Doing Cultural Studies
The Story of the Sony Walkman
2nd Edition
Published on 15. May 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-84920-550-4 (ISBN)
Description
Arguably the most famous book in its field... In theoretical terms, the legacy of Doing Cultural Studies confirms that this classic read is not just about the Walkman itself, but represents a series of clear observations about the symbolic meanings of culture.
- LSE Review of Books
Why think about the Walkman in the 21st century? Can the Walkman help us understand today's media and cultural practices? Through the notion of the 'circuit of culture', this book teaches students to critically examine what culture means, and how and why it is enmeshed with the media texts and objects in their lives. Students will:
Unpack the key concepts of contemporary culture, such as mobility, materiality, consumption and identity
Learn to think about some of the cultural conundrums of the present and their relation to the past, such as branding culture
Look with fresh eyes at today's media world and the cultural practices it gives rise to
Gain practical experience with the historical comparative method
Practice their critical skills with up-to-date exercises and activities
This book takes students on a journey between past and present, giving them the skills do to cultural analysis along the way. It remains the perfect 'how to' for students in media studies, cultural studies, design and sociology.
- LSE Review of Books
Why think about the Walkman in the 21st century? Can the Walkman help us understand today's media and cultural practices? Through the notion of the 'circuit of culture', this book teaches students to critically examine what culture means, and how and why it is enmeshed with the media texts and objects in their lives. Students will:
Unpack the key concepts of contemporary culture, such as mobility, materiality, consumption and identity
Learn to think about some of the cultural conundrums of the present and their relation to the past, such as branding culture
Look with fresh eyes at today's media world and the cultural practices it gives rise to
Gain practical experience with the historical comparative method
Practice their critical skills with up-to-date exercises and activities
This book takes students on a journey between past and present, giving them the skills do to cultural analysis along the way. It remains the perfect 'how to' for students in media studies, cultural studies, design and sociology.
Reviews / Votes
In today's world, with economy the central tenet of contemporary culture and popular culture and finance inextricably linked, this exemplary Walkman study will be a template and a source of inspiration for scholars who appreciate the materiality of culture and continuity between production and consumption.Barbara Czarniawska
Professor of Management Studies, University of Gothenburg
This publication provides a welcome opportunity to return to a classic text of cultural studies pedagogy and to apply its insights to contemporary issues of culture, media and identity and their connections to the production and consumption of technology. The combination of the original Walkman case study with useful 'back to the future' sections provides a great opportunity for students to reflect on the cultural meanings of smart phones, social media and user-generated knowledge.
Dr Richard Elliott
School of Media, Film and Music, University of Sussex Arguably the most famous book in its field, Doing Cultural Studies: the Story of the Sony Walkman is the text that lead to Cultural Studies becoming a respected and accepted discipline throughout the rest of the world.... Any 21st century observer might object and ask, somewhat perplexed, "who owns a Walkman nowadays?"... 16 years after the first edition, the authors can now write in a comparative fashion between two eras: 'Comparing the cultural practices associated with the Walkman with the practices related to modern Web-based mobile devices reveals both continuities and changes in the ways such technologies have been represented, identified with, produced, consumed and regulated, and the way they have been discussed in the media as well as in academic debates within the cultural and social sciences' (p. xii).
In theoretical terms, the legacy of Doing Cultural Studies confirms that this classic read is not just about the Walkman itself, but represents a series of clear observations about the symbolic meanings of culture... This fundamental reading on Cultural Studies should be read not only by students and scholars in this particular field, but by students in a variety of domains including sociology of culture, political economy of culture, popular music studies, media studies, and marketing. Non-scholars will also be able to follow it and appreciate its numerous ideas. Most importantly, those who read this book's first edition many years ago must read this enriched second edition as it remains timely and relevant for today, in its accurate understanding of how we, collectively, identify and consume culture. The now forgone era of the Walkman serves as a useful comparison about how some things seem to change or can remain the same in subtle ways. That is what academic books are made for.
Read the full review here -- Dr. Yves Laberge, LSE Review of Books
More details
Series
Edition
2nd Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Edition type
Revised edition
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 191 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
399 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84920-550-4 (9781849205504)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2013
2nd Edition
SAGE Publications Ltd
€184.70
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Paul du Gay is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at The Open University Stuart Hall was born and raised in Jamaica and arrived in Britain on a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in 1950. In 1958, he left his PhD on Henry James to found the New Left Review, which did much to open a debate about immigration and the politics of identity. Along with Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart he established the first Cultural Studies programme at a British university in Birmingham in 1964, bringing the study of popular culture into the understanding of political and social change.
