Culture

- Achieved and ascribed status

- Caste system - example of ascribed status
- Youth subcultures (often made up of marginalised groups)
- Abrams - Youth subcultures are a distinct phase of life for everyone.

Types of Culture
Folk culture - Culture of ordinary people in pre-industrial society
- Comes from life experience rather than media
- Seen as pure and simple

High culture - Some cultural products (such as ballet and opera) have higher status
than others as they show high creativity
- Helps form the identity of the economic and political elite

Popular culture - Anything popularly accepted among society
- Includes things like cooking, clothing, consumption, and mass media
- Raymond Williams - Pop culture was considered low culture because it belonged
to the working classes

Mass culture - Simplified, formulaic entertainment for mass consumption
- Marxists - this type of culture is standardised, formulaic and repetitive with a
passive audience
- Theodor Adorno (Composer) - Mass culture keeps the working classes happy but
docile, preventing social unrest

Consumer culture - People show their identity by what they consume
- Affected by the economy
- Lury 1996 - features of a consumer culture:
- Wide availability of consumer goods
- Shopping seen as leisure
- Different forms of shopping
- Debt is accepted as a social norm
- Packaging and promotion of goods is a large scale business

Globalisation - Global culture is a key feature in this process - McLuhan 1989 global
village
Socialisation
Nature vs. Nurture
- Lombroso - believed criminals could be identified by their appearance resembling
our earlier ancestors
- Feral children - Genie - Had inadequate primary socialisation which shows her
behaviour may result from nurture, however her dad claimed she was disabled so it
may be partly down to nature

Formal control - Religion, workplace
Informal control - Family, peer group
Both - Education, media


























Gender Identities
Identity in General
- Identity as sameness + identity as difference
- Woodward 2000 - to have an identity, choice is required. People choose to identify
with something or somebody. Identity is about belonging to something.
- Bradley 1996 - difference between passive and active identity. Passive identity =
born or socialised into e.g. gender, class, ethnicity, age. Active = chosen e.g. being a
singer or a footballer.

Gender
- Ann Oakley - Canalisation and manipulation

Masculinities Case Studies
- Abbott - Men now take more interest in their personal appearance and are more
confident in enjoying things traditionally seen as feminine
- Mac an Ghaill - Theres a crisis of masculinity because the traditional masculine
identity is no longer relevant - this causes some men to get depressed or turn to
crime, whereas others create new identities
- Wilkinson - Theres a convergence of the values of young men and women - men
becoming more expressive and women becoming more instrumental. Choice leads
them to move away from stereotypes
- Connell - Identifies 4 types of masculinity:
Hegemonic: Laddish culture, heterosexual, possibly aggressive
Marginalised: Men who now dont have their manual labour jobs as a guarantee of
employment who have a feeling of loss
Subordinate: Gay men who behave differently to hegemonic masculinity
Complicit: New men who take on a shared role in the family
- Anoop Nayak - Body capital means men were able to not do domestic work
because they did hard manual labour. Displaced masculinity means boys from post-
industrial areas without many manual labour jobs had to try and prove their
masculinity in other ways like lad culture
- Paul Willis - Learning to labour - Studies working class boys in their last 1.5 years
of school and found they didnt cooperate due to their working class culture, they
didnt like people who did conform and they didnt see the point of qualifications as
they wanted a manual labour job


Femininities Case Studies
- Jackson - Normative femininity means there are characteristics women should
stereotypically have to be considered female. Ladettes are women who adopt a male
approach to life and education - basically female lads
- Blackman POSTMODERNIST - New wave girls had an interest in punk and new
wave music and were able to resist parental, masculine and school control. They
expressed their identity through consumer culture e.g. oversized jumpers and Doc
Martens
- Sue Sharpe - Working class girls in 1970s valued family, having children and love. In
the 1990s they valued their career, independence and education.
- McRobbie and Garber - Bedroom culture
- Osler and Vincent - Girls were less likely to challenge authority because it was seen
as an unfeminine thing to do, whereas for boys it was an important part of their
masculine identity.
























