Raymond Williams' Cultural Sociology Thought Research

Raymond Williams, one of the most famous British Marxist thinkers and cultural theorist in the intellectual history of20th century. In this paper, Williams’s thought of the sociology of culture, based on the theoretical perspective of modernity, used the unity of historic and logical methodology of Marxism and the interdisciplinary research of the theoretical approach, to explain the theoretical appeals of the cultural modernity of Williams’s the sociology of culture, and reconstruct the cultural production, the cultural communication, the cultural institution, the cultural formation, the cultural politics as the main theoretical framework of the sociology of culture, then to describe the Williams literary concepts at the perspective of the sociology of culture.Besides the introduction and conclusion, the paper is divided into seven chapters:The introduction introduces the brief biography of Williams, the summary of the research, and the issues about the theoretical background, theoretical framework and methods and so on.The first chapter is the theoretical appeals of the cultural modernity. Williams’s idea of the sociology of culture is the results of the reflects of the cultural reality of British society and academic thought in20th century. From a social historical context, as a representative of leftist intellectuals, Williams actively involved in the post-war British society in the New Left movement and the adult education movement, the rich social practices established a solid basis for the formation of the sociology of culture thought. Meanwhile, the cultural crisis and the cultural shift provides a direct ideological power and favorable academic environment for the formation of the sociology of culture; From the ideological resources point of view, Williams’s the sociology of culture is the theoretical articulation of the two British traditional resources:Culturalism and Marxism; From the theoretical construction point of view, the formation of Williams’s the sociology of culture is followed by the logic of cultural materialism, and reflected the theoretical framework of cultural modernity.Chapter Ⅱ is the theory of the cultural production. The theory of the cultural production is one of the main theory of Williams’s the sociology culture, it is the production of critically succeeding the inheritance of Marxist theory and the pioneering study of cultural production that based on the paradigm of social theory, and it has the foundational and subjective status for the whole theoretical construction of the sociology of culture. The theory of cultural production including two aspects:the theory of means of production and cultural reproduction. Based on historical analysis of cultural production, Williams not only distinguish two means of production that are the development of inherent resources and uses of non-human means, but also distinguish two modes of cultural reproduction that are the cultural replication and the cultural innovation. Regardless of any purpose of the cultural practice and cultural means of production has indisputably material. It can be said that Williams’s the paradigm of cultural production is fundamentally followed by the ideological logic of the cultural materialism.Chapter III is the theory of the cultural communication. The theory of cultural communication theory is one of the main sociological thought in Williams’s the sociology of culture, this chapter will be summed its up as three parts:the concept of cultural communication, the institution of cultural communication and the technology of cultural communication. Followed by the logic of critic and reconstruction, and based on the critics of the traditional concept of the linear communication, Williams redefined the concept of the communication and then see the communication as the basic activities of social production and organization that reflected the distinctive theoretical position of cultural modernity. Based on the critics of the research of mass communication Williams proposed the idea of democratic institution; In criticizing of technological determinism Williams regard the technology as a cultural form and advocating the historization and humanization of technology. And the logic of the critic and reconstruction is fundamentally established on the cultural materialism and embodied the aspirations of the theory of cultural modernity which aims to expose and criticize the business interests, political domination and technological determinism in capitalist society that the monopoly and abuse of the modern media, and to promote the cultural communication to play its potential cultural and political functions in the spread of democracy and the process of social changes in modern society.Chapter IV is the theory of the cultural institution. Starting from the concept of the cultural institution, this chapter analysis the sponsorship process and the causes of the proposing of the theory of the cultural institution in Williams’s the sociology of culture, and then reveals the significance of the modern dimension of the theory of the cultural institution. Paradigm as a cultural sociological institutional theory presents two characteristics:First, it emphasizes the importance of historical analysis, will be placed in the general institution of the social and cultural background, especially inspect the cultural institution’s changes in the process of the social and historical vicissitudes; the second is the perspective of cultural production, for the analysis of the institution is always expand around the cultural production and investigate the operational mechanism of the institution in the process of the cultural production. In this sense, Williams reshaped the modern institutional theory.Chapter Ⅴ is the theory of the cultural formation. This chapter starts from the concepts of the cultural formation, to summarize and conclude the basic connotations of the cultural formation, and observate and analysis the multi-morphology of the cultural formation, and on this basis, combined with Williams’s analysis about the School of the Bloomsbury as a typical case, to interpretate the methodological connotation and significance of the cultural formation. As Williams asserts that if there is no concern for the cultural formation, it is impossible to write any modern cultural history. For the first time, in the development history of the modern sociology of culture, Williams bring the cultural formation as a theoretical subject into the construction of its theoretical system, so it is no doubt with a groundbreaking academic significance.Chapter Ⅵ is the theory of the cultural politics. The theory of the cultural politics centrally reflects the cultural modernity theme of Williams’s the sociology of culture. Around the theme of cultural modernity, the theory of cultural politics formed a "trinity "of the theoretical framework, that cultural modernity as the main body, and that a logical structure in which the cultural democracy, the cultural revolution and the common culture as the theoretical fulcrums. If the culture of democracy is the starting point of thought and the essential requirements, and cultural revolution is the action strategy, then the common culture is the ultimate goal, and on the theme of cultural modernity that the three ideas constitute an organic unity. Established on the Trinity structure of the cultural politics, Williams transformed the whole sociology of culture about an academic planning from a disciplinary program into a political project.Chapter Ⅶ is the Williams’s literary theory at the perspective of the sociology of culture. Literary theory is an important part in the whole sociology of culture which should not be ignored in a theoretical field, and it is also the most concentrated and the typical expression that the sociology of culture in a specific field of culture and art. From the principle of the cultural materialism, and based on the modern theory of vision, Williams constructed a theory of literary studies in the framework of the sociology of culture. Williams deconstructed the traditional concept of literature and advocated the concept of literature as writing; Criticized the argument of the End of the tragedy, given the tragedy of the modernity connotation; Criticized the traditional realism, and put forwarded a new realism novel idea. Following this internal logic of critic and reconstruction, Williams beyond the traditional literary criticism, such as the literary sociology, the critique of formalism, the critique of structuralism and so on. This is not a traditional external research or internal study of literature, but also different from the traditional sociology of literature. It is established on the cultural materialism and placed the literature in a broad perspective of the sociology of culture, in which the literature and society are organically integrated and also has the integration of political ideals in it, then it by means of historical analysis, social analysis, ideological analysis, and constructed a new paradigm of literary studies of the sociology of culture.The conclusion place the sociology of culture of Williams in the intellectual history of Western academic of the20th century, and discussed the characteristics, reflection and limitations of the sociology of culture. The theoretical characteristics of Williams’thought of the sociology of culture is an open theoretical construction, cross-disciplinary, critical and dialogue. The spirit of intellectuals that as the " social conscience ", the sociology of culture as a new paradigm of critical theory and the theoretical themes of cultural modernity, that Williams and his whole academic thought will have a great benefit to Chinese intellectuals to comprehensive the transformation of the contemporary society and culture and promote the changes of the academic research.