COUNTERCULTURE
Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012, Culture And Cultural Studies
Counterculture received prominence during the youth rebellion of the 1960s and early 1970s. Counterculture in 19th century Europe included the traditions of Romanticism and Bohemianism.
Counterculture is a set of cultural ideas that, to some extent, differ from and conflict with, those generally upheld in the society.
Hippies are a classic example of American counterculture. The hippy counterculture was in reaction to the problems of institutionalized American society.
A counterculture develops when members of groups identify common values that distinguish them from others.
Counterculture groups may be based on common appearance, ethnic group, sexuality, status or social behavior.
The term counterculture is close in meaning to subculture, but the concept of counterculture stresses the idea of an open and active opposition to dominant cultural values.
The cultural equivalent of political opposition, the term
counterculture is used to describe cultural groups whose values and behavioral norms run
counter to those of the social mainstream of the day.
A counterculture movement expresses the aspirations and dreams of a specific population
during a certain period of time, a social manifestation of zeitgeist.
Counterculture is generally used to describe a theological, cultural, attitudinal or
material position that does not conform to accepted societal norms.
One can find counterculture movements even in commercial campaigns.
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From
Counterculture to Cyberculture:
On first glance, back-to-the-land hippies and dot-com entrepreneurs might not seem much
alike, but it turns out that they have a whole lot in common underneath those scraggly
beards and goatees. Drawing a direct line from dog-eared copies of the Whole Earth Catalog
to the slickly techno-libertarian Wired magazine, Stanford University communications
professor Turner follows countercultural figures like Stewart Brand, who shaped the
information revolution, according to their aspirations to break down the boundaries of
individual experience and embrace a larger collective consciousness. Less a biography of
Brand than of the swirl of relationships surrounding him, the book shows how the ride of
the Merry Pranksters and LSD experimentation led to the early online discussion board
Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (the WELL), and into the digital utopianism surrounding the
hyperlinked World Wide Web. Turner offers a compelling genealogy of both the ideals and
the disappointments of our digital world, one that is as important for scholars as it is
illuminating for general readers. - Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of
Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
In this unique, provocative work of cultural history, Turner teases apart the visions,
myths, and rhetoric that have swept us into cyberspace. This concentration on the ethos of
our digital enthrallment rather than on technology revolves around gifted entrepreneur and
networker Stewart Brand. Inspired by Buckminster Fuller, Ken Kesey, and the
back-to-the-land commune movement, Brand created the Whole Earth Catalog, an innovative
interdisciplinary compendium that won the National Book Award in 1971 and, as Turner
convincingly argues, generated the paradigm that led to the World Wide Web. Brand then
declared that the computer was "the new LSD" and a "tool for
transformation," and, as a hippie turned cybermystic turned nimble businessman, he
founded Wired magazine and the megaprofitable and conservative Global Business Network.
Turner tells many an eye-opening tale and connects many dots in this avidly researched,
keenly analyzed, and stunningly ironic chronicle of how counterculture ideals transmuted
into corporate strategies. In conclusion, Turner assesses the myriad ways digital
utopianism has changed the texture of our lives and incisively exposes the staggering
hubris of the digerati and the complex social and environmental consequences of
computerization. Donna Seaman - Copyright © American Library Association.
Nation of Rebels: Why
Counterculture Became Consumer Culture
So-called rebellion not only perpetuates the market economy, it's the economy's biggest
driving factor. So argue Canadian philosophy professors Heath and Potter; in their world,
you can't "sell out" or be "co-opted," because you're already
participating in the market, where rebellion is just another word for relentless
innovation, fashion and cool. With sharp humor, the two make a solid case for consumerism
being motivated by competitiveness rather than conformity, while pointing out the
hypocrisies and shortcomings of "alternative" lifestyles, like the fascination
with ancient non-Western medicine as somehow nobler and purer than modern science. Their
theoretical underpinnings range from critiques of Freud to French postmodernism, and they
layer their philosophical arguments with personal experience (though the use of
"I" without identifying the writer as either Heath or Potter becomes
irritating). The authors tear into veterans of the '60s counterculture repeatedly, and
blaming the "all or nothing" approach of would-be radicals who drop out for
holding back progress. The arguments are familiar, but Heath and Potter's sustained
scrutiny of the premises from a market perspective freshens them.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Although a more fitting title for this book might be Why Counter Culture Becomes Consumer
Culture, the authors adeptly and succinctly sum up 200 years of consumer culture. Within
the first few chapters, this book enlightens us enough to accomplish its goal while being
quite an infectious read as well as inspiration to forge ahead to analyze how average
lifestyle decisions affect the big picture of capitalism. (The book should not be read
without some note taking and, later, examining many of the references to books, movies,
and music.) Heath and Potter seek to make us realize how our lifestyles and spending
habits reverberate throughout every facet of our lives. The lesson is, if one wants to
participate in the consumer culture, continue with the current lifestyle, but if one
desires to be a genuine rebel, move to the forest and become a hunter-gatherer like our
ancestors (and Ted Kaczynski). Ed Dwyer, Copyright © American Library Association
Notes
from Underground: Rock Music Counterculture in Russia
by Thomas Cushman, Associate Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College and a Fellow at
the Harvard Russian Research Center. - Choice Outstanding Academic Books 1996
Notes From Underground offers the first Western sociological study of rock music and
counterculture in Russian society. Based on participant observation, in-depth interviews,
and life-history analysis, the author provides a detailed ethnographic examination of the
origins and local meanings of rock music and the countercultural way of life of rock
musicians in St. Petersburg during the socialist period of Russian history. Rock music
served as the basis for alternative forms of individual and collective identity which
stood as beacons of difference and resistance in the bleak cultural environment of
socialist industrial society. Cushman explores the experiences of members of the St.
Petersburg musical community after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in order to shed
light on the following questions: What happens to oppositional "underground"
culture when it "comes up from the underground?" What is the fate of Russian
rock music and those who make it under new conditions of the rapid capitalist
rationalization of post-Soviet Russian society?
The book traces the experiences of musicians in new capitalist culture markets, both in
Russia and in Western societies to illustrate the more general process of
"commercialization of dissent" which is taking place in post-communist
societies. Russia's entrance into the path of Western capitalist modernity is viewed not
so much as a path to freedom and cultural autonomy, but as the intersection of two
trajectories of modernity that has given rise to new and unique cultural dilemmas. It
concludes with an examination of important theoretical issues about the problematic
relationship between capitalism, cultural freedom, and democracy in contemporary Russian
society.
Counterculture and Social Transformation: Essays on Negativistic Themes in Sociological Theory - Seymour Leventman, Edward A. Tiryakian, Social Forces, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Sep., 1984)
The Survival of a Counterculture: Ideological Work and Everyday Life Among Rural Communards - Bennett M. Berger, Todd Gitlin, The American Journal of Sociology, (Jan., 1983)