DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca Production Digital Culture and Sociology

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca Conceptual introduction “The Production of Culture”, Keith Negus. “Intercultural Communication on Websites”, Elizabeth Würtz "Life´s a Game: Play More in the Third Space.“, Susana Tosca about today break production cases + synopsis example break

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca culture & economy opposed terms? spiritual vs. material, hard vs. soft related, no side dominates the other: –Economic processes are cultural phenomena –Cultural material is “manufactured” The notion of cultural economy: economic processes depend on meaning (also language and representation) for their effects and to have particular conditions of existence Businesses reflect on their organizational culture du Gay et. al.

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca cultural economy Culture is increasingly important to do business in the contemporary world: 1.Global entertainment corporations product and distribute culture all over the world, powerful agents 2.More and more goods become “cultural goods”, growing aesthetization 3.Increasing influence of cultural intermediaries: advertising, design, marketing 4.Internal life of organizations is also the object of cultural reconstruction du Gay et. al.

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca globalization Robins “Globalization is about the dissolution of the old structures and boundaries of national states and communities. It is about the transnationalization of economic and cultural life, frequently imagined in terms of the creation of a global space and community in which we shall all be global citizens and neighbours.” (p. 12) what is your own experience of globalization? what does it mean to you? Keywords: mobility, hybridization, global economy (Castells), homogeneization, global-local...

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca globalization is complex Robins New (international) cultural elements are brought together with old (national) elements. Change vs. Continuity It is experienced differently by various social and cultural groups according to gender, ethnia, class, age, location... Diverse responses: struggles Many angles: the nature of the global corporations the nature of global markets politics globalization of the media industries anxiety?

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca main points Analysis and problematization of synergy concept (through a case study), no neat fit production-consumption, companies are not totally rational unities: culture clashes within corporations: workers’ groups, george michael The excellent introduction to Adorno and Horkheimer’s culture industry ideas, including standarization and pseudo individuality Gendron’s critique to standarization in music (dd, source of pleasure) Negus

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca discussion? I “Global corporations should not approach the nations of the world in terms of their differences but in terms of their similarities” (p. 79) “Producing culture does not simply involve making a “product” (a functional artefact, In Gendron’s terms) which has an “image” (an agreed and shared meaning).” (p. 101) Negus

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca discussion? II Negus “I have challenged the idea that the corporations of the culture industry are able to directly ‘control’ production and creative work simply through their formal ownership of the ‘means’ of production. (...) I have indicated at various points how the practices of production take place in relation to the activities of consumption. You should also have become aware of the ways in which the issue of identity is important for occupational groups, companies and artists” (p. 102) what about the IT world?

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca complementary bibliography  CASTELLS. 1996, 1997, The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture (three volumes). Oxford: Blackwell  ROBINS, Kevin “What in the World’s going on?”. In du Gay et.al. Production of Culture / Cultures of Production. London: Sage. NOTE: There is a list of related and interesting bibliography in the Negus article.

DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 6 – Susana Tosca