Page 133 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

views of Liberalism on the grounds that a stress on individuality is an ideological
obscuring of the collective grounds of inequality and injustice. That is, the
inequalities generated by structures of capitalist society are such that the vast
110 majority of individuals cannot be free. Here social inequality is understood to be to
the detriment of equal citizenship and thus capitalism is argued to be in conflict
with the central concern of Liberalism to treat all persons as free and equal. On the
other hand, Liberals have criticized Marxism for its tendency towards
epistemological authoritarianism and political totalitarianism.
Critics influenced by poststructuralism have been critical of the humanism that
they see as inherent to the Liberal stress on individuality. While such a reading of
Locke and Mill is entirely plausible, it is not valid in relation to Rorty, who explicitly
adopts the idea of the fragmented self. For Rorty, one cannot have an identity; rather
one is a centreless weave of beliefs, attitudes and identifications. The fact that one
might describe subjects as fragmented and acculturated for analytic purposes does
not for him negate the agency and culturally ascribed individuality that Liberalism
deploys nor the usefulness of Liberalism as a political and cultural philosophy. Rorty
is saying that Liberalism is a culturally specific rather than universal way of looking
at the world that happens to be the best option currently available. In other words,
a commitment to liberal democracy has no universal foundation that is grounded
in a philosophical account of human nature etc. – nor does it need one.
Liberalism appears to be compatible with the stress on diversity and difference
within postmodernism. The postmodern conception of the public sphere as
involving diversity and the desirability of multiple ‘publics’ while working to reduce
social inequality is entirely harmonious with Liberalism. Similarly, the post-Marxist
project of ‘radical democracy’ seeks to appropriate and extend key principles of the
liberal democratic polity. The values of justice, tolerance, solidarity and difference,
formed on the historically contingent grounds of a Western democratic political
tradition, are those which drive Laclau and Mouffe’s vision with its stress on
equality, non-discrimination and self-management.
A commitment to Liberalism does not mean that any particular institution of
liberal democracy could not be reformed or that any specific cultural and political
direction could not be improved on. Thus, it is entirely acceptable to Liberals to
critique those aspects of our societies and cultures that restrict freedoms and cause
suffering. As such, cultural studies could be understood as a critical wing of liberal
societies drawing attention to the continuation of suffering without rejecting the
fundamental viability of liberal democracy. However, those schooled in Marxism,
and to some degree poststructuralism, and who tend to envisage a more
revolutionary overthrow of the institutions and practices of liberal societies would
disagree. They would see cultural studies as a more radical and marginalized project
with more far-reaching revolutionary implications.
Links Citizenship, humanism, Marxism, post-Marxism, poststructuralism, pragmatism

Life-politics Life-politics is concerned with reflexivity, self-actualization, choice and
lifestyle in pursuit of qualitatively better ways to live. Life-politics revolves around