ABSTRACT
There has been much debate in recent years about the significance and impact of cultural studies (Hall, 1987; Turner, 1990; Franklin et al., 1991; Grossberg et al., 1992): its prospects, its potential relation to the academy and to politics are all uncertain. Whatever its future as a free-standing field of intellectual enquiry, however, there is little doubt that its emergence in Britain in the 1970s contributed to a radical rethinking of approaches to the study of culture in a range of disciplines. This book seeks to develop a conceptual framework within what might be called the sociology of culture, but a sociology which has been disturbed by the insights offered by cultural studies. It thus draws on both institutional analyses of the culture industry (DiMaggio, 1977; Coser et al., 1982; Garnham, 1979; Wolff, 1990) and cultural studies (Hall and Jefferson, 1976; Johnson, 1983; CCCS, 1982a; CCCS, 1982b; Women’s Studies Group, 1978).
