Assignment
Cultural studies
Name : Ravina Parmar
Roll no : 18
SEM : M.A. sem- 2
Batch year : (2019-2021)
Email :ravinaparmar827@gmail.com
Enrollment no : 2069108420200031
Submitted to : Smt. S. B. Gardi English Department Bhavnagar, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
Topic :
The term "Cultural Intermediaries" is coined by Pierre Bourdieu. Who was a well known French socialist. Here we look for how intermediary worked for n Cultural studies. In a way the intermediary means a person who acts as a link between people in order to try and bring about agreement as a mediator. How and which way Culture is affected by popular production and marketing. How the Intermediaries are used Cultural test and Cultural connotations. How they make an effect on a particular culture's mind and to inspire them to sell the products.
So the basic concept of these projects, particular image of the product at hand, suggest particular values and qualities and sell it to the consumer. There is a link between two groups that is consumption and production of Culture.
They present the things in an interesting way that the consumer wants the things with them. And also they occur between this two realms like production and consumer.
Their main function is to represent the Cultural object in such a way that a desire for the same thing in the mind of consumers, then who they buy the object.
In recent years, research on cultural intermediaries has been engaged to a greater extent with actor network theory, economic sociology and cultural economy. Actor Network Theory is about a theoretical and methodological approach to social theory where everything in the social and natural worlds exists in constantly shifting networks of relationships. It posits that nothing exists outside those relationships. There is a concept of designer and users.
In Cultural Intermediaries "Economy" is also often at the forefront discussion. If any particular region has a good economic condition then also the style and ideas differ for them, from Intermediaries. An intermediary is offering ‘expertise’ in the production of cultural products. This mediation during the production stage affects the consumption, or perception of a product, though how this is measured is questionable.
Bourdieu also talked about economic and cultural capital. In the case of Distinction, the specific focus of the research was on how social stratification is reproduced and legitimated through notions of taste, as they are expressed and enacted through consumption.the importance of , ‘considering the interdependence between the two spheres of production and consumption as conceptualized in the literatures on economization and the economy of qualities.’
Intermediaries are external groups, individuals, or businesses that make it possible for the company to deliver their products to the end user. For example, merchants are intermediaries that buy and resell products. That is there but which type of questions asked by Cultural studies :
-: What exactly is the relationship of the cultural Intermediaries to the product being sold?
-: Does the Intermediaries really influence audience reactions ?
-: What is the role played by mediators ?
Let's have something more about French socialist Petrie Bourdieu.
Pierre Bourdieu :
Pierre Bourdieu was a renowned sociologist and public intellectual who made significant contributions to general sociological theory, theorizing the link between education and culture, and research into the intersections of taste, class, and education. He is well known for pioneering such terms as "symbolic violence," "cultural capital," and "habitus."
Notable work by him :
The School as a Conservative Force (1966)
Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977)
Reproduction in Education, Society, and Culture (1977)
Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1984)
"Forms of Capital" (1986)
Language and Symbolic Power (1991)
These are the famous works by him in which I wanted to include 'Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste.' In this work we find that. He was discussed about Cultural Intermediaries. Although cultural intermediaries are not discussed in a level of detail commensurate with the scale of Bourdieu’s study.
In this work he discussed five interrelated dimensions of his account that pertain to Cultural Intermediaries.
- New economy, new class relations :-
Bourdieu’s analysis of cultural intermediary occupations is informed by what he
regarded as a new economy. Cultural intermediary occupations are, for Bourdieu, an effect both of an economy requiring the production of need, and of class anxiety about upward and downward social mobility. It is the latter factor that attracts most of Bourdieu’s attention: this strengthens his understanding of the subjective dynamics at play for the new petite bourgeoisie. However, it is also a limitation, as noted by critics who complain that Bourdieu largely ignores the institutional, political economic context of cultural industries and the division of labour that has developed therein.
- New occupations :-
New occupations also play a vital role in Cultural Intermediaries. How Intermediaries affect the newly formed occupations. Both class fractions of new occupations are involved in the creation of wants. The new bourgeois cultural intermediaries are the instigators of new tastes and practices, because their profits and power are reliant on the production of needs.
