Abstract

This article examines the way Foucault's work has been interpreted within cultural studies. Tracing back the history of cultural studies to the seventies, I argue that scholars within cultural studies read Foucault's work according to the then dominant structuralist-Gramscian theoretical framework. As a result of this, the Foucault that emerged from cultural studies-inspired writings in the seventies and eighties was very much a "discursive" one, effectively neglecting Foucault's critique of Marxism. However, when the structuralist-Gramscian paradigm started to mutate in the eighties - and cultural studies moved into more populist realms - a space was opened up within cultural studies for a reading of Foucault that emphasized his critique of Marxism. Consequently, recent Foucault-influenced work within cultural studies has proven productive, since it enables cultural studies to think "popular culture" differently. I also argue that these new approaches help cultural studies to analyse media production from a critical perspective in a non economic-reductionist way, while at the same time staying clear from populist approaches that are at least complicit with, if not supportive of, neo-liberal ideology.

How to Cite:

Teurlings, J., (2002) “In stukken en brokken: de invloed van Foucault op cultural studies”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 23(3-4), 261–280. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86554