Introduction to Cultural Studies

 Course objectives
-This course aims to introduce students to the field of cultural studies, and to the main concept and founding
figures of this field.
-This course also aims to help students distinguish between cultural studies and the study of culture.
-It also aims to develop students discussion and analysis skills.

 Defining cultural studies

A field of discipline
-Inter-disciplinary(between) : a conversation between cultural studies and other disciplines.
-Anti-disciplinary(against) : cultural studies differs from other disciplinesand comes up with ideas that go againt
theirs.
-Post disciplinary(after/reacting) : cultural studies reacts of other disciplines.
‘Culture’ : can be difined as the way of life in a society including language, religion, beliefs, food, values, and
behaviors,Etc… .
Cultural Studies can be defined as an "inter-disciplinary", "anti-disciplinary" and "post-disciplinary" field of
knowledge. In cultural studies there's a dialogue among scholars(thinkers) on concepts that belong to different
disciplines. This means that cultural studies interact meaningfully with other disciplines. It also create a controversy
among scholars that can result in opposing ideas. It is also a field which reacts to what has been said and written
about different concepts.
Scholars interested in cultural studies can be compared to birds that move from one nest to another. They borrow
concepts from other disciplines.
It's very important to distinguish between cultural studies and the study of culture because they are totally
different. The study of culture can take place in different disciplines including cultural studies. Which means that it's
not an established field of knowledge. By contrast, cultural studies is an institutionalised discipline because we know
where and when it began, and who initiated it.
The mean figures of this discipline are : Stuart hall, Raymond Williams, Geoffrey Hartman and Richard Hoggert .
It first appeared in Europe and then moved to the Americas, Australia and other places in the world. This means that
it is internationally UBIQUITOUS (existing everywhere).

 What's culture??
Culture has been discribed by such Scholars like Raymond Williams and Geoffrey Hartman as a FUZZY,
SLIPPERY CONCEPT. It is frizzy and complex, it's very hard to come up with a clear definition of culture especially
in a multicultural and intercultural world where people are very much worried about their national culture. The world
of today is ruled by a global capitalist system which aims to create a world based on cultural Cosmopolitanism and
sameness. This means that national boundaries vanish onto vapor and are replaced by cosmopolitan one. The ultimate
goal is to assassinate national cultures and supplant (replace) it with a cosmopolitan one.
Cultures are very much influenced by the power of the media controled by a global capitalist system. Thus, we
can say that people in the world of today live in a Global Media sphere(place) where they are bombarded with media
products like ( images, videos, songs, sitcoms, footballers, models, Etc...). Everything in the world of today has
become a business, culture itself is a business. It's a commodity, it's on sale in the capitalist market.
  What The word "cultured" means
This word is polysemous (it has many meanings) it lends itself to different meanings. For instance, it can be used
to describe the ability of someone to demonstrate academic knowledge and cultural awareness, it can also mean the
ability of someone to demonstrate academic knowledge and cultural awarness, it can also mean the ability to
deve,{delve} deeper into the world of intellectual production and thinking. It can also denot the capacity to talk about
issues of global cultural significance. In brief, this world does not have one specific meaning, defining it depends on
the angle which we see it.
Street Brian : "Culture is a Verb". He defined culture as verb and not a noun. It means that culture should not be
defined of what it is but in terms of what it does. For example, culture can shape our identity. It defins how we think
and behave. It distinguishes us from others, it makes us reflect on what we do and say. The focus here is on the
functions, {roles} of culture towards people as individuals and groups.
Culture studies’ scholars are like birds, they move from one nest to another and borrow concepts.
Nests are other disciplines :
-Sociology
-Antropology
-Biology
Cultural studies is characterized by it’s ability to interact with and react to other disciplines. The key point to
remember is that it borrows concepts from other disciplines and it confers on these concepts a touch of originality. It
Does not mechanically repeat what other disciplines say but it brings some original thinking about these concepts.
Examples of concepts :
-Culture -Gender -Language
-Pop culture -Race
-Representation -Hegenomy
-Stereotype -Power
-Identity -Ideology
Cultural studies as a Kaleidoscope : Culture studies can be defined in terms of metaphore. It Can be compared to
a magpie because it moves from one descipline to another an interactive and reactive way. It can be also compare to
Kaleidoscope because it is not static. It's a dynamic field of study. It Keps Keeps changing and devoloping over time.
