Political Studies and Cultural Studies: A Response to Finlayson and Martin

Abstract

Cultural Studies has more to learn from Political Studies than Political Studies had to learn from Cultural Studies. In a recent issue of Politics (Vol 17, No 3), Finlayson and Martin argued that Political Studies should learn from the conceptions of ‘culture’ and ‘politics’ employed in Cultural Studies. This response reviews the development of Cultural Studies in order to elucidate its approach and argues that alternative approaches to the issue of culture are more useful for students of politics than Cultural Studies approaches.