Working Class Culture: Studies in History and Theory (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 041565338X ISBN 13: 9780415653381

Publisher: Routledge, 2012

Synopsis

First published in 2013. How can we define working class culture? Since the late 1950s, the term has become more complex, because of both social changes and intense debates about the meaning of ‘culture’. Through this collection of original case studies and theoretical essays, the authors explore some central problems in the field. The first part of the book provides a unique critical review of existing literature, focusing on two main traditions of writing about the working class. Examining the empirical sociology tradition, the authors analyse a group of books from the post-war debate about affluence and its immediate aftermath. In looking at the related tradition of working class historiography, they examine the origins of social and labour history from the 1880s up to the 1960s, and conclude by discussing some of the dilemmas of history writing in the 1970s. Part two is a series of case studies which span the whole period that a working class has existed, with emphasis on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and which examine the most important spheres of working class life: politics, education, youth, recreation, waged and domestic labour. Part three returns to some of the problems raised in part one, considering three main ways in which working class culture can be understood, through the problematics of ‘consciousness’, ‘culture’ or ‘ideology’, and examining the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. The authors argue for a more fruitful and developed way of thinking about working class culture, and suggest some guidelines for a history of the post-war working class.

About this title

About the Author

John Clarke, Chas Critcher, Richard Johnson. The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was a research centre at the University of Birmingham. It is notable for producing many key studies and researchers in the field of Cultural Studies. It was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart, who became the first centre director. The Cultural Studies department at the University of Birmingham was closed in 2002.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 041565338X
• ISBN 13: 9780415653381
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Centre For Contemporary Cultural Studies