The Study of Culture: Cultural Studies and British Sociology Compared

Abstract

In this paper the emergence of Cultural Studies is traced and its current place in British intellectual life assessed. Throughout a companson is drawn between Cultural Studies and British Sociology. In the first part of the paper the 'original curriculum' of Cultural Studies is analysed in its making of a sharp break from previous disciplinary practices The foundation of Cultural Studies on theoretically defined grounds is then described In the second part of the paper the changes in Cultural Studies since its inception are described and the current critical potential of the practice assessed. On a pessimistic note the paper ends by noting the threat to the survival of Cultural Studies from the current round of rationalizations of British Higher Education.