Page 131 - Cultural Change and Ordinary Life

122 Cultural change and ordinary life

have considered modes of inequality to more fully incorporate cultural analy-
sis. In this expanding approach, I have drawn extensively on the works of
writers including Devine, Skeggs, Savage and Sayer. In addition, the work in
the tradition of North American sociology of culture has much to contribute as
have those forms of political science that have addressed overall processes of
social and cultural life. Moreover, I have also suggested that there are other
forms of analysis that have and are bringing these different aspects of work
together in creative ways. Again, in the course of the analysis I have tried to
represent what can be seen as exemplars of this evolving mode of analysis in
work by such as Crawford, Couldry, Laughey and Sandvoss. In many respects
my argument is for a synthesis of the traditions considered here and which can
be found with different emphases in the studies discussed here.
In the rest of these conclusions, I summarize the main contours of this
approach to ordinary life. I do not simply reiterate the argument for ordinary
life, but focus on the overall theoretical approach and the specific dimensions
of this that I believe illuminate the processes of ordinary life. My general
approach therefore derives from an approach to audience and performance
processes, which are seen to have become increasingly important as society
has become more media drenched and mediatized. Contemporary ordinary
life, therefore, should be theorized in terms of a dynamic of the interaction
between performing and audiencing. I have drawn on recent developments in
cultural theory to further ground this analysis and do not repeat the way of
doing so here.
The basic point is that more social and cultural processes involve per-
forming and audiencing as if in media life and that processes of ordinary life
are increasingly revealing these dimensions. I have sought to provide examples
of this at points. This also implies a dynamic between the more mundane
processes of ordinary life and the more extraordinary moments where ordin-
ary life becomes invested with greater significance (as in enthusing). These are
the moments that can be seen as extraordinary. The detail of such a dynamic
remains to be further explored. It is important to emphasize that an important
part of this argument is that various media have become more significant in
ordinary life in providing ways to live through these processes, but also as
fuelling them through the resources for imagination, interaction and identity
work that they provide. I have also argued that this theorization requires
continued attention to forms of social inequality and division and have con-
sidered work on class, as a specific example in this light. I do not wish to repeat
the specifics of this argument here, but reiterate that I see this as doing what
I have suggested earlier, i.e. bringing together an attention to the media with a
fuller understanding of the nature of social context and change. Moreover, in
this book I have sought to locate that theory in the context of wider processes
of social and cultural change. Again, I do not repeat that analysis here. There
is, of course, much more to be said about all those processes than I have man-
aged here. That is inevitable, but I hope that enough has been given to show
the way in which these different aspects can be shown to interconnect.
I have sought to examine the way in which performing and audiencing
operate in an increasingly spectacular society through a focus on broad pro-
cesses of belonging, distinguishing, individualizing and enthusing and want