ABSTRACT
Any observer of the academic scene in the United States will surely note that there has been a cultural studies ‘boom’ (Morris 1988a). As Allor (1987) notes, the term itself has become a cultural commodity, apparently free to circulate in the global economy of discourse, ideas, and cultural capital. Five years ago, the term functioned largely as a proper name, referring primarily to a specifically British tradition, extending from the work of Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart, through the contributions of the various members of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham, to the increasingly dispersed and institutionalized sites of its contemporary practitioners. Additionally-and especially within the field of communication-the term also referenced a uniquely American tradition rooted in the social pragmatism of the Chicago School of Social Thought. However, ‘cultural studies’ is becoming one of the most ambiguous terms in contemporary theory as it is increasingly used to refer to the entire range and diversity of what had been previously thought of as ‘critical theory’ (i.e. a range of competing theories of the relation of society and culture, of ideology and art, largely derived from ‘high literary theory’ and anthropology, with communication and popular culture once again relegated to a secondary position) (Grossberg 1989).