Culture studies is a Kaleidoscope field of study as it constitude of concepts that belong to different subject
disciplines.
scholars in the field of cultural studies are like birds.
Thus, Culture Studies is a field associated with oraginality and nuances when it comes to during with different
concepts.
We can distinguish between little "c" culture and the big "C" culture. The first refers to the things that we do on a
daily bases, it refers to the everyday cultural practices and customes like greeting, praying, cooking. Big C culture
refers to the great artistic, scientific and intellectual productions of a society. To examplify, the books written by
William Shakespeare can be categorized under the hidden big C. The things that have been made in such fields as
architecture, engineering, physics, biology and mechanics, are also parts of the big C.
The iceberg metaphor : Edward Hall has defined culture in terms of an iceberg. Culture can be VISIBLE or
INVISIBLE. The visible part of culture refers to the things that we can see like the way of eating, dressing clothes,
praying, drinking, sleeping, dancing. The invisible parts of culture refers to the hidden cultural beliefs that reside
inside us. This part is not easy to discover. We need a lot of time to learn it and find it out.
 The elephant metaphor : this story refers to six blind men who were brought a big elephant and were asked to
touch it and say what was it. The six men provided six different answers, depending on the angle from which they saw
it. We can not say that one was right and the other were wrong because " IT WAS ALL A MATTER OF
PERSPECTIVE " the implication of this " what does it mean" is that there is no right or wrong culture. There is no
best or worst culture. What is culturally appropriate for me can not be appropriate for others.
Patrick Moran's definition of culture : Patrick Moran defines culture in terms of four P's ( products, practices,
person, perspectives )/
-Products : are the things that are made by people who belong to one cultural community ( eg: chopsticks in china ,
tajin in Morocco, SuChi in Japan , pizza in Italy).
-Practices : are the behaviors that distinguish cultural communities from each other ( praying, greeting, dancing,).
-Perspectives : are the angles from which cultural practices are seen by a cultural community.
-Person : are the people who practice the culture and exchange perspectives about it and produce cultural products
within a certain community.
"Patrick Moran" stresses the importance of a community for any culture. The four P's cannot exist ( IN A
VACUUM). They need a community to develop and prosper. The community can be simply defined as a group of
people who share the same culture.
Raymond Williams’ deffinition of culture : Raymond with Stewart Hall are the key founders of the field of
cultural studies. Raymond Williams describes culture as a fuzzy concept because it is very complex. He says that
culture is "one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language". In his work titled « CULTURE
AND SOCIETY 1780-1950 », he defines culture as an individual habit of mind which refers to what the individual
mind does and thinks. He also defines it as the intellectual development (growth) of the hole society, which refers to
the intellectual productions of the society. He also refers to culture as the artistic production of the society which
means what the society produces at the artistic level. His focus on the intellectual and artistic dimensions of culture
can be refered to as general culture as apposed to a specific culture that pertains to each individual. Raymond
Williams does also provide an anthropological of culture which simply refers to the way people live as a group in a
society.
Specific cultures : 1) what we individually do and think.
Generally culture : 2) what the society produces at the intellectual level.
3) what the society produces at the artistic level.
Anthropology : 4) The way people live as a group in a society.
To sum up, Raymond Williams provides a complex definition of culture In which the interplay between what is
anthropological, individual, artistic and intellectual takes place. He takes us from the common sense (ordinary)
definition of culture ‘culture as a way of life’ to a more complicated definition that entails some brain work at the
intellectual, artistic and individual level.
Geoffrey Hartmann's definition of culture : for him culture is ‘AN INFLAMMATORY WORD’ because in
some cases culture can lead to cultural conflicts and wars . The idea is that people as individuals and societies can
fight with each other because of their cultural differences. The implication of this is that there are moments where
some people are the individual and society levels can strive (try hard) to abolish their cultures of others and perpetual
their own culture. Another implication is that not everything about culture is good in the sense that culture can result
in both good and bad things.
Like Reymond Williams, Geoffrey Hartmann does also highlight the complex nature of culture. Hartmann refers
to culture as "diverse and prolifirating" in the sense that it can take different forms depending on where it's used. To
explain his point of view, he gave us some examples which show this diversity : media culture, gun culture, pop
culture, death culture, football culture, Etc… . His intention is to show that culture does not have one use. He talks
about the idea that the word ‘culture’ has been used in different field (domains). For him, wherever you go, there is
culture. It's everywhere, he compares it to a ‘wild plant’ that grows in unwanted places.
