Different conceptions of culture, including subculture, mass culture, folk…

The idea

Sociologists define culture as the shared norms and values of a group, but this takes many forms. High culture refers to elite artistic pursuits, like opera, often contrasted with low culture, which elites may view as inferior. Popular culture encompasses widely enjoyed media, such as chart music, while mass culture describes commercially produced, standardised products aimed at passive consumers. Folk culture involves traditional, locally created practices, like Morris dancing, passed down through generations. Subcultures are smaller groups with distinct norms differing from the mainstream, such as goths. Finally, global culture emerges when cultural products, like fast-food chains, spread worldwide, blurring national boundaries.

What earns the marks

• Define high culture as cultural products and practices associated with the elite, often requiring cultural capital to appreciate.
• Distinguish mass culture, which involves standardised, commercial products for profit, from popular culture, which refers to widely enjoyed, accessible cultural forms.
• Explain folk culture as traditional, authentic practices created by local communities rather than being mass-produced.
• Identify subcultures as groups whose values and norms differ significantly from the dominant culture.
• Describe global culture as the homogenisation of cultural products across national borders due to globalisation.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Confusing mass culture with popular culture.

  Put it right: Mass culture implies a critical view of standardised, profit-driven products consumed passively, whereas popular culture is a more neutral term for widely enjoyed, accessible culture.

• Assuming high culture is universally superior.

  Put it right: High culture is socially constructed as superior by those with power and cultural capital, rather than possessing inherent objective superiority.

• Treating subcultures and countercultures as identical.

  Put it right: While subcultures have distinct norms, they do not always actively oppose the mainstream, whereas countercultures explicitly reject dominant values.

Exam tips

• Use specific examples, such as classical music for high culture or global brands for global culture, to illustrate theoretical definitions.
• Evaluate the blurring of boundaries between high and popular culture, noting how postmodernists argue these distinctions are breaking down.
• Link conceptions of culture to sociological perspectives, such as Marxist critiques of mass culture or functionalist views on shared culture.