Essay on Culture: Williams, Arnold, and Bourdieu's Views

This essay provides a comparative analysis of three influential thinkers on the concept of culture: Raymond Williams, Matthew Arnold, and Pierre Bourdieu. It begins by examining Williams' perspective, which emphasizes culture as a way of life and a reflection of societal values. The essay then delves into Arnold's view of culture as a pursuit of perfection and a means to achieve social and moral refinement. Finally, it explores Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital and how it shapes social dynamics. The author concludes by personally valuing the practical and symbolic aspects of Bourdieu's approach, while acknowledging the importance of all the perspectives in understanding the complexities of culture. This assignment is a valuable resource for students seeking to understand diverse perspectives on culture and society.

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COMPARE AND CONSTRAST HOW WILLIAMS, ARNOLD, AND/OR BOURDIEU
DEFINE CULTURE

Raymond Henry Williams was an academic, theorist and critic who had influential figure in
the new left and has talked about the wider culture. With his Marxist critique, he made a
significant critique on art and culture. He thought culture to be as way of life which expresses
certain values and meanings. This is not just when it is collaborated with art but also in
ordinary behaviour and institutions. He thought culture to an ordinary thing. As per my
personal views, I agree with the thoughts of William as culture does not mean an artistic way
of living but it is a response to the evident definitions of industry and democracy. Culture,
according to him, has been a change in the conditions of a common man’s life.
Arnold, going opposite to his critics, considers culture to be as perfection. According to him,
making things better than they are in the present according to the social and moral passion of
doing well in life is known to be as couture. Matthew Arnold calls culture to be a study of
perfection. In “culture and anarchy”, he seems to be a social and political critique where is
regularly criticizing thee British culture of being overemphasized in money making. Culture
according to him is paced within one’s self as an internal condition. He defines culture to be
as sweetness and light, where light refers to intelligence to consider that the most happy
things in the world is to do what a man likes the most.
Bourdieu was highly influenced with the theories of Karl Marx, although he did not consider
himself as a Marxist. His notion of capital power is very well known as in the terms of
culture. The thought of being socially influential only when one has a lot of capital was
coined by him. His symbolic take on culture capital is connected with the skills, posture,
taste, mannerisms, credentials, clothing and material belonging. He believed that sharing a
certain same taste of with another creates a much stronger cultural bond. Example- same taste
of wine or a particular sport. According to him, cultural capital comes in three ways-
objectified, embodied and institutionalized. Little things like, one’s dialect and accent can be
taken as a cultural concept (Shashidhar 2012).
Viewing all the three definitions of culture, I personally value the most practical knowledge,
yet symbolic, definition of culture. In terms of the real world, a rich person is valued in rich
culture and a poor one is always kept in the poor dominance. People with similar taste of food
and books are entitled to be of the same culture concept and hence, Bourdieu has put out the
most magnificent and practical knowledge of culture in the society (Logan 2019).
The other two men, Arnold and Williams, have shown an artistic way of culture in the
society, which is also important to understand and critically evaluate all the definitions of
culture given in our society.
References
Logan, Peter Melville. 2019. "Peter Melville Logan, “On Culture: Matthew Arnold’S Culture And
Anarchy, 1869″ | BRANCH". Branchcollective.Org. http://www.branchcollective.org/?
ps_articles=peter-logan-on-culture-matthew-arnolds-culture-and-anarchy-1869.
Shashidhar, R. 2012. "Culture And Society: An Introduction To Raymond Williams". Social
Scientist 25 (5/6): 33. doi:10.2307/3517827.