Raymond Williams’s Sociology of Culture : A Critical Reconstruction

This detailed study of Williams unlocks his late sociology of culture. It covers previously overlooked aspects, such as his critique of Birmingham cultural studies, his use of an Adorno-like approach to 'cultural production', his 'social formalist' alternative to structuralism and post-structuralism and his approach to 'the media'. Cover 1 Contents 8 List of Tables and Figures 10 Preface to the Paperback Edition 11 Preface: Looking Both Ways 12 Acknowledgements 17 List of Abbreviations 19 Dates of First Publication and/or First Editions of Key Works by Williams 21 1 Settling Accounts with ‘Culture’ 23 1.1 Preliminaries: culture is ordinary? 23 1.2 Against class reductivism and a mythologized ‘organic community’ 26 1.3 Problems of ‘Culturalism’ or ‘Cambridge’?: cultural studies parts company with Williams 35 1.4 ‘This is a problem of method...' 40 1.5 Williams’s undeclared method: immanent critique 47 1.6 Post-Romantic Enlightenment: later formulations of ‘culture’ 51 2 Cultural Materialism versus ‘Received Marxist Theory’ 59 2.1 Cultural materialism: a modest proposal 59 2.2 Back to Marx but beyond base and superstructure? 60 2.3 ‘The Brumaire solution’ and the attractions of homological analysis 64 2.4 Enter ‘cultural production’ 68 2.5 Problems of ‘cultural production’: Márkus’s critique 73 2.6 Excursus: Williams’s ‘cultural production’ and some apparent ‘fellow travellers’ 80 3 From Criticism to Critique 83 3.1 Entertaining the Frankfurt School: emancipatory critique 84 3.2 From Goldmann to Gramsci? 90 3.3 Adorno and Benjamin: mediation, cultural productive forces, correspondence 98 3.4 Ideology, critique and form 105 4 Social Formalism 114 4.1 Against formalism and ‘the language paradigm’ 114 4.2 Language, signification, practical consciousness 117 4.3 Williams versus Birmingham cultural studies? 127 4.4 Social formalism and cultural forms 137 5 Towards a Sociology of Culture 149 5.1 Williams’s (re)mapping of the sociological field 149 5.2 ‘Culture’: the final settlement? 156 6 Cultural Production and Means of Communication 164 6.1 The cultural production typologies 165 6.2 Formations, avant-gardes, intellectuals, autonomy 168 6.3 Symmetries and asymmetries in cultural production and social reproduction 175 6.4 Overcoming conflations and ‘projections’ in McLuhan’s ‘media’ 178 6.5 Overcoming technological determinism: the social shaping of means of communication 185 6.6 Means of communication and ‘mediated’ cultural forms 190 6.7 Means of communication as means of socialization? 193 6.8 Excursus: the infrastructure of modernity? 198 7 The Long Revolution(s) of Modernity 203 7.1 Modernity, modernism and public sphere 204 7.2 Tragic utopianism 209 Notes 217 Bibliography 241 Index 257 This study of Williams provides the most detailed account available of the sociological dimensions of his project. While including an overview of the central themes throughout his writings, it seeks especially to unlock his late sociology of culture. Previously overlooked aspects of Williams's 'mature' work are thus highlighted. These include: his critique of Birmingham cultural studies; his critique of conservative sociological orthodoxies; his debt to the work of the Frankfurt School; his use of an Adorno-like approach to 'cultural production'; his 'social formalist' alternative to formalism, structuralism and post-structuralism; and his later work on 'the media'. All these are related to his radical democratic vision. Comparisons are drawn between Williams's initiatives and contemporary sociologists such as Habermas and Bourdieu. The book is relevant to many contemporary theoretical debates, and aims in particular to make Williams's sociological project available for concrete analysis within sociology, media studies and cultural studies. This study of Williams provides the most detailed account available of the sociological dimensions of his project. While including an overview of the central themes throughout his writings, it seeks especially to unlock his late sociology of culture. Previously overlooked aspects of Williams's 'mature' work are thus highlighted. These include: his critique of Birmingham cultural studies; his critique of conservative sociological orthodoxies; his debt to the work of the Frankfurt School; his use of an Adorno-like approach to 'cultural production'; his 'social formalist' alternative to formalism, structuralism, and post-structuralism; his later work on 'the media'. All these are related to his radical democratic vision. Comparisons are drawn between Williams's initiatives and contemporary sociologists such as Habermas and Bourdieu. The book is thus relevant to many contemporary theoretical debates and aims particularly to make Williams's sociological project available for concrete analysis within sociology, media studies and cultural studies Previous assessments of Williams have usually focused on his place within literary and/or cultural studies. In contrast, this study provides the first detailed exegesis of his sociology of culture. This neglected dimension of Williams's work emerges as an alternative to both cultural studies and orthodox sociologies of culture and the media. Surprisingly, Williams's alternative has much affinity with the work of the Frankfurt School. This book provides a foundation for the development and application of this critical sociology of culture. -- Publisher description Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Settling Accounts with ‘Culture’....Pages 1-36 Cultural Materialism versus ‘Received Marxist Theory’....Pages 37-60 From Criticism to Critique....Pages 61-91 Social Formalism....Pages 92-126 Towards a Sociology of Culture....Pages 127-141 Cultural Production and Means of Communication....Pages 142-180 The Long Revolution(s) of Modernity....Pages 181-194 Back Matter....Pages 195-247 Williams's 'expansive' usage of the category of culture is the achievement for which he is most widely known.