The Practice of Cultural Studies

'This is a tour de force! It combines luminous discussion of the core conceptual issues of cultural studies, with a hard-headed, practical sense of how research in the field gets done. The result is a seriously smart, comprehensive survey of the whole terrain of cultural studies itself. This is a book on methods which readers will be able to make their own; and which -- uniquely in the genre -- will keep them buzzing' - Bill Schwarz, Queen Mary University of London 'The Practice of Cultural Studies is an original introduction to the field. It offers a sophisticated "how-to" guide to doing research in cultural studies. From the difficulties of formulating a problem to the unique articulations of specific methodologies in cultural studies, students will find this book both useful and challenging' - Professor Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina What is distinctive about cultural research? How does one do Cultural Studies? Unlike many other disciplines, cultural studies has not been explict about the nature of its practice. This book aims to redress the balance in favour of those who are studying culture by providing a comprehensive guide to researching and writing. Based on the methods course at Nottingham Trent and addressed to advanced undergraduates, Masters Level students and those just commencing a PhD, this book aims to provide an overview of specific research traditions in cultural studies, whilst also situating those traditions in their historical context. The Practice of Cultural Studies: * Identifies the main methods of researching culture * Demonstrates how theory can inform and enable the practice of research * Explores the ways in which research practices and methods both produce and are produced by knowledge * Looks at the implications of the 'cultural turn' for disciplines other than cultural studies The Practice of Cultural Studies will be an essential text for students of cultural studies and a useful guide to others studying culture in a range of disciplinary contexts across the humanities and social sciences.

Table of Contents:
SECTION I Introduction Cultural Studies and the Study of Culture Disciplines and Dialogues Multiplying Methods From Pluralism to Combination Method and the Researching Self The Research Process: Moments and Strategies SECTION II Theory in the Practice of Research Make Space! Spatial Dimensions in Cultural Research Time Please! Historical Perspectives Culture, Power and the Economic SECTION III Introduction Reading Popular Narratives From Structure to Context Reading Texts of/for Dominance Reading Fictions, Reading Histories SECTION IV Introduction Meetings Researching Others From Auto/Biography to Ethnography Representing the Other Interpretation and Cultural Readings Integrating Methods: From Audiences to Subjectivities

About the Author :
Deborah Chambers is a Reader in Sociology of Culture and Communication, Department of English and Media Studies, at Nottingham Trent University. My research interests focus on the ways in which the mobility of individuals, goods and ideas is reshaping the world. Most of the work I have done so far has focused on how people experience and negotiate globalisation, especially as they move as gendered workers in sectors where the ′knowledge′ of global knowledge societies is embodied and embedded: sectors such as medicine, education and the IT sector. The mobility and meanings of goods is an area I have explored in my work on Asian women and fashion. In the future I would like to examine how these mobilities are underlain by ideas such as developmentalism in order to explore how they reproduce, alter and challenge gendered subjectivities of migrants. My key concern here is to understand the implications of these ways of thinking for class and race politics and the ways in which postcolonial theory can provide a route into such thinking. Alongside these issues I have also kept up an interest in methodological and epistemological issues.