The concept of culture in academic and public discourses: Meanings, changes and consequences

The present article is an exploratory examination of some of the problems and consequences that the application of different theoretical approaches to the study of culture entails. The aim is to show through examples some of the strengths and weaknesses of the main theoretical currents that have served as paradigms in different periods, such as configurationalism, functionalism and postmodern constructivism, and to question some of the epistemological and ontological suppositions of these approaches. In addition, the article traces the roots of the idea of coherence and incoherence of culture in anthropology and sociology, and confronts the concept of fragmented identities in postmodern constructivism with new sociological research. Because of the complexity and scope of the issues involved, the article does not pretend to provide an exhaustive analysis of them. Instead, it points out and discusses some of the problems which arise in connection with the application of the predominant theoretical paradigms and attempts to rescue former approaches from simplification and caricaturization