Cultural Studies and the New Populism

“The cultural turn” in the social sciences recognises that all human practice is mediated symbolically and therefore must be understood as meaningful. This way of thinking can be traced back to Max Weber's switch from economics to sociology and the methodological principles of Verstehen. Recent social theory has become yet more concerned with the cultural. The formation of a particular field of education and [Page 178]research since the 1960s, the interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary or postdisciplinary field of cultural studies, is devoted to the study of the mediating power of signs and symbols in social life. It has a special interest in popular culture and the activity of consumption under late-modern conditions. Although cultural studies is diverse and varied in its concerns, mainstream work in the field ...