Ethnic Identities
Ethnicity: Cultural heritage, where you were born, where your ancestors were born -
can be related to skin colour in surveys.
Race: Innate biological differences between groups in society e.g. eye, hair and skin
colour - skin colour is seen as the most important racial difference but this may be a
socially constructed idea.
Nationality: What country you were born in and/or are a citizen of.
Hybrid identity: Mix of 2 or more cultures e.g. Chicken Tikka Masala is the most
popular takeaway in the UK but its Asian.

Multiculturalism: People of different cultures living together and tolerating each
others beliefs. The cultures coexist and dont merge.
Assimilation: Different cultures eventually all merge into a majority culture.

Ethnic Identity Key Studies
- Modood - 3 components of ethnicity:
Culture: i.e. shared language, food, religion, tradition and norms and values.
Descent: Influenced by the country a person was born in, where they currently live
and their ancestry.
Sense of Identity: Means a cultural attachment to others and often a sense of pride.
Some White British people feel ethnicity is something only non-white people have.
- Said - Othering: A person defines their ethnic identity in relation to what theyre
not rather than what they are. For example, a black person could define themselves
as non-white rather than black.
- Johal and Baines - Dual identities: Where people have multiple identities
depending on who theyre with.
Code switching: People change in and out of these identities depending on the
situation. Essentially they are role taking.









African-Caribbean Studies
- Gilroy - Black expressive cultures - Black people have made many contributions to
pop culture in the UK. There is no single black culture but they all have common
themes e.g. awareness of their past in slavery.
- Alexander - The art of being black - 1996: studied black youths in London and
found many black identities. There were symbolic markers of being black, for
example in clothes, music and mannerisms. 2002: the cool styles of black youth
have had enormous popularity in Britain.
Asian Studies
- Bennett - Asian lifestyles - Each religion has its own place of worship and calendar
of fasts. Their religion affects their diet, dress code and moral attitude. However,
there are some similarities between traditionally Asian religions, e.g. arranged
marriage, importance of extended family, and family honour. People are becoming
more aware of Asian youth culture in Britain e.g. bhangra and ragga music. New
Asian youth identities are being created.

White Studies
- Hewitt - Invisible culture - Young whites often feel they dont have a culture. They
see other cultures in the UK celebrating and feel like they cant celebrate their own
culture without being branded as racist or suspicious, because symbols of white
cultural identity are often associated with far-right racist groups.

















Multiculturalism Studies
- Modood - Complexities of Black British generations - There is no single black
culture and the way black generations are defining themselves is changing, from
black to West Indian to Afro-Caribbean. There is a continuing influence of
Caribbean culture. Religion is more important for the first generation than the
second. Young blacks put on a defiant display of their ethnic identities to show
resistance to racism.
- Ballard - Cultural navigation (applied to British Asian population) - Conflict
between Asian teenagers and parents has been exaggerated. There are some
differences between Asian and mainstream cultures but young Asians can navigate
between them by switching codes. Friction still occurs but it can be handled.
- Mirza - British Muslims integration and separation - Integrated: Most Muslims are
integrated in British society and want to live under British law rather than Sharia law.
Generally they prefer mixed state schools to faith schools. Most of them feel British
and are friends with non-Muslims. Religion is not that important to the majority.
Living apart: Young Muslims in particular live apart from non-Muslims in some ways.
Those aged 16-24 were more likely than their parents to say religion was the most
important thing in their lives and they supported Sharia law and faith schools more.
74% of young Muslims supported wearing veils, compared to 28% of their parents.
- Back - Hybridisation - Found that hybrid identities are emerging among young
whites, Asians and blacks in 2 council estates in London. They are in a transitional
stage where they want to create their own identity. They try out cultural masks,
experiment with new roles, and try different styles, meanings and symbols. He found
many inter-racial friendships and a lot of cultural borrowing. Hybridisation helped
bring young people from different backgrounds together.

Statistics
In the UK 2011:
86% identified themselves as White which is a decrease from previous years.
7.5% Asian/Brasian.
3.3% Black.
2.2% Mixed.
Across England and Wales, London was the most ethnically diverse and Wales was
the least.
91% identified with at least one UK national identity (English, Welsh, Scottish,
Northern Irish, and British).


