| I argue in
this paper that cultural construction today is characterized by the increasingly-
individualized formation of supercultures-customized clusters, grids,
and networks of personal relevance that promote self-understanding, belonging,
and identity while they grant opportunities for personal growth, pleasure,
and social influence. The superculture is a janus-faced, transient space
between here and there, between society and self, and between the material
and the symbolic. The argument emphasizes the role of perception and interpretation
in cultural construction, and recognizes that everyday understandings of
culture necessarily float between the global and the local, between the
collective and the individual, and between mediated and unmediated forms
of experience. Key to the process of such cultural actualization is personalized
cultural programming. Social actors draw creatively from at least
six cultural spheres-universal values, international cultural forms, civilizations,
dominant national cultures, regional cultures, and everyday life-to construct
their cultural worlds. The technological and symbolic conditions that give
rise to supercultural construction emphasize the capacity of people as willing
and resourceful creators of their cultural experience. Individuals operate
within social structures that guide but do not determine their cultural
choices, enacted in an historically-unparalleled universe of technological
access and symbolic abundance. Specific empirical examples representing
a range of cultural environments support the theoretical claims. |
|
James Lull
Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Goldsmiths College, University of
London
JamesLull@aol.com
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