The Practice of Cultural Studies
- Richard Johnson - Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham
- Deborah Chambers - Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham
- Parvati Raghuram - The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
- Estella Tincknell - Nottingham Trent University, UK
Research Methods for Cultural Studies
Bill Schwarz, Queen Mary University of London
'The Practice of Cultural Studies is an original introduction to the field. It offers a sophisticated "how-to" guide to doing research in cultural studies. From the difficulties of formulating a problem to the unique articulations of specific methodologies in cultural studies, students will find this book both useful and challenging' - Professor Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina
What is distinctive about cultural research? How does one do Cultural Studies? Unlike many other disciplines, cultural studies has not been explict about the nature of its practice. This book aims to redress the balance in favour of those who are studying culture by providing a comprehensive guide to researching and writing. Based on the methods course at Nottingham Trent and addressed to advanced undergraduates, Masters Level students and those just commencing a PhD, this book aims to provide an overview of specific research traditions in cultural studies, whilst also situating those traditions in their historical context.
The Practice of Cultural Studies:
· Identifies the main methods of researching culture
· Demonstrates how theory can inform and enable the practice of research
· Explores the ways in which research practices and methods both produce and are produced by knowledge
· Looks at the implications of the 'cultural turn' for disciplines other than cultural studies
The Practice of Cultural Studies will be an essential text for students of cultural studies and a useful guide to others studying culture in a range of disciplinary contexts across the humanities and social sciences.
This book covers a wide array of topics regarding the praxis of doing cultural studies. Thus this is work is not only introductory to the basic concepts of cultural studies and its thinking. Its value besides other introduction also lies in very practical approach towards the hands-on problems that young reserachers face e.g. finding a topic, isolation a research question, negotiation oneself within the field an so on. I recommend this book to all my students dealing with questions regarding the study of culture, society or gender.
An excellent book, highly recommended
This book is outstanding- I have found students (at MA & beginning PhD level) are inspired by its creative approach and helped by guidelines on structure; not many books do both!
This useful handbook will be listed as "highly recommended" in my research seminar on "Representing Europe". For this interdisciplinary research seminar, students with diverse disciplinary backgrounds enroll. Despite their enthusiasm for the course, some lack theoretical and methodological know-how about conducting "cultural analysis". For them I have recommended to work through this handbook.