ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book proposes at the 1978 conference of the British Sociological Association, the theme of which was 'Culture'. The areas indicated by terms such as 'culture', 'ideology' and 'representation' have been the subject of extensive and increasing analysis and debate. The book discusses the 'cultural' aspects of debates in the areas of language, science and sexuality, and to address the politics of gender, race and class in cultural production. It observes cultural products and practices in terms of the relations between their material conditions of existence and their work as representations which produce meanings. The concern is both with modes of production and with modes of signification. Studies of 'culture' may constitute a challenge to the traditional subject boundaries of academic institutions and discourses: they are by their nature interdisciplinary.
