Mapping the Remains of the Postindustrial Landscape

Abstract

This article examines class and its relevance for contemporary cultural studies in Britain through a reading of a recent publication concerned with the current state of the British working class in the wake of rapid socioeconomic change occurring in the United Kingdom and across the developed world. Although the subject of social class in Britain has always been contentious, the past two decades have witnessed a retreat from class analysis in a whole range of areas for a variety of reasons. With the emergence of postmodernism, some cultural commentators have identified a new, unprecedented proliferation of social and cultural identities clamoring for recognition, reducing the importance of class, if not eclipsing it altogether. By focusing on Charlesworth’s text, this article examines the “neglect” of class on the cultural studies agenda; it also addresses and criticizes some of the theoretical premises for understanding working-class experience developed by Charlesworth, while welcoming the return in his book to the subject of class.