ABSTRACT
There are good reasons for wanting to stage such a dialogue because cultural studies and the anti-capitalist movement have some deep affinities. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book makes up a partial, idiosyncratic, political history of cultural studies, whose argument runs something like this: cultural studies began life as a self-consciously radical discipline which was influenced by its proximity to, and its dynamic relationship with, the politics of the British labour movement. It outlines and reflects upon the emergence of this movement, which is sometimes called anti-capitalist or anti-globalisation or global-justice or altermondialiste. The book considers a range of different ways of conceptualising the relationship between capitalism and culture, and it considers reasons as to why one might or might not want to take up a political or analytical position which is explicitly anti-capitalist.
