Is Anyone Bored With Blogging About Debates?

Lawrence Grossberg critiques Nicholas Garnham's failed recognition of cultural studies and the political economy being the same. One criticism Granham mentions is that cultural studies looks at pop culture and gives up any other different role. Second, cultural studies ignores economics because it doesn't look at the structures of power, domination, and oppression in the world. What he doesn't realize is that the political economy and cultural studies look at articulation. Both the political economy and cultural studies can express what they want but still be in power to do it.

http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/CCTP748/appliedtheory.jpg

(you'll have to click on the link because it is SO huge, but the diagram shown here shows how culture and politics are connected institutionally and in the media)

Also, he doesn't recognize that consumption in cultural studies is complex and doesn't deny the exploitation of the dominating market which is also relevant to the economy. Garnham believes that cultural studies focus too much on the consumption and leisure and not enough on the production of work and institutions, but Grossberg argues that consumption and leisure are apart of the political economy, because isn't it the people who consume goods to make money for the economy? Garnham believes that maybe cultural studies is overemphasized with pop culture and consumption; he thinks it isn't true that cultural studies doesn't look at the dominant culture…it's like contemporary capitalism. I think cultural studies totally looks at dominant cultures…cause it is called CULTURAL studies in the first place.

The increase control of better living relates to the political economy because that means people are money conscious as well and cultural studies is willing to explore that. To Garnham, he believes that the political economy are not very stable or closed in terms of it being an enterprise. Furthermore, Grossberg doesn't understand Garnham's analysis on gender and race in cultural studies and political economy having nothing to do with the economy. But capitalism does due to the maintenance between the upper class, middle class, and lower class.

economic relations and practices are what eventually holds the cultural practices together, because they appear to be the bottom line of every problem that cultural studies looks at. It holds everything together and makes everything what it is. As Grossberg describes, cultural studies are interests in themselves that are produced and are involved with political struggles of particular subject groups to the certain interests. Capitalism is dependent on wage labor which means that the culture is increasingly modified.