Types of Culture and Cultural Change
Culture isn't one single thing. It exists in layers, from elite art forms to viral TikTok trends, and it's constantly shifting. Groups within a society develop their own cultural identities, sometimes reinforcing the mainstream and sometimes pushing against it. This section covers the major categories of culture, how cultures change, and what happens when change moves faster than society can handle.
High Culture vs. Pop Culture
High culture refers to cultural products associated with the elite, the highly educated, and the upper class. Think classical music, opera, fine art, and literary fiction. These forms tend to emphasize traditional aesthetic standards and are often seen as markers of social status.
Pop culture (also called popular culture or low culture) is mainstream, mass-produced, and widely accessible. Popular music, blockbuster movies, television shows, and fashion trends all fall here. Pop culture reflects current societal interests and is heavily shaped by commercial forces.
A few things to keep in mind:
- The line between high and pop culture isn't fixed. Jazz was once considered low culture; now it's studied in conservatories.
- Pop culture shapes attitudes and consumption patterns on a massive scale, while high culture tends to influence a smaller, more privileged audience.
- Sociologists are less interested in which is "better" and more interested in who has access to each and what that says about social class.
Subcultures and Countercultures
A subculture is a group within a larger culture that shares distinct values, norms, and behaviors while still coexisting with the dominant culture. Punk rock fans, skateboarders, cosplayers, and LGBTQ+ communities are all examples. Subcultures often develop their own styles, slang, and rituals that set them apart. Over time, elements of subcultures frequently get absorbed into the mainstream (think how skateboarding went from fringe to the Olympics).
A counterculture goes further. It actively opposes and challenges the dominant culture's values. The 1960s hippie movement is the classic example: it rejected mainstream consumerism, traditional gender roles, and the political establishment. Countercultures often advocate for alternative lifestyles and social change, and they frequently face pushback, marginalization, or even repression from the dominant culture.
The key distinction: subcultures exist alongside the mainstream; countercultures push against it.
Cultural Evolution Through Innovation
Culture changes through three main mechanisms:
- Innovation improves or refines something that already exists. Smartphones built on earlier cell phone technology; social media refined how we communicate online. Innovation drives gradual cultural shifts in how people interact, work, and relate to each other.
- Invention creates something entirely new. The printing press, the internet, and artificial intelligence are all inventions that didn't just improve existing tools but introduced fundamentally new possibilities. Inventions can spark dramatic shifts in cultural norms and practices.
- Discovery uncovers previously unknown information or phenomena. Scientific breakthroughs, archaeological findings, and the identification of new species all count. Discoveries expand knowledge and can challenge existing beliefs, forcing societies to update their worldviews.
All three overlap in practice. The discovery of electricity led to the invention of the light bulb, which led to innovations in home design, work schedules, and nightlife. Cultural change tends to build on itself.
Cultural Lag and Globalization
Cultural lag is a concept from sociologist William F. Ogburn. It describes the gap between the introduction of new material conditions (like technology) and the slower adaptation of non-material culture (like laws, norms, and values).
For example, the internet transformed communication almost overnight, but laws around online privacy took decades to catch up. Similarly, shifting gender roles and family structures can create tension when they outpace traditional cultural expectations. Cultural lag often produces conflict between more progressive and more conservative segments of society.
Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness of societies worldwide, driven by trade, migration, media, and international organizations. Its cultural effects include:
- Cultural diffusion: the spread of cultural elements across borders through media, tourism, and migration, often producing hybrid cultural forms
- Cultural homogenization: the risk that dominant cultures (often Western, often American) overshadow or displace local customs and traditions
- Global challenges like climate change and economic inequality that require cross-cultural cooperation
Cultural Perspectives and Interactions
These are key terms for understanding how cultures relate to one another:
- Cultural relativism: evaluating a culture's practices within its own context rather than judging them by your own cultural standards. This is the approach most sociologists advocate for.
- Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures based on the standards of your own, often leading to biased or negative perceptions. It's the opposite of cultural relativism.
- Cultural imperialism: the domination of one culture over another, typically through economic, political, or media power. Think of how American media and brands have spread globally.
- Acculturation: the process of adopting elements of a different culture, usually after prolonged contact. Immigrant communities often experience this as they navigate between their heritage culture and the dominant culture.
- Cultural appropriation: adopting elements from another culture without understanding or respecting their original meaning. This differs from acculturation because it often involves a power imbalance, with a dominant group borrowing from a marginalized one.
- Cultural hegemony: the dominance of one group's ideology and values over others, maintained through social institutions like education, media, and government rather than through force. This concept comes from the work of Antonio Gramsci.