- Taste makers :-
Cultural intermediaries are defined by their work as taste makers. This is intertwined with Bourdieu’s understanding of how taste operates as ‘a match-maker’ between people and things . Cultural intermediaries cannot enforce desires or purchases; rather, they create the conditions for consumers to identify their tastes in goods.
- Expertise and legitimacy :-
Cultural intermediaries are not simply taste makers; they are professional taste makers and ‘authorities of legitimation’. Through professionalization strategies, ‘new’ cul-
Tural intermediary occupations will emerge, to compete over what counts as ‘good'.
- Cultural capital and dispositions :-
Bourdieu mentioned that the link between cultural intermediary occupations and individual practitioners’ habits, and particularly their stocks of cultural capital and subjective dispositions. So in Cultural Intermediaries we find that the importance of Cultural capital.
✍️ And also He established two relationships. On the one hand, there is a close link between cultural practices
e.g. what people like to do, and how they do it,
and educational capital and social origin that is the amount of formal education received, and social class of parents.
On the other hand, people with similar amounts of education from different social origins may be similar in what they like and do in areas of ‘legitimate’ culture
e.g. their views of modern art or composers – knowledge that is more readily transmitted via education) but will differ most in areas of everyday life, such as clothing, furniture and food
choice.
There is also the importance of power as power dominates many things. Even the lifestyle of common people is also dominated by those who are in power and also the center of the society. The norns and conditions made by them. If they are producing any product then they create circumstances and situations to consume this product that is something valuable and great.
Julian Matthews and Jennifer Smith Maguire in the introduction to their recent publication The Cultural Intermediaries Reader open with the following statement:
‘Cultural intermediaries are the taste makers defining what counts as good taste and cool culture in today’s marketplace. Working at the intersection of culture and economy, they perform critical operations in the production and promotion of consumption, constructing legitimacy and adding value through the qualification of goods.’
How Intermediaries check everything about their consumer where they belong , which type of economic condition they have, that all the things through they desides their plan for marketing and advertising for products.
In which we can say that marketing and advertising is the best example for the cultural Intermediaries, this is also an important things, "comes into its own in all the occupations involving presentation and representation (sales, marketing, advertising, public relations, fashion, decoration and so forth) and in all the institutions providing symbolic goods and services. "
If we take examples of the film industry then we understand how the Cultural Intermediaries worked in society. On the production side we have producers, directors, film making companies and the celebrity stars. And also on the consumption side we have large numbers of people. Today we can not come to any film that is unknown to the audience. So today because of social media everyone knows about everything. How this is achieved is part of Cultural studies.
As we know that marketing and advertising is the best way to reach Cultural context. The production house plays a vital role in intermediaries. The marketing wing of the flim and the distribution agency put promotional materials. They make various advertisements for films, make big hoardings. In various T.V. serials we find that the elements of upcoming films and the hero actors go on the set and introduce their upcoming films. Before the release of the movie they go to every platform that most people like, the music and the songs, steps of the dance goes viral and that through large numbers of audience attract towards the films.
Now the actor and actress themselves introduce his or her films through their social media accounts. The news channels introduced the films and gave short interviews. The magazine and the newspaper also published an article on films.
So they tried to reach every aspect of life that the audience should use. They know the Cultural context of the audience and work upon that. In a way that is the Intermediaries that goes to hand with the Audience.
So the advertising and the marketing is the key moments the process wrei Cultural products are 'sold'. It is possible that the Cultural Intermediaries have knowledge of the actual process of the Cultural Intermediaries. They don't think about the economic condition of that man, but they just make the materials of production and produced it. That is the expertise with the Cultural Intermediaries. We can even say that the fan club of the particular star that is the good Cultural Intermediaries. So in a way not only this factor but also that political parties also play a role in between.
Conclusion :
In closing, we note that while the ‘cultural turn’ has generated significant and nuanced accounts of the agency of consumers, and compelling analyses of the macro-structures of consumer culture, in our scholarship and popular imaginaries the market remains removed by and large from our considerations of culture.
Now we can find digital Cultural Intermediaries in which we take examples of celebrities who make videos on what products they use for their everyday life's makeup. They gave us names of products and recommended us to use these products. In a way that is the Intermediaries in digital platform. Like YouTube, Facebook, tweeter and Instagram.
Work Cited :
Bourdieu, P. Distinction, a Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge. (1984) [1979].
Thank you……….
