Assignment of paper no. 8

Assignment of paper no 8 : The 'Circuit' of Culture

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Name: Rudrika Gohel

Course: M.A. English

Sem: 2

Batch: 2017-2019

Roll No: 31

Enrollment No: 2069108420180015

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English MKBU

Email Id: rudrikagohel97@gmail.com

Paper No: 8

Topic: The 'circuit of culture' 

Introduction:- 

The Circuit of Culture (the Circuit) was created as a tool of cultural analysis, initially by members of the British Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), and later developed as a conceptual 

basis to the 1997 Culture, Media & Identities series. The Circuit emphasizes the moments of production, representation,consumption, regulation and identity, and the interrelated articulations of these moments. It is found to be a useful and flexible tool for exploring the contemporary significance of, and possibilities for, the increasingly complex multiple modes and relationships of each of these significant moments in the construction and maintenance of an education commodity.

The Circuit of Culture (the Circuit) was refined as a tool of cultural analysis by British cultural theorists in the late 1990s. This paper will provide a brief history of the Circuit, some of its applications and critique, and an overview of the way the Circuit has been utilised to explore a topical cultural phenomenon involving the commodification of international student programs in Australian government schools. Stuart Hall and his colleagues’ work with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Birmingham UK between 1968 -1979 and with the Open University until his retirement in

1997 provides the theoretical resources and techniques that will be introduced and reviewed in this paper. The latter period of Hall’s published work (as Culture, Media and Identities series (1997) editor and writer with the Open University) is published in a form that is introductory, accessible and inspiring, as well as clearly articulating many aspects of his earlier work which taken together makes it a valuable ongoing source of inspiration for researchers interested in the construction and management of cultural phenomena, commoditisation and meaning making.

The Circuit of Culture – Origins & Rationales:-

Hall’s encoding/decoding model, developed during his time at the British Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) and first published in 1973ii is said to have been a precursor to later circuit models developed by cultural theorists. Encoding/decoding as a primarily semiological device denotes the beginnings of an important historical shift from the more common linear conception of message and exchange to introducing a complex structure of relations through the interlinking processes of articulation and discursive elements of production. 

Elements:-

• Representation
• Identity
• Production
• Consumption
• Regulation

These elements present is a process through which every cultural artefact, object or event must pass. The elements work in tanden, and are closely linked with each other, a process that has been called 'articulation'.

number of commentators critique the determination of culture as suggested by the Circuit of Culture, and instead privilege the circular journey of the commodity itself, rather than culture. As a structure the

Circuit of Culture can undoubtedly be 

usefully employed and adapted for an in depth study of culture, however there are no ‘neat fits’ and the beliefs and activities of consumers cannot be determined through analysis of the artefacts or behaviours themselves. Fine comments on the lack of criticism directed towards the Circuit model, pointing out the arbitrary nature of the five nodal points and lack of progression in answering questions raised by Johnson such as those concerning causation across nodes.

Articulation can also be said to refer to the five interrelated processes that make up the Circuit of Culture. My articulation concerns the representation of a constructed commodity that has evolved out of the market based approach to international education, the signified meaning of which is ‘fixed’ through processes of

commodification, notably through

marketing and advocatory texts.

In order to illustrate the circuit of culture we need to use a concrete example. Let us take a now-ubiquitous example: The cinema

• Cinema and Representation:-                                                      

What does Cinema represent , and how it is it represented? The answers to these two related questions are basically means to discuss the centrality of representation in a culture. Cinema represents, 

Communication

Entertainment

Cinema work with these aspects, with more features and facilities.

‘Representation’, in common usage, can be a description or depiction of something, or a symbol or substitute for something. A representation may ‘be’, or ‘stand for’ something else, just as in 

Saussurean semiotics, a sign is defined as ‘anything that stands for something other than itself’ Representations, as are signs, are used to refer to something that may or may not be real, or have the same form, or image, for you and me. Meanings are fluid; representation leading to effective communication relies on some kind of common understanding between you and me, of what something is and what something is not. Hall calls this

common understanding ‘conceptual maps’, and makes the point that in sharing a roughly similar ‘conceptual map’, ‘we are able to build up a shared culture of meanings and thus construct a social world which we inhabit together’. The system that leads to a conceptual map relies on classifying, making certain connections between ideas and things, abstract and concrete, together making up mental representations that stand for things in the world.

