Table of Contents

PART ONE: CULTURE AND CULTURAL STUDIES
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Cultural Studies
Concerning this Book
The Parameters of Cultural Studies
Key Concepts in Cultural Studies
The Intellectual Strands of Cultural Studies
The New Cultural Studies Project
Central Problems in Cultural Studies
Questions of Methodology
Chapter 2: Questions of Culture and Ideology
Culture with a Capital C: The Great and the Good in the Literary Tradition
Culture is Ordinary
Richard Hoggart: The Uses of Literacy
Edward Thompson: The Making of the English Working Class
Raymond Williams and Cultural Materialism
High Culture/ Low Culture: Aesthetics and the Collapse of Boundaries
Culture and the Social Formation
The Question of Ideology
Chapter 3: Culture, Meaning, Knowledge: The Linguistic Turn in Cultural Studies
Barthes and Mythology
Derrida: Textuality and Differance
Foucault: Discourse, Practice and Power
Post-Marxism and the Discursive Construction of the ′Social′
Language and Psychoanalysis: Lacan
Language as Use: Wittgenstein and Rorty
Discourse and the Material
Chapter 4: Biology, the Body and Culture
The Problem of Reductionism
The Capabilities of Science
The Cultured Body
Genetic Engineering
The Evolved Body of Biology
Evolutionary Culture
Biology and Culture: The Case of Emotions
Meme Theory
PART TWO: THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF CULTURAL STUDIES
Chapter 5: A New World Disorder?
Economy, Technology and Social Class
Globalization
The State, Politics and New Social Movements
Chapter 6: Enter Postmodernism
Defining the Terms
Modernism and Culture
Modern and Postmodern Knowledge
The Promise of Postmodernism (or Modernity as an unfinished Project?)
Postmodern Culture
After Postmodernism
PART THREE: SITES OF CULTURAL STUDIES
Chapter 7: Issues of Subjectivity and Identity
Subjectivity and Identity
The Fracturing of Identity
Agency and the Politics of Identity
Anti-Essentialism, Feminism and the Politics of Identity
Chapter 8: Ethnicity, Race and Nation
Race and Ethnicity
National Identities
Diaspora and Hybrid Identities
Race, Ethnicity and Representation
Chapter 9: Sex, Subjectivity and Representation
Feminism and Cultural Studies
Sex, Gender and Identity
Sexed Subjects
Men and Masculinity
Gender, Representation and Media Culture
Chapter 10: Television, Texts and Audiences
Television Today
Television as Text: News and Ideology
Social Media and News Reporting
Television as Text: Soap Opera as Popular Televsion
Television Storytelling in the Twenty-First Century
The Active Audience
Television Audiences and Cultural Identity
The Globalization of Televsion
Global Electronic Culture
When TV isn′t on Television
Chapter 11: Digital Media Culture
A Digital Revolution
Digital Media 101
Digital Divides
Cyberspace and Democracy
The Cultural Politics of Information
The Global Information Economy
Chapter 12: Cultural Space and Urban Place
Space and Place in Contemporary Theory
Cities as Places
Political Economy and the Global City
The Symbolic Economy of Cities
The Postmodern City
Cyberspace and the City
The City as Text
Chapter 13: Youth, Style and Resistance
The Emergence of Youth
Youth Subcultures
Youthful Difference: Class, Gender and Race
Space: A Global Youth Culture?
Global Youth Online
After Subcultures
Creative Consumption
Resistance Revisited
Digital Youth Culture
Chapter 14: Cultural Politics and Cultural Policy
Cultural Studies and Cultural Politics
Cultural Politic: The Influence of Gramsci
The Cultural Politics of Difference
Difference, Ethnicity and the Politics of Representation
Difference, Citizenship and the Public Sphere
Questioning Cultural Studies
The Cultural Policy Debate
Neo-Pragmatism and Cultural Studies
GLOSSARY

About the Author

Chris Barker is a teacher and researcher with over 25 years experience. He has worked in a number of schools and universities in both England and Australia. He is currently Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Chris is the author of six previous books that are linked together by an interest in culture, meaning and communication. At present he is exploring questions of emotion in contemporary cultural life.
Emma A. Jane is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of the Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She is currently involved in two major research projects: one on gendered cyberhate, and another on the ethics of cognitive enhancement or ‘smart drugs’. Prior to commencing her academic career, Emma spent nearly 25 years working in the Australian print, electronic, and on-line media. She has written seven previous books including a novel, Deadset, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Asia and the South Pacific for Best First Novel in 1997.

 

Reviews

It is a pleasure to welcome a new edition of Cultural Studies, the most comprehensive, dispassionate and insightful treatment of this turbulent field. With Emma A. Jane’s additions, new topics are opened up with a sure-footed adventurousness that is both scholarly and thought-provoking, adding a distinctive update to a reliable resource.
*John Hartley*

This book presents a magisterial overview of Cultural Studies, and of studies of culture more broadly. It synthesises a bewildering range of writers and ideas into a comprehensible narrative. It’s respectful to the history of ideas and completely cutting edge. I learned a lot – you will too.
*Alan McKee*

The role of culture in spatial, digital and political settings is a vital aspect of contemporary life. Barker and Jane provide an excellent introduction to Cultural Studies’ relationship to these core issues, both through a clear explanation of key concepts and thinkers, alongside well chosen examples and essential questions.
*David O′Brien*

The 5th edition of Cultural Studies by Chris Barker and Emma A. Jane has been carefully and reflectively updated to keep abreast of the ongoing kaleidoscopic changes in culture and cultural theory. Particularly noteworthy is the heavily updated chapter on digital media and the section on digital youth culture, where new terms and theories are presented. The book is very pedagogical in its use of bullet-points, summaries, and questions which provoke critical reflection. I fully endorse this new edition of the book and warmly recommend it as an extremely valuable teaching and learning resource!
*Antoinette Fage-Butler*