. Its third virtue is to escape from the simple dichotomy of free market versus state control that dominates so much thinking about media policy.
Non-liberal theories
Oskar Negt & Alexander Kluge took a non-liberal view of public spheres, and argued that Habermas' reflections on the bourgeois public sphere should be supplemented with reflections on the proletarian public spheres and the public spheres of production.
Proletarian
The distinction between bourgeois and proletarian public spheres is not mainly a distinction between classes. The proletarian public sphere is rather to be conceived of as the "excluded", vague, unarticulated impulses of resistance or resentment. The proletarian public sphere carries the subjective feelings, the egocentric malaise with the common public narrative, interests that are not socially valorized
"As extraeconomic interests, they exist—precisely in the forbidden zones of fantasy beneath the surface of taboos—as stereotypes of a proletarian context of living that is organized in a merely rudimentary form."
The bourgeois and proletarian public spheres are mutually defining: The proletarian public sphere carries the "left-overs" from the bourgeois public sphere, while the bourgeois public is based upon the productive forces of the underlying resentment:
"In this respect, they " [i.e. the proletarian public spheres] " have two characteristics: in their defensive attitude toward society, their conservatism, and their subcultural character, they are once again mere objects; but they are, at the same time, the block of real life that goes against the valorization interest. As long as capital is dependent on living labor as a source of wealth, this element of the proletarian context of living cannot be extinguished through repression."
Production
Negt and Kluge furthermore point out the necessity of considering a third dimension of the public spheres: The public spheres of production. The public spheres of production collect the impulses of resentment and instrumentalizes them in the productive spheres. The public spheres of production are wholly instrumental and have no critical impulse (unlike the bourgeois and proletarian spheres). The interests that are incorporated in the public sphere of production are given capitalist shape, and questions of their legitimately are thus neutralized.
Biopolitical public
By the end of the 20th century, the discussions about public spheres got a new biopolitical twist. Traditionally the public spheres had been contemplated as to how free agents transgress the private spheres. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have, drawing on the late Michel Foucault's writings on biopolitics, suggested that we reconsider the very distinction between public and private spheres. They argue that the traditional distinction is founded on a certain (capitalist) account of property that presupposes clear-cut separations between interests. This account of property is (according to Hardt and Negri) based upon a scarcity economy. The scarcity economy is characterized by an impossibility of sharing the goods. If "agent A" eats the bread, "agent B" cannot have it. The interests of agents are thus, generally, clearly separated.
However, with the evolving shift in the economy towards an informational materiality, in which value is based upon the informational significance, or the narratives surrounding the products, the clear-cut subjective separation is no longer obvious. Hardt and Negri see the open source approaches as examples of new ways of co-operation that illustrate how economic value is not founded upon exclusive possession, but rather upon collective potentialities. Informational materiality is characterized by gaining value only through being shared. Hardt and Negri thus suggest that the commons become the focal point of analyses of public relations. The point being that with this shift it becomes possible to analyse how the very distinctions between the private and public are evolving.
See also
Argumentation theory
Commons
Interpersonal relationship
Online deliberation
Protest
Public place
Project for Public Spaces
Public hypersphere
The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964)
Res publica
Rule according to higher law
Richard Sennett
The Lives of Others – A film that describes the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi during the Cold War
References
External links
Public Sphere Guide, a research and teaching guide, and resource for the renewal of the Public Sphere
Transformations of the Public Sphere Essay Forum
Jürgen Habermas, "The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article," New German Critique 3 (1974)
Spark summary of Habermas' public sphere book
Society
Civil society
Critical theory
Democracy
Public opinion
Sociological terminology | 0.771985 | 0.993567 | 0.767019 |
Emic and etic | In anthropology, folkloristics, linguistics, and the social and behavioral sciences, emic and etic refer to two kinds of field research done and viewpoints obtained.
The "emic" approach is an insider's perspective, which looks at the beliefs, values, and practices of a particular culture from the perspective of the people who live within that culture. This approach aims to understand the cultural meaning and significance of a particular behavior or practice, as it is understood by the people who engage in it.
The "etic" approach, on the other hand, is an outsider's perspective, which looks at a culture from the perspective of an outside observer or researcher. This approach tends to focus on the observable behaviors and practices of a culture, and aims to understand them in terms of their functional or evolutionary significance. The etic approach often involves the use of standardized measures and frameworks to compare different cultures and may involve the use of concepts and theories from other disciplines, such as psychology or sociology.
The emic and etic approaches each have their own strengths and limitations, and each can be useful in understanding different aspects of culture and behavior. Some anthropologists argue that a combination of both approaches is necessary for a complete understanding of a culture, while others argue that one approach may be more appropriate depending on the specific research question being addressed.
Definitions
"The emic approach investigates how local people think...". How they perceive and categorize the world, their rules for behavior, what has meaning for them, and how they imagine and explain things. "The etic (scientist-oriented) approach shifts the focus from local observations, categories, explanations, and interpretations to those of the anthropologist. The etic approach realizes that members of a culture often are too involved in what they are doing... to interpret their cultures impartially. When using the etic approach, the ethnographer emphasizes what he or she considers important."
Although emics and etics are sometimes regarded as inherently in conflict and one can be preferred to the exclusion of the other, the complementarity of emic and etic approaches to anthropological research has been widely recognized, especially in the areas of interest concerning the characteristics of human nature as well as the form and function of human social systems.