Cinema represents the communication through the characters. Circuit of culture requires close examination, cinemas are most relevant work with different aspects. Representation is more important because it shows through the culture. Cinemas are also field of entertainment, through representation can be easier. The creation of a textual representation involves the constitutive roles of many possibilities: producer, creator, actor, model, fund provider, instigator, consumer, onlooker, researcher, potential customer, 

passers-by. We are continually assailed by textual representations and the meanings they convey. The process of creating and attempting to fix a particular message or meaning to representations is integral to the work of those whose job it is to build and maintain the value of a commodity.

As this section has highlighted, representation is a complex phenomenon in itself. It plays many and varied roles in the constitution of understandings about phenomena. It is integrally connected with 

language, meaning and communication. Most importantly, it can be understood as a process through which things, and hence meanings, are constituted.

• Cinema and identity:-

Identities are discursive categories produced at the intersection of certain attributes, capacities, and forms of conduct at specific historical moments, these activations are always strategic; identities are scripted and imposed by others as resources for a desired performance of self.

What kind of identity does cinema project? What is the difference between big budget film and low budget film, what shows high class culture and lower class culture? What kind of age group is targeted in particular kinds of promotional materials?  Analysis of a range of possible identifications for the related constituents of international student programs can be undertaken through further examining the

processes in which these come to

carry certain meanings. Particular forms of Identification in direct relation with each of the other interlinked processes is crucial to the type of work that particular texts encapsulate. The identification of particular discourses and their conditions also play a corresponding role in the production of meaning and identity. 

Think of so called representation of high class and contemporary issues like in Udata Panjab, and some movies like Hichki which gives moral lessons, but some contemporary affaires like victimization of women in Parched. What is their target audience?

What is the Indian identity projected on cinemas? Does the Northeast of India come in to the picture? Processes of identification in relation to international education in Australian schools refers to the ways that the phenomenon itself comes to mean and the related i.e. articulated positioning of participants - their actions, looks, ideas and behaviours and the position, authority and/or truthfulness these are understood to have. Consideration of the cultural politics that are so crucial to the ‘success’ of the international student programs necessarily leads to further questions of how certain identities are mobilized through their representation.

As we can see the series of questions posed above are about cultural and public contexts where identities are linked to images on screen. Cultural Studies is interested in the ideologies that underlie these identity-projection.

• Cinema and Production:-

Du Gay argues that in ‘late modern societies’, the ‘economic’ and the ‘cultural’ are irrevocably ‘hybrid’ categories; that what we think of as purely ‘economic’ processes and practices are, in an important sense, ‘cultural’ phenomena. In order to produce an economically successful product, cultural meanings, norms and values are crucial factors requiring consideration. The theme of production can be phrased as a series of pointed questions: look at the major cinema manufacturers. What are the policies in these companies? How is recruitment done? What welfare policies are in place for workers? How much profit does the company make? 

Does the company project a democratic work culture? Does the management mix with workers? My study assumes the existence of an international education marketplace. Where did it come from? What does this entity look like? How is it represented? What are its main components and how do they work? – It needs to be conceptualized and represented in order to be managed (entered). This requires a discourse (of the market) to deliberate and act upon it. Hence, the market itself can also be seen to be a cultural phenomenon because it works through language and representation. However, the specific phenomenon being investigated is the international education commodity that is produced in order to enter this ‘marketplace’. 

The study also aims to avoid the separation between cultural and political economies through considering the economic production and management of international education. Through 

articulation with the other key moments of the cultural circuit, the production of the

international education phenomenon as a marketable commodity does not simply begin with production and end with consumption – not a beginning and an end but a continual process of mutually constitutive ‘meaning making and meaning taking’. 

