"Culture and Society or "Culture and the State

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2930739
AutoresDavid Lloyd (0000-0002-0325-2006), Paul Thomas (0000-0002-1366-3781)
Año1992
Número30
Páginas27
Fecha de publicación1992-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial Text (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0164-2472 • E-ISSN: 1527-1951
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/466465
OpenAlexW2315951768
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas7

The higher and middling orders are natural representatives of human race. Their interest may be opposed, in some things, to that of their poorer contemporaries, but it is identical to that of innumerable generations which are to follow. - Macaulay The idea of representation is a modern one. It comes to us from feudal government, from that iniquitous and absurd system under which human race is degraded and which dishonors name of man. In republics and even in monarchies of ancient world, people never had representatives: very word was unknown. - Rousseau Few would dispute assertion that Raymond Williams's Culture and Society 1780-1950 has had and even continues to have a definitive influence on what appears to be dominant British tradition of thinking on culture in its relation to social and political theory. As Williams himself indicated in Politics and Letters, work more or less archaeologically reconstructed an occulted tradition. ' More importantly, it countered the appropriation of a long line of thinking about culture to what were by now decisively reactionary positions.2 At present moment, in context of a resurgent, militant cultural conservativism, such a venture might well seem not only relevant but to require an even more radical repetition. Culture and Society defined canon of cultural thinking as being in opposition to detrimental effects of industrialisation and democratisation. For Williams, of course, emphasis fell on former process; for contemporary conservatives emphasis falls, more often than not, on latter. Both appeal, neither without reason, to tradition which, as Williams taught us, runs from Burke through Arnold to Orwell. The possibility of this dual appeal lies in fact that this very tradition defines terms by which culture is differentiated from political, social, or economic spheres of society as a corrective supplement. The values to which discourse of culture appeals and which it seeks to preserve are those by which it is defined: wholeness, disinterest, humanity, cultivation, reconciliation

Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Scottish History and National Identity