The Cultural Turn

In this informative and accessible book, David Chaney explains the "turn to culture" and the lessons to be drawn from this movement. Concepts of culture have generated perspectives and methodologies that have challenged critical orthodoxies and attracted the energetic enthusiasm of younger scholars. More significantly, the forms of contemporary culture demand a radical reappraisal of the terms of description of the modern world.
"The Cultural Turn" offers a sociology of contemporary culture that is not imprisoned in the radical postures and jargon of cultural studies. Chaney's purpose, to review the character and lessons of this "turn to culture" in a number of academic fields, to explore key themes in contemporary culture in some detail, and finally, to examine some of the ways in which cultural forms are increasingly seen to dominate social reality, is achieved through a series of lucid and thought-provoking essays.
Anyone who has wondered about the place of culture both as a field of study in its own right and as the dominant thread of the postmodern world will benefit greatly from this overview of the theme of culture and its importance in the contemporary landscape.

Autorentext

Chaney, David

Zusammenfassung
In the second half of the twentieth century the theme of culture has dominated the human sciences. The forms of contemporary culture demand a radical reappraisal of the terms of description of the modern world. We therefore need to consider our options when culture does not just provide the meaning of experience but is also the terms of that experience. This book reviews these ideas in ways that will be accessible to those new to the field and also stimulating to experts. The three parts of the book: Review the character and lessons of this "turn to culture" in a number of academic fields. The author demonstrates the socio-intellectual context within which these themes have been generated and documents the main strengths of the paradigm shift. Explore key themes in contemporary culture. By showing how questions of citizenship and the meaning of places have been colonized under the remit of the culturalist paradigm, a cluster of associated ideas and themes implicit in the paradigm are explicitly tackled. * Examine some of the ways in whcih cultural forms are increasingly seen to dominate social reality. The final chapter explores triumphant culturalism - the postmodern world as the apogee of the turn to culture.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements, Introduction, Part I The study of culture, Part II Forms of culture, Part III Immersed in culture, References, Name index, Subject index