Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
(including
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices relate to wider systems of
power associated with, or operating through, social phenomena. These include
ideology
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
,
class structures,
national formations,
ethnicity
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
,
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
,
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...
, and generation. Employing
cultural analysis, cultural studies views cultures not as fixed, bounded, stable, and discrete entities, but rather as constantly interacting and changing sets of practices and processes. The field of cultural studies encompasses a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives and practices. Although distinct from the discipline of
cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...
and the interdisciplinary field of
ethnic studies, cultural studies draws upon and has contributed to each of these fields.
Cultural studies was initially developed by British Marxist academics in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and has been subsequently taken up and transformed by scholars from many different disciplines around the world. Cultural studies is avowedly and even radically interdisciplinary and can sometimes be seen as anti-disciplinary. A key concern for cultural studies practitioners is the examination of the forces within and through which socially organized people conduct and participate in the construction of their everyday lives.
Cultural studies combines a variety of politically engaged critical approaches drawn including
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
,
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
,
feminist theory,
ethnography
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...
,
post-structuralism,
postcolonialism,
social theory,
political theory,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
,
literary theory
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mor ...
,
media theory
Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but most ...
,
film/video studies,
communication studies,
political economy
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...
,
translation studies,
museum studies and
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
/criticism to study cultural phenomena in various societies and historical periods. Cultural studies seeks to understand how meaning is generated, disseminated, contested, bound up with systems of power and control, and produced from the social, political and economic spheres within a particular social formation or conjuncture. The movement has generated important theories of
cultural hegemony and
agency
Agency may refer to:
Organizations
* Institution, governmental or others
** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients
** Employment agency, a business that ...
. Its practitioners attempt to explain and analyze the cultural forces related and processes of
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
.
During the rise of
neoliberalism
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent f ...
in Britain and the US, cultural studies both became a global movement, and attracted the attention of many conservative opponents both within and beyond universities for a variety of reasons. A worldwide movement of students and practitioners with a raft of scholarly associations and programs, annual international conferences and publications carry on work in this field today. Distinct approaches to cultural studies have emerged in different national and regional contexts.
Overview
Sardar's characteristics
In his 1994 book, ''Introducing Cultural Studies'',
orientalist scholar
Ziauddin Sardar lists the following five main characteristics of cultural studies:
*The objective of cultural studies is to understand culture in all its complex forms, and analyzing the social and political context in which culture manifests itself.
*Cultural study is a site of both study/analysis and
political criticism. For example, not only would a cultural studies scholar study an object, but they may also connect this study to a larger political project.
*Cultural studies attempts to expose and reconcile constructed divisions of
knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distin ...
that purport to be
grounded in nature.
*Cultural studies has a commitment to an ethical evaluation of modern
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...
.
*One aim of cultural studies could be to examine cultural practices and their relation to
power, following
critical theory. For example, a study of a
subculture (such as white working-class youth in London) would consider their social practices against those of the
dominant culture (in this example, the middle and upper classes in London who control the political and financial sectors that create policies affecting the well-being of white working-class youth in London).
British cultural studies
There are numerous published accounts of the history of cultural studies.
Dennis Dworkin
Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius.
The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is sometime ...
writes that "a critical moment" in the beginning of cultural studies as a field was when
Richard Hoggart used the term in 1964 in founding the
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the
University of Birmingham.
[Dworkin, Dennis. 1997. ''Cultural Marxism in Post-War Britain: History, the New Left, and the Origins of Cultural Studies''. Durham: ]Duke University Press
Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...
. p. 116. The centre would become home to the development of the intellectual orientation that has become known internationally as the "Birmingham School" of cultural studies,
thus becoming the world's first institutional home of cultural studies.
Hoggart appointed as his assistant
Stuart Hall, who would effectively be directing
CCCS by 1968. Hall formally assumed the directorship of CCCS in 1971, when Hoggart left Birmingham to become Assistant Director-General of
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
. Thereafter, the field of cultural studies became closely associated with Hall's work. In 1979, Hall left Birmingham to accept a prestigious chair in
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
at the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...
, and Richard Johnson took over the directorship of the centre.
In the late 1990s, "restructuring" at the University of Birmingham led to the elimination of CCCS and the creation of a new Department of Cultural Studies and Sociology (CSS) in 1999. Then, in 2002, the University's senior administration abruptly announced the disestablishment of CSS, provoking a substantial international outcry. The immediate reason for disestablishment of the new department was an unexpectedly low result in the UK's
Research Assessment Exercise of 2001, though a dean from the university attributed the decision to "inexperienced ‘macho management’." The RAE, a holdover initiative of the
Margaret Thatcher-led British government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_est ...
of 1986, determines research funding for university programs.
