There is clearly a connection
between the regulating power
of culture and the maintenance
of social order, and some saw it
as more than merely a process of
socialization. Antonio Gramsci
recognized the potential for culture
to be used as a means of social
control. Through subtle coercion,
a dominant culture imposes a
“cultural hegemony” in which
social norms become so ingrained
that anything else is unthinkable.
Michel Foucault developed this
idea further in his study of power
relations, and others, including
Herbert Marcuse, examined the
ways in which culture could be
used to quell social unrest. Later,
another French sociologist, Jean
Baudrillard, argued that in the
postmodern world, with its
explosion of availability of
information, culture had become
so far removed from the society in
which it exists that it bears little
relation to reality.Cultural identity
A distinct branch of culturally
oriented sociology emerged in
the UK from the latter part of the
20th century: cultural studies.
The starting point was Raymond
Williams’ extensive research
into the idea of culture. His work
transformed the concept, opening
up entirely new areas of study to
sociological investigation.
Williams explained that culture
is expressed by material production
and consumption, and by the
creations and leisure pursuits of
social groups of a specific time
and place—their food, sports,
fashion, languages, beliefs, ideas,and customs, as well as their
literature, art, and music.
Also at the forefront of this British
school of cultural studies was
Stuart Hall, who suggested that
notions of cultural identity are
no longer fixed. With significantly
improved communications and
increased mobility, traditional
national, ethnic, class, and even
gender identities have all but
disappeared—and another British
sociologist, Benedict Anderson,
goes so far as to suggest that
the concept of belonging to any
community is illusory.
However, the US sociologist
Jeffrey Alexander considered
culture to be an independent
variable in the structure of society.
His cultural sociology examines
how culture shapes society through
the creation of shared meaning. ■CULTURE AND IDENTITY
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1981
1983
1992
2003
Benedict Anderson’s
Imagined Communities
explains that national
identity is an
illusory concept.In his article “The Question of
Cultural Identity,” Stuart Hall
describes the “identity
crisis” brought about by the
fragmentation of traditional
notions of culture.Jeffrey Alexander argues in
The Meanings of Social Life:
A Cultural Sociology that
culture is autonomous
from society, but can
still act as a force for
social change.Jean Baudrillard’s
Simulacra and Simulation
suggests that nature
and artifice are
indistinguishable in the
postmodern world.In One-Dimensional
Man, Herbert Marcuse
argues that pluralistic
society has
homogenized
culture and quashed
the spirit of rebellion.175