Cultural complexity
Subtitle: studies in the social organization of meaning
By: Ulf Hannerz.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 1992
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 347
Subjects: Culture.; Social structure.; Subculture.; Ethnology.
Description: A rich, witty, and accessible introduction to the anthropology of contemporary cultures, "Cultural Complexity" emphasizes that culture is organized in terms of states, markets, and movements. Hannerz pays special attention to the interplay between the centralizing agencies of culture, such as schools and media, and the decentering diversity of subcultures, and considers the special role of cities as the centers of cultural growth. Hannerz discusses cultural process in small-scale societies, the concept of subcultures, and the economics and politics of culture. Finally, he presents the twentieth-century globalization of culture as a process of cultural diffusion, polycentralism, and local innovation, focusing on periods of intensive cultural productivity in Vienna, Calcutta, and San Francisco.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [303]-331) and index.