Culture Unbound : Dimensions of Culturalisation

• This report discusses ideas of a radical increase in the significance and scope of culture in modern society, where industrialism is said to have been superseded by a society of information, knowledge and experiences. Issues of cultural identity and community are increasingly focal concerns, the virtual worlds of media culture seem omnipotent, and the cultural sector is growing with each of its recurrent redefinitions. Politics and the economy are supposedly aestheticised, culture and design boost regional development, creativity is a core value. The theses of revolutionary -culturalisation- of society and everyday life have a long history through the various cultural turns proclaimed by scholars as well as in society at large. The report scrutinises some main arguments and their implications, pointing at a need to distinguish historical trends, material processes and ideological discourses. A differentiation is made between five main dimensions of the concept of culture that are associated with specific sets of culturalisation ideas and corresponding trans-formations of boundaries around and within the cultural field. This discussion also touches upon the position and role of cultural research itself. Examples are given from five focal areas for these processes: academic work, regional politics, public spaces, history constructions and border struggles.

Keyword

Culture

history

aesthetics

medialisation

cultural research

critique

discourse

modernity

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

rap (subject category)