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Cultural Studies
Theory and Practice

Fifth Edition


May 2016 | 760 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

"This book presents a magisterial overview of Cultural Studies, and of studies of culture more broadly. It synthesizes a bewildering range of writers and ideas into a comprehensible narrative. It’s respectful to the history of ideas and completely cutting edge. I learned a lot – you will too."
- Professor Alan McKee, University of Technology Sydney  

"The role of culture in spatial, digital and political settings is a vital aspect of contemporary life. Barker and Jane provide an excellent introduction to Cultural Studies’ relationship to these core issues, both through a clear explanation of key concepts and thinkers, alongside well chosen examples and essential questions."
- Dr David O'Brien, Goldsmiths, University of London

With over 40,000 copies sold, Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice has been the indispensable guide to studying culture for generations of students. Here is everything students need to know, with all the key concepts, theories and thinkers in one comprehensive, authoritative yet accessible resource.

Teaching students the foundations of cultural studies - from ideology, representation and discourse to audiences, subcultures and cultural policy - this revised edition:

  • Fully explores the ubiquity of digital media culture, helping readers analyse issues surrounding social media, surveillance, cyber-activism and more
  • Introduces students to all the key thinkers they’ll encounter, from Stuart Hall and Michel Foucault to Judith Butler and Donna Haraway
  • Balances the classics with cutting edge theory, including case studies on e-commerce, the self-help industry, the transgender debate, and representations of race
  • Embraces popular culture in all of its diversity, from drag kings and gaming, to anime fandom and remix cultures
  • Is re-written throughout with a new co-author, making it a more enjoyable read than ever. 

Unmatched in coverage and used world-wide, this is the essential companion for all students of cultural studies, culture and society, media and cultural theory, popular culture and cultural sociology.

 
PART ONE: CULTURE AND CULTURAL STUDIES
 
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Cultural Studies
Concerning this Book

 
The Parameters of Cultural Studies

 
Key Concepts in Cultural Studies

 
The Intellectual Strands of Cultural Studies

 
The New Cultural Studies Project

 
Central Problems in Cultural Studies

 
Questions of Methodology

 
 
Chapter 2: Questions of Culture and Ideology
Culture with a Capital C: The Great and the Good in the Literary Tradition

 
Culture is Ordinary

 
Richard Hoggart: The Uses of Literacy

 
Edward Thompson: The Making of the English Working Class

 
Raymond Williams and Cultural Materialism

 
High Culture/ Low Culture: Aesthetics and the Collapse of Boundaries

 
Culture and the Social Formation

 
The Question of Ideology

 
 
Chapter 3: Culture, Meaning, Knowledge: The Linguistic Turn in Cultural Studies
Barthes and Mythology

 
Derrida: Textuality and Differance

 
Foucault: Discourse, Practice and Power

 
Post-Marxism and the Discursive Construction of the 'Social'

 
Language and Psychoanalysis: Lacan

 
Language as Use: Wittgenstein and Rorty

 
Discourse and the Material

 
 
Chapter 4: Biology, the Body and Culture
The Problem of Reductionism

 
The Capabilities of Science

 
The Cultured Body

 
Genetic Engineering

 
The Evolved Body of Biology

 
Evolutionary Culture

 
Biology and Culture: The Case of Emotions

 
Meme Theory

 
 
PART TWO: THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF CULTURAL STUDIES
 
Chapter 5: A New World Disorder?
Economy, Technology and Social Class

 
Globalization

 
The State, Politics and New Social Movements

 
 
Chapter 6: Enter Postmodernism
Defining the Terms

 
Modernism and Culture

 
Modern and Postmodern Knowledge

 
The Promise of Postmodernism (or Modernity as an unfinished Project?)

 
Postmodern Culture

 
After Postmodernism

 
 
PART THREE: SITES OF CULTURAL STUDIES
 
Chapter 7: Issues of Subjectivity and Identity
Subjectivity and Identity

 
The Fracturing of Identity

 
Agency and the Politics of Identity

 
Anti-Essentialism, Feminism and the Politics of Identity

 
 
Chapter 8: Ethnicity, Race and Nation
Race and Ethnicity

 
National Identities

 
Diaspora and Hybrid Identities

 
Race, Ethnicity and Representation

 
 
Chapter 9: Sex, Subjectivity and Representation
Feminism and Cultural Studies

 
Sex, Gender and Identity

 
Sexed Subjects

 
Men and Masculinity

 
Gender, Representation and Media Culture

 
 
