Overview
"Culture" is an everyday word that is notoriously hard to define. In Keywords (1976) Raymond Williams called it "one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language." From the Latin colere (to cultivate, to tend), its meaning moved from tending land to cultivating the mind and then to the whole way of life of a society. Which definition one adopts decides what counts as culture, and this is where debates about elitism begin.
Main definitions of culture
- Normative definition (Arnold): in Culture and Anarchy (1869) Matthew Arnold described culture as the pursuit of perfection by getting to know "the best which has been thought and said in the world," a standard against the materialism and disorder of industrial society.
- Anthropological definition (Tylor): in Primitive Culture (1871) Edward B. Tylor defined culture as "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." On this view every society has culture.
- Williams's three senses: Williams distinguished culture as (1) a process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development, (2) a particular way of life of a people or period, and (3) the works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity. In "Culture is ordinary" (1958) he insisted culture is not the property of a minority.
Elitist views of culture
Cultural elitism treats high culture (fine art, classic literature, classical music) as true culture whose standards must be guarded by an educated minority. In Mass Civilisation and Minority Culture (1930) F. R. Leavis argued that a small minority capable of appreciating the literary tradition sustains cultural continuity, threatened by the mass civilisation of popular newspapers, film and advertising. The Frankfurt School's critique of the culture industry shared a similar suspicion of popular culture as standardised commodities. Such views also underpin classical liberal education, which is why Peters's liberal education was criticised as elitist.
Critiques of elitism
- Cultural studies: Williams and the Birmingham school studied the everyday culture of working-class and young people as meaningful culture, leading to subculture theory.
- Gans's taste cultures: in Popular Culture and High Culture (1974) Herbert J. Gans argued that several taste cultures coexist according to class and education and that there is no basis for ranking high culture as superior, a position of cultural pluralism.
- Bourdieu's Distinction: in La Distinction (1979) Pierre Bourdieu showed that "refined taste" is not innate discernment but the product of cultural capital inherited from family and school, and that hierarchies of taste legitimate class divisions, a core idea of cultural reproduction theory.
Current issues
Digital platforms and "one source, multi-use" franchising have blurred the line between high and popular culture, yet hierarchies of "worthwhile" culture persist. The way commercial culture shapes imitative desire can be read through Girard's triangle of desire, and the movement of culture across borders through globalisation and cultural diffusion.
References
- Arnold, M. (1869). Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Tylor, E. B. (1871). Primitive Culture. London: John Murray.
- Leavis, F. R. (1930). Mass Civilisation and Minority Culture. Cambridge: Minority Press.
- Williams, R. (1958). Culture and Society 1780–1950. London: Chatto & Windus.
- Williams, R. (1976). Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Fontana.
- Gans, H. J. (1974). Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste. New York: Basic Books.
- Bourdieu, P. (1979). La Distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.