The paper reviews a moment within early British cultural studies as a way of asking whether the concept of power is as necessary to the field as is generally believed. It attempts to establish that the concept was not a central one - and was in fact specifically avoided - in the intellectual and political project suggested by the 'founding' work of Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams. It was introduced as part of a deliberate intervention against that project which first appeared in criticisms of Williams by E.P. Thompson and later taken up in the systematic adoption of 'theory'.
The opening of a possibility that cultural studies may have an intellectual and political credibility without being 'about' power is used to reflect on some of the problems now facing the field at the moment of its internationalization. It is sug gested that a number of these problems might be addressed more openly and directly if the use of the concept of power is understood as contingent rather than fundamental.
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