Marx was a 19th Century Philosopher, Socialist and Economist whose ideas have had a huge impact on 'Cultural Theory'. The study of 'Ideology' is largely a Marxist invention (as is 'Capitalism')
Marxism
Marx was a 19th Century Philosopher, Socialist
and Economist whose ideas have had a huge impact on 'Cultural Theory'. The study
of 'Ideology' is largely a Marxist invention (as is 'Capitalism')
Prior to Marx, Society was seen as an 'Organic Necessary' i.e. formed the way it was by
Marx didn't believe in unchanging human nature - he believed that Man made his Environment- which then changed the nature of Man.
He also believed that the most powerful force in society was the ECONOMIC SELF INTEREST of the DOMINANT SOCIAL CLASS and the STRUGGLE with 'up & coming' SUBORDINATE classes or groups. The IDEOLOGY (ruling ideas/values) of the Society are therefore a LEGITIMATING of the Ruling Classes and their position.
Society is seen to be motivated not by CONSENSUS but by CONFLICT.
A number of Marxist theorists have developed the study of IDEOLOGY further, such as Althusser, Gramsci and 'The Frankfurt School' Other theorists heavily influenced by these ideas include Foucault, Bourdieu , Stuart Hall and the STRUCTURALISTS & the POST MODERNISTS.
The book 'An introduction to theories of popular culture' by Dominic Strinati has useful chapters on both Marxism & The Frankfurt School as does 'An Introduction to Communication Studies'.
For web research try the recommended sites - or use 'www.google.com'
to find your own (Google is the best Search Engine for finding educational sites)
Cultural Reproduction: Althusser & Bourdieu
Marxist perspectives concentrate on how the ruling class manages to ‘con’
the rest of society into working for their interests. The Appearance a society
may seem equitable and progressive but the essence is always exploitation.
Althusser made a distinction
between the ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Velvet Glove’ of ideological
control.
R.S.A. Repressive State Apparatus = The Iron Fist
The police, the military, state intelligence, private covert action and security
groups, paramilitary groups, organised crime and similar organisations. Even
in an apparently democratic society, when the ‘gloves are off’ intimidation,
spying, torture
and murder are sanctioned to control deviancy.
I.S.A. Ideological State Apparatus = The Velvet Glove
Education, The Church, The Media. The modern state attempts to work by consent
rather than coercion, coercion is expensive, difficult, ineffective and worst
of all ‘gives the game away’ by revealing the essential nature of
social relations.
Interpellation
According to Althusser, the grip of the ruling ideology is not always obviously
propagandist or pedagogical again this gives the game away. Interpellation is
the means by which the ISA operates in an individualised way, individual ‘victims’
persecute and bring into line ‘deviants’ without theneed for the intervention
of the state, eventually the individual internalises a variant of the ideological
value system as their own.
(Examples: A teacher shouts ‘That boy!’ in a school corridor , who
is doing the repression, the teacher, the pupil or his peers? another gruesome
example is female excision, done by old victims to young victims. ) Hence a
marxist would see the hand of ' Ideology' behind a child being 'teased' for
wearing the 'wrong' brand of trainers- the victim is being taught a lesson on
being a 'good consumer'.
Material practice
Another example of the powerful way that we 'bind' people into the social order
are what Althusser called 'material practice' such as rituals and customs i.e.
Christmas. Oliver Cromwell's Revolution (& The Russian
& French ones too) were defeated partly by the persistence of such rituals.
An example of a modern 'practice' might be 'going shopping' or 'motoring'. How
will tomorrow's 'Green Revolutionaries' going to deal with these?
Invented the term ‘cultural reproduction’, he studied the way that
pedagogic (educational) practices in a society inculcate ruling ideologies by
‘symbolic repression’
Cultural Capital
“There is, diffused within a social space a cultural capital, transmitted
by inheritance and invested in order to be cultivated”
Financial wealth is partly material (better housing is better housing (?) )
but is also symbolic (who says that gold/ diamonds/ oysters/ branded training
shoes- are ‘valuable?’) The accumulation of wealth is therefore as
much to do with symbolic power as material well being. (You can only eat so
many good meals in a day.) This is also the case with the more rarefied commodity
of Culture.
The ‘Intellectual Field’ of a society ascribes symbolic worth to products
of cultural consumption.
