Western Approaches to Cultural Sociology and Transition to Cultural Post-Modernism and Study of Culture

This article tries to present a brief description of the most prominent Western cultural sociology schools and the reasons for their emergence. These schools are the subject of discussion in Iranian universities with a glance at these schools two common principles are distinguished among these seemingly contradicting schools. In practice, these schools describe their own culture, highlight their deficiencies and undesirable dimensions and identify their weaknesses. Then, relying upon this, they present some solutions for improving the living conditions of people. Western sociology Thoughts in the field of culture can somehow contribute to the understanding of the roots of cultural issues among Iranian thinkers. Therefore, this article is also a typology of prevalent cultural discourses among Iranians who are involved in cultural studies. This article studies three cultural fields: 1) Anglo-Saxon thoughts based on the humanities; 2) Francophone thoughts on the basis of semiotics and semantics; and 3) German cultural critic. Finally, the author examines the old and new approaches to the discourse of enlightenment and the Lyotard`s post-modern approach. She concludes that a transition from sociology to the interdisciplinary cultural studies is necessary. On the other hand, cultural necessity and the issue of the geographical aspects of Iranian Culturology are among the subjects discussed by the author.