Explanations of Working-Class Culture and Identity - Essay Example

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS Name Institution Professor Course Date How did Raymond Williams and E. P. Thompson differ in their explanations of working class culture and identity? Both Thompson and Raymond are among the greatest Marxist historians who provide different explanations of working class culture and identity. Raymond Williams viewed culture as the record of reactions of people in thought and feelings to altered conditions of life (Williams 1960, p.67). According to Williams, diverse responses and resulting circumstances create different cultures thereby leading to formation of different cultures such as the working class culture (Williams 1960, p.89. He maintains that the working class culture is not the dissident component of proletarian writing (Williams 1960, p.120). Williams maintains that in a society where certain class is prevalent, it possible for all members of other class to have a hand in the common stock. He upholds that such contributions are not affected by or opposed to the values and ideas of the most prevalent class. Although Williams’s idea of working class culture is complex, he does not set it in a way that opposes the tradition (Williams 1960, p.135). He views the working class culture and identity as a democratic establishment that may include the trade unions, political party or co-operative movement. Working class culture and identity is principally social in the sense that it has instigated the establishment of institutions instead of individuals. Williams views working class culture as very extraordinary creative attainment. He describes the working class culture and identity through an analysis of the labour movement (Williams 1960, p.154). For Williams, the working class culture cannot be taken as a culture of consumption. According to Elliot (2013, p.221), the cultural contribution of the working class as put by Williams has been the discovery of trade unions and labour organisations, which is a movement, encapsulated in the concept of collective democratic society. In this perspective, the major cultural achievement of the working class is not neighbourliness or family, but the concept that democratic establishments require to be created to serve many people (Elliot 2013, p.221). In this regard, the working-class movement is a political establishment carried within it both as regard for the culture of learning and the concept of culture. Williams views culture and identity as the compelling force in the politics of working class. According to Bentley (2007, p.93) Williams engaged in the debate on the working class representation through an evaluation of the traditional Marxist comprehension of class in relation to the establishment of an artificial distinction amid society and individual. This distinction is considered as historically contextualised and depends on different super-structural aspects instead of depending on economic conditions. According Williams, the Marxist construct a problematic and artificial model of masses or proletariat and read class as an abstraction. This perspective prompts alienation of the modern working class from the discursive practice of Marxist theory (Williams 1960, p.187). Williams replaces the Marxist idea of class, the alienation, false consciousness and proletariat with a set of optional concepts of assessing the modern working-class class and society. He established the structures of feeling, ‘solidarity, a whole way of life’, community that endeavours to articulate a holistic comprehension of society and a collect group consciousness within working class (Williams 1960, p.189). Williams’s explanation of working class is founded on organic, empirical and experiential evidence instead of the abstractions of vulgar Marxism. In his explanation of the working class culture and identity, Williams stresses the significance of community as a moral necessity in the establishment of society. He defines community as an essential cohesive force that determines the working-class and culture. Edward Palmer Thompson, on the other hand, defined the English working- class as the expression of a common identity through political, cultural and social platforms. This collective expression comprises of proletariat as a class for itself, and is feasible only if workers shared a collective experience in their workplace (Thompson 1963, p.179). According to Thompson, the working class does not entail a structure or a category but something that takes place in relationships of human. The idea of class involves the idea of historical relationships (Thompson 1963, p.34). Thompson considers working class as a historical phenomenon that hold a real existence that can be defined mathematically. He believes that people in the working class make themselves. Unlike Williams, Thompsons contrasts working class culture and identity with Stalinist historiography of mechanical materialism. He emphasizes the activity of working people as a major factor in the historical process rather than a category or structure (Thompson 1995, p.176). The working class culture and identity is often embodied in people in an actual context. Contrary to Williams, Thompson emphasizes on the actions of the working people as a major aspect in the historical process instead of focusing on great material changes such as the establishment of cotton mills and opening of trade routes (Thompson 1995, p.178). Thompson describes the working class culture and identity as being made by ideas, aspirations and struggles of working people trying to make an influence on their lives’ conditions besides the blueprint of market competition and capital accumulation. He stresses that aspirations, traditions, experiences and ideas of working people, which amounts to sentimentalism, gives importance to the subsisting condition of realization of the working class. Thompson pays attention to political and ideological conventions of the working class and maintains that class is not a thing but a relationship (Thompson 1995, p.177). However, both Thompson and Williams demonstrated that the working class entails a culture with its own texts, rituals, values and artefacts and meaning-making procedures. Thompson believed that culture was a comparatively open concept as it is always subject to change and struggle. In his explanation of the working class culture and identity, Thompson establishes a Marxist tension amid the bourgeoisie and working classes (Thompson 1995, p.178). He believed that classes are founded on the disparities on legitimate power linked to given positions that includes organization of social roles with regard to the expectations of power (Thompson 1995, p. 178). A person becomes a class member by taking on a social role pertinent from the authority point of view. Therefore, class membership is attained from the social role incumbency. How people gets into social role are historical questions thereby making working class culture and identity a concept of historical relationships. References Bentely, N 2007, Radical fictions: The English novel in the 1950s, UK, Peter Lang. Elliot, A 2013, Routledge handbook of social and cultural theory, USA, Routledge. Thompson, E.P 1995, ‘Review of Raymond William’s The Long Revolution’ in J. Munns & G. Rajan (eds), A Cultural Studies Reader (Longman):175-85. Williams. R. 1960. Culture & Society 1780-1950. