Page 91 - Cultural Theory

Edwards-3516-Ch-04.qxd 5/9/2007 5:56 PM Page 80

••• Chris Rojek •••

knowing’. Sensuous knowing invalidates normative coercion by creating subterranean
anti-structures of behaviour, Willis (1978) calls them ‘profane cultures’, in which norma-
tive order is challenged. Through ‘the laff’, ‘the piss take’, ‘the put on’ and swearing
Willis’s ‘lads’ actively created personal space and narratives of belonging in ideologically
impregnated culture. This recognition is evident in Hall’s collection on the use of ritual
in class resistance (Hall and Jefferson 1976). However he does not assign the same level
of creative opening in culture as Willis’s concept of profane culture. In Hall’s later writ-
ings, as we have suggested above, ideological ‘closure’ is relaxed, but the means through
which this is accomplished is by adopting a linguistic model of culture, rather than a
concrete analysis of social settings.
The intellectual labour conducted at the Centre genuinely attempted to be open
and synthetic, so that connections were made between feminism, semiotics, struc-
turalism, post-structuralism and Marxism in theoretically imaginative and produc-
tive ways. If the intense attempt to come to terms with working class culture in class
dominated society sometimes resulted in obscurantist language and theoretical argu-
ments, it also finally put paid to the elitist ideas that the only culture worth study-
ing is high culture. The Birmingham tradition placed working class culture at the
centre of Cultural Studies. Further, it demonstrated the adaptability of this culture in
waging a shifting war of position and manoeuvre with the dominant class. Despite
the serious problems of slippage and anti-essentialism, the accomplishments of the
Centre and Hall’s writings on culture are seminal in the history of Cultural Studies.

Notes

1 In some ways they were reacting to the elitist views on civilization expressed by writers like
TS Eliot and FR Leavis. The emphasis on culture was partly designed to break the mould
between elite power and the concept of civilization as the best or highest expressions of
intellectual, artistic and scientific labour. It reflected an interest in working class cultures and
the quotidian in everyday life, which was anathema to elitist views.
2 Hall can be legitimately criticized for caricaturing the position of James Halloran and his cir-
cle in Leicester. The latter were perfectly well aware of the political dimension of mass com-
munications. But they were committed to an ideal of value neutrality that Hall had no truck
with. For Hall, the labour of the ‘organic intellectual’ is always a matter of using knowledge
in the project of emancipation. He held a politicized view of intellectual labour which
queried the value of the Leicester position on a priori grounds.
3 Bennett’s work on inter-disciplinarity at Griffith University in Queensland and his national role
in widening access to higher education in Australia was important. After many years on the Gold
Coast he returned in the late 90s to replace Hall as Head of Sociology in the Open University.

References

Centre for Contemporary The Empire Strikes Back, London: Cultural Studies (1982) Hutchinson
Eagleton, T. (1996) ‘The hippest’, London Review of Books, March pp 3–6
Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall
• 80 •