Transcript Cultural Research

Cultural Research
The Basics
What is this?
Is it:
• A piece of cloth?
• A flag? Why not a “pole-cloth”? (after all, we
have “dish cloth”, “table cloth” and so on)
• A Scottish flag? Are you sure?
• A sign of Scottish identity?
• A commodified sign of Scottish identity
available within a capitalist market economy?
Or more radically, is it
simply an image?
“This is not a pipe”, by Belgian
artist René Magritte
Some other images from
Magritte
What do they tell us about “representation”?
Is it (just) an image?
If so, is how (and where) the
flag is represented important?
Flags
• Let’s use the flag - something all of us
see every day, even if we’re not always
aware of it, and which is an essential
element of many large- and small-scale
events - as a “hook” on which to hang
this introduction into research into the
cultural sector
Flags and nations…
The Saltire…
or the flag of Tenerife?
Can you imagine two countries having similar flags?
Nations and flags…
Austria
Latvia
Does this work?
Would you know which end of the
stadium to go to?
Why do some flags have
names?
The saltire
Le tricolore
?
La senyera
A sign of identity?
Is this athlete Scottish, or British?
Could she be from Tenerife?
Fancy one for your car?
A snip at £2.50!
(Em, it’s actually against the law
to have a saltire on your licence
plate: does that matter?)
Flying the flag…
Wonder who’s playing who at
football here…
Flying the flag…
What does the fact that a
Scottish supporter is waving an
Italian flag mean?
Flying the flag…
Why would an editor choose to
publish such an image in his or
her newspaper?
Flying the flag…
Is it important that the only
people we see in this photograph
are men?
Flying the flag…
Is it important that the only
people in the foreground in this
photograph are white?
Coming back to our
original questions:
•
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Were we looking at:
A piece of cloth?
A flag?
A Scottish flag?
A sign of Scottish identity?
A commodified sign of Scottish identity
available within a capitalist market economy?
– It’s obviously all of these things (and
more).
But…
• The meanings associated with this
object are clearly much more important
than the materials (ink, cloth, thread
etc) from which it is made.
• Welcome to the Cultural Sector
The Cultural Sector…
• Is an arena where an ever increasing
range of goods and services are
produced and sold (i.e. commodified)
not primarily for their use value (the
materials which make up the saltire are
of little use in themselves), but for their
sign value: in other words, for their
meaning(s).
The Cultural Sector…
• Is a key element in the symbolic economy,
an area of economic activity engaged
fundamentally in the production and
circulation of meanings
• These meanings can be attached to material
goods (like the saltire) but also, for example,
to music, fashions and so on…
Meanings are attached
to…
• a wide range of products which, though
having a material support, are purchased
primarily for the meanings on offer
• No-one buys a music CD or the DVD of a
movie for the metal they are made of, or a
newspaper for the actual paper which makes
it up (though this can have secondary uses)
Events…
• Occupy a special place in the symbolic
economy
• Not only must they be invested with
meaning in order to attract an audience
• They are also consumed in real-time,
making them ideal components of
advanced capitalist economies
Coming back to the saltire
• We could research how saltires are
produced
• From a cultural point of view we would
be interested in the increasing range of
contexts in which saltires appear (tshirts, car stickers, logos etc) rather
than in their physical make-up
However…
• Once a particular design is officially
designated as a flag it is subjected to a
range of rules
• These regard colour, proportions and
the like, and are interesting from a
cultural point of view
Rules
• The establishment of rules immediately
allows the possibility of appropriations
of all kinds, ranging from the ludic to
the aggressive…
The Norwegian flag…
The Norwegian flag…
… as seen on Johan Galtung’s recent book
“Norway seen from outside”
The Swedish flag…
As we know it today…
A somewhat different
Swedish flag…
Is burning the Stars and
Stripes…
Simply burning a piece of cloth?
But…
• In terms of research in the Cultural
Sector we would be much more likely to
be interested in issues such as the
following:
Possible topics:
• The meanings invested in the object
(there are always more than one)
• The history of how they got there, and
how they have changed over time
(meanings always change over time)
• What different groups of people do with
those meanings
Above all…
• The struggle over which of these
meanings is to predominate
• The cultural sector is characterised not
just by the production and circulation of
meanings, but above all by struggles
over hierarchies and limits
• It is, therefore, deeply political
Possible approaches
• Historical approaches:
– Most flags have changed considerably over time
– For example, between the French Revolution and
now the order of colours on the French flag has
been reversed!
– After Re-unification the two old Germanies had to
agree on a common flag
– New nations always produce new flags
Historical approaches
A new flag
The Kosovan flag… chosen
after a national competition
Approaches examining the
concept of national identity
• Official discourses of national identity
• Popular performances of national
identity
• Banal nationalism
• The economics of national identity
Banal nationalism
Ethnographic approaches
• Organising interviews, focus groups
and the like to investigate how people
relate to flags, notions like national
identity and so on
Participant observation
• Attending events as both a participant
and critical observer, making notes of
what is happening (NB: this approach,
like ethnographic approaches in
general, has a significant ethical
dimension)
Quantitative approaches
• Designing and distributing large-scale
questionnaires to explore a similar
range of issues
• These and other approaches will be our
focus in subsequent lectures
A brief task
• Along with this presentation you will
find a famous analysis (by French
semiologist Roland Barthes) of a photo
of a black soldier saluting the French
flag. Have a read at it - it’s quite short and post some comments on the
discussion board: do you find it
convincing? is it over the top?
Many thanks
Hugh O’Donnell
[email protected]