Cultural War Zone, Wark

Wark, McKenzie, 1997, 'Cultural war zone', The Australian, Wednesday October 1, p.40

- Everything is strangely cultural (in the '90's)

What is culture?

• the most complex word in English language (Williams)


• signals of who we are and how we are different


• indifference makes possible the intermingling of different cultures


• rules in different behaviour and attitudes exist both within and outside a culture, creating 'contestation'


• 'structure of feeling' (Williams) awareness of everything around you, and how you react


• uses rituals and artefacts to sustain its coherence across space and time, but is not defined solely by those things.


• Is something that must be applied to everyday life. Actions.


• Culture mades sense of time and space for its members. Familiarity - identity? A resource for times of hardship.

Modern living -> culture wars

• Capitalism has accelerated the changes that culture has to try and make intelligible to its members


• 'false compensation'


• means of resistance, hope


• the media puts culture under stress, blurs boundaries

A complex concept, one meaning is the structure of feeling that is shared (more or less) by members of a culture to make sense of things. Culture is under stress from modern living - accelerated changes and blurred boundaries of the media.

Culture is a set of signs and rules that signal how people differ and influence behaviour between people.

Modern, urban culture is as much about indifference as it is about difference. Necessary for different cultures to 'get along'.

Cultural politics - what is accepted behaviour and attitude between cultures.

Rituals and artefacts sustain a culture's coherence across space and time, but do not define the culture.

Cultures make sense of space and time for members, and create a sense of identitiy which is a resource for dealing with good and bad fortune.