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This volume addresses the dynamics of materiality over time and space. In cross-cultural, multi-temporal and interdisciplinary studies the authors examine how things gain meaning and status, generate a multitude of emotions, and feed into the propagation of myths, narratives and discourses. The book is divided according to four themes: soft objects, stoic stories, consuming and the collectable, and waste and technologies. The first section discusses the meanings of the lived environment on the individual and national levels. The second section provides specific examples on the role of things in identity construction. The third section focuses on historical and contemporary aspects of consumption and collecting. The phenomena under scrutiny in the fourth section are moral dilemmas associated with and representations of dirt/waste and advancements in science and technology. Presenting diverse case studies of material culture, the volume points to rich interdisciplinary approaches in cultural theory.

This volume addresses the dynamics of materiality over time and space. In cross-cultural, multi-temporal and interdisciplinary studies the authors examine how things gain meaning and status, generate a multitude of emotions, and feed into the propagation of myths, narratives and discourses. The book is divided according to four themes: soft objects, stoic stories, consuming and the collectable, and waste and technologies. The first section discusses the meanings of the lived environment on the individual and national levels. The second section provides specific examples on the role of things in identity construction. The third section focuses on historical and contemporary aspects of consumption and collecting. The phenomena under scrutiny in the fourth section are moral dilemmas associated with and representations of dirt/waste and advancements in science and technology. Presenting diverse case studies of material culture, the volume points to rich interdisciplinary approaches in cultural theory.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- A note to the reader -- 1. Introduction -- 'Culture' at The Department for Culture, Media and Sport -- Culture as a Perspective -- The Dangers of Culture -- 2. Landscape -- Culture into Nature -- Nature into Culture -- Cultural Explanation and Its Limits -- 3. A whole way of life -- Patterns of Life -- Dirt as a Cultural System -- The Value and Limits of Cosmology -- 4. Politics -- From Politics to Culture and Back Again -- Religion, Culture, and Women-Who-Cover -- Culture and Capitalism and The Anthropocene -- 5. Experience -- An Argument for Reimagining Culture -- Experiential Maps -- Cultural Aesthetics and Cultural Analysis -- 6. Death -- From My Diary -- In the Kingdom of the Sick -- Teaching Death -- 7. Two cheers for culture? -- Guarding Against Cultural Reductionism -- Embracing Collective Intimacies -- Finding Productive Distance -- Engaging With Culture that Matters -- Bibliography -- Index.

Culture is a defining aspect of what it means to be human. Defining culture and pinpointing its role in our lives is not, however, so straightforward. Terry Eagleton, one of our foremost literary and cultural critics, is uniquely poised to take on the challenge. In this keenly analytical and acerbically funny book, he explores how culture and our conceptualisations of it have evolved over the last two centuries--from rarified sphere to humble practices, and from a bulwark against industrialism's encroaches to present-day capitalism's most profitable export. Ranging over art and literature as well as philosophy and anthropology, and major but somewhat 'unfashionable' thinkers like Johann Gottfried Herder and Edmund Burke as well as T.S. Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Raymond Williams and Oscar Wilde, Eagleton provides a cogent overview of culture set firmly in its historical and theoretical contexts, illuminating its collusion with colonialism, nationalism, the decline of religion, and the rise of and rule of the 'uncultured' masses. Eagleton also examines culture today, lambasting the commodification and co-option of a force that, properly understood, is a vital means for us to cultivate and enrich our social lives, and can even provide the impetus to transform civil society. -- Inside jacket flap.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Chapter One: A Definition of Urban Culture -- Theories of the City -- Modern Adaptation of the Chicago School -- Urban Conflict Theory in the Modern Age -- Urban Culturalist Theory as a Modern Application -- Roots of Culture -- The Development of Urban Culture -- Chapter Two: The Urban Environment -- Housing in the Urban Landscape -- Race and Class -- Business and Jobs in the Urban Landscape -- Culture Production -- Chapter Three: Evolution of Culture in the City -- Institutionalized Religion -- Hierarchy and Class -- Currency -- Cultural Artifacts That Denote Class and Conspicuous Consumption -- The Industrial Revolution and Urban Planning -- The Growth of the Suburbs -- Urban Pressure and the Debate on Welfare -- Chapter Four: Music in the City -- The First Organized Music Makers -- Producing Musical Culture -- The Sociology of Musicianship -- Music Consumption -- Race and Class in Urban Music Production -- Music as a Cultural Artifact -- Urban Music Consumption -- Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville-The Triumvirate -- Style, Sound, and Cities -- Chapter Five: Art and Sculpture -- Ancient Greece -- The Roman Empire -- The Renaissance and Culture -- The Benefits of Urban Culture Production -- Urban Painting -- Theater and Literature -- Chapter Six: Architecture and Fashion -- Ancient Urban Architecture -- Modern Urban Architecture -- Housing Discrimination-Race and Class -- Seeking Solutions: Paris, France -- St. Louis, Missouri -- and Baltimore, Maryland -- Cities Built to Suit -- Fashion -- Public Health as an Impetus for Urban Culture Production -- Production of Urban Culture through Fashion -- Chapter Seven: Photography, Film, and Television -- How Photographs Built a City -- Tinsel Town -- Live Television to Studio City.

"This volume of original essays presents an overview of Popular Culture Studies as an ever-growing branch of American Studies while also reflecting the critical debates driving the field toward a more nuanced approach to contemporary culture more generally. Thus, many of the essays included take fresh perspectives on Black American culture, feminism, multiculturalism, and queer studies, among others, but they also provide critical updates on the global impact of U.S. American popular culture. 0If an understanding of U.S. Culture as Popular Culture in its national and international dimensions is one of the aims behind this publication, another is to conceive of cultural formations against the backdrop of shifting media environments. Placed alongside more traditional media such as literature and film, more recent phenomena including reality television, internet memes, and video games add considerable relevance to the critical appreciation of culture in the twenty-first century."