UNIT THREE
Citizens and Culture
Unit Overview
“Citizens and Culture” addresses the “body politic”—the collective presence and interests of
human beings in political systems—and the “vox populi”—Latin for the “voice of the people,”
and a synonym for public opinion and political expression. That is, what does public
participation in politics mean, what forms does it take, and what are the major issues
defining and directing this participation? In week 5 we consider the body politic, and in week
6 the vox populi.
The body politic: In week 5, with the theme “technology, culture, and politics,” we first
examine the technological environment in which politics at any level now occurs. The unit
notes first define technology, then discuss the power dimension thought inherent to
technologies—“technological politics”—as described in the work of U.S. political scientist,
Langdon Winner. We read a chapter from Howard Rheingold, one of the leading
commentators on politics and technology, and his more optimistic assessment of
technology’s role in politics, “Technologies of Cooperation” from his book, Smart Mobs.
The second half of week 5 features a new critique of counterculture—one inspired by the
popularity of Naomi Klein and Kalle Lasn’s work in favour of culture-jamming—by a
Canadian academic and journalist respectively in their chapter “The Birth of Counterculture.”
Paralleling the consideration of technology this week, the 英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】issue in question here is: what
place does popular culture have as a vehicle for expressing political ideas and enabling
social change? We close this section with a reflection on the Situationists, the great theorists
and practitioners of culture jamming from the 1950s.
The vox populi: In week 6, we turn to the study of particular means of political
communication in contemporary society. We single out two primary means by which political
objectives are achieved and ideas communicated in the public sphere: public relations and, using Rutherford’s phrase, that particular form of PR known as “civic advocacy propaganda,”
i.e., corporate goodwill campaigns, public service announcements, social marketing. Using a
chapter from Stuart Ewen’s magisterial history of public relations, PR: The History of Spin as
our core, we begin this section by discussing “mass society” and the critical and historical
context for public relations. The chapter addresses Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays,
the two major intellectual founders of PR. Building on this topic, we then read Paul
Rutherford’s chapter, “Advertising as Propaganda,” from his book Endless Propaganda. The
nature of propaganda itself is also considered. Then, by way of a case study, we examine
McDonalds, its civic advocacy work, and postmodernity.
Readings and Resources
Unit 3: Citizens and Culture
technology, culture, and politics
Week 5: January 31-February 6
(i) Howard Rheingold.
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