Agents of Socialisation - Impact on Ethnic Identity
Family - Language, name, food, values, structural differences
- Francis and Archer - British Chinese families value education more
Education - Cultural bias in the curriculum
- Faith schools
- Mason - Schools are ethnocentric
- Johal and Baines - Some children wear white masks
- Wright et al - Black girls felt they were treated unfairly
- Sewell - Black boys tried to resist racism from teachers
Media - Jhally - Minorities were ignored or stereotyped from 70s-90s but not so
much anymore
Religion - Modood - Du Bois predicted 100 years ago that colour would be the
worlds greatest divide in the 20
th
century
Peer group - Alexander - Peer groups are crucial in art of being black
Workplace - Modood et al - some workplaces are ethnically diverse, others arent
- Some minorities are more likely to be unemployed and ethnicity affects income and
profession
- Song - Many Chinese people in the UK work in food and catering
- 1/3 of all NHS doctors are Asian



















Age
Ways to measure age:
Chronological (years) and life course (stages).

Life course: Childhood, youth, adulthood, middle age, old age

Youth
Abrams - Young people are all part of the same youth culture and are at the same
transitional stage - they are learning and negotiating the path into adulthood.
Willis - Most youths can be identified as being ordinary.
Polemus - Youth is a time for experimenting and shopping at the supermarket of
style. Youths pick and mix customs and identity in an anything goes culture.
Clarke - Youth is based around rebellion and resistance against the norm and their
low status. Subcultures often used to represent youths in media give an
unrepresentative identity.

Middle Age
Victor - Middle age is a distinctive phase of life related to people in their 40s and 50s
preceding the onset of becoming old. There are no clear boundaries of middle age - it
may just be a state of mind.
Bradley - Middle age is sometimes seen as having low status but in other ways brings
a higher status than youth or old age.

Old Age
Victor - Old age is stereotyped as a period of loneliness, having poor health and
being dependent on others - it is a homogenous (easier to identify) category.
Clarke and Warren - Interviewed 23 people aged 60-96 and found most of the
respondents identified this phase of life in an active and engaged way (active ageing).
2 had trouble looking forward but the rest saw old age as bringing new opportunities
and a time for reflection and family.
McKingsley - Those aged 85+ are the fastest growing segment of the population,
commonly referred to as the oldest old, which suggests there is now a young
elderly.




Social Class
Views of social class:
Registrar-General Scale: Putting people into social classes based on their
occupation - very Positivist. Non-manual workers are of a higher class than
manual workers.

Marxism: Based upon wealth and the ownership of the means of production -
bourgeoisie and proletariat.
Bourdieu (Neo-Marxist): Used the concept of capital to illustrate social class
differences. Types of capital:
Economic capital - Command over economic resources, invested to make more
wealth.
Cultural capital - Forms of knowledge, skills, and education that give a person a
higher status in society.
Social capital - Group membership, relationships, and networks of influence
and support.

Post-Modernism: Social classes in the UK are fragmenting and boundaries
between social classes are no longer as clear. This could be due to globalisation
or consumer culture (Lyon - the post-modern world is a consumer society and
people can choose different styles that were traditionally associated with a
particular class).













Agents of Socialisation - Impact on Class Identity
Family - Reay - Middle-class mothers are able to influence their childrens primary
schooling more than working-class mothers because working-class mothers have less
time and confidence and more negative experiences at school.
Carter and Coleman - The risk of teenage pregnancy is almost 10x higher for girls
from unskilled backgrounds than from professional ones.
Education - Power et al. - There is a close relationship between middle-class
children, achievement at public schools and gaining places at elite universities.
Bourdieu - Middle-class students going to university is like being a fish in water
whereas it can be daunting and isolating for the working class.
Media - Medhurst - A group of middle-class students watching The Royle Family
believed it was an accurate portrayal of working-class life.
Brundson - The middle class saw satellite dishes as tasteless and a symbol of the
working class, but now media technology has become a part of popular culture.
Religion - There is some evidence that attendance at C of E ceremonies is higher for
middle classes, but this area is under-researched.
Peer group - Mac an Ghaill - There are different types of masculinities in school
related to class position.
Brah - The working-class identity was essential for white skinheads in the West
Midlands who worked hard constructing their culture.
Workplace - Savage - Did a study of middle-class doctors and evidence from a
working-class area indicated a strong relationship between occupation and class
identity in the UK.