To trace the development of British Cultural Studies, see, for example, the work of
Richard Hoggart,
E. P. Thompson
Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was an English historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is best known today for his historical work on the radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in ...
,
Raymond Williams
Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contrib ...
, Stuart Hall,
Paul Willis
Paul Willis (born 1945) is a British social scientist known for his work in sociology and cultural studies. Paul Willis' work is widely read in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and education, his work emphasizing consumer culture, sociali ...
,
Angela McRobbie,
Paul Gilroy, David Morley,
Charlotte Brunsdon
Charlotte Brunsdon is a professor of film and television studies at the University of Warwick and researcher. She was one of the principal researchers of the Nationwide Project.
Brunsdon studied English at University College London and completed ...
,
Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer (born 1945) is an English academic who held a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London. Specialising in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment ...
, and others.
Stuart Hall's directorship of CCCS at Birmingham
Beginning in 1964, after the initial appearance of the founding works of British Cultural Studies in the late 1950s,
Stuart Hall's pioneering work at
CCCS, along with that of his colleagues and
postgraduate
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree.
The organization and ...
students gave shape and substance to the field of cultural studies. This would include such people as
Paul Willis
Paul Willis (born 1945) is a British social scientist known for his work in sociology and cultural studies. Paul Willis' work is widely read in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and education, his work emphasizing consumer culture, sociali ...
,
Dick Hebdige
Dick Hebdige (born 1951) is an expatriate British media theorist and sociologist, and a professor of art and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work is commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its ...
, David Morley,
Charlotte Brunsdon
Charlotte Brunsdon is a professor of film and television studies at the University of Warwick and researcher. She was one of the principal researchers of the Nationwide Project.
Brunsdon studied English at University College London and completed ...
, John Clarke,
Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer (born 1945) is an English academic who held a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London. Specialising in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment ...
, Judith Williamson, Richard Johnson,
Iain Chambers
Iain Chambers is an English composer, producer and performer.
Iain has composed and performed since the 1990s. He formed the duo Bow Mods with Philip Clayton Smith, releasing an album and 2 EPs on Drunken Records. He produced programmes at BBC Ra ...
, Dorothy Hobson,
Chris Weedon, Tony Jefferson, Michael Green and
Angela McRobbie.
Many cultural studies scholars employed
Marxist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...
methods of analysis, exploring the relationships between cultural forms (i.e., the
''superstructure'') and that of the
political economy
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...
(i.e., the
''base''). By the 1970s, the work of
Louis Althusser radically rethought the Marxist account of ''base'' and ''superstructure'' in ways that had a significant influence on the "Birmingham School." Much of the work done at CCCS studied
youth-subcultural expressions of antagonism toward "respectable"
middle-class British culture in the post-WWII period. Also during the 1970s, the politically formidable British
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
es were in decline.
Britain's manufacturing industries while continuing to grow in output and value, were decreasing in share of GDP and numbers employed, and
union rolls were shrinking. Millions of working-class
Britons backed the rise of
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
, through the labour losses. For Stuart Hall and his colleagues, this shift in loyalty from the
Labour Party to the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
had to be explained in terms of cultural politics, which they had been tracking even before Thatcher's first victory. Some of this work was presented in the cultural studies classic, ''Policing the Crisis'', and in other later texts such as Hall's ''The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left'', and ''New Times: The Changing Face of Politics in the 1990s''.
Late-1970s and beyond
By the late 1970s, scholars associated with
The Birmingham School had firmly placed questions of
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...
and
race on the cultural studies agenda, where they have remained ever since. Also by the late 1970s, cultural studies had begun to attract a great deal of international attention. It spread globally throughout the 1980s and 1990s. As it did so, it both encountered new conditions of knowledge production, and engaged with other major international intellectual currents such as
poststructuralism,
postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...
, and
postcolonialism. The wide range of cultural studies journals now located throughout the world, as shown below, is one indication of the
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
of the field.
Developments outside the UK
In the US, prior to the emergence of British Cultural Studies, several versions of
cultural analysis had emerged largely from pragmatic and
liberal-pluralist philosophical traditions. However, in the late 1970s and 1980s, when British Cultural Studies began to spread internationally, and to engage with
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
,
poststructuralism,
postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...
