Popular and global culture | AQA A-Level Sociology

For Specification 7192

AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes

Estimated study time: 40 minutes

exam questions by topic 👇

Popular culture and global culture are two of the different conceptions of culture required for AQA A-Level Sociology. This Popular and global culture A-Level Sociology revision page examines their place within Culture and Identity, the importance of globalisation, and how cultural change connects with wider sociological themes. It builds on different cultural forms [Mass, folk, high and low culture] and introduces ideas that become particularly important later when you study identity, production, consumption and globalisation [Production, consumption, globalisation and identity].

Learning Objectives 🎯

By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:

• Identify popular culture and global culture as different conceptions of culture required by AQA.

• Explain the place of popular culture and global culture within the Culture and Identity topic.

• Examine how globalisation connects with culture and identity in the specification.

• Analyse relationships between cultural change and contemporary social life.

• Evaluate sociological explanations of cultural change at the level supported by the supplied material.

Revision Notes 📚

Popular culture and global culture in the specification

AQA requires students studying Culture and Identity to be familiar with sociological explanations of several different conceptions of culture:

• subculture

• mass culture

• folk culture

• high culture

• low culture

• popular culture

• global culture.

Popular culture and global culture are therefore explicit parts of the specification rather than optional examples.

They complete the sequence of cultural conceptions introduced through understanding culture [Understanding culture], subculture [Subculture] and mass, folk, high and low culture [Mass, folk, high and low culture].

What is popular culture?

Popular culture is explicitly identified by AQA as one of the different conceptions of culture students must understand.

What is global culture?

Global culture is also explicitly named as a required conception of culture.

The specification does not provide a formal definition or examples of global culture. It does, however, place the course within a wider global context.

AQA states that the central focus should be UK society today, while comparative dimensions should be considered where relevant, including the position of UK society within its globalised context.

Culture and globalisation

Globalisation appears repeatedly within the AQA Sociology specification and has a particularly clear connection to Culture and Identity.

Within this topic, students must study:

• global culture as a conception of culture

• the relationship of identity to globalisation.

This establishes an important specification link between culture, identity and globalisation.

The course-wide focus also places contemporary UK society within a globalised context. Students should therefore recognise that cultural and identity questions can have both national and global dimensions.

This relationship becomes a central focus in identity and globalisation [Production, consumption, globalisation and identity].

How may globalisation influence cultural forms?

The learning objective asks students to examine how globalisation may influence cultural forms.

The supplied AQA specification establishes that:

• global culture must be studied

• globalisation is relevant to identity

• contemporary UK society should be understood within its globalised context.

Cultural change

AQA describes Sociology as a subject concerned with contemporary social processes and change. The study of Topics in Sociology should foster critical awareness of contemporary social processes and social change.

Culture and Identity contains several specification points that make change particularly relevant:

• different conceptions of culture

• identity as socially caused and socially constructed

• identity in contemporary society

• identity in relation to production, consumption and globalisation.

Taken together, these requirements mean that students should be able to think sociologically about culture and identity as parts of contemporary social life rather than as fixed or completely isolated ideas.

However, AQA does not provide particular theories of cultural change within the specification itself.

Popular and global culture compared with other conceptions

Popular and global culture sit alongside five other conceptions of culture.

Conception of culture	Position in the revision sequence
Subculture	Earlier lesson [Subculture]
Mass culture	Earlier lesson [Mass, folk, high and low culture]
Folk culture	Earlier lesson [Mass, folk, high and low culture]
High culture	Earlier lesson [Mass, folk, high and low culture]
Low culture	Earlier lesson [Mass, folk, high and low culture]
Popular culture	This lesson
Global culture	This lesson

Popular culture, global culture and identity

AQA places culture within the core theme of socialisation, culture and identity.

After studying different conceptions of culture, students must examine:

• the socialisation process

• agencies of socialisation

• the self, identity and difference

• identity in relation to age, disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexuality and social class

• identity in relation to production, consumption and globalisation.

This structure shows that culture and identity should be studied in connection rather than as unrelated sections.

Your next step is therefore to examine how individuals are socialised [The socialisation process] before studying agencies of socialisation [Agencies of socialisation].

Globalisation and contemporary UK society

AQA states that the main focus of study should be UK society today, but comparative dimensions should be considered where relevant. This includes the position of UK society within its globalised context.

