Course overview
This course examines the central role that popular culture plays in people's everyday lives in diverse contexts around the world from the margins to the mainstream. It does so through the study of subcultures, a term used to describe groups that are often seen to be deviant or other. It uses case-studies to explore the origins of subcultural research and contemporary critiques posed by post-subcultural and digital researchers. Groups explored across the course include fans, music communities like Punks, Mods and Hip-Hop artists; heavily tattooed people; style-based Internet collectives (core aesthetics), Graffiti Writers and Skaters. Themes covered include debates about the commercialisation of youth subcultures; if and how social media and streaming are re-shaping subcultures and music consumption; embodied understandings of fashion and tattooing; and the relationship between age and subcultural participation. The course investigates how theorists from cultural studies, media and other disciplines have understood subcultures / popular culture, highlighting what anthropology contributes to these fields. It demonstrates that people form meaningful collective identities through the production and consumption of fashion, music, fandom, and material culture.
Course learning outcomes
- Understand theories and methods used in socio-cultural anthropology and apply this knowledge to contemporary examples in the fields of music, media and materialculture studies
- Evaluate central themes, propositions and concepts in the anthropology of popular culture demonstrating creative / critical thinking, and, problem solving skills
- Recognise the important role that social and cultural factors play in shaping people's uses and understandings of music, media and material culture in diverses ettings around the world
- Display communication skills in both individual and group work, including the capacity to work in a team and to effectively use different media to convey ideas andinformation
- Navigate and use relevant digital technologies and forms of communication (i.e. ICT-based devices, software, video / power-point presentations, online quizzes, email)
- Illustrate digital information and media literacy by finding, evaluating, and, presenting digital information from both academic and other sources like social media