Cultural studies examine collective memory.
Cultural studies is a research area that analyzes how meanings are created and disseminated in a society . It is an interdisciplinary field where communication, politics, sociology , philosophy , anthropology , history and other sciences and disciplines intervene.
The purpose of cultural studies is to generate knowledge about all dimensions of culture , understanding it in a specific social and political context . To do this, they examine the links between cultural practices and power.
Origin of cultural studies
The origin of cultural studies dates back to the late 1950s . Raymond Williams , Edward P. Thompson and Richard Hoggart are mentioned as pioneers in the development of research of this type.
In 1964 , this field of research had its formal recognition with the founding of the Center for Contemporary Culture Studies or Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies under the orbit of the University of Birmingham . The aforementioned Hoggart was the promoter and first director of the entity, who was succeeded by Stuart Hall .
This center, which marked the institutionalization of cultural studies, gave shape to the school of thought known as the Birmingham school . It was characterized by studying culture from different perspectives and under the influence of Marxism , structuralism and other ideologies and theoretical perspectives.
Popular culture, media representation, feminism and rituals and festivities are part of the discourse analysis developed by the Center for Contemporary Culture Studies , which stopped operating in 2002 .
Multiculturalism is analyzed by cultural studies.
The historical situation
The emergence of cultural studies is associated with the intention to investigate the cultural, social and political situation of England in the postwar period . After World War II , the nation was in immense debt. It sought to recover its economy and, at the same time, strengthen the welfare state.
The emergence of the so-called new left , the advance of mass media and the Americanization of British culture were some of the issues that were studied at the beginning. Specifically, cultural studies focused mainly on the social processes that allow the construction of meaning and the development of a shared stock of meanings.
Cultural studies investigate the link between communication, politics, economics and culture.
Characteristics of cultural studies
From the perspective of cultural studies, culture cuts across all social relationships and practices . That is why it is very important to understand how values and meanings are constructed and transmitted in a community. It is understood, in this context, that the media play an important role in these processes.
Culture, in this way, encompasses all the beliefs and symbolic elements that guide people's actions. What the field of cultural studies does is provide interdisciplinary methodological instruments to investigate the phenomena of culture, politics and economics, based on the relationship established between culture and communication .
Cultural studies, likewise, pay attention to the ideological consequences of the reproduction of the cultural system through the media. These media influence the construction of cultural symbolism and the image that people have of reality.
Mass culture , on the other hand, is associated with the cultural industry. From cultural studies, consumption practices are analyzed to discern how hegemony is built.
Main references
Among the main references of cultural studies we can name the following thinkers:
- Richard Hoggart ( 1918 – 2014 ): Como ya indicamos, fue el fundador y primer director del Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies . «The Uses of Literacy» , publicado en 1957 , es su libro más famoso. Allí analiza los cambios culturales que atravesó la clase obrera británica entre 1920 y 1950 y hace hincapié en la influencia de los medios de comunicación en sus creencias y valores. Cabe destacar que Hoggart fue directivo de la UNESCO y se desempeñó como rector del Goldsmiths College ( University of London ).
- Stuart Hall ( 1932 – 2014 ): Este sociólogo nacido en Jamaica sucedió a Hoggart en la dirección del Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies . También trabajó como docente en la Open University . El vínculo entre la cultura popular y los medios, las distintas lecturas que se hacen del mensaje mediático y la noción de hegemony están entre los temas que investigó.
- Raymond Williams ( 1921 – 1988 ): Profesor de la Cambridge University , este teórico marxista es el autor de «Culture and Society» , editado en 1958 . Su principal aporte fue el análisis de la intervención de la cultura en los cambios sociales y en los procesos históricos, siempre desde la postura del marxismo y del llamado materialismo cultural.
- Edward P. Thompson ( 1924 – 1993 ): Este historiador marxista que combatió en la Second World War investigó sobre el movimiento obrero, centrándose en cómo los trabajadores construyen su propia identidad cultural.
- Lawrence Grossberg (1947): Exponent of cultural studies in the United States , he investigated postmodernism, popular music and other issues.
- Jesus Martín-Barbero ( 1937 – 2021 ): Se lo señala como precursor de los estudios culturales en Latin America . Sus trabajos giran en torno a la relación entre el público y los medios, sobre todo el modo en que la gente se apropia de los contenidos. También estudió la globalization y las diferencias que se registran entre lo popular y lo masivo. Martin-Barbero propuso la idea de mediación para aludir al punto en el cual se concreta la cultura.