Cultural Studies And Its Theoretual Legacies, States

Stuart Hall, in Cultural Studies and its Theoretical Legacies, states “But there is something at stake in cultural studies, in a way that I think, and hope, is not exactly true of many other very important intellectual and critical practices.” (Hall 1996, 99) This statement suggests that cultural studies, has something to offer which is of greater importance, if not different from, the offerings and insights of other academic disciplines. In this paper, I will look at whether or not this suggestion has merit, or is cultural studies just another academic discipline with no more or no less importance than any other discipline. I will draw my analysis and conclusions based on Hall’s paper, some personal insight and the work of Zygmunt Bauman.

I think that what this allows cultural studies to be, which help to differentiate itself from other academic disciplines such as the humanities and social sciences, is the ability to think even more outside the box and to look at the world through a less constricted lens. Cultural studies, at least in theory, and how I think Hall was referring, allows more freedom to think outside the specific rules of looking at the world through the eyes of sociology, psychology, politics or economics, to view the world without the rules and constraints of a specific field of study, more open. Cultural studies takes an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of the world, allowing for more abstract thought. That being said, it does not follow that no rules apply or that one can just take a random approach to cultural studies, I believe, that on the contrary, it places more responsibility on those in the field of cultural studies to look for a focal point in individual projects and to identify and validate that which they study. What it means, is that one can have a broader or more open viewpoint that

Through cultural studies the boundaries imposed by society, tradition and structures can be made more elastic to extend beyond traditional borders and to explore greater human potential and possibilities, which may not be as easily accomplished in other academic disciplines. In other words, cultural studies might be seen as thinking more outside the box than other disciplines. Cultural studies looks to both examine and challenge the hegemony and injustice created by and within society. Bauman