Socio-symbolic homologies: Exploring Paul Willis’ theory of cultural forms

Abstract

Thirty years have passed since Paul Willis formulated a theory of cultural forms in the appendix to his seminal work Profane Culture. In this article we are driven by the conviction that Willis’ theory is a forgotten treasure trove that needs to be recovered, challenged and developed. The argument is guided by three aims. First, we provide a construction of the theory’s main content. Second, we search for possibilities of enlarging the content and scope of his theory. Third, we reconstruct one of the basic underlying arguments of Willis’ theory, that cultural items in themselves carry a given meaning in relation to social groups. In so doing we partly reconstruct Willis’ understanding of ‘objective’ possibilities as something essentially given in time and space. We utilize the example of the car make Cadillac to demonstrate that cultural items also attract because they are already occupied by socioculturally constructed systems of meaning.