Cultural Research The Basics. What is this? Is it: A piece of cloth? A flag? Why not a...

Cultural ResearchCultural Research

The BasicsThe Basics

What is this?

Is it:• A piece of cloth?• A flag? Why not a “pole-cloth”? (after all, we

have “dish cloth”, “table cloth” and so on)• A Scottish flag? Are you sure?• A sign of Scottish identity?• A commodified sign of Scottish identity

available within a capitalist market economy?

Or more radically, is it simply an image?

“This is not a pipe”, by Belgian artist René Magritte

Some other images from Magritte

What do they tell us about “representation”?

Is it (just) an image?

If so, is how (and where) the flag is represented important?

Flags• Let’s use the flag - something all of us

see every day, even if we’re not always aware of it, and which is an essential element of many large- and small-scale events - as a “hook” on which to hang this introduction into research into the cultural sector

Flags and nations…

The Saltire… or the flag of Tenerife?

Can you imagine two countries having similar flags?

Nations and flags…

Austria Latvia

Does this work?Would you know which end of the

stadium to go to?

Why do some flags have names?

The saltire Le tricolore La senyera

?

A sign of identity?

Is this athlete Scottish, or British?Could she be from Tenerife?

Fancy one for your car?

A snip at £2.50!(Em, it’s actually against the law to have a saltire on your licence

plate: does that matter?)

Flying the flag…

Wonder who’s playing who at football here…

Flying the flag…

What does the fact that a Scottish supporter is waving an

Italian flag mean?

Flying the flag…

Why would an editor choose to publish such an image in his or

her newspaper?

Flying the flag…

Is it important that the only people we see in this photograph

are men?

Flying the flag…

Is it important that the only people in the foreground in this

photograph are white?

Coming back to our original questions:

• Were we looking at:• A piece of cloth?• A flag?• A Scottish flag? • A sign of Scottish identity?• A commodified sign of Scottish identity available

within a capitalist market economy?

– It’s obviously all of these things (and more).

But…• The meanings associated with this

object are clearly much more important than the materials (ink, cloth, thread etc) from which it is made.

• Welcome to the Cultural Sector

The Cultural Sector…• Is an arena where an ever increasing

range of goods and services are produced and sold (i.e. commodified) not primarily for their use value (the materials which make up the saltire are of little use in themselves), but for their sign value: in other words, for their meaning(s).

The Cultural Sector…• Is a key element in the symbolic economy,

an area of economic activity engaged fundamentally in the production and circulation of meanings

• These meanings can be attached to material goods (like the saltire) but also, for example, to music, fashions and so on…

Meanings are attached to…

• a wide range of products which, though having a material support, are purchased primarily for the meanings on offer

• No-one buys a music CD or the DVD of a movie for the metal they are made of, or a newspaper for the actual paper which makes it up (though this can have secondary uses)

Events…• Occupy a special place in the symbolic

economy• Not only must they be invested with

meaning in order to attract an audience• They are also consumed in real-time,

making them ideal components of advanced capitalist economies

Coming back to the saltire• We could research how saltires are

produced

• From a cultural point of view we would be interested in the increasing range of contexts in which saltires appear (t-shirts, car stickers, logos etc) rather than in their physical make-up

However…• Once a particular design is officially

designated as a flag it is subjected to a range of rules

• These regard colour, proportions and the like, and are interesting from a cultural point of view

Rules• The establishment of rules immediately

allows the possibility of appropriations of all kinds, ranging from the ludic to the aggressive…

The Norwegian flag…

The Norwegian flag…

… as seen on Johan Galtung’s recent book “Norway seen from outside”

The Swedish flag…

As we know it today…

A somewhat different Swedish flag…

Is burning the Stars and Stripes…

Simply burning a piece of cloth?

But…• In terms of research in the Cultural

Sector we would be much more likely to be interested in issues such as the following:

Possible topics:• The meanings invested in the object

(there are always more than one)• The history of how they got there, and

how they have changed over time (meanings always change over time)

• What different groups of people do with those meanings

Above all…• The struggle over which of these

meanings is to predominate• The cultural sector is characterised not

just by the production and circulation of meanings, but above all by struggles over hierarchies and limits

• It is, therefore, deeply political

Possible approaches• Historical approaches:

– Most flags have changed considerably over time– For example, between the French Revolution and now the order of colours on the French flag has been reversed!– After Re-unification the two old Germanies had to agree on a common flag– New nations always produce new flags

Historical approaches

A new flag

The Kosovan flag… chosen after a national competition

Approaches examining the concept of national identity• Official discourses of national identity

• Popular performances of national identity

• Banal nationalism

• The economics of national identity

Banal nationalism

Ethnographic approaches• Organising interviews, focus groups

and the like to investigate how people relate to flags, notions like national identity and so on

Participant observation• Attending events as both a participant

and critical observer, making notes of what is happening (NB: this approach, like ethnographic approaches in general, has a significant ethical dimension)

Quantitative approaches• Designing and distributing large-scale

questionnaires to explore a similar range of issues

• These and other approaches will be our focus in subsequent lectures

A brief task• Along with this presentation you will

find a famous analysis (by French semiologist Roland Barthes) of a photo of a black soldier saluting the French flag. Have a read at it - it’s quite short - and post some comments on the discussion board: do you find it convincing? is it over the top?

Many thanksMany thanks

Hugh O’DonnellHugh O’Donnell

hod@gcal.ac.ukhod@gcal.ac.uk