In addressing an important theoretical aim of the study regarding the production of meaning, the Circuit of Culture suggests that meanings are produced at several different sites and circulated

through several different processes and practices. Meaning making processes operating in any one site are always particularly dependent upon the meaning making processes and practices operating in other sites for their effect. Production and the dissemination of a ‘product’ occurs less as transmission by a discreet ‘producer’ but as circular continuous flow with many in and outputs, more like the model of an ongoing dialogue within and between all of the constructive processes.

Themes of production also pointed out like , does the company cater to an Indian milieu specifically? Does it project itself-as state- owned companies like Electronics corporation of India Limited did, as a truly Indian firm?

• Cinema and Consumption:-

With a cultural studies framework, consumption refers to more than the acquisition, use and divestment of goods and services. Consumption represents a site where power, ideology, gender, and social class circulate and shape one another. Consumption involves the study of particular moments, negotiations,

representational formats, and rituals in the social life of a commodity. The consumption of cultural objects by consumers can empower, demean, disenfranchise, liberate, essentialise, and stereotype. Consumers are trapped within a hegemonic marketplace.

Whi are the major buyers of film sets, what are their income level? The act of ‘producing’ directly and logically implies the prospect of consumption and the existence of a consumer. In the context of this study the notion of ‘consumer’ is extended to include not only the client/customer/overseas student and/or their fee-payer/parent who is appropriating the commodity (an Australian education/lifestyle), but all of those whose understanding of what this commodity is – its identity – is formed through their acquisition (consumption) of meaning through certain representational practices. The student-consumer making choices such as which location to choose (appropriate) and those acquiring (appropriating) information about this commodity can all be considered active and creative

consumers whose understanding of the cultural phenomenon (the international education commodity) is again mutually constitutive of the development of that 

phenomenon. Consumption is not the end of a process, but the setting off on another – with increased understanding. Through considering further questions regarding reputation, value for money, available facilities, curriculum choices and infrastructure, these consumers will then actively build on their own preferred 

version of the commodity under examination, thereby producing something new – the ‘work’ of consumption, or any other of the circuit processes doesn’t cease beyond the moment of its instigation 

or enactment. Is the choice of a particular kind dictated by fashion, taste,

functionality? Do you upgrade models because you are an enthusiast and can afford to?

• Cinema and Regulation:-

The study considers the processes of ‘regulation’ in two interrelated forms. Firstly, the formalized government policies and regulations pertaining to the international education industry in Australia. Secondly, the less formal and more abstract rendering of a particular pattern and order of signifying practices so that things (in this case, representations) relating to this industry appear to be ‘regular’ or ‘natural’. Both forms of regulation are dynamic and contested.

Consider the union government's ban on Fashion cinema, ostensibly because it offends Indian cultural sentiments. What does the government do with regard to either production or consumption? What is the role of the sensor board or production and programmes? In terms of regulation of the ‘international education industry’ and its permutation in Australian state 

government schools, is the culture, or meaning of this entity determined through the economy, the market, the state, political or social power? This section has demonstrated the analytical value of utilising the Circuit of Culture and its articulated nodes as a useful study guide and methodological tool in comprehensively addressing research 

questions relating to the complexities of this phenomenon. The articulation of criss-crossing interrelated processes align with the notion that there is no single discrete way of ‘knowing’ the international student phenomenon in Australian schools that would explain the range of different 

possible or implied meanings in any given context.

This 'circuit of culture' is perhaps the most through examination of any cultural artefact. As we see it covers a range of issues and themes, from the question of media representation to the construction of identities in a culture. The circuit of culture includes within it several smaller components and modes of analysis. 

Conclusion:-

The Circuit of Culture has proved useful as a conceptual tool for probing the complexities of cultural construction of meanings and reminding me to look beyond the surface – what the

contemplating an image, a statement, a document or a theory. The elements of the revised Circuit reached beyond the production/consumption binary and allowed me to stop and consider moments in that process. Representations are produced and consumed but they are also affected by regulatory practices, identity 

and assumed meanings and connections with what is already known. The Circuit and its related cultural studies theoretical grounding allows for delving into all of the complexities, or alternatively, focussing on the complexities of only one or some of these processes.

Work cited:-


https://www.slideshare.net/mariaraja232/circuit-of-cultural-model-by-hall