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. Thompson. E.P. 1963. The Making of the English Working Class. United Kingdom: Victor Gollancz Ltd, Vintage books. Using your own example, discuss the development and ideological effects of a moral panic Moral panic is a term used on a regular basis by the media to refer to all types of criminal or anti-social conducts. Moral panic is the exaggerated reaction from the media and the public to the actions of a given social group. These actions may be comparatively trivial and are reported in sensationalised manner in the media with such publicity and reporting leading to a rise in general concern and anxiety regarding the actions. Therefore, moral panic is an exaggerated reaction to a behaviour viewed as a social problem (Thompson 1998, p.8). Moral panic entails presentation of something that the public reacts to panicky by media. It exaggerates statistics and establishes a bogey-man or folk-devil. In the contemporary world, media presentation and moral panic have covered a number of topics. The mass media adopts the term moral panic to refer to the embellished social reaction instigated by the actions of individuals or groups. Such actions are invariably considered major social issues with the media prompting widening and magnification of the panic surrounding the actions. Moral panic makes the social group involved to be viewed by the public as folk devils. Moral panic is a deflating phrase utilised by sociologists to stoop to excitements amongst the general population. An issue becomes a moral panic when a group, person, episode or a condition is defined as a threat to societal interests and values (Thompson 1998, p.8). A good example of a moral panic is the event involving the mods and rockers who became notorious in the 1960s following their pitched fights at seaside resorts on the English south coast on Bank Holiday weekends (Gelder 2005, p.143). The media reporting of the fights became a matter of public concern. The example of the moral panic subject to analysis is the Satanic Ritual Child abused of the 1980 in America (Lawson, Jones & Moores 2000, p.55). This is event is similar to event involving DJ Jimmy Saville who raped a 15 years old girl during a satanic ritual in Scotland, UK in 1975 (Murray 2014, p.1). This event spread to the entire country and eventually to other parts of the world. The occurrence that involved the powerful and wealthy people was exaggerated through media reports an aspect that made the event an issue of public concern. The media defines moral panic in a stylised and stereotypical fashion. Moral panic develops when a small group of people commits a deviant act (Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke & Roberts 1978, p.3). For instance, the wealthy and the powerful in the United States formed a group that committed a deviant act that involved abducting children and involving them in prostitution and pornography besides using them for sacrifices. In the development of moral panic, the media reports the story as an issue of interest. In the Satanic Child Abuse incidence, the media reported the story as an issue of public interest and searched for other satanic stories to make the issue more scary. After reporting the story as an issue of interest, the media looks for akin stories and sensationalise and embellish the occurrence of the event (Lawson, Jones & Moores 2000, p.54). The group or the individual becomes marginalised following the exaggerated reporting. The individual or the group are then labelled or identified as folk-devils and eventually viewed as a threat to social order. In the Satanic Child Abuse, the people involved were marginalised and identified as threat to the society. The marginalised group or individual engages in more deviance act in reaction to the media coverage in a way that is viewed as the fulfilment of the prophecy. The public becomes aware of the group and call for a rise in law and order with greater social control exerted where magistrates, police and politicians react through establishment of harsher measures to control deviants (Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke & Roberts 1978, p.7). In the Satanic Child Abuse incident, police investigators, child advocates, clients and therapist in psychotherapy and religious fundamentals felt the effects of the rituals and formed groups that aimed at preventing the activities of the people involved in the satanic rituals. A rise in law and order occurred with official investigations commencing. Although the Satanic Ritual Abuse led to exertion of greater social control with professionals, law enforcers and religious groups establishing harsher measures to control the alleged activities, the investigations did not find prove of the much publicised conspiracies or killing of many people as highlighted by the media. The investigators, however, found a small number of substantiated crimes, which had less similarities of the Satanic Ritual Child Abuse. In the 1990s, there was reduced interest in the Satanic Ritual Abuse with very few investigators giving any credibility to the subsistence of the incidence. According to Lawson, Jones and Moores (2000, p.54), the characteristics of moral panic include concern where there is an understanding that the behaviour of the group or individual would hold negative upshots for other people. The generation of concern is demonstrated via opinion polls and media coverage. Hostility is an effect of moral panic that prompts increased resentment directed to the involved group. With regard to the Satanic Ritual Abuse, the society became hostile towards the people involved in the alleged activities. The incidence caused widespread acceptance that the group poses real threat to society not only in America but across the globe. The reaction of the society became disproportional following sensationalised media reporting. With respect to grassroot model of moral panic, the people around the threat, including the media and the public, rather that the alleged group generates the panic. For instance, the media generated the panic linked to the satanic ritual abuse. Following the 1980s Satanic Ritual Child Abuse, law and order increased while social workers gained. The social workers gained through promotion of their professional status and funds linked to fighting the augmenting numbers of such abuse increasing. References Gelder, K 2005, The subcultures reader, USA, Psychology Press. Hall, S, Critcher, C, Jefferson, T, Clarke, J & Roberts, B 1978, Policing the crisis: Mugging, the State, and law and order, In Critcher, Chas (ed.), Critical Readings: Moral Panics and the Media, pp.1-18, UK, Macmillan. Lawson, T, Jones, M & Moores, R 2000, Advanced sociology through diagrams, UK, Oxford University Press. Murray, P 2014, ‘ Excusive: Charities claim that the satanic abuse of children is rife’, Sunday Express. Retrieved from http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/533091/EXCLUSIVE-Charities-claim-satanic-abuse-children-rife Thompson, K 1998, Moral Panics, UK, Routledge. Read More

