Cultural studies is a field of study that focuses on the study of culture in general. It involves analyzing cultural situations from a wide range of disciplines, including political economy, sociology, literary theory, media studies, film studies, cultural anthropology, philosophy, and art history. It is also known as cultural research or cultural studies.
This book focuses on the context in which Cultural Studies (CS) was established and developed in the UK, providing an easy-to-understand introduction to its theories, concepts, and influences on various fields. Everything we wear, hear, see, eat, our relationships with others, and our daily activities like housework and cooking are all matters of interest to CS.
The first half explains the process of the establishment of Computer Science (CS) in the UK, and the second half traces its trajectory from various familiar aspects such as text, audience, ethnography, ideology, and political science. Although it is an introductory book, it is full of philosophical terms, so learning the terminology beforehand will help you understand it better.
Cultural anthropology, the foundation of computer science, began with the global expansion of Europeans during the Age of Discovery. The establishment of colonialism in the 19th century led to the development of anthropology in the 20th century.
The situation began to change in the 1970s and 80s, and in cultural anthropology, the researcher became the researched. This raised the fundamental question: did cultural anthropologists themselves have the right to research and speak about other cultures? The results of cultural anthropology at that time were often used for war purposes, not for pure intercultural understanding. (e.g., "The Sword and the Chrysanthemum")
Around that time, in the 1970s, the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CS), commonly known as Cultural Studies, began at the University of Birmingham in the UK.
In its narrowest sense, it refers to the analysis of popular culture, media, youth culture, immigrant culture, and subcultures. Currently, it has become an interdisciplinary practice of knowledge spanning literature, sociology, history, philosophy, and cultural anthropology, incorporating issues of youth culture, popular culture, race, and gender, and influencing studies of nationalism and postcolonialism.
In particular, there is a growing movement to question and warn against the Eurocentric nature of the humanities, and to thoroughly re-examine issues such as the unbalanced power relations between the West and non-West, colonialism, and human rights through cultural anthropology.
For people who want to understand what lies behind the images, sounds, and gestures they take for granted, who feel doubt and indignation about things that are taken for granted, and who believe that a better society exists, CS (Communicative Studies) may be a source of salvation.
First reading completed on 2021/05/07
Thank you for reading. Goodbye for now. Take care :)
Author: Graham Turner Translator: Tomoko Kaneko Publisher: Sakuhinsha Paperback: 347 pages
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