After spending more than four decades as one of the UK's leading public intellectuals, Hall retired from formal academic life in 1997 and since then has continued to devote himself to questions of representation, creativity and difference. He became the chair of two foundations, Iniva, the Institute of International Visual Arts, and Autograph ABP, which seeks to promote photographers from culturally diverse backgrounds, and championed the opening of Iniva's new Rivington Place arts complex in east London in 2007. Linda Janes is the Course Administrator for PhD Students in the School of Engineering at the University of Portsmouth. Anders Koed Madsen is Professor in Humanities at Aalborg University in Denmark. Dr Hugh Mackay is an Honorary Associate of the Faculty of Sociology at Open University Keith Negus entered higher education as a mature student, having spent many years playing keyboards and guitar in a variety of bands after leaving school. He gained a degree in Sociology from Middlesex Universit and then completed a PhD study of the acquisition, production and promotion of recording artists at SouthBank University. He subsequently taught at the Universities of Leicester and Puerto Rico and was based in the Department of Media and Communications prior to moving the Department of Music at Goldsmiths. He is Director of the Popular Music Research Unit, convenor of BMus Popular Music, convenor of the MA Music (Popular Music Research) and a coordinating editor of Popular Music (Cambridge University Press).
After spending more than four decades as one of the UK's leading public intellectuals, Hall retired from formal academic life in 1997 and since then has continued to devote himself to questions of representation, creativity and difference. He became the chair of two foundations, Iniva, the Institute of International Visual Arts, and Autograph ABP, which seeks to promote photographers from culturally diverse backgrounds, and championed the opening of Iniva's new Rivington Place arts complex in east London in 2007. Linda Janes is the Course Administrator for PhD Students in the School of Engineering at the University of Portsmouth. Anders Koed Madsen is Professor in Humanities at Aalborg University in Denmark. Dr Hugh Mackay is an Honorary Associate of the Faculty of Sociology at Open University Keith Negus entered higher education as a mature student, having spent many years playing keyboards and guitar in a variety of bands after leaving school. He gained a degree in Sociology from Middlesex Universit and then completed a PhD study of the acquisition, production and promotion of recording artists at SouthBank University. He subsequently taught at the Universities of Leicester and Puerto Rico and was based in the Department of Media and Communications prior to moving the Department of Music at Goldsmiths. He is Director of the Popular Music Research Unit, convenor of BMus Popular Music, convenor of the MA Music (Popular Music Research) and a coordinating editor of Popular Music (Cambridge University Press).
Content
Introduction to the Second Edition
Introduction to the First Edition
1. MAKING SENSE OF THE WALKMAN
Introduction
What is 'Culture'?
Back to the Future: Materiality and Culture
Meanings and Practices
Meaning by Association: Semantic Networks
Back to the Future: Meanings and Associations
Signifying Practices
Contemporary Soundscapes
Back to the Future: Produsage: The Changing Relationship Between Production and Consumption?
Culture in the Age of Electronic Reproduction
Back to the Future - Benjamin v/2.0
Back to the future: Mobile Privatization?
Walk-men and Walk-women: Subjects and Identities
Back to the Future: Advertizing and Branding
Summary
2. THE PRODUCTION OF THE SONY WALKMAN
Introduction: The Many Origins of an Idea
Cultures of Production, Contexts of Innovation
Heroic Individuals
Back to the Future: Technological Innovation, Heroic Individuals and Distributed Agency
Sony, Japan and the United States
Sony: Signifying 'Japan'?
Happy Accidents at Work: Enter the Walkman
Making the Walkman to Sell: Connecting Production and Consumption
Assembling for the Young Consumer: The Mothers of the Invention
Naming the Machine: Sony Grammar
Marketing and Public Relations
Back to the Future: Promotional Culture
Monitoring Consumption and Market Research
Back to the Future: Produsage Revisited
3. DESIGNING THE WALKMAN: ARTICULATING PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
Designers as Cultural Intermediaries
The Organization of Design at Sony
Lifestyling the Walkman
Back to the Future: The Power of Software: Culture Made Malleable?
The Walkman: How 'Japanese' Is It?
4. SONY AS A GLOBAL FIRM
Following the Walkman: Competition and Financial Crisis
Sony Goes Global and Local
Back to the Future: The Global-Local Nexus
Combining Hardware and Software: The Culture Industry
Back to the Future: Synergies and Cultural Industries
5. CONSUMING THE WALKMAN
Introduction
Perspectives on Consumption
Back to the Future: Perspectives on Consumption
Back to the Future: Authenticity
The Production of Consumption
The Walkman and the Production of Consumption Critique
Back to the Future: "Revolutionary" Technologies?
Back to the Future: Optimism and Pessimism in Relation to Web 2.0
Back to the Future: No sense of Place?