 To recapitulate, Raymond Williams and Geoffrey Hartmann share the belief that culture is a fuzzy concept. For
Williams, culture is not a matter of what we do on a daily bases. It's more than that, it's an intellectual and artistic
levels. For Geoffrey Hartmann, culture is like a wild plant that can be found in different fields though it's unwanted.
It's placeless.
the first one : is that culture an individual habit of mind. This means that culture is something individual in the
sense that each person has his or her own culture. We can call this type of cultrure a specific form of culture.
the second one : that Raimond Williams gives to culture the state of intellectual development of a hole society.
This means that culture refers to the intellectual productions of the society in different fields like literature, philosophy
and antropology.
the third one : is that culture refers to the arts. This emplies that culture does also denote the artistic productions
of the society.
the last one : that Raimond Williams gives to culture is that ‘it is the hole way of life for a group of people’. The
last meaning is anthropological.
to sum up: Raimond Williams provides a definition of culture in which there is an intersection between what is
individual, intellectual, artistic and anthropological. That's why culture for Raimond Williams is a fuzzy concept.
Raimond Williams has another work it is a sociology text book about culture. In this text book, he presented the
first contemporary cultural theory. He also, Grouped the second and the third definitions (general and ideal). He also
contrasted the second and the third with the forth which he described as (anthropological).
Culture for Raimond Williams is very complex at different levels. It has "physical and human applications (use)".
Physical application simply refers to the geographical land or earth where culture exists. This means that there is no
culture without a physical space (earth). By human application he means the people of the earth, their cultures and
subcultures according to him, culture has positive and negative connotations. This means that culture has symbolic
meanings which can be either positive or negative. These connotations differ from one society to another.
Raimond Williams says that culture is "a noun of process" which means that it's "the tending of nature". In this
context he talks about "the earliest meaning of culture" associated with "the natural growth". To clarify, culture in the
past was seen as a ‘crops or plants’ that grew naturally. he compared culture to a plant that developed far away from
the intellectual intervention of the human mind. Culture later on has another use which is not a noun of process but a
noun of configurations. This means that culture is made up of different parts that create the hole thanks to the
intellectual development of the society. Thus, Raimond Williams distinguishes between the earliest vision of culture
which was natural and the new one which is intellectual. The implication of this is that culture for Raimond Williams
is an intersection of what is natural and intellectual.
Raimond Williams has another work titled key words. In this work, he defines culture in this way ‘Culture is one
of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’. This is so partly because of its intricate
historical developement, in ceveral Europian languagues, but mainly because it has now come to be used for important
concepts in ‘several distinct intelectual deciplines and in several distinct and in compatible system of thought’. In this
quote Raimond Williams attributes the complexity of culture to three reasons :
-the first one : is the complex nature of it's development across the history.
-the second one : is that culture is not "field-bound" ( it's not related to one specific field) because it exists in several
intellectual disciplines.
-the last one : is that culture does also exist in different systems of thoughts.
Raimond Williams also says : ‘Culture in all it's early use was a noun of process, the tending of something,
basically crops or animals, Etc… . From the tending of natural growth was extended to a process of human
development, and this along side the original meaning in husbandry (agriculture), was the main sense’.
-The key point in this quote is that the origin of culture was in husbandry (agriculture).
Culture and subculture: a subculture is a group of people with their own culture that belongs to the umbrella
culture. These people have theier believes, practices and behaviors which are different from the general culture. They
have different cultural characteristics that distinguish them from others at the level of food, clothes, rituals, music and
celebrations. Members of subcultures give symbolic connotations to their culture. Most of the time, subcultures
represent minority groups And cultures . Some times they're marginalized (kept away), sometimes theye are seen as a
danger to the umbrella culture. That's why Raimond Williams mentions that the general culture should be protected
from subcultures.
-Examples 1 (LGBT) : this group of people have abnormal (strange) sexual inclinations. That's why a lot of societies
including the Moroccan one should fight it to protect their general culture.
-Example 2 (hippies) : the hippies are a Cultural group whose behaviors constitute a danger to the general culture
for many people including the Moroccans.
