Page 108 - Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies
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96 COLIN SPARKS
classes, as such, are the subjects of fixed and ascribed class ideologies’
(Hall, 1983: 77). On the other hand, Hall wished to continue to argue for
the continuing relevance of the idea of determination. To do this, he
borrowed from Raymond Williams the idea of determination as a setting
of limits. In practice, however, Hall used this borrowing very sparingly. In
the analysis of Thatcherism, for example, there is no attempt to
incorporate changes in the class structure, the differential impact of rising
real wages, tax cuts, unemployment, privatization and the spread of
subsidized home ownership, or any of the other major economic planks of
Conservative policies during the 1980s, into an understanding of how a
particular hegemonic project might come to win consent. In a word, the
material basis of Thatcher’s political successes is never investigated.
AFTER MARXISM
Taken together, the implications of the above formulations are clearly to
shift cultural studies away from its encounter with marxism. When Laclau
and Mouffe characterized their position as ‘post-marxism’ with an equal
stress upon each of the two elements in that portmanteau word, they were
perhaps a little generous to Marx. The category of ‘marxism’ is an
extremely broad one, and there is little point or profit in trying to decide
whether someone can legitimately claim to be ‘marxist’ or not. If they wish
to adopt the label, then we have no need to quibble. We may note,
however, that there is a fairly large gap between the theoretical framework
cultural studies used in its marxist phase and the one that has come to
dominance in more recent years. In this respect, the ‘marxist cultural
studies’ which has travelled so successfully around the world was one
which was perhaps carrying a dubious passport: the ‘marxist’ element was
in crisis from the beginning and has now been more or less abandoned.
The very success of cultural studies means that it is today difficult to pin
down a single strand of thought as the successor to marxist cultural
studies. If in the early days there was a handful of people working more or
less in isolation on similar topics, and if in the 1970s one could identify a
Centre which was also the centre, today the field is so diverse that such a
task is hopeless. It is, however, possible to claim that almost nobody today
active in the field of cultural studies identifies themselves with the
theoretical framework of what was once marxist cultural studies. In
particular, the central concerns with the problem of determination and the
nature of ideology have more or less disappeared. The difficulties which
faced the project of marxist cultural studies have been resolved by shifting
the terrain of investigation.
Hall himself modified his position considerably during the late 1980s. In
his contribution to the debate over ‘New Times’, Hall developed a position
which seems to owe rather more to Foucault than Marx: