Term Paper on Effects Of Economy And
Cultural Policy of European Countries On Production And
Consumption Of Popular Culture
Introduction
The word 'culture' is so extensively being used that it has become as one of the
most widespread expression in all kinds of civic dialogue, always talked by the
media and politicians, not to speak of academics from almost all walks of life
i.e.’ Police culture', 'welfare culture', 'enterprise culture', 'research
culture'--there seems almost no bound to its applicability in about any
framework It has at the same time become an increasingly an blank term. The more
often it is used, the more frequently it look to need another word to support it
up and define its meadow of orientation. As for as popular culture is concerned,
its study is within the tradition of the humanities. However, popular culture
studies differ from traditional studies. The method of learning and accepting
influence from other artists may vary in method and procedure as Lord said “ the
ways singers of epics in Eastern Europe learn their art orally and how they
compose as they perform. The poems themselves are judged according to the
specific goals of the artists and the audiences.” It was extended to the popular
arts such as television programs, popular films, popular music, best-selling
novels etc. The effects of one medium, one culture, a particular period and
audience, the economic and cultural policies of the governments thus have
definite impact on the development of popular culture, which will be discussed
in subsequent paragraphs.
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Effects of Policies on Popular Culture
Effects in General
The citizen of European countries who are undergoing the changes being
experienced in the global economy, are also witnessing the direct impact of
these forces on their popular culture. The phenomena to be explained are often
sore: for example, the deteriorating state of jobs with reimbursement in London,
apparently due to competition with low-wage labour in places like some of
Eastern European countries, the loss of high technology jobs in same region due
to high technology imports from Japan, the stagnation of economies like Berlin
and other Republics with rates of unemployment near 30%. The effects on popular
culture are profound: they include the decreasing trend of folk dances and
production of local dramas in the Western European countries has indirectly
effected the growth of their original culture. The breakdown of the social order
in Germany after its division and in France after September 11 incident has
given rise to unstable families, violence, drugs, and mental depression; and the
worldwide penetration of American popular culture, accompanied by the worldwide
revival of religious fundamentalism as traditional cultures fight back against
materialistic individualism, are the future challenges to the oriental and
traditional culture. As for as the effects of economy are concerned the people
today across the world are well aware that they depend for their daily bread on
the economic policies of their government. The people of Europe are also aware
that they are vulnerable due to their fragile economies, which are equally
vulnerable. People due to changing fates of their economic conditions experience
change in their daily lives, which are affected by the economic policies. As a
matter of principal one tends to support the school of thought that views as
there are least effects of economic policies or cultural policies on their daily
lives (popular culture) because in the light of the world's unrealised
possibilities for trade, it can be seen that a person can live in the global
economy without actually seeing any foreigners or foreign goods. One might, for
example, spend one's entire working years at one corner of the Europe without
ever seeing an another worker employed at the other end of the continent
Moreover the persuasive influence of the global changes in contemporary human
life can effect the style of living and their culture through the impact of
media .
The Concept Of Popular Culture
The study of popular culture is disseminated in society in natural way. The
historian and scholars however disagree about the origins of the study of
popular culture and they think that it did not exist prior to the Industrial
Revolution. Some scholars, most notably use the term "popular culture" to refer
to the “expressive materials of any group, large or small, pre-industrial or
post-industrial”(Wang, 2001). By this definition, popular culture includes work
that focuses on pre-industrial events. The study of popular culture can be
traced back to the writings of Giambattista Vico, who attempted to discover the
"principles of humanity", in his New Science of 1775 (Feldman and Richardson,
1972: 50-61). As for as the study of American scholars goes, they are also
offering a specific interpretation of popular culture. They view “popular
culture as being coterminous with the mass media.” (Lipsitz, 615)
Effects on Production and Consumption of Popular Culture
a. Effect of Culture Integration Policy.
The European countries have started a mad race to integrate their resources and
adopt a joint stance on every political or economic platform. The success of
introduction of EURO as a common currency encouraged them a great deal and they
have now started looking at devising methods to integrate their resources to
have identical culture and language. The desire of having uniformity in culture
has simply jolted the custodians of popular culture inherited by different
European countries in its purest form. Cultural integration can be both
problematic and non-problematic in nature. As integration develops,
communication is made easier by the convergence of economies, ideologies and
lifestyles (Mussolf, Schaeffner and Townson 1997, p. 11). This convergence can
be a result of modernisation and the removal of barriers. The policy can have
bad impact on popular culture as a result of pressures from one or more cultures
for adaptation to their replica, and concerns about such pressures can be main
foundation of disagreement. When one country feels that the other is using the
political system to spread its culture all over the society, the country that
feels this will see the actions of the other group as intimidating its culture (Zetterholm,
p. 70).
