Popular Culture, Geography and

The term popular culture is often used colloquially and by commentators in ways that are complex and contradictory. Common to all definitions, though, is the idea that popular culture is associated with mass consumption. Popular culture can thus be seen to include everything from magazines, movies, and television to Internet phenomena such as Facebook and MySpace. Popular culture generally refers to the field of material culture and practice that is associated with everyday people, usually in opposition to “high” culture, which refers to the material culture and practice associated with socioeconomic elites. Alternatively, popular culture can refer to a globalizing [Page 2227]Western culture that is seen in opposition to local folk cultures. In either case, popular culture is usually framed in negative terms, although this has changed in the social sciences and humanities over the past few decades.

Geography has engaged with popular culture in two ways. In the first, popular culture is theorized as a commodity, with a few sites emerging as sites of production, complemented by broader patterns of consumption. In the second formulation, popular culture is theorized as a purveyor of ideology, with geographers considering the messages and ideologies contained within it—either as a source of anxiety and danger or as a tool for creating communities. This entry first examines the origins of popular culture and then discusses the popular geographies of production and consumption. It then explores the ways popular culture is theorized in opposition to folk culture as part of the larger analysis of globalization and concludes with a look at poststructuralist approaches to popular culture and its meaning.