This is particularly relevant when studying global culture because students should not treat the United Kingdom as socially or culturally isolated.

The specification does not, however, identify particular examples of global cultural influence in contemporary Britain.

When using examples in an examination, students therefore need to make sure those examples come from reliable specification-compatible teaching material rather than assuming that any international cultural example automatically demonstrates global culture.

Culture and social differentiation

AQA's second core theme is:

social differentiation, power and stratification.

This theme should run through substantive areas of Sociology, including Culture and Identity.

The specification also requires identity to be examined in relation to:

• age

• disability

• ethnicity

• gender

• nationality

• sexuality

• social class.

This allows students to make wider connections between cultural questions and differences within contemporary society.

However, the supplied specification does not state that particular groups consume, produce or participate in particular forms of popular or global culture.

Those more specific claims require additional sociological evidence.

Production, consumption and globalisation

The final Culture and Identity specification point requires students to examine the relationship of identity to production, consumption and globalisation.

This provides an important next step from the study of popular and global culture.

The specification therefore connects:

culture → identity → production, consumption and globalisation

without specifying a single sociological explanation that students must accept.

Later, production, consumption and globalisation [Production, consumption, globalisation and identity] develops these relationships directly.

Sociological explanations of cultural change

AQA states that students studying Topics in Sociology should examine both evidence and sociological explanations for the content listed in the specification. Sociological theories and perspectives are also integral elements that should run throughout study.

This means that students ultimately need to be able to evaluate sociological explanations of cultural change.

Applying popular and global culture in an examination

AQA assesses three assessment objectives:

• AO1: demonstrate knowledge and understanding of sociological theories, concepts, evidence and research methods

• AO2: apply sociological theories, concepts, evidence and research methods to a range of issues

• AO3: analyse and evaluate sociological theories, concepts, evidence and research methods in order to present arguments, make judgements and draw conclusions.

For this topic, students may therefore need to move from recognising concepts towards applying and evaluating sociological material.

For example:

AO1

Accurately explain cultural concepts and relevant sociological explanations.

AO2

Apply those concepts to a source, issue or contemporary situation.

AO3

Analyse relationships between cultural change and wider society, evaluate explanations and reach a reasoned judgement.

⚠️ Simply using the word globalisation does not automatically demonstrate analysis. A stronger answer explains the specific relationship being claimed and supports it with relevant sociological knowledge.

Key Words 🔑

Key word	Student-friendly definition	How it may be used in an exam
Popular culture	One of the different conceptions of culture explicitly identified by AQA. The supplied specification does not provide a fuller formal definition.	May need to be explained or compared with other cultural conceptions using appropriate sociological knowledge.
Global culture	A required conception of culture that sits within a course that also considers UK society in its globalised context.	May be used when discussing culture and global dimensions of contemporary society.
Globalisation	A concept explicitly connected by AQA to identity and to the globalised context of contemporary UK society.	Use when analysing relationships between culture, identity and wider social change.
Culture	Part of the AQA core theme of socialisation, culture and identity.	Used to organise discussion of different cultural conceptions and their sociological significance.
Identity	A major area within Culture and Identity, including the self and difference as socially caused and socially constructed.	Can be connected to globalisation, production and consumption.
Social change	A central concern of the Sociology specification, including awareness of contemporary social processes and change.	Relevant when examining changing cultural forms.
Social differentiation	Part of AQA's second core theme alongside power and stratification.	Can be used to connect cultural questions with wider differences within society.
Production	One of the factors AQA requires students to relate to identity.	Used later when analysing how identity connects to production, consumption and globalisation.
Consumption	One of the factors AQA requires students to relate to identity.	Relevant to later analysis of contemporary identity.

Common Mistakes ⚠️

Mistake: Treating popular culture and global culture as the same concept

Why this is incorrect: AQA identifies them separately within its list of different conceptions of culture.

How to improve: Learn them as distinct specification concepts and use appropriate sociological material to distinguish them.

Mistake: Assuming global culture means anything that comes from another country

Why this is incorrect: The specification identifies global culture but does not define it in this way.

How to improve: Avoid creating your own everyday definition. Use an established sociological explanation from specification-compatible teaching resources.

