CULTURE AND CONSUMPTION

Culture and Consumption

Culture and Consumption

Introduction

The word 'culture' is so extensively being used that it has become as one of the most widespread expression in all kinds of civic dialogue, always talked by the media and politicians, not to speak of academics from almost all walks of life i.e.' Police culture', 'welfare culture', 'enterprise culture', 'research culture'--there seems almost no bound to its applicability in about any framework It has at the same time become an increasingly an blank term. The more often it is used, the more frequently it look to need another word to support it up and define its meadow of orientation. As for as popular culture is concerned, its study is within the tradition of the humanities. However, popular culture studies differ from traditional studies. The method of learning and accepting influence from other artists may vary in method and procedure as Lord said “ the ways singers of epics in Eastern Europe learn their art orally and how they compose as they perform. The poems themselves are judged according to the specific goals of the artists and the audiences.” It was extended to the popular arts such as television programs, popular films, popular music, best-selling novels etc. The effects of one medium, one culture, a particular period and audience, the economic and cultural policies of the governments thus have definite impact on the development of popular culture, which will be discussed in subsequent paragraphs.

Globalisation is said to offer young people possibilities for new forms of subjectivity and belonging, seemingly free from the immediate ties of family, peer group and geographic location. For young women in particular, globalisation may provide opportunities for the emergence of new femininities. Within this framework young women have been positioned as the ideal neo-liberal subjects for postindustrial times, taking centre stage in the reconfiguration of labour patterns, consumption practice and gender roles. (Bihagen, 2000)

It could be agued here that late modernity unshackles women from the patriarchal past. No longer subservient to the male breadwinner, the new female subject is economically independent, liberated from the confines of the domestic sphere and, with the help of new reproductive technologies, can realise the possibility of 'having it all' and 'doing it all'. The fuschia-pink hue of late modernity can be seen as part of the prevailing Zeitgeist, giving young women licence to become agentic, assertive and 'out there'. Where once the lives of young women were relegated to the margins, in the contemporary period they appear: their visibility is part of their unassailable presence in the new girl order.

Effect of Culture Integration Policy

The European countries have started a mad race to integrate their resources and adopt a joint stance on every political or economic platform. The success of introduction of EURO as a common currency encouraged them a great deal and they have now started looking at devising methods to integrate their resources to have identical culture and language. The desire of having uniformity in culture has simply jolted the custodians of popular ...