By Any Beat Necessary: et kulturanalytisk studie af 1000fryd

Bo Skøtt

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Abstract

This dissertation examines sociocultural community identity processes. Initially, I have studied how cultural strategies of different eras – since the Ministry of Culture Affaires was established in 1961 – have endeavoured to include social move-ments in a national, monocultural concept of culture using various strategies and teaching tools. It appears that different the cultural strategies of different eras rearticulate social movements in terms of sub-, socio- and counter-culture, depending on which cultural perspective is valid. This realization has lead me to study how a sociocultural community handles the identity shifts originated by various cultural strategies. The way identity shifts are handled by members of a given sociocultural community is analyzed on the basis of a series of micro sociological processes in which activists, among others, become conscious of themselves and each other and put them in a position to negotiate meaning in public. The study is planned and conducted as a cultural analysis study with reference to Norbert Elias’ sociological theories on social figurations. Cultural analysis is an interdisciplinary field that draws on different traditions including Marxism, Structuralism and Social Constructivism. The choice of cultural analysis as a starting point for this dissertation, thus, involves a number of theoretical and methodological implications. Theoretically, the thesis departs from more traditional library and information science studies’ foundation in natural science which among other things is reflected in formation thinking, focus on engaged life processes and interest in the subjects’ world life, their practices as well as everyday routines. The thesis is not based on one, unified theory, but lets the activists’ narrative topics guide the choice of various theoretical ap-proaches used to reconstruct a cultural analytic image of the sociocultural community. From a methodological point of view, this means that the thesis is built around etnometodological activities, field observations, active participation in social and cultural processes, and through a series of narrative interviews. The study is conducted as a case felt study of a social movement called “1000fryd” in Aalborg. 1000fryd has existed for 25 years as an alternative to established arts and culture (communication) institutions in Aalborg. 1000fryd is an association whose members identify themselves and each other as being in opposition to the established artistic, cultural and political life in mainstream culture, and therefore they operate under the auspices of 1000fryd. As such, 1000fryd appears as a cultural and political underground scene in Northern Jutland. The members of 1000fryd host well over two hundred events annually: concerts, festivals, happenings, exhibitions, etc., all of which are based on voluntary labour. 1000fryd is organized according to participatory principles meaning that the influence of each activist on the movement’s cultural profile, event calendar, activities, etc. is relatively high. The coupling between library and information science and this sociocultural object field is made out of interest for different knowledge forms used by the activists in their handling of identity shifts at 1000fryd. Through analysis of how the activists empower themselves and one another, their various internal and external inclusion and exclusion processes and their handling of emotional involvement and intellectual distance, I have studied the forms of knowledge that are active in the 1000fryd organisation and how they are used for identification purposes. By analyzing the activists’ nego-tiation of meaning and coherence in various public and semipublic contexts and their handling of late modern, cognitive and bodily experience, I have concluded that the organization of knowledge that takes place at 1000fryd is mainly enabled through the use of symbols / symbol systems, discourse and key scenarios, polarization and narratives. Throughout the study, I have gotten a glimpse of the topics that currently preoccupy the members at 1000fryd and how they administer this joint preoccupation. The dissertation contributes to research in library and information science with new perspectives on the factors that motivate subjects to engage in sociocultural communities, the various effects and consequences labelling and categorization have on the members of such social movements, and the fact that members are not only surrendered to comply with labelling and the stigmatizing naming of categorization, but have different options to maintain an initiative. Members of social movements are act-ively co-constructing their sociocultural identities in a tension field between internal debates and negotiations and external structures. In addition, the results indicate that arts and cultural (communication) institutions – especially public libraries – are acting in a tension field between the interests of individual subject autonomy and collective obliga-tions towards society’s cohesiveness. This dualism appears in the role of public libraries as public arts and culture (communication) institutions that are subjected to local authority control, economics and legislation who, at the same time, stage themselves as civil arenas for individual experience, intellectual growth and interpersonal interaction. Those two roles are not always compatible. Last but not least, the thesis appears as an example of how cultural analysis as a scientific theory may be implemented in a library and information scientific context.
OriginalsprogDansk
Antal sider453
ISBN (Elektronisk)9788774153153
StatusUdgivet - 2010

Emneord

  • kulturstudie
  • kulturanalyse
  • sociokulturer
  • sociokulturelle fællesskaber
  • 1000fryd
  • folkelige fællesskaber

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