Culture Industry explained simply (Adorno and Horkheimer)

Simply explained, culture industry is a term used by social thinkers Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer to describe how popular culture in the capitalist society functions like an industry in producing standardized products which produce standardized people.

A more advanced definition of culture industry draws on the seeming contradiction between human culture and mechanical industry. This is exactly Adorno and Horkheimer's point in "Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" (which is a chapter inside "Dialectic of Enlightenment"). They argue that culture industry is associated with late capitalism in which all forms of culture (from literature, through films and all the way to elevator music) become part of the capitalist system of production which also has deep cultural mechanisms and not just economical ones. According to Adorno and Horkheimer these cultural products are not only meant for profit (appealing to the lowest common denominator) but also produce consumers that are adapted to the needs of the capitalist system.

Examples of Culture Industry

A simplified example which can help explain culture industry is TV lifestyles. Ever noticed how characters on TV shows you watch usually have great homes and nice cloths (except in the case in which the character is poor)? According to Adorno and Horkheimer this is not a coincidence since it's not only nice to watch good looking people leading a good looking life, these shows also send a consumerist message about how good lives should look, prompting people to adopt a certain version of the American Dream.    

The concept of culture industry become widely held in sociology, media studies and critical theory and it remains functional till this days in describing how mass culture and big business are inherently bound together to make up a large scale system of control and exploitation. Some years after "Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" Adorno wrote another article titled "Culture Industry Reconsidered" (see link for a summary), elaborating on the ideas and definitions of his initial essay with Horkheimer.   

See also: One Dimensional man / Herbert Marcuse

Adorno's Relationship with Technology

Adorno's Negative Dialectics Explained

Adorno's Theory of Aesthetics Explained

From Culture Industry to Culture Data: The Economics of Aesthetic Control

Top Books by Theodor Adorno - A Reading List

Thick Description - definition, explanation and examples (Geertz)

A simple definition of thick description will be an account of a culture or society which includes elaborate information on context and social background to explain behavior.

Clifford Geertz, who coined the term thick description, meant two things by it. The first practical meaning of asking an observer to write a "thick description" is to ask him not only to account for what he sees but also to try and find the context which will account for what he sees. The second theoretical meaning of Geertz's thick description is that social behavior should be understood "deeply", that it to understand that any behavior is rooted in elaborate social and cultural constraints that the researcher must bring into account if he wants to accurately portray a society.

If we take the example of the Nacirema culture, it is not enough to record women putting their heads into ovens or to describe the in-house shrines. One has to dig deeper and explain how these phenomena are related to the Nacirema's body culture (to understand the example see: Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner).    

Greetz developed the idea of thick description in his seminal "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture". Geertz gave a brilliant examples of his theory in his famous articles " Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight" or Person Time and Conduct in Bali . Another important theoretical article by Geertz is " From the Native's Point of View: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding" (all these articles have summaries on this site, follow the links).

Geertz's "thick description" was and still is a highly influential line of thought in anthropology, ethnology, ethnography, sociology and all of the social sciences. Geertz also influenced to trend in anthropology that sought to understand cultures from within, and thick description is an important tool for that.   

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social facts - simple definition and short explanation (Durkheim, Sociology)

A short and simple definition of Emile Durkheim's concept of "social facts" relates to social structures and norms which regulate individual and collective life.

Durkheim thought that sociology should be "the science of social facts". Social facts for Durkheim are elements in daily life which are purely social or cultural and they are characterized by being common to all or at least many members of society. Social facts do not depend on any particular individual nor any natural state of affairs, but from a social point of view they are in fact: facts!.

Although they are not natural, social facts are objective. It is not up to anyone to decide if a certain social norm or institute exists. Like it or not, these are the external factors that together with natural facts shape our existence.   

An example of a social fact can be the institute of the family and kinship, religion and language are also social facts that precede us in shaping our reality. Even manners of fashion can be regarded as social facts, to be studied under Durkheim's sociology.

Durkheim's theory was developed in his famous What is Social Fact?. Here you can read a little bit more about the thought of Emile Durkheim.

