Cultural Studies And The Disciplinary System Of Internal Tension

The founding of the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham by Richard Hoggart in 1964 marks the establishment of cultural studies as a discipline. Even though leading figures of CCCS explicitly claims that cultural studies refuses to be co-opted by academic discipline and is inherently against any discipline, disciplinary structure is still the most powerful factor in the location of academic identity and the allocation of resources. Looking back at the history of CCCS, it is not difficult to see that cultural studies has opened up a way to become a discipline in form while being cross-disciplinary in content. The fact that CCCS had undergone a series of reforms launched by the University of Birmingham and created a whole set of undergraduate and graduate syllabi clearly demonstrates that it had operated as a discipline. In 1988 CCCS was restructured into Department of Cultural Studies, indicating that cultural studies formally became an academic discipline, or at least a pseudo-discipline. Nonetheless, cultural studies is not a"knowledge bank"that has cut off all links with the living culture and reality. In the syllabi of CCCS, cultural studies had always insisted on the basic formula of being cross-disciplinary, forming a sharp contrast to traditional disciplines. Although some scholars worry that the disciplinary status of cultural studies would negatively affect its development, the tendency to become a discipline is fairly obvious. Judging from the current situation, cultural studies could hardly separate itself from academic disciplines, but we should continue to be vigilant of the disciplinary effects and seek for transcendence via theories and methodologies.