Chapter 10: Television, Texts and Audiences
Television Today

 
Television as Text: News and Ideology

 
Social Media and News Reporting

 
Television as Text: Soap Opera as Popular Televsion

 
Television Storytelling in the Twenty-First Century

 
The Active Audience

 
Television Audiences and Cultural Identity

 
The Globalization of Televsion

 
Global Electronic Culture

 
When TV isn't on Television

 
 
Chapter 11: Digital Media Culture
A Digital Revolution

 
Digital Media 101

 
Digital Divides

 
Cyberspace and Democracy

 
The Cultural Politics of Information

 
The Global Information Economy

 
 
Chapter 12: Cultural Space and Urban Place
Space and Place in Contemporary Theory

 
Cities as Places

 
Political Economy and the Global City

 
The Symbolic Economy of Cities

 
The Postmodern City

 
Cyberspace and the City

 
The City as Text

 
 
Chapter 13: Youth, Style and Resistance
The Emergence of Youth

 
Youth Subcultures

 
Youthful Difference: Class, Gender and Race

 
Space: A Global Youth Culture?

 
Global Youth Online

 
After Subcultures

 
Creative Consumption

 
Resistance Revisited

 
Digital Youth Culture

 
 
Chapter 14: Cultural Politics and Cultural Policy
Cultural Studies and Cultural Politics

 
Cultural Politic: The Influence of Gramsci

 
The Cultural Politics of Difference

 
Difference, Ethnicity and the Politics of Representation

 
Difference, Citizenship and the Public Sphere

 
Questioning Cultural Studies

 
The Cultural Policy Debate

 
Neo-Pragmatism and Cultural Studies

 
 
GLOSSARY

It is a pleasure to welcome a new edition of Cultural Studies, the most comprehensive, dispassionate and insightful treatment of this turbulent field. With Emma A. Jane’s additions, new topics are opened up with a sure-footed adventurousness that is both scholarly and thought-provoking, adding a distinctive update to a reliable resource.

John Hartley
Curtin University and Cardiff University

This book presents a magisterial overview of Cultural Studies, and of studies of culture more broadly. It synthesises a bewildering range of writers and ideas into a comprehensible narrative. It’s respectful to the history of ideas and completely cutting edge. I learned a lot – you will too.

Alan McKee
University of Technology Sydney

The role of culture in spatial, digital and political settings is a vital aspect of contemporary life. Barker and Jane provide an excellent introduction to Cultural Studies’ relationship to these core issues, both through a clear explanation of key concepts and thinkers, alongside well chosen examples and essential questions.

David O'Brien
Goldsmiths, University of London

The 5th edition of Cultural Studies by Chris Barker and Emma A. Jane has been carefully and reflectively updated to keep abreast of the ongoing kaleidoscopic changes in culture and cultural theory. Particularly noteworthy is the heavily updated chapter on digital media and the section on digital youth culture, where new terms and theories are presented. The book is very pedagogical in its use of bullet-points, summaries, and questions which provoke critical reflection. I fully endorse this new edition of the book and warmly recommend it as an extremely valuable teaching and learning resource!

Antoinette Fage-Butler
Aarhus University, Denmark

Excellent updated text - very comprehensive.

Dr Lyvinia Elleschild
Plymouth Business School, Plymouth University
September 7, 2022

Excellent textbook. When you are teaching a course in Comparative Cultures it is hard to find a good match with underlying course outcomes.

Peter Groff
Criminal Justice/Sociology Dept, University of Jamestown
April 6, 2019

The book on 'Cultural Studies' was essential to fill the gaps in our understanding of trans-disciplinary dimensions of culture and its allied manifestations. 'Cultural Studies' - underpins the necessary theoretical scaffoldings for multitude issues and positions in the subject of society and allied forces that shape our culture - and the book 'Cultural Studies' fulfils our desire to embark on the discussion and debate on 'Culture' as one of the attribution of human development.

Dr Quazi Zaman
Scott Sutherland School of Architecture & Built Environment , Robert Gordon University
November 15, 2017

A relevant, modern and accessible text that provides both a practical and a theoretical grounding in a subject that is becoming ever more important for students of social science.

Dr Simon Bishop
Dept of Health,Wellbeing & the family, Canterbury Christ Church University
May 4, 2016

This is a book that is an ideal introduction to the issues surrounding the ever-expanding social and digital media culture. It serves as an excellent resource in that research area.

Dr Walter Riggans
Cliff College, Cliff College
November 13, 2015

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 9: Sex, Subjectivity & Representation