Summary: Contemporary Approaches In Cultural Sociology

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• 3 Culture as cognitive structure

• The approach of culture as a cognitive structure is a combination of two related traditions within sociology. Can you name them?

  • Cognitive Sociology.
    
  • Meaning is not subjective, individualistic or particular.
  • Through social organisations, thought styles and symbolic systems emerge that affect how people give meaning.
  • From Durkheim towards Zerubavel.
  • Structuralism (Structural analysis).
  • Meaning is autonomous.
  • It has a structure and logic of its own.
  • We can decode this structure and logic. 
  • Meaning can be studied 'objectively'.
  • It is concretely visible in: texts, symbols, stories, objects, and events. 
  • Durkheim & de Saussure to Lévi-Strauss.

• 3.1 Zerubavel (1997) - The gates of consciousness and social division of the world

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• According to Zerubavel (1997) and cognitive sociology, what are the six social aspects of cognitive functions that determine why our thinking is similar to - as well as different from - the way other people think?

  • Perceiving.
    
  • Mental focusing.
  • Classifying.
  • Assigning meaning.
  • Remembering.
  • Reckoning time. 

• 3.2 Lévi-Strauss (1955) - Structural study of myth

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• Where Durkheim talks about "collective conscience" we could say that Lévi-Strauss is about 'collective unconsciousness' .Can you explain this

  • Unconsciousness.
  • Strauss looks at the structural processes that humans unconsciously use to make sense of the world (through binary oppositions).
  • Collective.
  • These processes are universal to all humans. 
  • I.e., why the result might differ widely, the way in which people make sense of the world is the same. 

• 4 Culture in action

• Can you describe the approach of Culture in Action?

  • Culture as toolkit.
    
  • Culture doesn't force us to think/behave a certain way but is more of a toolkit from which people actively choose what to use for in a particular situation.
  • I.e., Individuals and groups draw fluidly on different elements in symbolic repertoires, or toolkits, according to the specific context. 
  • The ways in which individuals or groups give meanings to actions are context-dependent. 
  • Interaction and social practices are meaning making processes.
  • Not just structures of the mind.
  • Cultural meaning is grounded in these interactions and social practices.
  • Culture in action presupposes agency. 

• 6 'Genered' Culture

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• What do we mean with gender socialization?

  • How roles, cultural expectations, and norms, associated with the sexes are transferred from one generation to the next.
  • Actors in this process: family, school, sports, popular media and culture.
  • E.g., football is masculine, playing with a barbie is feminine. 

• What do we mean when we say people "do gender"?

  • It means that gender is not just a fixed characteristic of someone, but people actively perform their gender through behaviour, speech, clothing, mannerisms, etc. 
    
  • Highlights Culture in action. 
  • Accountability.
  • When people "do gender" they are not only performing their gender identity, but are also aware of the consequences of their actions in relaltion to institutional gender roles. 
  • Deviating form expected roles might cause social sanctions, stigma, or pushback from others. 
  • E.g., a man who shows vulnerability may be ridiculed as "unmanly", or a women who is assertive in a professional setting might receive pushback as "being a bitch". 

• 6.1 Finley (2010) - Skating Femininity

• How can we see social marking in sports?

  • Men doing a sport is considered the standard and therefore unmarked.
    
  • E.g., It is called the Champions League or NBA. That the gender is male is implied.
  • The other side, women, are given clear attention and are marked.
  • E.g., it is called the Women Champions league and WNBA. 

• Skating Femininity (Finley, 2010) indicates the Roller Derby as an example of gender meneuvering.What do we mean with gender maneuvering?

  • Gender meneuvering.
  • How people, despite being constrained by societal norms and expectations regarding gender, possess agency and can actively (re)shape their gendered experiences.
  • E.g., roller derby combines masculine traits with extreme feminine ones.
  • Re-doing gender.
  • If gender is being done, then it can also be redone.
  • I.e., Changed meaning-making in relation to gender.
  • Culture in action.
  • Highlights that people have agency and are not merely constrained by structures and institutions.

• Skating Femininity (Finley, 2010) discerns three types of both masculinities and femininities. Can you describe all of them?

  • Masculinities:
    
  • Hegemonic.
  • Highest status, strong, tough, the action movie hero or rock star.
  • Complicit.
  • Not part of the hegemonic group, but looks up and ideolizes that group.
  • Subordinate.
  • Having none of the masculine traits and perceived by many as 'not a real man'. 
  • Femininities:
  • Emphasised (hegemonic).
  • Complements hegemonic masculinity.
  • Pariah.
  • Challenges masculine dominance, and therefore is often stigmatised:
  • Authoritarian women is a 'bitch', sexually non-compliant women is a 'slut' etc.
  • Alternative.
  • De-stigmatising gender roles by maneuvering other femininities into alternative femininities

• How do the roller girls in Skating Femininity (Finley, 2010), alternative femininity?

  • They combine hegemonic and pariah femininity by being masculine but doing it in an intentionally feminised way.
    
  • Hegemonic: cleavage, short skirts, make-up, etc.
  • Pariah: Tough, physical, aggressive, dominant.
  • By using mockery, play, rejecting 'girlie girl' and making stigma like 'bitch' a word of honour, the roller derby girls maneuver pariah femininities into alternative femininities.