Cultural studies vs. political economy: Is anybody else bored with this debate?

• DOI: 10.1080/15295039509366920
• Publication Date: 2009-05-19T09:12:05Z
• Authors: Lawrence Grossberg
• Keywords: 0508 media and communications; 05 social sciences

The author answers Nicholas Garnham by rejecting the latter’s definition and genealogy of cultural studies and the political economy of communication. Grossberg notes that the populist and celebratory current with which Garnham identifies cultural studies actually represents a minority, and is challenged within that very research field. While reasserting that political economy has not always managed to move away from reductionism, he defends the validity of the epistemological and empirical boundaries between political economy and cultural studies. Finally, he advocates not their reconciliation, but a broad use of the concept of articulation to grasp the links between politics, economics and culture.