CULTURE INDUSTRY, A (POLITICAL) RESEARCH AGENDA FOR CRITICAL THEORY (SPECIAL ISSUE: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CRITICAL THEORY (AND VICE VERSA)
Resumo
Despite Theodor W. Adorno’s many reservations regarding the use of the expression “mass culture” as analogous to the concept of “culture industry,” the latter is still generally identified with an (immense) collection of cultural goods. In many branches of sociology, “culture industry,” or some aspect of that industry, has become synonymous with cultural goods, such as television or radio. In his debates with Helmut Becker, Adorno warned us not to approach television per se but only in conjunction with the rest of the culture industry system: studying culture industry only empirically is limited as its effects can only be perceived over decades of exposure. In Dialectic of Enlightenment, however, Adorno and Max Horkheimer describe culture industry as a “system” composed of “radio, cinema, and magazines.” This is an aesthetic and cultural system, but perhaps most importantly, a system of socialization and an apparatus that manufactures desires and identification with reality. The concept entails a labor-related aspect overlooked by scholarship since it is a counterpart to work: a reverse mirror of Fordist society. However, it is also a political theory of culture.
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