Habitus
“It may be assumed that every individual owes to the type of schooling
he has received a set of basic, deeply interiorised master-patterns on the basis
of which he subsequently acquires other patterns, so that the system of patterns
by which his thought is organised owes its specific character not only to the
nature of the patterns constituting it but also to the frequency with which
these are used and to the level of consciousness at which they operate, these
properties being probably connected with the circumstances in which the most
fundamental intellectual patterns were acquired”
Examples of Habitus may include; Winner,Loser, Intellectual, Academic, Artist,
Rebel, Punk, Gentleman, Lady, Criminal, Good Citizen.
Habitus is a powerful explanation for apparently 'deviant' behaviour - A 'Goodfella' 'master-pattern' is not a 'bad' thing to the boy who wants to have it - It is the most valuable acquisition he can imagine.
Links can be made to Bernsteins idea of Restricted and Elaborated Codes in Language use and the Idea of ‘Style’ as used by Hebdidge
The Frankfurt School & Mass Culture
Mass culture as a consumer product.
The Frankfurt School, like the right wing 'Cultural Conservatives' saw Mass or Popular Culture as a debased 'Mass Produced' culture designed to be 'sold'
It is for the 'mass' of the people, the majority of the population, as contrasted
to the 'elite' culture of the 'highbrow` minority section of the population
or the 'authentic' 'Folk' culture of pre-industrial societies. Mass culture,
popular culture, is seen as offering ready-made material for consumers to buy.
So, in the West we are surrounded by mass culture purveyed for us by capitalist
organisations all seeking to make profits from the consumption of the mass market.
Replacing existing cultures
Mass culture by the end of the twentieth century is seen as having largely replaced
existing cultures that the people had. So the idea of 'working-class culture'
has been lost. This view of mass culture presupposes that the ready-made product
which is purchased rather than produced from within the family or the community
or the social class has replaced indigenous culture, such as that mentioned
above, working class culture, and traditions and 'folk culture', and has disempowered
the people, making them more passive, less involved in creating things for themselves.
So, in cookery, food is now purchased pre-prepared (Junk food' 'fast food')
and people make their own meals from the raw ingredients far less than they
used to. Music is largely experienced as a passive listener.
Passivity
Passive experiences have replaced active ones in this conservative view of mass culture. People watch sports (on TV mainly) rather than participate in sports (especially after they have left school). They sit in the cinema rather than take part in community activities such as folk dancing or craftwork. Television presupposes a passive audience. People think about TV characters and talk about such programmes as soaps, rather than meeting real people and talking about them as they might have done in the past in village life. Advertising reaches an uncritical mass public from the hoardings and the television sets, and consumerism is the guiding force of mass culture.
Consumption
In this conservative view of mass culture, consumption is the main feature of
the mass market lifestyle. The mass media are to blame for 'brainwashing' the
people. In this view, from the consumerism and passivity of popular mass culture
come a number of social evils such as the break up of community life.Those Marxists
who formulated this perspective on popular culture in an academic way are usually
collectively referred to as The Frankfurt School. They include such writers
as T. Adorno, H. Marcuse and M. Horkheimer. Many of them were fugitives to America
from Hitler's Germany. Most took up academic posts in America where the theory
of mass society and mass culture was developed. These writers, like the ones
discussed capitalism, and for reasons which at first sight appear similar.
Working class - dynamic and progressive
They believed that the working class was once both dynamic and progressive However,
the capitalist system has
made that class soulless and one-dimensional. Traditional centres of authority,
like the family, have been replaced
by the state and by big business. These provide a schooling system, lifestyle
and entertainments which make the
working class passive, uncritical, unthinking. Believing they are free, people
are really manipulated. Believing
they are happy, people are really in a 'euphoria of unhappiness'. In a sense
this theory is a more complex
elaboration of the idea that the working class are pacified by 'bread and circuses'.
The rulers believe of the working
class that all they need do is keep their bellies full and their minds busy
with entertainment and they won't give
any trouble: 'The hypnotic power of the mass media deprive us of the capacity
for critical thought which is
essential if we are to change the world' (Marcuse).
The Frankfurt school sees the modem equivalent of bread as being all the consumer
items that modem capitalism
can provide. The circuses are the many elements which collectively comprise
mass culture; page 3 girls, Royalty, TV stars, football, soap operas, and soon.
