Page 76 - Culture Media Language Working Papers in Cultural Studies

INTRODUCTION TO ETHNOGRAPHY AT THE CENTRE 65

Roger Grimshaw’s study of a Scoup camp (pages 96–104) illustrates some of
the themes of his Ph.D thesis, The Social Meaning of Scouting. An ethnographic
investigation of a Scout group forms the basis for an analysis of this particular
culture, its processes and transactions, and the forms in which its codes
practically address public and personal meanings. Substantively, the study charts
the metaphorical association between a type of masculinity and a form of social
and political conservatism.
Dorothy Hobson’s account of the consumption of broadcasting by women
(pages 105–14) forms part of her recent MA thesis, which is concerned with the
classification of feminine experience acquired through an ethnographic
technique. A social theory of women’s dependence and oppression supplies a
notion of women’s experience in terms of a sensitive comparison with men’s
social world. This form of study provides concrete materials towards
understanding the links between reproduction, the patriarchal family and the
reproduction of capitalism. Specifically, this extract offers a preliminary analysis
of the role of radio and television in the lives of the women, as a means both of
combating their isolation and coping with their lives.