January 2000 Case Study: Grassroots Analysis: The Emphasis on Culture
Abstract
First, there was an intellectual moment Here acknowledge the insight and emphasis of my colleague for many years at the Center of Concern in Washington DC, Joe Holland. Writing in the "Preface" of the revised and enlarged edition (1983) of the very popular book we co-authored in 1980, Social Analysis: Linking Faith and Justice, Holland emphasized: "it is this question of culture, and within it religion, which reveals, believe, the most radical dimension of our social crisis."4 Noting that our book focused primarily on economics and politics, he stated that there was a need to search for "a deeper cultural key" to understanding both the roots and the transformation of industrial capitalism.
Description
This intellectual search was not a denial that culture arises from and is shaped by the surrounding economic and political context, for culture cannot be understood except as embodied in such a context. "Culture is never an angelic spirit floating above society. On the other hand, Holland emphasized, culture is not the prisoner of its context, nor does it merely reflect economic drives and political forces and provide only an ideological justification for social structures. "Certainly culture often functions in the mode of legitimate, but it can also be the point of critique and creativity.