Introducation to

Cultural Studies
Semester 4 - Group 7 and 8
How it all
began
 "Cultural Studies " is an offspring of the Centre for
Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS). The latter was
established in 1964 at the University of Birmingrham in the
post-war years
 The works of Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, E.P
Thompson and Stuart Hall are regarded as the
foundational texts of Cultural Studies. But why ? Why did
they feel the need to establish a new field of study in the
Humanities ?
 Their focus was on how
culture is practiced and how
culture is made--or how
cultural practice leads
different groups and classes
to struggle for cultural
domination
"Cultural Studies: Two
Paradigms"
Stuart Hall
Stuart Hall (1932 - 2014)
 What defines Culture best,
Experience or Ideology?
Which paradigm best fits
Cultural Studies, Culturalism
or Structuralism?
 Cul
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 Experience Vs. Ideology

“despite their apparent overlaps, culturalism and structuralism were starkly

counterposed. We can identify this counterposition at one of its sharpest
points, precisely around the concept of 'experience,' and the role the term
played in each perspective. Whereas in 'culturalism' experience was the
ground - the terrain of 'the lived' -- where consciousness and conditions
intersected, structuralism insisted that 'experience' could not, by definition,
be the ground of anything, since one could only 'live' and experience one's
conditions in and through the categories, classifications and frameworks of
the culture. These categories, however, did not arise from or in
experience: rather, experience was their 'effect.‘
” Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms" - (41)
According to Hall, the significance of the “Culturalist
paradigm” is that it insists on an understanding of culture not
as a set of privileged texts, but rather as the systems of
meanings embodied in all social practices.

In Culturalism, experience is the ground/ terrain of ‘the

lived’. Its focus is on how people experience their conditions
of life.

“Culture is everything”: All things such as art, commodity,

ideas, process… are created by the community (everyone
regardless of status).
 The Structuralist Paradigm
The adversaries Levi Strauss, De Saussure &
Althusser do critique the humanism and
experimentalism of the Culturalist paradigm.

Structuralism insists that ‘Experience’ can’t be the

ground of analysis.

The study of Culture is not in the sum of cultural

phenomena, but in the underlying relationships and
contradictions.
 Culturalism Vs. Structuralism
Culturalism (mid-1950s)
Focus on experience
“Breaks” from traditional
cultural marxism:
1. Culture is shaped by
mutually and unevenly
determining forces (not just
base determining
superstructure)
2. Rethinks determinism
using Gramsci’s concept of
hegemony
Structuralism
Focus on ideology
“Breaks” from traditional
cultural marxism:
Triggered by Levi-Strauss’
early studies of semiotics
Now superseded by Marxist
structuralism (Althusser)
Focus on form and structure
instead of content.
 Key Tensions
Culturalism Structuralism
1. Experience can’t be the basis of anything
1. Experience: Experience is the basis of
because experiences take place within an already
culture. Culture is formed by experiences
existing culture
2. What is culture?
2. What is culture?
– Culture is related to ideas
– Culture is related to practices
– Culture is how societies make sense of their
– These practices are organized and patterned in
common experiences.
certain ways that underlay all social practices.
– Culture is ordinary (Raymond Williams) – not
– Asks “what is the nature of (or relationship
the great ideas and achievements of societies
between) the organization at the heart of these
– Culture is shared meaning and values of a
practices?”
society and how they are brought to life
3. Focus on ideology, less importance on culture
3. Ideology is not a key concept
4. Role of humans – bearers of the structures that
4. Role of humans – active agents who make
call them into being.
their own history.
 Strengths
Culturalism
– Focus on humanism – humans are
agentic. Individuality is important.
Emphasis on “lived experience”
- All of the different practices interact and
mutually and unevenly determine each
other (not just base determining
superstructure)
- Studies the experiences of everyone and
there is no distinction between “high” and
“low” culture
Structuralism
– Recognizes that human experience always
takes place within culture. Therefore more
focus on ideology
-Importance of abstract thinking and analysis
because “thought does not reflect reality” the
same way experience doesn’t reflect culture.
- Conception of “the whole” and the structure
as unified practices.
 Limitations
Culturalism
Basically the same as Structuralists'
strengths!
- Doesn’t attribute as much importance to
the role of ideology in shaping the
individual and their culture. This allows
people to have agency and to break
through barriers, but doesn’t acknowledge
that ideological barriers may be too
powerful for individuals to truly break free
from oppression.
Structuralism
– Deterministic. Ideas are merely reflections
of the base – without any effectiveness on
their own.
- Base/superstructure is an inadequate
model. There is a dialectic but it isn’t the right
metaphor
- Reductionist. Reduces all political and
cultural events to class affiliations and
economic exploitation.
- Generalizations assume homogeneity of
culture
 Thinkers & Schools

Culturalism Structuralism
Birmingham School Frankfurt School

Stuart Hall Levi-Strauss (early

Raymond Williams semiotics)

Judith williamson Louis Althusser

Angela McRobbie Roland Barthes

EP Thomspon Habermas

Richard Hoggart Baudrillard

Readings to
better explore
different
concepts
Longhurst, Brian, et al. Introducing Cultural Studies. Rotledge, 2017.

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies. Sage Publications, 2016.

Sardar, Ziauddin, and Van Borin Loon. Introducing Cultural Studies: a

Graphic Guide. Icon Books, 2015.

Chris Parker, The Sage Dictionary of Cultural Studies.

Stuart Hall, ed. Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms.

“What Is Cultural Studies?” The British Academy,

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/what-is-cultural-
studies/#:~:text=Cultural%20studies%20is%20a%20relatively,Ray
mond%20Williams%20and%20Richard%20Hoggart.
Thank you
for your attention.