Caring for Cultural Studies

Abstract

This essay both inaugurates the new editorship of Ted Striphas and reflects on the contributions of Cultural Studies ’ longtime editor, Lawrence Grossberg. It opens by reflecting briefly on the journal’s transformations over the last 28 years before taking stock of the wellbeing of cultural studies as a field. The claim here is that cultural studies have devoted less time and attention than they used to with regard to thinking through its first principles; thus, the future of the field partially hinges on asking whether the field’s core concepts are up to the task of answering the urgent political questions of the present. The essay then recontextualizes the concept of culture, specifically with respect to the much maligned and indeed deservedly so tradition of high culture. The author identifies a fugitive theoretical line in the recesses of cultural studies, one in which culture signifies care rather than a subordination to patrician interests and aesthetic styles. This conceptual move sets the stage for the central argument of the essay, which states that for the field of cultural studies to live up to both its name and intellectual political ambitions, it must devote significant time to caring for the infrastructure that sustains its body of ideas. The piece concludes by highlighting some of Lawrence Grossberg’s efforts as an infrastructuralist, his care for cultural studies, and observations on how neither the field nor this journal will be able to sustain itself without moving forward .

Keywords

• Lawrence Grossberg
• cultural studies
• culture
• high culture
• care
• infrastructure

Kültürel Çalışmaları Önemsemek

Abstract

Bu makale hem Ted Striphas’ın editörlüğünü başlatmakta hem de Cultural Studies’in kıdemli editörü Lawrence Grossberg’in katkılarını yansıtmaktadır. Kültürel Çalışmalar1 alanının refahını değerlendirmeden önce derginin son 28 yılda yaşadığı dönüşümlere kısaca değinerek konuya giriş yapılmaktadır. Buradaki iddia, Cultural Studies’in başta gelen ilkeleriyle derinlemesine düşünmeye daha az zaman ve dikkat ayırdığı ve bu nedenle alanın geleceğinin temel kavramların zamanımızın acil politik sorularına yanıt verme görevine uygun olup olmadığını sorgulamaya kısmen bağlı olduğudur. Makale daha sonra kültür kavramını, özellikle çok kötülenmiş (aslında haklı olarak kötülenmiş) ‘yüksek kültür’ geleneği bakımından yeni bir bağlamda ele almaktadır. Yazar, soylu çıkarlara ve estetik tarzlara boyun eğmekten ziyade makalenin aralarında kültürün önemsemek anlamına geldiği şeklinde kaçak bir teorik çizgi tanımlamaktadır. Bu kavramsal hareket, makalenin ana argümanı için zemin hazırlamakta, yani Cultural Studies’in hem adına hem de entelektüel politik emellerini karşılaması için, dergi, görüşlerini ayakta tutan altyapıyı önemsemeye önemli ölçüde zaman ayırmalıdır. Makale, bir altyapı uzmanı olarak Lawrence Grossberg’in Cultural Studies’i önemsemek için gösterdiği bazı çabaların altını çizerek ve ileride ne alanın ne de bu derginin kendi başının çaresine bakamayacağını gözlemleyerek sona ermektedir.

Keywords

• Lawrence Grossberg
• Kültürel Çalışmalar
• kültür
• yüksek kültür
• önemsemek
• altyapı

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