Culture and Social Differences

Pre-requisites: completed courses: Sociology of Culture, Contemporary Sociological Theories (with score min.7), Theories of Social Structure and System; English language reading skills

Course objectives: The course uses a number of theoretical perspectives and empirical studies to demonstrate the importance of culture and the symbolic in producing, maintaining and changing social differentiations of various kinds, especially those implying inequality.

Course description: Understanding culture as a conflict field of social struggles, the course will provide a systematic insight into the role of symbolic work in creating social differences and hierarchies. Beginning with the sociology of logical categories and classifications established by Durkheim and structuralism, through Bourdieu's approach to the relation between culture and power based on the concepts of cultural capital and distinction, post-Bourdieusian sociology of taste centered on the notion of omnivores and the study of social boundaries (Michele Lamont), ending with a brief discussion of the contribution of sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis, the lectures will introduce a range of theoretical perspectives which from various angles tackle the central question the course is devoted to. Work in seminars will proceed the form of presentations and discussions of findings of empirical studies undertaken in Serbian and other societies which test the relevant theories on particular datasets.

Learning Outcomes: Thanks to their familiarity with the relevant theoretical approaches, the students will be capable of identifying and analyzing the basic symbolic codes and discourses in empirical cases taken from social reality or social science literature.

Culture and Social Differences

Pre-requisites: completed courses: Sociology of Culture, Contemporary Sociological Theories (with score min.7), Theories of Social Structure and System; English language reading skills

Course objectives: The course uses a number of theoretical perspectives and empirical studies to demonstrate the importance of culture and the symbolic in producing, maintaining and changing social differentiations of various kinds, especially those implying inequality.

Course description: Understanding culture as a conflict field of social struggles, the course will provide a systematic insight into the role of symbolic work in creating social differences and hierarchies. Beginning with the sociology of logical categories and classifications established by Durkheim and structuralism, through Bourdieu's approach to the relation between culture and power based on the concepts of cultural capital and distinction, post-Bourdieusian sociology of taste centered on the notion of omnivores and the study of social boundaries (Michele Lamont), ending with a brief discussion of the contribution of sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis, the lectures will introduce a range of theoretical perspectives which from various angles tackle the central question the course is devoted to. Work in seminars will proceed the form of presentations and discussions of findings of empirical studies undertaken in Serbian and other societies which test the relevant theories on particular datasets.

Learning Outcomes: Thanks to their familiarity with the relevant theoretical approaches, the students will be capable of identifying and analyzing the basic symbolic codes and discourses in empirical cases taken from social reality or social science literature.

Literature/Reading:

• Spasić, Ivana (2013): Kultura na delu: društvena transformacija Srbije iz burdijeovske perspektive, Fabrika knjiga, Beograd, str. 21–97
• Lamont, Michele and Virag Molnar (2002): «The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences», Annual Review of Sociology 28: 167–95.
• Filipović, Jelena (2008), Moć reči: ogledi iz kritičke sociolingvistike, Andrejević, Beograd, str. 37-53.
• Cvetičanin, Predrag (2007): Kulturne potrebe, navike i ukus građana Srbije i Makedonije, OGI, Niš, str. 195-243
• Burdije, Pjer (2004): „Habitus i prostor stilova života“, poglavlje iz knjige Distinction, prevod u: Kultura br. 109/112 sv. 1, str. 131-170
• Aleksander, Viktorija (2007): Sociologija umetnosti, Clio, Beograd, str. 349-375
• Dirkem, Emil (1982): Elementarni oblici religijskog života, Beograd, Prosveta, str. 10-20 i 397–403
• Lamont, Michele (1992): Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Classes, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, str. 1-23 i 174-192.
• Bourdieu, Pierre, Društveni prostor i simbolička moć, u: Interpretativna sociologija, prir. I.Spasić, Beograd: ZUNS, 1998, str. 143–158
• Bennett, Tony et al. (2009), Culture, Class, Distinction, Routledge
• Bernstajn, Bazil (1979), Jezik i društvene klase, XX vek, Beograd
• Burdije, Pjer (1976): «Klasna funkcija umetnosti», Kultura, 32, str. 90-113.
• Bourdieu, Pierre (1992): Što znači govoriti, Naprijed, Zagreb
• Bourdieu, Pierre (1993), The Field of Cultural Production, ed. by Randal Johnson, Columbia University Press, New York
• Burdije, Pjer (2003): Pravila umetnosti, Svetovi, Novi Sad
• Emile Durkheim i Marcel Mauss, „O nekim primitivnim oblicima klasifikacije“, u: Emil Dirkem, prir. D.Marinković, Novi Sad: VSA/Mediterran, 2008 (1903), str. 156–220
• Fairclough, Norman (1989), Language and Power, Longman
• Jansen, Stef (2005): Antinacionalizam, XX vek, Beograd
• Lamont, Michele and Laurent Thevenot (eds.) (2000), Rethinking Comparative Cultural Sociology, Cambridge University Press.
• Silva, Elizabeth and Alan Warde (eds) (2010) Cultural Analysis and Bourdieu’s Legacy, Routledge
• Živković, Marko (2012): Srpski sanovnik: nacionalni imaginarijum u vreme Miloševića, XX vek, Beograd
• Kaler, Džonatan, Sosir – osnivač moderne lingvistike, Beograd: BIGZ/XX vek, 1980, str. 19–62 i 109–129
• Krstić, Nemanja, Simboličke granice – značaj kulturnih faktora u formiranju, održavanju i menjanju socijalnih razlika i sukoba, Kultura br. 143, 2014: 273–296.
• Simmel, Georg, Moda (str. 223–248) i Sociologija obroka (275–291) u: Kontrapunkti kulture, Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk/HSD, 2001.
• Bendžamin Li Vorf, Nauka i lingvistika, u: Jezik, misao i stvarnost, Beograd: BIGZ/XX vek, 1979, str. 135–152
• Mary Douglas, Čisto i opasno. Beograd: XX vek, 2001 (1966), str. 9–15, 45–59
• Zerubavel, Eviatar, The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, str. 5–32