Page 14 - Cultural Theory

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••• Introduction •••

anti-racism (Hall, 1980). The name of Anthony Giddens is not the first that springs to
mind when considering cultural theory, yet in Chapter 5 John Scott argues that culture
is central to Giddens’ analysis on two fronts: first, culture as structure in relation to
his consideration of rules, norms and dispositions and, second, culture as lifeworld in
relation to ways of life. Thus, Scott argues, Giddens’ analysis of culture informs his influ-
ential theory of structuration and his wider sociology of modernity although he
critiques Giddens’ lack of interrogation of the role of material resources.
In Part II, our attention shifts more towards the contemporary terrain of cultural the-
ory yet a continuing emphasis upon social structure and patterns of inequality informs
Peter Beilharz’s consideration of Bauman, in Chapter 6, where he argues that culture for
Bauman is primarily a ‘structuring activity’. Through a wide-ranging analysis of the
influences upon Bauman’s work from Marxism and Freud through to Foucault, Beilharz
interrogates Bauman’s Culture as Praxis, ultimately returning to Bauman’s dialogue with
anthropology, and the work of Lévi-Strauss specifically, arguing that this is most funda-
mental in understanding Bauman’s work on culture (Bauman, 1999). No work on cul-
tural theory would be complete without reference to the seminal influence of French
social science, and the work of Foucault most particularly. Powell and May’s analysis of
Foucault in Chapter 7 is driven most strongly by a consideration of his work on the phi-
losophy of knowledge and his theorizing of subjectivity. Key within this is Foucault’s
anti-essentialist, and one might also say anti-realist, stance that refutes the ‘reading off’
of culture from deeper structures and his rearticulation of the role of culture in relation
to wider – and more dynamic – historical and societal contexts, including medicine, sex-
uality and the role of the state. His attention to questions of power is a theme taken up
in Chapter 8 in Robbins’ consideration of the work of Bourdieu who, he argues, sees cul-
ture as a form of power relations or perhaps stratification, while still attempting to refute
the concept per se. Robbins is particularly sensitive to what one might call the ‘uses and
abuses’ of the work of Bourdieu and the significance of Anglo (mis)interpretation of
specifically French philosophy and theorizing. Finally, in Chapter 9, Will Merrin con-
siders the work of the on occasions near sociological persona non grata of Baudrillard. In
conducting a particularly thorough review of his work, Merrin argues that Baudrillard –
like Bourdieu – is subject to much misunderstanding and misuse when his work, and
particularly his reformulation of semiotics or what Merrin calls his ‘Durkhemian radi-
calism’, are of enormous and continuing relevance to understandings of culture.
In summary to these more directly theoretically driven chapters, we are perhaps
presented with three strongly interlinked key themes or points: first, that the sup-
posed and oft-quoted break of contemporary cultural theory with early or more clas-
sical sociology, and particularly Marxism, is – to say the least – often overstated;
second, significant continuities as well as conflicts exist between apparently diverse
and contrasting strains of theorizing and analysis; and third, that those contrasts that
do still exist are often contextually based and, more specifically, related to differing
traditions of Anglo-American and European thought.
Following this point, in Part III, our attention shifts to more applied and topical
dimension of contemporary cultural theory. In Chapter 10, Ann Brooks shows how
feminist work and debates concerning subjectivity and identity intersect with and

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