Page 19 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

of stacking up of `facts’ produces a story about our lives without theory. Indeed, theory
is precisely a story about humanity with implications for action and judgements about
consequences. Yet, theory does not picture the world more or less accurately; rather, it
xviii is a tool, instrument or logic for intervening in the world (Foucault, 1980). Theory
construction is a self-reflexive discursive endeavour that seeks to interpret and intercede
in the world: its construction involves the thinking through of concepts and arguments
with the objective of offering new ways by which to think about ourselves. Theoretical
work can be thought of as a crafting of the cultural signposts and maps by which we are
guided and theoretical concepts are tools for thinking and acting in the world. As such,
this dictionary can be thought of as a toolbox to help with the job of thinking.
And yet words are very slippery instruments indeed, as Derrida (1976) reminds us
with his concept of différance – `difference and deferral’. For Derrida there is no original
meaning outside of signs, and signs do not possess clear and fixed meanings. Here the
production of meaning in the process of signification is continually deferred and
supplemented so that meaning slides down a chain of signifiers abolishing a stable
signified. Words carry multiple meanings, including the echoes or traces of other
meanings from other related words in other contexts. Indeed, using a dictionary is a
useful way of exploring the concept of différance. If we look up the meaning of a word
in a dictionary we are referred to other words in an infinite process of intertextual
deferral. There is no one fixed meaning to any of the concepts in this dictionary. This
is not a dictionary that claims to give definitive meanings to words. At best, given that
meaning lies in use, I offer some signposts to the common uses of the concepts in the
context of cultural studies.

THE PURPOSES OF CULTURAL STUDIES

If the concepts that form the field of cultural studies are tools, then we might ask about
the purposes for which they are wielded. That is, what is the nature of cultural studies
as practice? Most writers in the field would probably agree that the purposes of cultural
studies are analytic, pedagogic and political. In particular, cultural studies has sought to
develop ways of thinking about culture and power that can be utilized by forms of social
agency in the pursuit of change. This engagement with politics is, for Hall (1992), what
differentiates cultural studies from other subject areas. Hence, cultural studies can be
thought of as a body of theory generated by thinkers who regard the production of
theoretical knowledge as a political practice.
The main direction taken by cultural studies, as enacted through teaching and
writing, is intellectual clarification and legitimization. Cultural studies writers offer a
variety of storytelling that can act as a symbolic guide or map of meaning and
significance in the cosmos. As such, cultural studies has the potential to assist in
comprehending and changing the world; it can act as a tool for activists and policy
makers through problem solving, that is, re-definition and re-description of the world.
Nevertheless, we should be careful not to confuse writing as a politically inspired
endeavour with other kinds of civic and governmental political practices.
The prime locations of cultural studies as a set of practices are academic institutions,