Contemporary British Culture and Society

General introduction to the study of culture and society

What is culture?
- Ideology
o Related to how people think about the world
o A process of belief
o A series of knowledge how we understand the world
- Ideology as a technology
o People who see things similarly are like each other
o They belong to the same group
o Background is influential
- You are an object of ideology
o Ideology and beliefs form one’s identity, who one is
o E.g. the ideology of Santa Claus, democracy, etc.
o Ideology not only influences beliefs but also who someone is
o Ideology organizes concepts into categories
- A code of behaviour: norms and mores
o Cultural ideology is a system of rules
o Expectations → not everybody behaves the same way, it is rather expected of
them
o What feels “right”
o What one “should” do
o The thought that “everybody does that”
o Mores: a force of judgment
 “You’ve just broken a rule”
- Material culture
o Learning about a culture based on materialistic things: e.g. clothes, music
o Reflects the way someone sees the world
How do we study culture?
- What do we look at?
- “How does this group / object work?”
- “Why is this group / object this way?”
Two schools of thought
- Frankfurt school: focuses on ideology and power (hegemony)
o The power that controls society comes from the people in charge
- Birmingham school: focuses on group dynamics and identity
o People are producing their own culture
o E.g. influencers
The Frankfurt School
- Started in the 1930s in Germany, influenced by Marxist theory
- Critical theory must critique itself
o We must understand the world around us
Contemporary British Culture and Society

- Based on Hegel’s idea of the dialectic. Movement and change in ideas. Negation and
contradiction are inherent in ideas.
o There’s always going to be something in between
o “Grey” area
o Every ideology needs something to control the ideas
- Influenced by Jurgen Habermas: rationality in interaction, not in the autonomous
subject
Base and superstructure
- Marxist concept of the structure of society
- Base: the economic foundations. Capital, production, distribution, consumption
- Superstructure: legal, social, political, intellectual life
- Max Weber (early 1900s): structuralism – base and superstructure create and shape
each other
- Antonio Gramsu (1910-1930s): superstructure is divided into political and civil
o Political: laws, police, military
o Civil: what creates consensus to follow
- There is no one who isn’t shaped by culture
Horkheimer and Adorno: the culture industry
- The Dialectic of Enlightenment, 1944
- What went wrong?
- According to the Marxists
- Fundamentally opposed to the Marxist idea of seizing the means of production as a
path to liberation
- Today, we worship wealth, not aristocracy
- If we follow this path, culture will value money above all
- Capitalism leads to the production of a rationalized culture with no myth of soul
- Rationality leads to money and success
- Not having capital is a source of shame
The logic of disintegration
- Dismisses idealistic theories, like those of Heidegger; instead focuses on the “logic of
disintegration”
o Idealistic: based in ideas, suggesting the freedom of the human mind through
thinking and reflection
- Disintegration: a living system that is constantly breaking up and re-forming itself
- Identity is both transcendental (beyond the body) and materialistic (tied to physical
things, such as clones, houses, cars, etc.)
Domination of nature is at the root of the domination of rationality
- Western civilization and the emphasis on rationality
- Domination and “technological rationality”
- It brings all external and internal things under the power of the human subject
- The subject is swallowed up by this process: no force remains by which the subject
could free itself
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- Individual truth vs. truth of theory

The Birmingham School
- First started in the 1960s
- Stuart Hall
- Encoding / Decoding
- Stuart Hall: culture sends the message (is encoded) that being white is the standard
- Not based in Marxist thought, but in anthropology
- Encoding / Decoding: the idea that all cultural texts depend on an accepted structure to
pass on, and the reception of it will depend on the recipient’s own codes
Culture as discourse
- Focus on the idea of it being a discourse (discursive communication)
- Stuart Hall: “The event must become a ‘story’ before it can become a communicative
event.” (1980)
Producing culture
- Production: Who makes it? What discourse(s) is it part of? Uses ideologies, beliefs,
and values.
- Circulation: visual vs. written
- TV: audience is both “source and receiver” of message
- Use: meaningful discourse. Needs active recipients.
- Reproduction: the cognitive, behavioural, emotional, ideological result of the message.
What the audience does with the message.
Dick Hebdige and punk subculture
- The idea that subculture (punk) creates its own series of ideologies, symbols, and
codes in order to separate itself from the mainstream. Punk is assimilated into media
culture in order to categorize it into society.
Stuart Hall and the audience
- Three positions to TV message:
o Dominant / Hegemonic
 Fully in agreement with the ideology being transmitted
o Negotiated
 Resistant, part of the audience being addressed in some ways
o Oppositional
 Rejecting, outside the audience addressed
- Everybody receives the story some way → it’s still being communicated
Contemporary British Culture and Society

