Table Of ContentUNDOING CULTURE
Theory, Culture & Society
Theory, Culture & Society caters for the resurgence of interest in culture
within contemporary social science and the humanities. Building on the
heritage of classical social theory, the book series examines ways in which
this tradition has been reshaped by a new generation of theorists. It will
also publish theoretically informed analyses of everyday life, popular
culture, and new intellectual movements.
EDITOR: Mike Featherstone, University of Teesside
SERIES EDITORIAL BOARD
Roy Boyne, University of Teesside
Mike Hepworth, University of Aberdeen
Scott Lash, University of Lancaster
Roland Robertson, University of Pittsburgh
Bryan S. Turner, Deakin University
Recent volumes include:
Baroque Reason
The Aesthetics of Modernity
Christine Buci-Glucksmann
The Consuming Body
Past Falk
Cultural Identity and Global Process
Jonathan Friedman
The Established and the Outsiders
Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson
The Cinematic Society
The Voyeur's Gaze
Norman K. Denzin
Decentring Leisure
Rethinking Leisure Theory
Chris Rojek
Global Modernities
Mike Featherstone, Scott Lash and Roland Robertson
The Masque of Femininity
The Presentation of Woman in Everyday Life
Efrat Tsee'lon
The Arena of Racism
Michel Wieviorka
UNDOING CULTURE
Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity
MIKE FEATHERSTONE
SAGE Publications
London · Thousand Oaks · New Delhi
O Mike Featherstone 1995
First published 1995. Reprinted 1997, 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publishers.
SAGE Publications Ltd
6 BonhiU Street
London EC2A 4PU
SAGE Publications Inc
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
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Greater Kailash - I
New Delhi 110 048
Published in association with Theory, Culture Ë Society,
School of Human Studies, University of Teesside
British Library Cataloguing In Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-8039-7605-4
ISBN 0-8039-7606-2 pbk
Library of Congreaa catalog record available
Typeset by Mayhew Typesetting, Rhayader, Powys
Dedicated to the memory
my mother and father
CONTENTS
Preface ix
1 Introduction: Globalizing Cultural Complexity 1
2 The Autonomization of the Cultural Sphere 15
3 Personality, Unity and the Ordered Life 34
4 The Heroic Life and Everyday Life 54
5 Globalizing the Postmodern 72
6 Global and Local Cultures 86
7 Localism, Globalism and Cultural Identity 102
8 Travel, Migration and Images of Social Life 126
References 158
Index 173
PREFACE
The various chapters of this book have been written over the last five or
six years. Most of them started their lives as conference papers or essays
written for edited collections. They have been selected from the range of
papers written in this period because they have a certain coherence in
terms of the themes they seek to address. In many ways they represent a
deepening and extension of some of the issues developed in Consumer
Culture and Postmodernism (1991a). Yet, rather than directly addressing
postmodernism, they seek to explore the grounds for postmodernism via
two main concerns. The first is the formation and deformation of the
cultural sphere which addresses the question of the autonomization of
culture and the type of autonomous person (the artist and intellectual as
hero) associated with this process. The second concerns the process of
globalization which I argue provides the wider intellectual context for
many of the themes associated with postmodernism.
My work in both areas has been sustained through the support and
numerous discussions of these issues with many friends and colleagues. I
have a special debt to my friends on the editorial board of the journal
Theory, Culture & Society. Josef Bleicher, Roy Boyne, Mike Hepworth,
Scott Lash, Roland Robertson and Bryan S. Turner, who will recognize
many of the concerns addressed here. In particular Bryan Turner, Scott
Lash and Roland Robertson have in their own ways worked across the
same territory I've been seeking to traverse (Roland Robertson's pioneer
ing work in developing the theory of globalization needs a special
mention). I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Mike
Hepworth and Roger Burrows, who both read the whole manuscript,
made many helpful editing suggestions and persuaded me to take my own
medicine and follow the editor's maxim: the more you cut the better it
gets. In addition I must acknowledge the support of my colleagues in the
Sociology, Criminology and Social Policy subject group in the School of
Human Studies at the University of Teesside for both their encouragement
and tolerance for some of my wilder ventures. My immediate colleagues in
the Centre for the Study of Adult Life, especially Robin Bunton and
Roger Burrows, who have worked together with Bryan Turner and me to
found the new associate journal to TCS, Body & Society have been
particularly supportive. I also have a special debt to Barbara Cox, who has
worked on Theory, Culture & Society for a number of years now and has
found ways of channelling all our postmodern styles of work into a