Williams views culture and identity as the compelling force in the politics of working class. According to Bentley (2007, p.93) Williams engaged in the debate on the working class representation through an evaluation of the traditional Marxist comprehension of class in relation to the establishment of an artificial distinction amid society and individual. This distinction is considered as historically contextualised and depends on different super-structural aspects instead of depending on economic conditions.

According Williams, the Marxist construct a problematic and artificial model of masses or proletariat and read class as an abstraction. This perspective prompts alienation of the modern working class from the discursive practice of Marxist theory (Williams 1960, p.187). Williams replaces the Marxist idea of class, the alienation, false consciousness and proletariat with a set of optional concepts of assessing the modern working-class class and society. He established the structures of feeling, ‘solidarity, a whole way of life’, community that endeavours to articulate a holistic comprehension of society and a collect group consciousness within working class (Williams 1960, p.189). Williams’s explanation of working class is founded on organic, empirical and experiential evidence instead of the abstractions of vulgar Marxism.

In his explanation of the working class culture and identity, Williams stresses the significance of community as a moral necessity in the establishment of society. He defines community as an essential cohesive force that determines the working-class and culture. Edward Palmer Thompson, on the other hand, defined the English working- class as the expression of a common identity through political, cultural and social platforms. This collective expression comprises of proletariat as a class for itself, and is feasible only if workers shared a collective experience in their workplace (Thompson 1963, p.179). According to Thompson, the working class does not entail a structure or a category but something that takes place in relationships of human.

The idea of class involves the idea of historical relationships (Thompson 1963, p.34). Thompson considers working class as a historical phenomenon that hold a real existence that can be defined mathematically. He believes that people in the working class make themselves. Unlike Williams, Thompsons contrasts working class culture and identity with Stalinist historiography of mechanical materialism. He emphasizes the activity of working people as a major factor in the historical process rather than a category or structure (Thompson 1995, p.176). The working class culture and identity is often embodied in people in an actual context.

Contrary to Williams, Thompson emphasizes on the actions of the working people as a major aspect in the historical process instead of focusing on great material changes such as the establishment of cotton mills and opening of trade routes (Thompson 1995, p.178). Thompson describes the working class culture and identity as being made by ideas, aspirations and struggles of working people trying to make an influence on their lives’ conditions besides the blueprint of market competition and capital accumulation.

He stresses that aspirations, traditions, experiences and ideas of working people, which amounts to sentimentalism, gives importance to the subsisting condition of realization of the working class. Thompson pays attention to political and ideological conventions of the working class and maintains that class is not a thing but a relationship (Thompson 1995, p.177). However, both Thompson and Williams demonstrated that the working class entails a culture with its own texts, rituals, values and artefacts and meaning-making procedures.

Thompson believed that culture was a comparatively open concept as it is always subject to change and struggle. In his explanation of the working class culture and identity, Thompson establishes a Marxist tension amid the bourgeoisie and working classes (Thompson 1995, p.178).

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