, and race,
critical
Critical or Critically may refer to:
*Critical, or critical but stable, medical states
**Critical, or intensive care medicine
* Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences.
*Critical Software, a company specializing ...
cultural studies (i.e.,
Marxist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...
, feminist, poststructuralist, etc.) expanded tremendously in American universities in fields such as
communication studies,
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
,
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
, and
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
. ''
Cultural Studies'', the flagship journal of the field, has been based in the US since its founding editor,
John Fiske, brought it there from
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
in 1987.
A thriving cultural studies scene has existed in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
since the late 1970s, when several key CS practitioners emigrated there from the UK, bringing British Cultural Studies with them, after
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
became Prime Minister of the UK in 1979. A school of cultural studies known as cultural policy studies is one of the distinctive Australian contributions to the field, though it is not the only one. Australia also gave birth to the world's first professional cultural studies association (now known as the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia) in 1990. Cultural studies journals based in Australia include ''
International Journal of Cultural Studies
The ''International Journal of Cultural Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering cultural studies. The first editor-in-chief was John Hartley ( Curtin and Cardiff universities). The journal was established in 1998 and is published s ...
'', ''
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies'', and ''Cultural Studies Review''.
In
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
, cultural studies has sometimes focused on issues of
technology and society
Technology society and life or technology and culture refers to the inter-dependency, co-dependence, co-influence, and co-production of technology and society upon one another. Evidence for this synergy has been found since humanity first star ...
, continuing the emphasis in the work of
Marshall McLuhan,
Harold Innis, and others. Cultural studies journals based in Canada include ''Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies''.
In Africa,
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
and
Third-World
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the ...
issues are among the central topics treated. There is a thriving cultural and media studies scholarship in Southern Africa, with its locus in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Cultural Studies journals based in Africa include the ''
Journal of African Cultural Studies
The ''Journal of African Cultural Studies'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on African culture, including African literatures, both written and oral, performance arts, visual arts, music
Music is generally ...
''.
In
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...
, cultural studies have drawn on thinkers such as
José Martí,
Ángel Rama
Ángel A. Rama (; April 30, 1926November 27, 1983) was a Uruguayan writer, academic, and literary critic, known for his work on ''modernismo'' and for his theorization of the concept of " transculturation."
Biography
Born in Montevideo to Galic ...
, and other Latin-American figures, in addition to the Western theoretical sources associated with cultural studies in other parts of the world. Leading Latin American cultural studies scholars include
Néstor García Canclini,
Jésus Martín-Barbero, and
Beatriz Sarlo. Among the key issues addressed by Latin American cultural studies scholars are
decoloniality
Decoloniality ( es, decolonialidad) is a school of thought used principally by an emerging Latin American movement which focuses on untangling the production of knowledge from a primarily Eurocentric episteme. It critiques the perceived universali ...
,
urban cultures, and
postdevelopment theory
Postdevelopment theory (also post-development or anti-development or development criticism) holds that the whole concept and practice of development is a reflection of Western-Northern hegemony over the rest of the world. Postdevelopment thought ...
. Latin American cultural studies journals include the ''Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies''.
Even though cultural studies developed much more rapidly in the UK than in
continental Europe, there is significant cultural studies presence in countries such as
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
, and
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
. The field is relatively undeveloped in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
, probably due to the continued influence of the
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
, which is now often said to be in its third generation, which includes notable figures such as
Axel Honneth
Axel Honneth (; ; born 18 July 1949) is a German philosopher who is the Professor for Social Philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Jack B. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities in the department of philosophy at Columbia University ...
. Cultural studies journals based in continental Europe include the ''
European Journal of Cultural Studies'', the ''Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies'', ''
French Cultural Studies'', and ''Portuguese Cultural Studies''.
In Germany, the term ''cultural studies'' specifically refers to the field in the
Anglosphere, especially British Cultural Studies, to differentiate it from the German
''Kulturwissenschaft'' which developed along different lines and is characterized by its distance from political science. However, Kulturwissenschaft and cultural studies are often used interchangeably, particularly by lay people.
Throughout Asia, cultural studies have boomed and thrived since at least the beginning of the 1990s. Cultural studies journals based in Asia include ''
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
''Inter-Asia Cultural Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal with the aim of enhancing the communication and exchange between inter-Asia and other regions of the cultural studies world. It was established in 2000 and is published b ...
''. In India, the Centre for Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore and the Department of Cultural Studies at The
English and Foreign Languages and the
University of Hyderabad are two major institutional spaces for Cultural Studies.
