Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies

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The Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was a research center at the University of Birmingham . It was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart , its first director. It researched the then new field of cultural studies .

history

What later became known as the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies or, more generally, British cultural studies , arose at the center . Birmingham School theorists like Stuart Hall questioned the traditional division of producers and consumers of culture and emphasized the active appropriation of cultural goods.

methodology

Areas examined by the Birmingham Center include subculture , pop culture , working class culture and mass media . The Birmingham Center for Cultural Studies and its associated theorists preferred an interdisciplinary approach that incorporated elements from Marxism , poststructuralism , feminism and critical race theory, as well as more traditional methodologies such as sociology and ethnography . The Birmingham Center examined the representation of various groups in the mass media and attempted to gauge the effect of this representation on the audience.

Known members

One of the most famous researchers is Stuart Hall , who became director in 1968 and developed the famous encoding / decoding model here .

The empirical researchers included David Morley and Charlotte Brunsden, who carried out The Nationwide Project at the center. Dorothy Hobson's research on the soap opera Crossroads was based on her MA dissertation.

In later years u. a. the feminist Sadie Plant (author of Zeroes + Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture , German zeros + ones: digital women and the culture of new technologies ) and the Chilean sociologist and cultural historian Jorge Larrain (author of Identity and Modernity in Latin America ) at the center.

Closure in 2002

The department was closed in 2002. The university management spoke of 'restructuring'. Four out of 14 faculty members were to be retained, who would be reassigned about 250 students (including many from abroad) to other departments. In the course of the ensuing conflict, most faculty members left the center. The closure of the center sparked protests around the world.

Publications (selection)

  • Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (ed.): On Ideology , London ( inter alia): Routledge, 2012 [first edition 1977].

Web links

To close the department