Emic and etic approaches of understanding behavior and personality fall under the study of cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology states that people are shaped by their cultures and their subcultures, and we must account for this in the study of personality. One way is looking at things through an emic approach. This approach "is culture specific because it focuses on a single culture and it is understood on its own terms." As explained below, the term "emic" originated from the specific linguistic term "phonemic", from phoneme, which is a language-specific way of abstracting speech sounds.
An 'emic' account is a description of behavior or a belief in terms meaningful (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor; that is, an emic account comes from a person within the culture. Almost anything from within a culture can provide an emic account.
An 'etic' account is a description of a behavior or belief by a social analyst or scientific observer (a student or scholar of anthropology or sociology, for example), in terms that can be applied across cultures; that is, an etic account attempts to be 'culturally neutral', limiting any ethnocentric, political or cultural bias or alienation by the observer.
When these two approaches are combined, the "richest" view of a culture or society can be understood. On its own, an emic approach would struggle with applying overarching values to a single culture. The etic approach is helpful in enabling researchers to see more than one aspect of one culture, and in applying observations to cultures around the world.
History
The terms were coined in 1954 by linguist Kenneth Pike, who argued that the tools developed for describing linguistic behaviors could be adapted to the description of any human social behavior. As Pike noted, social scientists have long debated whether their knowledge is objective or subjective. Pike's innovation was to turn away from an epistemological debate, and turn instead to a methodological solution. Emic and etic are derived from the linguistic terms phonemic and phonetic, respectively, where a phone is a distinct speech sound or gesture, regardless of whether the exact sound is critical to the meanings of words, whereas a phoneme is a speech sound in a given language that, if swapped with another phoneme, could change one word to another. The possibility of a truly objective description was discounted by Pike himself in his original work; he proposed the emic-etic dichotomy in anthropology as a way around philosophic issues about the very nature of objectivity.
The terms were also championed by anthropologists Ward Goodenough and Marvin Harris with slightly different connotations from those used by Pike. Goodenough was primarily interested in understanding the culturally specific meaning of specific beliefs and practices; Harris was primarily interested in explaining human behavior.
Pike, Harris, and others have argued that cultural "insiders" and "outsiders" are equally capable of producing emic and etic accounts of their culture. Some researchers use "etic" to refer to objective or outsider accounts, and "emic" to refer to subjective or insider accounts.
Margaret Mead was an anthropologist who studied the patterns of adolescence in Samoa. She discovered that the difficulties and the transitions that adolescents faced are culturally influenced. The hormones that are released during puberty can be defined using an etic framework, because adolescents globally have the same hormones being secreted. However, Mead concluded that how adolescents respond to these hormones is greatly influenced by their cultural norms. Through her studies, Mead found that simple classifications about behaviors and personality could not be used because peoples’ cultures influenced their behaviors in such a radical way. Her studies helped create an emic approach of understanding behaviors and personality. Her research deduced that culture has a significant impact in shaping an individual's personality.
Carl Jung, a Swiss psychoanalyst, is a researcher who took an emic approach in his studies. Jung studied mythology, religion, ancient rituals, and dreams, leading him to believe that there are archetypes that can be identified and used to categorize people's behaviors. Archetypes are universal structures of the collective unconscious that refer to the inherent way people are predisposed to perceive and process information. The main archetypes that Jung studied were the persona (how people choose to present themselves to the world), the anima and animus (part of people experiencing the world in viewing the opposite sex, that guides how they select their romantic partner), and the shadow (dark side of personalities because people have a concept of evil; well-adjusted people must integrate both good and bad parts of themselves). Jung looked at the role of the mother and deduced that all people have mothers and see their mothers in a similar way; they offer nurture and comfort. His studies also suggest that "infants have evolved to suck milk from the breast, it is also the case that all children have inborn tendencies to react in certain ways." This way of looking at the mother is an emic way of applying a concept cross-culturally and universally.
Importance as regards personality
Emic and etic approaches are important to understanding personality because problems can arise "when concepts, measures, and methods are carelessly transferred to other cultures in attempts to make cross-cultural generalizations about personality." It is hard to apply certain generalizations of behavior to people who are so diverse and culturally different. One example of this is the F-scale (Macleod). The F-scale, which was created by Theodor Adorno, is used to measure authoritarian personality, which can, in turn, be used to predict prejudiced behaviors. This test, when applied to Americans accurately depicts prejudices towards black individuals. However, when a study was conducted in South Africa using the F-Scale, (Pettigrew and Friedman) results did not predict any prejudices towards black individuals. This study used emic approaches of study by conducting interviews with the locals and etic approaches by giving participants generalized personality tests.
See also
Exonym and endonym
Other explorations of the differences between reality and humans' models of it:
Blind men and an elephant
Emic and etic units
Internalism and externalism
Map–territory relation
References
Further reading
External links
Emic and Etic Standpoints for the Description of Behavior, chapter 2 in Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, vol 2, by Kenneth Pike (published in 1954 by Summer Institute of Linguistics)
Anthropology
Dichotomies
Ethnography
Folklore
Metatheory | 0.770852 | 0.994972 | 0.766976 |
Subsets and Splits