Issues, concepts, and approaches
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
has been an important influence upon cultural studies. Those associated with
CCCS initially engaged deeply with the
structuralism of
Louis Althusser, and later in the 1970s turned decisively toward
Antonio Gramsci. Cultural studies has also embraced the examination of race, gender, and other aspects of identity, as is illustrated, for example, by a number of key books published collectively under the name of
CCCS in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including ''Women Take Issue: Aspects of Women's Subordination'' (1978), and ''The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain'' (1982).
Gramsci and hegemony
To understand the changing political circumstances of
class
Class or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differently ...
,
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
, and
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
in the United Kingdom, scholars at
The Birmingham School turned to the work of
Antonio Gramsci, an Italian thinker, writer, and
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...
leader. Gramsci had been concerned with similar issues: why would Italian laborers and peasants vote for
fascists? What strategic approach is necessary to mobilize popular support in more progressive directions? Gramsci modified
classical Marxism
Classical Marxism refers to the economic, philosophical, and sociological theories expounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as contrasted with later developments in Marxism, especially Marxism–Leninism.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (5 May 1818, ...
, and argued that culture must be understood as a key site of political and social struggle. In his view,
capitalists
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...
used not only brute force (
police
The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...
,
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...
s,
repression,
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
) to maintain
control
Control may refer to:
Basic meanings Economics and business
* Control (management), an element of management
* Control, an element of management accounting
* Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization
* Controlli ...
, but also penetrated the everyday culture of
working people in a variety of ways in their efforts to win popular "consent."
It is important to recognize that for Gramsci, historical leadership, or ''
hegemony'', involves the formation of alliances between class factions, and struggles within the cultural realm of everyday common sense. ''Hegemony'' was always, for Gramsci, an interminable, unstable and contested process.
Scott Lash
Scott Lash (born December 23, 1945) is a professor of sociology and cultural studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Lash obtained a BSc in Psychology from the University of Michigan, an MA in Sociology from Northwestern University, and a PhD ...
writes:
Edgar and Sedgwick write:
The theory of hegemony was of central importance to the development of British cultural studies The_Birmingham_School._It_facilitated_the_analysis_of_the_ways_subordinate_groups_actively_resist_and_respond_to_political_and_economic_domination._The_subordinate_groups_needed_not_to_be_seen_merely_as_the_passive_dupes_of_the_dominant_class_and_its_ideology.
_Structure_and_agency
The_development_of_''hegemony''_''theory''_in_cultural_studies_was_in_some_ways_consonant_with_work_in_other_fields_exploring_
The_Birmingham_School._It_facilitated_the_analysis_of_the_ways_subordinate_groups_actively_resist_and_respond_to_political_and_economic_domination._The_subordinate_groups_needed_not_to_be_seen_merely_as_the_passive_dupes_of_the_dominant_class_and_its_ideology.
_Structure_and_agency
The_development_of_''hegemony''_''theory''_in_cultural_studies_was_in_some_ways_consonant_with_work_in_other_fields_exploring_Structure_and_agency">agency
_
Agency_may_refer_to:
_Organizations
*__Institution,_governmental_or_others
**_Advertising_agency_or_marketing_agency,_a_service_business_dedicated_to_creating,_planning_and_handling_advertising_for_its_clients
**_Employment_agency,_a_business_that__...
,_a_theoretical_concept_that_insists_on_the_active,_critical_capacities_of_subordinated_people_(e.g._the_working_class_
The_working_class_(or_labouring_class)_comprises_those_engaged_in__manual-labour_occupations_or_industrial_work,_who_are_remunerated_via__waged_or_salaried_contracts._Working-class_occupations_(see_also_"_Designation_of_workers_by_collar_colou_...
es,_colonized_peoples,_women)._As_Stuart_Hall_famously_argued_in_his_1981_essay,_"Notes_on_Deconstructing_'the_Popular'":_"ordinary_people_are_not_cultural_dopes."_Insistence_on_accounting_for_the_agency_of_subordinated_people_run_counter_to_the_work_of_traditional_Structuralism.html" ;"title="Structure_and_agency.html" "title="articularly
. It facilitated the analysis of the ways subordinate groups actively resist and respond to political and economic domination. The subordinate groups needed not to be seen merely as the passive dupes of the dominant class and its ideology.
The development of ''hegemony'' ''theory'' in cultural studies was in some ways consonant with work in other fields exploring Structure and agency">agency