Marcel Mauss later developed Durkheim's idea and talked about "total social facts". For Mauss a total social fact is an action connected to all or most realms of social existence (like economics, culture, politics etc.)  

You can also check out these good books by and on Durkheim:

 

Id, Ego and Superego - simple definition and explanation (Freud)

short definition of Id, Ego and Superego: Explained simply, the Id, Ego and Superego are three parts of the human psyche which make up who we are, according to Sigmund Freud . The Id is the primal animalistic part in us who only listens to his desires. The superego is our conscience telling us some things are right and some are wrong. The Ego is the part caught in the middle, is the part that has to negotiate demands from the Id, the Superego and reality.

Further explanations on Id, Ego and Superego:

For Freud, the three mental faculties of Id, Ego and Superego are also three stages of mental development. We are born pure Id, knowing only the will to satisfy our desires and needs. The Id according to Freud operates under the "Pleasure Principle" that wants maximum enjoyment and minimum pain.

As we grow we slowly come to see that reality imposes certain restrictions on our pleasure principle (basically, we realize that we can't have or do anything we want). We therefore develop an inner agency called to Ego which is in charge or mediating desires coming from the Id and demands posed by reality.

As the ego comes in contact with reality he encounters values and beliefs that originate from the world around him (say education for example). These external values are internalized in order to form the Superego which acts as a voice demanding to do "the right thing".   

It is important to note that or Freud, the Ego is who we experience ourselves as. The Id and Superego are both "blind" in being out of touch we actual reality. This is why both the Id and Superego pose impossible demands from the Ego which is in a way "caught in the crossfire" between animalistic urges and cultural restraints.  

  

You can read more about Freud's Id, Ego and Superego in the following summaries:
Sigmund Freud - The Ego and the Id
Sigmund Freud - Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Sigmund Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents

See also: Freud's famous patients: best known case studies

And here are some recommended books on and by Freud:

Dialectical Materialism - simple definition and explanation

What is the meaning of dialectical materialism?

short version: A simple definition of Marx's concept of dialectical materialism is a view of history as determined by the struggle between economic forces. In "dialectical" Marx means to see history as progressing through conflict between opposing forces. In "materialism" Marx holds that it is the material factors of human reality are the field in which these shaping conflicts take place (as opposed to the field of thought, as Hegel would argue in his dialectical idealism).

And now for a more elaborate definition and explanation of the meaning of Marx's dialectical materialism:

Explained simply, dialectical materialism (sometimes called "historical materialism" or Materialist Theory of History) is an evolutionary concept which accounts for the dynamic, ever evolving process of history. The idea of dialectics says that history progresses through struggles between a thesis and an antithesis which eventually lead to a synthesis that will in turn become a thesis, yielding an opposing antithesis and so forth. Hegel, who made dialectics famous, thought that this progression occurs between conflicting ideas, and that philosophy is in fact what drives history forward. Marx accepted Hegel's dialectics but rejected his idealism, arguing that it is material aspects of humanity which account for every turn in history. The conflicts that make up the dialectical process are not between ideas but between material economic interests, especially Class Conflict.

Marx demonstrates his dialectical materialism on history, trying to account for historical events and processes as explained by a struggle between different classes on resources and means of production.

If you want a less simplified definition and explanation of Marx's dialectical materialism you can go to our summaries of Marx's German Ideology or The Communist Manifesto. If you want an even broader definition try A Very Short introduction to Marx or go for the real thing with Marx's selected writings.

see also: Cultural Materisalism

Walter Benjamin on the concept of history

Here you can find additional summaries and explanations about Karl Marx's theory:

Summary of The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels 
Ideology according to Marx – definition and explanation

Marx on Capitalism and Exploitation - Summary

Marx on Commodity - Summary and Explanation

Marx on Human Nature, Alienation and The Structures of Capitalist Society - summary

Marx's Perception of History in The German Ideology: praxis, property and the division of labor

Marx's Perception of History in The German Ideology: dialectics and capitalism
Marx's The German Ideology: Alienation and Ideology – summary and analysis

The Sociology of Karl Marx

Best Books by and on Karl Marx- a reading list