The Dynamics of Interconnections in Popular Culture(s)

Ray B. Browne · Ben Urish

Mar 2014 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this ebook

The Dynamics of Interconnections in Popular Culture(s) is an eclectic and free-ranging collection of articles grounded in a combination of the social sciences with the populist humanities. The collection is further unified by an approach that considers changes and linkages within and between cultural systems as evidenced through their respective popular cultures. The key underlying assumption is that our collective popular expressions create an arena of global cultural exchange, further precipitating new cultural adaptations, expressions, and connections.

The volume is divided into two sections. The first consists of articles investigating theoretical and methodological approaches to the dynamics of history and cultural changes. These include cultural anthropology, history, economics, and sociology. The second section is made up of explorations into a myriad of cultural practices and expressions that exemplify not only the wide diversity of popular cultures and their workings, but also the interconnections between and within those cultural systems. A wide variety of specific case studies are presented to evidence and support the more general points made in the previous section.

The collection demonstrates that the everyday lives of ordinary people, while varying from culture to culture, are unified through their expressions of shared humanity.

Foreword by Gary Hoppenstand.

About the author

Ray B. Browne co-founded the Popular Culture Association and established the American Culture Association, both of which he served as Secretary-Treasurer for 40 and 28 years respectively. He was the author or editor of 70 books and numerous articles on popular/American culture. He established The Journal of Popular Culture, which he edited for 40 years, and The Journal of American Culture, editing it for 33 years, until his academic retirement. The Ray and Pat Browne Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green State University is named in his and his widow, Pat’s, honor.

Ben Urish is a culturologist specializing in humor studies, mass media and entertainment. He is the primary author of The Words and Music of John Lennon and won the 2010 “C. W. M. Hart Award For Outstanding Service to Anthropology” for his abridgement of Leslie White’s “lost” opus Modern Capitalist Culture. He edited a volume of the popular culture writings of Ray Browne called Ray Browne and the Culture Studies Revolution. He has made documentary films and has presented numerous programs on film history. In addition, he has been published on a variety of media studies topics, including music, film, television, and theater.