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Cultural Studies in Question
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Cultural Studies in Question

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April 1997 | 288 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
In recent years cultural studies perspectives have proliferated through a range of traditional academic disciplines and have been a fertile source of new ideas beyond the sphere of the academy; at the same time, cultural studies has been subject to critical scrutiny. Cultural Studies in Question is a major new text that offers a critical reappraisal of the contemporary practice of cultural studies. Focusing on the contribution of cultural studies to understanding media, communication, and popular cultures in contemporary societies, the authors offer a major reassessment of the domain of cultural studies. Elements examined include: + different strands of cultural studies, their sources, and whether there is a coherent project in cultural studies today + tensions and debates within cultural studies, and between cultural studies and alternative or related approaches to contemporary media and society + the movement by cultural studies revisionists toward more empirical and sociological modes of analysis Drawing on an outstanding group of internationally acclaimed scholars representing a broad cross-section of perspectives in media theory and communication studies, Cultural Studies in Question will provide a benchmark for substantive reflection on the state of the field of media and cultural analysis for academics and researchers and will stimulate reflection, understanding, and insight among students of media, communications, journalism, popular culture, and cultural studies.
Marjorie Ferguson and Peter Golding
Cultural Studies and Changing Times
An Introduction

 
 
PART ONE: QUESTIONS AND CRITIQUE
James W Carey
Reflections on the Project of (American) Cultural Studies
Todd Gitlin
The Anti-Political Populism of Cultural Studies
Denis McQuail
Policy Help Wanted
Willing and Able Media Culturalists Please Apply

 
Nicholas Garnham
Political Economy and the Practice of Cultural Studies
Sari Thomas
Dominance and Ideology in Culture and Cultural Studies
Graham Murdock
Base Notes
The Conditions of Cultural Practice

 
Douglas Kellner
Overcoming the Divide
Cultural Studies and Political Economy

 
 
PART TWO: ANSWERS AND ALTERNATIVES
David Morley
Theoretical Orthodoxies
Textualism, Constructivism and the 'New Ethnography' in Cultural Studies

 
Jim McGuigan
Cultural Populism Revisited
Joli Jensen and John J Pauly
Imagining the Audience
Losses and Gains in Cultural Studies

 
Angela McRobbie
The E's and the Anti-E's
New Questions for Feminism and Cultural Studies

 
John D H Downing
Cultural Studies, Communication and Change
Eastern Europe to the Urals

 
Michael Billig
From Codes to Utterances
Cultural Studies, Discourse and Psychology

 

`Cultural Studies in Question is a much needed confrontation with the most challenging questions engaging cultural studies and communication today. It is at once sympathetic to the goals and political purposes of cultural studies, yet frustrated with excessive idealization, textualism, and distance from concrete practice or public policy. This collection, carefully assembled by Marjorie Ferguson and Peter Golding, is criticism at its best, aimed not at destroying but improving, not at negation but shared progress through intellectual struggle. Squarely in the tradition of Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall, the central figures in the debates around cultural studies, both its advocates and its critics, here confront the hard questions of purpose, emphasis, method, implicit ideology, and real world consequences in what may be the most important intellectual movement of this and recent decades. The result is of great value to all those seeking to better grasp the current crises in communication and culture' - Michael R Real, San Diego State University

`If you are a social scientist wanting an overview of contemporary debates in cultural studies research on both sides of the Atlantic this commissioned collection of articles is an excellent place to start' - Sociology

Marjorie Ferguson

Peter Golding

Peter Golding was Professor of Sociology at Loughborough University from 1990 until coming to Northumbria in August 2010. He was Head of Social Sciences at Loughborough from 1991-2006, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) 2006-2009.  He was a member of the national Research Assessment Exercise panel for communications, media and cultural studies in 1996 and 2001, and its Chair in 2008, Vice-Chair of the ESRC postgraduate Recognition Panel for sociology and media and cultural studies, and chair of the HEFCE Media Studies Advisory Committee. He is an editor of the European Journal of Communication, Hon. Chair of the European Sociological... More About Author

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ISBN: 9780803979246
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