The Culture IndustryGlobalisation, Culture and LifestyleLecture IXDaniel Turner and Jenny Flinn

Conceptualising cultural production and consumption

Globalisation creates a multitude of choices... or...Postmodernism leads to freedom of identity

construction... or Globalisation creates a homogenisation of

culture... or Post-Fordist means of production creates an illusion

of choice in a world of limited freedom designed to deliver profit.

The Culture Industry: Capitalism uses culture as a means of propagating the social systems necessary for its continued operation and controlling the masses.

The Frankfurt SchoolInstitute for Social ResearchAdorno, Horkheimer, MarcuseResearch as means of assisting in the

emancipation of the masses.Neo-Marxism – more than just economics

Culture hides behind the message that it is organised around the motives of business (Miles, 2001)

To organise you at the moment when you think you are free (Rojek, 1995)

‘Culture’Culture: ‘that which goes beyond the

system of self-preservation of the species’ (Adorno, 1978:100)

Culture is inherently creative and free from value and ideology – so potentially the means through which revolution is delivered (O’Neil)

However – culture is the victim of an act of calculation which turns it into a tool of capitalism.

Culture as deception and indoctrinationCulture industry breeds complacency and hegemonyCulture contains repeated messages to reinforce the

status quo“Pseudo-praxis” – explicit conservative and patriotic

values inherent in culture.“as soon as the film begins, it is quite how it will

end, and who will be rewarded, punished, or forgotten. In light music, once the trained ear has heard the first notes of the hit song, it can guess what is coming and feel flattered when it does come” (Adorno, 1991:125)

The imagery of freedom – the sporting star / celebrity (Giulianotti)

Predictability and spectacle to create cultural dupes.The ‘One-Dimensional Man’ (Marcuse, 1964)

Criticisms of Critical TheoryHebdige – cultural dupes is naive

Bernstein – too crass and all consuming

Miles – massively elitest

Lyotard- nothing but Modernist