Culture, Diversity, and Cosmopolitanism
Prof. em. Dr. Ulf Hannerz, Stockholms universitet
“Culture” is a term which academics have increasingly come to share with popular discourse, and at the same time as it has become more widely used, it has become controversial in certain contexts. The spread of something like a new discipline, “cultural studies”, in the late twentieth century entailed a growing interest in some new topics, and new perspectives toward old ones. At the same time, in anthropology, where the culture concept had long been central, it drew new critical scrutiny.
This lecture will consider the notion of culture from an anthropological point of view, against the background of the interest in global cultural interconnectedness which has grown in recent times. A view of culture will be developed as an organization of diversity, relatively open and processual in nature. Ideas of culture as engaged in mixing, as recognized in terms like “hybridity” and “creolization”, will be noted. The current political uses of cultural thought will be discussed, and the current interest in cosmopolitanism in several disciplines will get some special attention.
Ulf Hannerz
Ulf Hannerz is Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, Sweden, and has taught at several American, European, Asian and Australian universities. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a former Chair of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Oslo in 2005. His research has been especially in urban anthropology, media anthropology and transnational cultural processes,with field studies in West Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. His study of the work of news media foreign correspondents included field research in four continents. Among his books are Soulside (1969), Exploring the City (1980), Cultural Complexity (1992), Transnational Connections (1996), Foreign News (2004) and Anthropology’s World (2010).
Kolloquium Culture, Diversity, and Cosmopolitanism
Prof. em. Dr. Ulf Hannerz, Stockholms universitet
Datum: 28. Oktober 2010
Zeit: 09:30 - 16:30 Uhr
Ort: Universität Bern, UniS, Schanzeneckstrasse 1, Raum A015
