Page 232 - Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies

220 OPENING THE HALLWAY

contradictory, competing cultural forces are not a sort of free-floating
liberal pluralism, nor do they exist merely at the postmodern level of
fragmented signifiers, but they are deeply inscribed in the material
conditions of existence in capitalist societies and in the power relations that
structure those conditions. Meanings underpin or undermine any given
social order, but they cannot exist independent of it. The people are neither
cultural dupes nor silenced victims, but are vital, resilient, varied,
contradictory, and, as a source of constant contestations of dominance, are
a vital social resource, the only one that can fuel social change. The politics
of Hall’s work is to recover, understand and legitimate these popular forces
and in so doing to redefine and revalidate the social role of the intellectual.

REFERENCE

Baudrillard, J. (1983). In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities…or the End of the
Social and Other Essays, (trans. P.Foss), New York: Semiotext(e).