د کورس معالومات

This paper examines a range of concepts, theories and debates characterising the development of popular cultural studies as a field of inquiry. In particular, this paper emphasizes a Cultural Sociology framework that sees culture as intimately connected to the social and power relations of everyday life. The point of departure is Raymond Williams’ assertion that culture is the product of ordinary material life, produced by all social actors, rather than only by the privileged elite.

 

Popular culture is critically analysed within the context of the cultural industries that have commercialised and commodified the production of culture in late/post-modernity. The paper highlights the tensions between the contradictory elements that characterise contemporary popular culture; such as its being highly commercialised, whilst also a site for the public communication of (at times) critical and resistant discourses and practices.