Culture, Society, Sociology

September 2, 2014

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Recap: The Problem of Sorting

Remember the most-to-least-similar problem

UNC-CH Rankings:

“Contribution to the Public Good”:http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/

rankings-2014/national-universities-rank.php

“Happiest Freshmen”: http://www.collegechoice.net/posts/

colleges-with-happiest-freshman/

“Absolutely Everything that Matters”:http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/25/

the-best-52-colleges-in-america-period-when-you-consider-absolutely-everything-that-matters/

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What are Americans Like?

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

American Exceptionalism

Individualistic

“A Nation of Joiners”

Americans’ “habits of the heart”

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Persistent TrendsAmericans remain more likely than others to. . .

Go to church

Volunteer in social services agencies

Mistrust government

Resent taxation

Believe wealth is distributed fairly

Have opinions

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Culture

“What are Americans Like” is an invitation to discuss Americanculture

What do we mean by culture?

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Culture (cont.)

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Culture (cont.)

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Culture (cont.)

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Culture (cont.)

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The Sociology of Culture

Older conception: the Values of a population

Example: Americans value freedom, success, wealth, opportunity

Problems:1 Nobody was ever able to measure these values2 Very little variation

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The Sociology of Culture (cont.)

• New conception: Repertoire of InterpretiveStrategies

Repertoire: A list of dramas, operas, pieces, parts, etc., which a companyor a person has rehearsed and is prepared to perform

Interpret: To explain or tell the meaning of; to expound; to translateorally into intelligible or familiar language or terms; todecipher; to define; to apprehend and represent by means ofart; to show by illustrative representation; as, an actorinterprets the character of Hamlet; a musician interprets asonata; an artist interprets a landscape

Strategy: an elaborate and systematic plan of action

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The Sociology of Culture (Cont.)

Ann Swidler (1986): “Culture in Action”

Drawing on Tocqueville: Styles, Skills, Habits

Culture as Toolbox

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The Sociology of Culture (cont.)

Cultures are cross-cutting and overlapping

Cultural membership can be partial

Cultures “produce” their members

Cultures provide members with the ways they understand their livesand the tools they choose to apply to problems

Culture is both constraining and enabling

People know more culture than they use (Vaisey)

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Collective Memory

One thing that holds cultures together is what they know in common

Obvious, taken for granted, remembered

Culture in mind vs. Culture in the world

Collected vs. Collective memories

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The Unbuilt EnvironmentPerrin, Perrin, Caren, Skinner

Does physical environment affect obesity risk?

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Cultural ObjectsArt, Music, Food, etc.

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The Nacirema: Cultural Objects

“The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite.Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious [6] about care of themouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger asrevolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a smallbundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders,and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.”

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Example: Watergate

Michael Schudson, Watergate in American Memory: How weRemember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past

Americans “think with” Watergate

What other tools does American culture provide?

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Example: Hiroshima

1945 atomic bombing

Not commemorated as “Mecca of Peace” until after 1954

Saito H. “Reiterated Commemoration: Hiroshima as National Trauma.”Sociological Theory 24:4 (December 2006)

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Example: Madonna

(Switch to PowerPoint)

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Generations

Karl Mannheim (1893–1947): generations are defined throughcommon experiences

e.g, Great Depression, WWII, Kennedy Assassination, Vietnam, BerlinWall, 9/11

Survey questions: what do people remember when asked?

Southern whites of a particular age (born 1929–1956) mention theCivil Rights Movement more than other regions or ages

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Culture: Measurement and Effects

Culture is very tough to measure

Big data is one frontier

Evidence for culture mattering?

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