The Place of the Sociology of Culture in Analyzing Global Culture
Ksenija Vidmar Horvat
Summary
The lectures/seminars will focus on contemporary sociological theories of globalization. The
main objective will be to address the question of theoretical strengths and shortfalls of, by
now, classical sociological accounts (Beck, Giddens, Robertson) when transferred to the field
of examining complex processes of cultural globalization. Critical analysis will be based on a
comparative approach, taking into account the debate within the sociological field as well as
current theoretical interventions/implications by cultural studies, postcolonial theory and
feminist media analysis. In addition to the above-mentioned authors, the works of Stuart Hall,
Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri C. Spivak, Nederveen Pieterse and Nura Yuval Davis will be
brought up for discussion. The seminar will include discussions of the recently articulated
themes of cultural homogenization vs. heterogenization, Americanization vs. hybridization
and will look at differences in theoretical approaches between different authors and schools of
thought. Finally, the seminar will aim to approach its subject by analyzing concrete cultural
phenomena, such as the global flow of commodities (TV programs), ideas (postfeminism),
fantasies (consumerism).
Outline of Themes and the Reading List:
Session 1 Sociology of Globalization and the Modernity Paradigm: globalization in historical
perspective; modernity and modernization; reflexivity and the self; Eurocentrism and the
legacy of the 19th century sociology.
Session 2
Readings:
BECK, Ulrich, Kaj je globalizacija? Zmote globalizma – odgovori na globalizacijo, Krtina,
Ljubljana, 2003.
GIDDENS, Anthony, (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern
Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
ROBERTSON, Roland, “Globalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity”,
Featherstone, M., Lash, S., Robertson, R., Global Modernities, Sage Publications, London,
Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, 1997, pp 25-44.
Session 3 Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Deconstruction of Eurocentrism, Identity,
Modernity: “the clash of civilization” thesis; homogenization and hybridity; cross-culture and
creolization of culture; identity and Other, nomadism and diaspora; discourse and power.
Session 4
Readings:
APPADURAI, Arjun, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”, v
Featherstone, M., Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, Sage
Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, 1990, pp. 279-310.
HUNTINGTON, Samuel P., The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order,
Simon and Schuster, New York, 1996.
PIETERSE, Jan Nederveen, “Globalization as Hybridization”, v Featherstone, M., Lash, S.,
Robertson, R., Global Modernities, Sage Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi,
1997, pp 45-68.
Session 5 Post-feminism and Global Culture: the politics of identity; “lifestyles” paradigm as
ideology; post-feminism between global consumerism and political engagement; globalization
of gender and local meanings.
Session 6
Readings:
McROBBIE, Angela (2004) “Postfeminism and Popular Culture”, Feminist Media Studies
4:3, pp 255- 264.
FERNANDES, Leela (2000) “Nationalizing ‘the Global’: Media Images, Cultural Politics and
the Middle Class in India,” Media, Culture & Society 22 (5): pp 611-643.
VIDMAR, Ksenija H. (2005) »The Globalization of Gender: Ally McBeal in post-socialist
Slovenia«, European Journal of Cultural Studies 8:2.
Copies of the articles will be provided by the lecturer.