Page 230 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

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West,Cornel (1953– ) West is one of the most prominent public intellectuals in the
United States, mixing traditional academic scholarship with more populist writings,
particularly in relation to issues of democracy, spirituality and race. West was
educated at Princeton and Harvard, where he is currently a professor. An African
American, West’s work involves an unusual mixture of Christianity, Marxism
(notably Gramsci) and pragmatism. While his work ranges over a wide domain, his
public face is as a champion for racial justice. For West, ‘prophetic criticism’ requires
social analysis that is explicit and partisan in its moral and political aims. Further,
the development of critical positions and new theory must be linked with
communities, groups, organizations and networks of people who are actively
involved in social and cultural change.
• Associated concepts Capitalism, citizenship, cultural politics, hegemony,
ideology, race, resistance.
• Tradition(s) Cultural studies, Marxism, pragmatism.
• Reading West, C. (1993) Keeping Faith. London and New York: Routledge.

Williams, Raymond (1921–1988) Raymond Williams’ background in working class
rural Wales before attending Cambridge University (UK) as both student and
professor is significant, in that the lived experience of working class culture and a
commitment to democracy and socialism are themes of his writing. Williams’ work
was extremely influential in the development of cultural studies through his
understanding of culture as constituted by ‘a whole way of life’. His
anthropologically inspired grasp of culture as ordinary and lived, sometimes dubbed
‘culturalism’, helped to legitimize the study of popular culture. Williams’ work
engages with Marxism, most notably through the notions of ideology and
hegemony, but he critiques a reductionist notion of base and superstructure.
Williams argues for a form of cultural materialism that explores culture in terms of
the relationships between the elements in an expressive totality.
• Associated concepts Base and superstructure, capitalism, class, common culture,
cultural materialism, culture, experience, hegemony, ideology.
• Tradition(s) Culturalism, humanism, Marxism.
• Reading Williams, R. (1981) Culture. London: Fontana.

Willis, Paul (1945– ) Paul Willis was one of the first postgraduate students at the
Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies during the 1970s and has
been associated with the emergence of cultural studies as a discipline. In particular,
he has been one of cultural studies’ foremost proponents of ethnographic research

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