Theory, culture & society

What influence does the cinema have on visual culture and social understanding? In what ways are we products of the cinematic gaze? This timely book, written by one of the leading commentators in the sociology of culture, highlights the extent to which the cinema has contributed to the rise of voyeurism throughout society. The cinema not only turns its audience into voyeurs, eagerly following the lives of its screen characters, but repeatedly casts its key players as onlookers, spying on other people's lives. The nature of the cinematic voyeur - the obsessive outsider, the ethnic or sexual Other - is examined in depth, as are its implications for contemporary society. Denzin analyses Hollywood's manipulations of gender, race and class, and, drawing on the work of Foucault, argues that the cinematic gaze must be understood as part of the machinery of surveillance and power which regulates social behaviour in the late twentieth century.

The way in which the ruling ideas of a social system are related to structures of class, production and power, and how these are legitimated and perpetuated, is fundamental to the sociological project. In Reproduction Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron develop an analysis of education in its broadest sense, encompassing more than the process of formal education. They show how education carries an essentially arbitrary cultural scheme which is actually, though not in appearance, based on power. More widely, the reproduction of culture through education is shown to play a key part in the reproduction of the whole social system. The analysis is carried through not only in theoretical terms but through the development of empirically testable propositions within the wider framework of the historical transformation of the educational system.

"In this book, Graeme Turner explores the 'whys' and 'hows' of the 'everyday' individual's willingness to turn themselves into media content through celebrity culture, Reality TV, DIY websites, talk radio, and user-generated materials online. Further analyzing the pervasiveness of celebrity culture, the book develops the idea of the demotic turn as a tool for examining common elements in a range of media and cultural studies 'hot spots'." "Rejecting the idea that the demotic turn necessarily carries with it a democratizing politics, this book examines its political and cultural function in media production and consumption across many fields - including print and electronic news, current affairs journalism, and citizen and online journalism. Graeme Turner outlines a structural shift in the western media, and suggests that these media activities represent something much more fundamental than contemporary media fashion."--Jacket.

"Underpinning the analysis is the notion of the 'risk society'. The changing nature of society's relation to production and distribution is related to the environmental impact as a totalizing, globalizing economy based on scientific and technical knowledge becomes more central to social organization and social conflict." -- Publisher's description.