[csaa-forum] Is cultural studies inherently left-wing?

[Ned Rossiter]

as much as I admire the clarity in these posts - why bother to defend 
one's discipline/field in these terms?  they are a waste of time.  such 
a defense is only responsive to the sludge of mediocre popular 
intellectualism. talk about insecurity.

reflexivity can be useful, i think, but only when it pushes limits, 
asks new questions, and wonders how conditions of possibility might be 
otherwise (ie, invents new formations).  None of this is happening.  
All these posts do is affirm a status quo.  Even in MG's case. His 
'prehistory' of CS functions to reiterate CS's current state of 
professionalisation, and its need for (counter) myths of origin.  This 
is fine, in its way, but CS shouldn't pretend to be anything else (eg, 
some kind of wild, experimental, radical engagement with the 
fluctuations of life).  Those days are well and truly over.  Which is 
why I find myself happy to vacate CS.

as for 'mass observation' -- never heard of it.  Sounds something like 
a precursor to Lazarsfeld's administrative research. proto 
mass-marketing/advertising stuff, mixed in with a bit of 
crowd-psychology mumbo-jumbo.

Having said that, I'll probably set Terry's post as a reading in 
subject I'll teach soon (if that's ok!).  And I'm certainly interested 
to hear more about mass observation.

Let's set agendas and create work that has a consequence.  Such a 
labour of structural transformation is a collaborative endeavor, to be 
sure.

Ned