Mistake: Using globalisation as an explanation without explaining a relationship

Why this is incorrect: Simply stating that something happens "because of globalisation" does not explain how or why cultural change occurs.

How to improve: When you have studied the relevant sociological explanations, clearly identify the process being proposed and connect it to the cultural change in question.

Mistake: Forgetting that globalisation also connects to identity

Why this is incorrect: AQA explicitly requires students to examine the relationship of identity to production, consumption and globalisation.

How to improve: Make links between cultural change and identity where they are sociologically relevant.

Mistake: Ignoring the contemporary UK focus

Why this is incorrect: AQA states that contemporary UK society should be the central focus of study, with comparative and global dimensions where relevant.

How to improve: Think about global cultural processes in relation to contemporary society rather than discussing globalisation only as an abstract idea.

Mistake: Inventing named sociologists or theories

Why this is incorrect: The supplied specification requires sociological explanations but does not identify particular theorists for popular culture, global culture or cultural change.

How to improve: Only use named material that you have learned from reliable, specification-compatible resources.

Exam-Style Questions ✍️

The supplied specification does not provide detailed definitions or named theories of popular and global culture. These original questions therefore test only material that can be securely established from the supplied sources.

Question 1

Identify one conception of culture specified by AQA other than popular culture. [1 mark]

Question 2

State the two cultural conceptions studied in this lesson. [2 marks]

Question 3

Outline two ways in which globalisation appears within the AQA Culture and Identity specification. [4 marks]

Question 4

Item A

A sociologist is investigating cultural change in contemporary UK society. The researcher is interested in global culture and also examines whether people's identities are connected with wider global processes.

Using Item A, explain two ways in which the investigation reflects the requirements of the AQA Culture and Identity specification. [6 marks]

Question 5

Explain two connections between the study of culture and globalisation in AQA Sociology. [6 marks]

Question 6

Analyse how the study of popular and global culture fits within the wider Culture and Identity topic. [8 marks]

Question 7

Evaluate the view that cultural change can be understood without considering globalisation. [10 marks]

Answers and indicative mark scheme

Question 1

Award 1 mark for any one of:

• subculture

• mass culture

• folk culture

• high culture

• low culture

• global culture.

Question 2

Award 1 mark each for:

• popular culture

• global culture.

Total: 2 marks

Question 3

Award up to 2 marks for each developed point.

Possible answers include:

• Global culture is specifically identified as one of the required conceptions of culture.

• Students must examine the relationship of identity to globalisation.

• AQA places contemporary UK society within its globalised context.

Two developed points are required for full marks.

Question 4

Possible applications include:

• Item A's interest in global culture directly reflects one of the conceptions of culture required by AQA.

• Its focus on identity and global processes relates directly to the requirement to examine identity in relation to globalisation.

• Its focus on contemporary UK society reflects AQA's required central focus.

• Considering the UK within wider global processes reflects the specification's requirement to consider its globalised context.

Higher marks require direct application of details from Item A.

Question 5

Possible developed answers include:

• Global culture is one of the different conceptions of culture explicitly required by AQA.

• Globalisation must also be examined in relation to identity.

• The course places contemporary UK society within a globalised context.

• Culture forms part of the wider core theme of socialisation, culture and identity, allowing connections between cultural change and identity.

Award higher marks where a relationship is explained rather than merely identified.

Question 6

A strong answer could analyse:

• popular and global culture as two required conceptions of culture

• their place alongside subculture, mass, folk, high and low culture

• culture as part of the socialisation, culture and identity core theme

• the later study of identity in relation to globalisation

• the course-wide emphasis on contemporary UK society

• the requirement to consider global contexts where relevant.

Analysis should show how these areas connect rather than simply reproduce specification wording.

Question 7

Arguments suggesting globalisation is important could include:

• AQA explicitly includes global culture.

• Identity must be considered in relation to globalisation.

• UK society should be understood within its globalised context.

• The Culture and Identity topic therefore builds global dimensions directly into its study of culture and identity.

A balanced answer could recognise that AQA also identifies several other conceptions of culture and wider influences on identity, so globalisation is not the only element students study.

A reasoned conclusion should distinguish between claiming that globalisation is relevant to cultural change and claiming that it provides the only explanation. The supplied specification supports the former but does not provide enough substantive theory to establish the latter.