Cultural Theory

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The study of the social and cultural aspects of human life.

Culture: Culture is the shared beliefs, values, practices, and artifacts that define a society, community, or group.
Society: Society is the organization of people living within a community, often with shared norms, customs, and traditions.
Symbolic Interactionism: Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that explores how people communicate and interact through symbols, such as language, gestures, and other forms of nonverbal communication.
Structural Functionalism: Structural functionalism is a sociological theory that sees society as an interconnected system of parts, where each part has a specific function within the overall system.
Conflict Theory: Conflict theory is a sociological theory that suggests that society is in a constant state of conflict and that this conflict between groups is a key driver of social change.
Cultural Capital: Cultural capital is the collection of knowledge, skills, and cultural norms and practices that a person possesses and can use to achieve social and economic success.
Power and Dominance: Power and dominance are social concepts that explore how some individuals or groups have more control over others.
Socialization: Socialization refers to the process by which an individual learns the norms, values, and beliefs of a particular society or culture.
Globalization: Globalization is the process of increasing interconnectedness and interdependence among people, organizations, and nations around the world.
Race and Ethnicity: Race and ethnicity are social constructs that refer to shared biological or cultural characteristics among a group of people.
Gender and Sexuality: Gender and sexuality explore how people's identity and behavior are influenced by their biological sex, societal norms, and cultural traditions.
Postmodernism: Postmodernism is a broad cultural and intellectual movement that challenges traditional ways of thinking about reality, truth, and knowledge.
Intersectionality: Intersectionality explores how multiple forms of oppression intersect and create unique experiences for individuals who are part of multiple marginalized groups.
Cultural Hegemony: Cultural hegemony is the dominant culture within a society, which shapes and reinforces the beliefs, values, and behaviors of individuals and groups.
Media and Popular Culture: Media and popular culture studies explore how media and popular culture shape individuals' perceptions and behaviors, as well as society at large.
Structuralism: This theory suggests that culture can be understood as an organized system of symbols, meaning it is constructed, transmitted, and reproduced in a patterned way through society.
Post-structuralism: This approach is an extension of structuralism, which focuses on how power operates within cultural systems. It argues that there is no fixed meaning in culture, and meaning is created through language and discourse.
Marxism: This theory argues that culture is shaped by economic and social conditions, and cultural production is controlled by those in power in a society. It emphasizes on how ideology and ideology of dominant classes influence cultural products.
Feminism: This theory focuses on how gender structures and power relations influence cultural production, representation, and consumption. It critiques patriarchy, and how it limits women's position in culture.
Postmodernism: This theory emphasizes that culture is fragmented, and meaning is constructed through discourse and experience. It encourages cultural borrowing, pastiche, and reflexivity.
Cultural Studies: This interdisciplinary field of study emphasizes on the production, representation, and reception of culture. It integrates sociology, literature, media, and anthropology to examine cultural phenomena.
Psychoanalytic Theory: This theory emphasizes on how unconscious desires and fears shape cultural products meanings. It argues that cultural products reflect repressed desires, and our relations are influenced by our past experiences.
Phenomenology: This theory emphasizes on how meaning is constructed through subjective experiences. It argues that cultural products can be understood only through lived experiences.
"examines the dynamics of contemporary culture (including its politics and popular culture) and its historical foundations."
"cultural practices relate to wider systems of power associated with, or operating through, social phenomena... ideologies, class structures, national formations, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and generation."
"views cultures not as fixed, bounded, stable, and discrete entities, but rather as constantly interacting and changing sets of practices and processes."
"cultural studies encompasses a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives and practices... draws upon and has contributed to each of these fields [cultural anthropology and ethnic studies]"
"developed by British Marxist academics in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s"
"combines a variety of politically engaged critical approaches including semiotics, Marxism, feminist theory, ethnography, post-structuralism, postcolonialism, social theory, political theory, history, philosophy, literary theory..."
"how meaning is generated, disseminated, contested, bound up with systems of power and control, and produced from the social, political and economic spheres within a particular social formation or conjuncture."
"generated important theories of cultural hegemony and agency."
"during the rise of neoliberalism in Britain and the US, cultural studies both became a global movement."
"attracted the attention of many conservative opponents both within and beyond universities for a variety of reasons."
"a worldwide movement of students and practitioners with a raft of scholarly associations and programs, annual international conferences and publications carry on work in this field today."
"attempt to explain and analyze the cultural forces related and processes of globalization."
"cultural practices relate to wider systems of power associated with, or operating through, social phenomena."
"views cultures not as fixed, bounded, stable, and discrete entities, but rather as constantly interacting and changing sets of practices and processes."
"draws upon and has contributed to each of these fields [cultural anthropology and ethnic studies]."
"examination of the forces within and through which socially organized people conduct and participate in the construction of their everyday lives."
"understand how meaning is generated, disseminated, contested, bound up with systems of power and control."
"semiotics, Marxism, feminist theory, ethnography, post-structuralism, postcolonialism, social theory, political theory, history, philosophy, literary theory, media theory..."
"processes of globalization."
"combining a variety of politically engaged critical approaches drawn from different disciplines to study cultural phenomena in various societies and historical periods." Note: The provided paragraph does not contain specific quotes that directly answer all the questions, so some answers are derived from the overall context.