Consumption as Socio-cultural Differentiation
Walkman Consumption and Social Differentiation
Consumption as Appropriation and Resistance
6. REGULATING THE WALKMAN
The Walkman and Questions of Cultural Regulation
The Walkman: The Public and the Private
Walkman Use and the Blurring of Boundaries
Back to the Future: Cultural Regulation of Modern Technologies
Summary of Chapters 5 and 6
Selected Readings
Reading A: Bruno Latour: 'Technology is society made durable'
Reading B: Axel Bruns: 'Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation'
Reading C: Walter Benjamin: 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction'
Reading D: Raymond Williams: 'Mobile privatization'
Reading E: Ana Andjelic: 'Time to rewrite the brand playbook for the digital'
Reading F: Nick Lyons: 'Scratching a global dream'
Reading G: Shu Ueyama: 'The selling of the "Walkman"'
Reading H: Thomas A. Harvey: 'How Sony Corporation became first with kids'
Reading I: Lev Manovich: 'There is Only software'
Reading J: Jonathan Zittrain: 'The Personal Computer Is Dead'
Reading K: Rey Chow: 'Listening otherwise, music miniaturized: a different type of question about revolution'
Reading L: Lev Grossman: 'Iran?s protests: Twitter, the Medium of the Movement'
Reading M: Tim O?Reilly: 'What Is Web 2.0'
Reading N: Mirko Tobias Schaefer: 'Bastard Culture! How User Participation Transforms Cultural Production'
Reading O: Lain Chambers: 'A miniature history of the Walkman'
Reading P: Vincent Jackson: 'Menace II society'
Introduction to the First Edition
1. MAKING SENSE OF THE WALKMAN
Introduction
What is 'Culture'?
Back to the Future: Materiality and Culture
Meanings and Practices
Meaning by Association: Semantic Networks
Back to the Future: Meanings and Associations
Signifying Practices
Contemporary Soundscapes
Back to the Future: Produsage: The Changing Relationship Between Production and Consumption?
Culture in the Age of Electronic Reproduction
Back to the Future - Benjamin v/2.0
Back to the future: Mobile Privatization?
Walk-men and Walk-women: Subjects and Identities
Back to the Future: Advertizing and Branding
Summary
2. THE PRODUCTION OF THE SONY WALKMAN
Introduction: The Many Origins of an Idea
Cultures of Production, Contexts of Innovation
Heroic Individuals
Back to the Future: Technological Innovation, Heroic Individuals and Distributed Agency
Sony, Japan and the United States
Sony: Signifying 'Japan'?
Happy Accidents at Work: Enter the Walkman
Making the Walkman to Sell: Connecting Production and Consumption
Assembling for the Young Consumer: The Mothers of the Invention
Naming the Machine: Sony Grammar
Marketing and Public Relations
Back to the Future: Promotional Culture
Monitoring Consumption and Market Research
Back to the Future: Produsage Revisited
3. DESIGNING THE WALKMAN: ARTICULATING PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
Designers as Cultural Intermediaries
The Organization of Design at Sony
Lifestyling the Walkman
Back to the Future: The Power of Software: Culture Made Malleable?
The Walkman: How 'Japanese' Is It?
4. SONY AS A GLOBAL FIRM
Following the Walkman: Competition and Financial Crisis
Sony Goes Global and Local
Back to the Future: The Global-Local Nexus
Combining Hardware and Software: The Culture Industry
Back to the Future: Synergies and Cultural Industries
5. CONSUMING THE WALKMAN
Introduction
Perspectives on Consumption
Back to the Future: Perspectives on Consumption
Back to the Future: Authenticity
The Production of Consumption
The Walkman and the Production of Consumption Critique
Back to the Future: "Revolutionary" Technologies?
Back to the Future: Optimism and Pessimism in Relation to Web 2.0
Back to the Future: No sense of Place?
Consumption as Socio-cultural Differentiation
Walkman Consumption and Social Differentiation
Consumption as Appropriation and Resistance
6. REGULATING THE WALKMAN
The Walkman and Questions of Cultural Regulation
The Walkman: The Public and the Private
Walkman Use and the Blurring of Boundaries
Back to the Future: Cultural Regulation of Modern Technologies
Summary of Chapters 5 and 6
Selected Readings
Reading A: Bruno Latour: 'Technology is society made durable'
Reading B: Axel Bruns: 'Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation'
Reading C: Walter Benjamin: 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction'
Reading D: Raymond Williams: 'Mobile privatization'
Reading E: Ana Andjelic: 'Time to rewrite the brand playbook for the digital'
Reading F: Nick Lyons: 'Scratching a global dream'
Reading G: Shu Ueyama: 'The selling of the "Walkman"'
Reading H: Thomas A. Harvey: 'How Sony Corporation became first with kids'
Reading I: Lev Manovich: 'There is Only software'
Reading J: Jonathan Zittrain: 'The Personal Computer Is Dead'
Reading K: Rey Chow: 'Listening otherwise, music miniaturized: a different type of question about revolution'
Reading L: Lev Grossman: 'Iran?s protests: Twitter, the Medium of the Movement'
Reading M: Tim O?Reilly: 'What Is Web 2.0'
Reading N: Mirko Tobias Schaefer: 'Bastard Culture! How User Participation Transforms Cultural Production'
Reading O: Lain Chambers: 'A miniature history of the Walkman'
Reading P: Vincent Jackson: 'Menace II society'