Popular Culture and Change

Catalog description

This course explores how different forms of culture-such as language, clothing, music and religion-are used to circulate ideology and spur social change. We will investigate the evolution of youth subcultures and countercultures, the role of music and clothing in protest and identity formation, the marketing of religious objects as popular culture, and the appropriation of various forms of popular culture by mainstream organizations and corporations. Finally we will discuss whether the possibility of resistance to such cooptation exists, and, if so how such “resistant communities” can be nurtured and preserved.