Unmasking Class and Tradition

Questioning Recuperative History and Affiliation in Cultural Studies

Bibliographic Data

ID23704061
AuthorsCameron Mccarthy (0000-0003-1946-1811), Jennifer Logue
Year2012
Publication date2012-12-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781444361506.wbiems032
OpenAlexW1575110505
ISBN9781444361506
LanguageEN
References cited23

Drawing on examples of cinematic and literary production, this chapter calls attention to the limitations of British cultural studies regarding topics on which the theorization of proponents has been long thought to be fundamentally secure. These topics are class and tradition. The chapter further maintains that the field‐bound, ethnographic, and center–periphery paradigm that has fueled the subcultural studies approach to the working class of cultural studies has been overtaken by events associated with globalization in which culture is being separated from place and the long‐held stable social identities associated with the working class are being disembedded. Now, identities have become more hybrid, and more coordinated across a plurality of styles, tastes, needs, interests, and organizational capacities. Working‐class actors increasingly recuperate their identities in the domain of hyperconsumption rather than production. This is the era of the working class without work. Understanding this requires greater attention to the international division of labor and transnational and postcolonial perspectives.

Aesthetics · Art · Class (philosophy) · Class analysis · Division of labour · Epistemology · Ethnography · Field (mathematics) · Globalization · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Working class · Anthropology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender Studies · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Social and Cultural Dynamics