{"id":129,"date":"2024-03-26T11:27:24","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T11:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/culturaltheory\/?post_type=content&p=129"},"modified":"2024-04-03T11:02:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T11:02:10","slug":"chapter-12-the-politics-of-the-popular","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/culturaltheory\/chapter-resources\/chapter-12-the-politics-of-the-popular\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 12 – The politics of the popular"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Chapter 12 – The politics of the popular<\/h1>\n\n\n

I have tried in this book to outline something of the history of the relationship between cultural theory and popular culture. In the main I have tended to focus on the theoretical and methodological aspects and implications of the relationship, as this, in my opinion, is the best way in which to introduce the subject. 1<\/sup> However, I am aware that this has been largely at the expense of, on the one hand, the historical conditions of the production of theory about popular culture, and on the other, the political relations of its production and reproduction (these are analytical emphases and not separate and distinct \u2018moments\u2019).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Before you read <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Warm-up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Watch the short video on FANDOM [link<\/a>] \u2013 a phenomenon of a vast range and great cultural significance. How, do you think, it may relate to the politics of the popular described in Chapter 12?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Preliminary questions<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the final chapter of Cultural Theory and Popular Culture<\/em>, John Storey takes issue with McGuigan\u2019s (1992: 171) claim that Cultural Studies as a discipline is in the middle of a crisis by its contemporary focus on the micro-politics of the everyday rather than on broader more macro issues of social inequality and power. Storey continues, as well, to reject the idea that you \u2013 as students \u2013 are passive consumers of a fixed body of knowledge about popular culture that is bestowed upon you from lofty professorial heights. In discussing the tensions that exist within the discipline, he looks at the work of John Fiske and Paul Willis and utilizes Bourdieu\u2019s concepts of \u2018the cultural field\u2019 and the \u2018economic field\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • How, do you think, the cultural and the economic in popular culture become political?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Why discussing the political of popular culture might be important?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • How does is relate to what has been said so far about ideological interpellation, encoding and meaning production?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Is aesthetic always political?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Can popular culture be politically disengaged?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    After you read: Important ideas <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Once you have read Chapter 12, rethink its content and information with Quizzes 12.1. and 12.2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Quiz 12.1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Which, in your view, is correct? (Choose between true<\/em> or false<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n