Popular culture and kulturelle Bildung. An only seemingly contradictory relationship

Abstract

Kulturelle Bildung (cultural education) and popular culture are rarely conceptually intertwined and thought together. In our opinion, however, popular culture and kulturelle Bildung are not mutually exclusive; on the contrary, they are two sides of the same coin, which can be best described as 'aesthetic (everyday) practice'. In this article, we present our understanding of popular culture and kulturelle Bildung and turn to their interdependence on the basis of two case studies of the two phenomena ‘living history’ and Star Trek. It becomes clear that popular culture offers learning opportunities in different ways, conveys values and knowledge and can shape identity formation. Furthermore, the pursuit of popular culture involves numerous informal educational processes, which have still rarely been taken into consideration in educational contexts and whose pedagogical potentials often remain unused.