-Example 3 (hip-hop)
-Example 4 (punks) : it's a movement that appeared in the 1970s and which is known for its opposition to the
government. This movement is famous for fast a loud music.
Geoffrey Hartmann : the key point about Geoffrey Hartmann's definition of culture is that he raises
consciousness about the role of culture in causing cultural wars between individuals and communities and societies.
That's why he describes culture as an inflammatory word because it can kindle/trigger actual wars. This emplies that
culture is a double-edged consept because it's not always good. It can be also dangerous.
The common point between Hartmann and Williams is that both of them stress the complexity of culture
according to Hartmann, the complexity of culture can be attributed to it's "prolifirating uses". Culture for him is
"omnipresent" (everywhere). it's not field-bound. To explain his point of view he gaves us some examples such as :
media culture, football culture, pop culture, music culture, Etc… . Thus, culture has roots in probably every aspect of
our life.
Stewart Hall: he is one of the founding figures of Cultural studies. In his lecture of the university of
Massachusetts in 1989, he talked about "the historical context" that led to the emergence of Cultural studies. He
provided the contexts that triggered the need to establish cultural studies as a field that gives new ways ‘of
understanding culture’. For him, it was necessary to create this decipline because there was a lack in terms of
theorization and conseptialization of the term of culture.
For Hall, other disciplines like arts and literature didn't theorize and conseptialize culture. They were dedicated to
the preservation of cultural heritage this means that the main concern of cultural studies is to theorize and
conseptialize culture according to Stewart Hall.
The other disciplines talked about cultural systems as abstract concepts made up of networks of abstract values.
But according to him, the changing ways of life and societies and groups necessitate a new approach that takes into
consideration the networks of meanings that individuals and groups can make by communicating with each other. In
this way the field of cultural studies focuses on the process of meaning making at the individual and society levels.
The main concern of cultural studies is how the popular culture intersects with the high culture . It also focuses on
how power cuts across knowledge and how cultural processes anticipate social change. In brief cultural studies is "a
place of intersections".
Cultural studies was founded by the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies. At Birmingham University in the
1960s, this center was established by Richard Hoggart.
There is culture, and there are counter-culture in every society. Any sub culture or cultural subgroup can get into a
relationship of opposition with general culture. In the United States, in the late 20th century, culture became a
battlefield in which different cultures get into wars and conflicts. Now, they are known as culture wars in which the
religious right, counter cultures, new conservatism, and the new left war were involved. These culture wars or clashes
played an important role in defining a new political system that developed by 1980 and which is still valid today at
least at u.s.a. The point to make here is that cultural conflicts can impact different aspects of life, including politics.
 Before <_____Culture wars ______> After
Less interest in C.S. more interest in C.S

These culture wars in the usa paved the way to the movement from the focus on the culture to the field of cultural
studies as a new proto-discipline(under in usa at that time). It was an undeveloped field of study, many questions
were raised about the status of American cultural studies. The point to make here is that these culture wars triggered
more interest in American cultural studies.
The British cultural studies was founded in 1964 at the center for contparory cultural studies established by
Richard Hoggart, a prefosser at berningham University thus, the field of cultural studies, regardless of where it
belongs, is still profoundly indepted to the founding work of the berginigham center directed by Richard Hoggart,
CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL STUDIES is internationally held as the pioneering institution
whene it comes to the birth of cultural studies. Professor Antony easthope considered the work of the Center for
Contemporary Cultural Studies as the most important intervention in cultural studies in Britain.
It is very important to note that the center for Contemporary Cultural Studies was a place for important debates
about what to study and how to organize this study. These debates have resulted in the emergence (appearances) of
polyphonics modules in cultural studies . There was a plurality of voices that addressed the question of culture and
aspects related to it. The point to make here is that there were various competing Birmingham models.
To put it differently, the results of the debat among different scholars and professors of the center of
contemporary cultural studies was a plurality in terms of what cultural studies is. For instance, cultural studies were
described as inter-or post-disciplinary (cultural studies react to and interact with the ideas and concepts presented by
other disciplines). This means that there is a conversation between cultural studies and other disciplines. For example,
cultural studies get into a critical dialog with Marxism by discussing and debating such concepts as social class,
power, ideology, hegemony, and hierarchy. Scholars interested in cultural studies deal with these concepts but from a
different perspective. They confer on these consepts a touch of originality.
