Introduction to Cultural Sociology

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This class is an introduction to the way that sociologists study the cultural dimensions of the social world. Culture is here defined as all objects, ideas, and practices that people attach some meaning to. We will survey contemporary sociological approaches to analyzing culture, and discuss the way that culture and meanings are produced, disseminated, interpreted, and used by social actors. We will investigate how cultural objects are produced in mass media industries, how social boundaries and social hierarchies (such as those based on gender, race, and class) are created through the consolidation of cultural categories, and how social practices related to the consumption of cultural objects have become a central facet of life in modern societies.