Dd101_Tma06_Evalulate_the_Claim_That_When_Talking_of_British_Culture,_It_Is_Better_to_Talk_of_Cultures

Dean Hancock C368528x Evaluate the claim that when talking about British culture, it is better to talk of cultures British culture. Seen by some to have a deep rooted historical sense of practices and beliefs from within the British Isles, and by others more globally infused and diverse than anywhere on the Earth. When talking of British culture it can evoke chest pumping pride and trigger diatribes full of passionate us and them sentiments, while for others, it is seen as a representation of the full gamut of ethnicity, providing us with a deliciously rich cross section of all that is good, and bad with the human race. This essay will evaluate the claim that when talking about British culture, it is better to talk of cultures. Culture is often immediatly related to oneselves national identity and something that is attributed to where we live, or where we have come from, indeed, who we think we are. We increasingly use national identities to connect people to places, for example, I am British or I am African. The description gives instant clarity to describing an identity. From this we can see that national identities do indeed place people, albeit not always in ways that people find comfortable. The way nations view other national identities also involves the inevitable stereotypical description. For instance, we might describe Americans as loud, brash and wealthy, or Australians as beach loving, backpacking lager guzzlers!. So people do assign a particular charachteristic to certain national identities, and those that come from that place maybe treated on the basis of those stereotypes. The very way that social life is organised leans heavily on the importance of national identities. They are indeed part of the everyday identities in personal and social terms, as in, who am I' who do people think I am' As a process of ordering social life and social practices, national identities are a critical point. National identities and culture are seen as lifelong bedfellows and some are easy to vision as being intrinsically linked and commonplace. Some cultures are easily absorbed together by different communites living side by side, sharing practices and intergrating with each other, whereas in another example, some communities increasingly find themselves segregated. Britishness clearly refers to a place-Britain. It distinguishes itself from other places in a geographical sense as well as tagging an identity socialy. Culture has been an important and also difficult concept on discussions of national identites, and culture is a frequently used term. Like other countries around the world such as German, Canadian or Japenese culture, British people talk about the necessity of valuing or preserving it. The term culture is in itself an elusive term that holds two different sets of meanings. It is connected with the term “high culture”, which is associated with a form of national culture that is put together from artistic and aesthetic products such as theatre, art, literature and so on. The second meaning brings into play, culture as everyday life, that is, the habbits, practices and values of a “way of life”. Historian Raymond Williams (1958), describes this veiw of British Culture as selective tradition, celebrating some works and excluding others. Different principles guide the selection and constant remaking of such traditions-some are driven by principles of social location (class values or gender, for example), sometimes they are shaped by issues of region or geography. Diversity in the British Isles continues to challenge and re-shape both historical and contempory values and culture. A constant and crucial point in many debates is the relationship between national identity and diversity. Various individuals have claimed that diversity has gone too far, undermining national identity and the forms of social solidarity that keep us together. This veiw of diversity is in conflict with arguments that Britain has become a multi-ethnic and multicultural society and must develop a more multiple and complex national identity. When looking at national identities, it is important to look at the effect that migration has. From the point of view of the British Isles, we can examine the difference that the influx of migrants had to the culture of the country, in particular the arrival of migrants from the West Indies and Asia from the 1950‘s onwards. After three centuries of homogenisation through industrialisation, urbanisation nation building and war, the British have become freer and more varied. Indeed, this influx was a new begining almost, for the integration and new community building for the country. So alongside the generations of people who absorbed and one can say, invented the British culture, a new, fresh and some might say, alien way of producing new and varied cultures appeared. These new and different cultures were soon to manifest themselves in many ways throughout the already massive range ofcultures already in practice within the British Isles. As David Goodhart, editior of prospect, a magazine devoted to political and culural question, says, “ever since the invention of agriculture ten thousand years ago, humans have been used to dealing with people from beyond their own extended kin groups. the difference now in a developed country like Britain is that we not only live among stranger citizens but we must share with them. We share public services and parts of our income in the welfare state, we share public spaces in towns and cities where we are squashed together on buses, trains and tubes, and we share in democratic conversation-filtred by the media-about the collective choices we wish to make. All such acts of sharing are more smoothly and generously negotiated if we can take for granted a limited set of common values and assumptions. But as Britain becomes more diverse that common culture is being eroded.” (Goodhart, 2004, p.1.) So we can see that by sharing and living alongside one another, so we must intergrate our cultures and values, albeit, not wholeheartedly as religion is probably the watermark that seperates even the more stoically of people willing to absorb and accept new cultures and practices. Bringing into the explanation, race and ethnicity are often blurred together when talking of national identities. Although being British might imply sharing a place of residence (Britain or the UK) it has sometimes been treated as a racial catergory: Being British means being part of the “British race” or being white/Caucasian. At other times, it has been treated as ethnic identity. Indeed, this can be seen as a potential case for argument for someone who has migrated here and has generations of familiy here and has adapted and integrated into the culture, working, schooling, health services and so on. So to conclude on the essay, we have seen that the culture of the British Isles has been an ever changing, constantly shifting practice, combining traditional values and beliefs alongside the new and contempory inclusions of different culture accepted and absorbed by the ever increasing influx of migrating nations from around the globe. Therefore resulting in the belief that when talking of British culture, it is better to talk of cultures. References. Bromley, S., Jefferies, E., Meegan, J. and Staples, M.(2009) DD101 introducing the social sciences, “Learning companion”, Milton Keynes, The Open university. Clarke, J. (2009) “making national identities: Britishness in Question” in Bromley, S., Clarke, J., Hinchcliffe, S. and Taylor, S. (eds) expolring social lives, Milton keynes, The Open University. Holloway, W. (2009) “identity change and identification” in Bromly, S., Clarke, J Hinchcliffe, S. and Taylor, s. (eds) exploring social lives, Milton keynes, the Open University.