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b. Dissension within European Countries
With the addition of different states in EU, the problem of dissent started
appearing. One very basic example of this is the British unwillingness on entry
to the then EC to discard chocolate cakes, which were formed with the support of
brown dye. Another example is that of unwillingness of the Netherlands on the
one hand to make illegal the sale of marijuana, and on the other of France and
Germany to take away their legal penalties for its sale or possession, a
situation which has prevented the French government from being able to remove
its entry checks on the Belgian border.
c. Effects on Moral Fibres
Differences in attitudes to pornography have also caused conflicts, with
complaints in the UK against the broadcasting of hard-core pornography by a
Dutch satellite TV Company. In this latter case the UK government took legal
measures against the company, which were not challenged as being contrary to EU
law. The Dutch government changed its own laws to make child pornography more
clearly illegal, removing some of the concerns of other EU countries that
over-liberal Dutch laws were undermining their own restrictions.
d. Effects on Resolution of Cultural Differences
All these are the examples of aspects of cultural difference, which were
resolved in various ways, sometimes through the removal of the difference,
sometimes by finding that EU law allows the difference to be maintained, and
sometimes by not applying agreements. The simple non-application of EU laws, for
example in the informal economies of Italy and Greece, allows culture-based
differences to be maintained in spite of the adoption of common provisions of
popular culture. The restrictions and applications of tax cut on labour work
force in France and Germany has denied the common masses to celebrate their
traditional festivals and follow the customs, which their forefather had been
adhering to. The economy has thus dented the popular culture of most of the
European countries.
e. Effect of US Culture Over Popular Culture of Europe
A major problem with respect to cultural harmonisation in Europe is that this
has in practice involved the increasing influence of US popular culture, and
widening of the use of English language. The nature of the problem has been
indicated by the president of the EP’s culture committee, Luciana Castellina ,
when he spoke on making the programming mandatory (Buonadonna 1996). The
President Luciana Castellina that “some thing must be done in a situation when
82% of programmes aired in Europe are produced in US” in this regard has pointed
out an interesting feature that requires to be paid attention to. The cultural
invasion coming from outside has posed a new threat to the popular culture of
European countries.
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f. Anglo Saxon Influence on Common Culture
Europe, which could be regarded as, the ‘Trojan Horse’ in the battle to create a
common culture not subsumed by Anglo-Saxon influences. While there were many
differences between Europe and US culture, there are many similarities, with
language being perhaps the most important connection, which can cause Anglo
Saxon influence on their common culture. One consequence is that there is a
common literature between the UK and the US, but not a ‘common European
literature . Language is a very important issue for EU cultural politics, but
once again, it is not as straightforward an issue as might first appear. One
view is that the continued existence of numerous national languages as official
languages used at the supranational or common level is a major barrier to
cultural integration. For example, (Edye, 1997, p. 73) states that in lacking a
common language, the EU lacks one of the main components of culture (Edye 1997,
p. 73). The common language however cannot help much in removing the ill effects
of economics and cultural policies of European governments on popular culture.
Since France is also taking steps to preserve and perhaps expand the use of
French, spending US $1.1 billion a year to promote its use internationally (The
Economist 1996), there is no prospect at present of the adoption of English as
the ‘official’ European language. Laws continue to be applied to prevent the
entry of English words into popular use in the French language.
Conclusion
The study of popular culture has become an area of interest in many disciplines
and has accepted influence from the social cultural and economic policies of the
governments of western countries. The custodian of inherited values, folk dances
oriented languages, old customs and traditions have failed to safeguard the
interest of their heritage. The consumption and production of popular culture
with complete domination of current days shades cannot be accepted in its
present form. Social and cultural historians, for instance, have attempted to
recover aspects of everyday life of the past that have frequently been left out
of the past events and in the process have focused on popular festivals,
carnivals, rituals, and celebrations, such as Emmanuel .
American studies scholars also are increasingly investigating popular culture.
For instance, recent issues of American Quarterly, the journal of the American
Studies Association, have featured articles such as George Lipsitz's, "Listening
to Learn and Learning to Listen: Popular Culture, Cultural Theory, and American
Studies" (42:4, 615-636). Broadly speaking, within the discipline of American
studies, research has tended to view popular culture as being coterminous with
the mass media.
Bibliography
Feldman and Richardson, 1972: 50-61, Principles of Humanity: New Science of 1775
Xin Wang, (3 September 2001) Article: Cultural Conflict: The Social Weekly. Hong
Kong.
Emmanuel Leroy Ladurie's Carnival in Romans (1979); Natalie Zemon Davis's
Culture and Society in Early Modern France; and Robert Darnton's The Great Cat
Massacre (1984).
George Lipsitz's, 615-636, Article: Listening to Learn and Learning to Listen:
Popular Culture, Cultural Theory, and American Studies, Taken from American
Quarterly, the journal of the American Studies Association.
Musolff, Andreas, Schaeffner, Christina, and Townson, Michael (1997 Page.11),
Diversity and unity in European debates, Conceiving of Europe: Diversity in
Unity, Dartmouth, Aldershot, Page.11
Zetterholm, Stefan (1994), ‘Why is cultural diversity a political problem? A
discussion of cultural barriers to political integration’, by Stefan Zetterholm
(ed.), National Cultures and European Integration, Berg, Oxford, pp. 65-82
Edye, David (1997), ‘Citizenship in the European Union: the Post-Maastricht
Scenario’, in Valerie Symes, Carl Levy and Jane Littlewood (eds.), The Future of
Europe, Macmillan, London, pp. 63-80.
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