Current Political and Social Issues in the UK

Ruling Party: Conservative and Unionist (Tory) Party
- David Cameron (2010-2016)
o Conservative Party
o Resigned because of Brexit
- Theresa May (2016-2019)
o Served as Home Secretary (2010-2016)
o Identifies as one-nation conservative
- Boris Johnson (2019-)
o Former political columnist, mayor of London, Foreign Secretary

Political Parties in 2017 General Election

- Conservative and Unionist Party
- Labour Party
- Scottish National Party
- Liberal Democrats
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Sinn Féin
- Plaid Cymru – Party of Wales
- Green Party
- Independent
- * Brexit Party
The major issues: Brexit and Immigration
- Vote in 2016: 52% in favour, 48% against
- Major issues:
o Customs union or free trade area? (free trade allows own economic
negotiations with outside countries)
o Free movement of people (very important in Ireland / Northern Ireland)
o EU members currently living in the UK
o A possible Scottish independence?
o Immigration: UK wants a cap of 100,000 / year, down from 200k-300k
- Hard Brexit vs. Soft Brexit
o Leaving with no customs union, free movement for people, etc.
- Boris Johnson and Prorogation
The major issues: Brexit and Immigration
- Prorogation currently in the UK Supreme Court
- Prorogation reconvenes October 14
- EU leaders summit October 18
- Current Brexit date: October 31
- BUT the Benn Act (September 9) → Prime Minister must delay on October 19 if no
deal with EU + Parliamentary approval
Welfare and universal credit
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- Since the 1930s, the UK has been a welfare state

- Particularly important for the traditional working class
- Universal Credit:
o Jobseeker’s Allowance
o Housing Benefit
o Working Tax Credit
o Child Tax Credit
o Employment and Support Allowance
o Income Support
- Delayed and over-budget. Transition not fully expected before 2022
- 2015: major reduction of £5.5 billion / year
Healthcare
- Aging population, fewer young people in the workforce
- More need for careers: nurses, hospice care, social workers
- NHS (National Health Service) underfunded. Staffing problems, particularly because
of Brexit.
Post-Industrial Economy
- End of traditional jobs in manufacturing, mining, agriculture
- Particularly hard for working-class communities that rely on a single source of income
- Expansion of jobs in the service industry, also in technology, culture
- Council housing and welfare
- International trade and welfare
International role of the UK
- Declining prestige and ability to project US power abroad, foreign policy linked to EU
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Colonial history, foreign policy, and the military

Themes
- British exceptionalism – the belief that the British are separate and superior, and
deserve more than other nations
- White supremacy
- Orientalism
Expansion through the British Isles
- Norman Invasion: 1066, William of Normandy
- Ireland: 1177, through invasion – “The Pale War” for centuries
o 1601: Battle of Kinsale
- Wales: 1285 – through invasion and marriage, which is why the heir to the British
throne is always the Prince of Wales
- Scotland: 1603 – union
- 1800: Acts of Union
Early Empire
- Queen Elizabeth I.: First genuine attempts of American colonies
- Foundation of Jamestown (1607)
- 1600: East India Company founded
- 1672: Royal African Company
- 1783: End of American Revolution
East India Company and British Rule in India
- “Colony rule” from 1600 in India, intensified in late 1700s
- “Mimic men”: educated elite of India. Coined by V.S. Naipaul in 1967
- 1857: Indian Rebellion
- 1858: End of East India Company rule in India, India under direct British control
- 1876: Royal Titles Act, queen becomes Empress of India