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Social Functions of Cultural Warfare

Wiktorin, Pierre LU (2011) Stereotyping the Other: Exploring the Anatomy of Religious Prejudice – and Ways to Dismantle It.
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Contribution to conference
publication status
submitted
subject
keywords
stereotype, social function, moral panics, popular culture
conference name
Stereotyping the Other: Exploring the Anatomy of Religious Prejudice – and Ways to Dismantle It.
conference dates
2011-04-13
language
English
LU publication?
yes
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Abstract: Contemporary society is often described as postmodern and consumption oriented. Individuals in the wealthy parts of the world are known to construct their identities not so much by tradition, ethnicity or religious belonging anymore as by subjective myths related to their consumption of various forms of culture. In this, popular culture plays a significant role. Such highly relativistic attitudes toward truth and authorities have, however, its opponents. Fundamentalists and other agents claiming a non-relativistic ontology are deeply concerned about the impact popular culture has on youth and youth culture. They consider themselves at war and hence move in quite radical ways to limit the losses. The resistance against the Harry Potter-series (book burning, attempts to banish the books from libraries) is a well known example of this kind of cultural warfare. I regard this outbreak as a mild form of moral panic. The theory of moral panics was introduced in the 1970’s by the sociologist Stanley Cohen. He did so in order to explain what he considered to be unreasonable reactions towards various types of youth culture in England. The press, the public and, later on, the law enforcement all participate in stereotyping the deviant individuals or groups. When doing so, truth becomes the first victim of cultural war. Statements about the deviant “Others” are not scrutinized like statements usually are, as long as they confirm the deviants’ morally inferior standard. Inspired by the sociologist Émile Durkheim one can argue that deviant behaviors or cultural practices thus have at least two social functions: Establishing a negative example and creating an “imagined” community of the righteous. The latter makes stereotyping “the Other” an ever occurring cultural phenomenon, since it does not only highlight what is wrong and who the wrongdoers are, but also the moral superiority of those who engage in the struggle; the folk angels. The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Centre for Theology and Religious Studies (015017000)
id
a33a71b5-90f8-4abb-83ac-ef3b5fef2110 (old id 1730906)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:52:51
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:11:13
@misc{a33a71b5-90f8-4abb-83ac-ef3b5fef2110,
  author       = {{Wiktorin, Pierre}},
  keywords     = {{stereotype; social function; moral panics; popular culture}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Social Functions of Cultural Warfare}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}