Cultural Sociology 3502-532

The lecture presents problematics of contemporary cultural sociology - major concepts and research orientations as well as the dynamics of cultural changes, characteristic for contemporary societies. The specificity of the sociologycal theory of culture and the significance of the cultural perspective in sociological research is shown. New orientations in cultural sociology, concepts of cultural pragmatics and symbolic actions are discussed in relation to classical cultural sociology, sociology of culture as a subdiscipline, as well as postmodern cultural studies. Selected research problems related to contemporary cultural changes - among others - collective memory and cultural trauma are presented to exemplify the strong program of cultural sociology. Relations between culture and social structure, culture and integration processess as well as social change and cultural dimention of the globalization are analyzed. At the background of the transformations of traditional cultures modern and postmodern changes of culture, mass culture, production, reproduction and consumption of culture are analyzed. Problems of culture and power, af cultural identity and gender, axionormative order and moral order, as well as ideology as a cultural system and cultural politics will be presented.