Page 126 - Decoding Culture

RESISTI G THE D O M I N A NT 1 1 9
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cultural studies. For culturalism, too, must contribute to subse­
quent theorizing, its key strength lying in its emphasis on
consciousness, struggle, active intervention and agency. It is in
these respects that culturalism can compensate for structuralism's
tendency to produce a somewhat mechanistic and over-determin­
istic model of human activity. Notwithstanding that nod to
culturalism, we should recognize quite how far Hall's argument is
leaning toward the structuralism side of the structuralism-cultur­
alism dyad. While he views structuralism as compensating for
limitations in the culturalist paradigm in several key areas of theory
and method, culturalism itself contributes to the 'synthesis' in
rather more restricted ways. Although its focus on agency and
struggle is undeniably important - it will provide the point of depar­
ture for a more thoroughgoing introduction of Gramscian ideas
into cultural studies - it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the
most significant and innovative elements in CCCS thinking at this
time are more deeply influenced by the structuralist than by the
culturalist paradigm. But, whatever that balance, it is strikingly
clear that the inflection that Hall gives to both structuralism and
culturalism is predominantly marxist, even though, as he recog­
nizes, both traditions incorporate substantial non-marxist
elements. This finds important expression in the CCCS' attempt to
further develop cultural studies via the interrelated concepts of
ideology, hegemony and class, and it is to this aspect of their pro­
ject that we now turn.

Ideology, hegemony, class

In 1977 the Centre devoted their tenth collection of Working
Papers in Cultural Studies to the topic of ideology, and these were
published a year later in book form as On Ideology (CCCS, 1978) .

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