Cultural Studies: An Introduction
Cultural Studies is a theoretically, politically, and empirically engaged field of cultural analysis that focuses on the political dynamics of contemporary culture, its historical foundations, defining characteristics, conflicts, and contingencies. Sardar and Van Loon (1997: 9) in Introducing Cultural Studies state that Cultural Studies have their own characteristics that can be used to identify and define the notion of Cultural Studies. Cultural Studies mainly have five concepts — ideology, power, hegemony, identity, and representation.
First, Cultural studies seek to investigate its subject matter through the lens of cultural practices and their relationship to power. Its overarching goal is to expose power dynamics and investigate how they influence and shape cultural practices.
Second, Cultural studies is not simply the study of culture as if it were a separate entity apart from its social or political context. Its goal is to comprehend culture in all of its complexities, as well as to examine the social and political contexts in which it manifests itself.
Third, In cultural studies, culture always serves two functions: it is both the object of study and the site of political criticism and action. Cultural studies aspire to be both an intellectual and a practical endeavour.
Fourth, Cultural studies seek to expose and reconcile the knowledge divide, bridging the gap between tacit (intuitive knowledge based on local cultures) and objective (so-called universal) forms of knowledge. It assumes a shared identity and interest between the knower and the known, as well as between the observer and what is being observed.
Lastly, Cultural studies is committed to a moral assessment of modern society as well as a radical line of political action. The tradition of cultural studies is not one of value-free scholarship, but of social reconstruction through critical political involvement. Thus, cultural studies seek to comprehend and alter dominance structures everywhere, but particularly in industrial capitalist societies.