Cultural studies were also defined as a sort of political intervention into other existing disciplines. It was
categorized (classified) as a new self-contained discipline that is complete by itself and deals with a subject that
entirely new using a new theoretical paradigm. This diversity of meanings and definitions attributed to cultural studies
shows that there is a clearly visible difference in the way it is perceived.
Sturt Hall focuses on the political aspects of cultural studies by dealing with the questions of power, hegemony,
and ideology. For him, cultural studies is a political system of analysis. To use the words "during" 1999.p.2, cultural
studies is a politically engaged form of analysis, and this is one of the distinguishing features of cultural studies.
Simply provides an analysis which shows its political engagement. This is to say that cultural studies focusses on the
relationship between the cultural, the political, the social, and the ideological.
In American cultural studies, the main focus is substantially laid on issues of race, gender, ethnicity, and
sexualism. It touches on the conflict between cultural elitism and cultural populism. In other words, it focuses on the
antagonism between the cultural ideas of the elites and those of the common(ordinary)people. Harlod Bloom, a
cultural elitist, considers cultural studies a threat(menace) to "batman comics, momon theme park, television, movies,
Shakespeare." Gross Berg, a cultural populist sees cultural studies as a way to react to anything elitist. For him,
cultural studies is a form of revolution or rebellion against cultural elitism. In this context, it is very important to note
that such founding fathers of British cultural studies as Richard Hoggart, tompson, and Raimond Williams were
basically interested in the study of popular or working class culture.
Stuart hall in his famous work titled cultural studies and its theoretical legacies , stuart hall provides retrospective
look at the past and implicitly future of culture studies by doing "some genealogical and archeological work on the
archaive". He describes himself as tableu vivant when he raises the question of the archaive. He represents what he
calls "a spirit of the past resurrected " and " an authority of an origin." He questions the emergence of cultural studies
in this way;"didn't cultural studies emerge somewhere at the moment where I first met Raimond Williams or in the
glance I exchanged with Richard Hoggart? In that moment, cultural studies was born; it emerged full grown from the
head " ( p 262)
 Stuart hall describes the theoretical work conducted at center for contparory cultural studies founded by Richard
Hoggart as "theoretical noise" which "was accompanied by a great deal of bad feeling, argument, and unstable
anxieties and angery silences." (p263). The implication of this is that the birth of cultural studies was not easy at all. It
was the fruit of heated theoretical debate at the center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of
Birmingham
Stuart hall defines cultural studies as "a discursive formation, a concept used by micheal foucault in his work
titled the ARCHEOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE .Stuart hall borowes this concept from foucault To show that cultural
studies characterized by its discontinuity. " It is a system of dispersion. Hall mentioned that cultural studies " have
no simple origins .... much of the work out of which it grow.... was already present in the work of other people.
"(p263).
Cultural studies provide a discourse, which is a dispersion of discontinous elements borrowed from other
disciplines.

 EXTRACT 1:
RAUMOND WILLIAMS provides a historical account (record) of the development of five words (industry,
democracy, class, art and culture), that are of capital importance in the world of today. He traces their history starting
from their original use in language to their acquisition of new and important meanings. He seeks to hint at the idea that
THE CHANGES IN LANGUAGE REFLECT THE WIDER CHANGES IN LIFE AND THOUGHT. IN OTHER
WORDS, THERE IS A STRONG INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN THE CHANGES IN LANGUAGE AND THE
CHANGES IN SOCIETY. THUS, LANGUAGE, LIFE AND THOUGHT ARE INTANDEM.
RAYMOND WILLIAMS wants to impart the message that the changes in the linguistic use of the five words
(i.e., industry, democracy, class, art and culture) are an indicator of the general changes in the way humans look at and
think about common life. To put it differently, THERE IS A DINAMICE BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY TO
THE EXTENT THAT THE CHANGES IN THE FIRST LEAD TO THE CHANGES IN THE SECOND ON MANY
GROUNDS. According to WILLIAMS, the changes in the use of the five words arouse our curiosity to ponder more
on our social, economic and political institutions, the purpose each institution incarnate (embodies, represents) and
how these institutions are connected to what humans aspire for (long for) when engaged when learning, educational
and artistic activities.
