Yesterday I started school again. For the first time at a new institution, with new people and a new discipline. I have decided to spice up my bachelor degree in global studies with a master in cultural studies - with a focus on culture and democracy. Just by reading the information on the webpage of Göteborg Uni gave me a good gut feeling about this program, and after the introduction yesterday I feel that this could be really great. 

I have always loved culture. This fluffy and hard-to-catch-word that I for the instant don't even know how to explain. The last couple of days I have taking note of what others have been written about what the term means, and it is not obvious. Our lecturer, Catharina Thörn, introduced culture as a verb at the lecture yesterday. Culture is something that is beeing done, a movement. I like that expression because it also gives room for participation. Culture is not one thing that is what it is but something that we all contribute too and change as we live our lives, interact with eachother and exchange knowledge and experiences. 

In Don Mitchell's article "There's No Such Thing as Culture: Towards a Reconceptualization of the Idea of Culture in Geography" from 1995 you can find several very interesting ideas about what culture is, and what it is not.
It is described in the article, refering to Williams 1983:90), that culture is and has been used especially in three different categories in the scientiic and common discourse, these are:

" 1)...a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development
  2)...a paricular way of life, whether of a people, a peiod, a group, or humanity in general...
  3)...the works and practicies of intellectual and especially artistic activity "
 
Further, Mitchell describes culture as a medium of meaning and action. He also points out that "'culture' explains action, behaviour, resistance or social formations in a away that 'economics' or 'politics' cannot" (Mitchell 1995).
 
Bildresultat för the stuart hall project
At the end of the lecture, we were watching the movie "The Stuart Hall Project". The film gave a very intresting introduction to what cultural studies is, and how it can be used to say thngs about movements in the world. I got really intrested in Stuart Hall and his work, who is one of the greatest profiles within cultural studies. 
 
I look forward to get some tools to understand, analyze and problematize the contemporary society by entering it from the cultural angle.
 
References: 
Mitchell, D. (1995). There's No Such Thing as Culture: Towards a Reconceptualization of the Idea of Culture in Geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 20:1, s. 102-116. 
 
Williams, R. (1983). Keywords. London: Fontana Press.

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