Cultural Studies and the Study of Cultures



Cultural Studies and the Study of Cultural Construction

The idea of cultural construction

- The things, objects, categories that we accept as natural are nothing but cultural constructions

- e.g., Kids

- Characteristics of cultural constructions

- Discursive

- Time-space relativity

- Contingent

- Arbitrary

- Incoherent and inconsistent

- Continually changing

- Contextualized

- Culture vs. Nature

- Naturalization of cultural construction

Why study cultural construction?

- Cultural constructions are our common sense, our basic framework of our thinking and action

- Cultural constructions are roots of inequality and injustice

- e.g., gender relationships

- Formal equality: legal provisions, constitutional rights, economic opportunities etc.

- Cultural constraints: stereotypes, cultural Ideal Types, cultural practices in gender relationships etc.

- The idea of Critical Cultural Studies

- Criticizing cultural constructions as a way to criticize inequality and injustice

Cultural Studies and Media Studies:

- The mass media as the major site for cultural construction/representation

- The study of popular culture, e.g., Hollywood movies

- The study of news and journalism, e.g., how particular social groups are represented on the news

- Three part of studying media representation:

- The study of production

- The study of texts

- The study of reception

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