In this excerpt from Culture and Everyday Life (2005), D. Inglis intends to clarify the notions of high/low and popular cultures and their impact on everyday life and conversely, arguing that the social and cultural spheres cannot be separated. He also tries to explain the way art is defined as such.
He talks about the opposition and even hierarchy between high and popular culture and how this opposition has emerged. High culture refers to the culture of elites whereas popular culture is the one of the working class. High culture is deemed to be superior to popular culture. It is more ‘noble', has greater value for it is produced to induce reflection when popular culture is only produced to be consumed. Popular culture embodies consumption society.
[...] Low culture emerges and defines itself as a way of contesting the dominant values. It is a means of resistance. It purposefully breaks the rules of high culture, turns it into ridicule. It is a means through which working class affirms its social identity. This excerpt is interesting to communicate cultural studies because it stresses that culture shapes social relations and social relations shape culture. Who holds the cultural power is also in position of imposing and enforcing social order through the promotion of certain norms and behaviours. [...]
[...] He is interested in sociology of culture and art, cultural theory and social theory. His main research focuses are the concepts of culture and aesthetics within certain historical and social theory contexts. He has written on sociological accounts of ‘nature' and their limits, but also on social theory and culture in ancient Greece and Rome, on phenomena of globalization and their effects on cultures, and on accounts of ‘high culture' and ‘art' and the limits of such accounts. Indicative Bibliography by Oboulo.com http://www.abdn.ac.uk/socsci/staff/details.php?id=d.inglis Storey, John (2006). [...]
[...] So class defines culture. The dominant class, the elite, defines high culture and imposes its norms. The dominant culture, the ‘high' culture, has a ‘sacred' aspect whereas popular culture is seen as ‘profane'. It is important to keep in mind, this notion of the definition of dominant culture is because it is the core of the issue of social and power relations. If classes define culture, then culture also defines classes. The culture you relate to allows identifying you as a member of a certain social group associated with certain levels of cultural capital. [...]
[...] “High”, “Popular” and “Low” Cultures in Everyday Life by D. Inglis In this excerpt from Culture and Everyday Life (2005), D. Inglis intends to clarify the notions of high/low and popular cultures and their impact in everyday life and conversely, arguing that the social and cultural spheres cannot be separated. He also tries to explain the way art is defined as such. He talks about the opposition and even hierarchy between high and popular culture and how this opposition has emerged. [...]
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