Those in authority within capitalism are able to propagate a myth of freedom
and the illusion of choice. The masses are kept happy. They do not recognise
the repressive nature of their freedom
Media titillation
The radical left argue that the main function of the media is to titillate and
entertain, so that the attention and interests of the working class are diverted
from serious issues such as their exploited position in modern capitalism. The
extensive coverage of 'The Royals' does this particularly well. List other topics
which appear regularly in the media (both printed and broadcast) which could
be said to perform this function. What arguments could he used again the view
that their purpose is to pacify the working class by keeping them 'happy'?
The contradictions of permissiveness
We can illustrate these ideas by looking at the concept of 'the permissive society'.
It is usually said about the 1960s that they were years which marked the beginning
of new freedoms. People could, for the first time, explore their sexuality and
other previously repressed desires. Fashion and other styles were liberated
from the constraints
under which they had operated in the past. However, the concept of 'permissiveness'
contains all sorts of internal contradictions. It implies that someone is allowing
('permitting) freedom. But, freedom, is not really freedom if it is merely sanctioned
by some higher authority, perhaps temporarily. For the Frankfurt school the
sexual liberation of the 60s and later is an integral part of mass culture.
Modem sexuality is not real sexuality. it is in a form which Marcuse refers
to as 'repressive desublimation'. To sublimate something is to repress it. To
desublimate it is, therefore, to give it expression. But repressive desublimation,
an apparent contradiction in terms, means to give expression to, for example,
sexuality, in a repressive way. An illustration would be the trivial sexiness
and superficial eroticism expressed in the advertising world and ' Sunday Sport.
The aim of all this repression disguised as liberation is to keep the people
passive and feeling content. The working classes are potentially a revolutionary
force, capable of overthrowing capitalism. The way to stop them doing so is
to give them material well-being and the illusion of freedom. The mass media,
the welfare state and
the consumer society are all crucial in this effort. Here, then, is the important
difference between the conservative right and the radical left. The first sees
the natural state of the working class as contented and static. The second sees
it as discontented and dynamic. The first sees capitalism as disrupting this
natural state by causing unease and discontent. The second sees it as repressing
the natural state by creating a sense of case and well-being.
The Frankfurt School saw most culture a 'False Consciousness' - A 'con', however many contemporary Marxists however are encouraged by the way that the 'Mass Audience' make their own 'Readings' which 'resist' the 'dominant values' of Social Ideology or 'Hegemony' - The ideas of Gramsci are particularly important.
Hegemony is a term first used in it’s current sense by the Italian Marxist
Gramsci who realised that the ruling class in any society not only have great
economic power at their disposal but can also exercise an ideological control
over the culture itself through the ‘Texts’of that culture.The term
is so useful that it is used by many non-Marxist thinkers to explain the way
that the media effects the way people think.
Hegemony- definitions
“How the dominant ideology is accepted by the people.”
“ That process whereby the subordinate are led to consent to view the social
system and it’s everyday embodiments as ‘common sense’ , the
self evidently natural” (John Fiske)
A good analogy is the SUPERMARKET , if ( as is almost the case ) absolutely
everybody buys all their food from the supermarket then any food that isn’t
on the shelves dens’t exist for the shopper. So if your neighbour started
eating Shaggy inkcap toadstools for dinner he would be regarded as a ‘nutter’
The Supermarket starts as an economic unit but ends up defining what is possible.
Reader resistance
John Fiske(Introduction to Communication Studies) has stressed that the reader
can resist hegemony , though it is hard to see how anyone can entirely escape
it, for any ideas outside it will be seen as mad , dangerous or silly, or may
even be unthinkable. Reader resistance however can slowly alter the dominant
ideology, though radical changes will be watered down. If we return to the supermarket
analogy:
If Shaggy ink-caps catch on, then the supermarket may eventually start selling
them in cans. (For a real example of this look at ‘Green Consumerism’,
which is a dangerous, radical anti-capitalist idea transformed into a commodity.)
“ Hegemony is a constant struggle against a multitude of resistances to ideological domination, and any balance of forces that it achieves is always precarious, always in need of re-achievement. Hegemony’s victories are never final.'