RAYMOND WILLIAMS draws a demarcation line (the industrial revolution) that explains the difference
between the old and new meanings of the word industry. Before the industrial revolution the word was used to refer to
a human quality (attribute, characteristic or feature). The epithet (the adjective) industrious meant hard working,
assiduous, skilled, persistent and diligent. All these designated human qualities. RAYMOND WILLIAMS wants to
say that the word industry was used TO DESCRIBE PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL QUALITIES NEEDED FOR HE
PROSPERITY OF THE SOCIETY. With the advent (coming) of the industrial revolution at the end of eighteenth
century, the word industry BEGAN TO THE NOTE AND INSTITUTION OF PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY,
WHERE DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES AND DIFFERENT METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF PRODUCTION ARE
USED.
Thus, the industrial revolution marked AN IMPORTANT TRANSITIONAL STAGE IN THE TRANSFORMATION
OF THE MEANING OF INDUSTRY FROM BEING A HUMAN QUALITY TO BECOMING A SELF-ESTABLISHED
INSTITUTION WITH IT'S OWN ACTIVITIES, METHODS AND TECHNIQUES. The interweaving of the words
industrious and industrial in the nighteenth century resulted in THE EMERGENCE (The birth) OF A NEW SYSTEM IT
NAMED INDUSTIALISM WHICH WAS MARKED BY THE BIRTH OF SIGNIFICANT TECHNICAL METHODS
AND THIS HAS REMARKABLE IMPACTS ON THE METHODS OF PRODUCTION AND ON THE SOCIETY AS A
WHOLE.
This is to imply that the changes in the uses of the word industry play PIVOTAL (Important) ROLE IN
CREATING A NEW SOCIETY AND TRANSFORMING IT AT DIFFERENT LEVELS, The society cannot be
quarantined (isolated) from the transformations in the industrial system of production and its concomitant
(accompanying) activities and procedures.
 The second word that RAYMOND WILLIAMS focuses on in this extract is DEMOCRACY. He draws a
demarcation line distinguishing between the old and new meanings of democracy. He talks about democracy before
and after the American and French revolution. Democracy was formally defined as a mere literary word. But now, it is
a part of the political vocabulary. WILLIAMS makes clear reference to some unfavorable uses of the word
democracy. For example it has been associated with hated JACOBINISM (a hostile revolutionary movement of
extremists) or mob-rule (also called mobocracy wish refers to majoritarian form of government dominated by the
ordinary people) this is to suggest that when the issue of democracy is raised it is associated with revolution and
extremism. The word democracy in the world of today HAS BEEN LOADED WITH DANGEROUS AND
SUBVERSIVE BELIEFS AND PRACTICES THAT AIM TO TOPL DOWN THE EXISTEN POLITICAL REGIME
DEMOCRATS WHO SPEAK ENTHUSIASTICALLY ABOUT BUILDING DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES CAN BE
DESCRIBED AS DANGEROUS AND SUBVERSIVE MOB AGITATORS WHO ERGE OTHERS TO REBEL (revolt)
AGAINST THE RULING SYSTEM.
To recapitulate the changes in the meaning of democracy have impacted the political life of the society. They
have impacted how the political leaders and rulers regard the democrat. Those in power see any act or endeavor in the
society founded on democracy as a threat to their throne. The negative meanings that have been attributed to the word
democracy have played a capital role in defining the relationship between the rolling people and the grass-roots and
the masses.
The third word that RAYMOND WILLIAMS dwells on is CLASS which, before 1772, was related to schooling
and study life it was used to denote a group of students in school and college and refer to classes in courses like logic
and philosophy. At the end of eighteenth century the word class began to be tinged with a social sense and thus social
classes like lower classes, higher classes, middle classes, working classes, upper classes, upper middle classes and
lower middle classes came into existence.
The implication of this is that the word class has got a new meaning related to social hierarchy. It has got
important social meanings beyond its original meaning associated with groups of students taking a certain course. This
change in the meaning of the word class has led to heated debates about topics related to class such as conflicts and
wars among social classes, the prejudices they have about each other and their attitudes towards each other. Therefore,
the change in the meaning of the word class has tremendously (hugely, greatly) contributed to the establishment of
new forms of social relationships and divisions. This change has also triggered some important questions about what a
social structure is, the kind of impact this structure has on the social feelings of countries like England, especially at
the time of the industrial revolution.